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nKairos’ future vision wasn’t the most perfect ability, as strong as it was. Whenever Kairos decided to do something different based on something he saw in the future, there was a split second where his future vision would warp to shift to the new version.

nAnd that split second was something like a blindspot for him.

nThat was why he wasn’t able to notice that he had been shot through the leg before it already happened. Though he was able to feel the aching that came from after the injury, it was hard to distinguish it since his body was already aching from straining it to move all this time.

nThe girl with blue hair’s eyebrow jumped ever so slightly, like she was surprised that she was actually able to get a hit off. With this, she was encouraged to continue shooting, and so that’s exactly what she did.

nKairos rushed closer towards the girl, using the momentum of the spiked ball to make him go faster. At the same time, the girl once again pointed a finger gun right at his legs.

nThis time, Kairos was not going to make the same mistake.

nHe suddenly felt a pain rip through his leg, so naturally he moved it. Right when he did that, Kairos saw that the girl actually shifted the trajectory of her finger gun, predicting where he would go.

nAnd so, while his future vision was warping, he tensed up his leg and made it twitch back.

nA bang resounded right next to his foot.

nA few fragments of scattered pavement grazed against his skin, but didn’t do much else. Kairos lunged forth after she had shot, reaching out with his hand.

nThe girl with blue hair leaned back, just barely getting out of reach.

nBut that was when Kairos injected the bare minimum amount of mana to cast the pulse spell. It was released almost immediately.

nA clear thump resounded.

nThe girl was struck in the abdomen. Although the damage caused was next to none, it still counted as a hit. Now, they were on even terms. The girl clicked her tongue as she gave up on shooting any more bullets.

nInstead, she began pulling on the string that connected the paddle and the spiked ball. The spikes ended up grinding against the bone Kairos was holding. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white just so that he could keep holding it properly.

nAt the same time, he gathered mana to create another pulse spell, and let it loose.

nThe girl with blue hair tensed up as she went to the side, trying to dodge. However, Kairos had already seen that happen, thus was able to release the pulse spell promptly.

nThen, it whipped out.

n…Before doing nothing.

nThe girl with blue hair was caught off guard, seemingly thinking that she had lost. However, it only lasted a second before she continued to run away.

nKairos clicked his tongue.

nHe thought that maybe the spell had hit, but he just couldn’t tell. Though from how the girl looked, that probably wasn’t the case. This was because while the pulse spell was strong and quick to cast, it had very little range. Especially so when not charged up.

nCompared to the fireball spell, the difference was obvious.

nThe girl was not willing to relent knowing that she still wasn’t out. She continued to pull the string, causing the spiked ball to shift to one side once more. Then, she reversed her pull, causing the spiked ball to tear through the pavement and rush back to Kairos.

nAt the same time, she raised another finger gun, pointing it towards his legs.

nKairos narrowed his eyes.

nHe needed to look at the spiked ball if he wanted to defend against it, but he also had to look straight to tell where exactly the girl was shooting. It seemed that the girl had somehow figured out a way to work around his future vision.

nAnd so, what he did was look at the spiked ball with his future vision, but continuously stopped himself from actually doing so.

nIt was quite difficult to pull off. There were several times where he almost accidentally looked at the spiked ball in reality, but he was able to do it nonetheless.

nThe girl with blue hair narrowed her eyes before firing the bullet.

nKairos was able to move his leg out of the way preemptively, even without the support of his future vision.

nAnd then, the spiked ball slammed into his bone.

nThe girl with blue hair widened her eyes and hurriedly tugged on the string. However, Kairos wasn’t going to give this opportunity up. He pointed his finger forth, letting a tiny fireball coalesce on top.

nThe girl with blue hair threw her body to the side, but Kairos wouldn’t miss when he could see her actions a second ahead of time.

nThe fireball shot out.

nAnd burst into a small flame onto the girl’s abdomen.

n…But at the same time, the spiked ball slammed into Kairos’ back, creating a few tiny holes in his back.

nThe girl hurriedly shrunk the ball while also patting out the flames that had caught onto her shirt.

nKairos had seen that the outcome would be a tie. It definitely wasn’t a victory like what he would’ve preferred, but at this point it was more than what he could ask for. That was simply because the girl was faster than him.

nIf she continued to run away, then he would have to use the fireballs to hit her. Although the fireball traveled fast, it wasn’t fast enough to reach her over long distances. The only reason he somewhat kept up was that he strained his arm to push against the spiked ball that nearly killed him.

nKairos sighed.

n“…Well played.”

nThe girl with blue hair continued to pat out the flames.

n“Yeah, you too! …Hot! Hot, hot!”

nThe guy with white hair and the guy with green hair were the first two that rushed over, both eager to hear about the result.

nThe guy with green hair spoke up.

n“Did we win?”

nThe girl with blue hair shook her head.

n“Nah, sorry.”

nThe guy with white hair then sighed.

n“Did we lose?”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“Not exactly.”

nSam, Chase, and the others also got closer, wanting to hear the results. Kairos looked at them and blinked a few times.

n“It was a tie.”

nThe guy with white hair let out a chuckle and waved his hand dismissively.

n“Damn, at least it wasn’t a loss, man.”

nSam laughed.

n“I suppose we are quite the even match.”

nKairos pulled his glasses back out and put them on.

n“If it truly was a life or death battle, then it would be hard to say who wins. However, I do have to admit that both sides would face deaths.”

nNicole looked down at her feet, fidgeting a little bit. She was eliminated without being able to do anything herself, so she felt quite embarrassed. As for Tori, she was holding onto the side of her head, trying her best not to look at the girl with blue hair.

nKairos sighed and looked towards the guy with white hair.

n“I suppose in the end, I was wrong. You guys are far from a burden from what I’ve seen.”

nIn response, the guy smirked.

n“You ain’t so bad yourself! I bet if you made those spells stronger, you would’ve blown us away!”

nKairos nodded.

n“Anyway, my name is Kairos.”

nThe guy with white hair put two fingers on his forehead before whipping them to the side, almost like some sort of strange salute.

n“Sup, Kairos. My name’s Eric.”

nThe girl with blue hair raised one hand, waving enthusiastically as the other continued to play with the paddle ball.

n“Hey! My name is Jenny.”

nThe guy with green hair made a peace sign.

n“It’s Nick over here.”

nThe other people in Kairos’ group introduced themselves, just not as casually as them.

nAfter getting to know each other, Eric tapped his chin as he swung the red ball around.

n“So, back on the topic we were on a while ago. Where are you guys going?”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“Not any particular direction, honestly.”

nNick put one hand on his hip.

n“Hah, same here. The main priority is still becoming the most famous rock band though.”

nJenny smiled.

n“You guys want to hear our performance?”

nKairos’ eyebrow twitched as he really didn’t want to start listening to them playing their music. He raised a finger.

n“I think if you guys want to become more popular, you will have to find a big crowd that can listen.”

nEric raised an eyebrow.

n“What are you proposing?”

nKairos cleared his throat.

n“It would probably be best to find a rather large settlement. That way, you can perform once, but reach many people. We should hurry and try to find a place like that.”

nWhat he didn’t specify was the fact there was almost no way that a settlement had formed by now. After all, it was just a few days into the apocalypse.

nHow in the world would there possibly be some sort of settlement when people are just barely able to survive in the first place?

nThose were his thoughts as he made that suggestion.

nNick nodded to himself when he heard that.

n“That sounds like a great idea! Let’s find that settlement, then!”

nDuring this time, Sam had laid his hand down against the floor, in a section where the road wasn’t torn or covered by corpses.

nAfter a few moments, he spoke up and pointed one way with his finger.

n“From what I can tell, there are quite a few people that have walked in that direction.”

nJenny crouched down next to him and also laid a hand down next to his.

n“Huh. I can’t tell anything at all. You must be pretty good at tracking!”

nSam smiled awkwardly.

n“Haha, no, no. I just have an ability that lets me see those kinds of things.”

nHe stood up and looked off in the direction he pointed.

n“I couldn’t exactly catch what they looked like too closely, but there were quite a few people going in that direction. If nothing else, I could make out that they were humans instead of monsters.”

nNick put the microphone stand on his shoulders and hooked his arms on top.

n“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

nEric raised an eyebrow while smiling.

n“Hah! I can already see the crowd cheering for us!”

nWhile Sam was taking the lead, the group walked on ahead. The three that had joined the group walked in a line, spread a few meters apart. Honestly, Kairos was expecting them to remain bunched up with each other.

nEven if it wasn’t for the sake of safety, he still expected people close to each other to separate themselves from the others.

nAfter all, that was what he had seen.

nHowever, it seemed that these three were rather open, even to people they had just met.

nJenny began humming to a tune, and eventually, she began making a steady beat with her paddle and ball.

nBoth Eric and Nick gradually began nodding their heads to it as well.

nAnd in just a few moments, the very thing Kairos was trying to avoid, happened.

nEric began twirling the red ball to the beat, and began singing.

n“Say, oops I got ninety-nine problems singing bye, bye, bye.”

nNick rocked his head back and forth.

n“Hold up, if you wanna go and take a ride with me better hit me, baby, one more time.”

nKairos felt a little irritated at first, but he couldn’t help but admit they really did know what they were doing, with nearly perfect coordination.

nIf he had to choose, listening to them sing was still better than just walking in silence.

nAnd before he knew it, they came across something unexpected.

nA settlement.

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