Beast Soul

Chapter 122 – The Convergence

"Not so fast.." All of a sudden, Noah stomped his foot on the ground, and his body shot forward, appearing right next to Harold's within a split second and grabbing him by his shoulders, stopping him from moving forward. 

"What is it? Is there something wrong?" Harold, who was caught off guard by Noah grabbing him, asked with a curious expression. Noah stared forward, his gaze on the path that contained the scent trail. A frown was formed on his face, and he whispered under his breath, "Something's off…"

"But I'm sure that it.. it reminded me of Gerald. Isn't that how this power works?" Harold asked, thinking that he had misjudged what the scent ability actually meant. "No, no, you didn't do anything wrong. It's just.." Noah shook his head before continuing, "I think it might be a trap!"

"A trap?" Harold asked as his eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

"Oh, I'm almost certain…" Noah nodded his head with a serious expression on his face. "I've never seen a more clear scent trail in my life before. This is way too clear to be a real one."

"I-I have no clue what you mean by that.." Harold scratched his cheeks with an embarrassed expression on his face. He really didn't know what Noah was saying to him. After all, he had only awakened his superpowers just an hour ago. This was all still pretty new to Harold.

"Right, I forgot that you're not familiar with this whole process yet," Noah lightly tapped his own forehead with his hand as he spoke. He then turned to Harold and explained, "You probably are new to this scent thing, but you'll soon realize that every single thing in this world, whether it be living or nonliving, has a particular scent. It's sort of like a fingerprint. It cannot be replicated by anything or anyone. It's specific to that person."

"Right!" Harold nodded his head. He was listening carefully to Noah's words, as he wanted to know what his powers were and what he was truly capable of.

"Now, most people cannot identify this scent, but with our enhanced abilities, we superhumans do in fact, have the ability to sense it," Noah said while pointing to his nostrils. "And people like us can track certain people as this scent forms a trail as they move from place to place."

"Right. So it's like gps." Harold said, and Noah shrugged his shoulders. "You can say that, yeah. But this scent trail is not exactly easily trackable. Especially when you are dealing with someone who is also familiar with the same abilities. Like that monster who you say has assumed the identity of your physics teacher."

Noah then pointed at his feet and continued, "One way to conceal the scent trail is to be extremely quick. Scent trails need time to be formed properly. If you're quick enough, you can make the scent trail extremely thin and flimsy, which makes it that much more difficult to properly identify."

"So the fact that the scent trail is so clear here…" Harold spoke with widened eyes as he put two and two together. 

"It's extremely weird…" Noah clicked his tongue. "It would still be slightly messy even if it's a normal scent trail, but this is clearer than that. It has obviously been manipulated."

"So what do we do?" Harold asked. Now that the trap had been revealed, what would their next step be? Surely, they cannot continue to go on while following the same path now, can they? 

"Well…" Noah murmured softly under this breath as he rubbed his chin, his squinted eyes trying to find an answer to Harold's question. Surely, this scent trail had to be a trap. Which meant that following this trail would definitely mean that they'll fall right into the enemy's hands. 

But since it was Gerald's scent that had been manipulated, Noah was now almost certain that he was captured by the monster, which meant that they had to act fast if they wished to save the young boy's life. 

Since this was the only one route that they knew could lead to Gerald as quickly as possible, Noah wasn't sure what their plan should be. Can they afford to waste time trying to find other ways to reach Gerald and the others? They didn't know exactly when the trio had entered the secret passageway, which made the decision making process all the more serious. 

Right then…

"Hm?" All of a sudden, Noah's expression changed from a serious one to that of a surprised one. His sudden change in expression caught the attention of Harold as well, who asked with a curious expression, "What? What's the matter? Is there something wrong?"

"Harold?" Noah said in a hushed tone without turning his gaze as he continued to stare at the route that contained the scent trail, and a sinister smile slowly began to form on his face.

"Y- Yeah?" Harold felt a chill run up his spine as he replied with a stutter, and Noah continued, "I think I know what we have to do.."

He then slowly turned his gaze towards Harold, and after a brief pause that filled the atmosphere with silence, he opened his mouth to speak. "Are you ready for your first superpower battle?"

"Wha- What?" Harold asked with a puzzled expression, but before he could come to terms with Noah's words, Noah had grabbed hold of Harold's collars and lifted him up effortlessly, pulling him close to his side as he stomped his foot on the ground and shot forward with lightning speed.

——————–

A transformed Mr. Carrick shot through the slim and long pathways of the cavern with incredible speed and precision. He moved so quickly and with such intensity that one wouldn't assume he had memorized the entire map of the cavern.

"Damn it! I cannot believe that those kids were able to figure out the trap so quickly!" Mr. Carrick murmured to himself under his breath as he gritted his teeth. Clearly, he wasn't pleased by the incidents that had unfolded. It wasn't what he had envisioned when he set up the bait and the trap. 

"I guess it's my fault for underestimating whom I had initially thought were humans…" Mr. Carrick lamented about his half-assed preparation to capture the enemy. If only he had known that they weren't normal human beings, perhaps this process would've been a bit easier and a lot quicker than it ended up being. 

"No matter.. They're still weak children who have yet to understand the power that they hold. I can still handle this." Mr. Carrick said to himself, trying to calm his mind down. It certainly wasn't the ideal process that he had envisioned, but it was still manageable. Nothing too difficult for someone like him, he presumed.

"Wait.. why do I feel a bit uneasy?" All of a sudden, Mr. Carrick's eyebrows furrowed, and he tilted his head as he moved through the small pathways in the cavern.

He could feel that something was off. As though there was something bad that was about to happen to him. 

Right then..

Whoosh!

Mr. Carrick's eyes widened with shock and surprise for a split second before he stomped his foot onto the wall that was to his right and used the force to push him down in the opposite direction. 

BAM!

A moment later, the spot on the wall that Mr. Carrick had just kicked exploded with a loud noise, causing the whole cavern to shake violently. 

"Ah! I didn't think you could dodge that one. But you were actually able to prove me wrong! Consider me impressed, I guess!" A voice came from within the smoke and dust that had enveloped the spot where the explosion took place, and Mr. Carrick had a frown on his face as he stared at the direction from where the voice had come from.

A figure appeared from within the smoke and dust clouds, revealing the person behind the attack to be Noah, who was staring at Mr. Carrick with a smile on his face. "I can already tell that this is going to be an interesting fight. I can see myself enjoying it very much!"

"Who the hell are you?" Mr. Carrick raised his eyebrows and asked Noah with an emotionless expression, and Noah whistled back in response as he let out a short snicker. "Wow! Well isn't that a serious expression! I can tell that you aren't someone who plays around. No matter. I can work with that."

WHAM!

Noah stomped his foot onto the ground below and shot forward as soon as he finished his words, appearing in front of Mr. Carrick within a split second, swinging his fist right at his face.

"Hmph! Child's play!" Mr. Carrick didn't seem like he was impressed by his opponent's attack, and he immediately tried to block it by swinging his right palm.

But then..

Swoosh!

Right as the fist was about to meet Mr. Carrick's palm, Noah unraveled his fist, and a burst of flames shot out from his palm shooting downwards, and the force pushed Noah's lower body up into the air, flipping him upside down.

Mr. Carrick had no time to think as Noah used the momentum to swing his leg onto his opponent's head as his body was in the middle of completing a full rotation!