Chapter 380: 380 - Nearly Abandoned Building

"Noah!" Bel exclaimed, the man he was fighting dropping limply onto the ground.

"Were there too many?" Noah asked, eyeing the building just a little further.

"Eh? I was taking care of the ones standing guard outside first," he said, scratching his head, and smearing blood onto his hair as he did so.

"I see... Why don't we go inside, then," he said, as Bel strolled towards him.

The two walked together towards the building. It looked like an apartment building, with exposed corridors and many doors. Noah saw about a dozen dead goons dropped dead all around, but so far nobody for the workers. 'Did they hold them hostage?' Noah thought, as reached the entrance of the building.

The door was bust open, forced inwards. The password lock with a finger-scanner was untouched, they didn't even bother. The hall in the front lobby was simple, and looked nearly untouched. Noah frowned as his Pyakugan did not feel any presence nearby, and his nerves started tingling.

"Bel, something's off," he said, making the boy go on high alert. Noah walked up the stairs to the first floor, where the rooms began, and walked the corridor down with Bel.

"Why is there nobody here?" Bel asked, as started opening a door, which only led to a dark empty room.

"No idea, but don't go around opening people's houses," Noah told him, as they reached the end of the corridor and Noah turned back.

"But why are none of the doors locked?" Bel asked, making Noah widen his eyes, as the boy went around and opened the doors on the way back to the staircase.

"... This may be worse than I thought," Noah muttered, swallowing dry.

"Just, where is everybody?" Bel asked, them taking the steps to the next floor, where the scene was much the same. "Noah, do you think they are being kept hostage?" Bel thought, asking what Noah had already figured.

"Probably so..." Noah muttered, walking back to the stairs and towards the last floor, "Let's just hope everyone is safe—"

And almost as if a flag had been raised, a high pitched scream could be heard from upstairs, and the two looked at each other for a split second, before dashing to the next and last floor, weapons in hand.

"Where did that scream come from?" Bel asked, as they reached the hallway, but there was still nobody.

"No idea, there's still no presence," Noah bit his lower lip, as he and Bel opened all doors, empty.

"No, please, don't!" A very faint plea sounded, making Noah and Bel look at each other, before looking towards the source of the sound.

"The roof?!" Bel asked aloud, his eyes wide, since the sound was coming from above.

"We have to hurry!" Noah yelled, rushing back towards the beginning of the hall, and searching at the stairs for any way above. "Goddamn it! Where's the way up?!" he asked himself aloud, looking around aimlessly, searching for some kind of way up.

"Noah?" Bel asked, making Noah turn back, only to see the boy in front of a wooden staircase, welling up into the ceiling. "Did you really not notice the chute?" Bel asked, pointing at the cutout on the roof where there was a white button, making Noah facepalm.

"...Let's just head up in silence," he said, walking towards the stairs and climbing up in silence.

"Noah, what about—" Bel started asking, as he began climbing the stairs.

"Shh! I sense people above," Noah said while looking down, putting his finger in front of his mouth. 'I wish I had more leeway on my mana,' Noah thought, cursing his mana depletion.

He slowly made his way up, as more and more presences got into the range of Pyakugan. 'There's almost 30 people... How many are invaders?' he asked himself, smiling inwardly at the possibility of a few of them being blessed.

Noah kept climbing the stairs, until he reached a metal stop, 'I think this is the door... do I open it?' he thought, steeling his resolve and pushing the lid open, as he felt Bel's presence very close behind him.

The metal lid swung open, Noah peering by taking his head out a little as it fell behind him with a loud clang.

"How's it Josh? The fuckers got the main building?" A voice immediately called him out, making Noah grip the ladder and jump up and out, stepping foot onto the roof.

"Josh?" a man asked again, Noah looking straight at him.

On the roof there were many employees sitting down against the ledge, and over ten of the men. The one who called him Josh emitted a strong aura, that of a Blessed at least of C Rank. It was easy to see the woman who yelled, a fairly young maid, being held down by a knife's edge at her throat, against the concrete floor.

"Unfortunately, I am not Josh," Noah said, aiming to throw the man off-guard, before disappearing into a ball of fire.

"Wha—" Noah confused the man, which gave him time to do what he had planned. Appearing quickly, Noah sliced the throat of two men who were holding the woman down. She screamed again, as the assailant fell onto her, his throat spraying blood over her face.

"AH! No! Get it out of me!" She yelled, but Noah simply ignored her pleas, a dozen magic circles appearing and Imps emerging from the flames.

"You! Who are you?! Where's Josh?!" the leader yelled, angrily looking at Noah, but almost unconcerned of the deaths of his men.

By the time he finished the sentence, the Imps had already subdued the goons, only a couple managing to fend them off and retreat towards the leader.

"I don't know who Josh is, but if he went outside, he's dead," Noah said, as he saw Bel walk up out of the stairs behind the man.

"Bullshit! Josh is a B-Rank Blessed!" The man fumed, pushing his hands down, and lightning starting to pour out from them. "You'll die now!" he yelled, launching the lightning at Noah.

"Shit!" Noah leaked, as he dodged the attack with ease, only to notice the people behind him would die if hit. 'I won't make it' he thought, as the lightning narrowly missed him and dated towards the workers, the man who used the Blessing with a wicked smile on his face.

But at that same time, an Imp jumped forward, taking the brunt of the skill, and disappearing into embers.

'This imp... I'll have to give it at least one skill,' Noah thought, imagining that imp using Selfless Bastion. 'Come to think of it... I could totally have used it, right?' he realized, angrily suppressing his bubbling emotion.

One of the men near the leader pulled a dagger and sliced the air, an air blade firing towards him.

'What a waste of time," Noah thought, cutting through the wind blade with his Blessed Weapon, and just nodding, as he flicked a small ball of fire the size of a coin towards the man.

"What a pointless—" the man began speaking, butting in on the verbal provocation, but as the small ball of fire reached his face, it exploded into a massive shockwave, destroying his face, and knocking the man onto the ground.

'Just an E-Rank and wants to talk shit...' Noah thought, for the first time feeling the sense of superiority Blessed were told to have.

"Ken?! What is—Ghak!" the other lower level Blessed called out to his injured friend as the explosion settled, only to be interrupted, and look down to see a hand poking out of his chest. "chkhulp, ghac," he coughed up two mouthfuls of blood, before collapsing on the ground, only Bel standing behind him with a blank expression.

"What!" the Blessed that remained panicked, unleashing a cage of lightning around him. and forcing Bel to jump back, Noah still focused on protecting the people near the edge of the roof, almost falling. The screaming girl from earlier was now safe, taken care of by the imps, who pulled her towards the rest.

'Good thing that skill has a short range,' he thought, as he imbued mana onto the edge of his daggers, activating the [Edge Mastery] skill.

The man threw the same lightning at Bel, who swiftly dodged it, making the energy dissipate into the air long behind them, making the man frown. "How?!" he asked, clenching his fists, and pulling something from his pocket.

Noah wanted the battle to end quickly, but he could not use any explosions that were too strong, risking the lives of the onlookers. 'That's the best option,' he suddenly thought, tunneling into a ball of fire, the other blessed's eyes wide.

"Bel, throw him out the building," he told the boy tunneling his way above the man, and shooting a flamethrower downwards.

"No, you don't!" the man yelled, putting both hands up, and shooting the lightning through Noah's fire.

"Fuuuuck!" Noah clenched his teeth in pain, as the lightning took the path of least resistance, straight onto his hands, the smell of burning flesh reaching his nostrils, and a sharp pain assaulting his hands and arms.

"UAHHHHHH!" But it was not one-sided, on the other hand, the man also released a cry of pain, as Noah's flames began consuming him. At first, he seemed unharmed, and confident his plan would pay out. But as the flames started to break through her layers of heat-protection gloves, and his hands began to sacald, he began realizing his mistake. This guy's mana was no joke.

Besides that, Noah, with this attack had also began burning the two other blessed, although at a slower speed and only as collateral. Both of the two's hands and arms felt burning, the pain almost taking away their senses.

It was now a battle of resistance, that is, provided there was nobody else with them.