"I need something from you, so you have to die."

The puppet's attack became faster than the water shield being rebuilt that the water user had to hit the puppet back with his own attacks.

Wave after wave of water shooting out of him and hitting the puppet but it showed no signs of slowing down.

Although the water user forced it back with a large mass of water hitting it upfront, that was all of it.

The water attack was obviously ineffective, even when tears appeared in different areas of the puppet's clothes, it never managed to penetrate the skin.

The water user seems to be genuinely unlucky encountering something like this. If it were an average person, the water would at least make them feel some pain.

But since it was a puppet, hitting the face and the eyes or any soft areas of its body wasn't the slightest bit effective.

...

"This is the place."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. This is the location that was written from the report we received."

Two men went out of their cars to look around them. Buildings after buildings surrounded them in every direction.

This was where Max exactly stood a while ago.

"So he's here?"

"That's what they said on the report."

"The Puppet Master, huh?"

The taller and more buff man said. He wore a uniform with a shield logo printed on it. They seemed to be connected with the police force. They might even be a secret force that was unknown to the public.

"Who is this Puppet Master anyway that they value him so much?"

The assistant curiously asked. This was the first time he had heard of this guy, but from what he noticed a lot of them knows this person quite well.

"Puppet Master. We don't know his gender or what he looks like. From all the information that we have about him, the only thing we know was he controls this powerful puppet, using it for his goals."

The man patiently explained, with no hesitation. It seems that the assistant was also allowed to know the information.

"Why is he so important? There are a lot more wanted Awakeneds that are stronger than him, right?"

"Other Awakeneds aren't as troublesome as him, and he is one of the best when it comes to escaping from the authorities. He is also one of those killers."

His face tells how irritated he was with the Puppet Master, and once the assistant heard that he was a killer, he immediately got why this was a critical mission for them to complete.

"Chief Li, do we go in?"

The assistant was an average guy that follows the chief wherever he goes. He was the partner that was provided to assist him in his daily tasks.

Overall, they made quite a good team, accomplishing numerous missions that they were tasked to do, and from their conversation, it also showed how comfortable they are around each other.

"No, we wait here."

Chief Li shook his head, taking a deep breath, surveying their surroundings for any disturbance. His hands never left his communication device, ready to notify their people to move when needed.

"Shouldn't we catch the Puppet Master? He's wanted for so long already and has caused quite a lot of problems for us."

"They told us to catch him if we could, but we shouldn't force it. We know full well how strong it is. Some groups went a long way to catch him but were still unsuccessful. Orders from the higher-ups said it would be better if we could find its real body first before thinking of making any moves, trying to catch it."

Chief Li sighed. Their task of finding information, investigating Awakeneds has been too tricky these past few days.

New Awakeneds surfacing everywhere, making trouble and here they are, trying to catch them one by one.

Their government hasn't even been too strict to Awakeneds, only asking them not to break the law and not cause a public disturbance, but they don't seem to care.

They have a prison ready to contain them. It was specially created for Awakeneds that was too destructive and vengeful.

Finding them is hard enough, but capturing even just one of them requires a lot of people that they have to keep working day and night.

Not to mention the tragedy that just happened a few days ago where a group of Awakeneds broke into their prison, killing every guard, letting everyone escape back to the world.

The amount of headache it caused all of them was monumental, and now that they have rebuilt the perfect prison that effectively stops any use of skill inside it with the help of an Awakened, they have to work harder to capture all of them back.

Though none of them were hopeful that they could take everyone back since most of them have already fled far away, moving to other countries.

Fortunately, they only have a few prisoners on their watch, so they weren't too discouraged.

Now they're back to the beginning, different groups have their own target, and they were tasked to capture the wanted Puppet Master.

However, the Puppet Master seemed to be toying with them, sometimes fighting with them for a few moments then disappearing like smoke.

The worst thing was they have no idea how to locate its real body, giving them a hard time solving this mess.

"Let's find a place to hide. We can't stay in this place for a long time. Our guys were also ono standby in case we got a lead on where he is."

Chief Li and his assistant moved for cover on one of the buildings nearest to them. Now they only have to wait.

...

"Why don't you just give up. You know you are getting tired and I'm a puppet, I don't get tired. Don't keep stalling for time. You won't be able to escape."

The puppet continued its barrage of attacks on the water user that was starting to feel the heavy feeling of exhaustion throughout its body.

Along with his panting, the water user could only hope to escape, knowing that he doesn't stand a chance against his opponent.

"Accept that you lost and give me what I want."

"I'll give it to you if you just tell me what exactly do you want!"

The water user shouted while enclosed in water. He was panting harder, feeling that he won't last for long.

"You have to die for me to have it."

"What do y-? Gah!"

The water user stared with wide eyes as a fist-sized hole was left in the middle of his chest after a projectile penetrated it.

Seemingly being impatient, the puppet surprisingly caught him off guard with one of its hands separating from its body, shooting straight to his chest, unstoppable by the thick water shield covering him.

The water user opened his mouth, but no word came out of it as he slowly slumped down on the ground.

"What an annoying skill. Now, where is it? It should be here soon."

A voice came out of the puppet as it made its way to the lying body of the water skill user.