Chapter 201: Chapter 201- Tension
*Squeeze*
Saying those words, Talon tightened his grip on Hyun-Ki\'s hand slowly using some of his strength.
"Hahaha, thank you for the flattery. I\'m but a humble man." The man chuckled as if he was unbothered by the pain.
\'I\'m using enough power to make someone go down on their knees now. Yet, I couldn\'t notice a change in his expression.\' Talon thought to himself secretly before he continued.
"Still, I have been eager to meet you ever since I first knew of your existence and the existence of this beautiful place. I have some business with you that we didn\'t finish yet." He said.
"Oh my, is that so? Of course, do you want to discuss it over a cup of coffee?" When Hyun-Ki asked that question, Talon noticed something weird.
The man\'s eyes suddenly flashed with a weird glint for a split second before they returned to normal. However, that subtle change didn\'t go unnoticed by Talon due to the feeling he got the next moment. Something like an electric current coursed through his body as it moved to his head.
The feeling was really uncomfortable but not enough to be painful. The current tried to move from his arms to his chest and then to his head. However, by the time it reached his chest, suddenly, he felt his body react as it suppressed the current before ultimately killing it.
\'Hm? What was that?\' Talon thought to himself as he looked up. The man was still staring at him, except this time, his expression had changed subtly.
His unreadable smile twisted for a moment as if he saw something surprising and yet also really unpleasant. But, that only lasted a moment before he returned to normal.
Talon didn\'t even need to think twice about it to realize what just happened. \'He tried to cast something on me.\' He thought to himself.
He didn\'t know what kind of ability the man tried to cast on him. But, he could feel it happening. He could also feel when his body suppressed that ability on its own.
\'I guess I\'m too high-leveled for him to play any tricks on me.\' He thought to himself as he started squeezing harder and harder on his hand, turning it red from sheer pressure.
"I admire your ability to pretend like you aren\'t really annoyed and in extreme pain right now. I\'m almost about to break your hand and you couldn\'t use whatever skill you had on me. It\'s a very bad situation, isn\'t it?" Talon asked.
"..." Hyun-Ki raised an eyebrow before he made a forced laugh. "You are a very honest man, Mr Talon."
"Always been, always will be."
"Talon?" Sophie noticed what was happening so she quickly approached her beloved, ignoring her dad completely.
"Be careful, Talon. He was trying to use a mind manipulation skill on you." Acrypha warned Talon as she watched the man carefully from behind.
"I know. I have felt it and it failed." He scoffed before he turned to look at the man again.
"Let me guess, Bing Hyun-Ki. Your ability has something to do with… Controlling your target? No, not that. More like, Mind Manipulation?"
His last guess made Hyun-Ki\'s smile widen.
"So I was right on the bullseye, hahaha! Interesting! What kind of conditions does such an ability have? I mean, it sounds pretty strong."
"Oi, kid…" Evan tried to interject the conversation, only for Talon to give one single glare that made him go silent again.
"Come on, explain."
*Squueze*
The sound of bones rubbing against each other reached Talon\'s ears. He was now certain that Hyun-Ki was in extreme pain. But, surprisingly, even that didn\'t get a reaction out of him.
"You\'re far more dangerous than I expected. I have heard some news about you and I did have some expectations. But, you have completely shattered my expectations now. You\'re the very first person that my ability didn\'t work on. How high is your level I wonder?"
"It\'s not important," Talon replied.
Pursing his lips, Hyun-Ki thought for a moment before he asked. "I\'m going to assume that your desire is to kill me at this very moment?"
"Of course. I\'m not going to spare you or anyone who was responsible for that attack on the campus." Talon replied casually.
"Hmm…" The man nodded his head lightly before he looked up. "Then, what are you waiting for? Go ahead. Kill me."
The moment Hyun-Ki said that, the entire atmosphere around them changed completely. The men standing behind him grew extremely tense as they put their hands on their weapons.
The sheer pressure everyone felt made them almost break. Even Sophie instinctively channeled her Aetheris, ready to move. She didn\'t even think twice about protecting Talon against everyone else. Even if her father attacked him, she was going to act.
"But, you can\'t kill me yet, can you? After all, you\'re very a clever man, Mr Talon. You aren\'t here for something as simple as revenge. Revenge is but a small bonus to your true goal."
"..."
"I have heard your intentions of taking over Seoul. But, you are aiming for far more than that. South Korea, is that what you want? The entirety of this country." Hyun-Ki smiled widely. "And you know that I\'m the one capable of making it easier or harder for you to do that."
The entire time Talon remained silent as he stared right into Hyun-Ki\'s eyes. Nobody knew what was going through his head.
"Well, it is true. I can make it a whole lot easier for you to do that. All I need is to make a small call and voila, the path is clear in front of you. At the same time, not making a call will have some very annoying consequences and you know I can\'t do that when I\'m 6ft under."
"Do I look like I\'m scared?" Talon asked back.
"No, you aren\'t and you will probably never be scared. After all, who should the strongest be scared of? No one. However, you aren\'t foolish enough to seek conflict on your own. This is but a snowball that is rolling down a long snowy hill. The more it goes down, the bigger it gets.
You don\'t want that, do you?"
\'This man had always been like this. No matter what situation he is in. He always could take control of the conversation and make it go his way.\' Sophie thought to herself as she clenched her fists.
She had never seen Talon at a disadvantage like this before. He was not saying anything at all and that made her worry. After all, even though their friends were still waiting behind, they were surrounded by armed soldiers.
At that moment, Talon released Hyun-Ki\'s hand for the first time. The latter smiled even wider as he rubbed the sore spot lightly.
"It seems you und- Blugh!"
Before he could even finish his sentence, Hyun-Ki found himself hanging in the air as he was grabbed by the neck.
Immediately, all the soldiers lifted their weapons as they got ready to launch an attack. However, their leader immediately stopped them.
"What the fuck are you doing, kid?!" Evan yelled angrily. "Release him! You do not know the disaster that would fall on our heads if he dies!"
However, Talon didn\'t respond as he stared directly at the man. "I don\'t need you to tell me what I want. I was going to force you to do it either way. I have no reason to listen to your blabbering."
\'I would\'ve killed this piece of scum immediately. But, I have to make use of this situation to get rid of a potentially huge problem in the future.\'
Talon was aware that Hyun-Ki\'s connections spread far outside of South Korea. He was perhaps the perfect candidate to rule South Korea in the eyes of other countries. His death would naturally bring Talon a lot of trouble.
So, he thought that if he could make Hyun-Ki trick them into believing that the base was still under his control. Meanwhile, Talon could busy himself with taking over the entirety of South Korea. Once that happens, things would go much simpler and he would be officially ready to get into a full-scale war if he needed to.
At his current moment, he couldn\'t really afford to fight another army of soldiers. There was only so much he could do on his own or even with his small group of survivors. That was why, this step was necessary. To make Hyun-Ki do what he wanted.
\'Whether by force or by negotiations. I will make him do it.\' Talon\'s eyes flashed with a dangerous glint.
A//N: Don\'t forget to support the book if you enjoyed reading