Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 294: Explosion

"Close your ears," Stanley shouted behind him as he got ready to throw one of the fingers.

"What?" Red and Rey asked.

"Your ears," Stanley said. "NOW!"

He no longer cared if they listened to him or not and threw the first finger.

A massive sonic boom produced a shockwave that shook the three behind him. The finger he threw flew at an impossible speed, flying in the direction of the fire user, striking a tree about 8 meters to his left.

The finger dug into the tree, leaving a gaping hole at the back of it.

The man with the flaming hands looked to his right in shock, not understanding what had just happened. He turned around and saw Stanley and threw another fireball back at him.

’Dammit!’ Stanley thought. With just one hand to use, his balance and thus accuracy had gotten so bad. It was the same last night too.

’A little to the right,’ he thought.

"AGAIN!" he shouted and threw another finger.

This finger, the thumb, flew right into an incoming fireball and immediately destroyed it, while still making its way toward the man.

The man screamed and jumped away, even though the finger was at least a meter away from hitting him. He jumped behind a tree, hiding there.

Stanley took another finger and threw it again. Once again, he was so close and yet he missed.

He was frustrated, but he took a deep breath. He couldn’t lose his cool like this, not in the middle of the fight. Especially when there were bound to be more fighters in the area.

Stanley scanned the area for anyone else that might be trying to make their way toward him.

Stanley saw the carrier land on the ground, its thrusters slowly dying down. How long was it going to stay here? For a long time? Or short? Did he have the time?

The carried settled on the ground, and then the ground beneath it exploded suddenly.

Stanley and all of the others turned toward the carrier, their eyes going wide. "What?"

"What happened?" Red asked.

"It exploded," Rey said. "Was it rigged?"

Stanley looked at the ground where it had exploded. "No," he said with an angry voice. "It was those damn stacks of rocks."

"What?" the old woman asked. "What do we do now? How do we leave."

"We can’t," Stanley said. He looked at the carrier closely and realized one of the wings was completely destroyed, and another one was smoking.

One side of it had been heavily damaged.

"The carrier is destroyed, but the item inside of it is not," Red reminded. She gritted as she spoke, her phantom pain of having lost her leg earlier still pained her a lot.

Stanley nodded. "We should get to it quickly," he said. "But first, I need to make sure he won’t attack us again."

Time slowed down for Stanley, everything coming to a standstill. His future sight activated next and he prepared to throw another finger.

As he got ready, the vision of the future began appearing in his mind. Each movement of his arm created a new future that replaced the previous one, and that caused Stanley to change his movement ever so slightly that it changed the future once again.

He made minute changes until he saw one where he struck the tree right at the center and went through with the throw.

Time flowed back to normal, and his vision went away. Then, far away, an explosive sound rang through the forest.

His finger destroyed the tree in such a way that it sounded like a cannonball hitting the tree. Splinters of the tree flew far away and a second later the entire tree came collapsing down.

Rey and Red gasped in absolute horror.

"How... how did you do that?" Red asked.

"I knew you were strong," Rey said. "But this... this is beyond superhuman."

Stanley ignored their words and looked to see if the man was still there. He saw a shadow move to the side but wasn’t sure if it was the same person with the flaming hands.

"Let’s go," he said. "That should deter others from coming right after us."

Stanley turned around and ran for the carrier while making sure not to step on any of the dozens of stacks of rocks on the path.

He wondered who it was that created these stacks. Could he stop these from working if he killed that person?

The thought of killing them gave an exciting feeling in his heart.

’No,’ Stanley thought. ’I cannot be like those other Nova.’

What Garren had done to the entire city had scarred Stanley both physically and emotionally. He could not bring himself to ever become like him.

As they arrived closer to the carrier, Stanley began noticing shards of metals, some sharp, some smoking still.

’Weapons,’ he thought. Those shards were sharp and could be used as weapons. Put one around a long stick and it was a spear. Wrap a long one to make a handle, and it could work as a sword.

"What is that?" Red noticed something and pointed to it.

Stanley turned around to look at what she was pointing.

Blood. There was blood on the ground. Not just that, there were chunks of meat there too, and bones as well. Someone had died here just now.

’Was it not the carrier that had landed on top of the stacks? Had a person tripped on it instead?’ Stanley thought. He didn’t remember seeing anyone coming here, so they had to either have camouflaged themselves or teleported here.

’I hope they used their own power to come here,’ Stanley thought. He didn’t want to deal with invisible people or teleporting people. They were not only hard to deal with but were also powers that belonged to his friends.

Fighting against those powers hurt him a little inside.

"Psst!" a voice called for them from behind. "You guys wanna play a game?"

Before anyone could react, the world changed around them.