X-Rank Hunter

Roar!

With his hands hitting his chest multiple times, Bantay let out a thunderous roar. He only needed a few steps towards the other party to close himself on him. He then immediately raised his both hands and smashed it against the other party right away.

The ground then vibrated wildly accompanied by cracks forming on it. Bantay was more than sure that he hit the other party but to his shock, he found him standing leisurely on his hands. The other party was smiling at him and looking at him as if he was looking into a fool.

Bantay of course couldn't take the mockery of the other party as he immediately swung his hands to throw him away. But to his another shock, no one was thrown as he found the other party standing at the center of the cracks made by his arms, with the same expression from before.

What's going on? Bantay was alarmed. He thought that the other party managed to avoid his attack and was standing on his hands to toy with him but why was the other party standing in the middle of the cracks now?

"Attack him, why are you hesitating?" Amidst his confusion, Bantay heard a voice.

But Bantay wasn't even surprised and didn't try to figure out whose voice was that as if it was normal. Without knowing it, as if the voice just came out from his mouth on its own, he replied, "He is a monster."

There was an obvious fear blended with his voice and at that moment, Bantay felt several negative emotions flooding in his heart.

Can I beat him? Doubt and uncertainties started to sprout.

He's far stronger than me! Fear grew even stronger.

I can't really beat him! Cowardice entered his heart.

Run!

With fear completely shrouding his heart, Bantay started to run away. He ran and ran farther and farther away without bothering himself to look back.

Minutes had passed. Hours had passed. Days had passed. Bantay didn't even know how long he was running but he still didn't want to stop because he was afraid that his enemy would catch up to him the moment he stopped.

Until finally, he was exhausted. And couldn't continue moving forward anymore. He frenziedly gasped for a couple of breaths as he then finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Did I finally escape?" Bantay asked himself as he took a clearer look at his surroundings. But to his horror, he just found out that he didn't change his position at all. He was still on the same spot from when he started running.

"Why are you running?" 

Amidst his trepidation and bewilderment, Bantay heard the voice from before. He slowly turned around to see whose voice was that but the moment he caught sight of who it was, Bantay staggered weakly on the ground as he cowered backward frantically.

Bantay hurriedly turned away and forced himself to crawl on the ground like a year old kid to at least leave some distance from the other party only to realize that there was no more strength coming out from him. He then fell on his knee with his forehead on the ground and his both arms on top of the back of his head, trying to bury it.

"Don't come near me!" Bantay cried out. Even taking a glance towards the other party wasn't even bearable for him. He even felt that just being near the other party could kill him.

The fear that he felt right now was just simply too strong as if a human facing a real God.

****

Sigh.

From a distance away, Jim was still on the top of a certain towering tree as he was watching the scene. But it didn't make him happy at all. He was even pitying his tamed beast Bantay who was now completely motionless. Jim could tell that he was already trapped in an illusion.

"Bantay lost it." Jim lamented. He could see that Bantay failed to tell reality from illusion. Well, it couldn't be helped. After all, his uncle Chad's illusion could implant a fake emotion in his enemy making them change their way of thinking. Jim could only shake his head in dismay as he added, "It really is troublesome."

Even Jim was not confident if he could really escape such an illusion. Though he'd already suffered many illusions from his mother, it was all in fact, low levels. After all, his mother wouldn't go so far as to permanently harm her own son and give him a trauma. She knew full well her limits and the limits of her son.

Jim of course also knew that his mother was just always holding back whenever she used her illusion against him. It was just that, even if she held back her power, Jim couldn't help but cry.

In any case, his uncle Chad's Illusion wasn't ordinary as well. Though he couldn't materialize his illusion just like Charley, it was still considered terrifying. An illusion that could implant fake emotion? No matter how courageous you were, if you were caught by Chad's illusion, he could replace your courage with cowardice whenever he liked it.

The brave would simply become a coward! So how could you face such illusions when you were not in yourself anymore?

Jim knew how his uncle Chad's power works. After all, it was their Mausig family bloodline, 'Pulang Mata' [1]. The crux behind it was their eyes. If it turned red, never stare at it. For as long as you gaze at their eyes when it turned red, you were as if gazing into the abyss and the abyss would gaze back as you couldn't even escape.

So if your Mental Energy was any weaker than those from the Mausig family of whose eyes you stared at, there was no way you could escape such an illusion.

Jim didn't inherit this ability. Or rather, no one between his siblings inherited it. Or at least that was what he knew. As for his younger sister Jade, Jim really didn't know much about her ability. All he knew was that she'd some kind of curse that made her part ways with them.

When she parted ways with them, she was still two years old at that time. Obviously, she still hadn't awakened her ability so Jim really knew nothing about it. But now that she was five years old, Jim was certain that she'd already awakened her ability. He really was curious what ability she'd awakened.

But it was more probable that she would awaken an ability to use illusion just like their mother since his younger brother had already inherited their father's ability while Jim himself appeared to inherit none.

Jim could only use illusion because his mother Charley used a skill to forcefully implant the ability to use illusion onto him.

It hurt her feelings whenever Charley saw her son not having any awakened ability even after the fact that he'd already managed to use World Energy. Couldn't stand it any longer, she decided to give her son a chance to use illusion.

Ever since Jim's father left five years ago, Jim was always going to the woods just to train himself with the beasts and wild animals even though he'd yet to awaken his ability and still wasn't able to use World Energy.

He suffered miserably almost every day. But he hadn't given up.

Three years had passed and he was still yet to use World Energy but he still hadn't given up. But then a year later, he had finally managed to use and gather World Energy. But what made him sad was that he could only use World Energy but no ability had awakened.

Simply means, he could only use World Energy to enhance his physique to some extent of which every Awakener could naturally do it. As for special ability? Jim had none.

Jim had almost given up. Surrounding him were gazes of disgust. Every time he went to school to study, all he heard were mockeries. Why did he even belong to a strong family? Everyone simply felt contempt on a trash such as him.

Charley knew this. And she couldn't bear her son suffering like that. So because of her love for her son, she did something forbidden. It was a technique that was banned by their Mausig family for some good reason.

But what else could she do? Her son had already suffered enough. Even if she faced the endless fuss of her family, she would not care anymore. As long as her son could use an ability, it didn't matter anymore, even if she gave up one of her own eyes!

So then one day, Charley forcefully implanted an ability in her son together with one of her eyes. Jim refused it strongly at first but his mother kept insisting and even forced Jim to agree.

Jim was of course weak and had no way of defying his mother's will. So in the end, he could only reluctantly agree.

From then on, Jim was finally able to use illusions. He was still learning from his mother though. It was already one year since then and all he could use was an illusion to distract his enemy.

As for his mother, one of her eyes was actually Jim's eyes. She just used some incredible skill to fit it with her just like how she put her eye on her son. But still, her strength had weakened to some extent since one of her eyes was given to her son.

But it didn't matter anymore. She could borrow power anyway so what was there to take regrets for?

In any case, Jim still hadn't used an illusion that could harm others. Or rather, he still wasn't able to.

But now that he thought about it, he received an incredible ability from one of the Four Greatest Hunters. Jim still didn't know if it would affect his ability to use illusion and he was curious to know it now.

Jim then gazed again at Bantay in pity as he muttered to himself, "Maybe I should try by helping Bantay to escape from the illusion. I wonder if it would work."

Jim then closed his eyes for a good while, and when he opened it again, the pupil of his right eye turned red with five little dots in the middle of it, forming a cross.

"Pulang Mata!"

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[1] Pulang Mata = simply means Red Eye.