Dodging the best I could I jumped from side to side as the knives kept coming, now that I was able to think with a cool head, I had slowly begun to understand Jack's attack patterns, even if it cost me a few cuts that now they were bleeding.

The conclusion I came to was that even if I could dodge most of his knives, I wouldn't be able to get close to him to defeat him down with brute force, at least not without at least 2 or 3 knives digging into me.

Stumbling over some boxes that were in the alley, I felt one of the knives managed to dig into my shoulder, I gritted my teeth and moved to avoid another that could have hit me in the stomach, I would have time for the pain later, the important thing now was to survive.

And being so, I only had one plan in mind, dodging another knife moving the upper half of my body to the left I took the weapon and threw it back at the murderer, he seemed slightly surprised for a single second, but he quickly bowed his head a couple of centimeters successfully dodging the edge of the weapon, but that was fine, after all, that was only the first step of my plan.

Moving in zic zac I approached the man dodging as best I could while avoiding the flying objects with some new cuts to my body as a consequence, and when I could find an opening I used my ace up my sleeve, and that was a board that I picked up from the box where he had fallen before, it cost me a knife buried in my shoulder, but if I used it well I could survive this situation.

Taking out the board I threw it at Jack's face as I continued to advance, the man's movements were stopped for a second when his right hand instead of going into his coat to pull out more knives came down in a karate strike breaking the board, and just when I was in front of him, he stretched out his other hand towards me, probably trying to hold me, but if there was one thing I trusted, it was that my strength was greater than his.

Quickly my hand began to move towards his wrist to hold him and the other formed a fist that was going to kiss his face, I was inches from touching him when it happened.

BOOM

The light gathered in front of my face and the next thing I knew, my body was rolling on the ground until it crashed into the wall at the end of the alley.

I felt dizzy, my vision flickered a couple of times in which the only thing I could see was a set of blurred colors, after that finally the landscape in front of me began to be a little clearer, everything was still blurry but second by second it started to get clearer and clearer, at that moment I saw the man looking directly at me with a smile.

Trying to get up I felt like my right arm was on fire, in the last second before the explosion, instinctively my arm went from being a fist ready to hit the murderer to covering my face to avoid any serious damage.

Slowly lifting me up, my left hand squeezed my right arm just above where it had received the blast in an attempt to ease the pain a bit.

-H-how could y-

-How could I produce that little explosion?- He finished saying the question I had.

Breathing a little hard I kept looking at him waiting for his answer.

-Well, before I said that my magic allowed me to identify people's emotions, right? Unfortunately for you, that was a lie- He told me with a smile -Although, the fact that you blindly believed my words shows me that you still need to mature, but I have to admit that that last second defense was excellent-

-Then your magic is...-

-Detonation magic, I can create explosions from my palms, but the fact that you forced me to use them, you have my congratulations-

-Those congratulations really don't make me very happy- I said squeezing my right arm tighter.

-That wound looks really painful, it seems like at this point you can't even move your arm, so let's start with the final act-

And when he finished that sentence he jumped towards me as he resumed the attack with his knives, I moved the best I could, however, it was quite clear that my movements were now more clumsy than before, the surprising thing about this was that even so, everything continued in the same way as before, I was able to dodge most knives with some shallow cutting my skin from time to time.

At that moment I understood, this madman was playing with me, in my current state it would not be difficult for him to hit almost all his throws, and even so, he limited himself to hurting me and wearing me out little by little, at the moment that our eyes met, his expression told me that he knew that I understood what he was doing and he smiled at me once more.

The following seconds felt like hours, little by little the murderer began to corner me, if at the beginning only 1 out of 5 knives rose at me, now 3 and sometimes 4 out of 5 did it, if I was going to do something then I had to do it soon because at this rate I was not going to last more than a couple of minutes before falling, and this time I couldn't catch the knives because Jack threw them so that they spun in the air, ​so if a made a single mistake I could end up losing one or more fingers if I was lucky, and if not, my whole hand.

Putting all the strength left in my body, I got as close as possible, although obviously, it was all because he allowed me to do it.

And when he was finally within my attack range my left hand moved to try to hold his arm, at that moment a look of slight disappointment appeared on his face when his right hand threw a knife directly to my palm, the pain came in the instant that the weapon dug into my flesh and caused the advance of my limb to halt.

In slow motion, I could see how his left palm advanced until it was in front of my face and it was clear what he wanted to do, with my left limb out of position and the right arm disabled it would be impossible for me to cover myself from the explosion, so this time I would receive all the damage.

Despite the pain, I found myself smiling, my right arm moved to grasp Jack's wrist that he was using to pointing at me, moving his limb so that it pointed to the side of my face and pulling him towards me.

When the explosion came, my ears buzzed and for a moment I managed to see the expression of disbelief of the killer, that gave me the final answer to many of the questions I had, but now was not the time for that, I bobbed my head forward with all the strength I could gather, hitting his nose with my forehead.

The killer fell back a few meters, I did not wait for him to recover from the blow and I threw myself towards him at full speed, if I let him get up and throw knives again then surely this time I was going to die.

When I had him within arm's reach, he quickly raised his left palm once more, but this time I didn't bother to dodge it, instead, my own palm grabbed his and bent it, the explosion never came and I could hear him make a sound of surprise, my foot quickly stepped on his free arm on the wrist to injure it and prevent him from taking any more knives, he grunted in pain, but before I could jump on top of him to hit him he unleashed a kick that hit me square in the chest.

I rolled back while panting trying to breathe once more, my chest ached, I ended up sitting without being able to stand up, and looking at Jack, he was not in a better condition than me, he had also been able to sit up, he breathed with some difficulty while a current stream of red liquid was coming out of his nose, and from the awkward way he was trying to move his arms, he should no longer be able to throw knives at me.

-Ha... haha... you're really... a stubborn boy- He said between breaths -When... did you... notice it?- He asked, this time, the tone he normally used, the dangerously calm and disturbing one wasn't present.

-After... the first explosion- I said while still panting -It was... just luck... I used the first knife that you stuck in my shoulder... when I covered myself with my right arm to protect myself from the explosion... with the other I tried to cut your hand so that you couldn't throw more knives at me, but... by chance, the knife that I used hit the machine that you had up your sleeve, then I pretended not to be able to move my arm... and when I took you by the wrist... I crushed the machine-

-Bravo, a risky bet, if you squashed the machine too much or did it in the wrong way you would have made us both blow up, even so, I applaud you, or I would, but I can barely move my left hand- He said he smiling -However, if you think this is over then I'll tell you that you're wrong- He added and once again my body tensed at what his words implied.

I tried to get up one more time, but my body was already tired and had lost too much blood, so I could only make useless attempts as I watched him bring his left wrist to his mouth and rip the fabric of his suit with his teeth, revealing the machine that he used to generate explosions.

-These things are difficult to repair, you know? And even more so considering that you damaged some important parts like the fuel trigger, but luckily most of the parts that I need now are still functional- He informed me as he got up with a lot of effort and took slow steps towards me.

Instantly my struggle to get up intensified, but I couldn't do it so I crawled backward while still sitting -D-DAMN, GO AWAY!!- I yelled at him while trying to increase the distance between us.

-In cases of extreme need I can turn this device into a bomb, unfortunately, you destroyed the counter so I can only activate it being close and therefore, in the radius of the explosion, it's a shame, however, as a gentleman, I must admit that you defeated me, and even though we are both going to die, die together with the greatest challenger, I can't think a better way to leave this world-

Hearing the words of this man I started to sweat and get scared like never before, this guy was completely crazy, he probably didn't want to be caught so he wanted to commit suicide and take me with him.

-DON'T COME NEAR!!- I yelled at him when, as I struggled to drag myself faster, the man's foot stepped on my heel, preventing me from going further back.

-There is nothing to fear "Little boy", dying in an explosion is one of the best ways to "end", it is painless and before the end, you can see the explosion from a distance that makes it a wonderful last sight- He said with a calm tone as he held the bomb and presented it to me as if it were a gift.

Damn damn damn, what should I do, think, think, THINK DAMN IT, while I saw how the machine began to shine more my mind moved at maximum speed, it was impossible to move away, I could not block the explosion, and Jack had it the machine far enough away from me that I couldn't take it up and throw it away.

Using whatever strength my body had left along with the desire to survive, I reached out once more to try to take the bomb that glows more and more and began to beep.

Jack did nothing to stop me other than stomping my leg slightly harder, and apparently, he was correct, as my arm would have to be about six inches longer if I wanted to at least touch the bomb.

And when the explosion started the whole world moved in slow motion once more, I felt something, I didn't know how to describe it, I just felt it, it was similar to when I discovered my divine protection, a multitude of golden particles were gathered in the hand that was trying to reach the bomb shaping something, a curved blade sword.

And before the explosion expanded I saw how the blade began to absorb it, the fire began to gather inside the blade for a time that seemed eternal to me, but when that moment ended the sword began to crack, the cracks quickly grew like they were the roots of a tree and in the end, the sword broke giving way to what was left of the explosion, and in a similar way to before I found myself flying backward until my back hit the end of the alley wall.

Raising my head a little I could see that Jack had also flown to the opposite side reaching the exit of the alley, where he found himself simply lying down and with his arms outstretched without moving, my vision began to darken more and more without being able to do anything to avoid it.

In the distance, I could hear several voices that seemed to approach, and the last thing on my mind before I was knocked unconscious was the name of my first newly discovered ability, Blade Blacksmith.