Psychic Overlord

Blaze cricked his neck and tutted with a wince. "Oh, oh, my old bones haven't had to do this in quite some time. Surely, you'd give an old man a chance to stretch his bones first, eh boy?"

Suddenly, his exaggerated demeanor gave way to one of cruelty as he gave Kaizer a playful look of morbid amusement.

"Just joking."

Blaze stretched out two fingers and lifted them upwards, which caused the air around Kaizer to suddenly combust, coating his entire body in flame from head to toe. The entire area of 5 meters around him became a burning hot fire zone that had no kindling and needed no such thing anyway.

Blaze shook his head. "I still didn't get to ask how he approached Francis in such a manner. Oh well, I will take him back and see if that wretched softie can piece him together."

"Oi, you fellows, get up!" Blaze kicked at the still-floored bodyguards who he thought were incapacitated, but his pupils rapidly constricted when he noticed that they were still conscious but completely unable to move, looks of horror the only thing coating their features.

Suddenly, a figure charged out of the fire zone he made, revealing itself to be Kaizer, who was largely unharmed by the attack, though tiny plumes of smoke wafted from his attire. If Blaze looked harder, he would notice that there was a thin membrane covering Kaizer's form that shimmered faintly.

Psychic barrier!

Kaizer accelerated faster than a normal human and appeared before Blaze in a mere second, throwing out a power-packed punch that caused the friction against the air with its movement. Blaze felt that if he got hit by this punch—even if he were a tanky fellow—he would likely lose a body part at the least.

However, with surprisingly agile movements, the old man dodged Kaizer's speedy blow with a casual bend and used his flame to propel himself backward, creating some distance between them. Blaze's expression was gloomy as he had almost been blindsided by a mere kid, and he felt like it was about time to show him something serious.

"Boy, not bad, you managed to—URK!"

Blaze began to speak arrogantly, but a sudden punch to his jaw silenced him as he took more than ten steps backward while blood spurted from his mouth. The old man was stunned and puzzled by this, touching his jaw with a confused look, not even caring about how many teeth had been knocked out of his mouth by that blow.

Meanwhile, Kaizer did not stop to give his enemy time to ponder anything. The young man was not a skilled fighter, but he did take some self-defense classes at the demand of his newly rich father back then, along with Rina. Otherwise, how could the duo have been gun trained if they weren't even taught basic self-defense?

As such, he initiated a relatively simple and unimpressive combo of punches that struck at the face, groin area, and throat area. Every time he unleashed a power-packed blow, Blaze would easily dodge it using his flame ability to propel himself, but he would cry out in pain as a blow hit that target location almost invisibly.

"ENOUGH!" The old man roared, no longer limiting his power due to the location and the possibility of observers around, releasing a huge wave of flame in an area covering 30 meters around his body.

Kaizer's heart chilled as he leapt backward, manifesting a thick barrier in front of him that was literally melted by the heat, looking like a piece of plastic that had been put under the fire. Luckily, psychic barriers only backlashed when they were completely shattered in one blow; otherwise, Kaizer would be screaming as he clutched his head in pain from the agony of the fire. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Is this the power of an A-Rank Esper?" Kaizer muttered to himself, remembering the information he extracted unwittingly from Barnes about Blaze.

In that split second of thought, Barnes had revealed a bit about this Blaze guy, mostly about his strength, his power, and his prestige, but nothing of his personality and goals. Looking at it now, this lack of information was problematic, because now he didn't know how to deal with this old bastard.

Even if he won this battle, what would be the aftermath? In human society, Kaizer could quickly whip out his phone and post a video on the internet to show that a government official was abusing his power to suppress him, and that would open up avenues for him.

But in the esper world? Kaizer didn't want to risk it.

If Blaze had been even slightly more accommodating and less hostile, he would have acquiesced and followed him back while hoping for the best, but the fellow's openly hostile behavior made it clear that fighting was his best bet at retaining a semblance of freedom.

So there was no choice but to win, and it had to be a defeat, but not a kill in order not to aggravate the situation, a very tall task for the current Kaizer with only a few days of training.

There were so many powers and abilities he had theorized as well as those he had seen that he had yet to manifest which could have changed the difficulty of this battle, but it was too late to cry over spilled milk.

Blaze's body continually released flames, which definitely attracted the attention of mourners from afar. It was daytime, but the sight of 30 meters of fire continually raging was enough to catch the attention of even a person with poor sight, much less those with working eyes.

Kaizer sensed many rushing over with alarm, especially the workers of the cemetery stationed in the nearby reception office. He glanced at the completely enraged Blaze, who seemed to be releasing some form of self-imposed shackles and asked in a nonchalant tone:

"People are coming and might see the secret we possess if we fight. What's your usual solution?"

Blaze's flame aura suddenly retracted as if it had never been there, and his unharmed clothing released a plume of smoke. While patting himself casually, Blaze wore a slightly bored expression on his face.

"There are relevant departments that will handle any information leak to the general public."

Seeing that the old man had calmed down and was acting non-confrontational, Kaizer frowned deeply. "So what was all this? Some sort of test to gauge my personality and power?"

Blaze was stunned for a second then shook his head. "Test? No, I really wanted to beat you up, Kid. I don't do tests; you either comply or die."

"Then why stop?" This time, Kaizer was truly puzzled.

Blaze snorted with dissatisfaction. "As you said, civilians are approaching and I don't want to include them in our battle. Anything can easily go wrong when espers fight, and casualties among the innocent are all too common."

Kaizer was not impressed. He truly thought about whether to shatter Blaze's mental barrier and read his mind, but he eventually resisted the urge. Instead, he released his telekinetic suppression on the bodyguards around and walked away without even looking back.

The bodyguards, now freed, patted their dirty suits down and glanced at their boss. "Are we going to let him leave?"

This low-level goon-like question did not seem to elicit the typical response from Blaze, who simply paid Kaizer no mind. "Forget about that brat. Quickly, call up Sophia and tell her that my massage session may be brought up to the next 30 minutes quickly!"

The bodyguards were puzzled by their boss's weird choice of priorities, but suddenly understood when Blaze winced and began walking gingerly as if there was a sore in between his legs.