When Theo had woken up earlier, he had felt like he could literally bend and move space with a thought. It was like an innate power he just knew he had from birth, kind of like how any human knows they can throw a punch, except they won't be as refined in throwing punches as those who have been training in the art for a long time. Theo's use of space was also extremely clumsy in this situation.
Earlier, when he was staring at the eggshells, he had managed to establish a connection between himself and the void, sort of like a personal storage space he could keep things in, but the process took him nearly ten seconds. Now, he wanted to use these five to refine his skills in the use of space and get better at it.
The man who approached Theo was the vanguard; he had a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, and he had a little armor on that covered his most important bits except his head. A sword swung down from above Theo's head, threatening to cleave him in two. He sidestepped in time to feel a huge breeze sweep right by him.
Theo wasn't one to not reciprocate when others showed goodwill. He immediately struck out with his fist, aiming to connect directly with the vanguard's abdomen. Unexpectedly, said fist met with a sharp blade. The small dagger directly drew a little blood, and the vanguard furrowed his brows. He immediately pulled back as two arrows whistled past, aiming at Theo. Theo hurriedly moved his feet and dodged the two arrows.
"Not bad; it seems he has a little strength." Gain said. "Felix, pull back and strike when there are openings. Arya and Coleen support me." He spat orders like it was normal. Actually, it was. These five were a veteran hunting team that had been operating in this area for a long time; it could be said that they had accumulated enough experience.
Gain immediately moved forward, pulling a shield from his back and a huge sword along with it. He struck out with the large blade while Arya fired three more arrows in quick succession. All her arrows were laced with the wind element, allowing them to move more nimbly in the air and slightly change trajectory. This made it more impossible for Theo to dodge, coupled with the huge sword swinging down on him.
Theo immediately moved towards the three arrows, dodging out of the way of the huge sword and completely ignoring Gain. He stared intently at the three arrows, or rather the space in front of these arrows.
Just when they were about to pierce through his head, three arrows immediately disappeared and reappeared behind Arya, the archer.
"Be careful!" A dark-skinned woman immediately jumped out of Arya's shadow and deflected the three arrows. This unknown was the last member of the five-man team who had somehow disappeared without notice from his sight. "He's a space element."
"Space? Those are extremely rare." Arya said.
"Yeah, and dangerous!" Gain had never stopped swinging his sword even as he was talking. His expression would make one think he had a blood feud with Theo for killing his entire family. Theo was still staring at that dark-skinned woman. She looked really young, perhaps sixteen or seventeen. As such, her talent was extremely shocking.
A blade cleaved through where Theo should have been, but the expected blood splattering and cries ringing out did not occur; instead, it seemed that Gain had cleaved through air. A punch came from behind Gain, directly aiming for his head, but it was quickly retracted as the figure disappeared. Where he had just been standing, a huge fireball exploded there. It seemed Coleen had not been silent for nothing the entire time.
Theo directly appeared behind Coleen and slapped her forward with a palm. This time, his hand directly connected with his target, and he immediately disappeared. A figure that had popped up from Coleen's shadow at the last minute, directly brandishing two daggers, was immediately caught off guard by a slender sword swinging towards her before quickly parrying it to the side.
While he had slapped out at Coleen, Felix had approached from his blind spot to strike, and the assassin naturally came up to protect the mage Coleen. Both had to defend themselves when their target suddenly disappeared.
This time, Theo went after the archer. For him, these long-range users were naturally the most dangerous. However, Gain was standing next to her, apparently already expecting his arrival. Theo directly arrived next to Arya and immediately disappeared again. This was enough time to get Gain already swinging his blade down at him. He suddenly appeared behind Felix, who was previously trying to stabilize himself after losing his footing, and swung a kick from his right side.
Felix was flung like a ragdoll as he smashed into the assassin and sent them both flying. By now, Gain had reacted quickly and smashed his shield into the ground. From the front of his shield, the earth seemed to react as though it was being pushed forward as it quickly moved and stopped the two ragdolls' momentum. The earth wrapped up around the two of them and drew them away from Theo towards Gain and Arya, who had already silently begun to retreat.
At some point, Gain had already retrieved Coleen's unconscious self and slumped her over his shoulder. They quickly darted out of this location and disappeared. Gain still did not put away his weapons even after fleeing for a while. That fellow was a space user, and he could appear before him at any time. Luckily, nothing of the sort had happened.
"I'm still struggling to get used to this power." Theo frowned to himself as he watched these few people retreat. He took out some eggshells from a designated storage space and began to chew on them. His teeth had no issue breaking through these shells, but they unexpectedly tasted like candy. He slowed down to savor the crunchy shells and the soup that came with it. Those people were already marked by him, so he could just appear right next to them; there was no need to worry about not finding his way out.