Vitaly focused his eyes and looked at Marcus with a narrow gaze. Marcus felt like some unknown force was trying to break through his mind's barriers to get inside.

But he resisted and..

"Aaargh!!" Vitaly suddenly howled in pain as he clutched his head and stumbled back, hitting his head against the wall before collapsing on the floor.

Everyone was shocked, wondering what happened and how Vitaly was the one who seemed to take damage instead of Marcus.

William and Laina had personally experienced how it felt like to get mentally attacked by Vitaly, and it was no joke, especially the stinging sensation they felt in their heads.

They remember that Vitaly's mental attack made them feel as if some force was trying to burrow through their consciousness and remove their control over their body.

But now, it seemed as if Vitaly was the one who got his mind assaulted instead of Marcus. All of them looked at Marcus as if they were looking at a monster, wondering whether he was a psychic too.

Reinhard inwardly began to sweat, no longer feeling that confident as before, thinking that Marcus was an Ascended with mental abilities.

He was only good at talking on opponents directly but was no good at mental battles.

Still, he saw no other choice other than to fight since he already knew the other party was not going to spare him. He had been in this business for a while and knew if a person would really want to kill him or not.

And apparently, seeing Marcus' cold eyes, he knew he was already considered a dead man.

Ray, who was cowering behind Reinhard, panicked, even more, seeing Vitaly hit the ground.

But no one knew that it was not Marcus who did a counterattack on Vitaly, but it was Vitaly who brought it upon himself as he suffered a backlash when trying to attack Marcus' mind.

At that time, Vitaly felt as if he had a thousand swords piercing his mind after sending a small knife to pierce Marcus' mind.

So, one could only imagine how heavy the backlash he suffered was.

Marcus walked forward, ready to take on Reinhard, while Reinhard also walked forward hesitatingly.

Reinhard was a little confused seeing Marcus coming forward to take on him physically when he was expecting Marcus to mentally attack him.

This made him question many things and also gave him a confidence boost since Reinhard was quite confident of winning any physical battles.

But Marcus was not feeling that confident since he had no idea what Reinhard's ability was and had doubts whether he could kill him with his 'human' strength.

Ray was frightened that Reinhard left him, and he no longer had a 'shield'. So he quickly crouched and took cover behind a sofa while receiving contemptuous looks from Laina and William.

William was frantically trying to cut at the ropes behind his back using a small knife he always kept under his waist. It was just a scalpel he used to carry around as a habit from his days as an army doctor.

But that scalpel was enough to cut away at the ropes.

Ray sniggered, "You all are not going to escape this!" He then quickly took out a walkie-talkie and said, "Code Red! Need immediate assista—"historical

But before Ray could finish his message, William quickly leaped towards him and punched him in the face, making him hit the ground. He then quickly took the knife strapped to Ray's leg and stabbed him in the neck, killing him on the spot.

"Please repeat, Sergeant. We didn't catch your message. Over." William heard someone speaking from the other side of the walkie-talkie and quickly took it and switched it off while feeling quite anxious, wondering if there would be any more problems in the future.

Meanwhile, Marcus swung his axe towards Reinhard's neck and struck with all his might.

But Reinhard didn't even try to defend and simply stood, making Marcus frown.

The axe easily found its mark, but contrary to Marcus' expectations, his axe didn't cut through his skin, but it was as if the blade of his axe struck against a hard rubber wall.

Laina and William also saw how Marcus' attack had no effect on Reinhard, and this made them feel quite anxious, wondering whether Reinhard was stronger than Marcus.

Reinhard smirked, seeing that he indeed held the physical advantage, and said, "With your pitiful strength, do you think you can scratch my iron skin?"

Marcus didn't reply, but inwardly he felt that things were indeed bad and wondered how he was going to defeat someone with skin as tough as iron. His axe wouldn't be able to even scratch him, just as he said.

Marcus' present strength was only stronger than normal humans but wouldn't be close to any strength-based Ascended ones.

At this moment, he desperately hoped that he gets to use his old powers so that not even Reinhard would prove to be much of a problem for him.

But unfortunately, Marcus knew that after that particular day, his powers had become unstable to the point of sometimes being nonexistent and totally unreliable.

It was no better than him having any powers, which was why he decided to hide in some remote area with his wife, who was pregnant with his child.

Reinhard suddenly grabbed Marcus' collars and raised his hand with a dark expression.

Marcus' knitted his brows, seeing that Reinhard was about to punch him, and tried to get out of Reinhard's hold, but he was unable to overpower his brute strength and inevitably..

*WHAM!*

"Ugh!"

A fist struck Marcus' face, and he fell down on the floor like a piece of log.

"Damn it.." Marcus' gritted his teeth as he felt a stinging pain on his face and knew that with his present strength, he would definitely not be able to overpower Reinhard.

Laina almost called out Marcus' name in worry but stopped herself thinking that she and William should do something to hurt Reinhard instead of attracting his attention towards them.

William was thinking the same as Laina and quietly took out Ray's pistol and aimed at the back of Reinhard's head, not feeling confident at all if it would hurt Reinhard, but they still wanted to try for the sake of Marcus' since they felt bad, especially when he was fighting to save them.

*BANG!*

*Thwack!*

William fired his pistol, and the bullet found its mark on the back of Reinhard's head.

But William's worst fears came true when the bullet ricocheted after hitting Reinhard's head, doing no damage at all. It was as if he literally fired at an iron wall.

Reinhard slowly turned around and looked at the couple with a menacing expression.

"That tickled," He sniggered.

*BANG!* *BANG!*

William fired again and again, but all the bullets that hit his body got deflected away and only made Reinhard let out grunts. Other than that, he showed no visible discomfort nor any signs of injury.

"It seems like I should break your legs and arms since I still need you alive," Reinhard said in a derisive tone as he moved forward to do what he just said.