"Captain, are we just letting him go like that?" Lila asked blankly. "What if he runs?"
By procedure, they seemed to be supposed to take that youth back with them, but they did not seem to have any reason they absolutely had to take him away.
"If he wanted to run, he wouldn't have waited for us here." Reed shook his head and turned to Lila. "If you were him, after going through what happened today, could you still calmly take a shower, change clothes, and wait here for us?"
Lila thought for a moment. "I'd probably be so scared I could only cry in a corner."
Then she shook her head. "No, I might have been beaten to death in the ring."
She looked at the figure standing by the street. "He looks so young."
"He has far more life experience than you do," Reed said, shaking his head.
"Had he encountered anomalies before?" Lila asked doubtfully.
"No." Reed fell silent for a moment, then shook his head slightly. "This should have been his first contact with an anomaly. I could feel his surprise, panic, uncertainty, and worry."
His gaze lowered. "He was simply very calm. Or rather, he could force himself to calm down and completely suppress his fear. That was his 'talent.' There are many people like that in the Association. The more dangerous the situation, the calmer they become. When dealing with anomalies, they display enormous advantages."
Looking back now, aside from the organizer, whom he had not seen Loren kill, Loren had barely used much strength on anyone else. He had been borrowing force against force the entire time.
It had looked smooth and effortless, but there had not actually been much technical difficulty involved, nor had he been flawless.
It was simply that Loren