Chapter 193: Unfettered Black Feathers
———Wiina———
<9: 51 am>
“You know, the movies really slow the elevators down compared to how they actually are.” Kenni remarked as the elevator kept moving up to the top floor.
“A lot of things are slowed down in fiction for dramatic effect. It’s hard to digest tone and info for things that happened too quickly. It took quite a while to get into-
*Ding*
“Looks like we are here.” Kenni said with a smirk as I got interrupted by the elevator opening. “Let’s get moving then. I get to fight one of the stronger ones, right?”
“Yeah, if we find any before we meet this big boss who seems to be at the top of the building.” I said as we moved through the rather wide area, very little walls getting in the way and turning the place into a maze. It does look like some parts of the wall were destroyed to make the place look more like a livable space. “We have to go up a few more floors until we reach the rooftop, I’m sure we’ll find someone until then.”
“Stop right there!” Ah, speak of the devil. “Got three got a lot of nerve coming here!”
A big guy wearing some police gear shouted out. Probably not even an actual police, considering everything that happened in this place.
“Hmm… Third strongest of the org, go at it, Kenni.” I said as I took a step back.
“What? Not even the second strongest? You gotta be kidding me.” She looked rather unsatisfied at the option being given. I mean, the second strongest is coming here quickly from the upper floor, she just had to play around for a while for the surprise.
“Oh don’t be such a beggar.” I said while pushing her toward and put my hand on the circle-head guy’s shoulder.
*Zoom*
———Kenni———
<9: 54 am>
“The audacity of that bitch.” She actually dipped out on me. “Ugh. So annoying. Fine then, you can be my toy for the time being.”
“Where the hell did those two go!?” The big guy shouted, clearly confused that those two disappeared in a blink of an eye.
“Enough. Let’s just get this started already.” I said with a grin on me just to get him riled up. Just from his tone alone it’s clear he’s far from the calmest person.
“You’ll eat those words!” He yelled out before he started running at me. Typical words like that don’t put much confidence in me about his potential performance, personally.
*Dash* *Swing* *Evade*
“You!” He seems frustrated just because I dodged a very telegraphed attack. Come on now, you could stand to be a bit more patient, but then again, that wouldn’t make it fun.
*Swing* *Evade*
Another rather slow punch that’s pretty darn easy to avoid. Are you for real right now? Isn’t there a lot at stake for you considering the current situation?
*Trip* *Punch* *Crash*
I decided to trip him and sent him flying with a punch, sending him into a wall.
He quickly recovered from that since it was just a simple punch to set him off. If I went all out there he would probably have his firepower cut by quite a bit.
*Dash* *Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Evade*
He comes in for the runback with much faster and chaotic swings. Now he’s ramping it up.
Unfortunately, I still completely outspeed the guy and these punches and kicks are all very easy to avoid. It doesn't exactly help that this floor is quite open so there are plenty of rooms for me to just liberally use the space in here to dodge rather than counter.
*Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Evade*
“Come back here you piece of shit!” He yelled out as he futilely tried to hit me with simple punches and kicks. That type of attack doesn't really work on anyone that overpowers you, he has to be more creative than that to get anything going.
*Flick* *Kick* *Crash*
I flick him on the forehead which actually causes him to wince in pain and give me enough time to do a kick right into his stomach and send him crashing and tumbling. A rather undignified way to be countered. He looks so freaking pathetic like that.
“Hm?” Suddenly two rock pillars formed out of nowhere on both sides. I see him moving his arms around as they were formed.
*Swing* *Evade* *Crash*
I quickly avoided it but it was still a bit of a surprise to see. Looks like he can actually use that brain of his. It’d be weird if he doesn’t. It comes free with being human, after all.
“Holding that kind of magic back seems like a bit of a waste, ain’t it?” I remarked as he stood back up with a glare. At least he’s not actually one of those meatheads who doesn’t bother to learn to use magic for some reason. Everyone can use some kind of magic unless something terrible happens to them, so just learn at least a projectile spell or two, those don’t cost nearly as much mana as any healing or debilitating spells.
*Thrust* *Evade*
“And who are you supposed to be?” I asked as I turned around after avoiding something coming my way. An effeminate guy with a long scorpion tail. Looks like things are a bit more interesting now. Guess playing around won’t be a waste.
“Looks like you could use some assistance.” This guy said while the burly one looks rather irritated.
“I always hate a guy that arrives late.” He said without further elaboration. Looks like they can team-up with any issue, at least. If there was any coordination issue, then this fight would be extremely painful to go through with how embarrassing it would be.
**Dash** *Thrust* *Swing* *Evade*
Whoa! There really is a lot less room to dodge with two people attacking you instead of one.
*Whirl* *Punch* *Crash* *Thrust* *Grab* *Spin* *Slam*
I release a strong gust of wind to temporarily disorient them before punching the big guy then turn around to grab the thinner one by his tail and spin him around and slamming him into the floor.
*Dash* *Swing* *Block*
When I actually did that, the big guy already recovered and swung his fist at me the moment I let go of that guy’s tail, leaving me little time to dodge so I opted for a block instead.
*Grab* *Punch*
“Pft!” The thin guy grabbed me by the leg which actually perplexed me for a moment and got me to lower my guard, so that big guy actually managed to get a hit in while I was surprised. It’s been a long time since I got caught off-guard like that. Usually when I fight multiple guys just one or two hits will knock them out for a while.
Underestimating someone who is way weaker than you is definitely an unflattering look. Maybe it is a good thing that Wiina dipped out on me.
*Swing* *Smack*
I lazily swing the leg that guy held onto and slam him into the other guy for his grip to get loose.
*Dim* *Blast* *Boom*
I threw in an explosive ball of darkness to blast them away and give me some room.
Ooh. Looks like I broke parts of the wall and floor with that. Hmm… Eh, not really my problem. They have to fix up everything anyway after all of this is over anyway, or maybe even demolish it if it looks untenable.
*Sizz* *Blast* *Dash*
The scorpion guy shoots out two fire beams that cut the amount of room I have while the big guy ran at me with the front of his body covered by a spiky shield.
*Slam* *Push*
I managed to push it back since the shield isn’t completely covered by spikes. It has quite the design flaw, probably due to being an amateur. He doesn’t have that much strength compared to me, so it’d be easy to just push him back and completely overpower him.
*Push* *Zap* *Crack*
I pushed hard and caused him to stagger and then zapped him with a lighting spell that caused him to stagger and also break his shield, which quickly dissipates into nothing as his concentration is broken. The flame walls are also gone by this point, he clearly didn’t have enough mana to sustain it for long without draining himself dry.
*Dash* *Grab* *Lift* *Throw* *Crash*
I ran past him and grabbed the scorpion guy by the neck and threw him at his partner.
“Not exactly an airtight strategy now, is it?” I mocked them as they got back up, clearly frustrated at the lack of progress. They look a bit winded already despite the fight not being that long so far. “Come on, don’t tell me you’re starting to run out of gas already? How pathetic.”
“Shut the hell up!” The big guy yelled out as he continued to try punching me a few more times while the other guy didn't seem to be provoked.
*Dash* *Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Evade*
Going back to this routine again isn’t very fun. I get why he does it, he clearly doesn’t have a lot going on in his head so he’s just going with brute force instead of anything else.
*Sizz* **Evade** *Burst*
“Hey! Watch where you were throwing!” The big guy yelled out as a big ball of fire was launched our way. This scorpion guy is clearly getting sick of this going on for as long as it did.
“Shut your mouth and keep fighting! If this keeps up, the boss is gonna kill us!” He yelled out and the big man staggered in fear. Are they sure that the big boss man is their biggest concern right now? Am I being left out of this conversation? How infuriating.
*Punch*
“Argh!” He yelped out in pain as I punch him in the stomach while he was distracted.
“Now is not the best time to be a scaredy cat, I’m afraid.” I said, taunting him as I gave him a moment to recover.
*Sizz* *Evade* *Burst*
Another ball of fire came in and I casually dodged it as it flew past me and exploded and dissipated, but leaving a few things lit up. I wouldn’t call this the best kind of spell to use, especially if you think you’re going to win.
*Swing* *Evade* *Punch*
Another right hook came my way and I countered it with my own, quickly making him collapse from the pain and clutching his stomach.
*Grab* *Lift*
“Well, it was fun while it lasted, but you two aren’t taking this as seriously as I wanted it.” I said while grabbing the big guy by the throat. If they are still gonna talk like that, I’m going to make them realize who they should respect at this very moment.
*Crackle* *Freeze*
Before I could go in for a devastating attack, suddenly everything was covered in ice. It must’ve been that guy silently casting a powerful spell in an attempt to rob me of my movement, both me and this big guy are basically imprisoned in here with barely any parts of our body being able to move.
*Crackle* *Stab* *Stab* *Stab* *Stab*
Unfortunately for him, he’s not the only one able to use ice magic around here.
*Urgh! Arg?” The guy in front of me is suffering from the spear of ice I casted and shot right into his arms and legs.
*Crack* *Shatter*
The scorpion man looked terrified as the ice structure he had been trying to maintain broke apart and he saw his comrade fall over and bleeding out from multiple stab wounds while I walked out of it without so much as a scratch.
“Unfortunate that you couldn’t quite hit your target.” I taunted him as I slowly walked forward. Of course, he clearly didn’t care about him being caught in the crossfire, but he definitely was expecting me to at least become extremely weakened by the ambush.
*Tumble*
He tried to make some distance but tripped up and fell to the ground on his butt. Unfortunately for him, he has already expended so much mana at this point that the fatigue of using so much of it is setting in.
“How cute, you’re so weak at this point you can’t even stand?” I asked while probably having a grin of a maniac on my face. “I guess that means I have free reign here to use any way to end your life. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
“G-Get away from me!” He screamed out while his tail was moving wildly, clearly trying to hit me with its stinger.
*Grab* *Twist* *Rip*
“AAAAGGGHH!!!” He screamed out loudly as I took a hold of it, twisted it and tore it off his body.
“With that annoying thing out of the way… Let’s see here…”