Chapter 270: Genius
Chapter 270: Genius
Adam was accompanied by Shae in her werewolf form, and she immediately nodded in response before pouncing at the ferocious anomaly with a loud roar.
The two of them were immediately locked in a fierce battle, and it was a very primitive, physical clash, with neither side employing the use of any special abilities.
It had already been a very long time since Shae had fought in a battle like this.
Back in Shadow City, she had been too weak to be of any help to Adam, and even now, she was still too weak for Adam to take her on missions.
However, as a blank slate who had lived a lie for most of her life up to this point, she was just as resentful and vengeful as Adam, if not more so.
She craved power, and she had always been training conscientiously, but for a normal adapter like her, the process of getting stronger was incredibly slow compared with Adam's astonishing rate of progress.
Powerful adapters like Eyeless and Hebi no Miko were the absolute cream of the crop, and not everyone could be as formidable as them.
Shae wasn't a genius. Even though she was slowly developing from her training, she was still only roughly on par with the ordinary mature adapters in society.
She desperately wanted to acquire more power through battle, and Adam had identified this desire, which was why he was refraining from participating in this battle.
Shae and the anomaly fought all the way from the bar to the corner, then bulldozed their way through the wall while tearing ferociously at one another, killing some pub patrons and destroying some tables and chairs in the process. Meanwhile, Adam was serving the role of protector to Dwight's psychic body, shielding him from all of the objects that were being haphazardly flung in his direction throughout the course of Shae's battle.
He caught a bar fridge before setting it down onto the ground, much to Dwight's gratitude and amazement.
"Thanks, brother. You look really strange, but you're a pretty strong guy."
In the psychic world, Dwight was a cheerful young man, and having escaped the control of his anomaly, he appeared to be far more optimistic and outgoing than he did in the real world.
"If you didn't have bipolar disorder, you would be super popular with the ladies," Adam said as he playfully poked Dwight's bulging bicep. "Take a look at these pythons!"
Dwight chuckled in amusement upon hearing this.
"I was always really strong, even as a child, and I've been training from a young age. By the way, what's your name? I feel like I've seen you somewhere before."
"You've met me in another world."
This version of Dwight was clearly younger than the one in the real world, which meant that at this point in his life, he still hadn't been locked up in prison yet.
"How unfortunate..."
"What's unfortunate?"
"Nothing. Don't mind me, I'm just thinking out loud. Stay here and don't go anywhere, I'll go check out how the fight is going."
Adam passed through the hole that had been smashed into the wall by Shae as he spoke, arriving outside the pub, where there was a hotdog stand and a small carpark.
Shae and the anomaly were still locked in a fierce battle, and the anomaly was clearly stronger than her, having forced her down onto the ground beneath its imposing body. However, one of Shae's heads had sunk its fangs into the anomaly's shoulder, while the other head was blasting a jet of flames straight into the anomaly's face.
A loud explosion rang out as the anomaly was sent flying back through the air, while Shae's other head was also charred completely black, and the acrid scent of burnt fur was wafting through the air.
"Man, this smells exactly like that time my golden retriever slept next to the fireplace for too long."
While Adam was watching the battle, all of the pub patrons and pedestrians on the street had already fled for their lives, but Dwight didn't seem to be scared at all. He followed Adam out into the open and was watching the fight with a nostalgic expression.
"This smell really brings back some fond memories for me. By the way, I don't think your pet is holding up too well."
"That's not my pet. It's my, uh... friend."
Adam didn't really know how to refer to Shae. In the past, he had always thought that she was his younger sister, but he really didn't know how they were related now.
"It looks like your friend is about to lose."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that."
After clambering to her feet, Shae immediately activated Hellhound's Hyperspeed ability, which had saved Adam's life on more than one occasion back when he was a far weaker adapter than he currently was.
In this particular scenario, Shae was using Hyperspeed to accelerate her attack, rather than to run away.
As soon as she rose to her feet, she immediately charged rapidly at the anomaly. The anomaly charged directly at her as well, yet right as they were about to clash, Shae dodged to the side to avoid the oncoming anomaly, then scratched a small wound onto its abdomen using her Pyroclaws ability.
At the same time, she predicted where the anomaly was going to land before blasting an Explosive Fireball at that exact spot out of one of her mouths.
The Explosive Fireball detonated a car, sending the anomaly flying through the air.
It was a very successful sequence of attacks, but only minor injuries had been inflicted onto the anomaly, and after it landed on the ground, it began to snarl ferociously at Shae like a tiger.
Through this sequence of clashes, Adam was able to identify that this anomaly was close to a level three anomaly, and it was more powerful than even the most formidable level two anomalies.
At the moment, Shae was also roughly on the same level. Perhaps she was a little weaker than the anomaly, but definitely not by much.
Hellhound had previously already been a level two anomaly, and it had managed to devour some anomalic power in Sithu's psychic world.
As for Shae, she had developed slowly and steadily through her training, to the point that her powers were now on par with those of a standard mature adapter.
The combination of the two resulted in a product that was also roughly at the pinnacle of level two anomalies.
Thus, there wasn't much of a power gap between the two, which made the anomaly an ideal opponent.
If Shae could secure the victory, then both her confidence and battle experience would benefit immensely, and even if she were to lose, Adam would always be able to bail her out.
However, he didn't want to step in, and he also knew that Shae didn't want him to intervene.
Hence, Adam continued to watch from the sidelines as the two beastly creatures continued to tear at one another, displaying no intention of helping Shae at all. The battle wore on for close to an hour, and due to how closely matched the pair of combatants were, it was an extremely brutal fight, with both sides sustaining severe injuries.
Ultimately, Shae was able to come out on top.
She emerged from the carpark, holding one of the stone pillars for support, and her other arm had already disappeared, while the rest of her body was also riddled with injuries.
However, the pain from her injuries was far outweighed by the joy and sense of achievement from securing such a hard-fought victory, so she was able to smile through the pain.
"Thanks for not helping me."
"You should be thanking yourself. I would've stepped in if you couldn't win." Adam beckoned to Shae as he spoke. "Come here and split up from Hellhound. What's about to happen next is what you should really be thanking me for."
A faint smile appeared on Adam's face at the sight of the anomalic power left behind by Dwight's anomaly.