BXBX NOVEL Chapter 104: Do as you wish
The reborn duo ignored me and said nothing. They seemed to have {Fates} that shared their vitality. The grandfather regained his youth, while the child aged. This ability must have come at a high price. Otherwise, they would be in this state all the time.
Youth was meaningless in Hellsgate. As far as I knew, Reapers were immortal beings in human form. Bella immediately figured out that when I said old man, I meant Roland Winchester. This led me to believe that seniors were rare.
"Not that it matters," I muttered.
As if sharing a mind link, both Kid and Grampa simultaneously launched an attack on me. {Mage} had excellent eyesight and could tank damage, but it was slow. But for now, I tried to see what I could learn from the way they fought.
"{Sheathe} M24, P30L. {Draw} Ebony, Ivory."
I changed my weapons as they began to attack. Junior came first with a large horizontal slash. With my superior vision, I saw his actions the moment his shoulders began to move.
I bent my knee to lower my stance as I brought my weapons to bear. Before I could fire, a lightning-fast kick knocked Ivory out of my left hand. Using the momentum of his kick, I turned my body, aiming Ebony at Grampa's torso.
As I squeezed the trigger, a polearm smashed the barrel of my gun downward. Unable to counter the force, my hand was disarmed.
I tried to raise my knee to counter, but Grampa stepped into the arc of the polearm. He then sent his fist into my chest. Just like before, I was knocked back by the powerful blow.
For some reason, neither of them came after me as I rolled away. It was a shame because I wanted to blow their faces off when they did. After spitting out some blood, I changed tactics.
"{Draw} M26."
"You intend to blow yourself up?" the Kid asked.
"{Thief}"
I didn't answer and just let go of the grenades. I then smashed them with my fists at my opponents, simultaneously lunging at them.
True to their martial arts skills, both of them nonchalantly deflected the explosives without much fuss. But in the split second they looked away, I approached the Kid.
Clearly the more emotional of the two, I grabbed his hand and pulled him abruptly aside.
"What?! How are you so fa..."
Before he could finish his sentence, I slammed him to the ground like a bag of garbage. This move became famous when Hulk did it to Loki in the first Avengers.
Obviously stunned and unable to react quickly enough, I picked the kid up and knocked him down again.
After two slams, Grandpa stepped forward and kicked me in the skull. The powerful blow nearly knocked me unconscious.
Fortunately, {Regen} managed to keep my sanity intact. In retaliation, I grabbed the man's foot and knocked him to the ground as well.
Apparently, they were unable to understand my made up fighting style. When I turned around, the back of Junior's head was already split open while Grandpa lost consciousness.
Even though they had lost weight due to {Pack}, just being knocked to the ground was enough to cause concussions in their brains.
"Time to end this. {BOOSTER}!"
I then used my newest Kismet and began to burn the two in my hands. A massive burst of kinetic energy sent all three of us skyward. Their bodies, unused to such punishment, slowly cooked as the intense flames began to melt their flesh.
"AHHH..."
"Ugh!!!"
Both were shocked into consciousness as their limbs experienced being burned alive. However, I wasn't finished yet. I didn't know martial arts. But I knew physics. I raised our altitude to about a thousand meters in the air and threw them in opposite directions.
"{Draw} M24. {Mage}"
Of the two, Grandpa was the more troublesome. His ability to change the pace of battle was astounding. Thus I took aim and sent a bullet towards the old man.
With everything going on, his death was already written in stone.
However, against all odds, a large undead hand suddenly grabbed Grandpa while another hand blocked the bullet. Its gray color was reminiscent of the undead Brute's.
When I looked outside my scope, I actually saw two Brutes catching the two I had just thrown.
Dominic's pompous voice began to gloat. "Haha, it took me a while, but I found them! Now you are dead John Smith!"
He was back on the floating chair, his head and face now in one piece, if you ignored the black lines that looked like stitches.
It was true that the undead brutes were standing again, but their bodies were far too damaged to be considered a threat. One Brute had no head and the other had only one arm.
I was about to answer when I heard a voice coming from Grampa.
"Dominic! We have to run, if you remain obstinate, we will all die! This man is too powerful!"
"Grandpa! I can still fight!" cried the Kid.
"Shut up, you fool! Dominic! Retreat or my grandson and I will walk away."
"Tsk. Lexa. Get us out of here."
Arrogance and unease were on Dominic's face as their bodies began to dissolve into lights.
Both Grandpa and the Kid had third-degree burns all over their bodies. This was in addition to some of their bones being broken. Probably due to my harsh treatment and sudden acceleration.
"You will regret this John Smith, we will be back," Machiavelli warned like a two-bit villain.
The moment the three of them disappeared, the two brutes collapsed. It seemed that even if Dominic could get them up, their frames were in no shape to fight.
As the tension left my body, I descended to the ground. When I hit the ground, I collapsed and laid down on the floor. Somehow I managed to survive. The air I took for granted seemed all the sweeter as I took massive gulps of oxygen.
[My Lord, the new defender has arrived.]
"Oh right, there was a skybeam before, right? Who came before the Defender?"
Before Aira could answer, I heard something approaching my position. I immediately stood up and drew a weapon.
"{Draw} AR-15."
I brought the gun up and placed the intruder in my crosshairs. A figure suddenly raised his hands as he identified himself.
"WHOA! EASY THERE, BROTHER! This nigga comes in peace! Easy!"
A tall, buff looking African American with black hair in dreadlocks appeared in front of me.
He was holding a knife in his right hand. He was dressed in clothes that made him look like a hobo.
"Who are you? Speak or I will shoot."
[My Lord, his name is Warren Bryant. An adventurer. According to his latest deployment records, he is on a corpse retrieval mission.]
"Okay! Okay! I will talk, brother! Please don't shoot. I was after that piece of shit Machiavelli. He slaughtered the defenders in the last zone," Warren explained.
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said, my name is Warren Bryant. Rank 5 Adventurer, Formless. Machiavelli took control of the D's and blackmailed the defenders into giving up their souls."
With his ability to take control of high-level undead, the more undamaged the targets were, the more power they could wield.
"According to my employer, he then raped the women and murdered the men. Three of the dead were taken away. I was hired to find the bodies."
When I heard the details, I began to burn with righteous anger. This was far worse than corrupt policemen. If their approach was simply to murder or silence all witnesses, then I could understand why no one could report them.
"{Sheathe} AR-15. Understood, my business with this zone ends after I talk to the defender. Do as you wish."
I sheathed my weapon and prepared to walk toward the new defender. As I was leaving, Warren quickly tried to catch up.
"Brother, wait! I have to ask! You are Formless, right? I saw your fight earlier! You absolutely owned Machiavelli's thugs! How or what is your problem with them?
Did they try to rob you as well?"
Unwilling to waste time on such trivial matters, I walked forward without answering him. I picked up the 1911s I had lost along the way.
"Brother, come on! Give a nigga something! It was unreal! I didn't know Formless could fight like that! Are you a Death Seeker by any chance? That is so awesome!
I couldn't get in when I applied! How did you manage to get in?"
Annoyed, I tried to scare him off with my answers.
"I got my ass kicked by the Nightmare. After that, he said I could join. As for the Saviors, they tried to bribe me to retract my reports on their crimes."
"Oh? So a nigga has to survive an asswhopin from a Specter to get in? I see. How much were they going to give you? They managed to steal nearly 10,000 souls from the last zone."
'Motherfucker. So those assholes robbed someone else and then tried to bribe me with that money? Fucking hell. I will kill them the next time I see them,' I thought angrily.
"They offered me 10,000 souls," I said through clenched teeth.
"Holy crap! Nigga! You would have been filthy rich! That's what? 200 grand?"
"The Saviors and I are at odds. I intend to kill them all."
Warren then made a whistling sound as he jogged to match my pace.
"Brother, are you for real? The Saviors are one of the largest armies around. They boast over 200 Reapers as members. They had about 30 Phantoms and 1 Specter. You want to fight them all?"
'30 Phantoms? Well, fuck, no wonder they throw their weight around. Still, such people should be treated like tumors, and I was the scalpel.'
Looks like I will have to call on Isolde and Krishna sooner than I thought.
"It doesn't matter. The longer such bastards hang around the harder it will be for the battlefront. Reapers do not have the time to fight among ourselves. We should be fighting the undead," I declared in a steady voice.
"Wow, you got some kind of messiah complex or something? Most niggas that come here also have big ambitions, but they either end up getting smoked or breaking down crying like pussies."
"Watch me, I will shove my foot so far up their ass that they spit out blood."
"… You serious? "
I turned around and asked in irritation.
"Why the hell would I joke about something like that? I already traded blows with the Slayer and the fat bastard. If a Revenant couldn't scare me, you think Phantoms can?"
"That so? Sweet…"