Chapter 20

  Now I know what you're thinking. A war? This hardly counts as a major battle in a war, given these numbers. But let me remind you that just two of these Syndicate guys wiped out half the city and killed thousands in the process. Now, I'm up against more than fifty of them. I might be fine, but that witch and her mysterious magic could be too tricky to handle on top of all these distractions. And what a distraction they were.

  In picoseconds, the attacks closed in on me. All manner of energy, physical projectiles, and speeders advanced with various ninja-like weapons aimed at every conceivable weak point. Their speeds were swift, nearly matching mine. But with so many of them, it took everything I had just to dodge the questionable attacks and withstand the obviously harmless ones.

  Driven more by instinct than by visual or auditory clues, I weaved, ducked, spun, twisted, and counterattacked whenever possible. However, they were relentless, never allowing me a single moment to pause and catch my breath. Not that I needed one at night, but the thought would have counted…

  Luckily, I could multitask fairly well for my gender. Likely thanks to all the women I ate over the years. While dodging a rather nasty blade coated in black aura that caused my skin to split open without even making contact, I mentally called out to Jessica. Yo! Can you hear me?

  Yes I can hear you. It's a good thing I'm a vampire and don't need to sleep. Do you know what time it is?

  Nope, too busy fighting the Syndicate outside of the prison. Could use your help. Oh, and bring Oden.

  What? You've only been gone for twenty minutes. How did this happen?

  I know. How about we discuss this later when I'm not fighting for my life?

  Fine. You gonna open a portal or what?

  I'm busy! I taught you how. Just lock on to my magic and energy, I'm outputting a lot of it right now.

  Ugh. Fine, I'll work on the incantation now. Hey, Oden! Wake up, boy. Your daddy has some bad guys he wants you to eat. She spoke physically but forgot to close our mental link. So, I closed it on my end and summoned the great sword that Aria gifted to me on our birthday so long ago. Technically, it was shaped like a katana, but it was larger than a great sword and far heavier. Most bodybuilders would barely be able to lift it with two hands, but it felt as light as a feather to me. This meant that unless I swung it at a target, the blade would go through their weapon and then through them unless they had physical strength powers.

  I began to create space around me with every slash, but the ranged attacks never slowed. A portal opened not far away, positioned behind the enemy's back line, and Oden emerged, running at full speed and savaging the nearest shadowy figure he could sink his jaws into. While Oden was as large as a wolf, he could activate his werewolf aspect and grow to the size of a car, carrying the weight of a truck. His fur changed colors and became as sharp as needles, too.

  Finally, the portal stabilized enough for Jessica to release it. She then walked through, assessed the situation, dismissed the portal magic, and rushed in with a whip and sword in hand. The landscape was already becoming filled with craters, and the few bushes and weeds were ablaze. I began to see various flying vehicles in the air over the prison, along with several hero teams both in the air and on the ground arriving. I knew they were primarily focused on containing the criminal Metas and regular inmates, but a few of them had directed spotlights on us and were likely reporting in on what was happening.

  By my estimates, I should've killed more than a dozen by this point, and with my backup, the backline should be hurting as well. Yet, the number of bodies throwing themselves at me never seemed to decrease. Suddenly, I realized that I hadn't needed to watch my footing too much because there were no corpses on the ground. With closer inspection, I watched the recent guy I split into two suddenly fuse back together and then heal. They were definitely dead, but then a new light glowed in their eyes that matched the purple magic of the witch. She was resurrecting them into undead creatures.

  In frustration, I unleashed my eye beams at full power, vaporizing more than twenty bodies in an instant. Then, I burst forward to close the gap between me and the witch. Just as I was about to bring down my blade in a devastating horizontal slash, one of the two remaining hidden figures suddenly appeared before me and caught the blade on his forearm. The ground beneath him exploded into a crater, but he merely grinned at me as his arm withstood the blow.

  This new monster of a man was built like the Hulk but dressed in impeccable red and gold armor that had clearly been looted from an S-ranked dungeon. While his hair and most of his face were covered with a helmet similar to what the Romans would wear, his eyes and mouth were visible, revealing glee. He knew he was about to have a lot of fun. I grinned in that split moment while I was still in the air above him with my sword on his arm. But then the next thing I knew, I was tossed more than twenty feet away, tumbling head over heels.

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  He pushed the arm that blocked my sword outward, moving it away to access my wrist. Then, he spun with my momentum and threw me ragdoll-style, causing me to skip across the desert until I hit a boulder, cracking it into several pieces. I looked down in disbelief when I coughed up blood. I then felt several bones mend themselves back together. "Okay, that was unexpected," I said to no one.

  Hey, Smog, are you still recovering from your food coma?

  Smog zzz ate zzz dragon zzz. Yeah, clearly he's not available.

  Rest well, little guy, I said to him, even though I knew he wasn't really hearing me. I stood up, cracked my neck, and unleashed my own werewolf transformation while dropping all illusions. My new white skin with red markings and horns on my head morphed into a larger frame, with a bit more hair on my chest and arms. My talons became thicker and longer, while my face took on a very slight wolfish form. I stored my weapon and rushed back into battle.

  The giant warrior saw me coming and sprinted into a dead run to meet me halfway. Our fists collided, and the ground beneath us split open into a deep chasm, caused by the air pressure. The sonic boom caused many on the battlefield to stumble momentarily as it resembled lightning striking close by.

  We both backed off for a moment, and the big man spoke. "What is your name, mighty foe? For you now face the Dreadnought, the first ever SSSG-ranked hero. Though the other side pays far better." I stood there, shocked for a moment. When studying the hero association and their rankings, I knew that the SSS rank was, at least on paper and publicly recognized, as the highest rank. My deeper probes into the information revealed three such cases of another class above that, in which they referred to the SSSG rank as a god rank: beings of unfathomable power.

  As far as I knew, the Witch was an SSS-ranker, but here she is with an SSSG-ranker guarding her. However, now that I think about it, she did wipe the floor with Captain Cosmo, who was definitely an SSS-ranker. In fact, standing before the Dreadnought, I can feel the same level of power that Aspen gave off. She was the first monster I faced so long ago that had the ability to steal an entire city's worth of Meta powers with a single deep breath.

  And then I realized the undeniable truth. Aspen was the weakest of the three SSS-rankers, but probably the most capable of surpassing them. The story of her capture was highly redacted, but with Dreadnought here outright admitting to being a former hero, he was likely instrumental in her initial capture. However, with the Witch now in charge of the Syndicate, she is likely the strongest of the SSSG-rankers.

  This is bad. I went atomic in order to defeat Aspen. And yes, I'm stronger now than I was then, but how much stronger? Strong enough not to need to resort to completely wiping out everything within twenty miles of this location in an instant? I have no idea. But I do know, I don't want another catastrophe staining my hands red.

  Well, before I face the even greater monster above the one standing before me, I should at least give it my all in a true test of strength, durability, and speed. So, I empowered my body with lightning.

  While learning to be an Adventurer, I discovered that I could enhance myself with lightning to improve my speed, agility, and even strength. The only real problem was that when I moved, I moved like the Flash in the comics or the TV shows, leaving lightning in my wake. This meant that, now under the spotlight of whatever media were watching, my superhero days might be over as well. I mean, how could they not put two and two together? Oh, well. Now is not the time for hesitation, but to do what needs doing.

  "Magnificent! Truly wonderful aura. You're not a Meta at all, are you? No, you're something else entirely. It seems at long last, I will get my glorious battle!" Dreadnought proudly stated as he raised both hands up to the side while grinning into the sky. Then he dropped his arms and took on a battle-ready stance as he too unleashed his full aura.

  "KNEEL!" I commanded while using the voice on him. The last time I remember using this ability, I instantly dropped Captain Cosmo and his entire team to their knees. But for the Dreadnought, all I got was one knee hitting the ground.

  "Wow, impressive. Your power might even be greater than hers. But," he whipped his head sideways to crack his neck with no hands, before looking me dead in the eyes. "It is not enough." Then he stood back up.

  Well, that was unexpected. But not disappointing. I didn't empower my very being with lightning to have it end so easily. I just wanted to probe him a bit more before we finally clashed.

  ~~~

  Oden was initially happy eating living beings, but when they somehow reformed and rose again, they became disgusting. Being an intelligent being, he opted to use his claws and needles more to put them down repeatedly. However, something felt off. He was intelligent; he knew it. So, why did the bad guys continue to stand up? Was it her? The strange-looking cat lady who emanated an aura of someone who wouldn't throw the ball? She had the vibes of a person who would try to trick him into thinking she threw a ball when she really didn't. Oden knew that those types of people were called Karens. Thus, he now referred to the unusual cat lady as such.

  But each time he tried to position himself near her to launch a surprise attack, a ball would fly past his vision. He would chase it for a moment before realizing it wasn't really a ball; instead, another one of these rotting flesh puppets would attack him again. Oden was intelligent, and being fooled over and over was really starting to irritate him. So, he channeled all that rage and made a mad dash for the crazy cat lady and…

  Jessica was experiencing many of the same problems as Oden, but she was finding ways to incapacitate her foes instead of killing them, believing that the Witch couldn't help them in that situation. This strategy was effective. She had managed to defeat most of the forces when she noticed Oden's struggles and sudden charge toward what she knew would be instant death if he got near her. So, without hesitation, she acted.

  ~~~

  On the TV, the battles inside and outside the prison were broadcast on a split screen, as both occurred simultaneously. Comet Rush was still recovering in the hospital, although his regenerative powers and the healers from the Association had helped him heal completely. It was the mental trauma that kept him bound to his bed in the tiny, sterile room. However, as he watched the vampire and the witch facing off in an intense battle, the fear that dominated him crumbled before the weight of the hatred and sorrow he felt. In the blink of an eye, he vanished, fully clothed in his backup suit. He held a grudge against the vampire, but his true hatred was reserved for the witch. If the vampire was fighting the witch and her forces, then the enemy of my enemy will become my friend. Or at least a temporary ally.

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