16 Chapter 16 - A Chance

This was quite the situation.

Three Vice-Wardens against the four of us. Actually, three. We were just in front of the main gates. We needed Francis elsewhere. But with that in mind, how were we supposed to beat them?

'Nyeeeheheee! You won't be able to,' the familiar face of Los showed up out of nowhere.

'What do you mean?' I asked.

'They are way out of your league. Russel? He was a baby compared to these guys. Nyeehee,' he replied.

'I have a plan,' I said.

"Hello, Vice-Wardens. How are you doing? My name is Dan Atys, pleased to make your acquaintance," I greeted them politely. They seemed to be slightly surprised, well, except for the ninja dude, "May I ask your names, and [Powers]?"

This might seem like a stupid idea, but folks like these tend to take their abilities as the highest in creation. No way they wouldn't flex a little bit.

"What a nice criminal you are. Clever one at that," replied the tall lady, "My name is Vice-Warden Stacey. These are Hattori," gesturing towards the ninja, "And Donaldsson," she paused for a second, "I'm not stupid enough to tell you our [Powers], though."

"That truly is a shame, Miss Stacey. I would've liked to get to know you better," I winked. And I cringed.

"Shame you're not my time. That might have worked on someone else," she smiled seductively.

"I guess we're more similar than I thought," I replied coldly. It was still worth a shot.

Meda looked at me disapprovingly. What's up with her recently, anyways? Not really the time for that. I tried to guess their strength, and I decided on the way to fight them. Didn't have much time to think, they could attack at any time.

"Meda, take the ninja-samurai dude on. Baulder, you don't have to fight actively, but try to distract Mister Diabetes. I'll take on the Lady here. Francis, you know what you have to do," I dished out orders, and everyone nodded in response.

"You seem to be really sure of yourself. Maybe too much?" Stacey seemed a bit disappointed.

"Come on Milady, we've got to dance," I replied in the most annoying way I could think of.

She took her shotgun from her back, and with that, I took my gun out. I was gravely outmatched in terms of firepower. Yet, somehow I was still sure that we could win this. I readied my [Greed Binder] in my left, and held the gun in my right. I was right handed afterall.

She shot a couple of decoy shots in my direction, which I could more or less dodge without much of a trouble. I decided to retaliate, and throw my Binder in her way, as a distraction. I whipped just in front of her face, and at that moment I aimed at her, and shot.

I missed, obviously. I don't really know how to use a gun. It was a good enough way to confuse her, and could go in for an actual attack.

In the meanwhile, the others seemed to be deep in on the fighting as well. For more or less, I noticed that Meda and Hattori are evenly matched, on account of Meda's amazing endurance, she could fend of most of Hattori's attacks, and he could dodge mostly with ease, even though Meda would lend an attack or two occasionally.

Baulder had it more rough. He was really amazing at defense, but when your opponent specializes in attacking, especially against bigger people, it really came down to the strength of those attacks. Donaldsson seemed to be able to curl himself up, and roll on the floor, just like an armadillo. It was more obvious that his [Power] is probably that, when I noticed that he had weird hide-like patches all around his body.

As for Francis, I couldn't see him, but he seemed to get away from the battlefield. That made me a bit more at ease. If he got rid of the snipers above the gates, than our eventual escape was feasible. And once he made it back here, he could join us in our offense as well. I really needed some more helping hands here.

On that note, I finally managed to land a hit. A whiplash from my left Binder managed to carve a rather deep wound on my opponent's face, that probably made her really angry. After all, she was a beauty. Taking that away from her surely made her pissed.

And that it did.

"You've done it now, boy," she started, "I held back on you so far, but enough's enough. Let me show you my actual [Power]," she said, and her eyes started rolling back. Her body hunched over, and muscles started to pop out from her back, as well as all her other body parts. After all those muscles stopped pertruding from her body, she suddenly arched backward, much like a werewolf arching back for a howl, she howled "[BERSERK]!" and I instantly got to know her Power.

Now that one almost made me soil myself, to put it lightly. My assumption about what a [Berserk] does, is essentially, that it literally boosts every physichal stat of the user. In essence, all the damage I've done to her now goes to waste, and she'll be faster, stronger and more durable. Great. Just great... That's a power up I didn't expect.

And with that, I could see the wound I just gave her sizzle, release some steam, and immediately regenerate. All my work up until now has gone down the drain. But, it was not yet time to give up. I had more ideas now. For example, how much damage is too much? There has to be a hard limit. Also, once she's out of Berserk, I assume she'll be way weaker. But how long does that take? A minute? Five? Maybe waya more? I had so much questions, yet so few answers.

But my biggest question just got answered. Can I keep up? Answer was a definite no. Out of the blue, she suddenly jumped right in front of me, and hit me in the chest. If I didn't spend the last year working out, doing all those push ups, my chest would've definitely caved in by this. I was lucky to only get my ribs cracked. Probably broken, for all I knew. I stumbled back, fighting against blacking out.

This amount of damage was a bit too much right off the bat. I probably even had some internal bleeding going on as well, and maybe more internal damage, that I didn't even want to consider. I was used to being beaten up, but no one hurt me so much that I'd almost faint. Throwing me to the ground? Easy. Cutting my skin? No problem. Breaking my arm? Used to it. Bashing in my fucking chest? Now that's a new type of hurt.

Once I managed to get back on my feet, I started to think. Like really fast. If I were to apply my [Power] for defense, I might be able to take more hits like that, at the very least to prolong my fight, until someone defeats their enemy, and can help me out. That was my new goal. The questionw as, how? My Binder is more or less just a jelly, that sticks to people. I'm used to applying it to others, but myself? Even if I could, it couldn't be that strong, after all just same layers of a weird semi-liquid...

Non-Newtonian fluid! I remember learning about that stuff in school. It's just a weird fluid that hardens on stress. If I make my Binders in front my body, I could potentially make it absorb a lot of the damage, maybe even reflect it!

I collected myself, and released a whole lot of the stuff. I somehow managed to make it intertwine in front of me, sort of in the shape of a shield. It looked pretty janky, but it was the best I could make in such a short time, I mean I didn't even have a name for it yet. Nonetheless, it was my best chance at surviving this bitch.

She came in with another punch, and just in time I managed to react. I moved my shield in front of her attack. It blocked it! She jumped back, and held her hand. It probably hurt like hell to be honest. Her fist seemed to be bruised, and I was pretty sure I could see a few bones pertruding as well.

The next moment, I had a realization though. My forearm was broken. Like entirely broken. I could only pull this off a few times! It barely absorbed any damage. At least my organs were more or less protected. What this means, is that I only have one more chance at blocking a hit like that. I guess she only has one more arm left as well?

At that moment, I heard a weird noise. A chopping sound was coming from above us.

I looked up, and noticed an aircraft above us.

We're so doomed.