108 4.20

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[Aya's POV]

Julius, or rather Oni, since that was probably a fake name, was one scary motherfucker.

Now that I looked back on our encounters, not only did I realize that I had been so close to death so many times, but also that I hadn't felt anything from him, and that was scarier.

I don't know how he did it, but he managed to passively make my brain ignore him, and completely bypass my Observation Haki. Even now, I could barely remember what he looked like, or when we had interacted.

He was quite the schemer too, as if it wasn't for Team Northern Africa, Julius probably would have managed to kill both of our teams as well as the entirety of the Seven and the Boys while suffering virtually no losses on his side.

So as Team Northern Africa contacted me and told me about the plan, I have to admit, I felt good about one upping that guy. Although a part of me, the conqueror part, was seething knowing I was letting him fight Homelander and the others while I attacked his team in his back.

That quickly disappeared however as we arrived at the team's location and their sniper shot Angus.

There was a reason my team was rated as the weakest among all three teams, despite me being stronger than anyone in Team North Africa, and probably Team Western Europe if you ignore Oni.

It was because we only had four veterans. Me, Rowan, Daniel and Angus. We weren't many, but we were close.

So as I saw Angus get sniped to death from more than a kilometer away, I got angry.

Worst thing was, I had felt the attack through Observation Haki, but too late for me to protect Angus as I watched his head burst apart from the sniper round.

I forced myself to calm down because it would hamper my Observation Haki, but I simply couldn't wait to kill them.

That's why I accepted their plan to split ourselves among the different floors when we learned through team North Africa's psychic that they had split up.

The rational thing to do would have been to clear each floor one by one using our strongest fighters, but I wanted to kill as many of them and make them feel the sting.

So, out of everyone in my team, Angus was dead, Daniel was sent to the first floor, me to the third with Starlight, and Rowan stayed behind with Mother's Milk, Frenchie and Naseem, as he wasn't a fighter.

I entered first, knowing they had firearms in the team, which I could counter with my Haki. However, as I entered, I only saw a group of four waiting for us.

Standing at the front was most likely a martial artist, along with two newbies and a girl that looked like a mage.

Starlight walked to my side, and said, "If you guys surrender, we will not harm you!"

I looked at her with wide eyes and asked, "Are you serious?"

Starlight fumbled with her words as she replied, "We don't even know them, we can't just decide to kill them!"

The mage girl's hands glowed green as she pointed them at the martial artist standing on the front, who looked invigorated. So she was a support.

I was about to speak to Starlight, when I suddenly paused.

[Score -1. Your current Score is -2.]

My heart hardened to stone as I no longer cared about Starlight, and zeroed my eyes on the four across me.

Applying Armament Haki to my fist, I jumped at them.

The guy in front stepped forward to meet me, his arm glowing with some faint luster as he met my fist with his own.

Grave mistake.

His hand broke upon impact, each of his fingers bending in a different direction. His eyes widened with fear as he cried in pain, but I ignored it as I followed with a second punch, this one aimed at the head.

[Score +1. Your current Score is -1. You have eliminated a member of an enemy Team. Rewarded 2000 Points.]

The three behind him also understood they were fucked, and fucked they were.

I wanted to go for the support girl first, but she managed to slip behind the two newbies, forcing me to dispatch of them first. It wasn't hard however, considering they had frozen up in fear.

[Score +1. Your current Score is 0. You have eliminated a member of an enemy Team. Rewarded 2000 Points.]

[Score +1. Your current Score is 1. You have eliminated a member of an enemy Team. Rewarded 2000 Points.]

The female fell to the ground as her face was drenched in the blood of her team members. She broke into tears as she said, "You monster! Why are you even attacking us?!"

The sight was pitiful, but I only snorted in disdain. As expected, apart from Oni, Team Western Europe is filled with pussies.

My fist shining black with a slightly purplish hue to it, I wordlessly swung it down at the girl.

But as I was about to kill her, I felt a warning from my Observation Haki, and quickly turned around, closing my eyes, crossing my arms, and coating my upper body, including my eyelids, with Armament Haki to protect myself from the impact.

I was pushed back several meters, but met no consequent harm as I had managed to block on time.

Opening my eyes again, I saw Starlight standing between the mage girl and I, her hands glowing while the lights around us flickered, a righteous expression on her face as she proclaimed, "I will not let you kill her!"

Little did she know, that behind her, the crying girl was looking at me with cold eyes, yet was still whimpering, "Th-thank you."

Her words seemed to empower Starlight, although that might as well have been the girl's spell.

I paused for a second, before spreading my Observation Haki through the building, to feel the situation.

It wasn't good.

While several of the members of Team Western Europe had been killed, I couldn't tell which ones it was as I had never felt their presences before, so going by logic, the ones remaining were mostly, if not only, the veterans.

As for Team Northern Europe, most of those who had been sent had died, and those still alive didn't look like they were in a good condition.

'Homelander has been killed.'

I suddenly received a short message directly in my head, not from God, but from Naseem, the psychic of Team Northern Africa.

And although he only said a few words, they meant a lot. If Homelander was dead, then Oni was on his way here.

Fuck!

Although killing Starlight here would be the better thing to do Point wise, that mage girl's face was currently more annoying to me than anything.

So I ran at Starlight, and threw a feint, before launching myself at the support girl, fist coated in Armament Haki.

But as I got close, her hand started firing an icy wind right at my face. In my frustration, I failed to pick it up.

The frost beam did not really hurt, although it was uncomfortable, but it did blind me for a moment, forcing me to punch blindly.

I felt my fist connect with her body, but it was not the intended area as I did not receive a kill notification. All I received was a light beam that sent me into the opposite wall.

As I got back on my feet, I forced my frustration down as I wiped the frost off my face, and looked at the two.

The mage girl's left arm was hanging limp, and her jaw was covered in blood as she cried tears in pain. Yet, despite her pain, she still managed to get out, "Why do you want to kill me! I don't even know you!"

Through my Observation Haki, I could feel the coldness oozing out of her, but Starlight was ironically blind to it, her hands glowing brighter than before as she uttered, "I knew there had to be something wrong with you, for you to work for Vought."

Dumb bitch.