A Cyborg?

I immediately let go of Andreas, my aura flaring, and crossed my arms in front of me. Instinctively, a thick golden concave shield manifested infront of me just before the rocket reached me.

It collided with the shield and exploded with a boom, shattering it almost instantly. The force of the explosion threw me towards the wall, and my back hit it with a bang, denting and cracking it.

The impact reverberated throughout my body, sending waves of pain cascading from my head to toe, eliciting a pained groan from me as I fell on my knees, gasping for air with my head bent, my aura dissipating.

Gritting my teeth, I forced my aching body to rise up, my legs weak and wobbly, and narrowed my eyes at the location the rocket came from as the smoke from the explosion cleared.

My eyes fixed on the leader who stood proudly amidst the piles of wooden planks from the destroyed crates. I had assumed they buried his dead body. I guess I was wrong.

My face fell into a frown, and I clicked my tongue in annoyance when I saw his new appearance. He looked like a cyborg—no, he was a cyborg.

His whole body, apart from his head, had a thick and sleek dark grey metallic exoskeleton covering it, with glowing red lines and circles running across its surface.

He had two rocket launchers rising from his shoulders, one of them billowing out smoke, and his right eye was entirely red and glowing brightly.

It gave him a menacing appearance and together with the blood that flowed from his head, painting his face, lips, and metallic neck crimson, he looked almost demonic.

A deep mechanical clunk sounded as he took a step, wiping his lips with his right arm, and frowned when he saw me, his eyebrows narrowing and his eyes widening in rage and hatred.

"You fucking bastard," he growled, his voice cold and mechanical. "Look at what you've done. You've ruined my entire operation! You've destroyed years of hard work!"

He took a step and stretched out his right hand towards me, his face morphing hideously due to his rage. "I don't know who you are, but you're going to pay for this, all of this! Say hi to the devil for me when you get to hell."

His hand immediately morphed into a huge machine gun with a mechanical whir, its barrels spinning ominously, as his red eye locked on me.

Quickly, I manifested my aura and willed myself to ascend as bullets started pouring out of his hand and stretched my left hand forward, creating another golden concave shield in front of me.

The bullets rained down on it fiercely, each round shaking the structure of the shield as loud and heavy gunshots rang in the air.

With my hand stretched in front of me, I moved away from the place, but his hand and eyes followed everywhere I moved, his bullets continuing to hit my shield.

I extended my right hand towards him as my shield started cracking due to the relentless assault it blocked, and pushed my energy throughout, shooting a large golden beam of crackling energy at him, just as the shield shattered.

He halted his attack and swiftly jumped backward, dodging the fast energy beam which slammed into the ground, destroying it in a shower of dust, smoke, and concrete debris.

As the dust and smoke blocked his sight, I flew fast towards one of the stacked crates, near a stone pillar, and landed behind it.

I sat on the floor and pressed my back on the crates, wincing slightly from the ache, and sank into my thoughts as I breathed heavily, sweat dripping down from my forehead.

Damn, this was bad. Very bad. He sneak attack had gotten me good. If I was just a second slow in creating that shield and manifesting my aura, I'd be dead by now.

I was suspicious when his body didn't explode into bits and pieces like the two men near him but I chalked it down to him having a stronger body.

My energy was intense and powerful enough to break down and destroy a solid concrete wall if concentrated and controlled properly.

It wasn't something a regular person could just tank without exploding. I should've known better and been more cautious.

But in hindsight, I couldn't have known. I had other enemies to deal with at the time, and the information I had didn't mention anything about a cyborg crime boss.

So it was understandable that I ignored him, assuming he'd be dead. Though not entirely my fault, I'd made a mistake, and now I was paying the price.

Sighing, I shook my head and smiled darkly as I pushed down the anger that was threatening to spill out from within me, my eyes narrowing as I felt the ache and pain gradually disappearing.

This wasn't the time to be reflecting on my past mistakes. I'd do that some other time. My attention was needed at the present. The cyborg had to be killed.

I was exhausted, bruised, and down to less than half of my energy reserves but he had it worse. He was injured, bleeding, and probably had internal injuries.

It wouldn't be easy, but if I played my cards right, and hit the right places, I'd be able to finish him off—this time for good. Now, all that was left was to devise a plan...

"...There you are!" His loud voice shook me out of my thoughts, and the next moment, a boom echoed, and I heard a rocket cutting through the air as it moved towards me.

I leapt into the air as my aura burst out, hovering close to the high ceiling, just in time to see the rocket crashing into the crates and exploding into a large ball of flame whose shockwaves shook the building.

Channeling my energy, I stretched out my hand towards him as black smoke billowed toward the ceiling, shielding me momentarily from his right eye that was darting all over the place, scanning for any sign of me.

Energy swirled and gathered in front of my hand, forming into a ball of concentrated golden energy that crackled like electricity and shot towards him at high speeds. I flew after it, following its trajectory.

His right eye caught sight of the energy ball almost instantly. With inhuman reaction speed, he sidestepped, dodging the attack in the next second.

The ball exploded on the ground near him, sending a rain of dust and concrete bits with a defeaning boom. The shockwave almost made him stumble.

Diving toward him, I spun in the air, delivering heavy flying kick towards the side of his head. However, he raised his arm up and blocked the strike easily.

His other arm whirred as it morphed into a long and large double-edged blade. He swung it diagonally at me, intending to bisect me from waist to shoulder. However, I shifted my body sideways and dodged it.

Attempting to create distance between us, I moved away. However, he lurched forward, his right eye glowing a brighter shade of red, and began slashing at me with his handblade.

My body moved instinctively, with martial grace ducking, turning, shifting, and weaving in the air to avoid his barrage of heavy and fast slashes smoothly, making him grunt and grit his white teeth in anger and frustration.

He was stronger, more durable, and with his mechanical right eye, had a wider and better vision. But I was faster, had more reach, and was better trained.

Still, my close combat skills won't work well against him. If he even hit me once, I'd be in trouble. I had to create distance, and fast.

Dropping low to the ground, narrowly avoiding the horizontal swing of his blade at my neck that nicked off a piece of my hair, I bent my body backward and kicked under his chin with both feet with all my strength.

The combined force of the kick rocked his head backward forcefully with a bang, disorienting him for a second as he staggered back.

Leveraging that created moment, I backflipped into the air and hovered a considerable distance away from him.

Panting, sweat snaking down from my neck into my bodysuit, I narrowed my eyes at the cyborg as he aimed his machine gun hand at me, his bloody face marred with a scowl and his red scanning eye calculating and dehumanizing.

"Tch, seems I'd have to risk it after all."