Chapter 23

Eric dodged in time , only to be hit by another plume cannon . This sent him wheeling back through the air . If his attacks could be called an imitation of true kinetic projectile attacks , Jay was the real deal when it came to hard hitting energy attacks. That attack he just hurled was of the same intensity as the attack he used to behead the blue insectoid monster. Be it that it's defenses had already been worn down by Eric before .

Eric stabilized himself in the air and came again . To be honest Daniel never expected this turn of events , it had barely been half a month , and they were already having an aerial battle to the death .

He had probably thought this a million times before, but plans didn't seem to work in this Apocalyptic world.

He had stopped his research and development in the safe confines of his floor ( the 14 floor of the building) to come out and share his hard gotten peace with human survivors, and get some high grade energy crystals to complete his current main project .

And now not only did he find his mates who were openly hostile with him , and run into a 'thing' that was so powerful 6 miles away from it he was suffocating, but his ally had also turned on him !.

Jay was a genius, a human level genius to be exact , not in academics per se , but in the understanding and utilization of his power.

But he'd been overshadowed by a cheat like Eric , and a supreme genius like Daniel ever since the start of the apocalypse.

Learning to attack with his power was a first day wonder , one that no one should be able to achieve in a day , but he did .

Learning to attack from a distance and hit the target was also unachievable by average human standards in a week , but he achieved it.

Learning to stabilize his barrier , even by a small percentage, was also difficult, and should have taken years , but he achieved it, even if he had Daniels help in understanding what a truly stable shield / barrier should look like , and later on the gaze's improvements.

But still he was amazing.

But there comes a point, were all must understand that sometimes talent can't beat experience ( of course when said talent is in the realm of normal).

Eric swang his fingers and the dome split in two . A tiny metal blade was responsible. Just like their initial battle a week prior when rocks were used to penetrate the barrier.

Jay was shocked by the golf that lay between them , but what did he expect , Eric was just as talented , with experience to boot.

If not for Daniel folding spacial distance and taking them somewhere else , Jay would have been laying down in two perfect vertical pieces .

Jay soon understood that this wasn't a game . Eric really wanted them dead. The switch up was insane. From being scared to being murderous.

" Stop this right this moment, this isn't funny " Jay's heart beat was erratic , and Daniel beside him could hear it . Given he now had a superhuman body with improved senses , he could tell that even normal hearing would allow one to hear It.

" You must understand, you are in my way , and I need to protect my secret. " Eric said

" Really? So if all of humanity knows that you have regressed , you won't try to kill us , is that it?" Jay's erratic heart grew calm , but Daniel and Eric's begun to drum loudly , for different reasons of course.

" What did you DO?!" Eric yelled at Jay .

" I wasn't sure , but I knew there was a possibility this might happen, so I had taken precautions in case of my demise . If you want this to stay between us three then end this foolishness." Jay threatened .

But Daniel and Jay were confused as to what precautions could have been taken , especially with the internet down .

Daniel saw how Jay worded it 'us three ' but there was more than only them three who knew . Madison for example, and maybe Jace too .

' haaaa, this scheming bastard is really amazing ' Daniel thought. But outwardly He appeared just as confused as Eric.

" I'll just have to kill everyone in the building then , for sure they are your backup , afterall you haven't made contact with outsiders"

Eric wasn't dumb though and Daniel expected that . But if Eric thought this was as far as Jay's schemes went then he clearly wasn't smart enough.

In their youth , Easter was a means for Jay to try out his Easter egg hiding skills. But whereas Daniel attempted to hide his completely with the goal of never having them found, Jay hid his Easter eggs for them to be found , on a later date . It was due to his perverted thought processes that other kids and adults never found his hidden pieces until it was too late . Meanwhile Daniel's always got fished out the earliest , afterall he was hidding it to entirely conceal it which backfired.

Back to the point being made. If Jay ever actively searched even with his omnipresence, he'd glaze over it , this was almost a certainty afterall Daniel didn't know if Eric's mind was able to fully process all the information.

" Why all the talking ? , I will show you right here right now that I am more powerful than you " Daniel though had a different plan , he'd beat the demented bastard into submission with his fists.

He had the superhuman genius consciousness, the impossiblity of expansion contraction and bending of space , and a new body made out of the old bodies material but five times better . He might not have consumed high grade energy for an evolution like the other two because he wanted to draw out all it's worth when he did , but he had trained hard and efficiently to grow his strength.

His body was totally different from the old one . This one had many advantages that he'd yet to fully explore .

Apart from biomass assimilation that strengthened his bodies foundations , and enlarged his body producing no waste products , he also had a synthesis organ , that could be understood as a mini biolab .

He had a storage organ for biomass he didn't want to assimilate,

And another storage organ for inorganic substances.

A filtration organ for purification purposes which also served as a liver and a host of others he hadn't had the time to delve into and explore yet.

This proved the gaze really made a thorough work. Frankly Daniel should have given up his perfecting oneself at this point , because the body he had now didn't seem to have a cap limit. But rather than give up and say that a foreign entity was better than he'd ever be , Daniel increased his bar . First he'd investigate all he needed to know about his new body , and start from there.

In the meantime,

Daniel was okay modifying true humans .

" You ? Stronger than me ? I haven't heard anything more ridiculous" Eric scoffed .

" I can run from you forever and spread your secret to all corners of the earth, is that what you want ? You'll never catch me , and you know it "

" Then why are you saying all this at all ? " Eric asked with the most 'dead' expression ever.

" Let this be decided now should you win our bout I and Jay serve you . But should I win , you serve us" Daniel tossed the bait.

" What? WHAT? " Jay asked in confusion. He was not getting Daniels angle at all ! They already had Eric in their grasp a little threat or two more , and he'd cave in . But Daniel wanted to stake their freedom on his perverted fantasy?!

"I disa–" Jay attempted to say

" I agree!" Eric cut him off

" Having two competent slaves would be nice too"

" Your ego will be your downfall." Daniel smirked like a savage.

It had to be known that the suffocating pressure was still there the entire time this frankly ridiculously exchange was going on .

" I'm ready when you are " Daniel said only for a full force hand diagonal slash to be unleashed from Eric .

Daniel's eyes widdened in disbelief! The son of a bitch had been playing them the entire time!

BOOM!!!!!

The skies and earth were severed in two!

This was a killing attack!

But Daniel wasn't complacent. He didn't expect Eric to play fair . So there he stood fists buried into Eric's stomach and the explosive force soo strong it breached whatever defenses Eric had , hurling him a quarter mile away crashing into the ground.

But Daniel was already there waiting for him with another full force punch socketing him in the bent back ! Each punch was countless times stronger than he used on that gemstone living being!

" It seems we're both showing our hands today ." Daniel whispered to himself.

But Eric wasn't totally caught by suprise after all he could tell exactly were Daniel left and were he would appear next before he did . It was his omnipresence in the entire area. But knowing didn't translate to faster reaction, because Daniel did not give him that opportunity.

Eric could however stabilize himself faster. His two hands lifted and rocks and sand too with them . And then compressed into long rods , flashing at terrible speeds at Daniel .

Daniel was about to fold space only to be locked in place by Eric ! He didn't know he could do that , but his thinking speeds were faster than a humans . He directly punched the rod of rockets and sand , shattering it instantly. Just that Eric was very serious , capitalizing on his initial shock at being prevented from folding to another side , Eric had formed tens of twenties of rods made of rock and wind !

His omnipresence was so powerful, it seemed like he had more than one power!

A more powerful diagonal hand slash came down first . His arm movement was more vigourous than the first attack.

Eric really was trying to kill Daniel , and was counting on Daniel's stupid martial obsession to trick him into staying put so that he could kill him.

Only Daniel was fully aware of this hoax now .

" Another schemer !ptwe" he spat out as his arms contracted and muscles tightened . Not only relying on the natural spacial infused punches from before , Daniel aided movement with space itself. And punched out !

BOOM!!!!!!!!

The ground shook fiercely like TNT had been set of underground, but Eric gave no time because after that tens of twenties of rods of two naturally occuring elements were hurled in Daniels position, not even dust clouds could obscure the vision of an omnipresent being! .

"HAAA!" " HAAA!" "HAAA!"

Daniel obliterated each rod that came to him , each one with much ease than the former . Using the same trick twice would never work on him , because his analysis was always spot on .

" Your life is now mine!" Daniel grinned with fury and hunger , hunger to bash the bastards face in .

He'd analyzed the method used to hold him in place , and realized his flaw.

Usually when he folded space , he had to be in motion to enter the shortened distance. Eric's suppression got rid of the momentum factor effectively trapping him . So his new solution? Just give the distance fold the momentum and let it come to him!

Daniel was immediately in front of Eric and backhanded him . That must have been one insane backhanded slap , cuz a human would have had the entire head spin to rip off their necks .Eric however had some defense Daniel wasn't aware of , he couldn't perceived it . So he just went hurling down from the sky .

Daniel however didn't chase him , Eric would react as long as he still had orientation. So instead of folding himself, he folded Eric .

Suddenly Eric found himself backhanded again falling again !.

Then he was suddenly punched flinging him up and up , then head punched in the gut and shoulder blades before realizing why .

With every attack he was shifted in a certain direction, only to end up back in the starting place to get smacked .

Fear gripped Eric . Had Daniel had the ability to break his defenses he'd have been dead five times over !

And suddenly he found himself flat against the air horizontally with Daniels arms wrapped together into a double fist for it to come down from the sky like a blood sacrifice

SMACK! BOOM!

Daniel finally let the collision happen dust lifted obscuring vision , but Daniel also had a sixth perseption.

" Come out , we aren't done " the savage grin on his face was filled with excitement and anger.

A golden bettle would have been dead by now , an red insectoid would have been injured , but Eric was just fine .

" I want to watch you bleed "

" I want to watch you die a miserable death " something about the way Eric said that sent shivers through Daniel insta folding he disappeared from his location Jay too from the spectating distance. And Daniel was proven right the entire ground collapsed in on itself and below the position were he formally stood , the ground caved in all around and a giant worm came out!

Eric had long propelled himself into the skies , but his perception showed that Daniel didn't get eaten as he'd hoped .

" Tch "" the guy might look stupid, but he really isn't " Eric finally admitted to himself.he always thought Jay was the powerful one amongst the two. Clearly he was wrong . Jay was growing, but Daniel seemed to have matured into his power at supper human speeds.

A deep gruttal cry resonated across the entire vicinity that was heavily disorienting

Daniel felt it clearly now it wasn't exactly it , but it had the aura of the thing Eric was scared of

"SHIT "