Chapter 122
After I got off the phone with Dante, I looked out the window in time to see Jean fall to her knees. I almost leaped out and charged that smirking asshat, but Captain America held me back.
"Don't," he said. "You can't just barge out there, not without a solid plan of attack. Have some faith in her."
I set my jaw, watching from our post on the ground floor, guarding the collapsed exit Wanda had brought down after Jean left.
Seconds later, we noted that Kilgrave was arguing with somebody in his shadow who eventually manifested. My heart dropped when I saw his features.
"Cambion," I muttered darkly, and the Captain was already on his comms updating the group.
"The stakes of the mission just went all the way through the roof," Cap said.
"Fuck me," Clint said. "We had two Telepaths on the team. How did we miss him."
"Won't be the first time a demon has slipped through a Telepath's senses. It happened once before at the Hydra mansion.," Rin explained.
"The plan needs to change," Natasha said. "From the reports Dante filed, Darkness magic allows its users to teleport. That Cambion can appear on whatever floor it wants."
My breath hitched. That was bad, very bad.
"I'll message Kurt to double back from babysitting Tony Stark," Clint said, "we will need him for swaps on the fly."
"I'll keep track of him," Wanda said.
"And we'll stay here to buy you time," the Captain said and turned to me. "Any objections?"
"No, but I need to talk to Jean. The boss man figured out Kilgrave's weakness. He's more complicated than he looks, and judging by what's going on out there, she'll want to know how to take him apart."
The Captain followed my eyes and looked outside to Kilgrave, who had ordered Jean to hold a knife to her throat.
"Yeah, you do that."
But before I could connect to Jean's comms, Kilgrave began to speak in his infuriating British accent.
"I wish we could've met under better circumstances, Dr. Banner, but time is short, and I have hostages. You have a Super soldier serum you developed for the United States government. I would very much like it, as well as the original formula, any notes, and any information you have. Do that, and I promise to spare Jean Grey's life and the lives of everybody in the square. Ignore me, and well, I'll have Jean slit her throat after watching the entire square die brutally. You have five minutes."
I shared a concerned look with the Captain before I directly patched through to Jean.
"Don't react," I began, "but the boss man figured something out about that asshole. Apparently, his ability works by hijacking the human nervous system via microbes. The good news is that you can shut him down by disrupting his nervous system or killing him, whichever is more entertaining for you," I smirked. "Be careful…and stay safe."
I disconnected from Jean and turned to the Captain, who had that same look my mother did when she was about to scold me but thankfully kept his thoughts to himself.
"We can't obviously hand over Banner," Clint said over the comms.
"That means Jean has about five minutes left," I said. "Kilgrave will be dead long before then."
Looking out the window, we watched the Cambion vanish into a pool of darkness.
"The Cambion just dropped into his shadow," Cap reported. "Looks like we won't be getting that five minutes that Kilgrave promised."
The demon struck just as suddenly as the Dark Newt we'd taken on in the Hydra Base. One moment, everything was fine; the very next, the hallway was blanketed in darkness, barely held back by the overhead fluorescent lights.
Then I…sensed it, figures swelling out of the darkness. The Fluorescent overhead began to blink feverishly, and then they struck.
A pair of Dreamrunners, one for me, the other for Cap. They must've expected a swift execution because I felt the hesitation when their blades struck.
I had my longsword handy and my reflexes firmly superhuman, honed further by exhausting practice with Mordo. I clashed hard against the Dreamrunner's blade, shoving him back. He backflipped when I pursued with a Thrust, and behind me, I heard the clang of a Shield and a following whomping blow that would've staggered even the big boss a few weeks back.
The demon I tried to stab flipped backward, dodging my attack. What I hadn't expected was for me to pull out a revolver and fire at it. It vaulted to the side, entering a portal. I spun on my feet, expecting a backstab of some sort. I hadn't counted on the monster switching targets to Cap.
The demon appeared mid-air, dropping down with his blades ready to skewer Cap, but the man leaped in the air and spun, deflecting with his Shield before looping it around and bashing the first demon's head into the wall. It had been trying to rush him while he was distracted.
Spinning and disoriented, the DreamRunner didn't see the headshot coming. Its brain splattered against the shadowy wall, and with its death, my strength spiked.
I wasn't the most experienced fighter, and my form grew frantic in the melee, but the Captain complimented me fully, blocking while I was exposed and parrying when needed. The demon grew especially cautious now that its friend was dead, but it didn't help much. I beheaded it as it rushed me from behind, ending the fight.
Neither of us was particularly winded when it was over, but the Darkness still persisted, so we didn't let down our guard.
"Everybody okay?" The Cap asked over the comms.
"The demons are on every floor," Wanda suddenly barked into her comms. "He's trying to overwhelm us with numbers while he goes after them."
"Shit," I cursed. "Sneaky bastards."
"Which floors need us the most?" The Cap asked. Wanda's reply was cold and carried some trepidation.
"Your floor. He's there with you."
The attack came so fast that the Captain barely had enough time to raise his Shield, and even then, it was not enough. The blow sent him flying straight into me, but my temporary strength boost allowed me to catch him and toss him to the side just before the Cambion killed us both.
My gauntleted forearm smashed against the flat of his blade of darkness and promptly lost. My hand shattered in multiple places as my Chitin arm guard exploded, and his blade bit into my forearms. I caught flashes of his body in the darkness as he disdainfully flicked his sword and most of my arm aside and attacked again, but the Captain blocked with his Shield, shoving us collectively back.
"You're more competent than the reports indicated," a voice said, "but not quite strong enough to be a threat."
Slowly, the darkness began to recede, revealing the Cambion. He stood tall in black fatigues, an austere and pasty white face, and black inky eyes that stared into my soul. His white horn made him look almost regal, as did the black Katana in his hand.
"The first of you to bring me to the scientist keeps their head."
--
Dante
"Come on, then," I taunted. "Take your best shot."
Thabo hesitated, but only briefly before he pointed his staff at me and barked out a spell in an inscrutable language. Chunks of the Tower shimmered before they promptly detached with a crackling roar and launched at me at breakneck speeds. At the same time, the first of the monsters reached me.
I couldn't fight back the excitement bubbling inside of me. I pulled out the second-named weapon in my Arsenal—Blood Thorn—a rapier with very peculiar abilities.
Blood Thorn (Grade 1)
Forged from the Tail of a Blood beast, Blood Thorn is a powerful multifunctional weapon with powerful magical abilities.
Blood Affinity: High
Durability
Enchantments
Accumulation (100DE)
Impact
Protection
The blade was fashioned from the tail of the Blood Red Spinner I killed, and its cutting edge was reinforced with two lines of infernal metal. However, it was the Rapier's guard that got most of the attention and love. The core from the demon was at the base of the hilt, where the blade connected to the handle, and the armguard was made from Chittin and infernal meta covered in runes.
I pointed my Rapier at the line of approaching demons and tugged on the Blood Affinity ability, smirking as the entire weapon hummed with a sanguine light before expelling a line of concentrated blood. Of course, I activated the impact rune to make it that much more devastating as I swiped left, deleting a line of demons. It included started Garoks, Flesh warped brutes, a few Dragon Newts, and Rages.
My second go-around cut even deeper, deleting the second and part of the third line. The Rage monsters and the Newts caught on after my second swipe, scattering in all directions in hopes of flanking me, but by then, it was too late. The Storm of stone Thabo sent was upon us. Moment of the Sage activated moments before a stone slab impacted me, slowing down my perception of time. I slid underneath the approaching attack, spiking Demon Evade, summoned Osiris, and activated Gust.
I transformed into a living blender, rushing towards Thabo at high speeds as I spun reinforced blade. I went for heads, limbs, and guts with a Shredder attack that spun the blade in place, letting me rack up a ton of bonus damage for the innate ability of the Scythe, Feed.
The kills came easier, and dancing through a meteor storm of stone allowed me to mooch of Speed and use Demon Evade whenever I needed to. My speed and damage spiked unbelievably high in those instances. It only took about 15 seconds to close the distance between Thabo and me.
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