Chapter 148
Good news. I just launched a new fic.
It's called Phantom in Naruto, and it continues the old story of my first fic in a brand new world.
The protagonist's back story is revisited, but the story focuses more on the current world and introduces other Reincarnators.
It's basically a battle royal between reincarnators but with very specific rules.
There's also an AU element to the story as with all of my fics. I'm introducing abilities from other fiction but changed, and the bad guys get a healthy upgrade.
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Chapter 148Rin's POV
The monster let out a loud huff before it ambled out the elevator. Its eyes darted back and forth before he rumbled out.
"You're not supposed to be here," he said. "Now you can never leave."
"Huh…he can speak?" I said.
"Why wouldn't he be able to?" Natasha asked.
"In my experience, the bigger the demon is, the less sense they make."
"I'm not a demon!" the monster bellowed. "I'm a mutant."
"Really!" Rin blinked. "I mean I've seen some strange mutants in my time, but never one so..."
"Inhuman," he completed. "We make it a point to avoid your kind. You humans are the same. Thieves, liars, murderers. I will enjoy breaking you."
"I was going to say big…not inhuman. Not that you care. I'd prefer not to kill you if I can help it."
The mutant's lips curled. "Afraid?"
"Yeah," I scoffed. "For you. I'm not that great at holding back. I might kill you."
The mutant laughed as he strode forward. Each step shook the marble flooring. "We'll see."
He rushed forward, surprisingly quickly for somebody of his size, and swung with his meaty hand. I brought up my shield as I rooted myself in place. The kinetic energy of the hit reverberated through the shield, causing it to flicker once.
I flared my affinity—something that Dante recently taught me to do—and drank in some of the energy of the blow. The move, unfortunately, had the side effect of weakening my shields as well. Luckily, I had a few more shields to draw on before I started having to worry.
The mutant blinked in surprise and cocked his fist back to strike again when Natasha opened fire with her pistol. The energy projectiles burned his skin, and he let out a pained roar as his gaze zeroed on her, giving me the opening I needed to deactivate my shield and strike out.
My gauntlet connected with his stomach with a meaty slap. I discharged my energy a micro-second after impact. The combination sent him stumbling back, clutching his stomach in surprise.
I'd not quite got the release timing down, and I'd used a lot less energy in that blow than I intended, but it'd done its job. I rocketed forward with a leap and violent release of energy, sending me barreling straight into the mutant.
He reacted faster than I expected and lashed out with his meaty stumps. I barely got my shield in front of me in time. The hit sent me flying and made my shield quiver. As I spun in the air, I got a flash of the monster lunge at Natasha. She'd put a pillar between them. So, he'd had to contend with that and her ridiculous accuracy.
But that didn't seem to bother him one bit as he barreled through the pillar to get to her. The stone slowed him down, but not enough. He took a swipe at her, which sent her flying. Luckily, her shield sprang to life at the last second. The blow threw her into the hard wall.
I released a burst of kinetic energy from my back and legs to reorient my flailing body, but I failed miserably. However, I had enough control to direct my falling body at the mutant as I released my next burst. It was by far the most powerful I'd used since the fight started, and it burned through 10% of my reserves. The monster looked up when he heard an explosion overhead and moved far back, enough to dodge my descent.
My shield activated, as did my absorption affinity, but I still shattered nearly every bone in my body. Only the rapid energy influx from the impact and my shield breaking kept me awake.
My body started regenerating with a mental prompt, and I spent all of the energy from the crash in a one-way direction blast straight into the chest of the mutant.
It ripped him off his feet and sent him flying straight into the wall. The impact cracked the marble like an egg. The monster burst out of the wreck with a roar just as I climbed to my feet.
He had a large bruise on his chest and most of his face.
"You're going to pay for that!" he roared.
"Help me keep him distracted," I called over to Natasha as I started to fill my gauntlet with energy, preparing a move I'd seen Dante pull off hundreds of times.
Natasha sprang into action with no question as she peppered him with laser fire. It blistered his already raw skin, and it made him visibly wince, but his eyes never left me, certain I was the larger threat.
Neither of us expected Natasha to chuck a grenade at him. His eyes were wide like saucers, and he tried to move, but the explosion spread too far too fast. My second set of shields tanked the blowback, as did Natasha's.
Through the smoke, I spotted him. He was down to one knee. I sped over, hand packed with Kinetic demonic energy, ready to put him down.
I paused when I noticed he was not trying to move and spoke.
"She got you real good," I said. "Whatever Klaue is paying you can't be enough that you'd be willing to die."
"Some…things…are more important than money," he said in between breaths. With a roar, he charged me. His attack would've been far more effective if he hadn't telegraphed it with his speech.
I stuck my hand out and let the energy flow in a concentrated beam. It burst out of me in a violent rush of reddish light. It punched through his chest and hollowed out his ribcage. He crumbled to the floor, eyes wide, like he'd been surprised that he'd actually lost.
"He seemed like a decent enough guy," I said as Natasha walked up.
"If you're willing to ignore the blatant Speciesism."
"Still, I'd like to have spared him. He reminds me of some of the old gang," I said. It'd been a while since I'd seen Kurt and Armando Munoz. They weren't the prettiest looking, but we got along just fine.
"I'm sure they won't mind you stopping over," she said. "Fury has been meaning to talk to you for a while now."
"I… uh will ask the boss."
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Dante
My plans changed substantially after everything I learned from Baer's head. The Telepath went from a loose end to another pawn I could play in a much larger game that was slowly spiraling out of control, but I was nearly done with the set-up.
Shaw's involvement caught me off guard, but it was nothing I could not rapidly adjust to and factor into my greater plan. I had always planned to visit Wenwu to see the inscriptions on his ten rings. Sure, it would've been simpler just to take them, but I was not entirely sure if that was even possible, given how mystically attuned they seemed.
After bandaging the Telepath and feeding her a healing potion, I killed Baer and Arclight. The Telepath actually charged me in a blind rage, desperate for revenge, but I shut her down hard with a punch, knocking her out, and stuffed her in a closet after tying her up. I broke the door handle so that she couldn't get out and marched up the stairs to deal with Klaue.
He'd put on a psychic inhibiter at some point to stop me from gleaning information from his mind, but it was too late at this point.
I knew what I was walking into.
Luckily, whoever had installed those inscriptions had not covered his chambers. To compensate for that, Klaue had gone overboard, installing multiple turrets that fired energy cannons at any unauthorized personnel that approached his room. There was also another wall trap that drained all of the oxygen out of the room instead of flooding it with fire just outside his door, but it was largely useless against me because of Angel Evade.
I entered his room, which was every bit as disorganized and lavish as I expected. Tons of rare items were strewn about, such as jewelry, takeout, clothes, and women's underwear.
A figure sat in front of a wall of computer screens, seemingly observing the various levels. On the ground floor, Rin just finished making light work of the mutant protecting the building, and dozens of mercenaries came rushing out of a second elevator.
"Can't anybody do their fucking job!" Klaue's voice resounded from behind the chair, and I instantly knew he was a decoy.
My senses were sharp enough to know that the sound had come from somewhere lower than his mouth should've been. His body also had no micro-movement. No slow rise and fall from breathing, no body twitch, nothing.
"Apparently, they can't," I said as I summoned Ivory and fired behind me. The bullet connected with a loud clang, and Klaue grunted. His voice came from behind this time.
I ducked and spun around to face him just as a large metal staff whizzed past my head.
Klaue was dressed as I'd foresaw—in a Vibranium body armor powered by a purple energy core. On his head was a crown that neutralized all Telepathy, and in his arms, he held a Uru weapon covered in ancient rune markings and motifs.
Asgardian Runes.
Klaue had somehow gotten his hands on the Berserker staff. I was looking forward to studying it in my own time.
"Love the ensemble," I said. "You look like you could take on an entire army."
Klaue scowled. "I've had just about enough of you."
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Upload schedule is also about to change. I'm thinking about doing longer chapters 2-4k and keeping the upload frequency to 3 times a week. It will certainly be an upgrade from what we have now.
The Patreon is also about to be stocked with fresh chapters next week. Expect more content on that end for both fics.