Chapter 5 - Bloodlust

Formless gave a sigh and waved her misty sword in the air. " You better watch your back. The situation is getting messy."

Phantom frowned and asked. " What situation?Is it about the previous gas leak incident?"

Formless shook her head, " Another Hero uncovered that case. It is new this time. More complex and shitty. And involved with more lunatics."

" Lunatics?"

Formless nodded. " Yeah,Lunatics. Worse than you but not as annoying as you."

Phantom chuckled. " At least you admit thinking about me."

Formless gave a disgusting look behind the mist. She sighed inwardly in defeat. Phantom had been talking crazy since they both first met. With each day passed, Phantom seemed more out of the world with his words. And crazier with his fighting style as well.

She never fought with a Villain who can adapt to her fighting style like his. Granted there were not many Rank A Villains in the Hiewbard but all of the other villains mostly relied on their abilities.

Only a few combined with fighting technique and Phantom seemed the best at it. Fighting him felt like facing an Old legend from the past era. Like her teacher. 

I need to kick him off. I don't leave that much mist maintaining the place. Formless thought.

Formless condensed the mist around her body. She focused on improving physical strength and the sharpness of her sword. She took a stance and released the condensed mist from the sword.

The area around the sword was covered with the heavy mist, giving off an unstoppable force.

Seeing that, Phantom prepared himself as well. Formless was using full strength. 

In the fictional term, she was using her ultimate technique. He had seen her use that technique numerous times and each time she used that technique left an everlasting impression on him.

Phantom stimulated Mngwa's spirit inside the depth of his soul. He drew out more unfiltered energy from the spirit. As he drew the energy, his ebony changed.

Previous passive fusion gave him a set of claws, heightened sense and increasing physical strength.

At this current state, Phantom experienced the full effect of being Mngwa. The creature of silence.

His senses no longer function like a physical being, he surpassed the realm of living and took a step into the dead. He saw souls. The soul of air , space , movement and mist.

He saw Formless as the mist. Mngwa controlled the soul of sound. It was known as the creature of silence in the spirit world.

Phantom's body gave nothing. He took a step. There was no sound coming from his body. Even if he threw a rock , the rock won't emit the sound. 

Formless dashed toward Phantom at a fast speed. Each step pushed her further than the last. It was like her whole body just forgot about gravity or pressure.

She was otherworldly fast. She tried to swing her sword but Phantom dodged it. He didn't make any comments this time. Only Silent came from him.

Phantom did a backflip and used his claws to slash up the mist. The pressure from his attack knocked back the car around the two. Formless seemed to lose a footing.

Phantom's eyes widened as he saw an opening. He didn't want to do the exchange of ultimate abilities so he attacked the opening with his full power.

He slashed with the effect of sound. The slash created an echo which traveled from his claws to Formless's body.

Mngwa's ability. The ability to infuse sound energy to the attack.

Damn. Phantom cursed seeing the scarless form of Formless. She used a body double to confuse him.

" Stay safe , Phantom. I need your strength in the future." She spoke and swung her sword at him.

The raging mist enveloped him. The Mist pierced through his skin, entering inside his body like hungry maggots. After feeling a stabbing pain came the assault.

 He was sent flying back into the other side of the street. His ribs broke due to the pressing pressure acting on the chest by her Mist.

" Syith." Phantom called out his trusted companion. The giant snake appeared beneath him and caught him from landing on the concrete.

Formless followed him but Phantom immediately got up and threw another slash in her direction. A loud explosion echoed through the street. A dust cloud formed masking Phantom presence. Combined with his trait of being soundless , he was undetected in the dust.

Shit! Shit. I should switch with Kaiju. Mngwa is not good at facing the enemies head on.

Thinking about his mistake , Phantom sighed. 

Past is past. Right now , I need to heal myself.

Phantom cursed himself. He then ordered Syith to escape the scene. His plan of killing Formless failed. He had picked the area and spent a huge sum of money for this night. Only to fail because he got a little bit cocky with his power.

Breath in my man. Rule No 1 of villainy. Defeat is not Defeat.

Phantom calmed down. He looked back and saw Formless looking at his direction. She seemed exhausted. If he attacked from long range , he could win but that was not an ideal plan since other heroes could sneak up on him. 

Formless gave him a glance and disappeared by expanding the mist through the entire street.

Phantom sat down and checked on his body condition. The pain mostly came in the form of heat as all the skin on his chest was cut open by the mist.

Cuts wounds. A lot of bleeding.

He pressed his fingers to the chest. 

Yeah , Three ribs. One of the ribs stabbed into the lung. It is not life threatening. I just need to remove the ribs from my lung and take a good rest.

Being blessed by ability came with a wonderful physique. Their body constitution was out of the ordinary. Phantom's body was even more extraordinary since his ability focused on physical altering.

Phantom looked at his claws and sighed.

The side effect is going to be harsh. 

He ordered Mngwa to leave his soul. Mngwa did as he was told to do. But inside Phantom's soul , it left a corruption or will of its own. 

Soon that corruption merged with Phantom's soul. The corruption yarned for blood. The flesh blood of a maiden. It wanted to feast on the blood as it did in the past.

This is going to be nasty.  Phantom felt a disgusting wave of emotion. He knew that he was about to suck on some blood.

He had to follow the corruption otherwise , his soul would change into Mngwa. He had stored blood inside his base. He just needed to reach there quickly.

He crouched down and whispered into Syith. " To the base. Fast. You can use the shortcut."

Syith protested by snaking its tail. It clearly didn't want to use the shortcut.

" I know. I know. I don't want to use the shortcut either. But there is no way we can arrive at the base in ten minutes. Come on , Syith. You understand my situation right?" 

Syith went silent and changed its way. The shortcut was passing through the city cemetery. The cemetery was filled with various spirits.

And there was a high chance of entering into the gateway to the spirit world as well. Phantom met his mentor that way. He experienced Real Hell just because he wanted to experiment with his newfound powers at the cemetery. 

Just thinking about his mentor gave him a chill. 

But there was no time for him. Even if he entered the gateway , with his current power, Phantom had three percent chance of defeating his mentor.

As Syith continued to move , they got nearer with the cemetery. Phantom began to see wandering spirits. They all shared the same characteristics of the famous iconic picture of ghosts. Expect that the spirit didn't float. They walked on the ground covered by the white pale cloak.

His mentor said that the cloak acted as a sealing of their appearance. And he forbade Phantom to remove the cloak unless he had to choose but to create chaos.

Even then that depended on luck. He didn't know how removing the cloak depended on luck but he didn't question his mentor.

Phantom saw the cemetery. The air around the cemetery was cool , maybe because it was near the forest. He saw the gravestones worn smooth by time.

Only the rich used the cemetery , the poor got cremated or sent to the lab to study or experiments.

That was why there were not a lot of new gravestones.

Somewhere in the darkness , Phantom heard a howling owl. It definitely added the creepy vibe of the cemetery. But Phantom was unfazed by that vibe since he was aware of the secret of the dead.

The Unknown of regular humans became Known to him.

As he was moving past the cemetery, Phantom heard a human sound. He turned around and looked at the location. He saw a woman holding a flashlight aiming at the ground , trembling in fear.

The woman walked slowly. She suddenly stopped and slowly dragged her flashlight to the air. The light went past Syith as Syith didn't exist in the physical world.

The light stopped at Phantom.

Before she could scream , Phantom jumped down and choked her. The voice stopped and Phantom lifted his mask allowing his mouth to be visible.

Due to the effect of Mngwa's corruption, Phantom had long razor sharp teeth. His hand felt the warmth of the woman's neck.

Blood. Blood.

He didn't know why he jumped toward her. He was driven by instinct. 

Blood.

The woman struggled to break free of his grip but Phantom easily controlled her. He buried his face on her neck. The fragrance of her perfumes was smoothing. 

He buried his teeth on her neck.