CHAPTER 19

He swung the poker at me as I dodged backwards and used his other hand to give me a solid to the chest, interrupting my airflow for a moment.

This was something I've suspected since the start but without a doubt, Olav was a super soldier.

I would know because the strength he punched me with wasn't something someone of his stature could throw out. Simultaneously at that.

As I regained my breath Olav was on me again swinging the poker to my right as I sidestepped to gave him a kick to the ribs and as he stumbled sideways, I delivered a Liu Kang™ flying kick to his head.

I was known for precision and lethality. As long as it was close quarters combat and weaponry, I always go for critical damage.

If I can't directly deliver a kill strike I go for destabilizing.

But then again, I've known Olav for his brutality so-

"Arghhhh!" He roared out an attacked me with a frenzied craze.

I dodged sideways to make a run for my gun but Olav beat me to it as he dived me to the floor and stabbed at my left eye with the poker.

I held the poker with both hand as it tore open my flesh inching closer to my eye.

With a final struggle before the maniac gouged out my eyeball I pushed back Olav with both my legs even as the poker tore deeper into my palms even more.

I attacked him as he got up and twisted his arm to let go of the poker, which he did, and I hit him at the neck.

The moment he choked, I brought my hands to his head and brought it down while I brought up my knee for a meet 'n greet.

I kicked him away and-

"Shit!" The bastard went for the gun while I jumped for the poker. What! At least I could do some serious damage with it than without.

I immediately took cover while he opened fire.

"You know, I'm going to enjoy gouging your eyes out, " he said as he released another rain of bullets at where I was hiding.

"Seriously, you're still on that. Talk about tunnel vision."

"Grrrahh." And there he goes again rapidly firing while I hid. While I can heal from bullets doesn't mean I can tank them. With that I waited… and waited.

*Click*

At the clicking sound of an empty magazine, I rushed at him from my hiding place and swung the poker at him and serrated part of his flesh as he used his arms to block in reflex.

He cried out in pain while I attacked him again with ferocity.

Swinging the poker like a dagger I stabbed, slashed and twisted towards him as he further backed away.

As I made to attack him again, the sounds of heavy footsteps alerted me just in time to move out of the way as bullets struck where I previously was.

Dammit. The boss just summoned more mobs while he retreated to recharge.

I was a sitting duck as the mobs had me cornered which made escaping from my hiding spot harder.

Ok, roll call. What do I got? I've got a poker - barbed, some micro grenade, regeneration, athletic speed and over a ton of brute force. How do I get out of this with this.

Here goes nothing.

"I surrender!" I called out and immediately, unbelievably, the bullets stopped.

"Come out slowly with your hands above your head." Someone called out as I restrained the urge to snort.

Law enforcement… really?

I came out with my hands above my head and walked slowly, real slow, to them.

"Here I am. Do I freeze or do I kneel?" I asked with amusement in my tone and they all cocked their guns in my directions.

"Stay where you are. Neutralize him." My law enforcer said to the guy beside him without removing me from his sights.

I didn't think was going to well like this, not that I'm complaining.

I looked at the guy coming to me practically trembling which, now that I think about it, is understandable seeing as I've killed over 60 of the soldiers in this base including one of the heads of HYDRA.

"T-turn around," he stuttered out which made me feel bad for him. Not really.

"What did you say, I couldn't hear you from the stutter." I asked him and the way he jerked in nervousness made me smug internally.

A man bought a dog and trained it to be a ferocious guard dog but the moment it went rabid, he crumbled in fear.

"I-I s-s-said turn a-around slowly." He said with a loud shaky voice this time while the others inched closer to me, forming an arc before me.

Heeding the stuttering man's order I turned around and listened as he walked slowly to me.

The moment I felt he came within range, with the fastest show of dexterity I could showcase, I dropped one of my hands inside the inner part of the shirt I wore and drew the poker.

Before he could react or even understand what I did, I turned around and slashed the poker across his throat and without a missing a beat I speared it to the head of the HYDRA policeman while I went for the gun of the still stunned stammering bag tagger.

Using him as a shield against the incoming bullets I shot at them while moving with my human sized shield who was getting sieved by bullets by seconds.

I had to get to the basement as soon as possible and killing all these guys here was not a feasible plan nor a necessity. And there was also an Olav to watch out for.

Discarding my shield but not before retrieving my poker, I ran through the door I saw and came to an hallway with reinforced steel doors along its sides but I didn't have the luxury of time to pay any attention to it.

I didn't come out unscathed from the recent shootout.

I got shot three times, two to my right hand and one to my leg. It was only due to my high pain tolerance and the fact that I've been shot at numerous times that made me ignore the pain to a certain degree.

I ran down the hallway while taking occasionally shots at my pursuers.

John Wick was a chronic liar. He made being pursued and getting shot at look cool. It wasn't, not by along shot.

I should be more than halfway through the seventh floor by now.

…

A danger dash of bullets later, I made my way to the eight floor and the first word that came out of my mouth was-

"Fuck! Seriously, what gives?"

I came face to face with Floch, Chys and two people from Olav's team, the woman who I believed was named Saw and a dude who I didn't know.

"Y'know, I thought we were hitting it off pretty good. So what gives," Floch asked me and I let out a snort.

"That was probably the first joke I've heard in over a year… and it sucks," I replied to him while the others aimed their guns at me with red dots declaring their targets.

"That's because it wasn't meant to be funny." He chipped back, "This isn't some 12 trials like the legends boy. You're not unkillable and you definitely don't have a god-mother watching over you. So whatever you think you are doing, for you own good you better stop now."

"That's terrible PR you know." I jabbed at him meanwhile my brain was running in overdrive how to get out of a blockade like this alive.

"Looks like someone's gotten chirper." This time it was Chys who spoke, looking like I killed his best friend or something. "Firefort. Were you the one who killed him?"

Whoops! Too soon. This guy must be psychic.

"Oh that guy, yeah it was me. I gave him an Olav… I mean an arrow to the eye" I clarified and watched as his face turned into pure rage.

"Boss lets kill this fucker now," Chys growled out in indignation looking like he was an order away from blasting my head to mush, which he probably was.

Floch looked at me and gave the first shot which went through my left palm as I tried to doge it while the others fired at me as I ran, cutting through corners as they chased me.

Looks like someone got me in my back.

This was just making it harder.

I came to a weird realization after trying but failing to hide from them. They knew where I was.

It wasn't like a general direction of where I ran through but a precise location of where my feet were planted. It didn't take me long to figure that it would most likely be something that the Saw woman was doing as she was the only mutant I've seen.

Which means she got to go first.

Reaching that conclusion I found myself under a siege of fire once more.

I was almost out of grenade and bullets, leaving me with only a poker, but here goes nothing.

The moment I saw a glimpse of their position I threw the grenade towards the mutant woman just as she warned the others of the incoming grenade.

The force of the explosion knocked her backwards and I immediately shot her before she could orientate herself and swapped guns and shot her other teammate.

This left Floch and Chys remaining.

It didn't take long before Floch rushed at me while Chys covered for him, preventing me from returning fire.

The only option I had under these circumstances was to attack Floch to stop Chys from shooting.

Immediately Floch got into range and shooting at the same time I jumped him, getting shot twice in the process.

From there we crossed blows in the old mano-a-mano ways.

Floch was a good fighter, all things considered.

Arms, legs, kicks, punches, swipes, throws, we exchanged all in a short amount of time while Chys tried to take surprise shots at me making me getting shot twice, again, in the process.

I lunged at Floch again to close the distance between us to prevent Chys from taking another shot and brought my fist down on his as I suffered from blood loss, broken ribs, gunshots wounds.

The only thing holding me on from the start was my regeneration and endurance which was higher than his but that was also dwindling from all my runs and bullet wounds.

Floch was strong but even he, a normal human, couldn't keep up with my strength and ferocity, and he was getting tired.

The moment I saw a chance, I drew the poker which was now strapped to my waist and slashed it at his eyes making him scream and dived to the side picking up the lying gun at which I fired at Chys who was already shooting back at me with a shout.

*Thud*

A body dropped down to the floor and the once warzone settled in a steeping silence.

I heaved a deep breath and started walking on wobbling feet towards the next floor following the mental map I had of the place. I had six bullet wounds and a few broken bone with my regeneration the only thing keeping me pushing.

I didn't see Olav anymore on this floor which makes me think he's in the next floor probably waiting for me.

I dug out the bullets from my flesh as I hoped that these wound would be at least halfway healed before I got to the next floor.

Thankfully by the time I started climbing down the stairs to the 9th floor most of them were already healed and all my bones fixed, regeneration was such a cheat.

It took me less than 10 minutes to get to the 9th floor.

The 9th floor unlike the others, looked like a weapons factory with gigantic wheels and axles spinning and different types of machinery located there.

Before I took another step forward…

Bang.

A loud shot rang out and before I could do anything I felt my kneecaps shattering.

Bang!

Another one and I felt my right shoulder bursting as a bullet shattered the joints.

Even though I couldn't see it, my knees and shoulders were toast. I couldn't feel beyond them.

I saw Olav walking towards me with a Benelli M4 pointed at me.

"I've been waiting for you," he said as he used the stump to his me across the face.

"Really! I thought you didn't like me again since you ran from me the last time." I said with a bloody smile as he scowled and hit me again with the gun.

"You are real cheeky huh." This time he walked around me and stood at my back.

I got my answer at to what he was doing there when he shot my other knee.

"Gargh." God that hurts.

After that he bent forward and took the poker strapped to my side.

"I see you like my gift, " he said as he stabbed through my back over and over again.

He stopped after a few minutes while I lay in a pool of my blood with the wrecking pain and slight lightheadedness.

My mind was clear as I looked at him with a smile once more and that infuriated him the more as he stabbed at me again while I raised my hand to block it even as the poker pierced through it.

I brought my slightly healed leg to his nut and kicked it with as much force as it could muster.

The moment the pain assaulted him and he let go of then poker, I drew it out of my hand and ran it through the stomach of the kneeling Olav.

I drew it out and rammed it again at his stomach for a few time as it started bringing out his innards while he just kneeled stunned.

I got up shakily and picked up his gun while he just looked at me in disbelief.

I really don't know what was his deal.

I jammed the barrel of the gun to his teeth even as it broke through his dentals and made way to his throat. I jammed it further and smiled when I saw the outline on his throat as he gagged.

"Goodbye, my buddy ol' pal. I'm so not going to miss you."

With that I pulled the trigger twice and watched as both his throat and bowels burst open.

Without even giving him another look I walked to the last floor in this goddamned building.