Ch. 69: Beating The Man In The Yellow Jumper
Talos bit her nails and looked at me with soft eyes. Something about that made my skin crawl. It was a stark contrast to the usual malice in her gaze when she was plotting my demise. I had to admit, she looked beautiful when she wasn’t trying to kill me. But I knew better than to be fooled. Talos wasn’t the type to seduce anyone, let alone me, her sworn rival.
She raised her hand, pushed back the strands of hair that hung over her right eye, and smiled— far too sweetly. My instincts flared. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
“Hades, our alliance ends here, unfortunately for you,” she said, her voice dripping with false pity.
“Huh?” I barely had time to react as my sixth sense screamed at me. A massive surge of energy came barreling toward me from out of nowhere. I dove to the side just in time, the air cracking as a blow drilled through where my head had been.
“Someone’s here,” I muttered, scanning the room. But I was sure I scanned the room and there was no one in the vicinity, did I misread the situation? There was no way my heightened senses would fail me at a time like th—
WHAM!!
A heavy strike from behind sent me stumbling forward. Talos. That bitch! She had betrayed me. I should have known better than to trust her. The alliance had been shaky from the start, false pretense best.
I spun around, my senses in overdrive, but no one was there. The space behind me was empty. “What the hell?” My sixth sense, which had flared moments ago, now lay dormant again, almost as if it was playing tricks on me.
Then it blazed to life once more. “To my right!” I ducked as a fist came whistling through the air, narrowly missing my face. My eyes flickered toward the attacker, a brief glimpse before— POOF! He vanished into thin air.
I stood still, my mind racing. The assailant had been wearing an orange jumper. It wasn’t someone I recognized. Who was he? A hired hand? One of Talos’s secret weapons? Was that how she’d stayed off the authorities’ radar for so long? But now, she was gone too. Her seat lay empty. Where the hell did she go?
“Hupp!!” I yelped as I vaulted into the air, dodging a sweeping kick aimed at my legs. My opponent’s attacks were lightning fast, and he vanished just as quickly after every strike. A vanisher huh? A type I had never faced before.
But strangely enough, I wasn’t intimidated. Something inside me remained calm, focused. Perhaps it was the fact that I had fought Poseidon at full strength and witnessed Zeus’s power firsthand. This man, this vanisher, was fast, sure, but nowhere near their power level. If anything, his tricks only irritated me.
His movements were not random. As I analyzed the pattern, it became clearer. He struck from my blind spots— angles at 45, 90, and 180 degrees. And the targets were precise: my neck, ribs, and ankles. But that was only part of the puzzle. If I could just get a little higher, break away from the usual battlefield, I could force him to play by my rules.
With a burst of energy, I rebounded off the ground, launching myself into the air. “Whatever game you’re playing, Talos, I’ll end it here,” I growled. I closed my eyes and let my instincts take over, feeling the air shift around me. I steadied my breathing— then there was a shift, a tiny break in the wind.
KRRRRRZSH!
He appeared, just as I predicted. His breathing was smooth, his movements efficient. He did not seem to be a killer; nor was he even a seasoned fighter because I did not sense any ill will towards me. He was just too damn fast. His strike aimed for the back of my neck. I would not be fast enough to dodge it— but I did not need to be.
I activated my Dominator’s Aura on instinct, flooding the room with an oppressive, chaotic energy. For just a second, he froze, his momentum halted by the shock of my force. That was all I needed. I flipped mid-air and brought my heel crashing down toward the base of his neck.
“You lose!” The words hissed through my teeth as my foot made contact— only to cut through empty air. “What the hell!” I snarled, more frustrated than surprised. He had vanished again. I barely had time to register it before another strike came toward me from the side.
I blocked the blow with my arm, gritting my teeth as he vanished again. This cat and mouse game was getting old. I landed on my feet, shaking the sting out of my arm.
“So that’s how it is,” I muttered under my breath, unraveling the logic behind his vanishing act. He was not just fast— he was playing tricks with my perception, bending time or space around him. My regular attacks wouldn’t work. But I had more than one ace up my sleeve. Something I had yet to try.
I raised my arm and summoned the black book— the source of my true power. Nothing happened at first. It was a gamble, a theory I yet to fully fully tested yet. But I was not about to let that stop me now. Wisps of black smoke burned along my right arm, and then flames— dark, roiling flames— erupted across my body. This was the power I had been holding back.
I had to push past my limits. I had to win, no matter what.
“Do it!” I urged myself through gritted teeth. “Surpass yourself. Break past your limits, and WIN!”
The flames twisted and solidified, and from them, the black book was born into my hands. Now I wouldn’t lose. Not to this man. Not to anyone.
The vanisher appeared again, this time behind me. He aimed for my chin, but I could sense another attack— a second presence— targeting the back of my knee. No, it was still him. He was playing more tricks, creating illusions, or maybe echoes of himself. But which one was real? My sixth sense failed to be of help to me here.
FWOOSH!
I didn’t need it. The surge of energy from the black book granted me the speed I needed. I shot forward, matching his pace. We were on equal ground now. My theory was correct— with the book in my hand, I could access the true extent of my powers— of Hades’ power to some extent.
As we clashed, something felt off about him, though. Familiar, even. The book pulsed in my hands, almost as if it was trying not to fight him. Strange!
But there was no time to think about it. He reappeared again, this time splitting into not just two— but ten copies of himself. He was trying to overwhelm me and my senses. But I wasn’t the same as I was before.
“You lose!” I growled, feeling the heat of the black flames surge around me.
With my good hand gripping the book, I didn’t have many options for attacking. So, I did the next best thing. I spun on my heel and kicked one of the copies with everything I had.
WHAM!
The impact sent him flying into a bookshelf, the wood splintering as it crashed to the floor. He groaned in pain, I sensed him trying to vanish again, but I was faster this time. I grabbed him by the head and smashed it into the wall with a sickening crack.
“Argh! How di—” His voice, muffled and pained, sounded far too familiar.
I stepped back, closing the book with a sigh. “Let’s just say I have an eye for the truth.”
A new presence filled the room, one I recognized immediately— Talos. She stood there, dressed in nothing but her underwear, a deep frown, she had her hands crossed.
“Not the bookshelf, guys,” she whined, crossing her arms. “Do you know how much that costs? And the hole in the wall? The landlady is so going to throw a fit.”
I held back the urge to smash her head into the wall too. “Maybe you shouldn’t have tried to piss me off with your little games. I know you are not the type to orchestrate nonsense like this for no reason so talk!”
She walked up to me and sighed. “I did not want to tell you this before, but the guy you just kicked? He is kind of crucial to my latest investigation.”
Before I could ask what the hell she was talking about, the figure I had just pummeled groaned and pulled himself to his feet. He pulled off his mask he had on his face, revealing short, messy yellow hair and a pair of eyes that sparkled with mischief.
“Ow, that hurt like hell!” he grinned at me.
My heart sank. “…Hermes?”
If I revive a magic castle I will mass release 10 chapters
