BXBX NOVEL Chapter 103: How far I have come
"You call your organization such a ridiculous name. Saviors? Pft! You are just a bunch of thugs and wannabes. Has pretending to be good people somehow made you feel better, little Dom?"
"RIDICULOUS! The Saviors are a legitimate organization that exists to..." Dominic tried to explain.
From his demeanor, he seemed to be an intellectual who loved to lecture. His title, Machiavelli, pretty much said everything I needed to know. Not letting them talk was the best way to mess with smart people.
"I'm not interested in your long-winded explanations, you fat bastard. Your group condones desertion and the murder of Reapers. To me you are all garbage!"
An angry Dominic sat down in his lounge chair as he spoke.
"Mr. Smith. John. I've been pretty amicable, haven't I? On the other hand, you have been nothing but discourteous, could you please exercise proper manners? We are all Reapers who want to..."
"I keep telling you, you talk too much! {BOOSTER}!"
I ignited the soles of my feet and flew towards the floating chair, perhaps not expecting me to suddenly come for him, Dominic visibly panicked and raised his arms.
"Wait! I was hasty! I apologize! I want..."
My sudden movement allowed me to reach him before he could finish. I then grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up.
"I meant what I said, pig. I only want one thing! Revenge against the Slayer. Tell him I am coming for him and I will destroy your motley crew while I am at it."
"Hiii!" Unable to form an answer, Dominic tried to cover his face with his arms, afraid that I would bash his ugly face in.
Seeing his gutless cowardice confirmed my suspicions. It also stroked my sadism. I wanted to make this pig suffer.
"{Draw} 1887. Phantoms shouldn't die so easily, right?"
I took the shotgun and smashed his arms away from his body. I then shoved it into his jaw.
Before I added, "My name is not John Smith. It is Limitless. And you will regret picking a fight with me!"
"WAII..."
Before Dominic could finish his words, I pulled the trigger and blew off everything above his jaw. My actions caused his blood and brain matter to rain down on my suit in a bloody explosion.
I then drove my heel into the belly of his headless body before kicking off the lounge chair.
The two Wraiths with him finally reached me. They couldn't fly, so they wasted time climbing buildings. The Kid swung his heavy looking halberd at me.
"{Fighter}."
I blocked his weapon with my left forearm and spin-cocked the 1887 with my right hand.
"What?!" Surprise and alarm gripped the young man's face at my actions.
"KID!" The old man suddenly stepped between us, shielding the child.
Even though I felt the grandfather was admirable, I didn't give a shit. So I pulled the trigger of the 1887 once more. With a loud bang, the semi-naked senior's shoulder was destroyed by my attack.
Kid then propped up the body of his partner, who seemed dazed from the pain. The old man's shoulder was all shades of purple and black while a bloody hole bled profusely.
Quickly, the Kid dropped his weapon and jumped off the floating chair with the old man.
"GRAMPA! Are you all right?" The Kid cried in concern.
'Hmm. The relationship between the two seemed close.'
I scanned the area and found the flattened body of Dominic. However, it began to wiggle and raised its hand pathetically.
{Brute! KILL HIM!}
"As expected, fighting Phantoms is going to be a pain in the ass."
At that point, the Brute, who had been dormant the entire time, began to move. Acting a bit robotically, he charged at me with his fist raised.
Looking at the state of my opponent, I marveled at what a change in mentality could do. The Brute who had struck fear into my heart earlier now looked awkward and sluggish.
"Well, now's as good a time as any. {Reload} {Draw} M26."
I tossed a dozen grenades onto the chair and turned to face the Brute. The all-out charge I did at Dominic at lightning speed had drained all my reserves of fuel for {Booster}.
I was in {Fighter} now, and it was my intention to tank all the damage while storing the massive explosion that followed. I touched my jacket and pants and cast {Regen}.
'Wouldn't do to go out naked. Note to self, I need to find a better way to recharge {Booster}.'
Due to the random nature of my {Kismet}, using them required a lot of consideration. Hopefully, when I get back to Earth, I can tweak them like I did over the weekend.
As the grenades exploded, I endured the pain of the shrapnel and the immense heat which caused me to roar in agony.
"{STOCK} EXPLOSION!"
[My Lord, {Booster} has been charged to 100%. You have 300 seconds of normal thrust, 120 seconds of subsonic flight. 12 seconds of supersonic.]
"{BOOSTER}!"
I sent my body hurtling through the air like a rocket. My target, the charging Brute. As I disassociated myself from John Smith, my identity as Limitless began.
"The world would know who I am tomorrow. So let us celebrate my birth with a bang!"
The Brute tightened his fist as if it were about to throw a punch.
Its actions looked familiar because I've endured such a fist before. The last time, my girls threw me at its giant fist while I nearly died just to counterattack.
"Let's see how far I have come since then!"
Not wanting to avoid the pain, I now felt that such hardship was my forging. Like a blade, this was the way I had been tempered.
By repeatedly bringing myself as close to death as possible, my tolerance and tenacity would grow by leaps and bounds.
In two seconds, I crashed into the Brute like an egg against a wall. Just like last time, my arms, muscles, and entire body were crushed and regenerated in a delicate balance of life and death.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
After a few moments, my heart began to burn, this was the inherent limit of {Suffer}. If I didn't channel the energy, it would kill me. Knowing that I had only seconds to react, I switched classes. The moment to end this had finally arrived.
"{MAGE}! SAY HELLO TO THE ONE I SENT BEFORE YOU, FUCKER! {BOOSTER} SUPERSONIC!"
Using {Booster} I increased the power of my attack. Like a human missile, I used my body as a medium to send the {Counter} energy. The moment it left my body, the familiar bubbling of the zombie's flesh began.
Just like before, the kinetic energy traveled through the Brute's entire body like an electric current. His skin swelled to outrageous proportions before finally popping like balloons. With his fall, my momentum sent me through the undead's throat like a bullet.
Unlike the last time, however, I didn't fall after exiting. Instead of plummeting to my demise, I remained airborne. I couldn't help but hear the screams of disbelief from the reapers of Savior.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL! HOW THE FUCK IS THAT FORMLESS!" the fat bastard screamed.
"GRAMPA! DID YOU SEE THAT! HE TOOK OUT A RANK D IN ONE BLOW!" exclaimed the Kid.
"It looks like we finally met our match. He is a demon!" Lamented the old man.
The brute's body collapsed like a building with my blow, {Counter} causing his body parts to explode one by one. A large amount of black blood rained down in the area as the D-class met its maker.
[Confirmed. There are no enemies left. The defense of zone 1101-1 has been completed].
At that moment, a skybeam landed not far from us. I had no idea who it was, so I ignored it. Instead, I dropped to the ground around Dominic.
Half of his head was covered with a shadow like flame holding his face together.
"Seeing reapers like this, we're closer to zombies than humans, aren't we? I asked rhetorically.
"{Draw} P30L."
Dominic, still in a state of shock, said nothing. Before I could shoot him, I saw a shadow move out of the corner of my eye.
I dodged it by rolling to the ground. When I looked up, it was the Kid. Next to him was Gramps, holding his shoulder as it lay lifeless at his side.
From the shade of purple it turned, the old man's right arm was fucked.
"Don't ignore me!" The child cried.
With {Mage}, even though I could not move as fast, my eyes caught every move the child made. From what part of my body he was looking at, to what muscles he was using.
Unable to react with speed, I decided to shoot his polearm instead. The repeated shots kept him from attacking for fear of what the bullets might do.
"Fight like a man, you coward!" he shouted.
"Coward? {Draw} M24."
Then I swung the sniper rifle with one hand and pulled the trigger. As the Kid dodged the bullet, it landed on Grandpa's right leg who was behind him.
"Ack!"
"Yeah. I'm a coward. What are you going to do about it, boy?"
"Tsk! Gramps!"
Probably because he was absent-minded, the senior didn't seem to want to fight. But I could care less. He was here, he could be used. So I intended to do so.
In anger, the Kid jumped into the air and brought his weapon to bear. I used the M24 like a sword and parried the polearm. I then shot him in the knee with the P30L.
"AHHH!!!"
"KID!"
As the Kid fell to the ground in pain, the old man hobbled over to his grandson like a cripple.
'They were Wraiths, right? I should just finish them off now.'
I walked towards the downed Wraiths while aiming the P30L at the Kid's head. Although it looked like I was a heartless bastard, I could only comment coldly.
"If I were any weaker, I would be the one to die. So don't blame me, blame your weakness."
Just then, the old man on the ground invoked his {Fate}.
"{Libra}."
Souls flowed from the Oldman towards the Kid in absurd amounts. Then like magic, the kid suddenly grew to a middle-aged man and the Grampa regressed to his thirties.
It was almost instantaneous, so I could not even stop it. But a bigger problem was that both of them had healed their injuries. They looked like buff twins except that one of them was wearing eyewear.
When I opened fire with the P30L, the Kid spun his polearm and blocked my bullets.
The next second, the Grampa charged and came up behind me.
'Shit! He was way too fast.'
The former senior then sent a palm strike into my solar plexus. A strong shock sent my body flying. Before I could even land, the Kid tried to decapitate me with a slash to my head.
I blocked it with my forearm and lost my hand instead. As their fighting prowess jumped by almost a factor of ten, I could only comment in satisfaction.
"Good. At least try to entertain me, okay? {Regen}."