The nightlife in Azure Blue was something to behold, with all the bright lights and advertisements around the city square. The hum of engines and vehicles travelled down the highways, so routine and normal that it was easy to forget these pockets of civilization were what kept most biome manifestations at bay. Things were peaceful, and she found herself wishing it could stay this way for a little longer. She did not want to think about the nagging feeling that something might go wrong, that quiet intuition that always arrived uninvited. She looked at her reflection in the convenience store glass as she moved between the aisles. Nathaniel Alderman was somewhere ahead, unaware of her presence, and she observed him carefully, taking in the familiar patterns of his movement.
Her purple eyes followed him with a mix of awe and trepidation. She knew him, what he was, what he was meant to become, or at least she used to know. This cycle was flawed, broken, and that was precisely why she was following him.
She went to the self-checkout and paid for the few items she had chosen to cover her surveillance. A granola bar and a bottle of water. She pulled up her scarf and adjusted her cardigan before stepping out into the streets, keeping him in sight as he carried his own grocery bags.
He seemed weaker than in her previous encounters across other cycles. Something had changed. She watched him carefully, wondering if this time he was just a normal guy.
Her clothing was simple and inconspicuous. A messy half-bun left bangs and strands around her face. A plain shirt under a dark cardigan hid the body armor generated by her augment. Black stockings led into reinforced leather boots with padded soles covering her shins and knees. She had been following him for some time, which could have seemed suspicious, but she suppressed her Uratsu flow and blended easily with the crowd.
She moved to a higher vantage point, leaving the main street behind, scaling a wall with a slight enhancement, and following him across the rooftops. From six hundred meters away she tracked every step and turn. He seemed normal enough, until she suddenly lost sight of him.
"So who are we tailing?" a voice asked from behind. She flinched, forcing herself to stay calm.
Turning, she got a clear view. He wore a grey leather jacket over a long-sleeve black flannel shirt and dark jeans. The groceries were gone. A hand rested lightly on the nape of her neck. She met his eyes, silver, or maybe silver, narrowing as the warm tone from his interaction with the cashier at checkout disappeared.
Her stomach tightened. The warmth she had sensed earlier, the casual friendliness, vanished from his gaze. The silver of his eyes was cold, precise, as if he could see past her clothing, past the rooftops, past the very distance she had put between them. She froze for a moment, trying to suppress the ripple of Uratsu that threatened to betray her presence.
He tilted his head slightly, studying her as if piecing together a puzzle he had seen before but could not yet name. Something in the way he held himself was deliberate, measured, but there was an edge now, a quiet certainty that made her pulse quicken. She reminded herself to stay calm, to not give away her position or her purpose.
Her mind raced through questions she did not want to ask aloud. Why was he so different this cycle? Was he unaware of her previous knowledge, or was he playing some careful game? She noted the subtle changes: the set of his shoulders, the light in his step, the way he carried himself through the city streets. He was weaker, yes, but there was an undercurrent of something she could not yet define, a presence that did not belong to the "normal" man she had once thought she knew.
She inched backward along the rooftop, keeping a careful distance. Her eyes did not leave his. Every time he moved, she adjusted, tracing his path like a shadow, always alert. The silver gaze followed her for a long heartbeat, and then, without a word, he turned and continued walking.
The brief encounter left her shaken. His presence carried weight, a silent warning she could not ignore. She pressed herself closer to the ledge, fingers curling against the cold surface of the roof. For all the calm of the city, she realized the moment was fragile, and that in another instant, the balance could shatter.
She reminded herself to stay steady, to observe, to wait. This was not the time to act, but the time to understand. And understanding him this time might be the only way to survive what was coming.
Before she could react further, his hand tightened on the nape of her neck, pushing her sharply against the wall. The impact left her breath caught in her chest. His voice was calm but carried unmistakable intent as he spoke.
"Are you affiliated with the arsonist I took down?"
She tried to release his hold, twisting slightly, testing the strength of his grip. It was firm, unyielding, and deliberate. Her mind raced, assessing, calculating. This was not just a warning. This was a test, and failing it could have consequences she did not want to imagine.
Her purple eyes met his silver gaze, searching for any hint of hesitation. There was none. He was certain, focused, a predator assessing a threat. She suppressed the urge to flare her Uratsu, forcing herself to remain still and measured. Any sudden movement could escalate the situation beyond her control.
She let out a slow, controlled breath and spoke carefully. "I am not affiliated with him. I was… just passing by." Her voice was steady, even if her body tensed under his grip.
He studied her for a long moment, his eyes narrowing, weighing the truth in her words against what he already knew. The silence stretched, thick and dangerous, as she held herself rigid, waiting for him to decide if she was a threat or someone to be ignored.
She underestimated him, yes he is weaker than expected , her problem that the guy was stronger than her current limit.
"Okay, I'll talk," she said, feeling his grip on her neck ease slightly. She gave him her name. "Alyssa Reignfield of Squad Five."
She noticed the look in his eyes soften, as if he already knew everything about her, or at least everything that would be generally available to rookies in the Association databanks. The silver in his eyes brightened subtly to cyan as he looked at her, or perhaps not just at her, but through her. It felt strange, considering how much he towered over her.
He read her energy, her body language, and then, without warning, he dropped her. Alyssa instinctively looked up and saw a bullet hole where her head had just been. His eyes scanned his own body, and she noticed several red, glowing dots marking him.
there were 17 to be exact
Nathaniel's irises glowed as he focused on the interface. A sudden alert flashed across his vision. Nineteen individuals wanted him dead.
Alarm: multiple targets wish to eliminate the operatorObjective: eliminate all threats to the operator. Do what is necessary.
Using his meta-vision, he immediately understood why. Several muffled heat signatures were scattered around, their laser sights locked and ready. He cursed as he heard the click of a high-tech rifle reaching for a shot.
Without hesitation, he scooped Alyssa up, shielding her as his body surged with a violent burst of Hellcharge. They crashed through the wall of a parking structure, the force throwing debris in every direction. He shoved her into a staff-only door and sealed it quickly, fusing the door shut with a thin trail of resin and heat.
He moved away from the major streets, staying in the shadows, when a crystal round clipped his arm. Instantly, a massive assailant tackled him, mechanical gauntlets with tonfa-like extensions smashing against his chest. They crashed through a building, finally settling in a part of town recently destabilized by a biome break.
Nathaniel rose, shaking off the impact and clutching the wound in his arm.
Across from him, the man stood and smiled devilishly, unphased by the chaos. When Nathaniel's eyes met his, he saw a cruel yellow glow pulsing within them. The stranger's gauntlets hissed and vibrated, charging. He was tall, easily seven feet, with an impressive beard and a build made to break people.
He introduced himself with a grin. "Magnum."
Nathaniel tensed, but Magnum was already moving. His gauntlet shifted with a metallic snap as his arm clenched. In the next instant he shot forward, landing a hammer-like blow to Nathaniel's side. The strike rocked him, the shock buzzing through his ribs. An audible click sounded from Magnum's wrist and another burst of force sent Nathaniel flying back.
"Pity to see a young career end so soon on a cold night like this," Magnum said, smiling as gun barrels extended from his gauntlets and began to glow. Nathaniel noticed the cigar between his teeth, the tip burning bright.
"No hard feelings, kid. Just good old grunt work. A price on your head we're willing to collect. Kindly make this easy on us."
Nathaniel glanced down at the laser points on his body, silver eyes blank and calm. Magnum chuckled at the lack of reaction.
Nathaniel studied the man's build and remembered the arsonist he had taken down earlier. That memory brought a small, dark laugh from him. He made his choice. He would end these mercenaries tonight.
From his inventory, the kinetic maw blades materialized in his hands. He shot backward as Magnum lunged again, the massive arms narrowly missing him. Nathaniel flung both blades with raw physical strength. They punched grotesquely through two snipers perched in the distance, dropping them instantly. The blades reappeared in his hands, their edges heating until the air warped around them, reaching two thousand degrees.
Three thugs charged in. They noted his wounds and assumed him weakened. Their mistake.
Nathaniel clashed with them head-on. Steel scraped. Blades cut. Their attacks tore into his arms and side, but he retaliated without hesitation. He caught one attacker by the collar and impaled him cleanly. The smell of burning flesh filled the air, thick and nauseating.
Recognition clicked in Nathaniel's mind as he assessed their gear and insignias. A subsect of the Black Order. Spade. Extremists.
"Figures," he muttered. "Battery, arson, kidnapping, torture, extortion, rape, child trafficking. Who signs up for that? Who even documents that? And who watches this kind of true crime for fun?"
It irritated him more than he cared to admit.
He flooded the area with his Uratsu. The sudden eruption caught them off guard. The energy hardened into crystal across the floor and walls. Magnum sensed the shift and jumped back, narrowly avoiding the spike formation. Seven mercenaries were not so lucky. The crystals impaled their limbs and began to burn them alive, heat radiating from the shards.
Nathaniel's cyan irises glowed as he grabbed his dislocated arm and pulled it back into its socket with a sharp wince.
Magnum shot forward, a rare seriousness settling over his expression. He flexed his fingers and the gauntlets bulked and reshaped, forming heavy tonfa. He struck downward. Yellow sparks burst out on impact as the multiplied force tremored through Nathaniel's body. Nathaniel blocked with his maw blades, but the shock hit him five times in a single instant, hammering into his ribs.
The gilded black steel of Magnum's weapons pressed against Nathaniel's heated blades. Nathaniel felt his muscles scream under the pressure.
Why did he have to be stronger, he thought, tasting blood as it slid down his lip.
Magnum struck him three more times. Nathaniel deflected the fourth blow and responded with a burst of close-range flame that scorched Magnum's beard. He aimed for Magnum's eyes with a slashing arc, but Magnum caught both his wrists with one hand and slammed him into the pavement.
The world blurred as Magnum ran him through three walls in a row. Pain flared across Nathaniel's chest and arms as welts swelled through his skin. The blows were fast and heavy, more like collisions with machinery than a man.
Nathaniel's eyes crackled as Kinetic Muscle activated. He thrust forward and landed a critical impact on Magnum's chest. For a moment it worked, until he felt his arm lock mid-strike, a constricting force grabbing his limbs. He scowled as the opposing aura tried to freeze him in place.
He released the stored kinetic force in the form of a gale strike. The blast pushed Magnum back several meters. Nathaniel immediately fired resin bullets from his off-hand module. Each shot cut through the green aura that held him, overpowering the restraints for brief moments.
Before he could reposition, several reinforced metal spears crashed into him, punching through his arms and thighs. Blood sprayed across the ruined asphalt. More bullets followed, ripping through muscle and padding.
One spear came straight for his head. He caught the metal tip between his teeth, feeling the weight pull. Hellcharge surged and Kinetic Muscle amplified the output. The spear shattered, breaking into molten slag that dripped from his jaw. The taste of metal and burnt oil filled his mouth.
These weapons were crude, fished from rubble, reforged into jagged brutal shapes.
His eyes locked on the source. A dark green haired woman stood several stories above him, shielded by floating metallic plates arranged like petals. She watched him without expression, guiding every projectile.
Magnum taunted him from the front, sporting only a few scratches. He mentioned the woman by name, Polaris.
Nathaniel's body heat climbed. Hellcharge pushed toward its current threshold. His temperature spiked past three thousand degrees Celsius. Steel vaporized the instant it touched him, leaving him scorched and smoking as he charged again.
His limbs had open holes from the impalements, but he moved anyway. Magnum struck him back each time, infuriating him. Nathaniel blasted himself forward using Hellcharge thrusters, but Polaris dampened his speed with her gravitational pressure and shredded the ground beneath him with Uratsu infused metal shards.
He had not been attacking aimlessly. Even while being pinned, shredded, and pierced, he had been counting angles and firing with intent.
By now he had indirectly taken down twelve of the fifteen masked grunts. His reserves were holding, but his body was not. His limbs throbbed with every movement, holes still smoking where reinforced rounds had torn through muscle. His breath rasped out in harsh bursts that steamed in the superheated air.
He ignited again. Hellcharge roared through his veins as he rammed into Magnum's chest with full force, melting through the outer layer of armour. Magnum staggered, plating dripping off him in warped ribbons. Nathaniel did not slow. He snapped his hand outward and fired a concentrated beam of flame at Polaris.
She reacted instantly.
A near-ton slab of metal folded toward her like a shield. The plates glowed with that soft green outline, the same shade that reminded him of Ginah's jade motes. The reminder cut deeper than any spear. It irritated him, mocked him, pushed him.
With her attention pulled away, he charged again. The ground cracked under each step. Heat bled off him in shimmering waves.
He slammed into Magnum's chest with both hands. He drove the larger man back. His right palm flared with light as his fingers began to glow white hot. He forced them into the exposed wound he had melted open earlier. Flesh and metal hissed around his hand as the wound widened. Crystals formed where his heat met Magnum's aug reinforced body, spreading in jagged patterns as he pumped his energy into magnums body.
Magnum roared and grabbed Nathaniel's wrist. He tried to crush the bone, fingers tightening with a vice-like pressure that made Nathaniel's arm scream. Nathaniel forced his hand deeper anyway, widening the crystallized damage until Magnum finally tore him free and hurled him across the ground.
Nathaniel hit hard. His back slid across broken rubble and debris, flames hissing from his limbs as he forced himself upright. His vision swam for a moment before sharpening again.
Magnum stood tall and annoyed. He reached into a compartment on his belt and pulled out a small injector. Without hesitation he drove it into his own neck. The stimulant hissed as it entered his bloodstream. The torn flesh along his chest and ribs knit together. Burns faded. The crackle of damaged aug plating smoothed out.
Nathaniel watched the wounds close and felt his jaw tighten.
Magnum rolled his shoulders and flexed his newly restored arm.
"Round two," he said, his voice steady and almost bored.
Nathaniel spat blood on the ground. Heat rippled around him again.
He pushed himself forward.
Nathaniel's eyes glew white for the first time that fight as he looked at his interface he hadn't used max regen yet and if he did he needed a sure fire way of increasing his odds as he looked his latest addition
radiant.