The purple rain was all I could focus on. The pressure from the fall plugged my ears. All I could hear was ringing, and everything else was muffled for the moment.
The woman's scream began to fade in as she fell backward in horror. Her screams turned to sobs as her face flushed red. I could hear everything normally at this point. Her cries probably helped unclog my ears.
"Hey… miss? It's fine now. The monster's dead…" I said as I walked toward her, trying to comfort, though I was awkward. I extended my hand, still bloodied with purple. "Let's get you out of here."
She looked at my hand and then slowly met my eyes. I thought that finally she had calmed down. But her eyes widened, and she began to let out another horrified scream.
Is it me? I mean, come on, lady, I know I'm bloodied up, but have you seen yourself? Though I supposed it was my fault she looked that way now. I didn't anticipate her being there when I had planned to jump this monster from the skyscraper next to us.
It took me a minute to notice that while she was screaming, she was inching away from me to the point where our eyes no longer met. She was looking past me.
I had reactive and heightened senses, so it didn't take me long to figure it out as I stood before her. All I had to see were the faint reflections in her eyes...
"Crap," I said, letting out a displeasing exhale.
Right then, the shattered corpse of the disintegrated monster began floating midair as if on puppet strings all around me. The decimated pieces connected, making up the creature's figure once more.
It continued to do so until it somewhat looked as it did—except the spot where my fist had landed from that fall could not be mended and left a large gaping hole in its chest.
I had flown down way too fast and didn't obliterate it properly.
"Well, that's a rare ability," I said, throwing my hands in my pockets and watched it regenerate. The woman behind me was still screaming as I did, inching away to run at last.
But before she could, however, a limb or tentacle of some sort flew out from the back of the creature and jetted toward her. I grabbed it and crushed it with my grip before it got the chance to catch up.
The end piece of it whipped back to the mending beast as the other half I was still holding began to wrap around me.
As it pieced itself whole again, it whipped out more of those tentacle things and wrapped me completely, snarling aggressively in my face.
I then looked behind me without a care, just in time to see the woman scurry away from whence she came.
The beast snarled again as I slowly turned my head back to it.
"Keeper, shut up. If you wanted to eat me, you would have done it already." It squeezed tighter like it understood me, but didn't listen.
"What's wrong? Can't do it?" I said as my eyes widened and challenged the beast. It retracted just a bit, just enough for me to notice. Only Grade 3 and up monsters could develop thought. This hesitancy was proof of that.
"I see… so you really are a Grade 3."
Classic Havoc, misjudging the situation. Or maybe he didn't and just wanted to get out of fighting. He was known to find creative ways to get himself out of situations he did not want to be a part of. Times like this had me questioning if he truly was a genius or just stupid… Perhaps it was the latter.
The creature's body rippled like it had finally made a decision. Its grip tightened around me, attempting to crush my bones.
"If we were having a conversation, you suck at breaking the ice," I said to it. "You can't even break me."
I flexed, and that was all it took to break free from the Grade 3's grasp. I could tell it was shocked that I had managed such a thing. And to its surprise, those pieces didn't restore themselves.
I took my jacket off and threw it somewhere; I only had a white tank underneath.
For a magicless mage, I was quite durable. On top of that, I had heightened senses—not as good as Havoc's—but good enough. And the one defining trait I had was that I could completely reject magic. Unless I was caught off guard or I let it happen, it was doing nothing to me.
To it, I was probably an anomaly. Especially after falling from an extreme height with zero damage. I had always just called this power Copper magic... which was bullshit... but it did get people off my back about it.
And to my surprise they believed me. Because it fit their idea of me—a weak mage with weak magic affinity.
The monster roared, taking its heavy left arm, and swung down on me like a hammer. I stayed in place, not even trying to dodge, catching it between my neck and shoulder as the slam cratered the ground even more than it already was.
It roared again in my face...
"Ok."
I stood there dispassionately, gently placing my hands on its arm and throwing it upward. The motion alone sent it back, dislocating and smashing the ground behind it.
I bolted to its exposed torso, sending a barrage of punches, and avoided hitting its dislocated arm...
Desperate, the creature ripped its limp arm off and jumped a distance away from me.
My punches were light, to say the least, but it was cautious of me. And I wanted to test a theory...
The Grade 3 mended the deep holes in its chest and morphed its body—though not fully regenerating the spots I hit.
It would come back for the arm later, too, since it wasn't yet destroyed and it thought I was just going to leave it alone.
The beast seemed to become smaller after regenerating. Since the spots that I made contact with didn't regenerate properly, it made it up with other parts of its body. It also looked like it couldn't risk regenerating larger wounds; that gaping hole in its chest was proof of that. The sheer force of my earlier plunge was what shattered it, but not by direct contact…
Hmm… I know! I thought as I placed a fist in my palm like a tactical genius, What if my fists made contact with all of it?
The Black Wolves Vice Captain would call me an idiot for such a 'grand' idea and then proceed to watch me execute it.
Besides, since I reject magic, and this thing is imbued with it. I will reject its existence.
It wanted its severed arm back, and I wasn't bothered by that. It can have it…
The creature jumped around the distance between us in a half-circular pathway in an attempt to distract me. I remained in place, watching all the while.
Then it jumped high up into the sky and reached out with the stump of a limb where its arm used to be. Tentacles shot out from its severed joint, reaching toward me… or at least, that's how it made it seem.
As previously deduced, Monsters Grade 3 and up can develop thought. The higher the Grade, the higher its intelligence. This one was just using basic strategy to get its arm.
I lifted its giant arm off the ground and raised it with ease over my head, the tentacles closing in. I aimed, then fired parallel past the tentacles—directly to its main body. The claws of the arm were so sharp that when they made impact, it skewered its torso all the way through, just above that gaping hole I gave it.
It could barely comprehend what had happened as it kept its descent of tentacles toward me.
I readied my stance, squatting, fist to the gravel, and pushed off the ground like a trampoline. Blowing past the tentacles and destroying them instantly. Zero chance of recovery.
I unleashed a Gatling of punches, striking it from every direction until it was just a head.
The beast had an terrified look on its face as it beheld me. I could sense its fear before death. For a moment, I actually felt sorry for it. Thing was—if you harm to kill, be prepared to be harmed and killed yourself. It's not a one-sided idea. Not that this thing could comprehend that. I was being paid to exterminate. Not walk this thing outside of town.
The last punch was an effortless one, echoing a sound only the deaf could hear.
No debris. No chunks of monster meat. Completely and utterly obliterated to nothingness.
I landed on the rummaged plaza, slowly getting up from my crouched position, watching it all disintegrate and flutter up into the air—into the ethers, and then hopefully into a better place.
The blood on me evaporated; a clear sign that a monster had been beaten. I sometimes wondered why they fade and don't remain like we beings do after death. But the answer to that didn't concern me unless it was relevant to the mission. And in this case. It did not.
"All right. Time for the mission rewards," I said.
It was then that a group of World Magistral Army officers came flooding in from all directions to the scene. Just in time to witness only me, this wrecked plaza turned into a battlefield, and the monster also entirely gone…
"Sup, guys! I defeated the—"
"Put your hands up! By order of the W.M.A., you're under arrest."