Sector 3. The Neon Slums.
The drone landed heavily on a rooftop, its engines whining in protest. Smoke billowed from its side where a stray plasma bolt had clipped it.
I jumped off, my tuxedo torn and stained with sweat.
I was still carrying the girl from the auction. She was shivering, clinging to my jacket.
"We're safe," I told her, my voice ragged. "For now."
"Safe?"
A voice drifted from the shadows.
It wasn't Riley.
It was smooth, like silk sliding over a knife.
I spun around, drawing Zev.
Sitting on the edge of a billboard, swinging his legs like a child, was the man from the balcony.
Viper.
He wore a sleek black bodysuit that seemed to absorb the neon light. His white mask with the red tear stared at me blankly.
"No one is safe in Yorknew, little hero," Viper said.
"Riley," I whispered into my earpiece. "He's here."
Static.
"Riley?"
Nothing. Just white noise.
"I jammed your comms," Viper explained, jumping down. He landed without a sound. "And I disabled the drone. Just you, me, and the rain."
I pushed the girl behind a ventilation unit.
"Stay down," I ordered.
I turned to Viper.
"You helped me back there," I said. "Why?"
"Because the Auctioneer was boring," Viper shrugged. He pulled a long, thin blowgun from his belt. It glowed with green mana. "And because I wanted to see if the rumors were true."
He tilted his head.
"The boy with the Abomination Blade. The glitch in the system. Are you a monster, Ren? Or just a lucky rat?"
[He smells of venom,] Zev hissed in my mind. [Be careful. One scratch, and we rot.]
"Let's find out," I growled.
I charged.
I used the Void Slash stance. Low. Fast.
I closed the ten-meter gap in a second.
I swung Zev horizontally, aiming to cut him in half.
WOOSH.
The blade hit nothing but smoke.
Viper was gone.
"Too slow," his voice whispered in my ear.
I spun, swinging blindly behind me.
Nothing.
THWIP.
A sharp pain in my neck.
I slapped my hand to the spot. A needle.
I pulled it out. The tip was green.
"Neurotoxin," Viper called out from atop the billboard again. "Level 4. It shuts down your motor functions in thirty seconds. Starts with the fingers. Then the legs. Then the lungs."
I stumbled.
My fingers felt numb. Zev felt heavier.
"You coward!" I yelled. "Fight me!"
"I am fighting," Viper laughed. "Assassins don't trade blows, Ren. We trade consequences."
He jumped down again, this time drawing two curved daggers.
"Now, let's see how long you last."
He rushed me.
He was a blur of motion.
I tried to block, but my arms were sluggish.
SLASH. SLASH. SLASH.
Three cuts appeared on my chest. Shallow, but they burned like fire.
His daggers were coated in poison too.
I swung Zev wildly.
Viper danced around the blade, laughing.
"Look at you," he mocked. "Clumsy. Heavy. You wield a god-slayer like a baseball bat. It's an insult to the weapon."
I fell to one knee.
My vision blurred. The neon signs of Sector 3 smeared into streaks of light.
I couldn't breathe. My chest felt tight.
Is this it?
Am I going to die here?
[Pathetic,] Zev growled. [Get up.]
"I... can't..." I wheezed.
[The poison is Mana-based,] Zev explained. [I eat Mana. Let me eat it.]
I froze.
Zev could eat the poison?
"How?"
[Stab yourself.]
"What?!"
[Do it! Or die!]
Viper was walking toward me, twirling his daggers. "Time's up, hero. Any last words?"
I looked at him.
I grinned. My teeth were stained with blood.
"Yeah," I rasped. "Bon appétit."
I reversed Zev.
I stabbed the tip of the massive blade into my own thigh.
SHLUCK.
"What the...?" Viper stopped, confused.
"AAAARGH!" I screamed as the blade pierced my muscle.
But then, the pain changed.
The red vein on Zev pulsed violently.
I felt a suction.
The green poison in my veins was pulled toward the wound. Zev drank it.
The numbness vanished.
My vision cleared.
The poison was gone. Replaced by adrenaline.
I stood up.
I pulled the sword out of my leg. Blood sprayed, but the wound was already closing, cauterized by Zev's heat.
"Thanks for the meal," I said.
Viper took a step back. For the first time, he looked unsure.
"You... you filtered the toxin?"
"My turn."
I didn't charge this time.
I slammed Zev into the concrete roof.
[Sword Art: Tremor.]
I channeled Zev's weight into the building.
BOOM.
The entire roof shook violently.
Viper lost his footing. He stumbled.
That was my opening.
I launched myself forward. Not with legs, but by kicking off the hilt of the sword like a pole vault.
I flew through the air.
Viper tried to raise his daggers.
Too late.
I grabbed his face with my left hand.
I slammed him into the brick wall of the stairwell.
CRACK.
His mask shattered.
I saw his face.
Half of it was burned. Scarred.
He looked young. Maybe my age. But his eyes were old. Dead.
I raised Zev with my right hand, pointing the tip at his throat.
"Yield," I growled.
Viper looked at the blade. Then at me.
He smiled. Blood trickled from his lip.
"You're crazy," he whispered. "Stabbing yourself to cure poison? You really are an Abomination."
"Who sent you?" I demanded. "The Poseidon King?"
"No," Viper coughed. "The King doesn't care about ants. I was sent by The Collector."
"The Collector?"
"The man who wants your sword," Viper said. "He collects the lost weapons. The Sins. Zev is Wrath, isn't he?"
I froze.
Wrath.
Zev had a title?
"There are seven of them," Viper whispered, his eyes gleaming. "Seven Abominations. Seven Sins. If The Collector gets them all... he will open the Gate to the Void."
He suddenly kicked me in the stomach.
I flinched, but I didn't let go.
He dropped a smoke bomb.
POOF.
Gray smoke filled the air.
I swung Zev through the smoke.
SWISH.
Nothing.
The smoke cleared.
Viper was gone.
But on the ground, where he stood, lay a small digital map.
A holographic projection flickered to life.
It showed a location in the Wastelands.
And a message:
[If you want answers, come to the Junkyard. The Collector is waiting.]
I picked up the map.
My leg throbbed where I had stabbed myself.
Zev hummed, satisfied.
[Wrath...] Zev mused. [I haven't heard that name in a long time.]
"Is it true?" I asked. "Are there six others?"
[Yes,] Zev admitted. [Envy. Greed. Lust. Gluttony. Sloth. Pride. My brothers and sisters.]
[And they are all insane.]
I looked at the map.
The Collector. The Seven Sins.
The world just got a lot bigger. And a lot more dangerous.
"Ren!"
Maya's voice (no, the girl's voice) called out.
She peeked out from behind the vent.
"Is the bad man gone?"
I sheathed Zev.
I walked over to her.
"Yeah," I said, wiping the blood from my face. "He's gone."
I looked at the city skyline.
I had survived my first encounter with a Rank A Hunter.
But I didn't win because I was stronger. I won because I was willing to hurt myself more than he was willing to hurt me.
That was my power.
Pain was my fuel.
"Let's go," I told the girl. "I know a princess who can help you."
The drone finally rebooted, its engines sputtering to life.
I climbed on.
The night was ending. The sun was rising over the toxic smog of Yorknew.
I was tired.
But Zev was awake.
And now, we had a new target.