As Izuku Midoriya used his black tendril to traverse the area and fling himself from structure to structure, his Danger Sense signaled a fast-moving object flying straight toward him.
He immediately dodged by quickly shifting his head, catching a brief glimpse of the object: a King of Spades playing card.
The attacker stood in the middle of a well-designed stone bridge. On their face was a nasty grin, one filled with murderous satisfaction. It was the expression of someone for whom murder was a way of life, and they gladly partook in it.
Midoriya attached himself to the structure, keeping his eyes focused on the attacker, who wasn't making any effort to hide themselves. The dead bodies strewn across the bridge sparked an intense feeling within Midoriya.
He wanted to stop this man, right here and right now.
The corpses wore the easily identifiable uniforms of the White Dragon's Scales, a mercenary group hired by one of the city's council members. They had been in the process of evacuating some civilians when a random attacker forced them to shift their focus.
Midoriya looked at the man standing in the middle of the bridge. His expression made it clear that he was enjoying the slaughter he had carried out and was currently reveling in it.
He had a tall, muscular physique and wore the outfit of a jester. The outfit wasn't colorful, but its design drew some inspiration from a circus jester. A spade and a club were sewn onto the front of the upper sleeve, while a heart and a diamond adorned the back.
The jester had already noticed Midoriya and was wary of him. Midoriya sensed that the jester was taunting him, taking pleasure in the slaughter he had carried out. He recognized the taunt, that if he had charged in immediately, he would have been counterattacked.
However, the enemy wasn't particularly powerful. Midoriya knew he was stronger, but his enemy was a jester, and jesters were known for their tricks. For now, Midoriya kept his distance.
Midoriya scanned the surroundings. There were no souls nearby, and the exits were covered with rabbits. Megumi Fushiguro was nearby, but Midoriya couldn't quite ascertain his ally's location.
He then glared at the jester. There were no visible escape routes. Rabbits had converged on the other end of the bridge, while Midoriya was positioned above the opposite end. There was also the waterway below, but its current was slow, making the jester's escape difficult.
Midoriya dropped down from the structure he was holding onto, landing softly on the ground. He slowly approached the bridge while the jester continued shuffling through some playing cards. Something clung to them that Midoriya couldn't quite make out, but he could tell the cards were far from ordinary.
There was also something strange about the jester. The strange aura surrounding the man, from Midoriya's perspective, wasn't too dissimilar to Megumi's.
"You.... what's your name." The jester asked, his voice surprisingly high, drenched in bloodlust or lust?
Midoriya's glare hardened. "I have a feeling that you already know." He thought that this jester was part of Ainz's nightmarish allies.
The jester licked his lips. "Correct but I would rather hear it from you."
"My name is -"
The jester's location exploded as something dropped from above before Midoriya could answer the question. It was the chimera beast, an amalgamation of several shikigami or shadow summons and one of Megumi's strongest tricks. The bridge was obliterated, and water from the waterway below shot upward, splashing Midoriya.
"Is he dead?" Megumi asked, appearing beside Midoriya.
"I should be asking that! Shouldn't we be questioning him?" Midoriya barked.
After a beat. "We sorcerers are not heroes. We don't give our enemies a chance, especially if they constitute as a major threat." Megumi answered with little flavor.
The moment the words left Megumi's mouth, Midoriya's Danger Sense flared. He lunged, seizing Megumi as a jet-black tendril lashed out from his hands to anchor them to a nearby streetlight, yanking them both clear of the danger just in time.
Several impossibly sharp playing cards shot forward before embedding themselves in a wall. The chimera beast let out a huge roar before charging straight at the jester, who was drenched and standing a few meters away from the broken bridge on the opposite side.
"He's able to see it?" Megumi muttered.
"No, it's most likely that he can sense it." Midoriya chimed in. "If he was able to see it then he would have been able to dodge the drop in time. He managed to escape but not without being crushed momentarily."
The chimera beast stood upright despite its appearance as a quadrupedal creature. It then threw several punches. The jester blocked and redirected them, but not without difficulty.
As the jester redirected another punch, Midoriya immediately joined the fight, appearing beside him with a punch already wound up. The jester was caught off guard by Midoriya's speed and had no time to react.
The punch connected, sending the jester flying. The chimera beast didn't relent and immediately pounced on him as he crashed against a street pole, blood dripping from his mouth.
Midoriya felt something strange on his cheek. Megumi appeared right beside him and squinted, trying to determine what it was. Midoriya's Danger Sense flared once more, and he sidestepped with practiced grace — but a chunk of rubble still caught him across the neck.
"Ah! My neck! It hurts!"
"Midoriya!" Megumi shouted as he made a hand signal to increase the number of rabbits of behind him. The rabbits swirled like soft, melted clay before crashing against the jester, who was already being pummeled by the upright chimera beast.
"I'm okay! I was just surprised." Midoriya said, wiping his face with his gloves as blood dripped from his ears. His neck ached.
"We need to keep our distance. No need to exert effort when my chimera is doing the work."
"What if they'll escape?"
"I have rabbits all over the city and the surrounding area, so he won't be able to escape unless he has some kind of invisibility."
Megumi said, then glanced at Midoriya. The strange energy that had latched onto Midoriya's cheek was gone. His gaze shifted to the jester, who was likely fighting for his life with intensifying fervor. There was something familiar about the jester's power system.
(Pre-Greed Island Hisoka. The next chapter is... something new.)