NOVEL NEXT Chapter 60: Run.
I stared as two people with a power level clearly over a hundred began to get ready to fight. One, a stranger I'd met not too long ago but one I was already growing close to through sympathy if nothing else. Another, a man so beyond evil that it made fear and despair spring up in my heart from his sight alone. A man who'd killed over a thousand of me. My personal executioner.
It was not too far off from staring at a bomb about to go off. The second they started fighting, I'd be dead. It didn't matter if a single attack hit me, standing too close would be exactly like standing next to a bomb and taking it with nothing but my body. I was stronger now, stronger than I could have ever imagined, but I had a long way to go before I could survive that.
"Mutai." Cooler suddenly said, still staring the director down.
"Yeah?"
"Run."
Despite saying that, I suddenly found myself flung backwards and crashing through cables and into a machine as Cooler charged the Director. I groaned, only to feel like I was punched in the face right after as the two connected. My head slammed into the metal behind me and I saw stars.
Despite feeling like a leaf in the storm, the floor and walls held better than the store above had. I looked towards the fight-
And scowled.
The Director looked serious but he had blocked Cooler's attack with a single arm, palm facing towards himself. Then he-
I blinked, the attack too fast for me to see. One moment Cooler was there and the next… he simply was not. I heard a loud bang reverberate but all I saw was the Director's knee going all the way up to his own chin. He turned his head upwards and-
The fight started in earnest, as Cooler came crashing back down to the ground like a meteor, nearly knocking me out as blow after blow was exchanged. They seemed to flicker around in mid air, clash after clash happening at such incredible speeds. It was like taking hundreds of invisible punches! My body screamed as it struggled just to stand before the storm of power in front of me. They were so fast! It was horrifying to watch people move so quickly! They were blurs, clashing, causing shockwave after shockwave to erupt. It was beyond anything I'd ever seen, anything I'd ever felt and as I watched, covering my face…
I learned.
The Director attacked almost exclusively in a style that felt bizarre to come from someone so evil. Knees and elbows. That was his style but it was devastating. It didn't give off the feeling of a whole civilization behind it like Master's did but it carried so much uniqueness all on its own. It was from a totally different branch entirely than what I'd seen so far.
Cooler was different.
He didn't know how to fight.
It was clear as day that was the case. But he adjusted rapidly. He may not know how to fight but it was clear he'd at least thought he'd need to at some point and had come up with a plan. His body moved, flowing through what were clearly pre-set moves and then switching instantly to instinct. He'd said he had innate wisdom as a Kitsune and I was starting to see exactly what that could mean. His moves were predictable and then suddenly they were wild and smooth. And the default was always the instinct, even if it completely messed up the preplanned moves he had.
Cooler may not know how to fight but he'd clearly worked on giving his body to his subconscious, even if it meant he clawed or bit or did a palm strike that seemingly did nothing. The blurs were too fast for me to truly see, my eyes straining to track them as they flew and clashed throughout the room. I felt as though I was adjusting to the speed but being good at fighting didn't make my eyes any faster. My perception couldn't keep up with them for very long. Like trying to track speeding jets that practically teleported. They only seemed to stop for a split moment at particularly fierce clashes, before they practically vanished again.
What level of strength was this?! Was this… truly how far I had to go? Barely the first step, a fraction of a fraction of Vega's power, and I struggled to even be in the same room?!
"Mutai! Run!"
I moved. It wasn't even the words, my danger sense had screamed and I had been on the edge of my sanity since the moment a true enemy with that much power had shown up. I was moving the moment I'd felt even a bit off.
I fell and-
A beam destroyed where I had been not mere moments ago.
My eyes widened and it seemed like suddenly the fighting had gone up a few notches in intensity. Beams and ki blasts began to fly through the air, purple and dark, reminding me of Vega. And red, yellow, and white, sometimes mixed with tinges of black. They destroyed- they destroyed everything!
I watched in horror, as one of the purple beams went straight for the clone I'd first seen. Right before it connected, I saw it. His eyes opened.
He's awake. That had been what was off. He'd been awake the whole time.
The beam connected.
And then he was no more.
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Every nerve and cell of my body went cold.
That was me. That had been me. That could be me.
I have to get out of here.
I ran, legs burning, trusting Cooler with my life as I sprinted for the airlock where the Director had first come in. I had to get the fuck out of here! I was fast and the distance was short but in those moments my eyes widened as the Director appeared next to me, beam in hand, aimed for my face.
I was going to die. I was going to die just like a second ago. Just another dead. Just another Mutai dead. I was going to die.
My heart stopped, my eyes widened, the beam grew larger and every regret seemed to scream up at me at once.
My life flashed before my eyes before-
It missed. Knocked off course by another beam striking it. They clashed so close to me that I could feel my skin burning and melting. I didn't stop, I couldn't stop, death was following me.
I crossed the airlock and into the workroom from before, temporarily free from the room of horror. Those walls were sturdy, they'd have to hold for at least a single seco-
A metal ball slammed into the wall next to my head with enough force to crush it had it hit. It had gone through the wall. My already racing heart nearly stopped again as my eyes shook like lightning in a storm.
Two level hundreds were fighting. Was anywhere safe for me?
Was I going to die as just another bystander? Was today the day I lost my life?
Before I could figure out where on earth to run to, the ball began to glow bright and purple. WHAT?! You have to be kidding me?! A BOMB?!
I turned, running, readying myself for an explosion I had no hope of escaping. I shoved my hands on my ears, preparing myself for the earth shattering sound. My blood felt like liquid plasma, adrenaline breaking my mind into pieces as-
I froze, despite the horror and panic and more, I froze.
For a sound unlike any I could have ever expected roared from behind me.
It sounded big.
It sounded hungry.
And it sounded… metallic?
If I hadn't had my ears covered, it might have shattered my eardrums.
I turned, my mind desperately crying out to a fair world, to have this be a dream or a fantasy. To have this just be a whole big bad nightmare. To have what all my senses were telling me was behind wasn't true. To have the world make sense again.
I turned… and looked up. And up and up.
A Dinosaur. A massive dinosaur, made of all metal. Red eyes stared down at me with a jaw filled with razor sharp gleaming teeth. Two massive legs, small arms, a thick tail, and over double my height. It looked at me and I saw nothing but hunger in those giant glaring red eyes.
A Mecha T-Rex.
[50]
"Oh. This is a bad day."
The T-rex cared not for my wit or realization. It simply roared again, nearly deafening me and-
Breathed a massive wave of fire.
******
Mutai was safe.
A roar shook the very foundations, cracking a few tanks that were still miraculously intact.
Mutai was mostly safe. He would manage. He did not seem weak. Cooler couldn't spare the attention to save him right now, even as his heart shook slightly.
Cooler was preoccupied with the true enemy. His body followed a martial arts he had engraved into his heart and practiced relentlessly for over fifteen years. He had trained in it any time he could manage, engraving the very essence of it into his mind and movements. Thousands of hours had been spent watching these moves in the single hours he got online every day. He'd studied till his eyes had bled and practiced till his body had screamed. He could no more fail to follow up than he could suddenly start breathing backwards.
A knee came towards him, perfectly countering his basic and predictable moves.
His body broke the pattern and bit the calf like a wild animal. His hands formed claws and scratched deep furrows into the arm that followed, even as he was hit by the second knee.
He saw the Director scowl, even as Cooler felt his body create a new dent in the ceiling.
"You focused that much on your innate wisdom? Remarkable."
Cooler had known he may one day have to fight to escape. He had no illusions after so long as to how strong the Director was. He had needed a plan and had long formed such a plan. As long as he had worked on his basic martial arts, he had worked even longer on meditation, focusing on his very subconscious. Connecting deeply with his primal instincts and the Innate Wisdom that allowed all Kitsune to walk and talk shortly after birth.
A beam came for him and he dodged completely differently than he should've, being clipped by it.
It proved vital as a second beam he hadn't even known about flashed where he would've gone.
He growled, showing his teeth, and ran through the air on all fours like a wild fox, leaping at the Director, scoring a ki empowered claw directly against a spinning Director's elbow. How he had spun so fast was a mystery, but the clash seemed to spark and ignite the air and he felt his body being pushed back.
He refused to give in and the clash had a clear winner as he found himself destroying a tank with a clone of someone with red eyes and silver hair, before a follow up beam vaporized the poor person to nothing. Cooler scowled. These were people, just like him, being murdered in this clash. He shoved the feelings down, dodging a dozen thinner beams that began to aim for his vitals and firing a few small ki blasts at the Director.
"You're quite a bit stronger than predicted. X-72 was that effective? I always hated working with energy principles. One mistake, and look what it caused. An end to everything."
"Not yet." Cooler said calmly.
"Oh?"
"You still breathe. I shall fix that."
"Yes yes, threaten all you like you rabid animal. But I've noticed your state already. Your Ki seems to have a thread of black in it. Quite an unusual color, wouldn't you say?"
Cooler scowled. He shot a few more blasts, noting the slight tinge of dark within a few of them.
"There's a reason you don't see Black Ki. You should know that, right? It's a sign of either energy instability or corruption. So tell me, which is it Seventy Four? Are you about to explode, or disintegrate from the inside out? I look forward to either option."
Cooler grimaced.
I do not have long.