LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 32: NO. 32 - Death Warrants
[General POV]
"Stop fucking moving, you bastard!"
"Nuh-uh."
Jin jumped back with a wince as he narrowly avoided the long blade arm of the man in front of him. The man had short grey hair and solid black eyes, and long, jagged blades made up his arms.
Growling, the man tried to dislodge his arm from the steel pillar he ended up stabbing his blade-arm into.
"Blast this crazy fucker, Tagawa!" The man with blades for arms yelled, looking up at a figure standing on several stacked containers within the warehouse.
"Hah! Already on it!"
Dashing behind a wooden box, Jin watched the box explode as a speeding ball of green energy crashed into it. Running away, Jin looked up to see a woman with short dark green hair place what appeared to be a bubble gum ball in her mouth. After chewing on it, she turned her head towards him and spat out another speeding ball of green energy.
"That's gross! Kinda cool, though." Jin said as he rolled back to avoid the speeding blast that smashed into the floor.
'Damn it! I'm gonna get caught! I-I need to make another me! I h-have to!' Jin thought as he hesitantly raised his arm to activate his quirk. 'N-no! I can't!'
"Got you!"
A very large man exploded out of the brick wall Jin was running alongside. Jin grunted in pain as he was grabbed by his shoulders by the man's large hands. Jin squirmed as he tried to escape the large man's grasp, but the four-meter-tall mutant who had him in his grasp grinned at his weak attempts.
The titan had red, plated skin with sharp white teeth. His muscles were capable of giving Endeavor a run for his money, as the only article of clothing he wore was a pair of old jeans.
"You wouldn't mind letting me down, do you?"
"...no."
Rearing his arms back, the red titan threw Jin across the warehouse. His speeding body crashed through several wooden crates until he rolled to a stop. Jin gasped in pain as his body rolled to a stop. Pushing past the pain, he tried to push himself up, but all he felt was agony throughout his limbs.
Looking down, Jin saw his blood began to pool under him, sending a wave of fear through him.
'No! No! If I'm not the original, I'm going to disappear! I have to get away!' Jin thought as he looked around the warehouse for an escape route. But due to his tired and injured state, all he could do was turn his head to stare out at the large skylight on the ceiling. 'C'mon body! Move!'
"You're losing your touch, Shigeo." Tagawa said as she landed a few feet away from Jin, causing him to jerk toward her.
"Fuck you! Just you wait, you crazy bastard, I'll rip you in two!" The man with blades for arms, Shigeo, growled as he walked toward Jin's position with an enraged expression.
"I prefer you don't. I quite like being whole." Jin said as he tried to get up but only ended up grunting in pain.
"Shut it, you crazy freak!"
"Easy now, Shigeo." The red titan, Ryo, said as he stomped over to stand next to Tagawa, who was chewing some gum. "We still need to ask this guy where The Vanishing Blades hide their loot."
"Fuck the loot," Shigeo growled as he stopped over Jin's head, his blade arm pulled back. "I'll take this guy's head to the Boss instead."
'Shit! What do I do?!' Jin yelled in his head as Shigeo looked down at him with a wide, bloodthirsty smile. His arm swinging down at him, ready to slice his head off. 'I don't want to die! Not when things were finally going right for me!'
"Shigeo, stop!" Ryo and Tagawa yelled as they rushed to stop their angry companion from botching their assignment.
Crash!
Everyone froze as the large skylight above broke into hundreds of shards of glass as a hooded figure descended towards them.
Turning to them, Sukuna slapped his hands together and spoke.
"Piercing Blood."
x x x
[Shimizu Souta POV]
I watched my attack pierce straight through the right shoulder of the man with blades for arms. The man yelled in pain as he staggered away from Jin to grab the large bleeding hole in his shoulder after turning his blade arm back to normal.
Landing on the ground, I quickly scanned the other two occupants in the room and then turned to Jin.
My friend was lying on a stack of broken wooden crates covered in his own blood while several cuts adorned his body.
"You three just signed your own death warrants," I said, standing to my full height, CE flowing around my arms.
[+5 SP]
[+5 SP]
[+5 SP]
[+10 SP]
"Who the hell is this guy?!" The green-haired woman yelled as she spat a ball of green energy at me.
I tilted my head to the side as the nasty energy ball flew past me. Seeing her attack miss, the woman quickly threw another bubble gum into her mouth.
So that's how it works.
Taking a step forward, I dashed straight at the green-haired woman with CE-enhanced speed. The woman and the large red man were briefly surprised at my burst of speed but quickly recovered. The red-skinned titan growled and swung his massive arm to crush me.
Projection Sorcery.
This technique divides one second into twenty-four frames of animation using the user's field of view as the projection angle of view. The user can trace a predetermined set of movements into those twenty-four frames and execute them in that single second.
Moving using this technique makes the user appear to move unnaturally fast, making them seem as if they are glitching around on the surface.
Bam!
"Hah! You weren't so tough!" The large red man laughed as his right fist crushed the ground in front of him. Sending smoke and dust around him. "That what you get for-"
"Ratio."
Wham!
[+10 SP]
I slammed my CE-covered fist into the large man's back. Launching him forward with a crack. The man slammed straight into a steel beam, bending and snapping the beam around it. With no support, several large crates ended up falling onto the man.
"Ryo! You bastard!" To her credit, the green-haired woman quickly recovered from the shock of seeing the red titan fly.
She was about to spit another ball of energy at me when I suddenly appeared in front of her with Projection Sorcery.
I slammed my hand over her fast-expanding mouth, causing her eyes to grow wide in terror.
"Bang," I muttered as her head exploded in a shower of gore and green energy. Thanks to my CE reinforcement, my hand was left with only a few scratches.
[+30 SP]
I watched her body tumble to the ground and looked over to the man I attacked with Piercing Blood.
"Hey, you. Dodge."
Mr. Blades-for-arms was clutching his bleeding shoulder with a scowl. "Y-you! You fucker! I'll tear you to shreds-"
Using Projection Sorcery, I appeared right in front of him and punched the side of his head with incredible force.
Due to the power of my CE-enhanced punch, the man's head did a full 360 spin. Causing several disgusting cracks to pop out of his neck. Lifeless, the man collapsed forward onto the ground.
[+30 SP]
"I told you to dodge," I muttered and turned to Jin. Seeing that my attention was now on him, Jin tried to raise his hands in surrender but only managed to twitch his arms.
"Hold the phone! I'm not with them!" Jin pleaded. "Yeah! We're part of a completely different criminal group!"
"Even when you're bleeding out, you're still the same as ever." I threw off my hood and deactivated my tattoos with a grin. "You need a hand, Bud?"
[+50 SP]
"SOUTA!" Jin yelled in shock, his eyes wide. "Why are you here?! Man, I'm happy to see you!"
"I'll explain later," I crouched next to him and placed a hand on his chest. "Now then, Switch."
Due to my body's current four technique limitation, I'm only capable of safely switching one of the four techniques I have equipped for another after a two-hour cooldown.
However, to bypass that wait time, I made a binding vow with myself that would allow me to switch any one of my four equipped techniques in an instant by saying the word "Switch." But in doing so, I would be down a slot for 24 hours. This could be done a total of three times.
"Pain Killer," I said as I switched Blood Manipulation for it and activated the technique, instantly stopping all of Jin's wounds from getting worse and numbing his pain. "There, that should keep you together until I finish up with that red guy."
[+30 SP]
"Wow, I feel better. Hold on, Red guy? Didn't you send him to go meet his Mommy?" Jin asked as he slowly sat up.
Crack!
"Nah, I only knocked him down for a little bit," I said, turning my tattoos back on as we turned to look at a very angry titan stomp toward us.
Ryo, I think his name was, turned to look at his dead companions, and his face contorted in what could be called unyielding rage.
"I'm going to smear you both all over these walls."
"Ooh, scary."
[+10 SP]
As I took a step forward, Jin grabbed my pants, stopping me. I turned to him in confusion and saw the worried look on his face. "I'm not sure what's going on or how you're capable of doing all this, Souta. But we need to run! This guy is too strong! I saw him rip one of my old crewmates into pieces! Pieces I tell you!"
"Relax, Jin," I said, patting his hand. "I won't lose. I'm pretty strong myself."
[+40 SP]
Stepping away from my friend, I cracked my neck and approached Ryo, who was now breathing deeply in anger. I stopped a few feet away from him and beckoned him on.
"C'mon then, big guy. Show me what you-"
Blam!
I moved to the side as his very large fist crashed into the floor where I once stood. Moving to his side, I landed rapid, fast punches to his ribs. Ryo shrugged them off and swung his entire left arm at me. Dashing back slightly to avoid his blow, I leaped up and landed two snap kicks onto his face.
Ryo grunted in pain, but he quickly reached out to grab me mid-air. But before he could lay his hands on me, two invisible attacks knocked his head back.
"Divergent Fist. Or kicks in this case." I landed on the ground and watched Ryo blink in confusion. "A rather easy trick to avoid. Well, that is if you're a Sorcerer."
[+10 SP]
"You damn, Brat!" Ryo roared, his red-plated muscles expanding to absurd levels. "I'll fucking kill you!"
"Give it your best shot."
Ryo roared and began to chase me through the warehouse. His large body crashed through anything that stood in his way.
As we moved, he tried to land dozens of punches, but his enraged muscle state had the adverse effect of slowing down his already slow speed. Despite that, I could acknowledge that his punches were extremely strong if all the craters he was making in his failed attacks were anything to go off by.
Let's see, I have the Ten Shadows, Pain Killer, and Ratio equipped. I backflipped away from Ryo's wild haymaker and grinned. Focusing my all on this fight, the sudden feeling of entering a flow state enveloped me. No, let's keep this simple and use straight hands!
I stopped dodging Ryo's attacks and stepped to the side, avoiding his latest punch. Seeing that I had finally stopped avoiding him, Ryo grinned and moved in. But at the sight of my excited smile, he hesitated.
"Too late." I stepped into striking range and swung. "Black Flash!"
[+20 SP]
"Gah!" Ryo yelled in pain as my fist sunk into his tough muscles.
Sparks of red and black sparked around us as the space around my strike distorted. Feeling my mind enter the zone, I grinned in excitement and jumped up.
"Black Flash!"
[+30 SP]
The red-skinned titan's head snapped up as my roundhouse kick crashed into his jaw. Spinning in mid-air, I spun around and landed an uppercut into his solar plexus.
"Black Flash!"
[+40 SP]
Ryo's eyes went white in pain as he stumbled back, his body swaying back and forth from the intense pain. Blurring in front of him, I felt my body be coated in an aura of CE before it concentrated over my right fist. I held my fist in my left hand by my side and struck with Ratio.
"Black Flash!"
[+80 SP]
Arcs of red and black shot out all around us as Ryo's large body was sent flying back until it crashed through the warehouse's north wall.
He landed in a heap outside, a large bleeding wound over his stomach. Walking out of the hole his body made in the wall, I looked down at his chest and saw no movement.
Four Black Flashes. Not bad.
"I hoped you were more durable than that," I muttered and walked back inside of the warehouse. "How disappointing."
As I walked , Jin was watching me with wide, unbelieving eyes.
[+10 SP]
"Damn, Bro. That was awesome!" Jin yelled as he tried to stand, only to lose his balance. Before he could fall on his face, I moved under his right arm and caught him.
"Easy there," I said, guiding him outside. "You may not feel it, but you're still cut up. I'd use Round Deer on you, but its RCT only seems to work on me."
"Round Deer? RCT? What's that? Is it Christmas already?" Jin said as he held his side, wincing in pain.
"Don't worry, Jin. Let's go get you patched up." I said as I summoned Nue. "Now then, hop on."
"Hop on?" Jin asked in confusion before I handed him a pair of Maki's glasses to put on. "What are you-Wow there! Is that a giant bird!? So neat! What's up with its face?"