Free Web NovelChapter 104: The Storm Part 9
CLANG!
The impact blasted a shockwave across the ruined capitol entrance.
Lightning burst outward from Aris’s talons at the exact same moment Francis’s claw slammed into the crossed blades from the side.
For the first time, the masked agent’s footing shifted.
His boots carved through the ground as pressure exploded beneath him.
Aris’s eyes flickered slightly.
Francis timed it perfectly.
Not too early.
Not too late.
The moment lightning surged across her talons; he twisted around the outer edge of the current without even looking at her. He moved through the smallest gap.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
But Francis did not stop there.
The instant the block connected, he disappeared from Aris’s side.
A blur.
No hesitation.
Aris’s eyes widened slightly.
Fast.
Far faster than before.
Francis reappeared low on the agent’s right side, claws ripping upward toward the gaps beneath the arm plating.
The masked fighter reacted immediately.
One sword broke away from the guard and intercepted the slash.
CLANG!
At the same moment, Aris attacked again.
Lightning erupted around her arm before condensing into a spear-like burst aimed straight at his torso.
Francis moved first before she even fired.
He twisted around the agent’s flank with unnatural precision, avoiding her line completely.
The bolt crashed down.
BOOOOM!
Blue light swallowed the opponent.
Electricity exploded across the armor and crawled over both blades, forcing the masked agent backward half a step.
"What kind of armor does this guy have?" Francis asked, surprised by how little damage their combined assault did.
"It’s Legendary Tier armor," Aris explained. "And those two blades are Elite Rank weapons."
But that’s not the only reason he can withstand my attacks." Her voice lowered slightly. "His body itself is monstrously durable."
"Monstrously durable?" Francis chuckled. "Funny hearing that from you when we look like a bunch of anomalies."
Aris did not respond.
Or rather, she deliberately chose not to.
Her expression was cold as lightning continued to crawl across her wings in sharp bursts. If anything, the atmosphere around her became slightly heavier after hearing his joke.
Francis noticed immediately.
"...Not a good way to joke, huh."
No reaction.
Not even a glance.
The masked agent used that exact moment to move.
A compressed wind slash exploded toward them without warning.
The attack carved a deep line through the street before it even fully reached them.
Francis’s instincts screamed.
He twisted sideways immediately.
SHRRRK!
The invisible blade still scraped across his shoulder, tearing flesh apart and sending blood into the air.
Aris reacted at the same time.
Lightning burst beneath her feet as she shot upward, narrowly avoiding a second wind slash that passed beneath her and sliced through an entire building behind her.
The masked agent did not stop.
His swords blurred.
SHING! SHING! SHING!
Multiple pressure blades tore across the battlefield from different angles.
The attacks came too quickly.
Francis ducked under one slash while another passed inches above his head. A third forced him to leap backward as the ground where he stood split apart instantly.
The pressure surrounding him continued to rise with every passing second, distorting the dust and debris around the battlefield until even the air itself felt unstable.
Francis rolled his shoulder once while keeping his eyes locked on the enemy.
"When he defends against your lightning directly, the wind pressure weakens for a moment," he said calmly. "Not by much, but it’s there."
Aris understood immediately.
A normal fighter would never be able to exploit such a tiny opening in the middle of combat, especially against someone this fast. But both of them operated at a level where fractions of a second decided everything.
Lightning crackled violently across her wings.
"Then stop giving him room to stabilize."
Francis grinned. "Now you’re talking."
The masked agent vanished first.
The street exploded beneath his feet as multiple wind slashes tore across the battlefield in intersecting arcs, each one sharp enough to slice through buildings several blocks away.
Unlike before, the attacks came layered together, overlapping in ways that cut off escape routes instead of simply aiming to kill directly.
She immediately understood the intention.
He was controlling space now. freewebnσvel.cѳm
"KRRRRRKKK!"
Lightning erupted outward from her body in a wide burst, intercepting two incoming wind slashes head-on.
The collision detonated into violent shockwaves that shattered nearby windows and blasted chunks of concrete high into the air, but a third invisible blade still slipped through the chaos and cut toward Francis from his blind side. freeweɓnovel.cøm
But that was the thing. He has no blindside and easily dodges the attack.
Meanwhile, Aris was doing everything she could to avoid the relentless barrage of wind slashes while continuing her own assault at the same time.
BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM!
Finally, they saw a crack on their opponent’s armor. The Legendary Tier item started breaking apart visibly.
Cracks spread across the chest plating.
Sections near the ribs glowed red-hot under the constant electrical bombardment.
Fragments of armor chipped away piece by piece under the overwhelming force.
The masked agent roared as compressed wind exploded around his body in an attempt to resist the attack,
"NOW!" Aris shouted.
KRRRRRKKK!
A massive lightning pillar slammed downward directly onto her opponent’s position.
And Francis was waiting for exactly that.
The second the pressure fluctuated—
He activated Instant Drive.
The ground exploded beneath Francis’s feet as he shot straight through the outer edges of the lightning pillar, weaving between the violent electrical arcs with terrifying precision.
Blue currents snapped past his body from every direction, close enough to burn the air around him, yet his movements never slowed for even a moment.
Then his posture changed.
His muscles compressed abruptly.
Momentum gathered.
Aris immediately felt it.
The air around Francis distorted unnaturally as all the speed and force from his previous movements condensed into a single point. Even the broken ground beneath him cracked apart under the pressure building around his body.
’ Momentum Breaker.’
The instant he reached the masked agent; Francis twisted his entire body and unleashed the most powerful attack he had used since the battle began.
SHRRRRAAAAAKKK!!!
A violent shockwave burst outward as the claw descended with enough force to distort the air itself. The masked agent reacted instantly, crossing both swords upward while compressed wind erupted around him in an attempt to redirect the impact.
But it barely mattered.
CRAAAAACK!
One blade shattered on contact.
The claw tore straight through the weapon before continuing downward without slowing at all.
The remaining force slammed directly into the Legendary Tier armor.
For a split second, resistance held.
Then the armor broke.
SHRRRK!
The claw carved brutally across the masked agent’s chest and shoulder, ripping through layers of plating as black blood exploded outward beneath the lightning storm.
The impact launched him across the battlefield like a cannon shell.
BOOOOM!
His body crashed through multiple ruined structures before finally slamming hard against the side of a distant building, cracking the entire wall behind him from the force alone.
Silence briefly swallowed the battlefield.
Even Aris looked slightly stunned.
That attack had nearly cut straight through Legendary Tier equipment.
Francis slowly straightened while steam rose from his arm.
Parts of his claw were torn open from the recoil, dark blood dripping onto the ruined street beneath him.
He acted like it was no big deal, casually rolling his shoulder while blood dripped from his torn claws, but in reality, his condition was far worse than he let on.
[Energy: 8/70]
The warning flashed repeatedly in his vision.
That last attack had consumed almost everything he had left.
Instant drive and Momentum Breaker were never meant to be used recklessly.
Compressing that much force into a single strike placed enormous strain not only on his energy reserves but also on his body itself. The muscles in his arm were already tearing apart internally from the recoil alone.
Francis ignored the pain and kept grinning anyway. Although Momentum Breaker was unable to completely negate the backlash from such a violent maneuver, the injuries he received were mostly superficial.
"What are you waiting for?" Francis asked. "Go inside the capitol and finish what you came here for."
It was a lie, of course.
The masked agent was barely holding himself together after the combined assault, and Francis could see it clearly.
The unstable breathing.
The damaged armor failing to fully reconnect.
The way black blood continued pouring from the wound near the ribs.
The man was already half-dead.
Which made him far more valuable alive than destroyed.
A body capable of surviving Legendary Tier armor strain and wielding wind pressure powerful enough to split apart Aris’s lightning was far too precious to waste.
Compared to Lex, the difference in quality was obvious.
Francis wanted that body.
And for that to happen, he needed privacy.
Aris stared at him for another second before finally giving a small nod.
The appearance of the masked agent has never been part of her original plan. His interference could have easily dragged the battle into a long and exhausting confrontation that would waste both time and energy before she even reached her real target.
But thanks to Francis helping, the situation was resolved much faster than expected.
"Don’t die before I come back," she said coldly.
