I glance sideways to where it had been fighting She-Hulk, and see Banner’s relative trying to get up, biting down on her already split lip from the strain.
The soldiers’ gunfire the monster simply ignored entirely, the bullets weren’t piercing its hide.
Only making it angrier.
Alright, time to prove to myself that I’m at least capable of something.
If nothing else, to not let this monster finish what it started.
A burst forward out of the dark alley, so terrifyingly similar to the one where a thug’s corpse had once been left behind, and a completely puked-on, sobbing Lucian, weak and worthless.
Yes, that’s who I was, but no more.
For a second it feels like I can even see my own silhouette from the past, curled up in a miserable little ball next to the pile of trash and the thug’s body.
Yeah, the perfect spot for a coward.
Brighter light than in the alley hits my eyes, but the life energy in my body quickly brings them back to normal.
I notice how slowly people are moving and reacting to my appearance.
Someone, as if in slow motion, opens their mouth and shouts something, but my hearing is still failing me, and waves their hand too, waving me back…
again, slowly.
Seems like this was also a trigger for my “Entering the Zone” from Kagami.
But the monster keeps striding confidently toward the girl, striding at my speed!
Except I’m running!
A few moments that feel like an eternity, during which I’d already started to worry I wouldn’t make it in time, and then a textbook-perfect Jo-Lan Kick lands square on its jaw.
The monster freezes, not even flinching, and quite quickly tries to catch the leg that hit it with its hand.
Dangerous!
If it grabs hold — that’s the end of my leg for sure, and possibly me too.
But I hadn’t been counting on hurting it with that strike anyway, only on stunning and distracting it.
I push off its face with my legs and, by some miracle, dodge its enormous hand, which looks just as revolting as the rest of its body.
The gust of air from its sweeping motion throws me even further away from the monster.
I bleed off the momentum, landing in a backward roll.
The gremlin turns to face me, apparently having forgotten about the girl — seems a strike charged with life energy is more unpleasant than a bullet.
Contrary to my expectations, the monster didn’t charge at me, but at the nearest car, which it hurled at me.
Good thing there’s nobody in that direction.
I flatten myself against the asphalt, letting the car pass over me, feeling the gust of air it throws off, given the force and speed it was flying at me with.
Dangerous.
Doesn’t matter!
While the flying car was blocking its view of me, the gremlin proved it’s not just a beast and is capable of logical action — leaping toward me and up, so that the instant the car passed, it could land on me out of my blind spot.
If not for the shadow on the ground and my strangely heightened perception, it would have worked.
Even so, I only just managed to roll away in the last second, after which I got carried even further off by the shockwave of the monster’s landing, getting scraped by shards of asphalt flung out from where it landed, my back also getting dragged across a stretch of intact asphalt.
Painful.
Doesn’t matter!
I spring back to my feet, ignoring the pain in my left side and back, and barely dodge a punch.
Hm, that looked like an actual technique, if a clumsy one.
So it really isn’t just a mindless beast.
Using the airflow from its punch to spin my body around, I land a penetrating-damage Jo-Lan Rusiken — the same move that once folded even Rhino — right under the big guy’s ribs on the right side, drawing an irritated howl and a retaliatory swing of its arm.
I’m too weak.
Doesn’t matter.
Almost dancing my way out of the swing, spinning around my own axis in the process, letting the shockwave from the brute’s arm carry me along, I then strike straight into his chest with my other hand, using the same technique.
Except this time it doesn’t manage to collapse a lung or crack any ribs.
I can do this!
I dodge sideways from a double-armed strike that cracks the asphalt in front of the monster, letting the resulting shockwave carry me along again, then, touching down, push off in a burst that my leg muscles protest, and, finding myself just behind and to the side of the beast, land a Uzumaki Jo-Lan Kick right into the creature’s back.
My right leg goes slightly numb, the monster, not yet straightened back up, tilts forward a bit.
I can do this!
A Jo-Lan Chubasu, charged to the absolute maximum, so much so that the energy flow between my two hands tears my sleeves up to the elbow and starts pulling at my skin, slams into the head of the tilted monster, tearing its ear open, but contrary to my expectations, all I get in reward is a roar of rage and pain.
Does this thing even have a brain?
Doesn’t matter!
More!
I slip between the legs of the turning beast just as She-Hulk, having recovered enough during this pause, lands both feet into its back, forcing the gremlin to take a few steps to steady itself…
and immediately spin around trying to grab the girl, who hadn’t expected that much agility from the big guy, or hadn’t fully recovered yet.
A Rusiken flies from me into the monster’s limb from the side, maybe without much effect damage-wise, but it knocks the arm itself aside, letting the lady retreat.
I try to repeat her maneuver, but my strained leg, still not recovered from the kick to the creature’s back, buckles a little.
And the monster manages to catch my arm, after which it hurls me back into a wall some ten meters away.
There’s no way to twist around or catch hold of anything in midair.
Bad.
I can do better!
I get caught by strong but careful, gentle arms.
The girl returned the favor.
With interest.
“You okay, kid?” the woman asked me.
She’s putting on a brave face.
I can tell, but there’s a strained edge in her voice too.
I try to move the arm the gremlin grabbed — it won’t obey, responding instead with flashes of pain.
Either a break or a hairline fracture in the bone.
Possibly more than one.
Not done yet!
“A little awkward, having a hot girl carry me.
Always figured that was the guy’s job,” I answer her honestly, changing the subject and trying to lighten the mood with such a simple compliment.
“You’re a first for me too, handsome,” the girl winked, playing along with the joke, carefully setting me down on the ground and getting ready to meet the advancing monster.
But before it reached us, webbing hit it.
Except the gremlin yanks on the webbing, and right behind the webbing comes Spider-Man, taking a fist to the gut.
“Ugh, that’s a lot of strength you’ve got there.
Buddy, what do you even eat?
I want some too!” Peter said, peeling himself off the car he’d been thrown into, having dented it a fair bit with his body.
He really ought to do something about that voice, for the sake of being less recognizable.
Though, who am I to talk, not even wearing so much as a hood or a cap myself.
Though in a fight like this either one would’ve been torn off anyway.
The monster, having turned to face him, gets a pointed woman’s heel to its side with distinctly unladylike force, folding in half in a way it hadn’t even after my successful attack.
It blocks She-Hulk’s attempt at a backhand.
Its other arm, already raised for a strike, is stopped by Spider-Man’s webbing, as he braces against the ground, straining with everything he’s got to hold the monster’s arm back.
Impressive, Peter.
That’s a feat I can’t dream of pulling off yet.
But it’s too early to count me out either.
I approach the monster from behind and a Rusiken flies into the back of its head, maybe managing to send a penetrating pulse deep and hard enough to reach the brain.
The monster staggers.
Not enough!
More!
A new strike, the gremlin roars.
Parker couldn’t hold and gets sent flying.
Another strike!
Naturally every strike is a perfectly executed Jo-Lan Rusiken.
She-Hulk held the monster down as long as she could, but it lifted an arm through sheer strength and flung the girl a dozen meters away, cracking the wall she hit besides.
Another strike!
I won’t give up!
Its right arm reaches for me, but gets stopped by webbing from Parker, who’d perched on top of a car.
Oh, you idiot…
which the monster immediately proves by simply tearing him off the car, roof panel and all, still stuck to it.
But that bought me another couple of moments.
Meaning — another strike!
Never giving up again!
A powerful spin from the gremlin sends me flying off it entirely.
That’s it, if I hit anything at that speed, I’m not surviving it.
Completely forgot about the new multi-life card, and now it’s too late anyway.
My thoughts are interrupted by webbing flying into me.
A yank on it (ow), and I’m practically in Parker’s arms.
My previous catch was better.
“You okay— huh?” apparently only now did he actually get a good look at me, and froze for a moment, recognizing me.
“I’m fine, thanks, Peter,” while no one else can hear us, I decide on something.
And I do owe him now, don’t like owing people.
And judging by the moves he’d shown so far, and what I’d found online — someone here doesn’t know how to actually fight and is coasting on sheer strength, and running into an opponent like this today, Peter, who could’ve been more useful than me, hasn’t accomplished all that much so far.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” a little less tension in his voice and I’d almost have believed him.
“First, I’d suggest you change your voice up somehow going forward.
Second, I’m not a mutant or anything like that, but I’m trained in the art of manipulating life energy, including sensing it — you think I can’t recognize my own classmate’s life energy at this range?
Pfft…
anyway, thanks.
Once this is all over, come by my place, I’ve got a couple things that might be useful to you,” I nodded at him, staring seriously at the mask, right where Peter’s eyes should be.
He nodded, a little dazed, and helped me to my feet.
After which, apparently to escape the awkward conversation, he threw himself back into the fight.
And She-Hulk did need help, having held the monster off alone this whole time.
“I remember what you’re called now…
Abomination,” I said, looking at the monster — Abomination, with a capital A.
And yeah, while I was getting back into the fight, I confirmed that there wasn’t a shred of technique in Peter’s movements.
But the way he dodges at the last possible second…
the legendary Spider-Sense?
Even a little jealous of that.
But he’d caught both of the monster’s arms, and a contest of raw strength began, because what would Marvel be without one.
She-Hulk was still clawing her way out of the wreckage of the store she’d been thrown into.
I slipped in from behind and a fresh Jo-Lan Chubasu…
informed me that with only one arm, I couldn’t manage a powerful charge, and that my other arm was on its very last legs.
But I did my part — Spider-Man, losing up until then, managed to lock the roaring monster’s arm, She-Hulk, arriving at a run, knocked the other one aside, even landing a solid hit on Abomination’s face for good measure, and then the “heavy artillery” showed up.
Nearly scattering the three of us in the process, Hulk plowed the monster down.
“And what happens from here is definitely outside my wheelhouse,” I said, watching the clash of the two monsters, plopping down onto the asphalt, noting how the state I’d been in since the start of the fight was dissipating.
And how the pain was piling onto my whole body.
“That’s an interesting mutation you’ve got, body hardening and energy strikes, or just a straight-up super-body?” She-Hulk approached me, or rather limped over.
“I’m not a mutant at all.
Pure human, I can just manipulate life energy…” “Sure, like all humans can do that,” the girl scoffed, her eyes having gone wide at the start of my little speech.
“Actually, yeah, every single one of them can, but only after long training, which I haven’t even finished myself yet.
It’s a martial art, nothing more,” I answered wearily, looking her in the eyes.
Where I could clearly see disbelief first, then shock.
“Come on, someone would’ve heard about this by now,” she waved that off, watching the spider-guy still not settling down, trying to help her relative, even though it wasn’t really needed.
“Why wouldn’t they have heard about it?
All those movies and stories about Chinese cultivators didn’t come from nowhere.
And don’t look at me like that.
We’ve got a whole Thor secretly playing hero in New York, possibly the actual one, so why couldn’t ‘genuine’ martial arts exist too, the ones that a couple of countries have thousands of myths and legends about — myths that don’t just appear out of nowhere in that number and that consistency,” I waved her off.
Something’s not feeling right.
“So you’re saying you…” “An ordinary human who knows how to wave his arms and legs around, yeah…
and who probably needs a hospital, since I got hit pretty hard,” I answered seriously, feeling something warm running down my back.
“Damn, you really do need a hospital,” the girl looked me over, then smirked oddly, “heh, this’ll be the second time I carry a handsome guy whose name I don’t even know.” “You didn’t introduce yourself to me either, gorgeous lady.
I’m Lucian,” hm, I’ve never exactly been a smooth talker, yet here I go being all flowery — clearly some assimilation talking.
“Flatterer.
I’m Jennifer, Jen to my friends, nice to meet you,” having watched the last moments of the fight (Hulk had literally flattened his opponent), and with a blonde approaching the victor, Jen leapt onto the nearest building.
“Bruce,” I managed to hear the blonde’s voice.
Guessed that must be the one who could calm Hulk down.
Well, looked like…
victory.
Even if it wasn’t mine — despite everything, all the techniques and tricks I’d used, I hadn’t come anywhere close to winning.
But Hulk…
less than a minute and it was done, the opponent beaten.
Damn, even a little jealous of that.
“Damn it!
And I never even bought the new multicooker,” it hit me.
“Now’s the time to think about that,” the lady answered after a few chuckles, taking in my expression and tone.
Ugh, and here I am being carried princess-style.
My life has clearly taken a wrong turn…
again.
And also, something’s finally really starting to hurt.
“I don’t know anything, I was on my way to get one in the first place!” I managed to say indignantly before blacking out.
Oh, 2B is going to give me hell for all of this.
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There are chapters ahead.
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