Chapter 80: chap
Jayden had been forcefully ripped out of his intangible state, leaving him solid and vulnerable. He frowned and sped towards the device that was causing this effect, but before he could reach it, the air around him suddenly grew heavy.
A Gravity-manipulating mercenary held both hands out, veins popping on his forehead. The gravity in a ten-foot radius around Jayden multiplied tenfold. The pavement cracked beneath his boots, and Jayden was forced to one knee, the sheer pressure threatening to crush his organs.
"Got him!" the Gravity-merc yelled. "Someone take him out!"
Just then, one of the mercenaries, a sniper crouched on top of a shipping container unleashed a barrage from a plasma-artillery cannon.
Pinned by gravity and unable to phase, Jayden was a sitting duck. He gritted his teeth, forcing his mind through the crushing pressure, and unleashed his Telekinesis. He didn’t target the mercenaries; he targeted the steel doors of a massive shipping container next to him. With a brutal telekinetic rip, he tore the heavy steel doors off their hinges and slammed them into the ground above him like a pitched roof.
Pew! Pew! Clang! Clang!
The plasma artillery hammered the steel, melting the metal but failing to pierce it. As the metal glowed white-hot, Jayden telekinetically launched the superheated steel doors directly at the Gravity-merc. The man tried to dive out of the way, but the steel doors were faster. One slammed into him with the force of a wrecking ball, sending him flying and crashing against one of the containers. He dropped to the ground, unconscious, his gravity field dropping instantly
Freed, Jayden exploded upward. He sprinted at Mach speed, running straight up the vertical side of the shipping container. He reached the top in half a second, grabbed the artillery sniper by the armor, stabbed him in the gut with his claws, and hurled him off the edge into the freezing ocean below.
Four down.
Jayden dropped back to the docks, locking his eyes on the Tech-merc guarding the frequency disruptor. He dashed forward, but suddenly collided with an invisible, brick-wall of force.
A Shield-merc stepped in front of the device, projecting a dome of hexagonal kinetic energy. "You can’t break this, kid! It absorbs raw kinetic impact!"
Jayden slammed a fire-infused fist into the shield. The energy rippled, absorbing the blow and violently reflecting the force back at him, throwing Jayden skidding backward across the wet pavement.
Jayden frowned. He truly couldn’t break it. But then, an idea came into mind.
He crouched, tapping into his raw speed. Then he began running in a tight, dizzying circle around the Shield-merc and the Tech-merc. Faster and faster, he moved until he was nothing but a blur, generating a massive, localized vortex of wind and dust that blinded them both inside the dome. As they blindly fired their weapons into the dust cloud, Jayden stopped outside their field of vision, reached up with his telekinesis, and gripped the massive, ten-ton cargo hook dangling from the crane above them.
With a vicious downward pull, he dropped the hook. It bypassed the kinetic shield entirely, crushing the Tech-merc, the Shield-merc, and the frequency disruptor into a bloody, unrecognizable paste.
The disrupting waves vanished and his intangibility returned.
But then, the ground shook.
The Level 51 Brute roared, charging forward. His ability fully activated—his muscle mass doubled, tearing through his tactical gear, as thick, jagged plates of calcified bone erupted from his skin, forming an impenetrable biological armor.
Jayden ducked a swinging, bone-plated fist that shattered the concrete pillar behind him. He phased, attempting to let the Brute pass through him, but the Brute slammed his foot down, creating a localized shockwave that staggered Jayden just enough to disrupt his focus. Then he grabbed Jayden by the throat, hoisting him into the air, and slammed him down into the concrete with bone-shattering force.
Jayden gasped as the air left his lungs. He was cornered. The Brute raised a massive, spiked fist, preparing to cave his chest in.
Instinctively, Jayden channeled his kinetic energy into his own cells. The urge to activate Size Manipulation—to grow to ten feet tall and crush this man like a bug—flared wildly in his mind.
But he stopped himself at the very last microsecond.
Size Manipulation and Matter Absorption were the signature abilities of Jayden Starrk. If he used them here, amidst hidden cameras or surviving witnesses, the EVA would immediately cross-reference the abilities and he could become a suspect. He had to rely solely on the Phantom’s arsenal.
So instead, he channeled every single ounce of Strength into his muscles. As the Brute’s spiked fist came down, Jayden raised his hands and caught it.
BOOM.
The impact shattered the pavement in a ten-foot crater around them, but Jayden’s arms didn’t buckle. The Brute’s eyes widened in disbelief as the masked vigilante physically halted a strike backed by tons of force.
"My turn," Jayden smirked.
Then he violently twisted the Brute’s wrist, snapping the thick bone-plating and the joint beneath it with a sickening crack. As the massive man roared in agony, Jayden drove both boots into his chest, launching him backward. Then Jayden vanished into a blur, appearing directly above the stumbling Brute. He ignited his hands with roaring fire to soften the biological armor, extended his wolverine claws, and drove them straight through the weakened bone plate into the Brute’s neck, severing his spinal cord.
The man collapsed, dead before he hit the ground.
Seven down. One left.
The Level 53 Leader stood alone amidst the carnage. His face contorted in a mixture of absolute rage and terror as he surveyed the remains of the squad.
"You little freak!" the Leader hissed.
The air grew thick with ozone. Then he unleashed his power—a massive, volatile storm of crimson lightning. It wasn’t just targeted strikes; it was an area-of-effect plasma storm that scorched the very oxygen out of the air.
Jayden tried to phase, but the sheer electrical density of the attack immediately disrupted the air molecules around him, causing violent static shocks to burn his skin even in his intangible state. Phasing was suicide in this storm.
He dropped his intangibility and ran.
Red lightning bolts scorched the concrete mere inches from his heels, shattering crates and melting steel.
Jayden used his telekinesis to rip heavy metal sheets from the shipping containers, throwing them into the lightning’s path to act as temporary grounding rods.
"Stand still and burn!" the Leader roared, charging forward and firing a concentrated, continuous beam of red plasma directly at him.
Jayden didn’t evade. He dropped low, sliding across the pavement beneath the beam, the heat singing his hood. He sprang up into the Leader’s guard. The Leader panicked, supercharging his gauntlets for a point-blank detonation that would fry Jayden.
But Jayden was faster. He slapped the man’s gauntlets aside with a reinforced strike, drove a brutal knee into his sternum, and unsheathed his claws. But instead of slashing directly, he triggered his poison secretion and filled the laced the metallic claws with venom.
Then he drove the claws into the unarmored gap beneath the Leader’s jaw.
The Leader’s eyes rolled back instantly as the highly concentrated, lethal neurotoxin flooded his bloodstream. His crimson electrical aura sputtered, flashed violently, and died out entirely. Within three seconds, the man collapsed into Jayden’s arms, his heart failing completely from the venom. Jayden let the body drop to the floor.
Silence descended upon the bloody docks, broken only by the sound of the ocean and the hiss of cooling metal.
Jayden stood tall, the rain beginning to lightly drizzle over the chaotic scene. Eight dead or dying mercenaries. A small fortune in kinetic gear scattered around them.
A weak, pathetic groan caught his attention.
The Gravity-merc, who had barely survived the superheated steel doors, was dragging himself across the pavement. His leg was completely crushed, trailing a thick ribbon of blood.
Jayden walked over slowly, his boots splashing in the puddles. He stood over the trembling man, the imposing silhouette of his dark hood and featureless mask illuminated by a flickering, broken floodlight.
The mercenary rolled onto his back, his face pale with sheer terror. He had just watched a single man systematically slaughter a squad of elite, high-level mercenaries in under five minutes without breaking a sweat.
"How..." the mercenary choked out, coughing up a speck of blood. "Speed... intangibility... fire... telekinesis... strength... How can you have so many abilities?" He stared up at the masked demon, his voice breaking into a terrified sob. "What are you?"
Jayden looked down at the broken man. He thought about the EVA. He thought about the Black Cobra syndicate pulling the strings in the shadows. He thought about the massive bounty currently resting on his head, inviting the worst scum on the planet to his doorstep.fgiuuu ghggg ghggg ghggg
"I’m a hunter," Jayden replied softly, his voice echoing in the quiet night. Beneath the mask, a cold, confident smirk spread across his face.
"The Hunter."