CHAPTER XX: Rampage
1162 Words
To the audience who weren’t expecting his dramatic appearance, this may have been the most graphic that Cross presented himself to them. Rare it is yet eloquent of his intent to erase someone there from his kill list.
Noumenon gazed at the intervention personified and clad in a black hooded trench coat. Noticeably, there are leather straps at his chest and long sleeves. His hands were gloved of the same color, and half of his face was ensconced with a neck gaiter mask. Like their first encounter, he only revealed his eyes; on the contrary, although these possessed a hint of red, they weren’t gleaming like before.
Manica, meanwhile, knew very well that he’s here to end his life. This vigilante, as he heard, eliminates those who feed on the illicit lucre of criminality, mostly those surreptitious. He hated to admit it, but he is amazed at how this notorious killer gathers information about the deepest and darkest secrets of criminal masterminds inside Intramuros. The intelligence he has access to may be even on par with that of the Maharlikan president.
He, of course, is guilty as he is involved in money laundering and has ordered assassinations of important figures who ally themselves with his political opponents. All he did and will further do is for the sake of his victory in the mayoral elections next year.
This is bad. He thought. Unlike his typical foes, he came across someone who is an epitome of mystery; he doesn’t know one real fact about him, and he was told that he makes his major targets commit suicide.
“Boss!” called one of his men behind him.
Except for Gravis who chose to spectate at first, the vice mayor’s henchmen, led by Pyrus and Buff sprinted towards him. Even when they know that he will not die easily, there was no guarantee about his safety especially since it’s the master murderer.
Pyrus crossed her hands in the air then motioned them over to Cross. As she did, sheets of paper were flying in a blistering pace towards him, ready to slice him to pieces.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The master murderer didn’t even flinch and merely glanced at the spectacular attack. With just that, these whirled over to the direction of their manipulator.
Astounded and terrified, Pyrus tried to counter the sheets and take control; however, she appeared to have no command over these anymore. Buff was then quick to carry her and retreated when the sheets stabbed their co-workers that resulted to their grotesque doom. Nearly a dozen of carcass piled up in the gallery with their limbs severed.
Noumenon stared horrified at the abundant flow of red liquid which spread over to the floor. The brutality there was excessive, and the sea of blood made her nauseous. She slowly made way to the wall on her right to support half of her weight. She wanted to vomit, but her stomach had nothing for her to disgorge.
It was too quick that she even thought she might have just imagined it that Cross glanced at her. It wasn’t a second later that she was floating.
“Aaaaaah!” she shrieked. She was—not even the slightest gentle— suddenly hurled through a broken window then landed roughly outside, on the ground, several feet away from the politician’s mansion.
“Urrh,” she groaned. The entirety of her body ached, highlighted by the bullet wound on her calf.
After seeing her gotten out of the chaos, Manica nervously smirked at Cross. “How sweet of you to save someone, my dear master murderer; I thought you only knew how to kill.”
His taunt was meant to mock him and make him angry, yet Cross only stared back at him. There and then, his eyes shined red and Manica’s turned the same. With the gun on his hand, he connected its muzzle to one side of his head and….
Bang! He shot himself. Thud!
“Boss!” shouted Buff as he and Pyrus saw him fall down lifeless. Gravis, on the other hand, just watched them panic.
The bovine-looking man, with activated indignation, rushed hell-bent on subduing Cross. The latter felt a booming vibration below his soles.
Braaag! Braaag! Braaag! And there was tremor every time he leapt just to get near him.
His companion, at the back, supplemented his attack with a high wall of paper to confuse their opponent which way he would emerge.
Psssh! And just as Pyrus anticipated, Cross took over controlling the sheets and dismantled her makeshift wall. On cue, Buff came from his right and jumped above him.
Cross reacted fast and froze him overhead; however, he had disregarded for a moment that he was against a tag team. Pyrus heaved hundreds of sheets at his direction.
Bolosshh!
With her interruption, he lost focus on Buff who launched a kick to his face.
Blaaag! Came the sound of his foot’s impact to the floor, greatly damaging it. He evaded this, yet the latter only started. He followed this with a series of blows while Pyrus covered the long range assault.
Cross got both of his hands full, and he wasn’t given a room to counter. He knew that he shouldn’t be careless; one erroneous move and he might lose here. He was up against two experienced combatants who complemented each other’s dynamic; nevertheless, it didn’t mean that with their combined might gained them the upper hand against him.
They capitalized on his being only at the defensive and signaled each other to wrap this up. The former lunged at him and finally….
“Hmp!” The master murderer grunted.
He landed a piercing blow to Cross causing him to tumble on the floor. Pyrus saw this as the perfect chance and launched hundreds of sheets to cut off his head.
Bang!
Yet it wasn’t enough to be their feat. Before they could manage to finish him off, Cross flipped himself back up, quickly pulled out a gun, and shot Buff on his chest; at the same time, he repelled the sheets, and these dispersed in the air.
Whoosh!
Pyrus wasn’t even allowed to gasp as her body was slammed to the far wall behind her. Blaag!
Cross looked around him. The woman who manipulates paper was unconscious; the man with bovine qualities and super strength was writhing with the pain on his chest. He was surrounded by corpses. It seemed that so far, no one could beat him.
“Ow.” He heard someone utter from behind. This made his eyes widen, for whom he thought the voice belonged to was the same person who just shot himself a while ago.
“Damn, that took long for me to come back,” he said.
He couldn’t believe it. Vice Mayor Manica Diamond has come back to life right after he drilled a bullet through his brain.
Meanwhile, a teenager wearing a sweatshirt nearby smirked at this unexpected development.
- Writer
