Tether Tyrant's cords lashed out again with thick, twitching ropes of synthetic muscle. But Dupli-Kate was ready. She split into four without hesitation. Two clones snagged the tendrils mid-air, yanking them wide, while the other two launched themselves at him from behind.
They struck together, driving a knee into his spine and shoulder-checking him off balance.
A flash of orange light lit the air.
BOOM.
A charge from Rex Splode detonated right beneath Tether Tyrant's boots, launching him upward with a yelp. Shrinking Rae zipped up his back in a blur and grew just enough to slam a knuckle into the base of his skull.
Crack.
Tether Tyrant collapsed in a groaning heap, his cords flailing helplessly across the floor.
"Tentacle boy is down!" Rae shouted, shrinking again and darting away before one of the tendrils could reflexively swing back at her.
Kursk surged forward with electricity dancing across his gauntlets. His yellow suit pulsed, blue veins of charge flaring to life along his arms and chest.
"You're all dead!" he shouted.
"Nope," Black Samson grunted.
CRASH.
He barreled into Kursk like a truck, absorbing the initial jolt of lightning through the insulated coils of his armor. Sparks arced across Samson's shoulders and discharged into the floor harmlessly.
Kursk reeled. Samson didn't let up.
He pounded Kursk's gut with one hand and caught his head with the other, dragging him forward and slamming him face-first into a desk. The wood splintered on impact.
Samson didn't stop.
He lifted Kursk by the collar and flung him into a stone column.
It cracked.
Kursk twitched, eyes rolling, electricity stuttering.
Overhead, Robot hovered with scanning drones deployed. "Two neutralized," he said into the team comms. "Magmaniac is flanking left."
The room grew hotter as the air shimmered with unnatural heat.
Magmaniac stomped through the smoke, molten skin pulsing, armor plates cracking and shifting with every step. Lava dripped from his elbows. A guttural roar escaped his burning mouth.
"Now!" Robot barked.
Mini-drones locked onto Magmaniac's shoulders and fired bursts of coolant. Steam exploded around him.
Monster Girl charged through the haze with a guttural cry. She launched herself into his chest like a green meteor.
BOOM.
The two crashed through a row of support beams. Magmaniac screamed, steam hissing from his skin where Monster Girl's fists struck.
She didn't give him time to recover.
Left. Right. Hook. Uppercut.
Each blow sent shockwaves through his liquified chest.
He stumbled, then..
CRASH.
Monster Girl landed a two-handed hammer blow that launched him backward through the glass wall.
He didn't get back up.
"That's three," Rex muttered, wiping soot from his jaw. "Now where's the big cat guy?"
No one answered.
Across the room, the beast was already moving.
He was a blur of white fur and red armor and Rex didn't see him until it was too late.
CRACK.
The mace struck him across the chest, sending him ragdolling into a support beam.
Dupli-Kate turned just in time to see one of her clones crushed under a backhand.
Two more tried to rush him but he caught one mid-run and used her to swat the other aside.
They hit the floor hard and vanished in a flash of light.
"Who the hell is that?" Samson growled.
"I don't know," Robot answered, his voice clipped. "He's not in any file or database I am connected to, and definitely not human."
Monster Girl lunged at him, but the alien spun and slammed the mace down on her swiftly.
She blocked it with her forearms.
It was a bad move.
The force alone cracked her bones.
Monster Girl yelped in pain, and reeled, but stayed standing.
She punched him square in the gut.
He didn't budge a bit.
She blinked. Nobody could just tank one of her punches like that..
Then he grinned wide and headbutted her.
Her massive frame toppled like a felled tree.
Shrinking Rae zipped toward him, trying to distract him but he caught her mid-air.
Splat.
She hit the wall and didn't get up.
Black Samson charged, roaring.
"You picked the wrong group to fuck with!"
The alien dodged and spun around,
Samson was flipped mid-run and driven face-first into the ground.
The room fell silent again, broken only by the sound of the alien's breathing.
Battle Beast roared as adrenaline flowed throughout his body.
A guttural, alien sound that shook the room.
He charged straight into Monster Girl, catching her mid-leap. His fist slammed into her jaw, snapping her head sideways. Bone cracked. She crumpled mid-air, but he wasn't finished. He grabbed her by the ankle and spun her.
She went through a reinforced pillar like a wrecking ball.
Before the dust could settle, Battle Beast launched into Robot.
The mechanical hero raised a shield just in time with plasma fields flaring to life.
The mace caved it in with one hit.
Sparks exploded from Robot's chest and systems screamed in protest.
He tried to disengage from the battle but Battle Beast caught him by the leg and slammed him into the ground so hard the floor split beneath them. Then again. And again. Each blow echoed with metallic crunches and trailing wires.
"Warning," Robot's voice crackled, barely audible. "Core unit compromised…"
The mace struck again but this time tearing through plating.
Robot's torso sparked violently and went still.
Battle Beast turned.
Black Samson was up only just barely. He swung with a hard right
Battle Beast parried it without looking and countered with a brutal knee to the gut.
Samson gagged. The wind left his lungs in a sharp gasp.
Then Battle Beast grabbed him by the face and hurled him across the room. He hit the ground hard, armor hissing and glitching with every twitch.
Dupli-Kate tried to form more clones but he punched through one of her clones like it was paper.
The others scattered.
Shrinking Rae buzzed around him, small, fast, and desperate to save her friends.
He waited and timed it, backhanding her as she grew to normal size.
She hit the floor unconscious, bleeding and unmoving.
Bodies littered the penthouse and smoke drifted through the shattered glass. The marble floor was cracked and soaked in blood.
Mark tried to crawl forward, barely conscious, dragging himself away.
A trail of crimson followed him.
A heavy foot came down on his own.
Mark screamed as Battle Beast stepped on his foot, smashing it into the floor.
The alien warrior loomed over him, blood-spattered and smiling.
He was predatory and calm.
The golden mace hung from his side like an executioner's blade.
"I was promised this world offered worthy opponents…" he said, voice low, almost mournful.
He watched Mark squirm under his heel.
"But oh… how you disappoint."
Mark reached for anything.. rubble, a pipe, his own will. Nothing would help.
Battle Beast raised the mace, muscles tightening.
"Killing you…" he continued, "is an act of mercy."
The weapon rose.
Then..
WHIRR.
A mechanical cough sounded throughout the room.
Behind them, Black Samson stirred.
He pushed himself up on one arm, bleeding from the mouth, one eye swollen shut. His other hand fumbled with the gauntlet at his side.
A flicker, then static. Nothing.
The suit was dead.
"No… no no no!"
He looked up just as Battle Beast brought the mace down
SPLAT.
Blood sprayed across the marble. A dull, wet crack echoed throughout the chambers
Mark's scream didn't come. Only a choking rasp.
He slumped, chest twitching.
"Invincible!" Samson howled.
"Black Samson! Retreat!" Robot's distorted voice sounded out,
He stood anyway and tore the suit off, piece by piece.
He ran fist forward, with broken ribs, and rage evident in his eyes.
"Leave him alone!"
Battle Beast turned calmly and caught the punch.
SNAP.
Samson's arm bent the wrong way.
His scream was horrifying.
Battle Beast tossed him aside like a toy, spine-first into a pile of rubble and his own blood.
He didn't move.
Monster Girl let out a war cry behind them, bloodied but furious nonetheless.
But Battle Beast didn't even look back.
His attention was still on Mark, lying broken beneath him.
Mark lay motionless beneath Battle Beast's looming shadow, blood pooling beneath him. The air felt heavier now, as if the room itself was holding its breath.
Then
A primal roar tore through the wreckage.
Monster Girl's massive frame launched from the rubble like a missile. One eye was nearly swollen shut, but her fists burned with fury.
"RAAAAH!"
She slammed into Battle Beast full-force, driving him back with a furious flurry of blows. Each punch shook the air, sending shockwaves through the floor.
Battle Beast stumbled, surprised, but only for a second.
He caught her next punch mid-swing, his grip tightening around her wrist.
His other hand snapped forward, catching her throat in a brutal, vice-like grip.
He leaned in close, muzzle to her bloodied face.
"Pathetic child," he whispered. "You will die."
His fist rocketed up, smashing into her chin.
Monster Girl's head snapped back. Her body launched upward like a cannonball, smashing through the ceiling in a spray of plaster and steel.
Dust rained down.
She fell down seconds later limp and dazed.
He caught her again mid-fall.
His punch drove her into the marble floor like a meteor. The ground cracked wide, forming a crater around her twitching frame. Debris and dust shot out in all directions.
She gasped, arms splayed, trying to push up, but Battle Beast leapt into the air and came down hard, both feet slamming into her chest, a devastating stomp that drove her deeper into the crater. The entire floor groaned beneath them.
Monster Girl lay cratered into the floor, her massive frame twitching with what little life remained. Blood dripped from cracks in the ceiling. Debris crackled under Battle Beast's feet as he turned toward Mark again, mace rising for the final blow to end his short life.
Then the wall exploded.
A sonic shockwave ripped through the side of the building as glass, steel, and concrete exploded inward.
A blur of black and yellow streaked through the dust, and Naruto's fist slammed into Battle Beast's face.
The impact echoed like thunder. Battle Beast was lifted off his feetand sent sailing through the air like a ragdoll. He crashed through a pillar, through a wall, and vanished into the wreckage in a cloud of blood and rubble.
Silence reigned.
Naruto stood at the center of the destruction, breath calm, and eyes cold.
His black-and-yellow suit shimmered, shoulders rising and falling with quiet restraint.
He didn't say anything at first.
He just looked around the scene.
The room was a graveyard.
Shrinking Rae motionless near the wall.
Rex Splode unconscious in a pool of blood.
Monster Girl buried in the crater.
Black Samson groaning beside a shattered table, arm twisted at the wrong angle.
Robot's cracked torso flickering on the ground.
But Mark had the worst of it.
Naruto stepped toward him, kneeling low.
Mark's face was swollen, barely recognizable. His suit had melted and torn away in places.
His breathing was shallow. A whisper of life clung to him, but only barely.
Naruto's blue eyes trembled then began to shift red.
It was faint at first. Then settled deeper in his gaze,
Natural energy pulsed through his veins, crackling beneath his skin.
It didn't feel calm this time. It felt poisoned.
He put a hand on Mark's shoulder, voice low and grounded.
"Mark… who did this to you?"
Mark blinked, vision unfocused.
His mouth moved, but no sound came.
He tried to raise his arm and point fingers twitching.
But they fell. He couldn't even lift his hand.
Then a heavy crunch of debris and stone sliding.
Naruto looked up.
Battle Beast emerged, blood trailing from his mouth, fur singed where he'd smashed through the wall. His chest rose and fell, eyes locking onto Naruto's with fresh interest.
He wiped blood from his lip and spoke, calm, unbothered.
"I did."
Naruto stood slowly.
The red in his eyes deepened, glowing now, subtle at first, then bright like molten coals.
He rolled his shoulders once and cracked his neck.
"So you're the one I have to kill…" he said.
______
AN: If you want to read 20 chapters ahead visit my patreon at patreon.com/banmido! I upload chapters daily. Thanks for the support!