Chapter 53: Pretend You Didn't See Anything
2023-10-23 Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
The moment he stepped through the gate, Orin Vale knew he had hit the jackpot.
The subspace magic seemed to interfere with the armor's sensory equipment on some level, making it difficult to detect anything unusual from the outside. But once inside, the view before him opened up instantly.
Several heat sources were marked one after another, each inhabiting different areas of this subspace. The fluctuation frequency was also one Orin Vale was no longer unfamiliar with.
They were all demonic spirits.
And that led to the current scene.
In the eerie Great Hall, firelight flickered as afterimages flew everywhere. All sorts of bizarrely-shaped demonic spirits swarmed the red-and-silver armor in a chaotic dance of demons.
It was a perfect opportunity to test the performance of the second-generation battlesuit.
Orin Vale flipped his hand, and a beam of golden light shot from his palm, striking a demonic spirit that thought it was launching a sneak attack from his blind spot. The demonic spirit's face instantly cracked open from the blast. Flapping its wings, it immediately crashed, its chin slamming into the ground and plowing a long crack across the floor.
A chin-brake is the deadliest.
Seeing its opponent take the damage with its face, another demonic spirit sensed an "opportunity." It charged forward, roaring as it rushed toward Orin Vale, opening its mouth to reveal sharp teeth as it tried to bite him.
But Orin Vale, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, dodged the pounce with a light, effortless step, then followed up with an elbow strike that shattered the demonic spirit's cheek. The demonic spirit let out a wretched howl and fell to the ground, where he pinned it underfoot.
At the same time, the launcher on his shoulder popped open, and a Specium bullet ignited and fired. Three demonic spirits passing by in mid-air were engulfed in the fiery explosion. The devastating Specium energy contained within the massive fireball instantly pulverized the trio, grinding them into nothing, not even leaving ash behind.
In terms of performance, the Specium bullet was, of course, no match for the Specium Ray. It was slower than the light beam and slightly weaker. But the reason Orin Vale continued to choose it as a conventional weapon was for its unique advantages.
First, it required no charging or wind-up time, and it didn't even require Orin Vale to divert his attention to aim and fire. The battlesuit's AI handled the auto-aiming, firing the instant it was ignited. Furthermore, it launched automatically from the shoulder, not interfering with any other actions he was performing with his hands, and it had completely zero energy consumption. In contrast, the Specium Ray was considered an ultimate move, and its energy consumption was relatively high compared to other weapons.
Two other demonic spirits charged forward, their shouts shaking the heavens. They looked like brothers and showed a degree of coordination. One attacked high while the other attacked low, demonstrating a clear division of labor, both aiming for vital points that would force him onto the defensive and overwhelm him.
But Orin Vale didn't even bother to dodge. He opened his right palm, and light energy poured out. The energy instantly condensed in his palm into a light wheel crackling with electric arcs, spinning with a terrifying sizzling and popping sound.
Eight-Split Light Wheel!
This time, however, he didn't throw it like a traditional light wheel. Instead, he maintained it in his palm, letting it spin without dissipating.
He moved his feet, his figure suddenly closing the distance to the two demonic spirits. Keeping the light wheel in his palm, he swung it horizontally like a close-combat chainsaw!
A brilliant flash swept past, and a path of light was clearly drawn across the two demonic spirits. The red-and-silver armor flashed past their side. The demonic spirits froze rigidly until a white line appeared on their bodies. Radiant light shot out from the white line, and the two demonic spirits, their faces frozen in shock, broke apart. Their upper halves plopped to the ground, their eyes still wide with disbelief even in death.
After cutting down the pair, Orin Vale didn't stop. The propulsion engine suddenly flared, and combined with his own super speed, he accelerated, dragging an afterimage as he blurred in front of the next demonic spirit.
The Eight-Split Light Wheel slashed out once more!
This time, it was a downward chop from above. The spinning blade in Orin Vale's hand cleaved straight down, splattering one demonic spirit's brains. From skull to groin, it was completely split in two, a truly gruesome death.
Light Sawman.JPG.
Witnessing such a gruesome death of their teammate, all the demonic spirits trembled, utterly horrified.
The leading owl spirit, seeing the situation was dire, flapped its wings, shot into the air, broke through the magic barrier, and then used its body to smash through the underground structure, flying straight into Gotham's night sky in one go.
The mark is tough, time to bail!
As the saying goes, when your father dies and your mother remarries, it's every man for himself. Every demonic spirit knew that brotherhood was a joke. Since ancient times, the demonic race had perfected the tactical philosophy of "collapse, retreat, sell out, and flee." The greatest purpose of a teammate was to be sold out to the enemy, giving you time to escape while they were busy counting the cash.
But it wouldn't get away.
Orin Vale could tell at a glance, based on the intensity of the dark fluctuations, that this flying owl was the most valuable prize among all the walking experience packs in this underground area.
The moment it burst out from the ground, the battlesuit had already locked onto it from afar.
Orin Vale looked up. The positive and negative pole interfaces on his armored gauntlets connected. A vast, azure radiance penetrated through layers of obstacles, locking onto the fleeing owl spirit's escape path and erupting from the ground.
Specium Ray!
The owl spirit flapped its wings, rapidly ascending into the sky, secretly congratulating itself for selling out its teammates fast enough to save its own hide. Midway through its flight, it suddenly felt that the atmosphere was wrong. Looking down, its soul nearly scattered in terror. It saw a searing radiance pursuing it as if from the depths of hell. An endless torrent of light and heat instantly and completely engulfed it.
Boom!
The owl spirit exploded, becoming the most splendid firework in the night sky.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Gotham.
"The Riddler is planning something big."
On a rooftop, Batman's figure strode out from a shadow. The cigarette dangling from the lips of James Gordon, one of the last honest police officers in the Gotham City Police Department, fell to the ground in shock as he stared at him, wide-eyed.
"God, where did you come from? I didn't hear a thing..."
But Gordon had seen his share of strange things and quickly calmed down, accepting the premise that this bat-costumed lunatic had a passive teleportation ability in the shadows.
"The Riddler hasn't been active for half a month," Gordon said. "Are you sure it's him this time?"
"At a crime scene earlier tonight, surveillance captured footage of an old-time Gotham enforcer. His name is Crohn Scott. I had a run-in with him last month. He works for the Riddler."
Gordon frowned. "Maybe the Riddler just vanished, and he went to find a new boss."
"No. My equipment scanned some signal residue at the scene with a specific frequency band. At first glance, it didn't mean anything special. But upon further study, its pattern looks like the shape of a question mark."
Gordon blew a smoke ring.
"Is this his declaration of war?"
"I'm afraid so," Batman said coolly. "However, Scott left a handprint at the scene. I extracted some dust from it containing phosphates, calcium, and some rare mixtures.
"It likely came from the Catacombs, one of Gotham's historical tourist sites. Built in the eighteenth century by people trying to protect the city from disease-ridden cemeteries. But the catacombs soon became so popular that when people buried their loved ones, they could keep at most a single bone."
Gordon took the compiled documents from his hand, adjusted his glasses, and began to read through them carefully.
"So that could be where the Riddler is hiding... To track this place down in such a short time, your abilities are as amazing as ever..."
Boom!
An intense burst of light suddenly shot into the sky from an unknown number of blocks away, momentarily illuminating the darkness. A fireball bloomed ephemerally in the night sky before quickly fading back into silence.
"What the...?"
Gordon, who had been reading the documents, was abruptly distracted by the explosion.
He turned his head, just in time to see Batman with one foot on the edge of the building, sneakily raising his grappling gun, about to fly off while Gordon wasn't looking...
Gordon's turn was perfectly timed to catch him in the awkward pose of raising his grappling gun, not yet having fired it.
A gust of evening wind blew past, lifting a corner of Batman's cape.
A slightly awkward atmosphere filled the air.
After a few seconds, Gordon blew out a smoke ring and spoke softly.
"You know, I can just turn my head away now. You can try that again, and I can pretend I didn't see a thing..."
(end of chapter)