"You..." Hex muttered, his voice filled with venom as he glared at Fasttrack, the sight of that familiar blue speedster immediately bringing back every single memory of how his plans had been ruined because of him.
At this point, Hex's hatred for this particular blue speedster had reached a level that would probably surpass even the hatred Fasttrack's critics had for him when he was first introduced.
Back then, there had been plenty of people who complained that Fasttrack was nothing more than a discounted XLR8, mostly because XLR8 was faster and had better control over friction, making him the more natural choice for pure speed.
What those people often overlooked was that Fasttrack had his own strengths. XLR8 was faster and had much better control over friction, allowing him to turn and maneuver at ridiculous speeds, while Fasttrack was physically stronger and more durable, making him better suited for situations where simply being fast wasn't enough.
Ben's fighting style naturally leaned toward overwhelming his opponents through raw stats and brute force, which was why he could look at a situation where Alien A was clearly better suited for dealing with an enemy, only to slam down on the Omnitrix and immediately shout, "Humungousaur!"
Evan, on the other hand, preferred to play around for a little while. He liked testing his options first, figuring out which alien would be the most efficient solution before bringing out one of his heavy hitters.
At this point, Hex's hatred for the blue speedster had become personal.
"How ya been?" Fasttrack asked casually, completely ignoring the venomous glare being directed at him. "Last time you left so fast, we didn't even get a chance to say goodbye."
Hex's eye twitched.
He absolutely hated how casually Fasttrack spoke to him, as though they were old friends who had simply run into each other after several years apart.
"Tch! Using Hope as a disposable pawn might have been a mistake on my part," Hex said, his voice becoming colder as he began floating upward. His dark robe waved ominously around him as magical wind gathered beneath his feet. "But now I don't need someone like her to crush you."
The magical books floating behind Hex immediately rose higher.
Their covers snapped open as the pages began flipping violently, releasing streams of magical energy while several glowing circles appeared behind him.
Hex raised both hands toward the sky, as though preparing to unleash some devastating spell.
Then Anubis suddenly lunged forward.
"Heh!?"
The massive jackal-headed creature tackled Fasttrack before the speedster could react, catching him completely off guard and sending both of them tumbling off the pyramid.
Hex's mouth curled into a satisfied smirk.
The entire display of him ready to cast a power magic spell had been nothing more than a distraction.
He already knew that Fasttrack, or rather Evan, was immune to magic. That was precisely why Hex had spent so much time searching for more powerful magical items and artifacts that could eventually give him a way to deal with the blue speedster. He wasn't going to make the same mistake twice, and he certainly wasn't going to rely on the same tricks that Fasttrack had already learned how to counter.
Meanwhile, Heatblast finally decided that he had spent enough time trapped inside the water barrier.
"Okay, I'm getting out of here!"
Flames suddenly erupted across his entire body as he pushed his heat outward.
The water surrounding him began boiling almost instantly, turning into a massive cloud of steam before Heatblast finally burst through it and landed on the stone surface.
He immediately aimed both palms toward Hex.
"Take this!"
A powerful wave of flames erupted from his hands and rushed toward the magician. Hex immediately responded by sweeping one hand forward.
A magic circle appeared in front of him, and a large amount of water suddenly formed in mid-air, creating a barrier that completely blocked the incoming flames.
The two attacks collided.
Steam exploded outward, rapidly covering the entire top of the pyramid in a thick white cloud.
Heatblast narrowed his eyes, trying to see through it. Then two ominous yellow eyes appeared within the steam. A beam of yellow magical energy suddenly shot out from the cloud and struck Heatblast directly in the chest.
"AGHH!"
Heatblast was knocked backward, his flaming body tumbling through the air before he managed to catch himself with a burst of fire from his hands.
At the same time, Fasttrack was still falling through the air with Anubis holding onto him.
The massive creature tried to lock him in a grab, but Fasttrack drove his head forward and slammed it into Anubis's face. The creature's grip loosened for a moment.
Fasttrack immediately followed by driving his knee into Anubis's leg before jabbing his hand into the creature's side. His wrist twisted as his claws dug into its flesh, forcing Anubis to roar in pain and finally release him.
Fasttrack immediately took advantage of the opening. He twisted his body in mid-air, performed a front flip, and drove his foot directly into Anubis's chin.
The impact snapped the creature's head backward. Fasttrack spun sideways and delivered another kick into the side of Anubis's head, using the momentum to send the massive creature flying away from him.
Anubis crashed into the side of the pyramid and rolled across the stone before falling onto the sand below.
Fasttrack then stopped himself in mid-air. He stood there as if the air itself were solid ground, casually violating Newton's laws of gravity.
His golden eyes shifted toward the steam-covered summit.
Heatblast was still exchanging attacks with Hex, fireballs and magical blasts crossing through the air.
Fasttrack lowered his body.
Then he vanished and shot forward at incredible speed back toward Hex.
At the same time, Heatblast continued exchanging attacks with the magician, throwing fireballs from different directions while Hex responded with magical blasts and barriers. The floating books around Hex flipped rapidly, creating multiple layers of magical protection around him as his defensive spells activated automatically.
Normally, that would have been enough to stop an incoming attack.
Unfortunately for him, Fasttrack can afford to ignore magic altogether; his [Eldritch Core] granted him a passive absorption toward mana, causing the magical constructs to collapse like wet paper the moment they made contact with him.
Fasttrack simply kicked straight through them and emerged from the final barrier without losing even a fraction of his momentum.
Hex barely had enough time to turn around before a sharp kick crashed directly into his side.
"GAHHH!"
The impact forced the air out of his lungs as his body bent around the blow, and the two of them flew down the other side of the pyramid. Fasttrack kept his foot on the magician as he pushed him downward; stone cracked underneath Hex as his body scraped against the stone surface before finally reaching the edge.
They crashed onto the sandy ground below. Fasttrack continued dragging Hex across the sand for several meters before finally releasing him and leaping backward.
Hex rolled across the ground before coming to a stop.
He gasped for air as he slowly pushed himself up, one hand immediately moving to his side where several ribs had clearly been injured by the impact.
"You..." he hissed again, glaring toward Fasttrack.
The magical books floating around him immediately reacted, flipping through their pages as green magical light spread across his body. The healing spell began repairing his injuries, slowly easing the pain as Hex glared at Fasttrack.
Fasttrack simply stood several meters away, watching him recover with the same casual expression.
Hex's hatred only grew stronger.
He then raised both hands into the air, causing the sand beneath his feet to suddenly shift and swirl in violent circles before several large sand twisters formed around him, twisting upward as they moved directly toward Fasttrack.
Fasttrack immediately dashed forward, his body becoming nothing more than a blue blur as he weaved between the approaching sand twisters, narrowly slipping past each one as they tore through the ground behind him. The moment he found an opening, he accelerated even further and appeared directly in front of Hex, his fist already pulled back before he drove it straight into the magician's face.
The punch sent Hex flying backward through the air, his robe fluttering wildly as he struggled to regain control of his body, but before Fasttrack could chase after him and land another hit, a massive shadow suddenly dropped down from above.
Anubis slammed his heavy foot into the ground with enough force to send a wave of sand flying outward, forcing Fasttrack to quickly jump backward to avoid being caught by the impact. The beast slowly raised his head, revealing the two massive khopeshs held firmly in both hands.
The ancient Egyptian swords glowed with an ominous light, and the strange energy surrounding them immediately caught Fasttrack's attention.
He brought both fists up and narrowed his golden eyes before muttering a single name.
"Ah Puch..."
His shadow stretched out beside him, and the Mayan god of Death emerged from within it. Under Fasttrack's command, Ah Puch immediately charged forward, raising his weapon as he moved to clash directly with the Egyptian god of Death.
The two massive figures collided, their weapons crashing together with enough force to send another wave of sand rolling across the ground.
Fasttrack shifted his attention away from them and toward Hex, who had finally managed to stop himself from flying backward. The magician quickly pulled out a small bottle filled with glowing blue liquid and drank it in one go before tossing the empty bottle aside.
His gaze immediately met Fasttrack's.
At the same time, his magic staff flew through the air and landed directly in his hand.
Fasttrack didn't waste another second and charged forward once more, but Hex quickly slammed the bottom of his staff into the sandy ground.
The sand beneath Fasttrack suddenly shifted.
It became soft and unstable, swallowing his feet as quicksand formed around him and tried to drag him downward. Fasttrack immediately realized what Hex was trying to do and pushed himself forward with even more speed, his legs kicking against the unstable ground as he forced his way through it.
The quicksand slowed him down, but it wasn't nearly enough to trap him.
As Fasttrack finally broke through the worst of it and closed the remaining distance, Hex tightened his grip around his staff and prepared to cast another spell.
Only for a fireball to suddenly come crashing down between them.
Fasttrack's eyes widened.
He immediately leaped to the side, landing on his hands and feet as he skidded across the sandy ground, while Hex was forced backward by the explosion. The fireball struck the ground with enough force to throw sand into the air, leaving behind a small crater as the flames spread across the surface.
Heatblast landed beside Fasttrack, flames burning brightly across his body as he turned toward the magician.
"Dude, friendly fire," Fasttrack said as he stood back up and brushed some sand from his shoulder.
"Sorry, still not used to this team-up stuff," Heatblast admitted somewhat helplessly.
If it came down to simply throwing fists, like when they had fought that alien werewolf together, Ben was confident in his own ability. However, working together while constantly throwing ranged attacks was a completely different matter, and that was something he would need to get used to.
After all, whenever Ben and Evan fought alongside each other, it was usually Evan who adjusted his style to match Ben's movements, making it easier for the two of them to coordinate without getting in each other's way.
Now that Ben was the one trying to adjust to Evan, he was starting to understand just how much work his cousin had quietly been putting into their teamwork.
The two aliens shifted their attention back toward Hex, who had begun floating higher into the air while his magical books surrounded him once again, their pages rapidly flipping as several magic circles appeared around his body.
"Let's go!" Heatblast shouted, getting into a fighting stance beside Fasttrack.
However, before either of them could move, a familiar beeping sound suddenly rang through the battlefield.
Both aliens froze. Heatblast looked down toward his chest and saw the Omnitrix dial flickering red.
"Aw, come on..."
Red light suddenly erupted from Heatblast's body, forcing the transformation to end as Ben reappeared in his human form. He looked down at his own hand for a moment before his expression immediately turned disappointed.
"Aw man! Now is not the time!"
Fasttrack barely had time to look toward him before something else caught his attention.
His golden gaze shifted toward Ah Puch.
Hex had raised his staff toward the Mayan god, and several glowing magical chains suddenly wrapped around Ah Puch's body. The god of death struggled against them as the magic began interfering with the connection between him and Fasttrack.
Fasttrack's expression changed. He could feel his connection to Ah Puch becoming weaker as Hex's magic continued to bind it, and he immediately prepared to move toward them.
But before he could do anything, Anubis suddenly charged straight toward him and Ben.
Fasttrack reacted instantly.
He grabbed Ben by the arm and pulled him along as he dashed to the side, narrowly avoiding the massive khopesh that sliced through the space where they had been standing a moment earlier.
Anubis immediately turned and lunged after them.
Fasttrack moved backward while dragging Ben out of the creature's reach, his feet barely touching the ground as he continued to create distance between them. Once he had enough space, he quickly dropped Ben onto the ground.
"Regroup with Grampa and the others. I'll hold them off for now."
Ben looked at him for a moment, but Fasttrack had already turned his attention back toward the battlefield.
He didn't wait for a response. Fasttrack immediately dashed forward, his body becoming a blue streak as he returned to the fight.
Ben clenched his fist as he watched his cousin disappear into the distance.
He felt annoyed, frustrated, and disappointed, but none of that anger was directed toward Evan. It was directed at himself.
Meanwhile, not too far away from the main battlefield, Fasttrack stood facing Hex once again.
The blue speedster stopped right before them, his golden eyes locked onto the magician as Hex casually tossed another empty bottle aside.
The magician's expression carried a confident smirk as his magical books floated around him. Standing beside Hex were Ah Puch and Anubis.
Both gods had been bound by Hex's magic, and their eyes now carried the same ominous yellow glow as the magician himself.
Fasttrack's smirk slowly faded as he realized what had happened.
Hex raised his staff.
"Now," the magician said, his voice filled with confidence, "let us see how long that confidence of yours lasts."
Yet there was no hint of fear on Fasttrack's face. Instead, he casually summoned Proto-Tool into his hand, the weapon immediately shifting its form as its structure changed and expanded into a large warglaive that he held firmly in his right hand.
Fasttrack slowly swung the warglaive through the air, its energy blade cutting through the space beside him before slashing against the sand below and sending a small wave of sand scattering across the ground.
He looked at the three opponents standing before him, a small smirk forming on his face as he tightened his grip around the weapon.
"Three on one, huh?" Fasttrack said casually, as if the odds didn't bother him in the slightest. "I like those odds."