Chapter 168 - Mage Hunter

Kyle squinted in recognition at some of the equipment the mage hunter's crew was wearing, noticing that they were all Galactic-Era technology, scavenged from ruins around. Others were clearly a mix of arctech and Galactic-Era technology, something he had to be wary about. Let's wait and see what they have to play.

Behind him, the destroyed blockade was immediately refilled by the surviving Cretins, suppressing the rest of the veteran Ghosts strike force who were trying to break through and help Kyle. Despite their efforts, Kyle knew they wouldn't stand a chance against the mage hunter's crew, who were already fanning out to encircle Kyle. He tested the strength of the vines, able to tug it a little.

"No point fighting back, boy. Those vines won't break. Still, that's a pretty nice suit. Which ruin did you raid?" The mage hunter smirked, but she still kept a safe distance while the rest of her crew were about to complete the encirclement.

Kyle ignored the obvious taunt and attempted to activate the exosuit's engravings, but the vines began to suck arcia energy out of the exosuit, but not from his own body.

"I already told you. No one escapes my vines, not when they absorb arcia energy."

"Absorb this." Penchant for Violence! Kyle felt the world slow down, the same familiar cold wave washing over him as his reaction time and strength increase, his eyes darting about and marking the crew.

Before the encirclement was complete, Kyle suddenly ruptured the vines, catching the crew off by surprise as he hurtled towards the closest crew member, a man who held a Galactic-era laser gun aimed right at him. Kyle's eyes watched the man's movement in slow motion, instantly dodging to the side the moment he saw the trigger finger move. The laser shot past harmlessly, instead hitting an opposite crew member right in the chest. The incendiary laser seared a fiery hole through the crew member, a heart-rending scream leaving her mouth as the crew kicked into action.

Kyle immediately grabbed the barrel of the laser gun with his left armored fist, twisting it hard and rendering it useless. The man couldn't react in time as Kyle used his right arm to drive the Spear of Defiance into his guts, skewering him high into the sky. Blood had barely gushed out of his mouth when Kyle flung his dying corpse of a body towards the blockade, smacking a surprised Cretin out of nowhere. "Not much of a mage-hunter crew-urgh!"

Kyle immediately dropped to one knee as a sharp ear-splitting sound erupted from all around him, a high-pitched whirring wrenching pain into his eardrums and disorientating him. He couldn't hear a single word as he struggled to block out the sound with his ears, though he did not let go of the Spear. Six more vines shot out from the ground, attempting to ensnare him, but Kyle sliced through them with the Spear and stabbed the ground hard, using one more arcia crystal.

The resulting explosion in the ground was enough to knock the crew back away, buying time for Kyle to figure out the source. He glanced towards a stunned crew member who was holding a directional speaker aimed right at him. Using his free left hand, he pulled out his own personal Oriental Bloom, firing at the speaker only for the pellets to be blocked by a shimmering Galactic-era shield. However, Kyle was not about to give up that easily. Instead of trying to destroy the speaker, he began removing his exosuit helmet and allowing more of the sounds to immediately attack his eardrum directly. A sudden forceful pop of his ears had Kyle's world turn into a garbled muffled mess, blood trickling down his neck.

“What is he doing? He must have gone mad! Capture him now!” The mage hunter mocked, but her voice was muffled since Kyle couldn’t hear any longer with his eardrum fully ruptured. Only the dull thumps of his heartbeat, adrenaline and his footsteps could be heard as he rushed straight for the wielder of directional speaker. He shot the Spear of Defiance forward in a direct thrust while the wielder used the speaker to block the strike head-on. As the spearhead came into contact with the Galactic-Era shield, the shimmering surface of the shield warped inwards as it tried to stop the kinetic force. Only the tip touched the surface of the speaker, the shield eventually bouncing the Spear back.

"Nice try, mage, but you'll need more than-" The mage hunter's words were cut short as the speaker erupted in an explosion, incinerating the wielder and the speaker together in one single glistening explosion that knocked everyone including Kyle backwards. Necklace of Healing! Kyle immediately regenerated his pierced eardrums, restoring his hearing fully as the sounds of battle began to return back to normal.

Suddenly, Kyle felt a weird, attractive force, his exosuit being tugged to the right. He tried to move, but his exosuit suddenly would not budge. Instead, he skidded along the floor as it was dragged by a magnetic force towards what seemed like a blank metal plate held like a shield by the second crew member. Kyle attempted to throw his Spear of Defiance, but his arm could not even move. The armor became a metal coffin as he was magnetised, slamming into the shield in a locked position.

“Well, that wasn’t too hard, was it?” The mage hunter taunted. “I told you this would work.”

“Only as long as the battery in this relic lasts. We need to move him quickly before he kills more of us. You're lucky he killed the slaves.” The second in her crew holding the shield grumbled. “Grab the damn coffin!”

The third crew member lugged a heavy black coffin forward, lined to the brim with what seemed to be depleted arcia crystals in the dozens. Kyle could suddenly feel his body weakening as the arcia energy seeped out of his body and even his exosuit’s Advanced Arcia Crystal. The arcia energy is flowing from high concentration to low – if I enter that coffin, I’m dead. Kyle instinctively grasped the purpose of the coffin: it was a tool to capture mages. He could already feel he was starting to lose control of the exosuit’s engraving. Even the acceleration engravings were stuttering, and there was not enough arcia energy to power them. [Sasha, how long more?]

[Ten more minutes!]

Not fast enough. I need to buy time. “You seemed well prepared.” Kyle spoke as his eyes darted around, looking for a way out as he took in his options. His forces were still trapped behind, and Sasha wasn't anywhere close even if he needed her.

“Of course. You mages always walk around like you’re the cocks of the town.” The mage hunter smirked. “I always say, the more arrogant they are, the harder they fall.”

“I like to think of myself as humble.” Kyle could feel something pressing against his back, his armor not exactly completely even against the magnetic shield.

“Sure, whatever you say. By the way, nice spear you got there. Real innovative. You can hand it over now; you won’t be needing it anymore.” She whacked the Spear of Defiance out of Kyle’s hand, causing it to clatter onto the floor. “Gave us quite a few headaches. Not many have.”

“Looks like you’re about to have one more headache,” Kyle smirked as a sudden glow began to emit from the belt of Kyle's exosuit, right at the back. The mage hunter's eyes widened in understanding as she immediately leaped backward. However, she didn't have the time to warn the other two crew members as the resulting explosion engulfed both Kyle and the second crew member, destroying the entire magnetized shield. Kyle had sent his arcia energy to overload the spare poor arcia crystals he had brought for the Spear of Defiance, using it as an explosive payload.

 The blast knocked everyone in the vicinity over, even the Cretin soldiers at the blockade fifty meters away. The black coffin and the third crew member were caught in the explosion as well, knocked out of the way as they were sent sprawling. Kyle did not leave unscathed; his exosuit’s back armor was severely damaged but still working. The magnetic shield had been torn to shreds by the explosion, and the body of the second crew member had been burnt to a crisp by the sudden fire. He did not stick around to find out, immediately casting his acceleration engravings as he raced back to where the Spear had fallen.

 Unfortunately, before he could get there in time, a single vine lashed forward, grabbing the Spear and tugging it out of reach. The mage hunter had the Spear hover next to her, tightly secured by the vine. "Enough games. You're not getting out of this alive." The mage hunter grunted, infuriated by the loss of her crew. "You know how much time I've spent assembling people smart enough to use relics?!"

 "See if I care." Kyle lunged at her, his half-damaged exosuit still in fighting condition, and he closed the gap with two strides. However, his battle instincts kicked in as he instantly retreated on the first stride, narrowly avoiding a wall of vines that erupted from the ground, snaking up into the air.

 He immediately sidestepped as the wall of vines twisted into a large pillar of plant matter, attempting to crush him into the ground. The pillar cracked the cobblestone street they were on, while Kyle continued to dodge and weave between the incoming attacks. Kyle tried to figure out the source of the mage hunter's powers as new vines shot from nearly every part of the floor, even the nearby buildings. Does her vines grow from every surface?

 "Out of tricks?" The mage hunter taunted as her bracelet glowed ominously, the brightness intensifying. More and more vines began to shoot from every nook and cranny, entangling Kyle in a web of vines that he attempted to wrestle his way out of. His enhanced strength allowed him to rip apart most of the individual vines, but the mage hunter was starting to learn. She strengthened each vine by twisting them into their own braids until there were six unbreakable ones that were trying to restraint him.

 As the Penchant for Violence wore out, Kyle felt his body return to a relatively sluggish mode, though he still had enough agility to dodge the incoming strikes. How far can the vines go? There must be a limit. Kyle leapt into a nearby building, trying to ascertain the rules behind the vines. However, the vines seemed to grow indefinitely without end, chasing Kyle through hallways and stairwells until the vines had wrapped around the entire interior of the building. He was forced to leap out of a window just as the vines strangled the building into submission, cracking the foundation and creating an immense pile of rubble and smoke.

 "And to think you wanted to kill Sebastian, when you can't even get past a little ol' mage hunter like me." The mage hunter mocked as her vines slithered through the cloud of dust, searching for Kyle in the smoke. However, her taunt didn't get a response, prompting the mage hunter to flick her vines vigorously. The sweeping motion cleared the air immediately, revealing Kyle charging straight ahead to the blockade away from the mage hunter.

 The erratic behaviour caught the mage hunter off guard, her vines a second too late even as they chased after him. They struck a warmachine from behind just as Kyle clambered into it, cracking the necks of its occupant with savage brutality. Controlling the warmachine, Kyle drove it in full reverse, pitting the entire force of the engine against the vines, attempting to stop the mage hunter.

 "Idiot, you're trapped in your own coffin!" The mage hunter laughed, commanding the vines to wrap around the entirety of the warmachine, strangling it like a python. Kyle could hear the metal frame creaking from the stress and fatigue, but he only had a knowing smile on his face as he grabbed something from within. Just as the warmachine was about to give way, Kyle clambered to the top, using the turret to blast an opening through the vines. The explosive shell and the barrage of anti-air pellets shredded the vines like paper, allowing Kyle to escape the clutches of the vines. With a single leap from the top of the warmachine, he landed right in front of the mage hunter, about to sweep her legs out from under her.

 Instead, Kyle's outstretched leg was snatched by a smaller vine that sprouted in the nick of time, restraining him as it grew into a larger-sized vine. He was hauled up upside down and above, the mage hunter about to taunt once more until Kyle revealed what he had grabbed from inside the warmachine. He dropped it towards the mage hunter, and the mage hunter immediately used a vine in an attempt to smack the object away.

 However, the object was an explosive shell, the impact detonating it right on the spot. The vine holding Kyle instantly let go as he and the mage hunter were knocked outwards. Kyle fell through the sky, but he twisted his body into a safe recovery, rolling into a ready posture. He immediately sprinted for the Spear of Defiance that had fallen down, but again, it was snatched by the mage hunter's vine, who now had a third of her face seared off by the burn from the explosion. "That's it. I'm not going to capture you alive!" She screamed at the top of her lungs in fury, her bracelet going into overdrive.

 The entire cobblestone street bloomed like it was spring, except instead of daffodils and lovely flowers, a sinister array of toxic plants, vines, flowers and mushrooms began to emerge from the ground. "I have the whole area seeded!" The mage hunter's grin was horrific, the burnt part of her face gruesome to look at. The place began to transform into something like an overgrown tropical death jungle, the vines now all lunging at Kyle and intending to impale him with their sharp spikes.

Penchant for Violence!

Kyle pushed his body harder, accelerating with everything he had right at the mage hunter and catching her off-guard. In one fell swoop, he smacked the mage hunter with a direct punch to the face while snatching the Spear of Defiance out of the way. Before the mage hunter could react, Kyle raised the Spear of Defiance, slamming the spearhead into the ground. The vines nearby immediately wrapped around Kyle, their sharp spikes raking across his metal exosuit with bright friction sparks. They strangled him on all limbs and attempted to force his arms away from the spear. However, he held on tightly, waiting until he could feel a sudden rumble appear from beneath the ground.

The mage hunter could also feel the tremble, immediately ordering a vine to protect her in the event of another explosion. Unbeknownst to her, the ground began to crack apart as an even bigger explosion occurred underground, churning what was left of the devastated sewers beneath into a whirlpool that exploded upwards in a fury around Kyle like a cataclysmic event. A drained arcia crystal popped off the Spear of Defiance’s shaft as Kyle was carried by the explosion upwards, easily landing a few meters away from the new large gaping hole in the street. Vines and roots were dug up from the ground, the mage hunter tumbling from the mini-earthquake and losing all control of the vines. With the arcia energy connection broken, the vines quickly withered and dried up, becoming a husk that disintegrated on the ground.

The mage hunter collapsed onto the ground, hitting her head and knocking her out. Just as Kyle had the chance to pounce on the incapacitated mage hunter, three bolas from the sides were flung to Kyle from all angles at high speed, catching him off guard. Unable to activate the acceleration engravings in time, the bolas looped around him and sent a high voltage shock through each of them, tasering him through the exosuit.

Kyle felt sharp pain arc through his body as his muscles contracted violently, unable to control his nerves anymore as the bolas continuously emitted high voltage like a taser. While he was not surprised at Sebastian having such weapons, he was still taken aback by the amount that was prepared just for him. As his convulsing body collapsed to the floor, the voltage nearly making him unable to think, ten black armored arctech knights approached Kyle, immediately restraining him in tight engraving ropes, preventing him from even moving a single inch. “Seven Snakes leader successfully captured.” The commander announced, barely even sparing the unconscious mage hunter a glance.

[Good work. Please bring Kyle to his new accommodations.] Sebastian’s taunting voice rang clear over the arctech radio.

“Good, bring me closer to you.” Kyle shot back in response, knowing Sebastian could hear him.

[No need for false bravado. I knew you would rush in head first – that has always been your style. It was simple enough to devise a trap for you and get some outside help.]

“The mage hunters, I assume?”

[Oh yes, they specialize in taking down people like you, overconfident in their own strength.]

“Then I guess you never expected this.”

[Boss! We’re here!] Sasha’s voice rang clear through the telepathic channel as she sprinted across the rooftops with the Aero Shoes equipped, bypassing the blockade easily as pellet fire followed her, tearing up the brick tiles on the roof. She leapt down right in the middle of the ten knights, catching all of them off-guard. With a brandish of the Thunder Blade from Soren in her right hand, the lightning arc sliced cleanly through the shoulder gaps of one of the knights, causing him to yell in pain.

Before the knights could fight back, a hailstorm of pellet fire erupted from the combined strike force that was following Sasha from behind, forcing the knights to leave Kyle on the ground and take cover. They had broken through the weakened blockade, with Damian leading the charge, his large tower shield tanking most of the firepower. “Save the boss!” Damian roared as they charged into the fray, fighting through the streets as gunfire dominated. Alex, Ollie, and Bola were all right behind, and the enforcers and Seven Snakes were all rushing into battle.

[Kill Kyle before they save him!] Sebastian ordered with a flustered tone, the commander nodding as more Cretin forces began to pour out from behind them, joining the fray as the two opposing sides clashed in a brilliant firefight.

To Kyle's surprise, there were way more Seven Snakes here than he had expected. Not only the three strike forces were here, almost all of the Seven Snakes' two thousand men were now duking it out as they rushed past him. “Are you guys crazy?! What happened to defending the frontlines?” Kyle roared at Damian, who was now protecting him with a shield, while two other Seven Snakes tried to hack the engraving ropes.

“If the boss dies, we all die. What does the mall fucking matter to us? We can always rebuild again with you! Without you, we would still have been slumming in the gutter!” Damian grinned, blocking shot after shot as all of the Cretins tried to kill Kyle. The Seven Snakes fighters charged with abandon, the battle spilling out all across the district as they fought tooth and nail in every corner.

"Come on, you twats, fight! Fight!" Niko, too, was here, joining the fight with Monica. All of the combat vipers were pushing their hardest, while mortars were lobbed to and fro by the support crews from the back.

For many of the Seven Snakes, they had been recruited through the soup kitchens when they were down and out, unemployed with nothing left to lose. It was the Seven Snakes that gave them purpose, the friends and relationships they had formed over time. While Kyle himself did not interact much with the members, he still held the position of the undefeatable boss. Without him, the gang would crumble in an instant, unable to regroup nor achieve the same level of technological prowess Kyle had spearheaded.

"Sasha! I need your help to break Kyle free!" Damian ordered.

Sasha quickly ran over to Kyle, slashing the nets and bola restraints apart with the Thunder Blade, sending another high voltage current through the conductive armour and causing Kyle to yelp. He was dragged to safety, as Sasha passed him a health potion, forcing him to drink while Damian faced off against the knights.

[Damian, haven't Ares beaten you more than enough?]

"It's going to take a lot more than that to put me down! I am the underboss of the Seven Snakes, and you're going to have to go through me." Damian slammed the base of his tower shield down, normal Cretin pellets bouncing off his defense-engraved body. "COME ON, SEVEN SNAKES!" He yelled with all his might, rallying the men once more.

For a brief moment in time, as the battle raged all around him, Kyle wondered what had happened to his criminal organization after he had died in his former life. Did they splinter apart? Did Xanius take over everything? Or did everything continue as per usual, like normal? It wasn’t the first time Kyle had experienced loyalty from the men beneath him – when he was a General in the Loeric Empire, he too had loyal admirals and men willing to die at his command.

Back then, I treated my men like simple numbers. Kyle took a good look again at the men willing to give up their lives for him. Sure, he had done ceremonies and given benefits, all in the idea of instilling loyalty. It was a deliberate move from him, but yet, he couldn’t help feel something different in his heart. Something he hasn’t felt since he had his emotions and dreams neutered. Was this what Johan was talking about? 

He waved Sasha away, regaining his stance and cracking his limbs, warming himself up. “I'm just getting started. Time to end this.” Grabbing his Spear of Defiance, he marched out onto the street without a care for the gunfire, the Cretins all locked onto him. Intimidation Aura! The surge of fear washed over the Cretins, none of them able to tear their gazes away from him as they watched him somehow become larger than life, a predator aimed at taking their lives.

“Stay strong! They are not even a major gang!” One of the more tenacious knights roared, shaking some of the Cretins out of their stupor.

“SEVEN SNAKES!” Kyle roared as he raised his spear, aimed right at the enemy line in front, all eyes on him as the Cretins were rooted to the ground. “TODAY, WE PROVE WE ARE A MAJOR GANG. TODAY, THE ARDENT CRETINS SHALL FALL. ALL FORCES, ATTACK! FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!”

Before all the Cretins could regain their stance, Kyle was already charging towards them with Sasha and the strike force, joining Damian in the fight. Railguns opened up while warmachines fired indiscriminately into the street. The buildings devolved into a fierce melee brawl from floor to floor, explosions rocking the land with guns firing wildly into the sky and air as soldiers wrestled each other. Damian grinned as he pommelled a black knight with his shield, while Sasha cleaved the knight's arm off with the Thunder Blade.

[Stop him here; all weapons authorized!] Sebastian’s urgent voice came over the radio, prompting three more dozen black Cretin knights to charge at Kyle, brandishing heavy melee weapons and shields.

Kyle and Sasha fought with vigor, slicing and dashing through the groups of enemies. He slammed the spearhead into a knight's armor with a single jab of the Spear of Defiance, expecting it to implode. However, instead a thick energy shield erupted, absorbing the implosion energy and preventing the spear’s effect from going past the armor. Galactic Era energy shields? Really? His instincts screamed as he spun to block a heavy vibration axe, the arctech engraving causing the spear to shake violently as sparks flew. Instead of holding on, Kyle let the spear fall to the side, making the axe wielder stumble forward before slamming his armored palm into the wielder’s chin.

Shoving the wielder of the axe back into his allies, he ducked as a glowing red hot sword sliced across, yet another arctech weapon threatening to cut through his exosuit like hot butter. The elite knights were no pushovers, armed to the teeth with both arctech and Galactic Era relics. As high as their morale was, the Seven Snakes soldiers began to feel the discrepancy in their equipment and numbers, outstripped in both areas by the Ardent Cretins. Slowly, Kyle began to lose men as they fought non-stop, the casualties mounting significantly on both sides. We need a breakthrough. 

However, just as he was busy figuring out his next step, he suddenly spotted a familiar weapon aimed right at him by the commander of the knights, hauled by more than five knights. The very same weapon that had sent him to this world. They have a ship-class energy cannon?! Kyle's entire body screamed for him to move, but deep down, he knew there was no time to. Not when the beamwidth was more than two meters wide. The only solution was to use his defense skill, but he knew he had to save for when it really mattered. I have to, now. This is My-

Before Kyle could finish, a large figure already stood between him and the cannon, the cannon firing a sharp yellow beam of energy right at the figure. "Damian!" Kyle cried out for the first time in his life here in this new world, watching the underboss block the unblockable.

The beam scattered as soon as it hit Damian's shield, the sheer force causing Damian's legs to drive into the ground as the engravings on the tower shield flared up. The stray energy sliced across buildings, causing collateral damage as both sides tried to avoid the incoming attack. Still, Damian stood in the center with sheer will, his teeth gritting till blood seeped from his gums. His muscles clenched and screamed for rest, but still, he held firm. However, he could sense that his strength was starting to shake, his arms going numb from the impact. It felt like an entire ocean was rushing towards him, and only his shield was what stood between life and death for what seemed an eternity.

"GRAHHHHHHHH!" Damian roared as the scattered diffused beam lit up the daylit sky, zapping clouds and cutting them in half. Just as he was about to give up, a firm hand pushed him from behind, holding him steady. Damian glanced behind to see Kyle giving him a nod, helping Damian to hold the shield to withstand the blow. The Seven Snakes watched in awe as the two leaders blocked the devastating beam together.

The beam disappeared as fast as it had appeared, the sudden lack of force against the shield causing Damian to nearly topple over, but Kyle caught him and held him up. Damian let out a weak grin, but Kyle already had other plans. “Sasha! With me!” He charged out past the shield, rushing the ship's energy cannon before it could fire again. Sasha was already up and running, charging it as the Seven Snakes let out a resounding cheer, resuming the battle with heightened morale.

"What...? The cannon should've killed him-" The commander was far too flabbergasted to react to the incoming joint attack by Kyle and Sasha. They cleaved their way through the rows of black knights, their armor shredded like confetti as Kyle aimed for the cannon. As soon as he got in range, a single hit of his Spear of Defiance exploded the cannon from within, blasting it apart into electronic fragments that fizzled.

"Protect me! Ready the second relic gun!" The commander of the black Cretin knights cried out, instantly retreating and knowing that there was no hope left for them to kill Kyle. Kyle was about to chase, but he soon noticed that a few Cretin knights were rushing the weak Damian, who was unable to stand straight properly.

"Sasha, finish him off!" Kyle ordered, himself charging back towards Damian and slaughtering the knights that tried to shoot at Damian. A few pellets hit Damian, knocking him over but failing to pierce the skin. Kyle immediately formed a protective line around Damian, while the other Ghosts also pushed forward, creating a safe space for Damian to kneel down and catch his breath.

Damian is far too weak. I have to finish this before the second relic gun can fire. While Sasha hunted the commander of the black knights with her own strike force, Kyle could already see Sebastian's balcony from the current battlefield, the buildings in between having been leveled by the mortars. Snatching a railgun from a nearby Ghost, he fired a bunker buster right at the balcony, hoping to kill Sebastian in one single hit.

Yet before the projectile could even make it halfway across, a burly hand suddenly stretched upwards to stop it in midair. The projectile didn't even touch the hand's skin, merely dropping harmlessly to the ground with a soft clattering sound. No one could hear it over the bellowing laughter that erupted from the hand's owner. Kyle gripped his Spear tightly, knowing this was the real deal.

But when he squinted his eyes to try and spot where the man who stopped the projectile was, he was already gone. Instead, he could feel a presence right above him dropping rapidly, landing right in front of him and Damian. The protecting Ghosts were all knocked back by the tremor while Kyle shielded his eyes from the billowing gust of wind. The landing area was instantly cratered, and the man who landed recovered to his full standing height as Kyle readied himself. "So, Ares in the flesh."

Ares cracked his neck as he recovered to his full standing height, only wearing a regular shirt and pants, though it could barely hold in his muscular figure, each muscle on his arms clearly defined. On both hands, he wore custom knuckledusters, each glistening with dangerous energy that arced between each nub. If anything, Kyle was far more impressed at the ability of the clothes to fit such a body size, with Ares towering two heads above him, even with him in the exosuit. Is he a half-giant like Johan?

Before Kyle could even lift a finger, Damian was sent flying far away, slamming into three buildings with full force and shocking the entire battlefield.

A large row of gnarly yellow teeth greeted Kyle as Ares leaned to get a closer look at Kyle. “Wouldn't be fair for you to have him helping you - it will only make the loss feel worse.”