Chapter 3

Superhero vs The Low-Rank Mercenary Trifecta

TWO HOURS AGO

“Get it to work the first time,” said the fatter of the two gremlins. “At least this time around.”

“Don’t order me around like you’re the boss!” The smaller gremlin shoved him away as he had gotten too close to him, trying to peek inside the control box of the black tower.

The fatter gremlin smacked him on the head. “Take it from me, or you’ll have to take it from The Chancellor himself.”

“Quiet!” yelled the demon priest who stood overlooking them. His voice was not louder than a soft whisper, but they could hear him as if he’d spoken right next to their long, pointy ear flaps. “Or you’ll be forced to know who the true ruler of your fate is.”

The smaller gremlin spat on the ground and turned his attention back inside the control box. With a greedy look on his face, he carefully connected two wires, and—

ZAP!

“Ehehe,” laughed the smaller gremlin. “We almost had it!”

The fatter gremlin smacked his thick head with his thick hand, but poking himself in the eye in the process. “Shut up and try again!” he barked at the smaller gremlin, while silently squealing in pain.

“Let me focus…” said the smaller gremlin, sticking his tongue out as he went in to mess with a few wires once again.

Zzzap!

“Ahhh,” said the demon priest, his eyeballs reflecting the bright, red gleam of the vertical light. “There it is,” he said, completely mesmerized. “Finally here…”

He closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath in, before announcing: “Let the carnage begin!”

TWENTY MINUTES AGO

The one they called The Chancellor looked out of his ship at the vertical red lightning. What a glorious sight!

The gremlin brothers were little more than loud-mouthed bottom-feeders in his view. But they were reliable where it mattered, after all. A generous reward awaits them, he thought.

The Chancellor gazed gleefully at the planet from a height little above the buildings in the distance that surrounded them. The beautiful planet that shone blue just a few hours ago, was now deep red.

The ritual had begun. Soon they will be here. And after they’ve had their feast, the planet would be all his.

Ah, Earth. What a find. He couldn’t believe a planet such as this was hidden from the archives for so long. Had he known about it earlier, he wouldn’t have wasted a single day.

He ought to locate the anonymous tipper once they were done here, and shower him with wealth, and whatever else he may desire. What a diamond in the rough had he managed to dig up in this wasted corner of the galaxy.

The Chancellor chuckled, looking forward into his golden future. This planet was going to make him immensely rich, and ascend the League to heights never seen before!

And what about its defenses? The Chancellor laughed. According to intel, this planet was so weak, the Galactic Order would never have even bothered to give it a rank, had they even known about its pitiful existence in the first place.

On the other hand, he had the gunslinging bounty hunter and the venomous python—both E-rank warriors—and, not to mention, the D-rank controller witch, Carla. All positioned strategically inside the smoke cloud, ready to defend the black tower from all sides, with their very lives.

“All clear with you three?” The Chancellor buzzed over the radio.

“Honestly, boss,” said the bounty hunter. “You don’t need these two. You’re wasting precious coin.”

“I agree,” said the witch. “I can take these pathetic idiots out right now if you give the go ahead, boss. They’re so useless; and besides, I’m way more pleasant to look at.”

“I’ll kill you all and drink your blood!” shouted the python at the top of his… lungs? Does his species even have lungs? Or was it gills?

What species was he anyway? He’d never seen a snake walk on its hind legs, like a monkey!

“Enough out of you clowns!” The Chancellor growled. “Focus on your duties. This planet will probably offer no resistance, but I fucking hate surprises. So stay on guard!”

Each of them grunted callously.

Bunch of mercenary degenerates, thought The Chancellor. But then again, they were picked from the bottom of the barrel.

However, they were enough to take over this weak-ass planet.

The Chancellor began to smile again. Soon will the Legion arrive through the portal. And soon will the prize be his.

As he scanned the scene that sowed the seeds of his imminent dominion over this sector, his eyes inevitably fell upon the demon priest.

The only thing that was wrong with this picture.

If he could have had his way, the blasted priest would be nowhere near here. But his little brother had insisted.

Scheming little shit, his brother. The Chancellor chose to meet his enemies head on, in battle, like any honorable warrior should. But no, not his brother. He’d always had his own way of doing things.

And history had taught The Chancellor that he should never doubt or go against his brother’s plans. He’d done so much for the League, after all. And his schemes had never failed before.

Still, thought The Chancellor. A dark aura surrounded these mystical cultists. They’ve always had schemes of their own, not too unlike his little brother.

He ought to keep an eye on that priest. The way he’d been carrying himself, ordering the gremlins around, as if he were in-charge of this operation…

He’d teach him a valuable lesson in hierarchy soon enough.

“Chancellor!” His pitiful servant squeaked from behind him.

He wanted to punch the little worm’s nose in through his skull for disturbing his quiet revelry. But he needed him to fly the ship. So he simply growled, “What?”

“Our sentries, Chancellor,” he spoke in a quivering, frightened voice. “And our brutes… in fact, the entire outer swarm… they’ve all been taken out!”

“Oh…” The Chancellor smiled. “So the planet’s defenses are finally here. Good. Let them come.” He was least concerned about this puny planet’s so-called defenses.

“No, Chancellor,” the squealing worm continued. “Their armies are still far away. This was just one warrior.”

“One? One warrior you say?”

The worm gulped. “He even defeated the colossal.”

For the first time today, The Chancellor’s face was full with quiet rage. “Bring him to me. Now!”

“According to the trackers, Chancellor—”

The worm lost his voice, which enraged The Chancellor even more. “What?!” he growled.

“He’s already here.”

The Chancellor looked out the window of his ship and spotted a white armored warrior, hovering in the air, take position facing the black tower—the source of the red lightning and the portal. Apparently, he had pushed through the smoke barrier without hesitation.

The warrior donned a smooth, full metal body armor, which was slender—presumably just like his body inside it—and had no gaps. At the onset, the warrior didn’t look at all threatening. One could find cleaning robots with a similar physique.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

However, something about this warrior felt odd, yet strangely familiar.

The warrior looked like he was about to extend one of his slender arms, but then he suddenly stopped and looked around. He looked… confused.

“Intruder alert!” announced his worm assistant over the radio.

The Chancellor’s chosen warriors swiftly moved in.

The bounty hunter was the closest to the invading armored warrior’s position. He quickly fired a kill shot from his long-barrel silver revolver, but the armored warrior… dodged.

This seemed to have put the bounty hunter in a state of shock and awe.

“Fool,” said The Chancellor over the radio. “You won’t get him that easily.” What was it about this mysterious warrior that seemed so familiar? Had he fought his kind before?

His warriors must exercise caution. “Restrain him until the witch is close!”

The bounty hunter switched ammo and fired a thick bolt that spread into a wide net. The armored warrior easily dodged that too. But the bounty hunter had anticipated this, and threw a golden lasso in the direction of the armored warrior’s dodge. The lasso found its target, looping around the armored warrior; his slender arms now bound tight to his body.

He was caught.

He could dodge a speeding bullet, but was easily caught by a golden fucking lasso?

The Chancellor was disappointed. He was expecting at least somewhat of a fight from the terrifying armored warrior who’d single-handedly taken out the entire outer swarm, including the colossal.

Pity.

Perhaps he had overestimated him, in the naïve hope of witnessing at least one entertaining battle.

The witch and the snake were finally here. All three of them now surrounded the trapped armored warrior.

“How is it fair?” cried the witch, annoyed. “Why do you get all the fun?”

“Set him loose!” commanded the snake. “So I can eat him!”

“That’s a brilliant idea!” said the witch, now smiling; her eyes popped wide open. “And it came from you little snakey! Mama snake would be so proud.”

She moved in to free the armored warrior herself, but was instantly zapped with an acute electric current as her hand came close to the armored warrior’s body.

“What the hell? You wanna know what I’m made of, you absolute moron?!” she snapped at the bounty hunter.

“It wasn’t me,” said the bounty hunter in calm annoyance. “My lasso is divine. It doesn’t rely upon cheap tricks.”

The Chancellor could hear it all through the radio. “Stop fooling around and bring him in!” he growled.

The bounty hunter pulled on the lasso to move the warrior along, but it wouldn’t budge. He was confused a third time.

The lasso was supposed to make the entrapped creature obey the will of the master, thought The Chancellor. It’s pretty standard issue, so why hadn’t it worked?

Something was wrong.

“A ballistic ranger, a venomous nuker, and a simpleton crowd controller,” the armored warrior’s voice suddenly popped through The Chancellor’s radio. “You must be the low-rank mercenary trifecta! The dream team of the cheapskates.”

The witch pointed her staff directly at the warrior’s armored head. “Just who do you think you calling a simpleton?”

“Now, now,” said the armored warrior in his static voice, which somehow felt very… artificial. “Let’s not get too emotional, shall we? And besides, facts should never hurt your feelings. Isn’t it true that the whole lot of you are low-ranks? Isn’t it also true that your… um… contractor could have hired one single C-rank for this job, and yet, he hired all three of you, to split the loot amongst yourself. You’d think he’s being generous, hiring three instead of one, but whatever all three of you are making, combined, isn’t worth half of what he’d have had to spend on a decent C-rank. Ergo, he’s a cheapskate. And there’s a good chance you won’t see any of the loot.

“So…” said the armored warrior, his voice now slow, calculated. “Why don’t you point his position out to me right now, and go home with your lives. Hell, I might even share all the precious goodies he’s carrying in his ship right now with you lot. What say you?”

The mercenaries nervously looked at each other.

“Come on,” said the armored warrior. “It’s not complicated! If you do the math, it’s all pretty simple. Right up your alley, witch!”

“Not another word!” she snapped, pushing her staff closer to his metal face.

The armored warrior loosened his arms; the tightened lasso failed miserably to hold them in place.

“Shame,” said the warrior, now slowly rising above ground. “I genuinely believed we could have had an understanding. How about you goggles?” he said nodding at the bounty hunter. “Care to defect? Those shades are too last century on your planet, by the way. Trust me, I know!”

The warrior gained altitude. The lasso now fully off his slender metallic body.

“Or you snakey?” he said, pointing a finger at the python. “Actually I’m not sure what you are. How can you be a snake and still have four limbs but walk around like a bipedal? It all seems so counterintuitive.”

“They go in when I slither!” hissed the python.

“Good to know,” said the armored warrior sarcastically as he kept rising higher. “At least confirm this much for me: Is your boss is, in fact, a demon? I don’t want to kill you if I don’t have to.”

The mercenaries were totally out of their wits, but one thing was certain: they hated his guts!

So the armored warrior wasn’t bested after all, thought The Chancellor, smiling. He had faked his capture to confirm whether this was indeed a demon invasion.

But why go through all that trouble just for that measly bit of information?

Something told him that the armored warrior wasn’t letting a whole lot on. He likely still had a few cards up his metal sleeves.

Why the hell did he look so familiar?

The armored warrior hovered high up in the air once again, assuming his original position directly facing the black tower; a good twenty meters separating him from his objective. He extended one of his arms and supported it with the other, pointing it toward the tower. A blue light gathered energy at the tip of his outstretched hand.

A plasma cannon!

The smug smile on The Chancellor’s face quickly vanished. “Stop him!” he blasted on the radio. “Attack him! SHOOT HIM DOWN NOW! Before he takes the shot!”

The armored warrior shot the plasma bolt, but mere milliseconds before he fired, he was hit by one of the demon priest’s miracle blasts, messing up his aim. The plasma bolt missed the black tower by a few inches, but obliterated the gremlin brothers crouched next to it.

That damned priest had proven useful after all!

“Now that’s more like it,” said the armored warrior as soon as he spotted the demon priest. A satisfied expression on his blank face.

“I want everyone on him,” The Chancellor growled into his radio. “Do not let him charge another shot. Take him out, now!”

The mercenary trifecta quickly spread out, prepping a swift counterattack.

The bounty hunter opened with a barrage of bullets from his twin revolvers. But the armored warrior dodged it all, effortlessly.

His aerial maneuverability was quite impressive, noted The Chancellor. Perhaps even better than my own. The Chancellor winced at the thought.

Annoyed, the bounty hunter whipped out a long chain, clearly meant to trap the warrior in place, just like the lasso did, but this time also deliver a high-voltage electric shock—usually very effective against cybernetic types.

But in this case, thought The Chancellor, it was a lethal mistake.

The armored warrior caught the chain and wrapped it around his arm once. Before the bounty hunter could engage the shocker, the chain shot to a temperature hot enough to melt all of the bounty hunter’s fingers. Then, in a swift motion, the armored warrior wrapped the melting hot chain around the bounty hunter’s body, and left him on the ground to slowly burn away.

The python was next, but his venom would be no match against a metal armor. So he switched to corrosive acid. Effective, if he could get close enough. But that would be quite the task for a slithering reptile—built for on ground and sub-terranean assault—against an airborne cybernetic. The python was promptly cut in half with a high-intensity laser fired from the center of the armored warrior’s metal helm.

He was smart. He knew when to keep his distance, and use his natural advantage effectively.

The Chancellor banged his fist on the ship’s console. This only left the controller witch, and the—

The Chancellor frantically looked around.

Where was the damned priest?!

Curse those cultist little shits, the whole lot of them! He must have fled assuming that the battle was already lost.

To hell with him!

The controller witch was now close enough. She raised her staff and prepared to cast a powerful binding spell.

“That is premature, you fool!” growled The Chancellor into the radio, but to no effect. She was already in trance.

Had she not seen the projectile escape the armored warrior’s back?

The armored warrior stopped, hovering a few meters above the witch. She cast her spell confidently and the armored warrior was immobilized. She smirked, confident that the job was done.

The next second, a minuscule but extremely fast-moving bullet pierced through her skull from a downward angle. Blood spilled from between her eyes, and she was down.

The binding spell was thus broken.

“PRIEST! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?” yelled The Chancellor into the radio. But there was no response.

The armored warrior prepared to launch himself at the tower.

He thinks the coast is clear, thought The Chancellor. But he won’t risk charging another plasma blast, since the priest is still missing. He thinks he will be interrupted again, so he’s moving in for a quick finish from melee range.

Little did he knew that the cultist shit had already fled!

The Chancellor was now fuming. If only he had a warrior of this caliber on his side…

He sprang from his position without bothering to open the ship’s windows first, which shattered as he breached through them. The ship lost its stability and tilted downward, making his worm assistant slip and fall into the ship’s console.

The Chancellor made it just in time. The armored warrior was only a few inches away from making contact with the black tower, before he was grabbed by his metal head.

The Chancellor, still holding the armored warrior by his head in one hand, and without losing momentum from his jump, spun in place once to add extra power, and flung the warrior into the sky, far away from the black tower. The warrior flew backward, unable to gain control of his body, piercing through the smoke cloud perimeter with a distant pop.

The Chancellor smirked. Despite all his expert aerial maneuvering, the armored warrior couldn’t recover from the overwhelming force of his mighty throw.

The smirk vanished as quickly as it had come, as The Chancellor realized his mistake.

In an effort to prove to himself that he was decidedly stronger than this mysterious warrior—which was completely unnecessary—he had grossly underestimated him.

He should have finished him when he had the chance!

“Drop the smoke screen,” he ordered his crew aboard the ship through the radio. “The metal shit will use it for a stealth attack.”

“But Chancellor,” protested the worm. “It is the only line of defense between the planet’s approaching military and the black tower!”

“Drop it!” barked The Chancellor. “No army will ever get through me!”

The Chancellor launched himself into the air once again. He passed through the smoke cloud just as it disappeared, and found the armored warrior collapsed into the concrete ground.

The Chancellor’s smirk was back.

He landed on top of the armored warrior knee first, which pressed against his neck, pinning him down and pushing him further into the ground.

This was it. He had him. All he had to do now was crush his metal skull.

The Chancellor felt a strange warmth coming from his left. He instinctively turned to look.

A human male stared at him from behind a crumbling piece of concrete with bright red eyes. A terrified expression etched onto his face.