Three shimmering lines cleaved through the thick air.

Maria ducked the attack, but her body was sent flying by a kick that followed after.

“MARIE!” Felix cried out as his partner crashed against one of the concrete pillars.

“Don’t worry about someone else!” A large figure shouted out as a fierce strike grazed through Felix’s coat.

Felix escaped a devastating blow.

As he looked up, he saw a hulking mass of muscle towering above him, wearing a torn red shirt and pale blond hair spiked in the middle. In the man’s arms were mechanical claws that were decorated with the shredded edges of his black coat.

“To be defeated by some brat…I thought Elite Agents were supposed to be in a league of their own.” The man said as he looked over at the person Maria had just killed.

“Y-you’re…” Felix stuttered as he pulled out his mask from under his coat.

Could this be the guy Marie was talking about? Is he… Jackal’s Fang?

“You can call me Beast.” He flaunted a sharp array of claws protruding from his knuckles.

Felix let out a sigh of relief and once again put on his mask, “Bentley Wallace East… Also known as Beast. A high-ranking member of the mafia. Lucky.”

“I see my reputation precedes me. So, you’re also one of those Elite Agents? Let’s hope you’re better than that corpse over there.” He sneered, pointing to the now deceased Agent Petrichor.

With his leg steadily upright, Beast towered over the two agents, cracking his knuckles.

His muscles were aching to test their strength, with arms large enough to contest its sizes with the two agent’s heads. But though he appeared to be a brute, his mind kept his movements cautious, wary of what the two would be capable of.

Felix lowered his hand to the ground, with one arm hanging in the air, arching his back like an animal.

A piece of fragmented rubble was thrown against Felix’s head, and with a thud, struck him right on his mask and making it fall off, “Felix.” Maria said.

“Huh?” The two of them glanced over to her.

“Two legs. Not four.” Simple words that she instructed, commanded, and demanded of him.

Beast glanced towards Maria with a grin on his face and said, “You’re real cute, so I’d love to spare ‘ya. But ya killed one of my pack, so I gotta kill ya. Nothing pers—”

“Spare us the gimmick, mutt.” Maria interrupted him with a sharp glare, her body buried under the rubble. “Save us the trouble of having to catch you.”

From behind, Felix aimed his white gun, Agony, and a blue haze started to come out of him.

It spiraled into the weapon, funneling into it’s barrel. A slow blue swirl charging up. He hoped to replicate the attack he used before. The cyclone he used to strike Moritz. But the swirling blue shroud flickered away and dissipated into nothingness. Followed by a drop of blood from his nose.

His body crackled with blue electricity, as the wounds he received from his previous engagement was far from healed.

He wiped it off and then fired his black gun, Misery, instead. But his hazy vision and weak state made him miss his target by just a small amount, scratching Beast’s face in the process.

Beast’s face contorted with rage as he noticed this, and slashed away the succeeding bullets with his claws.

His eyes suddenly furrowed with uncertainty and rage as he thought to himself; The girl is on the ground, but I didn’t feel a thing when I hit her. Like I was hitting a feather. As for the runt over there, I didn’t hit him at all. He shouldn’t be able to move with the trail of blood he left behind, much less avoid my attacks. And that lightning around his body. Just what in hell are these two?

Felix resorted to using Misery’s default attack and fired at Beast with energy pulses, hoping to stun him, or at the very least slow his movements down. But Beast continued to stand strong, barely pushed by the attacks.

“That the best you’ve got?!” Beast charged towards his enemy with his arm ready to swing, but his mechanical claws did nothing but slash through pillar the phantom leaned on, causing it to crash.

Felix continued to shoot him while he darted around, not letting Beast get close.

What are those claws made of? Military grade armaments?

He then noticed the exoskeleton wrapped around Beast’s legs and quickly aimed Agony at those, hoping the hollow rounds would break it.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

But Beast was fast enough to recognize what he was doing and avoided the attack, before promptly closing the distance between them and landing a firm kick straight to the agent’s gut.

Felix was shot across the parking lot and slammed down against the grimy, concrete floor. He coughed violently, it was a struggle to get air back into his lungs.

Beast took his time walking towards the agent, there was caution in his movements as he watched his opponent struggle to get back up.

With shaky arms that barely supported him, Felix was able to push himself back up. Beast stood before him, and placed his gun against the back of his head.

“Felix, get up.” Maria’s sharp demand echoed. “If you really want to be number one, then you have to be able to beat this guy first.”

‘If I want to be number one…’

With those words, he heard Luna’s voice echo from his buried memories, “Felix…get up. Every time you fall, you get back up.”

As Beast pulled the trigger, only a silhouette remained on the ground. As he turned around, he saw the phantom appear standing behind him.

‘Then to surpass him…’

A blue sphere spiraled in his chest, swelling deep as it grew larger.

‘Then I have to be…’

In his mind formed the silhouette of David, looking back at him from the distance with a sharp gaze.

‘Stronger!’

There was a large space once again between them. His pale white mask fell to the ground, and rolled until eventually it stopped.

With a lowered head, Felix stripped off his black coat, revealing the blood-stained blue shirt underneath. “You know… I’ve been having an awful day today.” His body was full of dark bruises and dripping with blood, he wasn’t even able to keep standing straight as he kept wobbling around.

Beast grinned and replied, “You and I both—”

Felix landed a heavy kick to his face before he could even finish his thought, “Don’t talk over me.” He gave him a sharp glare, bloodlust pouring out of him.

“As I was saying… Because I’m having an awful day, to blow off some steam, I’ve decided to break you.” Felix declared with a wide grin; his voice dripped with a hint of depravity.

“What was that?” Beast glared and blew the blood out of his nose.

The blue-eyed agent went over to pick up his white mask and covered his face with it, “I thought dogs were supposed to have good hearing.”

“Fuck you just say?!”

This kid shouldn’t be able to move. And yet he’s still standing, like he’s completely unharmed…

Beast thought to himself as he stared at the blue-eyed agent, who stared back with a blank canvas covering his face.

“I’m done with today. But for your sake, I’ll give you ten seconds to grovel and apologize like the dog you are.” The phantom declared, his voice reverberated through the mask and echoed through the vast open space.

“What was that, you little bastard?!”

He nonchalantly approached Beast with a smile hidden behind his white mask.

Blinded by rage, Beast lifted his fist and threw it at the agent with great speed. His attack swept up the dust on the ground beyond his reach, only for him to realize that all he struck was the dissipating blue silhouette.

“What the hell—?!” His boastful tone was gone and he spoke in a hush, bewildered voice.

“What are you attacking?” The phantom taunted as he stood on top of Beast’s fist, before promptly kicking him in the jaw.

Beast’s legs slid across the ground from the impact of the attack, but he refused to fall over, even though a harsh throbbing was now coursing through his jaw.

There was once again a few meters distance between them, and a chase resumed, but Beast was no longer the predator.

With every motion, a ghostly blue trail was left behind. Beast’s claws clashed with the agent’s guns. Striking and slashing, but each time the wild giant got close, the blue phantom would vanish.

He then appeared right behind Beast and dusted off his blue shirt, “Where are you looking?” His echoing voice got under the criminal’s skin.

“DON’T FUCK WITH ME!” The red in Beast’s face grew more apparent.

Beast rushed towards him, but as he got into the phantom’s reach, everything suddenly turned pitch black. “AGKH!”

He opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself staring at the flickering dim green on the ceiling, “Wh-wha— the hell—? Why am I?”

Beast felt a warm liquid flow from his forehead as he rubbed it. When he had brought his hand to his line of sight, he saw that it was dripping in red. Beast looked and saw the trail of light emanating from the phantom’s eyes.

This kid… he grabbed me by the head… and he…

He recollected the blue silhouette appearing in front of him, before promptly getting his head smashed against the floor.

Fighting head-on isn’t gonna work.

Beast’s breathing grew heavy and uneven. He clutched the ground and picked up pieces of dirt and debris, before getting back up and wiping off the blood dripping from his head.

He took his stance, and once again rushed towards the agent. The phantom answered in kind.

As they met head on, the phantom effortlessly avoided Beast’s upcoming blow with a swift side step, and replied with his own right hook. But before it could land, Beast grinned and unclenched his fist, flinging dust and grime from his hand and into his opponent’s eyes.

The dirt stained the phantom’s white mask. Blinded by the crafty attack, Beast followed up with a blow to his gut, and his body was shot against one of the pillars, causing it to crack.

“Gotcha…” Beast grinned, but his eyes widened as he saw that his claws had been snapped in half. “What… the hell?”

His focus was drawn to the sound clinking metal falling on the ground.

“It appears my hands were stronger than your claws.” The phantom lifted up his palm, displaying the broken metal shards lodged inside it.

“You… you’re insane… huh?” He glanced over to his arm once more and noticed a red line forming horizontally in the middle.

Beast let out a guttural screamed as his forearm had also been snapped in half.

The phantom whipped his arm, casting out the shards and metal fragments embedded inside it. His footsteps then echoed throughout the parking lot as he calmly approached, looking down on the self-proclaimed beast.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you gonna use the claws you’re so proud of?” The phantom laughed.

“What… what are you?!” Beast cried out in agony, clutching his dangling arm.

His heavy breathing turned into uneven gasps as he looked up at the man-made monster who stood before him.

“You see, there’s a reason I’m top dog, and it’s because I’m better than you.” The Blue Phantom held his black gun an inch before Beast’s forehead, mirroring what Beast had done to him earlier.

But as Beast looked up, his expression reminded Felix of Harbinger’s frightened face.

There was a second of hesitation, but he then heard the words echo in his ear, “You were only prolonging his suffering.”

“Now tell me, do you know what it means… to be an esper?”

I see now… This damned brat… is Death itself.

Through Beast’s blurry vision, the masked agent with glowing blue eyes appeared like the reaper ready to swing.

The last thing he witnessed was the white gun in front of him.

After he pulled the trigger, Beast fell to the ground.

~