Chapter 152: The Founders of Aleyros (Part 3)
Cascade gestures a movement with his hand, and two men step up to Kane while everybody else backs off a little. Suddenly, the man to Kane’s left rushes toward him and throws a punch. Not moving a muscle from where he’s standing, Kane uses his left hand to catch the man’s fist. Stunned, the man tries to reel back his hand and channels more iris into his arm to increase his strength, but Kane’s grip is too strong.
The other man then charges toward Kane, not even attempting to throw a punch as he ducks his head behind his shoulder. Kane swiftly dodges while still maintaining his grip, and the charging man crashes into the granite bar. The granite bar holds firm, and the man wails in agony while Kane pulls the first man who attacked toward him.
Being pulled toward Kane, the man tries to use his free hand to give Kane an uppercut on the underside of his bearded chin. Letting his grip go, Kane uses his left hand to deflect the man’s attack and his right hand to punch him across the face. The man is sent flying into a nearby table and chairs, rendered unconscious. The man who charged Kane earlier then tries to ambush him from behind, and Kane jabs his elbow backward into the man’s nose, breaking it before knocking him out with a punch as well.
“Sorry about your place, ma’am,” says Kane, shaking out his hands. “I’ll pay for whatever they break–”
Leaning back as another fist is swung from his right, Kane quickly readjusts his stance and punches the man in the side of his stomach with his right. Kane then lunges forward, palms the man’s face with his left hand, and shoves it backward onto the ground. Hearing footsteps behind him, Kane turns back and kicks both men’s feet out from under them. As they tumble to the ground, he knocks them both out before turning to see whose next.
Infuriated, Cascade yells, “Surround him! And use your iris!”
Six men encircle Kane from all sides with abilities active while Cascade remains in the back, carefully observing. One man is holding a conjured sword, another has frost smoking off his arms, and one has even activated a realm, although Kane can’t determine what the realm does yet.
“What happened to fighting with honor, gentlemen?” asks Kane, looking around at the six powered-up combatants without channeling any iris into his hands or activating his ability.
“Your honor will be the reason you lose,” says Cascade, his eyes blazing a teal color.
“And your lack of it will be the reason you die,” says Kane, using orasi to locate and inspect the iris cores inside each of his opponents.
Sensing movement behind him, the man with the sword lunges toward Kane. Weaving out of the way, Kane jabs the man on the underside of the forearm. The man’s grip loosens, and the glowing neon-green sword falls out of his hand. As Kane grabs the sword out of the air and places his foot down, the ground beneath Kane has frozen over. After briefly using the sword to thwart another attacker, Kane plunges the blade into the ground, and the ice shatters.
Looking back up with raised fists, various chairs and tables around Kane start to float into the air. Using orasi, Kane detects that this isn’t the realm wielder's doing.
Some kind of telekinesis ability. Need to eliminate the mind wielder first.
Pretending not to know who it is, another pair of men pounce on top of Kane, one being the frost elemental wielder and the other having the ability to increase the size of his muscles. The frost user shoots an icicle at Kane, which streaks past him as he quickly closes the distance on him. Fear corroding his train of thought, the frost wielder envelops his hand with ice and emits a massive ice blast he couldn’t miss.
Dodging most of the ice, Kane’s cheek gets nicked with a small ice shard as most of the attack blasts into the enhanced muscle wielder behind him. Staggered that he just attacked one of his own, Kane quickly capitalizes on the frost wielder’s hesitation and knocks him out with a flurry of punches. A floating chair is suddenly thrown toward Kane from the side, and Kane quickly weaves out of the way.
Catching the chair by the legs, he redirects its course to the telekinetic user. Stopping the chair just before it crashes into him, Kane suddenly punches through the wooden chair's seat, and his fist strikes the face of the telekinetic wielder. Stunned and unable to use his telekinesis, Kane swiftly knocks him out with a string of bullet-fast punches.
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While the muscle wielder is still regaining his bearings, Kane spots the relocated realm user, who had positioned himself in the corner of the room.
Whatever his realm is, he’s about to use it.
Running up to the muscle wielder, who is back on his feet, the two converse in a battle of strength, their hands clasping against one another. Their wrangle of brawn is held to a deadlock for a few seconds until Kane starts slowly being pushed back toward the realm user. Just as Kane has to lift his foot to replant it, he swiftly transfers his focus of strength from his arms to his core. The muscle wielder can’t halt his momentum in time, and Kane flips him over his head toward the realm user. Tumbling over to the realm wielder, the muscle wielder barely manages to stay on his feet.
Standing off to the side, a drop of sweat beads down Cascade’s face.
He’s taking them all out with nothing but his fists! What kind of monster is he?!
With his line of sight blocked, the realm user can’t determine where to rupture the ground to defeat Kane. And before he can locate him, Kane knocks out the muscle wielder. As the muscle wielder topples over, the realm user stomps his foot, and the ground underneath the muscle wielder suddenly ruptures. A barrier of stone is created around the realm wielder, trapping him in the corner so Kane can’t get to him.
Immediately refocusing on the last man, Kane asks, “Why haven’t you attacked yet? Your developed cores prove you’re the second strongest in your group.”
The rugged man raises his fists, not channeling any iris into them nor using his ability, “A long time ago, I lost my honor. Even if my pride gets me killed, I refuse to feel that kind of shame again.”
Kane’s gaze narrows, “Before we start, what is your name?”
“In the business, I’m known as Drago. But I’d like you to know me by my given name, Damon Rudak.”
Kane nods, and the two run toward each other and engage in hand-to-hand combat. Going back and forth in a rapid, mesmerizing sequence of blocks, jabs, and dodges, Damon gets the first good hit off on Kane with a blow to the gut. Kane takes a few steps back and touches his hand against his torso, grimacing a little before looking back at Damon.
Lunging toward each other once again, another enthralling exchange plays out, but at an even higher level. Using the chairs and tables around them to evade and reposition, Kane and Damon’s string of combative movements remained fluid over the next forty-eight seconds until Kane managed to exploit Damon's instinctual blind spot. Jabbing him in the ribs before sweeping his legs out, Damon goes down, and Kane stands before him as he tries to get back up.
“I admit defeat,” says Damon, breathing heavily and closing his eyes. “Take my life.”
“No, I won’t,” says Kane, and Damon opens his eyes again to see Kane extending his hand. “Stand.”
Damon accepts it, and after Kane pulls Damon back to his feet, Kane turns to the bar with his fists still raised. Behind the bar, Cascade has an arm around Key’s neck, holding her at gunpoint.
“So instead of striking me when my guard is down, you choose to take a hostage,” says Kane, watching Key struggle to break free from Cascade’s grasp. “You’re a coward.”
Cascade grins, “I just know when a fight is lost. Hand over the legacy core, and I’ll release her.”
“How long are you going to play this up?”
“As long as it takes,” replies Cascade.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” says Kane, looking at Key.
Cascade’s face scrunches together, “Wha–
Key suddenly vanishes from his grasp, and a scream comes from the corner of the room where one man had trapped himself earlier to escape Kane. Hearing a few thumps, the sound of a body falling to the ground makes the diner go quiet again. Terrified, Cascade leaps over the bar and tries to run out of the diner, but Key suddenly reappears between him and the door.
Cascade aims his gun at her and is about to pull the trigger, but Key disappears again. As Cascade turns around to locate her, the gun is suddenly knocked out of his hand, and Cascade’s eyes suddenly glow teal. But before his ability can be unleashed, Key brings him down to his knees and then entraps him with her own chokehold.
Clicking her tongue multiple times with a shake of the head, Key says, “I already know you’re a particle user. There’s nothing nearby for you to transmute, and I’ll know if you try to conjure anything with iris. So give up.”
Cascade tries to strain his neck and use his hands to break free, but Key doesn’t budge.
“How– I looked at you earlier, and you didn’t have any iris cores!”
“Probably because you’re only an evolved wielder. I’m at the next stage, advanced.”
“You– you’re an advanced wielder?! Why are you wasting your talents at this shitty diner?!”
Key thrusts her knee into Cascade’s back in between his shoulder blades.
“That’s for insulting my place,” says Key, forcing his back upright again and constricting her chokehold grip. “Your time is running out. Deactivate your ability, and I might release you.”
Turning his head just enough to look at Key, Cascade says, “Not letting me go will be a mistake! My boss won’t stop coming after him, and losing me will really piss him off!”
Key leans closer to Cascade and whispers, “And that’s exactly what we want.”
Snapping his neck, Cascade’s body goes limp and falls over.