Chapter 08

We all stood there in silence, as the smoke started to blow away with the wind. Ghost was still standing strong staring us down. The admins apparently the only ones with brains were trying to get out of the area.

Druidia stepped forward and, with a huge expenditure of energy, surrounded the fight area completely with trees leaving only a few inched between each tree.

“This is my Enchanted Forest Prison. No one can leave now but those I choose.” Smugness oozed from her words.

“Enchanted? Enchanted how?” I had to ask.

“Why don’t you try and find out for yourself.”

I hate to admit it, but I really thought about finding out. My curiosity will definitely get me killed one day. After thinking about it only for a split second, Mastermind was already giving me a ‘I kind of want to know myself,’ type of look.

“Enough games Cynthia.” Ghost chided her.

“I told you, here it’s Druidia, Dorian.”

“Whatever, recover your energy sister.”

“I am out of energy as well. We should leave Ghost can handle these NPCs and Admin garbage.” The other hero, Captain Code, said.

The two started walking toward the edge of the tree line, and as they approached the trees just moved out of their way. Leaving Us and the admins with Ghost. The admins tried next

“This guy is for real.” Orbital spoke only loud enough for us to hear.

“He’s approaching our number of arrests.” The Author started.

“And that is by himself.” Mastermind Finished.

“Well he has never gone up against us.” I said, trying to hide my nerves.

“I think you’ll find, that you trash have never gone up against anything like me.” The sheer confidence in his voice was making me angry.

“You can fight me all at once or one at a time, either way I will win.”

“Do you even hear how cocky you sound? You sound like you’re about to get on a knee and propose to yourself!” I yelled, not my best but it’ll do.

“It is not cockiness, if you have the power to back it up.”

“Well then,” I knew I was going to get yelled at later for this, “I challenge you to a Fight.”

-YOU HAVE ISSUED A DUEL CHALLENGE TO GHOST

-DUEL TYPE: FIGHT

“What do I get if I am victorious?”

“What do you want?”

“I want you and your relics of the past to leave me to handle the Admins as I see fit.”

“And if I win?”

“I will leave the area.”

“No.” I simply stated. “If I win, you will not be allowed to continue as a hero. You shame the title with your actions. You must also never return to Axiscore.”

He looked a little shocked by my words and took his time to think it over. After a few moments he looked me in the eye.

“I accept the duel. We will fight with Standard Rules.”

-YOUR DUEL CHALLENGE TO GHOST WAS ACCEPTED

-AS THE CHALLENGER CHOOSES THE RULES GHOST HAS MADE HIS CHOICE. THE RULES ARE AS FOLLOWS

-NO POWER LIMITATIONS

-THE FIGHT IS OVER WITH A KNOCKOUT OR IF A FIGHTER YEILDS.

-NO TIME RESTRICTION

-NO OUTSIDE HELP, THIS IS A ONE ON ONE DUEL, IF EITHER PARTY IS HELPED, THEIR OPPENENT WILL IMMEDIATELY WIN.

(PEOPLE NOT PARTICIPATING CAN STILL CHEER YOU ON AND OFFER ADVICE, BUT ANY PHYSICAL HELP WILL CAUSE A LOSS.)

-YOU AND GHOST HAVE ALSO SET UNIQUE REWARDS UPON VICTORY. HONOR YOUR WORDS OR PAY THE PRICE.

-THE DUEL WILL BEGIN IN:

-3

-2

-1

-BEGIN!

I rushed forward trying not to give him any time to react. I was on him in an instant throwing punch after punch, but I never felt a blow hit. I tried another spot, aiming directly at his face, then I saw it, my hand passed right through him!

Right as I noticed it, I felt a sharp pain in my gut and was rocketed backwards. I hit the ground right at the edge of the trees on the opposite end of the impromptu arena. I was on my feet before a second had past and was ready to counter the blow that was sure to follow, but Ghost was right where I left him.

“Ha! You will have to do better than that!”

“So, you have some kind of ghost power and super strength.”

“Close, but you only have speed and you will need more than that to beat me.”

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“Why don’t we test that theory!”

I rushed him again but this time I stopped thinking about my moves, this works on mind readers, and that’s the only thing I can think of that lets him know what I’m going to do.

Again, my punch went right through him! Thinking about how this went last time, I looked down. Sure, enough his fist was nearing my stomach for another counter. I side stepped the blow.

“Well at least you can learn.” He sounded slightly bored, and that was making me even angrier.

For what seemed like the first time ever, I didn’t say anything back. I had an idea. I started running, not toward him, but around him. At the speed I am running, a vortex quickly appeared and created a vacuum forcing the air out of the area.

Looking at the so-called hero, he finally moved. He started sinking into the ground, I stopped after he completely disappeared. Not seeing him I was looking over my shoulder trying to see the entire battlefield. When I felt something grab my leg, I felt like I was starting to sink.

The bastard was trying to pull me into the ground! I punched at his wrist, and as I hoped my fist went right through him, causing him to slip right through my leg, and a ran free.

“Clever.” Ghost started as he reemerged from the ground,” Using my power against me. For that I will let you know why I am the best hero there has ever been. My main power isn’t strength or etherealness. It is danger sense.”

Crap. That means his reflexes are so fast that even at my max speed he could tell where I was going to hit, that coupled with his etherealness he could easily dodge all my attacks.

It was right then that I received a message that appeared on the HUD in my eye displays.

Mastermind: Be faster than his reflexes.

Celerity: Easy for you to say, I’m given it all I’ve got.

Just then I realized, I still had the icon telling me I’m in the zone! I can go faster!

Seeing that Ghost wasn’t making a move toward me, I got into a sprinter’s stance. Using the moment, I quickly opened my upgrade screen. Luckily, I never spent all of my feat points. Searching through the list I bypassed everything to get to the ones I wanted.

-Speed III

-Increases top speed by 30%

-Speed IV

-Increases top speed by 40%

-Acceleration IV

-Can reach top speed 40% quicker

Purchasing them both I had only two feat points left. I looked at my opponent.

“Well I am waiting!” Ghost was holding both arms out as if to say, “free shot”.

Not being one to miss an opening I took off, as I started to run, the street where I had started cracked with the sudden force. I almost ran right past him due to the new upgrades and being in the zone, but I managed to adjust my course, and aimed my punch right at his face.

This time, I felt it connect. Then just as usual my fist went right through his face.

“Wow, kind of slow reaction time there, big guy!”

“What, how did you hit me?” He roared the question at me.

I didn’t answer but gave him my best “gotcha” smile.

That’s when he charged at me. This time I was the one to stand my ground, after all, he had to be solid to land a punch and he still wasn’t as fast as me. Right as he reached me, he started to throw a big right hook, and I was prepared to take it if I had to. If I took that punch, I was going to give a couple dozen myself.

Slamming fist after fist into his ribs, he endured it. Right as his hook would have slammed into me, I thought about blocking, but with his strength, it still would have hurt. So, I ducked the blow and threw another punch right at his gut, but this time my hand slipped through him. As soon as my fist completely passed through his body, he twisted his torso and threw a backhand directly at me. This time I was too close and couldn’t dodge.

First pain filled my face where he hit me, then my body where I hit the ground, then again in my head as it impacted when I stopped. My health bar was flashing at this point, he delivered massive damage to me, it had to have been a critical hit.

A little dazed I tried to stand up but kept falling back down. Just as soon as my dazed condition expired, I was lifted off my feet. Ghost had my neck in his hands and had me suspended off the ground.

“Yield or I break your neck!” he growled through clenched teeth.

I tried to retort but he squeezed his fist tighter. Not knowing what else to do I decided to activate one of my old favorite attacks.

I started laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” his grip loosened to let me speak.

“How’s your knowledge of science?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Do you know what kinetic energy is?”

“Sure, if something is moving it generates it. Again, what does that have to do with anything.”

I could hear the Honor Guard and Mastermind start to laugh as they knew where this was going.

“My suit,” I couldn’t stop myself from laughing,” collects... ha… the energy…ha… and lets me do this.”

The whole time the conversation was happening I spent my last two feat points.

-Electric Stun I

-Electric attacks now stun for 3 seconds.

~~~

-Electric Damage II

-Electric attacks now deal 12% more damage.

I grabbed his wrist and let lose my suits kinetic energy. I had built up quite a bit from all the running I did to save people. I had enough that the Honor Guard noticed streaks of lightning coursing off of me and connecting with Ghost. I channeled all of the electricity through my hand that grasped his wrist and drained nearly all of my energy in doing so. He dropped me, and he was indeed stunned.

Using the last bit of energy I had left, I started my barrage of blows. He didn’t dodge a single punch, and I could turn these three seconds into much more. I kept the jabs coming, every now and then I’d take a break from the body blows for a quick punch to the face. After about one hundred hits, I kicked the back of his knee and he dropped to the ground. I then started running around the arena to build up speed, and just before his stun wore off, I channeled a little of my kinetic energy into electricity and sent it into my right leg. He came out of the stun but to slow as my full speed electric kick connected with his face.

This time he was the one sent flying. He finally stopped when he connected with one of the enchanted trees. I collapsed to the ground, out of energy and nearly dead. It was everything I could do to stay awake. Blinking slowly and about to pass out, I heard it.

“NOO!” Ghost was screaming and running toward me.

A blue portal started to appear in front of me, but quickly vanished.

“What are you doing?” I heard Mastermind yell after the sound of a slap.

It seemed as though Mastermind stopped me from losing this duel. That meant I still had a chance to win.

A kick connected with my stomach and I nearly threw up, but I didn’t go flying.

“Don’t tell me you are out of energy too?” I snorted trying not to laugh, it hurt too much.

“I will still beat you!” He jumped on top of me and started throwing mass amounts of punches at my face. Groggy and near death I didn’t resist.

“Ray!” came the voice of a friend. It was David. One of my oldest friends. It was nice to hear from him.

“Get up you idiot! Fight Back!” This time it was Richard. Who was he yelling at?

“You put up more of a fight when we first fought.” Mr. Edison?

“I don’t have legs, but if you die, I’ll kick your ass!” Wayne?

“I didn’t come back to see you die. FIGHT!” Hopper? Why don’t I know his real name?

-Its MIDNIGHT!

-Great Work!

-You Defeated 13 Rioters

- You Saved 189 Bystanders

- You earned a total of 52,879 Experience Points

-Congrats! You’ve leveled up! You are now level 247!

-You now have 1 power point to spend!

-You Earned 1,286 Hero Points! (334,360) (Congratulations YOU ARE A HERO!)

- You Earned 50 Villain points (5,243) (Congratulations YOU ARE A HERO!)

-A notification needs your attention. View it now?

- Yes | No

I clicked no. I have important things to do right now. Back at full health and energy I vibrated my body generating more kinetic energy and continuously channeled it through my hands at Ghost. The continuous stream of electricity stunned him, and for the full three seconds I kept up the flow.

After my energy drained again, he flew back from all the energy in his body. This time, I smiled.

-CONGRATULATIONS CHAMPION! YOU HAVE WON THE DUEL!

-DUE TO THE REWARDS YOU HAD SET BEFORE THE DUEL THE FOLLOWING APPLIES:

-GHOST CANNOT CONTINUE AS A HERO, ANYTIME HE DOES HERO WORK HE WILL RECEIVE NO HERO POINTS

-GHOST HAS 24 HOURS TO GET OUT OF AXISCORE, AND CAN NEVER RETURN, OR ELSE HIS HERO AND VILLAIN POINTS WILL DRAIN UNTIL NOTHING REMAINS.

A calm quiet was now everywhere as no one said or did anything. That didn’t last long as my teammates, and new allies, cheered.