Only a few seconds had passed since I shouted Sunshine’s name before I sensed a figure quickly descending towards me. The useful thing about Energy Sense is that you could sense anything or anyone with radioactive or nuclear properties even if you couldn’t see them—showing up in your head as basic outlines. And this outline coming straight for me had a weapon. A sword. In that instant, I formed a forcefield around my body, and I immediately felt a sharp pain fill the cheek on my normal half.
My body remained still. From the corner of my eye, a sword–a katana had sliced a bit of my cheek open. As the blood trickled down to my lips, I looked up to see who the attacker was, and the sight shocked me a bunch. It was a person who I hadn’t seen in a few years, and someone who I thought to be one of the strongest Underground Radius members. A man who could create explosions out of nothing with another ability he never let anyone see.
Jesus Hernandez—the Devil of the Apocalypse.
I added a layering around my bubble so the part he pierced through wouldn’t crack completely. “I knew you had run off from somewhere, but I didn’t think you’d become a surface rat… after what happened to your son, Jesus.”
“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about my son, Dante,” he said, his tone a little angry. “That’s including his fate, so don’t go acting like you do.”
“The only thing I want to know is why you’re in the same town as that girl,” I replied, pulling my gun out of its holster. “Plus, you have the audacity to try and protect her. You do realize the danger she poses against humanity, right?”
“I’m aware of her… disease, but unlike you, I won’t resort to killing a child.”
“Killing is a strong word.” I aimed the gun at his mask. “Believe me when I say it’d be a big waste to do all that. It’ll be better for everyone on the surface if she comes back down to the Underground.”
“Like any of you URs give a damn about the survivors up here. If y’all did, all of that technology you guys like to horde would be given to everyone else,” he argued, tightening his grip on the katana. “Your group created three cities for Christ’s sake. Most civilizations in the New York area can barely afford to build proper walls.”
“Hey, that ain’t my problem!,” I growled, pointing at him aggressively. “Bring that shit up with my dad, not me. And I’ll have you know that he’s actually been trying to fix those problems for the last year, so be a lot more grateful, asswipe!”
“Geez, don’t tell you’re still a ride or die for that sad sack of a man? Guess you got tired of so many guys riding your dick, you decided to try it out for yourself.”
The layering began to crack while the bubble around me was nearly at its limit. I gritted my teeth, eyes bulging. “What the hell did you say to me!? I should rip that horse mask off your head and cut it to pieces.”
“You do that and your face won’t be the only thing that got eviscerated,” he retorted, his sword brightening.
There was now… a hole in the bubble. “What’d you say about my face!?”
“What’d you say about my horse head!?”
The second I fired my gun, a huge flash of green erupted from Jesus’ sword, blasting me skywards. Luckily, I was able to spawn a third forcefield around me right before his attack could do any serious damage. I threw up my hands, steadying my bubble so it could remain still in the air. However, Jesus wasn’t having that as he had somehow launched himself in the air with his katana aimed at me, attempting to puncture my forcefield again.
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Using the energy around me, I coated my forcefield with aura and redirected most of it to the spot I was sure that bastard would target first. A Radius Ability user wasn’t just able to cover their bodies with the world’s energy. Objects or weapons they wielded were capable of being coated with aura too, and in the case with my forcefields, their durability could be increased with this technique. And that was something Jesus would immediately find out as upon attacking my bubble, it didn’t move an inch.
I raised my arm, creating another forcefield, and slammed it down on his body…. Or so I thought. Despite being in a position where he clearly couldn’t move, he had surprisingly pulled out his blade and dodged my attack. He landed on top of my forcefield, and began swinging his katana all around my barrier. Though, he wasn’t hitting it—just attacking the air around it at a speed that was a little hard for me to keep up with.
Confusion filled me, until a realization crashed into me like a truck. This crazy bastard was spamming and stacking his goddamn explosion technique. Without hesitation, I opened a hole under my feet and plummeted to the ground below, shooting some bullets above to get some kind of reaction out of the maniac.
As I predicted, a huge explosion turned the blue sky into a light green, forcing me to cover my ears. Out of nowhere, Jesus shot out of the blast area, descending toward me in the blink of an eye. I gasped, and before I could fully react, his katana was inches away from my heart. Instinctually, a small forcefield around my chest appeared, saving my life temporarily. While the tip of his katana inched further and further towards my heart, more small bubbles stacked on top of the original forcefield.
Ever since the mysterious attack that ruined my face, my limit on bigger forcefields were three. However, the limit was much higher with mini forcefields.
The limit was twenty, and there were currently nineteen of them keeping Jesus from stabbing me. The only problem with reaching a number between nineteen to twenty was that I couldn’t use a bigger forcefield to protect myself from the impending ground about to kill me. Even though I enhanced my defense with aura, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to survive falling from the height I was at.
Which meant there was only one way I was going to survive this.
I pulled out two small orbs out of my pockets and screamed, “Benny! Denny! I choose you!” The two radioactive squirrels I saved from the blood tsunami Jason made came out as the balls disappeared. “Kill that piece of shit for me!”
They landed on the mini barriers and charged up towards him, drool spilling from their mouths. They were just about to bite his hands when Jesus released his hold on the katana and grabbed the two animals. Aura encased his hands, and he swiftly crushed them into meaty, green bits.
“No! I was saving them for someone else, you asshole!” I roared, shielding my face from the blood. “You fool! Don’t you know fighting me for this long is only putting that girl in danger? I thought you wanted to protect her.”
“Don’t be stupid, kid. It’s only been fifteen seconds,” he replied calmly, grabbing his sword again. “And trust me, that girl isn’t in any danger right now. In fact, I’m bringing you into her range so she can end this fight for me. Obviously, your partner is included.”
Fifteen seconds!? Did I really last that long against him? More importantly, what the hell is he talking about when it comes to her range? Her Radius ability shouldn’t kill or incapacitate me in any way. Yeah, that’s right. This guy’s just bluffing. Trying to catch me off guard so I just end up thinking myself to death.
Well, not today.
I pulled out my last orb from my chest pocket and pointed it to my back. “I choose you, Jerry!” Then, a giant, deceased radioactive bird popped out of the orb. According to one of my loan collector lackeys, some zombie intruded the place and killed the poor thing. Fortunately, I could still capture dead beasts in my mini forcefields as well. And Jerry, who was mostly just a skeleton with some meat in a few spots, was going to shield me.
Once we got closer to the ground, Jesus shouted, “This is my stop! If you survive the fall, good luck dealing with what comes next!” He pulled his katana out of the bubbles and jumped off of them, leaving me alone to continue falling.
That was until… I heard something.
“Mind Trick: Obedience!”
Some kind of… new energy was entering my mind, and I didn’t know how to stop it.