Chapter 138
Destroy Everything 6
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The Penitence was a small vigilante group that was formed mere 3 months ago with 10 members active members.
6 of the 10 were not fit for frontline combat. Their main functions in the group were information gathering, logistics, recruitment, connections building and planning.
Because of this focus on the backline, they overcame their lack of experience with careful planning and preparation.
They made sure that they knew everything about their target, be it fighting style or lifestyle.
Everything must be accounted for in order to achieve a perfect victory.
Naturally, they did their research on Theodore Lorne and made an elaborate plan to defeat him.
They went for him at the train station because based on the HAA psychological profile, they knew that despite his mild megalomania and violent tendencies, he tried his best to avoid dragging down the innocents into his battles.
They also knew that he had a habit of doing things personally even though he could easily delegate everything to his substantial man power.
Last but not the least, if combat was inevitable, they should treat Theo as an active A rank superhero when wielding firearms.
This was the main reason Duke, their leader, assigned their secret weapon AKA Vivi Cornielo to this mission.
Thanks to Vivi’s Overwrite, they have taken down villains that rivaled A rank superheroes by outlasting them.
The original plan was to damage Theo’s pride by beating him half to death, then slowly gain his trust by keeping him on the right path while helping him out in his times of need.
Theo had many many enemies.
Most of these were something the family of the rich and powerful backliners of Penitence either directly connected or can be manipulated to do their bidding.
At least, that was the original plan.
What they didn't know was that most of the info on Theo both woefully incomplete and horribly falsified. This especially true with Theo’s combat capabilities.
While the Penitence were the children of powerful families within Vermilion City, Theo was backed by the Hassan-i Sabbah via Pani, the Ecclesiarchy via Mother Leticia, Nosferatu and god knows how many companies coerced by Miss Samantha.
The information protection around Theo was not something a bunch of local brats could hope to punch through.
The vigilante’s of Penitence were about to discover how wrong they were the hard way.
Theo calmly walked out of the ticketing booth with a shotgun in hand.
The vigilantes kept their distance knowing full well how dangerous he was now.
A tense silence descended on the train terminal as the 2 sides stared each other down.
This went on for approximately 10 seconds before Theo made an extremely unexpected move.
He took out his train pass, calmly walked towards the gates and left the platform.
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“YOU BASTARD!” roared Lance as he threw his ice javelin, which inevitably found its place on his skull.
Only those who were supremely confident of their dominance had the gall to show their back to their foes. This showed how little they thought of their enemies’ ability to harm them.
Getting angry was the most logical reaction to such an affront.
Just as Theo planned.
Rage may grant power, but it also led to carelessness.
Carelessness was a weakness that he often exploited.
Theo rode the escalator down to the lower level with all the calm in the world. At least, that was what he looked like externally.
Internally, he was a powder keg that was already on fire. It was not a question if he was going to blow, but who was going to get caught in the explosion.
He didn't have to wait long to find a willing volunteer to receive his wrath.
The teleporter appeared behind him and launched a downward stab with his knife.
Theo’s blew his brains out with a simple no look over the shoulder shot.
He took the temporary corpse and used it as a shield as Tetrina and Lance unleashed a hailstorm of bullets and ice javelins from the top of the escalator.
He shot the ice javelins out of the air because they had the mass to pierce through his meatshield.
On the other hand, Tetrina’s pistols that lacked enough piercing power was the perfect tool to repeatedly kill the teleporter meatshield.
As Theo reached the bottom of the escalator, he discarded his trusty meatshield and ran for the nearest corner for cover.
Naturally, he did not forget to kill the teleporter everytime the poor bloke revived.
From the corner, Theo was in a position where the only way the vigilantes can get to him was through a frontal assault.
Tetrina and Lance eventually caught up and rushed towards him in a reckless charge.
Theo taxed them with their lives for every meter they gained.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
While he enjoyed shooting them fishes inside the proverbial barrel, the teleporter was able to revive and appeared behind Theo with a loving stab to the back.
Once again, the knife failed to pierce Theo’s chainmail undershirt.
Theo rewarded the teleporter for his skillful ambush by using his adamantium arm to poke the brave soul in the eye, before ripping his entire face and a large portion of bones from his skull.
Unfortunately, this little annoyance distracted Theo long enough for Tetrina and Lance to close the distance.
Lance used his ice javelin to stabbed Theo in the gutt in melee range.
It seemed that the young lad has finally learned his lesson from his deaths.
While the stab did hurt, Theo was relatively unharmed thanks to his armor.
He responded by severing Lance’s head from his shoulder with a close range shotgun blast to the neck.
Tetrina fired blindly from behind Lance’s bulky body while using her friend as a shield.
Unfortunately for her, Theo simply moved to the side and pumped a shotgun shell to her face.
By this time, the teleporter was able to revive, only to be killed again when Theo took Lance’s ice javelin and shoved it down the victim’s backside.
He ran for the nearest exit while reloading his shotgun as fast as possible.
As he approached the glass sliding doors that led to the busy intersection, he quickly hid behind a nearby pillar.
Just beyond the doors was the intersection which was abnormally clear of any pedestrian. This was due to the large number of SWAT officers sectioning off the entire area.
As expected of the police that actually did their jobs. Their reaction to the reports were quick and decisive.
Unfortunately, this presented Theo a dilemma.
If he exited the station, he’ll be disarmed and taken into custody while the vigilantes could simply sneak away.
We can't have that now, can we?
To win this particular challenge, Theo needed his attacker’s ‘cooperation’.
Fortunately he didn't need to wait long.
Instead of charging at him the moment they saw him, they kept their distance and cautiously spread out.
That was bad.
Theo needed them to swarm him in order to present the illusion of being the victim of assault.
Technically, he was indeed a victim in this case, but his capabilities and experience was vastly above his opponents.
In all honesty, he felt like he was bullying the weak and it brought him no pleasure.
Nevertheless, he needs them to take the blame for all damages to the train station..
With that in mind, Theo decided to do a little provoking.
“I’ve been wondering for a while now, but aren't you guys a little too weak?” asked Theo.
The fury on the faces of the vigilantes were a sight to behold. Nothing hurts more than the truth.
“Now now, don't be mad. I’m just stating facts here. Aside from my left arm and some mechanical bits, I’m pretty much human you know? Yet here we have a 4 on 1 battle with 2 super powered beings, 1 mage who can make you guys immortal and a girl who’s still holding back…. And you can't even beat little old me? You can't blame me for doubting your abilities.”
“SHUT UP! You’re just a filthy warmonger that profits from selling weapons!” roared Lance in response.
“... Dude… Was that supposed to be an insult? Not only was it painfully pathetic but also factually wrong.”
“What?”
“As a publicly traded company, the financial statements is available to everyone via the Department of Trade and Industries. All the sales we make are either cheap cybernetics or spare parts for custom orders. You’ll find no guns there.”
“Do you think we’re stupid?! What about the weapons of your troops?!” replied Tetrina
“Did you really do your research? One of my primary investors is the Alnamar East Arms. They own every weapon in my company and they’re the ones that hired the Boss as my bodyguard. I’m not even allowed to own any firearms even for self defense..” said Theo with a statement filled with half truths and whole bullshits.
It was true that his company was publicly traded, but all of his shares were his under the names of various dummy companies owned by Miss Samantha, Jabir ibn Hayyan, the frog faced doctor, Nosferatu and the recently added Lord of Vermilion.
The Alnamar East Arms belonged to Jabir.
“Bullshit! Just because there’s no evidence on the surface, doesn't mean that you’re guilty of nothing! The courts may allow you to escape, but the whispers of the cyberspace says otherwise!” said Lance.
“So you’re saying that because you guys don't have evidence on me, but I’m guilty because a small noisy minority of anons in the internet said so? God lord…. You guys are… sad…. Just sad...” replied Theo with as much fake pity as he could muster. “Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll slaughter you all now before you guys become willing slaves to the internet mobs. At least you guys get to die as hero-”
Before Theo could finish his script, Tetrina lunged at him with inhuman ferocity.
Her body grew from a normal girl her age to a 1.5 meter tall beast. Her muscular frame ripped through her clothes, exposing the gray fur underneath.
Though her face looked very much human, her sharp fangs, knife-like claws and powerful limbs made it clear that she was above that.
Theo has seen this form before. It wasn't as badly executed as this, but the similarities were uncanny.
“A Quille huh. Interesting.” said Theo as he dodged
Tetrina was able to react fast enough and was able to hit him with a wild swipe of her claws.
Though it did not pierce his chainmail, the force was strong enough to blast him off his feet, crash through the glass doors and land painfully on the ground approximately 10 meters from the train station entrance.
Her metamorphosis might be half assed, but her strength was nothing to scoff at.
Theo calmly dusted himself off before blowing Tetrina’s brains off while she was in mid lunge.
He stepped aside and allowed the temporarily dead wolf girl to land face first onto the pavement.
He caught Lance’s ice javelin and promptly threw it back to impale its master in the gut. At the same time, he shot the teleporter right in the balls as the poor bloke appeared behind him.
“Hahaha. You guys are slow learners!”
Karma immediately punished Theo for his gloating.
The newly revived Tetrina threw an rising claw uppercut, cleaving his shotgun in half and missing his face by a hair.
Theo grabbed the 2 pieces and stabbed Tetrina in the eye sockets.
It wasn't lethal enough to kill a wannabe werewolf, but it was enough to blind her.
She lashed out in panic and was able to blast Theo off his feet with a wild swing.
Once again, he bounced a couple of times off the ground before skidding to a halt.
He quickly regained his stance and stopped Lance who tried to stab him in the head with his ice javelin. Unfortunately, he was not able to stop the teleporter from going behind and locking him in a chokehold.
In one fluid motion, Theo drew his pistol and shot Lance in the head before using the ice lance to stab the teleporter in the gut to loosen his grip.
Once freed, Theo shot the poor bloke right between the eyes.
And then, there was a short calm.
Just to be clear, the vigilante were still being revived, albeit in a much slower pace than earlier.
It seemed that Theo has finally succeeded on tirring Vivi out.
Casting magic generates absurd amounts of heat from within the body. Nichola once said that magic combat having a fever that kept getting worse as the battle progressed.
The fastest one to recover was the werewolf knock off Tetrina. Aside from the naturally high regenerative capabilities of the Quile shapeshifters, the recent damage she received were her eyes.
If you add Vivi’s ability, regenerating her eyeballs would take less than 30 seconds.
The moment their eyes met, Tetrina lunged at him with feral fury.
However, she never got close.
One of the SWAT that were standing by on the barricade approached at inhuman speed smashed Tetrina at the side of her head with a flying right knee.
While Tetrina was dazed, the SWAT got behind her and violently suplexed her into the pavement with such force that shattered the ground.
The SWAT mounted Tetrina and delivered an impressive a hook into the victim’s jaw, knocking her out in the process
A knockout punch doesn't need to be delivered with bone shattering force. It just need to make the victim’s head move violently enough for the brain to hit the skull hard enough.
The other SWAT members followed the first one’s lead and began capturing Lance and the teleporter before they could fully revive.
The first SWAT removed her helmet as she approached. It was someone Theo knew very very well.
“I see… I guess you’re the only one I know that would think of suplexing a shapeshifter. It’s been a while Mary.” said Theo
Meredith Lorne aka Mary. The wife of Bartholomew Lorne, Theo’s older brother.
Theo forgot that this area was under the 81st Vermilion City SWAT Division’s jurisdiction.
“Hahaha! It really has been quite a while Theo. You should visit us sometime! Anyways, I would never ever dreamed of doing crazy stuff like that in the past. But thanks to your cybernetics, I can do all sorts of fun things to my poor prey! It’s been a blast!” replied Mary in her usual excessively energetic manner.
“That’s good to hear. I did give you guys the best I could offer.”
“Mwahahaha! I’m so proud to have you as my little bro! Anyways, could you put this on?” asked Mary as she gave Theo a pair of handcuffs, much to his confusion. “Come on kid. You might be the victim here, but you did tear them limb from limb. You understand, right?”
“*sigh*.... Fine. Only because you asked me to.” replied Theo as he threw away all of his weapons and cuffed himself.
“Don't worry! Not only are you my bro, you also have lots of friends in the 81st! We’ll make sure that you’ll be out in no time!”
“I’ll hold you to that.”