by L. M. Kerr
Several minutes passed as they began to discuss the details of the mission.
Basically, they were to take her on a very wide tour of their territory. During that time, the Godfather Organization would escort and ensure her safety. Doing so helped build goodwill, continue their established relations, and would also serve as an easy mission to get the new Sub-Executives into their groove.
Sophia noted that Hansama's mysterious bodyguard was never formally introduced, but didn't say anything about it. Instead, she silently studied the woman, comparing her to Micheal. Her eyes remained hard, and untrusting, even as their mission explanation finished.
And, just like that, their mission officially began as they all grouped up and began to set off from the rooftop.
.. .. .. .. .. ..
Meanwhile, at the southern border of the Godfather Organization's territory…
.. .. .. .. .. ..
An obese man wearing a fractured theater mask and a white, bloodstained robe dragged himself across a solid wood bridge, towards a group of quickly advancing guards. This man's eyes glowed a dull red, his entire body heaving as he forced himself forward.
His robes were torn and stained, but on the front, if one looked closely, the insignia of the Angels Arcadia could just barely be seen.
"Sir! Sir! Are you alright?" The Captain of the approaching Godfather guards, a slightly overweight man with a bushy black beard, yelled aloud as he rushed forward.
The obese man's body trembled. Through the cracks in his mask, a pale face that was covered in blood could be seen. As the guards reached him, at around the middle of the bridge, the man stopped moving and began to speak.
"Tell the Godfather… He must know… It's the Nightrunners…" The words wheezed out of his chest slowly and in pieces, as if under great strain,
"The leadership of the Angels Arcadia… the other Head Emissaries and the Captain-Commander…" The man took one last shuddering breath,
"They have killed us all!"
Head Emissary Candle collapsed, his eyes rolling up into the back of his head as he fell unconscious, leaving behind a very shocked guard Captain, and a message that would change the fate of the First Layer.
.
Chapter 63
The first thought that came into Micheal's mind after he removed his Aura Nullification Necklace was tinged with shock.
'Seven of them?!' With the one Monster Class Morenkai up here and already facing him, these 6 new beings focusing on him made up a total of seven. And, with the way they had zeroed in on his presence and the unsettling feeling that came with that, he could instantly tell they were all going to come after him.
He had come into this prepared to be chased by multiple Monster Class Morenkai. But 7 of them…
It seemed that literally every single Monster Class Morenkai in the base had decided to come out, more than the maximum estimated by the Godfather Organization. He'd known that his Points total would be something ridiculous because of his Grandmaster Tier Sword Mastery Ability, but he hadn't expected it would draw out all of them, even with the Nest exerting its influence.
'Whelp.' A feeling of resignation filled him.
Without hesitation, Micheal jumped off the building. As he jumped, he put his Aura Nullification Necklace back on. He had originally planned to leave it off to give the Monster Class Morenkai an easier time at finding him, but with a full 7 of them on his trail, he quickly gave up that part of the plan.
His Life Orbs fluttered under his feet, granting him flight as he shot through the air, rocketing towards the skyscraper at the edge of The Towers.
After he put the Aura Nullification Necklace on, the feeling of the various Monster Class Morenkai locking their senses on him faded. However, he still felt an ominous, impending sensation that warned him of imminent danger from his innate sixth sense.
He had only managed to fly past a single skyscraper before the first Monster Class Morenkai reached him.
Micheal became aware of its presence when he heard it slam into the skyscraper across from him. From the sounds of it, it must've jumped from the skyscraper he had knocked it back towards all the way over to here in a single leap.
He spotted it out of the corner of his eyes as it smacked down, the muscles in its legs bulging up as it prepared to jump again.
It was the same one he had just fought with on the roof, the green skinned one with clawed hands. The wound on its chest had mostly healed over, its ferocious recovery abilities handing it with ease. A small, circular dent could be seen on its chest, an imprint from the cannon he had blasted it with.
He noted the effectiveness of the cannonball down in his head as he reached down and tapped on his Spatial Ring, splitting his focus between flying, his Spatial Ring, tracking the first Monster Class Morenkai, and keeping watch for the other ones.
The Monster Class Morenkai jumped.
Its trajectory sent it hurtling towards Micheal at a breakneck speed. Due to how close it had been for its first leap, dodging the attack entirely wasn't possible.
Micheal's legs flexed as he stamped down hard with his right foot, his Cloud Stepping Shoes activating as he began to jump.
At the same time, instead of urgently trying to bring out his sword and block the incoming attack…
He threw a bomb at the Morenkai.
A small explosion shook the air as the Repulsor Grenade Micheal had snagged from his Spatial Ring and thrown collided with the Monster Class Morenkai
Repulsor Grenades weren't expensive. In fact, they only cost a couple hundred Points in the Shop. As a result of their relative cheapness, they didn't really do a lot of damage.
They could seriously injure or kill a regular human, but as long as you had the Mortal Tier Ki Cultivation Ability, the worst you would typically take would be a few broken bones. These bombs were normally used to cause internal injuries to regular Morenkai by weaker humans as a life-saving method, something regular Morenkai were weak to.
And that was because these bombs didn't send out a swarm of shrapnel or flames, but instead released a raw wave of force. That was what they got their namesake from, they repulsed anything within range.
These bombs couldn't cause the slightest bit of harm to the attacking Monster Class Morenkai.
However, if all it had to do was slightly change the trajectory of the Morenkai's leap…
Micheal's body flipped through the air as he jumped with his Artifact shoes. At the same time, the green skinned Morenkai smacked down hard into the skyscraper next to Micheal and then bounced off of it, slowly falling towards the ground level.
Micheal's eyes gleamed when he saw this.
Monster Class Morenkai were fast, strong, and unbelievably durable.
But just like with his cannonball method, they just couldn't escape certain things that limited them. He had never heard of anyone fighting against the creatures like this, but that was likely because most people couldn't afford such a risk.
Even he, with his multiple lives, really couldn't either. If he died once and lost his boosts, he would be put in a rough spot.
But that would require the Monster Class Morenkai be able to touch him first.
He resumed his frantic rush forward while flying, rapidly crossing a multitude of skyscrapers. The Morenkai he'd knocked backwards was still flying through the air, helpless in the face of gravity as it waited to hit the ground.
A single drop of sweat flew off Micheal's forehead as he reached a distance of 10 skyscrapers away. At that exact momentum, he felt his instincts twitch.
Instantly, he threw out three Repulsor Grenades and a Life Orb directly behind him before diving straight down, using his Cloud Stepping Shoes to power the abrupt movement.
Not even a heartbeat later, an explosion rang out as his free Life Orb smacked into one of the Repulsor Grenade and set off a chain explosion that echoed loudly.
Micheal was thrown downwards by the impact, just enough to dodge two creatures that had been just about to slam
into him. Micheal spotted them on the edge of his vision as he flipped and rolled forward in the air, using his Life Orbs to maintain his forward momentum.
One of the creatures was a pale red Morenkai that had extremely muscular arms. The other one was a dark grey Morenkai that looked almost normal except for the streak of red on its forehead.
The explosion, combined with Micheal's frantic dodge, had proven just enough to send the two Monster Class Morenkai off-kilter and leaving them unable to hit Micheal. Both of them now sailed downwards as they fell more than 60 stories towards the ground.
Micheal felt a slight hint of satisfaction when he saw that, accompanied by some back pain from the taking on the subsequent triple-explosion.
He was purposefully flying as close to the center of the road as possible, well up and above from the ground level. This made it far more likely any Morenkai that leapt after him would have to take a long time to land.
This feeling was quashed immediately as he whipped his head to the left and right, his sixth sense tingling.
Apart from the two Monster Class Morenkai that were sailing down towards the ground, he could now see 4 other Monster Class Morenkai sprinting ominously on the skyscrapers just behind and to his right and left.
One had a set of bulging leg muscles and was colored black like regular Morenkai, while another had an unusually large set of hands and was colored a pale blue. Two of them looked to be the same shade of dark purple, but one had only a left arm, while the other had only a right arm.
Now that he had seen all of them, as Micheal took in the creatures in several rapid glances, he realized he recognized two of them.
When he read about the history of the human race, he never bothered to pay too much attention to each specific Monster Class Morenkai. Some of them were particularly unique and had gathered nicknames over time or earned a reputation, but Micheal had never bothered to focus in on that information.
His interests had centered moreso around the humans that ruled down here. As a result, he couldn't recall what he had never read.
However, he was able to recall reading about one particular pair of Morenkai that were especially dangerous.
The infamous 'Monster Twins.' Two Monster Class Morenkai that always moved together, each one possessing only a single, opposing arm. Their attacks were near synchronous and they operated as if under one mind.
His little sisters were twins, and back on Earth so many years ago, he remembered calling them little monsters due to their rather hyperactive personalities. He swore they could outlast him in any marathon, race, or pretty much anything that required energy even though he was several years older.
Micheal's body continued to sail forward. As he flew, he twisted over and balanced himself on his back, while also shooting down several floors.
His field of view now gave him a perfect view of the Monster Class Morenkai that were hurtling towards him. He didn't need to worry about running into any skyscrapers, the streets in The Towers area were fairly uniform and straight.
The creatures moved in so quickly they had transformed into mere blurs. Even in his boosted state, Micheal's body couldn't help but to shiver slightly, a reaction to the ungodly Auras each Monster Class Morenkai gave off.
It was the raw feeling of a predator looking at a piece of prey that they, normally, would hopefully outmatch.
Still, Micheal's only reaction, this time, was to smile.
His hands came up, each one holding 3 Repulsor Grenades.
Before any of the Morenkai reached him, he lobbed the bombs out with unerring accuracy.
A series of explosions echoed out as all of the Morenkai were helplessly redirected. Micheal watched a couple of them fly past him, their heads eerily turned and zeroed completely in on him as they fell towards the ground.
The only Morenkai that were left nearby were the two Monster Twins. The two creatures had stayed back instead of attacking, opting to watch how their brethren fared.
Micheal grunted softly when he saw this and renewed his efforts to flee.
While this current battle had only taken up a relatively short amount of time, Micheal had already made a huge amount of progress towards Head Cameron. Now that he didn't need to fly carefully to maintain secrecy, he could recklessly fly out as fast as possible out in the open.
He had already covered half the distance between himself and Head Cameron.
Before he could finish that thought, however, he spotted a green blur rapidly approaching him.
It was the first Monster Class Morenkai that had attacked him, the green one with claws.
Once more, Micheal dug out a pair of Repulsor Grenades and threw them at the Monster Class Morenkai. They cut through the air at a breakneck speed, reaching the green creature in an instant.
The Morenkai twisted its body into an unusual shape, all in mid-air as it tried to avoid the bombs. As a result, it successfully managed to dodge one of the grenades despite Micheal's abrupt throw.
However, due to the angle Micheal had thrown the bombs at, it was unable to dodge the second one. The following explosion sent it careening off three meters to Micheal's left. It swiped its claws at Micheal as it flew by, coming within a meter of him, but completely failed to reach him.
Micheal's smile widened a fraction, though it never reached his eyes.
"I can do this all day."
The moment he muttered that, as if fate was trying to spite him, the two Monster Twins attacked.
Both creatures came in from opposite sides. One from the rooftop to his left, the other from the rooftop to his right. Each creature moved about quickly as most Monster Class Morenkai. Far faster than Micheal could move, but not too fast for him to react to in his boosted state.
A pair of Repulsor Grenades sailed out of his hands, aimed at each creature.
He had truly stocked up on a prohibitive stack of the bombs before he came here. Most of them he'd acquired from the Godfather Organization, taking advantage of his newfound position as a member of their team and using Shin's status.
The Monster Twins reacted exactly how the green skinned Morenkai had. Micheal's smile faded when he noticed this.
The Monster Class Morenkai truly could learn and adapt, very unlike almost all other Morenkai.
Still, each Morenkai was clipped by a Repulsor Grenade and thrown off course. Micheal sailed forward several meters above them as they fell through the air, hurtling towards each other and the ground.
The moment the two Monster Twins collided in mid-air, Micheal's eyes shot open as he realized what they were trying to do.
His breath caught in his chest as he kicked off to the right harshly, causing pain to shoot up his leg. The powerful blow was enough to blast him to his right and upwards, trying to get away from the Monster Twins.
For, in the moment that the two creatures collided, the Morenkai with the right arm grabbed ahold of the Morenkai with the left arm.
The creature then twisted its body as it hurled the other Monster Class Morenkai at Micheal, managing to redirect its twin's momentum in mid-air.
And in a way such that Micheal was only a few meters away…
Micheal didn't have time to throw out another Repulsor Grenade. Not only was the Morenkai far too close, but using one at such close distance was likely to throw off his balance far too much, something he couldn't afford right now.
His desperate leap had bought him just enough time to adjust himself as the creature reached him, allowing him to fully size it up. An intense sensation of focus swept across his body as he took in every single movement of the Monster Class Morenkai's body.
With all of that impressed in his mind, instead of trying to slow his moment and dodge backwards, Micheal flew forwards.
The Morenkai, unsurprisingly, immediately attacked.
Micheal's body moved with almost unnatural grace as he twisted and turned in mid-air, his every movement micromanaged to an exacting degree. His right hand shot forward and punched against the side of
the Morenkai's body, helping jerk himself up, while his Life Orbs supported his legs and carried him the rest of the way.
The Morenkai's single arm smashed through the air less than a centimeter away from Micheal's face. Micheal's insanely precise movements allowed him to just barely dodge the attack while also making as much progress as possible away from the creature.
The Morenkai twisted after him, striking at him twice more.
He moved between these lashing attacks, his body gliding delicately as he, again and again, dodged them. His Life Orbs and Cloud Stepping Shoes allowed him to make precise movements in mid-air, combining with his vast combat experience to let him slip away despite his much lower stats.
Before he fully broke free, however…
The multiple Monster Class Morenkai that had attacked him first had managed to return from falling. The creatures were by no means slow, but when forced to fall with only gravity to boost them, their progress had been immensely slowed.
The black colored Morenkai with the muscular legs reached Micheal first, just as he slipped through past the one-armed Monster Twin.
This Morenkai bunched up its legs and unleashed a flurry of mid-air kicks, each one more than enough to cave in his chest and obliterate his lungs.
Micheal responded by sinuously dodging, his grace-filled movements giving him the appearance of a wavering snake. The creature didn't manage to land a single blow on him, despite its rapid attack style.
Before he could finish dodging past it, however, Micheal's eyes flashed as he abruptly shot downwards and rolled.
Not a moment later, the dark grey Monster Class Morenkai with the streak of red on its forehead crashed through where he had been flying, smacking into the muscular-legged Morenkai and sending both of them tumbling through the air.
The other Monster Class Morenkai from the ground were too slow.
Micheal managed to recover from his roll just in time to fly upward, escaping the melee range of all the nearby Monster Class Morenkai for a few precious seconds.
