"--Missiles?! Don't make me laugh! I've got the granddaddy of all missiles right here!" Ajax yelled out with a smile.

Summoned between both of the goggle-wearing man's hands, a sphere of wicked nuclear energy was formed, giving off such pressure that the nearby asphalt caved in and began to let off steam in its presence.

"I'll show you an explosion! How about a nuke?!" Ajax laughed, holding the sphere up with intent of launching it as he hovered up into the sky, "...'Grand Bomba'!"

"--" Yakeru simply watched calmly, readying himself.

The ignition of such power was as if a new star had been born in the azure sky; clouds were parted in the radiation of such tremendous energy.

Just in the presence of the colossal fallout building, the streets rumbled and skyscrapers began to falter; swaying and cracking at the seams.

"Well, I'm not defending against that," he muttered to himself, tapping the digital buttons on his wrist, "Teleport me anywhere out of this fifty-mile radius."

[Affirmative.]

As his command was registered, he began to be digitally deconstructed as the warp began to the desired location while he looked up just as Ajax finished building up the nuclear blast.

"--I'll wipe this entire city out!" Ajax said before tossing the colossal mass of energy down.

Just as it came down, spiraling with such force that it attracted rubble into its destructive form, the cybernetic man teleported away.

VRAP.

He was reinstated well outside of the city, watching from a hill just as the shining sphere had landed on the city ground zero.

Just as it landed, an expansion of light extended rapidly, swallowing up the entire city in its annihilation as clouds of sediment encircled the region. It all shook; it felt as if the world itself was trembling from the impact. The singular shock wave from the volatile release turned the buildings that stood tall within the subspace city into ash.

A mushroom cloud reached beyond the clouds, signaling the event of death.

"Talk about overdoing it," he said to himself.

Somebody like this is fighting for Yinlong…It'd be best to get rid of him now. At the very least, I need to relay this information to Scalyue, Yakeru thought.

As the light settled down, there was no longer a city within the bounds of the all-destroying explosion; though with a snap of his fingers, Yakeru rebuilt the exact same city around himself just as Ajax exploded over.

"--Slipper, are you? Starting to piss me off…" Ajax grinned down at him, though he seemed anything but happy, "What kind of ability is this anyway?! You're telling me you can just recreate anything?! Even a whole city here?!"

"Cry about it."

"Gkk…!" Ajax looked one second from exploding.

The truth was, behind his uncaring facade, Yakeru wasn't displaying some infallible, infinite power; it was very much limited and having an effect on him right then. As he gripped his katana, he held the fact that his hand was quivering.

…Crap. I can't hold 'Rules of Nature' much longer–that blast damaged the integrity of it. I'll have to unleash what I can before it crumbles away, he thought.

There was an internal clock within him that dictated the length 'Rules of Nature' could stay manifested:

[TIME: 002:030:002]

Hardly two-and-a-half minutes were left, permitted to him to do what he could to defeat the destructive fighter before him.

Raising his blade and pointing it forward as if leading a platoon, digital constructs manifested throughout the street in his favor–high-duty, augmented tanks with cannons, railguns, and rapid-fire machine guns attached to them.

"Tanks?...Interesting! Still…I'll just lay waste again!" Ajax claimed.

Though just as the young man placed his goggles over his eyes in preparation to unleash another nuclear blast–

"Fire!" Yakeru commanded.

In unison, the army of modified tanks began firing their weapons, filling the streets with gunpowder and flashes of light, overpowering all noise with blaring explosions.

Faced with this, Ajax didn't have the chance to build up another city-erasing blast as the railgun shots, defect-piercing bullets, and scathing missiles came his way.

Ajax manipulated the rampant energy from within him, manifesting a barrier around himself as he hovered around, defending against the shots that he couldn't dodge, "...I'll admit it! You're troublesome!"

The ability to make use of that boundless reservoir of internal energy within himself is what mad Ajax truly dangerous beyond his ability to simply destroy; it was an energy that when harnessed, simply felt insurmountable.

The truth was, if it was any "normal" combatant, such a display of might would spell certain death–however, the wielder of the Nuclear System possessed power that seemed infallible.

Yakeru noticed it firsthand while the adolescent flew through the city, swerving between skyscrapers as the army of tanks chased behind him with a variety of hellish fire.

He's not taking this seriously at all, he realized, he's having fun.

It felt as if he was merely entertaining Ajax, who pranced in the sky while laughing as if a child simply playing tag; even when he was hit, the barrier around him wasn't weakened by the impacts.

If you chose to apply 'unfair' to one thing, this would be it. While humanity has been scrounging around and barely surviving as is, there's a man like this–somebody blessed with a power that could protect all of mankind alone, yet…he laughs and dances like a god in the sky, Yakeru thought.

[TIME: 000:045:020]

Even though there was time left of 'Rules of Nature', he chose for himself to shut it down as the digital constructs faded away, revealing the black-steel arena once more.

"Hm," Emperor Jiao-Long watched from up above at the return of the two from the subspace.

Looking around, Ajax seemed surprised they were back in the royal arena before looking back at the silver-haired cyborg, "...We're back already? I liked that place!"

"Shut up," he replied.

[Mode Shift: Recognized.]

"Accelerate process."

[WARNING: This could result in permanent–"

"Do it!" He commanded.

All across his cybernetic frame, his artificial hide reconfigured itself as small, mechanical arms shifted his armor completely while a swarm of nanomachines aided in completing the process. Though this expedited procedure inflicted strain as he groaned, gray liquid seeped from the corner of his mouth as he toughed it out.

Fortunately, the curious adolescent seemed to want to witness what was coming as he waited.

It was a design even more compact than before; his legs were like that of a jackal, ready to spring into action as he was covered in head-to-toe in the all-black, sleek shell; even his head was completely shrouded as the metal folds connected, humming as the neon-blue shifted into a bright scarlet.

[100% | Complete: [Bloodshed Shift] engaged.]

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like