Ability Wielders

"Of course," Hayden nodded, leaning in again to kiss her. "I"ll text you when I get home."

"Yeah," Eun-ha nodded prior to alighting Hayden"s car. When she alighted, she waved Hayden before she walked back inside her house. Looking back, she had some kind of premonition that there will be something this night. "The night is unusual…"

Turning her back, she mumbled, "I wonder what Ability does that guy have for him to keep calm in front of the Fox"s Charm… A Level 2 wielder keeping calm… Interesting, I wish I could turn it off though…"

Entering her home, Eun-ha was met by her mother and father. Bowing to them respectfully, Eun-ha ran slipped past them. Consequently, the two parents sighed.

…..

By the time Hayden dropped off Eun-ha at her house, it was already 11:06 PM. Fishing his phone from his pockets, Hayden texted his parents to inform them that he was going to go home later than he expected.

"With that taken care of…" Hayden drove away. "It"s time to take care of whoever that person is."

He reminded himself to move with absolute discretion, after all, he didn"t know what kind of force he was dealing with here.

Driving out of White Canary Village, Hayden drove back to a Hangang Park, where there would be no one. Midway, he texted Eun-ha that he was home, turning on automatic driving so as to entertain her. He wouldn"t want to arouse her suspicion after all.

"Where the h.e.l.l is this kid going?" On the clouds, Kidlat was puzzled. Wasn"t it too easy to chase Hayden out of the village? "No, what if he already noticed me?"

Kidlat"s instincts told him something was wrong. As a seasoned a.s.sa.s.sin, Kidlat has stronger instincts than normal, and he trusted his guts as it saved him in multiple occasions already.

"Let"s not jump into conclusions, let"s see what he"s planning," with a grim countenance, Kidlat shook his head.

A few minutes of later, Hayden stopped at the Gw.a.n.gnaru Hangang Park in Gangdong-gu, at Amsdong, in Seoul. This was one of the quieter parks and that"s precisely the reason he chose this particular Hangang park. In addition, it had a soccer field, a huge open field that he can fight Kidlat on.

Getting off the car, Hayden entered the park and walked towards one of the soccer fields. The park was deserted as it was 11:24 in the night. Reaching the soccer field, he abruptly took out his Sinukuan, turned around, aimed towards the sky, infused essence energy into it, and fired a bullet.

Kidlat, who was in the clouds, was astounded. The bullet was faster than normal, and as this was an unforeseen preemptive strike, Kidlat was unable to react in time. Even then, Kidlat unconsciously moved sideways.

Unfortunately, Hayden was at full focus when he took aim, calculating extensively prior to firing the sniper rifle, hitting the right shoulder of Kidlat, piercing it as he had no protection from essence energy at that time.

"f.u.c.k, this kid…" Kidlat held his right shoulder using his left hand, immediately infusing essence energy all around his body and cranking up his Ability to full power. That was the moment he saw a bullet homing in towards his chest. "s.h.i.t!"

Left with no other choice, Kidlat conjured bolts of lightning in his left hand and fired a lightning bolt towards the bullet with uncanny precision.

"Goodness gracious…" Hayden was amazed of this show of feat, still holding his Sinukuan as he jumped back a little. Suddenly, a streak of lightning befell upon the previous location he was in. "Tsk, that was dangerous."

At that moment, thunder resounded, a bolt of lightning struck the ground about 20 meters upfront, a figure appearing in its place. The figure was wearing a black stealth suit and appeared intimidating, his eyes glowing blue as if a G.o.d of lightning. Suddenly, a bullet fired out. Needless to say, this was from Hayden"s Sinukuan. Kidlat"s figure flashed, reappearing a meter away from the location. Snorting, Hayden kept his Sinukuan as he knew that its bullets would be ineffective now.

Hayden"s perception of time slowed down, picking up the hand movements of the left hand of Kidlat, and the muscle twitches. Seeing this, Hayden stepped on the ground with force, propelling him upwards, as a bolt of lightning shot out below him.

Mid-air, Hayden stored his 20,000-credit suit into his s.p.a.ce Ring and fully activated his Indestructible Devil, albeit, without retracting his wings and tail. Gathering essence energy, Hayden drove it to empower his body, mind, and five senses, granting him seemingly boundless power.

Seeing this, Kidlat"s right hand cackled with electricity, hurling another lightning bolt towards Hayden. The wound on his right shoulder was healing at a visible rate due to his Ability"s Level 3 power.

Or, at least, that was what Hayden hypothesized. As for how it worked? Hayden remembered reading an article regarding electricity that can make the healing process of wounds faster by stimulating the cells.

"Let"s just hope that that is his Level 3 or Level 2 Ability…" Hayden didn"t want to think of other possibilities of Kidlat"s additional powers from his previous two evolutions as that would simply get him anxious. "Let"s keep calm and deal with matters when it comes."

Hayden took a deep breath as he revealed his wings and flew, infusing essence energy into his wings in the process. "You fool…"

Kidlat shook his head as he gathered lightning bolts below his feet, charging towards Hayden"s place as a lightning bolt. Despite appearing akin to a lightning bolt, Hayden was able to calculate that Kidlat was simply faster than his maximum flight speed by about 120 kilometers per hour.

"That"s manageable," Hayden uttered under his breath as he waved his wings upwards, disappearing from his position and evading Kidlat"s charge.

He didn"t dare slack off for a minute, continuing to go upwards prior to dashing forward. From his former upwards direction, a bolt of lightning shot out, nearly hitting Hayden.

He knew he couldn"t use any of his weapons in this situation and opted to use both of his Abilities to its absolute limits, moving to the other side of the soccer field in an instant.

Landing on the ground, they were back to square one, with both of their positions reversed. Kidlat"s shoulders has mostly healed, causing Hayden to sweat profusely. The first preemptive strike was not going to work again.

"I still have grenades…" Hayden recalled at this moment that he bought grenades from the weapons shop in Puting Araw. "If this works, I"ll be d.a.m.ned…"

Baring his claws and fangs, Hayden made the first move, moving in a zigzag pattern as a sonic boom was produced behind him. Meanwhile, Kidlat raised his right arm that was full of crunching lightning, which then formed into a spear.

"Holy s.h.i.t!" Hayden went wide-eyed at the sight of this. Time slowed down at this moment, his brain attempting to determine where Kidlat was going to throw the spear. With Hayden"s superior senses, he was able to predict the spear"s trajectory and stomped his left foot on the ground with full power, the ground caving in from the sheer force as he was propelled to the right. He let go of the idea of using grenades instantly.

Hayden bended his body as he was being propelled, feeling the lightning spear nearly brushing against his cheeks, making him break out to cold sweat. "This power, what the f.u.c.k…"

Super speed, powerful regeneration, mobility, and to top it all off, powerful lightning powers? Kidlat was basically a powered-up version of him! "It was fortunate that I didn"t underestimate him one bit…"

They reached an impa.s.se with this, with Kidlat understanding that he would not be able to hit Hayden no matter how fast his projectiles were, and with Hayden understanding that he wasn"t a match in any area, except predicting his next move, against Kidlat. Essentially, no one can up the other.

The two stared into each other"s souls, each unable to move as there would be no benefit doing so at all. Shouting, Hayden spoke, "I really don"t see the significance of the two of us continuing this fight."

"Me too," Kidlat shook his head. He was actually admitting Hayden to be his equal! "But, I"m sorry kid, I have a mission."

"You were indeed sent by Kamay ng Lagim, huh?" Hayden sighed in dismay, his eyes unblinking as he prepared for the worst. "Let"s see, I have no advantages against you, you have no advantages against me, well, I guess there"s nothing we can do here…"

Muttering that, he rushed out faster than the speed of sound. Similarly, Kidlat wouldn"t back down without a fight, gathering lightning at his feet and hurtling towards Hayden, streaks of lightning behind him.

The two were nearly appeared matched in speed, meeting each other on the middle of the soccer field. When they collided, Kidlat was a little faster than Hayden in movement speed, though that didn"t mean that Hayden lost out. Ducking a right hook, Hayden returned the punch with an uppercut. The second his fist made contact with Kidlat"s chin, lightning surged throughout his body.

Regardless, Hayden clenched his teeth and pulled through, sending Kidlat flying backwards. Doing a backflip, mid-air, Kidlat discharged lightning in the direction of Hayden, electrocuting him.

Nevertheless, Hayden used Divine Perception to remove the pain and pumped the power of Indestructible Devil in his veins, constantly healing him whilst standing there, rooted to the ground and glaring towards Kidlat.

"Holy f.u.c.k, do you even die?" Landing, Kidlat ceased his discharge of lightning and spat out blood from his mouth. Clearly, Hayden injured Kidlat. "Monstrous regenerative capabilities, strength, speed, what else… What an overpowered dude…"

Recovering, Hayden heard Kidlat"s lines and smirked. As he experienced the power of Kidlat"s electricity, Hayden"s confidence gained a huge boost. That was until Kidlat muttered something that made Hayden lose this newfound confidence.

"It seems I have to use my full power against you…" Kidlat said as the crackling lightning surrounding him grew brighter. "Level 2 wielder drawing out the full power of a Level 3? I understand now how those people you killed didn"t stand a chance when they fought you."

"f.u.c.k…" Hayden composed himself and ran to the right, avoiding a lightning spear. "Tsk, he was holding back? A Level 3 wielder is quite scary…"

"You can"t run forever, Hayden…" Kidlat"s tranquil voice echoed all throughout the field all the while he threw spears of lightning towards Hayden. "Seeing as you"re still able to dodge bolts of lightning, it was right of him to send me."

Whilst Hayden was running in circles, Kidlat suddenly appeared in front of him. Thankfully, Hayden managed to react, ducking a kick from Kidlat, stopping Hayden"s momentum.

Using his absolute control of his body that similarly granted him extreme flexibility that solely gymnasts and other jobs alike required, Hayden utilized his left hand and slashed Kidlat"s leg that was above him.

Hayden"s claws could be said to be harder than his body and perhaps even steel would be sliced in the same manner of how a hot knife could slice through b.u.t.ter with ease. In addition, his claws were laced with essence energy, sharpening it further. Consequently, Kidlat"s leg was not far from being cut off with this attack, inducing a groan of pain from him.

"He still reacted to that?" Hayden was surprised, sliding on the gra.s.s and orienting himself to face Kidlat. "All that happened in a tenth of a second, yet, he still managed to react to that?"

He was shocked of Kidlat"s reaction speed that was on par, if not faster, than his own. If not for Kidlat being able to react in time, he would have definitely torn off Kidlat"s leg. Obviously, Kidlat prevented this from happening by shifting his leg a bit.

Soon, Hayden recovered from his shock as he made sense of what happened. Electricity ran through the human body"s cells, more specifically, neurons and nerves, that sends signals and data to the brain, which are the external stimulus, and these signals are processed by the brain, when it is processed, the brain commands the body to move, this is the reaction time of a human.

Someone who has a lightning type Ability would surely have this kind of advantage in reaction time perhaps due to this reason. As for Hayden"s Divine Perception, it actually worked almost the same as Kidlat"s, the difference being Hayden"s reaction time stemmed from his superior neurotransmission speed and superior information processing, not from an elemental Ability.

In a way, Hayden"s was better. He was surprised for this reason as well, as, supposedly, Kidlat"s neurotransmission speed was faster than his own, while his information was processing was certainly on par with his, or at least not far from it. "Well, now that I think about it, he is a Level 3 wielder…"

He was a.n.a.lyzing everything and running at the same time. The second he slid and oriented himself to face Kidlat, Hayden was already done doing so, preparing himself to use his one and sole advantage against Kidlat"s to its limits, greater observational and deduction capabilities.

Pumping essence energy to all of his muscles, Hayden took advantage of the fact that Kidlat was incapacitated in the mean time. Rolling forward, Hayden narrowly eluded a lightning spear and continued his run.

He moved in a zigzag pattern, avoiding every single lightning bolt or spear that came to his way through predictions. In a short few seconds, he was in front of Kidlat, perceiving that his leg was getting better.

He threw a right hook in Kidlat"s way, not caring anymore if he was going to get electrocuted. His right hook produced a minute sonic boom. Kidlat, who was on the receiving end, put all his hopes on his right hand as he tried to intercept the fist.

Sadly, Kidlat was weaker than Hayden in terms of physical strength, leading to him flying to the side, puking out blood. He twisted in the air multiple times prior to landing on the ground.

Hayden immediately appeared, towering above him. "You were amazing. It"s regrettable that you"re an enemy…"

"You monster…" Kidlat mumbled weakly. That punch from Hayden truly got to him. "You… You"re a dual wielder, aren"t you?"

"No, I"m not," Hayden simply shook his head to the question. Even if Kidlat was on his deathbed, he wouldn"t risk exposing his dual wielder status. "I"m just really strong and lucky."

Hayden couldn"t believe himself once he heard his words in his mind. Did he really just call himself lucky? What the f.u.c.k?

"Well, it"s sad that you think you"re getting away from this unscathed." Kidlat smirked weakly, closing his eyes, his Origin Crystal surfacing and illuminating the surroundings. "I have one more trump card."

Snorting, Hayden revealed his wings and flew upwards. 10 meters into the air, an explosion rang out. Instinctively, Hayden looked down and saw a dome of lightning expanding outwards at a speed quicker than his own flight speed!

In response, Hayden flapped his wings and accelerated further. Precipitously, his wings lost its power, his body convulsed violently, and he fell from the sky at a height of 15 meters. "f.u.c.k… That was a powerful electrical charge."

He calculated that the amperage in that lightning attack was about 52 amps, containing over 600,000 volts. It was a miracle that Hayden was still alive despite on the receiving end of the attack. Regardless, he felt immense pain from all over his body as his organs were being fried by the raging electricity, that goes for his nerves and senses as well.

Hayden could merely focus his attention to healing himself as of now, however, the ferocious electric charge from the attack prevented him from doing so, with it dishing out so much damage by the second that even his outrageous healing capability wasn"t capable of keeping up.

Slowly, Hayden"s internal organs blackened. In truth, it was only his Indestructible Devil that kept him from dying, if any other person or wielder was struck by this, they would have died from it the second they were struck.

In that instance, Kidlat walked over to him, limping, his leg already closed its injury. "Impressive, it seems that you"ll survive as long as the electrical charge disperses."

Clenching his teeth, Hayden endured the pain coming from the persisting electrical charge inside him. Meanwhile, Kidlat crouched, touched Hayden, and sent more lightning into his body.

As a result, Hayden convulsed more violently, howling in pain. Kidlat was not at all happy regardless of his win. He was actually cornered by a Level 2 wielder, that was going to be a stain in his reputation.

"It"s a gift that we"re in a foreign land…" Kidlat closed his eyes, electrocuting Hayden. He was sighing, considering this victory as a pyrrhic one, one that cannot be celebrated. "I should have asked for more money…"

On the ground, Hayden groaned in pain, his eyes wide. Hearing Kidlat, he swore in his heart that if he survived this, he was going to exact his revenge on Kamay ng Lagim. That was when he thought of a separate matter.

"I knew it, the universe is killing me…" Hayden internally sighed, focusing all of his attention to his brain so as to not suffer anymore. If Kidlat could hear his thoughts, he would be surprised that Hayden still had the energy to think of such things. "As I"m on my deathbed, I"m just going to say that this short few months was simply bliss… I guess it all ends here… Wait…"

"Stop…" Hayden roared. Of course, he knew this wouldn"t work, it was just that they were surrounded! "We"re… f-f.u.c.king surrounded!"

"What?" Kidlat, who heard this, didn"t stop, but looked around. "Don"t toy with me, kid. You"ve already put up a great fight, die in peace."

As a careful man, Kidlat activated the power of a Level 3 wielder and sensed his surroundings. That was when he picked up multiple essence energy signatures. "He"s right!"

Those signatures were from Level 1 and Level 2 wielders! If it was just those, Kidlat would not be alarmed, however, there were over seventy of them!

"They must have been attracted by our fighting." Kidlat calmly spoke. Glancing at Hayden, "We were kind of loud, weren"t we-"

He didn"t finish as his figure flashed and emerged a meter away from Hayden"s body. Precipitously, a beam of light was shot from where he was at, nearly hitting Hayden as well. Concurrently, his body was already fully healed, so he didn"t mind fighting. It was just that he was already out of juice and couldn"t use his Level 3 power of regeneration anymore.

Staring at Hayden who was on the ground, Kidlat didn"t bother killing him off as his figure flashed once more. "f.u.c.k, there"s so many!"

Thereupon, Hayden recovered and sprinted to Kidlat, pushing him on the ground. Kidlat who was in a panic, wanted to shake him off, "Kid, I"m currently not the enemy here, we have bigger problems!"

"I know, that"s why I saved your life." Hayden spoke in Filipino this time around, creating a sense of belonging within Kidlat. That was when a huge black beam flew centimeters above them. "See that? Even if you wouldn"t have died if I didn"t do that, you would still sustain injuries that you can"t heal, right?"

"f.u.c.k!" Kidlat cursed. He was starting to comprehend how deep the s.h.i.t they were in.

"I"ll make you a deal right here, right now." Hayden talked in a hurried fashion. "You don"t kill me, I pay you the exact same amount that whoever hired you, and work with me just this time."