Chapter 109 Slash, Boom, Crunch
"Don"t!" When Lauren saw what was happening, she let out a cry as she wanted to trio to leave.
Even if they have powerful offensive abilities, it will still be hard for them to win against Glacia.
"Dammit, I only want to have a peaceful Hero Debut today.. why should things devolve to this?" Lauren muttered to herself as she tried to stand up.
Since the trio went out of their way to help her, Lauren will naturally help them out.
However, Lauren found herself slumping back on the road as her eyes saw something unbelievable.
The Ice Queen of the West, a member of the Triad, and who was considered as a terrifying villain, was showing nothing preceding her reputation right now.
Instead, what Lauren saw was a woman being beat down thoroughly.
"...." Lauren watched with slacked jaw as the black haired woman continued slas.h.i.+ng her katana towards Glacia.
Glacai tried to move out of the way, but each slash was able to gouge out her Ice Armor, resulting pieces of it being scattered around.
"Argh!" Glacia was obviously angered by this, as she sent multiples ice spikes towards the trio.
But these spikes did not do anything at all too.
The man from the trio faced the incoming spikes, and before they could pierce, him, the man suddenly transformed to be a tentacle monster.
The ice spikes that hit his tentacles all shattered into pieces, as if they were just brittle gla.s.s.
As for the other ice spikes that went over him, they also broke to pieces under the attacks of the black-haired woman.
".….." If this was the only thing that happened in the fight, then Lauren would have been impressed already. To her surprise however, there are still some cards that the trio used!
"Boom!"
After using himself to s.h.i.+eld the spikes, the tentacle monster pointed three of its tentacles towards Glacia, and right in front of Lauren"s wide eyes, grey-colored b.a.l.l.s shot out at the end of these tentacles, hitting Glacia"s armor head on.
"Bzzz."
The effects of the ball were instantaneous, as holes and depressions began to appear within Glacia"s armor.
".….." Lauren"s only reaction to what she was seeing was a loose jaw, as she found it hard to show her surprise.
Glacia"s face seemed to be holding the same expression too, as her Ice Armor was starting to get shaved off more and more.
Even if they could not believe it, both Lauren and Glacia realized that the black-haired woman and the tentacle guy actually had the capability to take Glacia down!
"I will kill you all!" Naturally, this realization had turned Glacia ballistically mad. "You will all regret crossing with me!"
The maddened villain let out a cackle of laughter as she stomped her foot on the road.
At the instant that she did this, ice began to spread out on the road itself, as if Glacia was currently freezing the whole road!
With a jolt, Lauren scrambled to stand up as she knew that they will be dead meat once the whole road was frozen!
Once the whole road was frozen, Glacia can create more elaborate and deadly attacks that could be enough to kill them all!
"Don"t let her freeze the whole road!" Lauren shouted to the trio, who were all looking at the spreading ice with curiosity! "We will be done for if it happens!"
"Oh, is that so…" The tentacle monster had already s.h.i.+fted back to the male form, and he was tilting his head after hearing what Lauren said. "Since you are saying that its bad, then we have to prevent it from happening."
"QM." The man said as he looked at the green-skinned woman. "You said that in your current form, you gained some sort of offensive abilities, right?"
"Yes." The green-skinned woman replied as she stared at the spreading ice with interest. "However, in exchange for that, my lifespan had been greatly limited. For someone like me, having a limited lifespan is never good…"
"We will have a fix for that, I promise." The man muttered to himself as he approached the green-skinned woman. "For now, I want to see if you can do something to stop this."
"I have something in my mind, and I will try it now. "The green skinned woman said as she stretched her right hand forward.
Lauren then felt her surroundings starting to rumble as the green woman started to talk in a chant-like way.
[Come to me and heed my call. Your Queen summons your a.s.sistance!]
At the instant that the green woman said these words, the whole road around was filled with cracks as countless th.o.r.n.y vines sprouted out from under the ground.
Lauren watched with wide eyes as the frozen road was broken by the appearance of these vines.
"From what I can remember, there are some kind of plants that can create cracks on ice by using their roots.." Lauren muttered to herself as she watched Glacia"s failed attempts to refreeze the ground. "The green woman was applying the same method here, although she was using lethal-looking vines instead of roots."
"d.a.m.n, you summoned some thicc vines here." The man from the trio said, much to Lauren"s irritation. "Can you do something more with them?"
"Of course I can." The green woman replied, as she seemingly sounded exasparated. "I can control these plants too. And don"t ask me to do it, as I will do it now."
Once the green woman said these words, all the vines that she summoned lashed out towards Glacia.
Glacia, who looked spooked upon the appearance of the vines, let out an unworldly shriek as the vines approached her.
"Stupid plants!" The villain said as she used her power on the vines. "Get off me!"
Her initial attempts were somewhat successful, as the vines that went near her all froze solid and crashed to the ground before they could reach her.
But the amount of the vines of that approached her was almost endless, rendering the villain helpless against their numbers.
"Ahh!!!" Glacia let out a shout as one of the vines managed to wrap around her torso. It then shook the villain around, rattling her whole body.
This successful vine was the one that provided the opening for the ensuing beatdown.
With Glacia thrown off-balance, more and more vines were able to sneak in, wrapping themselves around Glacia.
"Crunch…"
Numerous crunching sounds could be heard as these vines tightened their wrap around Glacia"s already weakened Ice Armor.
And to make the matters of Glacia worse, the black-haired woman and the man resumed their attacks on Glacia, with them seemingly uncaring for the vines.
"Slas.h.!.+"
"Boom!"
"Crunch!"
This nonstop onslaught went on for another ten seconds before the trio decided to stop.
The black woman sheathed her katana while the guy stopped his shooting his blasts.
As for the green woman, she muttered some gibberish words which seemed to have forced the vines to retreat.
These vines let out a slithering sound as they went back under the ground.
"Okay, this might be an overkill, but at least we caught someone tonight." The man said as Lauren started at the defeated form of Glacia.
"..."
Lauren was not sure if she should reply to what the man said as she also looked at Glacia.
Glacia was fortunately(unfortunately?) alive and unconscious, although her current condition was nowhere good.
Her whole body was full of scratch marks, which obviously came from the thorns of the vines that contacted her skin.
These scratch marks were all glowing red too, as drops of blood were leaking out of them.
Lauren winced upon seeing these scratches as she tried to understand how painful they could be.
There were also some wounds of Glacia"s body that looked like the result of the black-haired woman"s sword slashes.
Just like the skin scratches, these sword wounds has blood leaking out of them, although the way the slashes were made was able to minimize the blood coming out.
Glacia also had some multiple bruises on her exposed torso, signifying some kind of blunt damage. Lauren does not need to guess that much to know that the man with the tentacle form was related to these bruises.
"Wheeze…" The only thing that the unconscious Glacia could do right now was to let out some pained wheezes which sounded like the whistle of someone being pinched.
".….."
For Lauren, these pained sounds that Glacia were making was not enough to make her feel sorry for the villain.
With all the crimes that Glacia did, the treatment that she got right now was still rather light.
"So, what should we do with this woman now?" The black-haired woman asked as she and the green woman approached Glacia. "Should we hold her captive?"
"Well, we can-"
"We should call the SHA." Before she could stop herself, Lauren found herself suddenly answering the black-haired woman"s question.
".…" After hearing what Lauren said, the trio stared at her, with their intense gazes focused on her.
Lauren wilted a little under their stares as she remembered the beatdown that they just did earlier, but the fact that they helped her out managed to alleviate some of her fears.
"You mean we should call the Superhuman a.s.sociation?" The man from the trio said as he prodded the pained Glacia. "Are they the ones suited for arresting people like her?"
"Only the SHA has the real authority on placing Villains in jail." Lauren said, as she explained one of the most basic things about the SHA. "Um.. you guys should know about that already, right?"
"Oh.. we came from a different country, so we are not familiar with the rules of the SHA…" The man said as he scratched the back of his head.
Lauren could see that the man was not lying, because although he and his companions were wearing some Hero costumes, they still seem unfamiliar with the rules and regulations here.
"So, are you three newbie Heroes like me too?" Lauren was not sure why, but she could not stop herself from asking this question.
"Yeah, we are newbie Heroes too, just like you." The man replied, with Lauren feeling as if he was saying some sort of inside joke. "Why did you ask?"
"Because…" Lauren hesitated for a second, before completing her sentence. "Even though your costumes made you three appear like newbie Heroes, the way you move earlier is nothing but newbie. Heck, you even caught a Supervillain tonight! Honestly, I find it hard to believe that you are newbies!"
"Drip, drip."
"Why are you this strong? I… I almost got my a.s.s handed!"
"Drip, drip."
"I did not even land a single powerful blow on her!"
"Drip, drip."
The trio only stared at Lauren as Lauren"s body started to shake.
Lauren tried to continue talking, but she found herself unable to say anything as she began to uncontrollably cry.
Her face became wet as tears dripped out of her eyes.
Her body then started to tremble, as Lauren began to suddenly feel weak.
"What…" Lauren tried to stop her tears from spilling out, but her body won"t follow her commands at all.
"You just went through a very intense near-death experience. It"s quite normal for your body to react like this." The black-haired woman said as she slowly approached the still trembling Lauren.
".…" Lauren wanted to say that she was not scared at all, that she was just feeling fine.
But once she saw the kind look in the eyes of the black-haired woman, Lauren was unable to keep her emotions as she began to cry loudly.
"I-I-I thought I was about to die!" Lauren choked out as she hugged herself, ignoring the sounds of the incoming police sirens. "I-I…"
"Everything"s fine now, ok?" Lauren suddenly felt warmth in her body as the black-haired woman hugged her tightly, with the woman"s hands stroking Lauren"s hair. "You are safe now…"
"Waaah!!!" Lauren did not think of anything else as she hugged the black-haired woman tightly, turning her costume wet from her tears.
The black-haired woman did not do anything to shake Lauren off, as she continued on stroking her hair.
"There, there, its all ok now."