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~~~CHAPTER 8~~~

Let's analyze the situation here: two on one, they can make an infinite amount of weapons, and they can leap around like they're on the damn moon.

Logical verdict: they'll be hard to beat.

My verdict: doesn't change the fact that they're gonna get their asses kicked. HARD.

But the real kicker is that I can't kill them. At least not both of them. That one with the accent knows exactly what's going on, and I need to get it out of him. Unfortunately, he doesn't look sound like the type who'd sell his employers out. Well, I've never had to torture anyone before, but I will if I have to. I'm sure I can craft some device that would be pretty brutal even by Jigsaw's standards.

But that's for later. Right now, I need to beat these assholes before they finish making new weapons.

WHOOSH.

I ducked to the left, narrowly avoiding being hit by a new ice spear.

_Well, it looks like they can work faster than I thought. _

As I dashed towards the ice thugs, they were now throwing a volley of spears at me, opting for smaller ones that took less time to form. But despite their small size, they were just as lethal. Some missed me completely, others I sliced out of my path with some well-timed slashes. Though painful, I ignored the lucky ones that grazed my arms and legs, and kept pushing forward.

But the closer I got to them, one thing became increasingly apparent to me: I had already found out their weakness. Whenever one of them threw a spear at me, they would clench their fist right after, and a new one would form inside their hand. The act of fist-clenching is probably how they focus their powers to absorb moisture out of the air and turn it into ice. If I can stop them from moving their fingers, then I can stop the cryokinesis, plain and simple.

The only question is how_..._

My inner thoughts aside, I was now within striking distance. They both made full-sized spears this time, and prepared to launch themselves off the ground to avoid my attack. I'll bet that they channel their powers through their feet to launch themselves, too. That's another exploitable weakness.

However, instead of going in two separate directions like I thought they would, the one the right moved first, prompting me to follow him in midair. The other guy waited for me to jump up, and followed me from behind. I was sandwiched between the two of them, and they both prepared to stab me at the same time. My armor didn't cover my entire chest, which left some of my abdomen exposed. Even if only one spear connected, it would result in a grotesque disembowelment.

Oh, you guys just LOVE making mistakes, huh? Well, now it's gonna cost you.

Since the attacker behind me was closer, I leaned to the left, making his attack only hit the air next to me. I quickly dropped my swords, grabbed his spear with both hands, and swung it right over my head, crashing both of my assailants into each other. The impact broke their weapons into pieces, and sent them crashing into the ground below. One of them landed on his feet, and cursed loudly as several shards of broken ice rained down on him. I could tell from his voice that he was the English one. Which was good, because I want him alive. The other guy, however, wasn't as lucky. He landed on his head, giving his helmet a nice crack on the top. He wearily stood up and tried to regain his footing, but ultimately collapsed. Dead or unconscious, I couldn't tell.

And then, thanks to that large crack, his helmet fell off as his head hit the ground. I didn't like what I saw underneath.

_I knew it. I'm still surprised, but I knew it from the start. _

It was another hybrid; half man, half husky. This could only mean one of two things. Either HAC not being involved in this assassination attempt was a lie, or someone leaked the hybrid program's specs. But whatever the case may be, this was bad news. Someone else not only has the means to create super-soldiers who are immune to the infection, but apparently also hate our guts and want us dead. Christ, nothing will ever change, will it? Even after a whole year of apocalypse, what's left of humanity just seems to grow further apart every day. There's literally no reason to kill us. What we're doing isn't wrong, how can it be? As soon as I start extracting information from this guy, I'll bet that he'll play the whole 'we're the good guys, not you' crap. Either that, or someone has some personal issues to work out.

The other cryokinetic turned and saw that I had found out their secret. He chuckled again. "Yes, Mr. Ossland, now you know the truth. I'm still not at any liberty to reveal our employer and our motives, but know this: even if we fail to terminate you, more of us will follow. You and Human Advancements Co. have seen your last day!" While saying this, he removed and discarded his own helmet to confirm what he was saying.

Huh, a tiger hybrid. Haven't seen too many of those...

Well, at least now it's a fair fight. Sure, this guy sounds as crazy as Charlie Sheen (and ironically does have tiger blood), but he saw how quickly I incapacitated his ally. He's only taunting me to raise his own morale. He's scared...

Good. That's exactly what I want.

I noticed my long and short swords were too far away to grab, and dashing towards them would leave me vulnerable to a counter attack. Guess I'll have to improvise. But that's what I'm good at. I focused my mind on an image of my large zweihander sword, and within a matter of seconds I was holding it at the small expense of my chest armor. A small amount of excess metal formed into two separate bands on my wrists. Those might become a necessity later.

The tiger hybrid followed suit by creating a new spear and a much larger shield than before. I'm not sure how well his shield will fare against a huge sword like mine, but he seemed confident in it. He shielded himself and held the spear on the side, like a Spartan ready to strike. He's not going to move, he's going to wait until I do.

_Well, he asked for it. _

I raised my sword and dashed forwards, with my battle strategy from yesterday still fresh in my head. Same plan still applies: dash forwards, psych him out by spinning around, and score a nice vertical slash. Except now, I don't have to worry about accidentally slicing off a limb or two. But right as I passed him and got to the striking point, I realized that this battle won't be anything like yesterday. He had anticipated this, and made icicles as long and as sharp as his spear grow from the back of his shield, in a prime position to impale me. I reacted quickly by changing my target to the icicles, chopping them off before they could hit me. He immediately launched himself off the ground, shield still in hand, spun around, and threw his spear at me. I couldn't chop it in half fast enough, but I was able to deflect it with my sword, which violently shattered the spear, but knocked me off my feet.

While falling back, I could see him smiling, still in midair. He knew he had me in a tight spot, and planned to take advantage of it. I landed on my back, while he landed on another building wall and launched himself again, this time directly at me. He grabbed his shield with both hands and reformed it into a giant blade that bound his arms together, but essentially turned him into a giant arrow heading straight at me. If he hit me with that at the speed he's going, it'd be game over.

Looks like I underestimated this guy after all. He correctly guessed what I'd do, and chained together a perfect counter attack.

But in the end, just like your friend over there that my friends have hopefully killed by now, you failed to notice one important detail...

I had dropped my zweihander when I got knocked back, so it wasn't of any use now. But he didn't notice that my original two swords were right next to me, about three feet from arm's reach. This is where my two metal wristbands come into play. Originally, I had hoped to disarm him, grab his wrists, and make the wristbands liquefy and cover his hands like metal gloves. The metal would solidify once I broke contact, leaving him unable to clench his fists and make more ice weapons. And if I kept him off the ground, he wouldn't be able to ice launch either. But now I have a much better and more brutal idea...

Right before the tiger hybrid's final blow could be dealt, I quickly focused on the bands and migrated them to my palms, and then stretched them out to grab my two swords. With a fling of my wrists, the swords flew up and landed in my hands again, with the wristband metal integrating itself into them. With my assailant several feet away from me, I waited for the right moment and swung straight down, splitting his giant ice arrowhead into two halves, and spreading his arms apart so that the two pieces wouldn't hit me. Time seemed to slow down for both of us at that moment. I was the one smiling now, and his confidence had been replaced with genuine fear. It was all over his face. He had no backup plan now.

_No, no I don't think I've seen my final day yet, good sir. _

But I still wasn't finished. Rather than us banging our heads together, I picked up my legs and kicked him in the chest, sending him right over me and into a brick wall behind us. He landed upside down with an audible crack, either from the bricks or whichever of his bones he just broke. But before he could fall over, I dashed towards him and stabbed clean through both of his arms, pinning him to the wall. He screamed in pain, with plenty of blood gushing from his wounds. "Stop screaming and take it like a man!" I shouted. For my finishing touch, I carried out my previous plan and used metal from both of my swords to cover his hands and bind his feet, rendering him completely unable to move, launch, or make weapons.

Game over for this guy; now we can have our little talk.

I casually walked over and retrieved my zweihander sword, checking it for any cracks or dents where the spear struck it. Still no problems. I also checked the husky hybrid, since I couldn't previously tell if the trauma to his head killed him or not. Fortunately for him, he was still breathing. This is good; if I get nothing from the tiger, he'll be plan B. I walked back over to my new favorite piece of wall art, pausing only to slay several zombies that had wandered over to our fight zone. I stopped several feet in front of him, and pointed my sword right at his blood-splattered face.

"Listen. I've beaten you. You're bleeding out, and probably don't have a lot of time left. Now, I will not hesitate to end your life faster than Mother Nature will, unless you tell me exactly what I want to know. So I'll ask you again: who sent you, and why?"

He spat at the ground, now bleeding from his mouth. "It's....funny, Gregory..... The files.... never mentioned..... you being the sadistic type...." He looked like he would start laughing again. "I guess war.... changes everyone eventually...."

Ignoring that little jab at my mental stability, I squatted down so we were on an eye-to-eye level. "You see? You're already making it easier on yourself by telling me these things. With that little tidbit of information, I can either assume you have agents planted in HAC, or you've been observing us for a while now. But I'm guessing it's both. Am I right?"

My GOD talking down to people is fun...

Now he was laughing again, in between coughing up blood. "I told you before.... that you'll never get anything out of me... And I intend to keep it that way...." While saying that, he stared at the sky, as if contemplating something serious. He nodded to himself and cleared his throat.

And then, out of nowhere, shouted "Activate termination sequence code twelve, authorization 07829! Forgive me, Stryker!"

His armor began to beep faintly, and I suddenly heard a click near where his armor covered his heart. His eyes went wide, and then lifeless. He was dead.

I immediately understood what he did. Rather than carry a cyanide pill or something that would require an action on their part, these guys can shout a code that makes their armor kill them if they've been captured and restrained. Admittingly, it's a useful feature, but I couldn't imagine saying words that would instantly kill me, even if I was in his situation.

_True, he was a dick and I would've tortured him if I had to, but I don't know if I would've been able to kill him like this. I guess the decision was made for me. _

But all wasn't lost. I got one piece of useful information out of him. And this 'Stryker' person... Who could that be?

Regardless, now I have to use my backup plan. I removed what was left of my swords from the corpse, so I can restrain the other guy like I did this one. I left the body pinned to the wall though. Looks like the zombies are in for a special treat if they can get around all that Kevlar...

I walked back over to the unconscious husky hybrid and used my metal to bind his hands and feet together, as well as removing his chest plate. Now he'd be unable to off himself like his ally did. I picked him up and placed him in a truck bed so he wouldn't get eaten by the zombies while I help Harry and Francis finish their fight. I couldn't see them anywhere around me, but I heard small explosions and yelling to my right. They must be a few streets over.

Hang tight, guys. Help is on the way.

~~~

"Harry, he's right behind you! Dodge the napalm and hit him from behind!"

"You know, it'd be MUCH easier if you don't yell out a battle strategy that the enemy can also hear!"

"Well it's better than--- Shit, he moved again! Watch for any black smoke!"

I could hear them arguing as I ran towards the action, sword in hand. Even in the face of danger, these two just refuse to get along. But they say opposites often work well together, so that might be a plus.

I emerged from an alleyway to see that the battle going on had really taken its toll on the surroundings. There was fire and oil everywhere, with numerous destroyed cars and pieces of buildings littering the streets. As much as Harry loves to destroy buildings, most of this wasn't his doing. It's clear that this enemy is much tougher than the other two were, and it will take all three of us to bring him down.

I saw Francis across the street launching several ice waves at the soldier, who gracefully dodged them and retaliated by throwing more napalm blobs. It's no surprise that Francis' defenses weren't as great against heat, but Harry zipped in in the nick of time and launched a volley of fireballs at the napalm, making it explode harmlessly in midair.

Perfect; they haven't noticed me yet. Not that I want my friends to think I'm not coming to their aid, but the element of surprise work a lot better without Harry shouting 'Greg's here! We're gonna win now!' or something like that.

The pyrokinetic prepared to attack again, now that he had Harry and Francis in his sights. This was my chance to run in and hopefully finish him off quickly. As he launched more napalm, I dashed towards him, sword at the ready, determined to sever at least one of his limbs. My friends immediately saw me, but at this point giving away my location wouldn't make a difference. But as I was about to strike, he dropped his attack and teleported away, in a similar fashion to Harry's ability. The only difference was that instead of leaving behind red smoke, this guy left behind black smoke. How he saw me coming was a mystery though. Considering this guy's probably also a hybrid, he could've smelled me out.

"He can teleport, too?" I shouted to Harry.

"Yeah, and it SUCKS!" Harry said as him and Francis ran over to where I was. "But you remember how I can't do it continuously, or I get tired, right? This guy's been doing it the entire time, and he's slowing down now. Once we get his energy down enough, he'll be an easy kill!"

"Don't underestimate these guys, man" I replied. "One of them almost had me pinned."

Suddenly, our assailant rematerialized on our left, in his cloud of black smoke.

"On the left!" Francis shouted.

While dodging another volley of napalm shots, I was starting to notice what Harry was just talking about. This guy's chest was heaving in and out rapidly, meaning that using his abilities was causing him more and more stress with each second. I decided to make a move now, while he's catching his breath. This time, I vaulted myself with my sword, preparing to make an attack from high up. Hopefully, he won't notice me coming from right above him.

Except he totally did. And he countered by creating a pillar of oil that snagged me from midair, and flung me to the side. But as I was falling, it gave me an idea.

"Harry, shoot the oil tower!" I said as I landed on the ground.

Harry wasted no time barraging the grimy fluid with fireballs, which promptly exploded and sent our silent foe crashing into a car. But he got back up, clutching his chest as he regained his footing. From where I landed, I had him surrounded on one side, and Harry and Francis had him on the other side. This guy can fight back all he wants, but he's losing power, and we're closing in. He won't last long, and now he knows it for sure. He looked at my teammates, then looked at me. I don't know why, but he stared at me for a good minute before leaping up and vanishing again.

We waited for him to reappear somewhere and fight back, but after a few minutes passed by, we correctly assumed that he was gone for good this time. As we regrouped, Francis gave me a quick rundown of his and Harry's fight while I was preoccupied with my own battle.

"He's a crafty one, that's for sure. Loves collateral damage. I'm sure you noticed that all this was his doing."

"Yeah, I did" I replied. "But as we all noticed, he's strong, but it takes a lot out of him. If he shows up again, we'll be better prepared to fight him."

"But enough about that" Harry piped in. "I wanna hear how you beat those two ice thugs by yourself, Greg!"

"Well, my friend, I'm glad you asked" I said while leading them to where my fight took place. "I'll tell you about it, but you'll love the surprise I have waiting for us even more."

~~~~~

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