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TFC Chapter 73: Crushed
🕑 Added 2022-07-25 00:44:06 +0000 UTC“I am ambitious, that’s all there is. I just described what the Bright Canopy as an organization is, that’s all there is. Yes, I am provoking you, and what will you do? You want to negotiate? Prove yourself trustworthy first,” assaulting the negotiator with all the objective facts surrounding the current situation, Aven expected nothing but for them to finally drop their mask.
“You’re just a grade 3 tech super fairy, do you really think you can do anything against all of us combined? The area is already completely sealed, no one will hear you no matter how much of a commotion you create,” keeping his calm but bringing in the threat, the negotiator didn’t even seem to notice he was relapsing into dark habits.
“You think I can’t? Want to try?” Aven didn’t take a single step back, his test has told him everything he wanted to know, it wasn’t a negotiation anymore, “No Canopy bullsh*t with me, please. My life has only been smooth until now, so I’m just asking for something like that to happen! I’ll even use non-lethal methods, so be relaxed and give it your all if you really want to try me, proving you’re really just a bunch of criminals in the end.”
“Negotiating with someone who doesn’t know the reality of his situation is a pain, and I think I’ll take you on your senseless offer,” the negotiator didn’t even try to negotiate any further and didn’t bother hiding his nature anymore as he softly ordered, “Do it.”
“Humph!” Scoffing at this, Aven didn’t even wait to confirm whether the order he had just given was to give him candy or not and his self-defense box opened fully at the same time that his energy threads exploded with peak-grade 3 power.
Everyone surrounding him was sent reeling back a few meters with most of the desk and computer displays, even the grade 4 negotiator who hadn’t shown a sign that he had wanted to personally take action.
“Ah!”
“What-”
“Psy! What are you doing!”
Obviously surprised by the power behind his pure energy system applications, the whole team of a dozen men, all supers, began mobilizing their own energy.
This short surprise, however, had earned enough time for Aven to cut his link to the Rainbow IRC, take control of 4 already-loaded handguns, and flash-infuse them with his energy. Number was more important than quality in this case.
He didn’t have any thoughts as he prepared himself for the most basic spiritual assault that came a few seconds after his initial telekinetic explosion took place.
‘Hu…’
Feeling an annoying buzz in his head, or maybe not, maybe in his spirit, he didn’t really know, he felt himself resist an intrusion on the spiritual level.
His spiritual foundation talent which allowed his spirit to grow naturally had had months of time to make itself known, and the end results that Aven could only certify now were more than just encouraging.
Showing an external appearance of being completely unaffected by the violent spiritual attack he was under, his energy threads spread all around him informed him of all the closing-in martial supers and the elemental supers ready to support them if he did anything.
Letting his instinct take over, an instinct modulated and tempered by all sorts of practical and theoretical knowledge about emergency outnumbered fighting, he simply opened fire.
The 4 tech-infused handguns telekinetically floating around him simultaneously opened fire, each precisely aiming at a different person’s head.
Without any delay, without the sound having even reached his own ears, two people were sent flying, surely unconscious or paralyzed from the impact with a bullet designed to transfer all its energy without killing, one was stopped, and the other… Dodged.
Showing a level of team professionalism he had only seen back during the surge when an abomination neared the wall out of nowhere, the Canopy’s “negotiation team” adapted themselves to what happened literally instantly.
The psy supers intensified their assault, trying to stun or interrupt him, and the elemental supers finally showed their powers by launching beams of not-just colored energy at him.
Those were so fast that before he even had the time to aim at the martial supers still rushing towards him, Aven was hit for the first time in his life by an elemental attack.
And he felt pain.
Not being ruled by biological instinct though, he ignored the weird elements that had collided with him, one very hot to the point that his clothes had caught on fire, the other burning but in a different way, like acid, and pulled the trigger again.
Creating an impulse with his legs, he used his wings and reached the high ceiling in a single second, greatly increasing the difficulty for the martial supers to reach him once his height was combined with his small, or average for a fairy, size.
Of his 4 shots, only 2 hit a target, and they had both been intended for the same one who had simply stopped after the last volley.
This time, with 2 stunning bullets hitting him, one in his arms protecting his head, and the other in his exposed stomach, he more than just stopped and collapsed slowly, his martial-infused body unable to adapt to the amount of foreign kinetic strength transferred to his guts.
Another round of spiritual assault reached Aven, but as it turned out, if the first two rounds hadn’t worked, the third wasn’t going to, so he only worried about the arriving elemental strikes.
They were fast, too fast, and his only choice was not even to protect himself with his arms like the other martial guy, it was just to put his energy threads in the way to try and weaken them a bit.
That worked… Not at all. Or it worked but insignificantly so, and his body faced another wave of elements, each probably enhanced by an energy specialization to make it more deadly.
Ignoring the pain because there were no other options, Aven aimed at the martial supers that were ready to jump, some already jumping, as he knew their threat was multiple times that of the elemental or psy supers.
His fairy body and energy life state gave him a drastic advantage against physical forces, but letting himself be grabbed was certainly not a situation he wanted to include in a fight where he was outnumbered.
Opening fire once again after aiming, his grade 4-level tech-infusion really made itself known when even the guy who had previously dodged surely by some miracle specialization couldn’t reiterate his action.
And this time, 3 martial supers were sent smashing the solid polymer floor just below them against their will to evacuate all the energy transmitted to them by the stunning bullet.
“You bunch of incompetents!” The masked negotiator finally realized Aven wasn’t any grade 3 fairy after the loss of so many of his martial supers, and personally mobilized its energy, creating a massive intimidating vibe that filled the room in an instant.
‘Of course he’s a martial super… Time for a strategic… Thing.’
Taking the situation with a grain of salt, it didn’t take more than a second for the all-against-him fairy to use his telekinesis to pick up the only type of one-use gear that could come in pair with stunning bullets.
“Do you think using this will do you any good?!” Taunting him after seeing the stun grenade, the negotiator that wasn’t really a negotiator anymore but just a criminal, took a firm step forward, ready to come and fetch him personally.
Then 3 more stun grenades followed the first one, all reaching Aven’s hands and being flash infused in a second.
He didn’t say anything, lest he loses the opportunity presented to him, and triggered the 4 stun grenades before throwing them in all cardinal directions around him to cover as much of the annoying psy and elemental supers as he could.
While the elemental and psy supers were bracing themselves, the negotiator reached a place below him and directly jumped.
Aiming at him, he pulled the trigger of his 4 handguns and was then proven that no one reached grade 4 without being someone with more means than meets the eyes.
The negotiator blocked 2 bullets with his arms, then inexplicably turned in the air to dodge the bullets intended to destabilize him.
‘Someone capable of aerial fighting… Of course they wouldn’t send anyone to negotiate with a fairy.’
Finding himself in a bit of a pinch at having a martial super rushing straight at him capable of adjusting its trajectory, Aven just didn’t have any good solution except continue firing.
His telekinesis didn’t belong to the tech energy system, and no matter how easy it was for him to use it, it wouldn’t change the fact that he was first and foremost a tech super.
No matter how much knowledge he had in the pure energy system, it just wasn’t as receptive to it the same way the tech and martial energy systems were. It was more of an experience accumulation-type system, where one learned to juggle between all the systems to find an answer to a given situation.
Still showing uncommon pure energy intensity, Aven tried using dozens of energy threads to slow down the approaching criminal boss, but as he had expected, it was to no avail.
Hence, at the same moment that the 4 stun grenades went off, the negotiator grabbed at the small fairy even while still under a constant rain of stunning bullets.
Then everything exploded.
The hiding psy and elemental supers, the paralyzed martial supers, the boss, everyone was sent flying, the doors leading to the main design room exploded in hundreds of pieces, the desks were lifted from the grounds and smashed against the walls…
By the time the criminal boss understood what had taken place, Aven was nowhere to be seen anymore.
Frowning at that turn of events that translated a deep degree of preparation from his “negotiation target”, the boss found a psy super and injected his own energy into his body to wake him up.
“Find him,” he ordered as he went to wake up all the others.
The area was closed with his innate ability anyway, it was just a question of time.
…
Traveling through the Rainbow IRC vent system he had elaborately designed to allow a normal-sized fairy to unimpededly travel through, mostly with the objective of creating funny situations for his video series, Aven eventually collided with a solid wall of… Nothing.
“Freak…” Whispering to himself, he tried to open a passage through this nothing with his telekinesis but to no avail.
A few minutes passed as he thought about what to do, and then suddenly the spiritual assault by the canopy’s psy supers restarted, confirming his location was known and allowing him to try firing his gun at the barrier of nothing blocking him.
“Well,” noting the stunning polymer bullet had done utterly nothing, he faced reality, “I can’t hide, I can’t escape, and betting on someone breaking through this weird wall is just stupid hope, not a solution…”
Musing on his different courses of action available as the spiritual assault intensified and the sound of dozens of men running towards him reached him, there ultimately wasn’t a right answer.
“I’m the one who said I was looking forward to my first assassination attempt, right?” He sarcastically commented as he mentally prepared himself, “Good job jinxing myself there, hehe~”
Deciding to take the matters into his own hands, he brought the 4 magazines and 2 “stun” grenades he had taken out of his self-defense box and brought with him during his “stunning” escape.
Finding a vent opening, he pulled the trigger of 1 of the stun grenades he had and exited the vent system that could easily be broken into, as long as one was willing to use their fists, with only his 4 reloaded and pristine handguns, and spread dozens and dozens of energy threads, recreating his pseudo-energy domain.
“He’s here!”
“Stun him psy!”
“He’s cornered guys,” the grade 4 negotiator kept a firm grip on the situation as he ordered his men, “Take it slow.”
With the few seconds that had passed between them spotting Aven and Aven positioning himself and opening fire again, the 2 groups clearly didn’t have any reservations about using their strength anymore.
‘Even he can’t remain unaffected…’
Telling himself that his quick-assault plan was going to work because there was no reason for it not to, he triggered the second stun grenade and launched the first one he had already primed. It was ready to explode.
The moment the first stun grenade unleashed its extreme tech-enhanced flash, sound, and shockwave, Aven rushed past the martial supers who were sent flying and rode on the wave itself to reach the backline of the Canopy “negotiation” team.
Dropping the just primed stun grenade right in front of the temporarily paralyzed grade 4 martial super who represented the highest danger, he started going through all the psy and elemental supers by firing stunning bullets directly at their head.
“Ah!”
“Gah!”
Reaping the consciousness of everyone he could, he made sure to fire multiple bullets at the head of the spiritual supers as they all had the ability to force their body to wake up with only their spirit, so he had to make sure their physical body entered a state of shock.
The second stun grenade exploded soon enough, earning enough time for Aven to finish the job and to even start on the martial supers who were still stupidly rushing towards where he had previously been.
A few seconds after the 2nd stun grenade had gone off, he aimed his 4 telekinetically-floating handguns at the grade 4 martial super and opened fire while passing him by, preparing himself for an arduous kitting pursuit.
“You!” Struggling against impacts he couldn’t predict, the still-masked man lost his calm and a massive amount of intimidating vibe spread everywhere.
The moment he recovered his senses, or even just his vision, Aven would be in for one hell of a run.
Simultaneously flying away and firing, it took only a few more seconds before the superhuman grade 4 martial super locked in on him with eyes spewing fire, and that was when he started charging at him like a mindless bull.
Seeing this high-speed explosive tank charging at him, Aven didn’t hesitate one second before turning around and focusing on flying at his highest speed until he reached a corridor juncture where he took the sharpest and quickest turn fairy aerodynamic could allow him to.
Turning when he had secured fifty meters for himself, he was just in time to see the scariest-looking pursuer of his life.
It was like the air around the canopy “negotiator” was burning from power exertion, even the solid polymerized concrete ground couldn’t resist the amount of strength it had been asked to endure to stop the monstrous martial super from putting his whole strength into chasing him, ultimately cracking like glass to neutralize all the strength it had been put under.
Normally, Aven would have exclaimed about how cool it all was, but knowing he was the target of this monster held his mind from making such a judgment.
‘I don’t believe you will not fall at some point!’
Keeping his 4 handguns firing abundantly, only his energy specialization wasn’t activated as he didn’t have the proper equipment to integrate them, but even then, they were still actively enhanced into grade 4 tech-infusion intensity territory.
Pushing himself beyond his capabilities, Aven was totally ready to put his endurance against his opponent’s.
He was certainly only a grade 3, and he wasn’t that far into his grade 3 energy cultivation all things considered, but he had never once procrastinated on getting himself ready to face the world and its darkness.
Or maybe… Just a bit here and there to optimize his preparations for making his ambitions come true.
‘I got no mechanical suit or truly suitable portable weapons yet…’
Turning around once again as he absolutely needed another sharp and swift turn to escape the currently on his tail grade 4 monster, he even used his energy threads to create an intricate web to make the most perfect aerodynamic turn ever, earning him precious seconds.
The boom that followed behind him from the martial behemoth having to take another sharp turn and the ground being unable to support its weight and power didn’t impact him, either physically or mentally.
‘But if he really pushes me…’
Not even turning around, he took another sharp turn helped by a web of energy threads as another junction had not been far from the last one before finally adjusting his position by 180 degrees again and opening fire the moment the masked man appeared in his field of view.
The impact of every stunning bullet made itself known to the air who cracked and exploded every time one touched its target, and despite no visible or tangible effects appearing even after more than a hundred bullets had impacted the man, Aven didn’t relent or despair.
Inevitably, the masked man ultimately caught up after going through more twists and turns than one should ever take in one day.
And it was at that moment that Aven emptied one of his handguns and reloaded it with a magazine he had kept near him from the start.
Not emitting any judgment or calling for attention, he turned for one final time and gazed emotionlessly at his chaser standing just a few meters away from him, ready to grab him.
‘I hope you’re as solid and healthy as you seem to be.’
The world didn’t slow down at that moment, it also didn’t explode or anything, it was just that for the first time since the Canopy negotiation team had invaded the Rainbow IRC… Aven pulled the trigger and fired with real bullets.
Deadly bullets.
Bullets with platinum-tungsten core and titanium cover, specialized in penetrating flesh and damaging it as much as possible.
For the first time since their confrontation started, the negotiator bled, and a hole appeared on his outstretched hand.
It didn’t change the ending result that he caught up to Aven though, and the two ended up crashing on the floor.
Still emotionlessly looking at the man who crashed into him and covered his already ruined pure white uniform in bright red blood, his handguns abundantly fired at the man’s limbs.
“You f*cking fairy!” Feeling the damage accumulate, the man resisted the intense energy telekinesis that tried to push him away again and again as he used his remaining good hand to purely and simply crush the lower body of the downed fairy.
“Ha…” Unable to contain a small scream, Aven felt for the first time in action what fighting as a super meant.
But that didn’t stop him from continuing to fire and open holes in the legs of the negotiator as he struggled with all his energy telekinesis might to free himself.
His body was mainly made of energy, losing part of it was an inscribed battle tactic of the fairy.
His energy cycle wasn’t disrupted one bit by all that happened, proving him right.
It would recover on its own within a second if he willed it to.
“Stay here!” Grabbing him with the bloodied hand presenting a bloodied hole of mangled flesh, this time his strength wasn’t sufficient to hold Aven back as his muscles, ligaments, and bones in that area had been too damaged, allowing Aven to finally escape his grasp and fly up to the ceiling.
“Hu…” Focusing within a single breath, the ceiling-bound fairy looked at the ground where a bloodied man with legs butchered by bullet holes stood powerlessly, only now realizing its “negotiation target” really hadn’t been a mere grade 3 fairy as the few reports they had garnered on him had suggested.
“Release your annoying sealing zone,” imperiously looking at his first-ever solo downed grade 4 opponent, Aven demanded.
It was then followed by his whole lower body regenerating instantly from nothing, and for similarly the first true time, he realized that his seemingly endless energy regeneration wasn’t as endless as he had presumed it to be.
A/N:
After so much mary sue smooth, grindy, and chill story, I really thought I didn’t know how to write a tense action scene anymore~~<3
Etherial Adventurer certainly didn’t help me get experience to write weapon and grenade-based combat, that’s for sure!
Other than that, I think that’s a beautiful conclusion to the “Fighting Escalation Background Arc”, and it all started with him visiting a random raid on his way to Blackdale IMC, then him participating in a traditional raid, then him proactively going for an easy branch, then the surge…
The danger gradually increased, from him being a spectator to an involved spectator, to a proactive seeker, then to a front-line cannoneer…
I won’t say it was all planned, but what was planned was the nearly exclusive focus on his innate ability for the early part of the story after I revised it as I wrote it. Yup, 70 chapters for a web novel is early, right?
