22: R"µb/t.

R"µb/t.

The silence that reigned in the alley despite the rain was disturbing.

They were pushed into a dead-end with no possible escape and forced to fight against someone who presumably wanted them dead or something close to it for no reason.

The happy look and childish smile on the girl's face made the situation almost bizarre; moreover, she seemed to have planned everything ahead, so it was impossible to know what weapons she might still hide in her bag. However, it was naive to attack them head-on; even an exhausted heroine, especially Rumi, remains dangerous... and even a deer, once cornered, will start to retaliate.

They didn't have much time to think, so Felix and Rumi looked at each other and nodded, already thinking the same thing. Although they are both weakened, Felix's level-up will soon replan some of his energy by increasing his maximum capacity in STR, AGI, etc. He wasn't sure how the level-up affected his quirk and his body, but it definitely brought changes in the short and long term. It's not as effective as a good night's sleep, but it would allow him to focus on the fight and get Rumi back on her feet.

—So... Rumi made me earn 2100 EXP, huh.

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲]

[Level 9 — 840/1250} — ]

[STR :black_small_square: 65]

[DEX :black_small_square: 45] — [AGI :black_small_square: 45]

[END :black_small_square: 90] — [RES :black_small_square: 55]

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲]

—I can use the 1000 EXP bonus at any moment to attain Level 10, but...

He dodged a knife, analyzing the girl's serpentine movements as she swung blades in their directions, as a drop of sweat run down his forehead.

If she managed to go unnoticed by the heroes and the cops until now, then one had to be wary of her escapist skills and agility; at least, that's what Felix believed. He saw more than enough inmates with this kind of physical capabilities to know that he either needs to use one brutal and quick blow to break them down or be clever than them. And to achieve this, Felix had his own methods. Even if it means putting a lot of stress onto his body by forcing the synthesis of a whole bunch of new hormones while using the [99%] of the super-hormone he stored till now.

All from Rumi.

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲]

[Super-Hormones Modifier — R"µb/t.]

[Exceeding Body's Capacities: 195%.]

[Stored Hormones & Pheromones: 1%.]

[▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲]

Thoughtlessly he touched Rumi's shoulder, passing on some hormones despite their harmful effects, and leaped towards Himiko Toga, who immediately threw a salvo of knives in their direction, preparing to dodge the blow of the one whose blood she wished to drink.

Mirko, still unsteady, got up to dodge, leaning on the vending machine, slowly regaining strength and canceling out her uncomfortable sensations thanks to the hormones. As for Felix, he took his backpack full of training supplies in front of him to block the few blades that were rushing towards him. His legs felt unusually heavy and tense, as they would explode anytime; the pain he endured was tormenting him, yet it seemed to increase his strength tenfold as he used Rumi's super-hormones.

—Time to see if I can defeat someone even with a handicap.

Seeing Felix's movements, the blood-drinker assumed he mimicked Mirko's and so prepared to bend down and pass behind him to counter his hammer-kick, but her agility wasn't enough to completely dodge the blow; compared to Felix actually boosted with super-hormones, his speed overtook her, and the heel of the former prisoner hit her hard on the shoulder, causing her to fall to the ground on her stomach.

—Just another kick to the head!

While Toga was still on the ground, she raised her face, her teeth clenched as blood ran from her nose. Felix advanced his feet with the same downward movement to bring it back to the ground and folded that same leg back to use centrifugal force and imitate what he trained for with Rumi during the last weeks. A sequence of blows to not let their opponent breathe. Something similar to: [Luna Ring], one of Rumi's super moves.

—I have to get it over quickly before the super-hormones recoil causes me a migraine... And the super-hormones modifier changed... I'm not serene at all right now.

Nevertheless, Toga managed to dodge by an inch and crawled quickly on the ground with a broad and deranged smile. This time countering Felix's kick by passing between his legs seemed to work-

But once she had snaked to the other side, she was greeted by Rumi, who rushed towards her, both feet forward, ready to take advantage of her small size to convey a dropkick into the head of the outlaw by passing between Felix's legs.

"Give up, ya bitch!"

Already initiating her counter-attack, Toga could only use her arm to protect her head from a mighty blow, probably way more deadly than the ones of her other opponents. The outlaw flew in the opposite direction for several meters and then ended up colliding with the brick wall just behind her as knives fell out of her bag in a cacophony of tinkling.

Her head was the first thing to hit the brick wall, causing her to fall on her buttocks, stunned and wincing as she held her forehead in an attempt to recover from the shock.

Rumi crawled between Felix's legs and stuck her head out, like a rabbit coming out of its burrow.

"Thanks for the help," she said to Felix with a carefree smile.

"Careful, she's not done yet."

"I know, I know," Rumi added, jumping forward, being wary of a potential knife flying toward her. "Toga Himiko, ya give us a perfect relaxation session. Ya're under arrest, don't even try to run away now, ya're the one who thought it was good to attack us with yer insane mania."

"Tsk!"

Toga got up much faster than expected, but the cheerful look no longer appeared on her face after this brief exchange of strike. It was changed by one of cold, sharp eyes, perhaps understanding that she may have misjudged them by considering it appropriate to attack today. The girl took three knives of her bag, which she placed between her fingers, giving her a kind of wolverine aura, and on the other hand, she gripped a broader and sharper blade whose stripes proved that it had been recently sanded.

—Seems like she's running out of weapons.

Seeing that Mirko was sprinting at her, ready to ram her skull into the wall, Himiko rolled over, then in the middle of it, unfolded her arms to stand at the same height and, while she was still in mid-air, threw one of the knives that had fallen out of her bag.

"Nice try, girly!" Rumi laughed with another of her excited smile.

"Go away."

To prevent Rumi from jumping directly at her after this dodge, she returned to her feet as quickly as possible and then threw her bag to obstruct the heroine's vision before throwing another knife so that she couldn't see the projectile.

Sadly for the bloodsucker, another knife collides with hers, causing them to fall to the ground with a jingling sound.

"Well... I know I don't seem to be that strong, but you underestimate me a little too much, its annoying," growled Felix, narrowing his eyes and taking back his backpack. "You seem good with knives, but I also practiced this where I was before."

"You know! I don't think I need to worry about your copy quirk, Felix-kun- Well... Um... I don't want to be mean, but..." she stuttered as her cheek blushed once again while starting to run at him at high speed. "I think your blood is way better than your quirk, you know!"

—Seems like her excitation increases her speed... Almost like Rumi. Talk about a pain in the ass.

Felix added nothing much and prepared to counter the girl, thinking back to the help Nighteye was giving him. It was precisely for this kind of situation that he was working so hard to dodge and counter-attack with his first coach since he arrived in Japan. It would be best to stop the knife directly with the palm of his hand, letting himself get stabbed there is the most suitable solution because it didn't cause significant trauma and avoid the weapon the person from continuing the assault, as long as you clench your fingers on the knife and you can manage to endure the pain, of course...

But given the size and width of the blade, this idea would cost him to sacrifice small muscles, some metacarpal bones, and ligaments. Even if it could be quickly healed, not using one of his hands in the middle of a fight like this would be a calamity.

Following Iwao's guidance after more than a week of kickboxing training, he took a small step back and took a neutral guard to hide his real intention and put Toga in doubt. Still, Felix found her simple to analyze; she improvised the situation with her agility and speed, so starting with a defensive stance would end in having his slit throat.

Toga rotated to the right, towards the dominant hand of her opponent. Yet, the issue was that she concentrated too much on his fists, and by the time she realized that he was targeting her legs with a low-kick, she was already in motion. Hoping to be able to prevent her knee from being twisted, she pulled the kitchen knife down with all her might towards Felix's carotid artery, targeting one of the spots that could release as much blood as possible.

The former inmate propelled the top of his foot before she could stab him in time, and her leg twisted slightly to the side despite the hoarse sound her joint and cartilage of her knee made after impact.

In the meantime, Rumi prepared for a second assault after throwing away Toga's bag to prevent her from retrieving any more weapons. She beckoned to Felix to make him understand that she, too, would attack soon.

The frowning eyebrows, cold eyes, drops of sweat running down her forehead, and mouth distorted by a nervous rictus made it clear to Felix that this kick had hurt really bad the psycho-girl. Without giving her time to breathe, he ran towards her again while she was still struggling to use her left leg but came to her senses just in time to use the same method as before and use her arms as supports to escape, rocking her body backward like an artistic gymnast, but what she saw before finishing her move was a foot smaller than Felix's. She took the kick with full force, expelling the air she stored in her lung but managed to use the very force of the rabbit-kick to propel herself towards Felix even faster, notwithstanding the pain she experienced, and cocked one of the three knives she still had.

—I need to kill at least one of them...

A much smaller knife. It was no longer a game of cat and mouse; she had to escape. She knew it. It was her mistakes, and... she knew it... She wanted everything right here right now, without even having a bit of blood to drink to transform because she can't help but drink everything in one go... and here the result.

—No, no, no, no...! It can't happen now... I just want to go back in time and come stronger to merit their blood... I... They're nuisances...

Killing Felix despite the fact she loved him for no fuck*ng reason was a priority. He was weaker than an experienced hero... so maybe if she could reverse the situation in a 1 vs. 1... maybe?

"Felix! Watch out!" shouted Rumi, already ready to reattack as the constant rain falling from the roofs seemed to intensify.

He was already preparing to deliver a violent blow to her head, but he preferred to take precautions and put his left hand in the direction of the murderer's dominant hand and put the blade through his palm, which passed through the thin layer of flesh without any problem.

—Ouch! Given the strength she put into this... it's a desperate act. But... you reap what you sow, eh... At least, that's what my mom said to me when I got sent to jail...1

A second after, a violent and straight cross-counter punch crushed Toga's face, flattening her nose as tears rushed toward her eyes. Her body tilted back a bit, stunned, but managed to throw a knife almost at point-blank range that ran towards Felix's skull.

—Holy-!

He couldn't completely dodge it, and the knife cut his cheek and crashed further away in the dark alley.

"Felix! Ya know what to do!" roared Rumi with a smirk.

Realizing what was about to happen, he moved as far away as possible from Toga, who underwent a tibia kick that made her drop the knife she was still holding.

"Ughh!"

The alley being narrow, she slipped on the ground and crashed into the opposite wall, managing to grab two knives lying on the ground since the beginning of the fight. Despite the concussions that afflicted her, the young murderer stuck the two knives into the wall like ice axes and climbed up at an impressive speed with the strength of her arms alone.

"So that's how ya were able to spy on us when we were on the third floor. I believed that I had been careful enough, but..." Rumi said with her pupils dilated because of excitement. "Felix! Hormones! Fast! I'm starting to falter again because of this facking body."

Felix immediately used his 1000's EXP bonus to level-up again. He took advantage of the momentary boost to avoid his quirk's harmful short-term effects, even though he was feeling increasingly numb.

"You're good to go."

In a final impulse, just before the heroine leaped toward the vampire, Felix took out one of the tools he occasionally trained with Iwao: the net pistol he bought from Mei. Hoping to be precise enough to catch the psycho-girl before she could try to counter-attack Rumi again. The net went off at high velocity as Toga reached the gutter of the old building, close to freedom. It unfurled like a spider's web; the four weights made it stretch more and more; however, a second before it touched her, she cut one of the gutter joints to twist the thin layer of metal with her weight and used the momentum to change her direction. Even Rumi couldn't predict this in time and smashed her unprotected heel against the old roof tiles, which broke into pieces. Without any support to continue because of the strength she used into this axe-kick, she fell back to the ground and jumped again by going way much higher in the sky.

But strangely, the outlaw was no longer visible.

"This fackin' psycho vanished into thin air in just two seconds... Bloody hell..."

She motioned to Felix to call the cops while searching where Himiko Toga could be, using the rooftops as some lookout and taking advantage of Felix's boost. She sends a kinda late distress signal with her professional phone for other heroes to come and help them find her... once again, she will be scolded because she wanted to do this alone and have "all the fun," like she liked to say. But...

Deep down, Mirko knew very well that if this murderer was known, it was for her peculiar escapist qualities and for almost disappearing like a ghost... and the rain didn't help.

Needless to worry now, after the beating she just underwent, she wouldn't come back soon. Still, given her mentally unstable state, she would probably take revenge on someone else without any ulterior motives.

The heroine did a thumb-up to Felix before turning around and going in search of the girl. Felix watched her jump from roof to roof while this torrential rain continued to flood the sewer, bringing up a putrid odor from the manhole. A smell of decay, or something like that... He had already smelled that elsewhere. In prison?

Anyway, he wouldn't open this manhole to see what was inside. He had seen enough for today...

The hormones and boost from the level-up were gradually diluted in his blood, as the fatigue he controlled until now was taking its toll. He picked up his phone, the knife still stabbed in his palm, and typed the police number, waiting for his call to be picked up.

"Shit... the screen is broken..." Felix sighed while holding his head. "And I didn't manage to touch the back of her head... she was very careful about that. Clever one."

Both he and Rumi were drenched, and the last thing nice and sweet he saw of the evening was her long wet white hair disappearing completely after another of her rabbit-like jump.

pqdm.com