Ability Wielders 21 Black-Mask

When Hayden got to go inside, he was startled as the a.s.sembly hall resembled the interior of a club too much. The music, the DJ on the side, the spotlights, a big checkered dance floor laid out on the middle, Hayden was impressed.

"d.a.m.n…" Hayden didn't expect this kind of a development. He never knew that this was the kind of party the school had. "Eh, I guess it's okay."

Hayden wasn't a party person, and when the thought that it was soon going to be filled by students prancing and dancing, being wild, kissing, and singing, he s.h.i.+vered. As he had already accepted his fate, Hayden didn't resist anymore and just went inside.

The moment all of the students got inside, it was incredibly packed, with students dancing here and there. Whenever the beat drops, people jumped and jumped, some were actually dancing, and one even hogged the dance floor.

Hayden was unable to go to the side as Daniel kept forcing him to be in the middle, to which he rolled his eyes and stood there, jumping 'excitedly,' and acting as if he was 'having the best time of his life.'

A terribly long hour, that felt as if five hours, later, the winner of the Battle of the Bands performed on the stage, performing rock, jazz, and pop.

Afterwards, the song of t.i.tANIUM was played by the DJ… And chaos ensued. Ten people were fighting on the dance floor for a dance off, all of them dancing to the song. What Hayden didn't antic.i.p.ate was that nine men went to the dance floor, pushed the ten people off, and performed as if t.i.tANIUM was actually performing, as a group.

This caused a lot of cheers from the girls, with Hayden squinting his eyes with absolute boredom. Not that the song was bad, it was that it was too crowded! The energetic atmosphere didn't affect him one bit. He was trying to fathom how people could possibly enjoy this…

When the song of t.i.tANIUM finished, it was time for the Beat The Champion. Faye took the lead and danced, explosiveness filled the entire area, the cheers of people echoing all throughout the a.s.sembly hall.

In the end, n.o.body could beat Faye's team as they were simply too good in the dance floor. That was when… The first romantic song was played. Hayden, being gagged by the atmosphere and a little envious of the sight of couples dancing with each other on their arms, went to the side.

He was walking until somebody stopped him. Thinking that it was Daniel, he was ready to complain, yet, when he turned around, it was Faye, wearing a flushed face.

"Will you… Dance with me?" Faye coyly asked, astounding Hayden. Was this really the explosive Dance Queen in the dance floor?

Hayden didn't express the bewilderment he had and offered Faye his hand. Walking to the dance floor, placing his hand on Faye's waist, the two danced staring into each other's eyes. People were staring at them, taking pictures, which Hayden was a little annoyed, but as they were slow dancing, it would be rude to lash out.

"Hey, did you know?" Faye's face became redder and redder the more she spoke. "I-I kind of li-"

Just as she was going to finish her words, Hayden's phone rang. Signaling for Faye to wait for a second, he took a look at the caller, and it was Anthony. As he had a responsibility to Puting Araw, he couldn't possibly let this call go unanswered, right?

On that note, Hayden apologized to Faye profusely and had to take the call, leaving a saddened Faye behind. "I guess I really have no chance with him, huh? Well, he's definitely out of my league anyways…"

Shaking her head, she went to the side. She missed her chance because of a stupid phone call. The rest of the night was pretty terrible for her, and when she tried to find Hayden, he was nowhere.

…..

Going out of the a.s.sembly hall, Hayden answered Anthony's call, thinking that it was urgent. "You called?"

"I've got to warn you." Anthony a.s.severated. "There's a Level 2 wielder behind your school. From the situation, it seems that he's targeting your school. Let's a.s.sume the worst as we lost contact from the patrol there, you have to hold him off along with Daniel, can you do that?"

"I'll do it myself." Hayden replied. "I brought my uniform and I can hide my ident.i.ty. Daniel doesn't have his uniform. I'll be okay if it's simply holding the guy off, don't worry."

Anthony was opening his mouth when he heard the call cut off. He was enraged of Hayden's actions.

"Hurry up! Don't let that idiotic kid die!" Dialing someone, Anthony roared, urging the people to go faster. "If that kid dies, it's all on you!"

…..

Changing into the white uniform of Puting Araw, and a black mask, Hayden took out his Sinukuan. It was not that he wanted to waste sniper rifle rounds, it's that he isn't allowed to use Indestructible Devil. What if the Puting Araw troops get here and saw Hayden in his devil form? It would be a disaster! If he was going to reveal this secret of his that easily, why did he keep it in the first place?

Thus, this was Hayden's best choice, to use the Sinukuan, which used armor-piercing rounds, against a Level 2 wielder.

"I hope it works…" If anybody saw Hayden right now, they would feel the intense resolution emanating from him. "Let's intercept that b.i.t.c.h!"

Enhancing his body using essence energy, Hayden ran around the school. Midway, he met a man wearing a black hoodie… With swords floating around him.

"Well, if this isn't him, who is?" Hayden muttered under his breath. Hearing the crazed man talking, he confirmed the man's ident.i.ty.

"f.u.c.king get out of the way, I still have an a.s.sa.s.sination target to kill!" Blade Dancer bellowed with rage.

"h.e.l.l no!" Hayden pointed the barrel of Sinukuan towards the man and fired. He didn't need to use the scope at such a close range. Plus, hearing that the guy in front of him had an a.s.sa.s.sination target to kill, Hayden had the a.s.sumption that the a.s.sa.s.sination target was him.

'At least, I think it is…' At the end of the day, this was merely a feeling he had. He was not sure whether the target was actually him.

The next instant, with his Divine Perception, Hayden perceived a saber was slicing towards his nape. That was when he rolled to the side and evaded the saber. Mult.i.tasking, Hayden's movements were fluid as he took another shot towards the a.s.sa.s.sin, predicting his movement.

Seeing the man accelerating, Hayden felt it was a pity that he merely hit the man's left shoulder. Thereupon, Hayden touched his s.p.a.ce Ring, stored Sinukuan in it, and a pair of karambit knives appeared in his hands.

Hayden dodged backwards, avoiding the ten swords that were going down towards him. Hitting the ground, the sword cleanly went into the cement, astounding Hayden. Those swords are f.u.c.king sharp!

"f.u.c.k, even Indestructible Devil wouldn't withstand that!" Hayden s.h.i.+vered as he saw the ten blades being removed from the ground through Blade Dancer's Ability and fly towards him.

Seeing the ten blades, Hayden didn't panic, instead, he saw everything in slow motion. Even though the ten blades were sharper than the karambit knives, Hayden could still use it to deflect the blades without it being sliced into pieces.

With that train of thought, Hayden's hands moved akin to flowing water while inching forward. Dodging one sword after another, sidestepping here and there, and when he couldn't, using his karambit knife to attack the side of a blade and make it slide away from him, producing the clanging sounds of metal.

Stunned, Blade Dancer didn't expect this man to have such skill with the knife! Feeling frustrated, he commanded the blades to be infused with essence energy, sharpening its edges.

Noticing a peculiarity, Hayden jumped and did a wonderful twisting backflip, his body staying flat in the air for a moment, before going back down, narrowly dodging the swords that sped up. Midair, using this window of opportunity, Hayden stored his karambit knives back and took out his Black Piercers.

The second his feet touched the ground, his hands move in a flash and fired behind him, towards a sword, at the extreme middle of the point of the sword, displacing the sword's trajectory, which then pierced the ground.

Blade Dancer was astounded of this feat. What kind of precision and grasp of surroundings did the man in front of him had!? Was he even human? If he was a wielder, what kind of f.u.c.king Ability did he have to accomplish such a feat?

Not letting this opportunity of Blade Dancer's astonishment pa.s.s by, Hayden disappeared from his position, using the separate strength and speed augment from his Indestructible Devil and essence energy.

Then, Hayden came to an abrupt halt as ten swords surrounded him, pointing towards him. Hayden didn't dare to move as he would be sliced apart if he did so.

"Not so tough now, eh?" Blade Dancer laughed, holding his left shoulder with his right hand, and his left hand pointing towards Hayden openly. "You made me use the second Level of my Ability, be proud that you get to die at its hands!"

The blades vibrated and seemed much more powerful than before. In the face of imminent death, Hayden calmly a.n.a.lyzed his chances. Noticing that the a.s.sa.s.sin was solely focused on him, his brain worked at hyper speed and at full power. In his perception, Time was completely stopped.

A plan was quickly formulated inside his mind. Simulating it, Hayden calculated in other unexpected factors, and thinking that this was the best plan at hand, he executed it.

His body moved precisely according to his brain's command. There was one thing Blade Dancer didn't take into account when he surrounded Hayden with his blades, and that was the airs.p.a.ce.

Silently, Hayden gathered essence energy into his feet, slowly crouching down, and, literally the exact moment the sword moved, Hayden's legs exploded with power, jumping into the air at an unbelievable speed, the cement cracking below. His feet were almost cut off by the swords as the swords collided into each other. In the air, Hayden took aim and fired towards the left hand of Blade Dancer.

With no time to react, Blade Dancer's hand burst into paste, disintegrating because of the great power packed by the Black Piercers. Screaming with pain, Blade Dancer lost his control of the swords as it fell with a 'clang,' becoming motionless on the ground.

Kneeling down, Blade Dancer forgot the pain from his left shoulder blade and grasped his missing left hand. Landing stably on the ground, Hayden shook his head, appearing calm.

Internally, however, he was overflowing with excitement, vigor, and adrenaline. He fought a Level 2 wielder without actually using Indestructible Devil and won! He never a.s.sumed that he would win using his Divine Perception alone, but from the looks of it now, he could manage as long as he had equipment, and the fact that his opponent was pretty stupid.

His hand wouldn't have exploded into pieces similar to that if he just infused essence energy into his body and not putting all his focus into the swords. From this fight, Hayden learned a lesson, and that lesson was that he had to use every possible means he had whenever he's fighting.

Hey, he never knows. Maybe he can actually win against a Level 3 wielder. When that notion popped up in his head, the face behind the mask contorted with disgust. This victory of his was getting way over his head. Throwing this matter out of the window, Hayden stared at Blade Dancer, tears coming out of his face as he shouted for his hand.

Without mercy, Hayden charged towards Blade Dancer and shot the remaining good hand downwards, aimed at the wrist, dismembering his hand. He did this as he was afraid that the guy would recover and ambush him.

Never experiencing this kind of pain in his entire life, Blade Dancer stared at Hayden with overflowing rage prior to pa.s.sing out. When Blade Dancer pa.s.sed out, the ten blades that were on the ground vanished without a trace.

"Tsk, a Level 2 wielder that doesn't properly know how to use his power." Hayden was a little disappointed of his opponent's performance. "What a dunce!"

The following second, black SUV cars can be seen in a distance. Removing his mask, Hayden waved at the three incoming black SUVs. When the three Level 2 wielders and twelve Level 1 wielders alighted and saw Hayden was alright, while the wielder who was supposedly a Level 2 wielder was in the ground, pa.s.sed out, missing two hands, they were all stupefied.

"Did you… kill him?" A Third Rank Agent asked Hayden, doubt evidently contained in his words. "Isn't he a Level 2 wielder?"

"Well, first, I didn't kill him, he pa.s.sed out from the pain when his hands blew up." Hayden explained the entire situation. "As for my win, the guy was stupid. He didn't even bother in augmenting his sensory, mental, and physical attributes using essence energy, if he did, he would have at least not been dismembered. See that hole in his shoulder blade, that was when he wasn't exclusively preoccupied with controlling the blades, I shot that with the Sinukuan, a sniper rifle that uses armor-piercing bullets. Normally, it would have definitely been ripped off, yet, it wasn't. However, why did his hands explode from Black Piercers?"

Hayden backed his words up with evidence and details from the battlefield. The fifteen wielders were taken aback from Hayden's words. It was all true. Hayden ended his speech with, "There is a lesson from this, and that you shouldn't be complacent such as this guy, who killed people from a distance. He became too complacent since his Ability was too powerful."

The Level 2 wielders squinted their eyes. Brother, aren't you supposed to be an Initiate? Why are you giving a lesson to your seniors? Everybody here is your senior, what are you talking about? Despite that, witnessing the gruesome scene themselves, and Hayden's eloquent description of the various happenings, they gulped. It seemed that they really had to take Hayden's words into account.

"…Little brother, please report to Branch Director right this instant…" One of the Level 2 wielders spoke carefully. Hayden was not someone to be trifled with. Previously, they would think that Hayden was simply a strong Level 1 wielder, but from this incident, their impression of Hayden changed. This was a wielder that put them all into shame!

"Okay!" Hayden nonchalantly nodded. Changing out of his Puting Araw uniform in the gymnasium, Hayden acquired his bag and hailed a taxi. He was not in any mood to take a packed public transport in the moment as he needed peace and silence.

Tipping the taxi driver 1,000 credits, for the reason that he kept silence, Hayden exited the taxi at Liwayway Hotel and directly went to Anthony's office.

"Where're the others?" Anthony questioned Hayden, a confused expression on his face. "Were you hurt?"

As Anthony was going to ask more questions to Hayden, his phone rang, it was from the Level 2 wielders that were cleaning up the scene of Hayden's fight. Describing of what has transpired, Anthony's face that was mad at first, transitioned into shock, then pure amazement. When the call was cut off, he gazed at Hayden as if he was a monster.

"What?" Hayden retreated a little as a joke, looking at Anthony as if he was a child molester. "Don't you dare lay hands on me you pervert!"

"f.u.c.k off!" Anthony lost his calm. This kid, he was too friendly with him! Closing his eyes and ma.s.saging the bridge of his nose, Anthony spoke, "How did you do that? Why did you blow his hands off? Did you gain information?"

Hayden answered all of Anthony's questions, painting the picture of the entire battle between him and Blade Dancer, stating that he noticed how Blade Dancer manipulated the swords with his hands, and divulged the fact that Blade Dancer was there to a.s.sa.s.sinate someone.

At the mention of this, Anthony's face turned grave. "Good job. You may go home now. Don't worry about your schoolmates, they're all safe, thanks to you."

Nodding, Hayden exited the office. Watching Hayden's departing back, Anthony dialed in a number on his phone that was of unknown origins.

"Remember that kid, Hayden, I told you?" Anthony collapsed on the backrest of his office chair and talked to the person on the phone. "He's more talented than we thought!"

"Really?" A surprised voice of a woman responded on the other line. "What kind of monstrous feat did he and his Ability do this time?"

Anthony recounted everything Hayden told him. Ending with, "He defeated a Level 2 wielder all by his own. That kid's combat capabilities are through the roof. What if he was supplied with enough powerful weapons on that s.p.a.ce Ring of his? He would simply be a monster!"

"Agreed." The voice on the other line sounded impressed. "But you would not call if this was the only thing. Why did you call?"

"Hayden mentioned that…" Anthony took a deep breath, his eyes turning sharp. The atmosphere in the room became even more deathly silent. "There was an a.s.sa.s.sin target in the Makati City Scholar Academy."

"What?" The woman was shocked when she heard this. "Kamay ng Lagim is making moves. Are there any other wielders enrolled in Makati City Scholar Academy excluding those two?"

"Not that we know of." Anthony recalled hard. There were a measly two wielders that awakened as young as Hayden and Daniel in the main branch. "It makes sense that Hayden is being targeted. The attention of us three organizations are on him after all."

"Indeed." The woman agreed with Anthony's conclusion. "However, leave the two of them alone for now. They wouldn't grow if they don't experience some hards.h.i.+ps. If they're fated to be strong, they would pull through any hards.h.i.+p."

"Yes, ma'am." Recognizing that this was an order, Anthony acknowledged it, not daring to speak up anymore. "That is all in my report."

"Okay, good job." The woman said as she cut the call.

Anthony turned around and gazed into the horizon. Seeing the countless stars in the sky, he shook his head. "You two's journey will be fraught with danger. Especially you, Hayden… You've already proved yourself to be an enormous threat to Kamay ng Lagim and unwittingly acquired a target behind your back."

…..

Entering his house, Hayden was greeted by his parents. Greeting back, Hayden excused himself to rest. Lying down on his bed, Hayden had no energy left to take a shower anymore. Staring into the moon, Hayden talked to himself.

"When will I evolve? I feel it's not too long…" In spite of being excited, Hayden's words had lifelessness contained within it. "I wonder what will happen when I evolve?"

The second he said that, due to mental fatigue of pus.h.i.+ng his Divine Perception to the limits during the previous fight, Hayden drifted to sleep.

Waking up, Hayden had a bad premonition of what's happening. Trying to move, he wasn't able to! "f.u.c.k, what the h.e.l.l is happening?"