Jason was satisfied with how the fight was progressing. The silver-ranker was a monster core user, with the typical weaknesses that entailed. Rufus had long ago explained that without being forced to use all their abilities in order to advance, monster core users tended to develop certain flaws.
One was that they weren’t as intimately familiar with their powers as someone better trained, using the abilities less effectively and often as an addendum to their combat instead of an integrated aspect. The big one was they developed a habit of using whatever subset of their powers had proven the most useful early in their careers, often ignoring the others and missing out on the powerful synergies of a comprehensive power set.
Jason, by contrast, had used almost every ability in his repertoire. His perception power let him observe the magic of special attacks and dodge them. His array of afflictions, the powers of his familiars; Rufus had taught Jason to fight in a comprehensive manner.
His only regret was that he had been forced to blow up much of Colin’s leech supply before the apocalypse beast could have a definitive impact. Colin was normally Jason’s strongest weapon. He didn’t regret the explosive attack, however. He’d seen the effects of a swarm attack too often to underestimate one from a silver-ranker.
Jason had forced the assassin into a race against time—silver-rank speed and endurance against circumstances that turned the fight further and further against him with every passing moment. Even when he managed to land an occasional hit, the afflictions were multiplying so much on the assassin that Jason’s amulet quickly replenished the shields.
Jason used his Punition spell for a burst of damage, harming the assassin further for each of the afflictions on him. Then Jason drained the afflictions away with Feast of Absolution, leaving a brutal mess of holy afflictions in their place. The assassin felt the power burning away at his insides and saw the light shining from under his skin.
Knowing that his one advantage over Jason was the raw power of his rank, the assassin bet everything on a last-ditch, desperation move. He had hoped that Jason would be stupid enough to smash the tether rod, but he hadn’t. Betting on his own resilience, battered though it was, the assassin smashed the rod himself. The resulting blast unleashed a shockwave that sent both Jason and the assassin tumbling off the roof and down to the street below.
The assassin realised that his gamble had paid off; he was the first to recover and push his way painfully upright. Despite the ravaging power still coursing through him and all the shields and healing Jason had put up, the sheer superhuman fortitude of a silver-ranker was something Jason couldn’t match.
That was not to say that Jason wasn’t recovering quickly. He was, by that point, drenched in ongoing healing effects from the afflictions he absorbed and the power of his amulet. The assassin wasted no time, conjuring his fist weapons without spikes before leaping on Jason and brutally wailing into his head, relying on the healing Jason was clearly getting to leave him alive.
As for keeping himself alive, the assassin pulled out a cleansing potion worth more than most cars and tipped it down his throat. His possession of two such potions was what had kept him from abandoning the fight as Jason layered affliction after affliction on him.
To the assassin’s horror, the potion he expected to wash every injury away like a cleansing flood only partially eliminated the afflictions. The terrifying light continued to glow under his skin, though greatly diminished. He wouldn’t be able to take the other cleansing potion immediately without poisoning himself, so he took out and drank a powerful healing potion to buy time.
Aram had recorded almost all but the earliest moments of the fight on his phone. At a far remove, neither his aura nor his non-magical recording device had been spotted. He had been watching in disbelief as Asano fought not just evenly but at an advantage against a category three, their ranks clear to Aram as he felt their powerful auras clash. The category three looked to be on his last legs when he blasted them both off the roof to land heavily on the empty street. The assassin’s superior endurance turned the tide as both men were hit hard. The category three recovered faster and brutally attacked Asano, who was still on the ground.
Aram watched the assassin take a potion, which diminished the eerie glow coming from within the man. It was followed by another that partially healed the man’s ravaged body. Even after both potions, however, the man looked less like a living being and more like a glowing zombie. As he was taking the potions, three men pulled up in a pair of cars. Clearly, they knew the man, who yelled a series of angry instructions, although Aram was too far away to make them out.
The man jumped into one of the cars and tore off at speed, leaving the three men behind with Asano still splayed out on the asphalt. Aram wanted to step in, but the three men were all category twos. He couldn’t have handled one, let alone all three. He watched one of them inject the contents of a huge syringe into Asano before they placed a collar around his neck and bundled him into the boot of the remaining car. They then took off in the opposite direction to the man that had fought Asano.
Aram sent the video file to Anna and then immediately called her.
“How did it go?” she asked, not bothering with a greeting.
“Ma’am, check the file I just sent you,” Aram said gravely. “I think it might be brown trousers time.”
19
THE COMPLETE SET
“Look at the way he moves,” said Nigel, the combat instructor of the Network’s Sydney branch. “That fighting style isn’t an extension of ordinary martial arts.”
A cluster of Network analysts and investigators were watching the footage Aram had captured of Asano’s rooftop fight. They had already seen it three times.
“It looks like stage combat,” Ketevan said. “Like the whole thing was choreographed.”
“His fighting style is designed from the ground up to incorporate superhuman capabilities and supernatural powers,” Nigel assessed. “I don’t think he learned that on our world.”
“You think this supports the outworlder theory?” Aram asked.
“I do,” Nigel said. “The category three is completely outclassed in terms of skill. He only won because of the vast gulf in power between categories two and three. Trying to jump categories at that level is dancing on a knife edge. When facing that kind of strength alone, you can’t make any slip-ups. Let them outpace you, you’re done. Fail to counter one ability, to anticipate one move, and you probably won’t get a second chance. Asano made one mistake and that was all it took to turn the tables, because a category three’s bare hands are stronger than most special attacks.”
“Alright, that’s enough,” Anna said as the footage finished again. “Nigel, work with the analysts, get me anything and everything from that footage I can use. Aram, get me an update on the search for that car. Keti, with me.”
Anna marched out of the room, Ketevan in tow.