Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 604: Black Skull. (Part Thirty Six)

"You… what did-"

"Not so tough now, huh?"

Dante's voice was calm, eerily so. He stood right before the kneeling skull face, the warped visage of his oni mask depicting rage beyond anything humans might feel in their lives. The contrast between them painted an image of a clash between two evils. Their battle was reaching its end, and only one of them would get to walk away.

"Go on." He said. "Do it."

Unlike the barking his opponent led with, Dante only needed those four words to taunt him into action. Something snapped inside Jason, and he immediately raised his right hand, whipping it down while activating his ability. Before his palm could hit the ground, a beam of pure white light fell from above, piercing straight through his wrist.

A flash of pain erased all his rage in an instant, and before he could realize what happened, Jason was back to rolling on the ground, this time holding his right arm instead of his eyes. Gritting his teeth till they cracked, he finally managed to stop the screaming and look at the source of the agony. What met him was a piece of sizzling flesh where his hand should have been.

His suppressed groans made it appear as though his throat was about to pop. Tears flowing from his eyes, he turned to glare at the one who had brought all this suffering on him, only to see the demon crouching down to pick something up. Realizing what it was, anger rushed back through the Black Skull's veins.

"Catalyst really is a miracle, isn't it?" Looking at the severed hand he had just picked, Dante rose up, turning his gaze to its owner. "It can grant even a lowlife like you the power to warp reality. Makes one wish they're smart enough to understand how that's possible."

He casually tossed the hand up in the air, and just as it was about to fall, two white beams appeared out of nowhere, removing it from existence like an eraser removes a sketch.

"Oh, sorry, did you need that?" Dante raised an eyebrow.

Another beam of light came down from an unlikely angle, passing right by Jason's left wrist, leaving his hand hanging from his right arm. Dante watched as the Black Skull rolled up, screaming his lungs out from the pain of having his arm amputated and the stump burned for the second time. For a Level 5 capable of untold devastation, right now, the bastard looked nothing if not pathetic.

"Pretty sure you can use your ability without it," Dante said. "Go on. Try it."

Trembling from pain and rage, Jason once again activated his ability. It was true that he only needed his mind to break anything, but his hands were what gave him direction, allowing him to focus his efforts on a single point.

Cracks shot out like bolts of lightning. They cleared the two meters separating them at the speed of a thought, branching out in every direction the red demon might take to evade. That only made it all the more shocking when he didn't even budge. The cracks passed right through him, and just like everything else, he shattered into a million pieces.

Blood seeped from the raised corners of his mouth, and for a moment, he almost believed that he had won. The blow to his guts told him that was not the case, and as he was sent rolling, his cheeks bulging with vomit, the thought that he might not be coming out of this alive finally occurred to him.

"I have fought a few pseudo-Genomes over the past couple of days, and they all have one thing in common."

Jason fought through the coughing, followed the voice, and attempted another attack. For the second time, the cracks reached their target, and the red demon broke into a thousand pieces. Yet before he could taste the relief of victory, Jason felt another blow that sent him rolling. This time, it came with the heat of a burning branding iron.

"Be it a man fish who can't breathe air, or a fire-breathing lizard who can burn the entire city in a single night. You all have such a massive god complex, to the point it never even occurs to you that you might lose."

Just like before, he was allowed a moment to gather his bearings and launch another attack, only this time the counter came before the cracks could even spread.

"C'mon now, are you even trying?" Dante said. "Why don't you do that thing from before? Or could it be…" Appearing right beside the skull-faced bastard, Dante gave him another kick to the guts. "You can't keep up!?"

Jason must have taken Dante's advice to heart because in that moment, he broke the attack launched at him, dispersing the impact into the surroundings.

The ability Break was a powerful one, but it needed a lot of creativity to show its true potential. A normal person would think it can only break things they can touch, and someone smarter would think to break the space around them to teleport and extend the effect of their ability. However, it takes a genius to realize they can break the magnitude and direction of any force heading in their direction.

Whether it was by sheer luck or he truly had the brains, Jason had figured out how to make the best use of his ability. Unfortunately, his limits lie elsewhere, and try as he might, he could never break something he couldn't understand or perceive fast enough.

"You know, if you didn't have your head so far up your ass, you might have realized it a little sooner."

Feeling the burns littering his body, the worst of which sealed the wounds of his amputated hands, Jason pushed himself up then froze, his search for the source of the voice ending with a sight his mind failed to process.

In front of him, an army of red demons surrounded him from every direction, each one an identical copy of the last.

""""""I could have killed you whenever. I simply chose not to.""""""