VILLAIN'S RISING

“No seriously, I’ve asked this before but I’ll ask it again, what is it with you?! It’s like your body is constantly adapting! I froze you, I burned you and I even crushed your heart! Multiple times! But it feels less effective every time I try to use the same method again!”

Sam cried out in frustration. It’s just been three days since he arrived at the Academy City and met this girl. However, these past three days had been hell for him.

“Aww, are you already tired?” Rebekah smirked.

Her clothes were torn, her shirt and skirt were stained red in her own blood. Her hair was disheveled and she even had dark circles below her eyes. But despite that, her stance was dripping with the aura of sovereignty.

“Hah!” Sam scoffed and got back to his feet by taking support from the vandalized wall that he was earlier smashed into.

Kiara, who was in the middle of both of them was still laying on the ground unconscious. Rebekah eyed her for an instant and indifferently looked back at Sam.

“So she is Medusa? Not that special compared to you.” She grabbed her hair and tied them into a ponytail as she prepared herself to fight. “So tell me, why did you pretend to be an A-level ability user?”

“Oh, I did that because that’s… none of your business!” Sam quickly dashed towards Rebekah and activated his [Intangibility].

For some reason, Rebekah didn’t move from her position. She stood her ground and let him attack.

Sam didn’t make much of it and threw a punch as he dashed in front of her, aiming right at her chest, intending to phase through her heart and crush it like before.

However, what happened next was something that left Sam’s eyes wide open.

-Thud

With a low thud sound his hand collided against her, it didn’t phase through her! It touched her!_.

“What the actual fuck…?!”

“That isn’t a decent place for a guy to touch a lady you know? So mind removing your hand from there?” Rebekah said with a smug look.

In the next moment, she grabbed Sam by his head and twisted his neck. A soundless groan escaped his mouth as he fell onto the ground lifelessly.

“I know you aren’t dead, and I know this wasn’t you so why don’t you stop playing and come out?” Rebekah rolled her eyes with an excited smile.

“Huh, aren’t you getting cocky for someone who tried to run away from me?” Sam’s voice resounded throughout the basement, he was suppressing his presence to appear invisible.

“Hah! Yeah right, what about you though? Remember screaming “die” and then dying instead the next moment?” Rebekah returned the mockery, her eyes scanning every inch of the cellar they were in.

There was nothing to hide behind so a surprise attack wouldn’t be practical. That just means it’ll be a direct assault.

“Come on Samael, why are you afraid to strike? Waiting for me to drop my guard? Not gonna happen!”

“Rebekah?”

As soon as she heard a familiar voice calling her out from behind, she turned around instantly.

“Brother?” Rebekah widened her eyes as she saw a familiar flaxen-haired boy standing in front of her, but at that moment she realized that she has dropped her guard.

Before she could even react to her mistake, like a blade clad in lightning her brother used his hand to pierce Rebekah’s gut.

However, before the ordeal could be completed, Rebekah’s golden eyes turned red as she activated her [Heat Vision]. Two light lasers melted their way into her brother’s head, seizing his life on the spot.

“It wouldn’t work on me twice Samael, come out and fight me head-on if you want to!” Rebekah barked, clearly furious from her tone.

“Fine then!” A vicious voice replied to her challenge.

Rebekah got herself ready and began to activate her [Heat Vision] once again, her eyes turned radiant red.

As if waiting for that cue, dozens of Sam appeared all around the basement out of thin air. All of them rushed towards the light golden-haired girl and began attacking her with well-prepared moves.

-Tsk

“Duplication!” Rebekah clicked her tongue while dodging the incoming barrage of clones’ attack elegantly.

After a few seconds of carefully observing their moves all the while avoiding every last one of them, she shot twin lasers from her eyes to cut down every last one of Sam’s clones with a precise display of control over ability.

“Fine then. If you don’t wanna come out then I guess I’ll blow this whole place away!” Rebekah spoke in frustration and a dull white light began enveloping her.

Before the light could get any brighter, however, she felt as if something was about to stab her from behind.

In a flash, she reached out and grabbed something imperceptible. It didn’t take her long to figure out what, or rather, who she was grabbing.

Without giving him even a moment to retaliate, Rebekah threw a punch with all the strength that she could muster in her weakened state.

Sam quickly turned off his [Presence Concealment] and activated his sub-ability [Dermal Armor] as soon as he could.

An exoskeleton began to form on his body, ripping the dark black tee-shirt that he was wearing.

However, before the exoskeleton could manifest itself entirely, a punch with a speed comparable to that of a bullet train landed on his belly, sending him crashing towards a wall.

Ironically Sam crashed on the very same wall that he had used to shackle down Rebekah earlier.

-Gasp!

A crack was formed in the wall and a loud gasp escaped his mouth as he coughed violently. He tried to get up but he couldn’t muster any strength in his waist muscles.

“Dam…age?” He asked with a cracking voice.

(Lungs smashed, Minor fractures on the spine, and all motor control lost in the right hand. Commencing regeneration.)

Although it didn’t stop there, before he could recover from the impact, Rebekah disappeared and appeared right in front of him.

“Aww, done already? But the playtime is just beginning!” Rebekah displayed the same sadistic smile that Sam has the tendency to while he tortures his prey.

(Shall we break the limiters?!) The voice in his head asked in distress.

‘It won’t matter, my [Biokinesis] doesn’t work on her so what’s the use of taking off my limit-‘

-Oomph!

Before he could even finish his discussion, a fist landed on his face. The speed of that punch was enough to put a hole through a mountain, if not for Sam’s [Bio-Augmentation] that he activated on the last second, his face would be all mush by now.

But that doesn’t mean he didn’t take any damage from it. Blood was coming out of his eyes, nose, and ears. He had lost all vision in his eyes and hearing in his left ear.

He had already cut off his pain receptors so that he won’t feel the hellish pain that would’ve followed that punch.

However, his hell was far from being over right now. Rebekah grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up.

“You look exhausted! Let’s go out for a swing, shall we? It’ll help you refresh!” Rebekah playfully spoke and took off from the ground like a rocket.

She used Sam as a shield against all the ceilings. The house was 5 floors high and 2 floors down.

She made him crash through 7 ceilings in total before they broke through the final roof of the house. As soon as she exited the dwelling, she broke the sound barrier and flew upwards with a phenomenal speed.

“Aghhhhhhh!” Sam screamed in suffering as he felt the g-force that’s was being applied to him. If he had his pain receptors active, he would have also felt his back burning by the wind resistance.

As soon as they reached the 90,000 feet height mark, Sam felt them stopping.

When his vision returned to him, he found himself floating in the sky.

He was being held by his neck, in front of him was the flaxen-haired girl that he had grown so much familiar with these past few days.

Below him were clouds, indicating that he was far above the 45,000 height mark. Around him was a clear black starry night sky.

“Isn’t it beautiful? By your surprise reaction, I guess you’ve never been this high? Can you even fly? I wouldn’t be shocked if you can haha! Look around you Samael, this is what freedom looks like. But you and me, we both aren’t truly free are we?”

Rebekah inclined her head with a light smile, but that light smile soon turned inhumane, “Now down we go!”

As soon as she said that, they started falling. Once again she broke the sound barrier but this time they were even faster compared to when they were flying up.

Sam was way out of breath to even scream at that point. In a few seconds, they were up above the very same house that they were in before.

At the very same spot from where they took off, Rebekah slammed Sam down on the floor. It may very well have been recorded as the biggest chokeslam in history if there would’ve been any witnesses of it.

-BOOM!

With a loud impact, a crater was forged and Sam was there at its epicenter.

His body was deformed, mashed from the collision. Blood was gushing from everywhere and injuries couldn’t even be counted on boths hands.

The void of light in his eyes clearly suggested that he had died right at the moment of impact.

“I went overboard again,” Rebekah sighed while placing a palm on her face. “Well he has cheated death before, he can do it again. Maybe then he will listen to what I have to say instead of attacking me like a barbarian!”

She placed a finger on her chin and continued talking to particularly no one, “This place is at the borders of the Academy City plus there is literally no neighborhood present around, so no witnesses, and that by extension means no police.”

“Oh, right there was that girl too! Medusa! Where is she?” Rebekah recalled and glanced around the now destroyed basement only to find a girl lying unconscious a few meters in front of the entrance.

“Should I heal her?” She said as she walked up to Kiara.

She stretched her hand over Kiara’s slightly burnt body and a dull golden light radiated from her, “Eh, I should also wipe her memories I think.”