Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 79
He had been trained in how to read a room, so hadn’t bothered to press his case.
Hope had said she believed she now had two methods of ranged healing. She could concentrate on up to two people within about ten feet of her and apply her standard—that is, miraculous—level of healing. Then, there was the pulse she had just used. It traveled about thirty feet and offered a significantly reduced level of healing. It was enough to stabilize most injuries but not recover much beyond that.
Seeing as her standard level of healing regrew limbs in seconds, adding a little range to it and allowing her to apply it to two people at once was a game changer. But the pulse was almost as great a boon, as it meant she could stabilize several critically injured people at a distance before following up with the more intense healing when she got within range.
After the pulse washed over the now safely unconscious man, another flap of her glorious wings brought her back for a smooth landing in her original position just behind Devil where they could cover one another.
Devil looked through the recently added exit he had launched Atlas through in the ballroom wall and saw him charging back across the lawn. Just then, the newest Kitsune clone was cut to ribbons before it reached the center of the stage as Mind Witch and the two other Kitsunes started moving the Changed away from the fighting and toward the exits.
A very pissed-looked Crystallize stormed out from behind the curtain clutching her ribs on the side the first clone had kicked.
“Got something,” Mind Witch darted away from the group, leaving two Kitsunes to transport three drugged hostages.
Another Kitsune clone leaped up onto the stage and charged the slight woman who had razor-sharp shards of crystals swirling through the air around her. A few intercepted the heavy red velvet curtains that framed the stage, passing through them cleanly and rapidly shredding the cloth that was quite a bit sturdier than most people’s skin. Then, she threw her arm out at the charging Kitsune, shredding it into smoke just as easily as before in a storm of glittering shards.
Crystallize swept her arm and the glittering cloud of whirling death swerved toward the real Kitsune, her other clone, and the Changed they were jointly hustling away from the stage with.
Devil didn’t even have time to picture their grizzly ends before a golden barrier appeared in the path of the deadly shards. They shattered harmlessly against it. This was almost immediately followed by twin beams of silver energy lancing towards the murderous Powered who was forced to drop the offensive shards as she summoned a thick defensive mass of glittering crystal between herself and the beams.
Devil was mildly impressed at her reaction speed—not that it earned her any points. Silver’s beams caused shards to explode off the mass of summoned crystals as the woman behind it desperately added more with sweeping motions of her arms.
Just then, Atlas burst back into the room through the improvised exit he had previously made and charged Devil, who let out a sigh and shifted his stance. Crystallize was the only real threat, but Atlas was always going to be a long slog. The manager in the blue jacket and black shirt, who was likely a nullifier, also complicated matters—even if he wasn’t much of a threat.
It simply made his capture more complicated. If his Power worked the way Devil thought it did, it dissipated any and all incoming force. It was the only thing Devil could think of that would allow someone he suspected of being only an A-Rank of taking the various types and intensities of Silver’s attacks.
The way he was struggling to drag the lanky telepath away, that was likely all his Power did though. Devil’s Black Flame might pierce it, or the manager’s Power might simply stop his fist that carried Devil’s dark energy. The easiest way to deal with a nullifier was quite literally to take them out of the picture.
The big demon took two quick steps back to get out of the way of the charging Atlas, leaning back a little further to avoid his sweeping arm. By the time his tail flashed out to loop around the passing idiot’s ankle, Devil had decided on a course of action. First, he yanked the stone-booted foot out from under the opponent that wasn’t proving to be a good test of his new strength.
Unbreakable Atlas’s face slammed into the marble floor, cracking the large slab he impacted. Then Devil arched his tail up and over himself, taking the big—well, big in any other circumstance—man with it. When Atlas bounced off the marble floor on his other side, Devil turned and snapped out a kick into the man’s ribs that sent him flying through the wall once more. Atlas created another unauthorized exit on his way out of the ballroom and Devil turned back to the stage.
Hopewing was still holding her shield in place, covering the retreat of the trio of Kitsunes—the second duplicate having been resummoned—who were now carrying one of the three Changed each and beating a hasty retreat with their vulnerable charges.
They passed and ignored a rather pretty brunette woman in a shimmering red cocktail dress coming the opposite direction. She leaped up onto the stage and Devil was confused until he felt Mind Witch’s sense of worry. It was a very particular worry she only got when she used her Power to issue a command that might get the controlled party hurt. It was one he hadn’t sensed in her since back in the PAC during those few short months in shared with her.
The woman hustled around the continuously exploding crystalline barrier and screamed.
Devil swore he could actually see the soundwaves coming out of her mouth. He just might not be hallucinating, as they generated enough force to send Crystallize skidding and bouncing across the floor to land in a heap against the back wall of the stage.
The woman Silver had designated ‘hottie in red’ turned and hustled back to Mind Witch, who let out a relieved sigh over their mental comms.
‘She was holding up the rear. Dreamed of being a Hero but didn’t make the cut. Thought this was her moment to shine by driving off the big bad Corruptor, but she got distracted breaking up a fight at the door. Now she’s mine,’ Mind Witch reported.
The woman in question made a beeline for Mind Witch, who still needed to establish physical contact to update her commands.
‘Take her and use her to cover the Changed,’ Devil ordered over the comms. ‘Priority is on getting them to safety.’
‘Yes, Captain.’ She even avoided including any sarcasm in response to his ‘Captain voice’ as she called it.
‘Cloak remains on escort duty with Insight,’ Devil continued, glancing through the newest exit in the ballroom wall to see Atlas once again charging back at him in a straight line.
While Devil didn’t consider Atlas a threat, he was a problem. Silver might be able to do some damage to the rockhead, but even that would probably take a while. Standard practice was to slowly wear down anyone with composition-based S-Ranked durability like the idiot Powered. The only problem with letting Silver do that was that in the time this would take, any runners dumb enough to flee into the forest would find out why the valley being called ‘habitable’ for humans didn’t necessarily mean ‘safe’ for humans.
For one thing, very few of the socialites had ever seen a forest before—and they certainly didn’t understand even the basic danger of running through one in the dark. For another, it was nigh impossible to keep every form of Powered plant or animal out of a valley like this.
There would be few to no aggressive or expansionist creatures, but the threat of a spider carried on the wind with venom that disintegrates bone was very real. That’s to say nothing of the moths that ignited into four-foot fireballs when startled.
Devil needed their fastest member ready to grab anybody who lacked even the most rudimentary survival instinct and keep them out of the trees. At the same time, he didn’t want to spend the next few minutes until Silver returned punching Atlas into the distance and waiting for him to run back.
There was a risk, albeit a very low risk, that the blockhead might have an actual thought and try something that led to unexpected injuries. Fortunately, a solution that would allow him to put Atlas down much more quickly presented itself as Crystallize began to stir where she had fallen.
‘Dagger,’ Devil kept his Captain voice going, knowing that his order wouldn’t thrill his silver-haired love. ‘Blue-jacket, black-shirt is likely a nullifier. Gently pick him up and then move him to one of the holding cells on the Osprey. If you can’t get a grip on his skin, grab his clothes. From there, sweep the perimeter for runners. Overwatch, coordinate Dagger’s efforts. Hammer will handle Atlas and Crystallize.’
‘Yes, Darling,’ Silver replied as she darted over to the manager.
After slowly reaching out, she was able to get ahold of his lapels and easily lifted him into the air. ‘Freaking nullifier,’ she muttered, ‘I should have known.’ Then, she blurred away with her screaming passenger, his voice quickly fading.
Devil glanced over to confirm that Mind Witch, Kitsune, and their charges had made it through one of the doors out of the ballroom. They had the available information on the layout memorized, with Mind Witch sharing details learned from the minds of the staff since the operation’s beginning. They would get the kids to safety.
He glanced back towards Crystallize, judging it would take at least two or three more volleys of Atlas-pong before she would be put together enough to be useful for his purposes.
Atlas burst back through his newest amateur attempt at architecture with a roar, but this time he slowed and closed on Devil with his fists up in a boxer’s stance. Devil was almost proud of him for thinking to try a different tactic. The Demon shifted his stance, glad to have a chance to test himself in an actual brawl.
“This will be fun,” Hopewing spoke out loud and let out an excited giggle as she circled a little to get further out of the way.
“I beg your pardon for the monotony of this lout,” Devil rumbled as he glanced back at his angel, the grin that split his lips confirmed he agreed with his sentiment. “I harbored aspirations that our initial joint endeavor would provide a more auspicious occasion for me to exhibit my prowess before you, but alas such is not to be.”
Hopewing giggled, covering the smile that caused her eyes to bend into arches as Atlas growled, “Stop using big words and acting like you’ve already won! You can’t even scratch me. Acting all smart…. I—I’ll shut your smart mouth!” And with that, he shuffled forward with a sweeping hook aimed up at Devil’s jaw.
Atlas was a big man at six and a half feet, but even a few inches shorter than he’d been, Devil still had a height and reach advantage. With his S-Ranked durability and A-Ranked strength, Atlas might still prove to be a fight worth having.
Chapter 25
Devil ducked the first haymaker aimed at his head and swung a much more controlled hook into the torso Atlas left wide open. The pissed-off S-Rank took a step back under the force of the blow but was otherwise unharmed. He stepped right back in with a sneer and a jab, which the big demon had to shift away from.
The first method to deal with Atlas was an old favorite. Based on his limited intelligence, he likely wouldn’t have much in the way of mental defenses. Devil could just cherry-pick a few A-Ranked blows and take some painful but non-lethal damage. The only problem with that plan was that his durability had been climbing right along with his strength, receiving a sizable boost after he’d finally enhanced Hope into the upper A-ranked level.
Devil’s A-ranked durability was likely greater than Atlas’s A-ranked strength.
The reduction in his overall size had not result in a reduction in his overall mass. He was now a little more than five percent denser, which seemed to stack with the five percent boost to his durability that was becoming standard with each woman who became his Devoted. If Tinker’s estimates were correct, he was just shy of breaking through to S-Ranked in physical resistance—a notable improvement from its middling A-ranked origins.
Devil was becoming a powerhouse in his own right, but unfortunately, that was to his detriment in a fight with someone like Unbreakable Atlas. His opponent was just strong enough to leave some light to moderate bruising on Devil with a good hit. At worst, he could maybe dislocate a joint if he got a solid hold on the big demon. That just wouldn’t be enough for his purposes.
The big demon needed the type of pain that came from torn flesh and shattered bones if he hoped to overwhelm his opponent’s psyche. Sure, he could speed along the Powered Criminal’s exhaustion by layering the pain of some bruises on top of it, but that would still take a while. Devil preferred one massive wash of torturous agony be the last thing that the murderous asshole experienced before waking up in restraints.
That’s where Crystallize came in, if only she would hurry up and get her act together. The sooner she tried to murder him, the sooner Devil could be done with this fight. Unbreakable Atlas was proving to be an uninspired fighter. He had received some training in boxing, but both his footwork and his stance were a mess. It was clear he relied completely on his size, strength, and ‘unbreakable’ status.
Devil capitalized on Atlas’s slow jabs, telegraphed hooks, and sloppy footwork to show off as much as he could for his angel. He slid around the clumsy jabs to deliver quick, efficient combos to his opponent’s chest and face that did no real damage, though they did keep his opponent off balance. Devil took advantage of the easily dodged hooks and haymakers to land heavier strikes that he was confident Atlas at least felt.
Devil saw an opportunity during one of the telegraphed swings and stepped in to snap a kick into the side of Atlas’s stone boot. The man had been in mid-swing, but his momentum combined with losing his footing caused him to turn all the way around. A second kick to the back of his leg drove Atlas to his knees, and a hammer punch to the back of the skull forced him to catch himself on his hands. Devil stomped down on the stone slab that covered the man’s rear to finish sending him to the ground in a sprawl.
‘What’s going on?’ Devil rumbled over their mental comms in the moment he had bought for himself.
Across his Bond, he sensed that Mind Witch and Kitsune were both stressed to different degrees—an indication that their portion of the mission was not going smoothly.
‘They had an armory or something,’ Kitsune groused. ‘There are only a few security guards, as expected, but the damn fools must have passed out pulse rifles to the civilians. Had a couple of near misses before we pulled the Changed kids into a guest room and covered the door with an illusion. Mind Witch is jumping from mind to mind trying to find us a safe path out of here.’
‘Have you considered a window?’ Devil inquired as he scanned the stage to confirm that Crystallize was still there.
She was on her hands and knees, still pulling herself together, but then flopped over onto her back.
‘The drop isn’t too bad, so I sent an illusory me out to test it,’ Kitsune replied then let out a sigh. ‘It quickly came under fire from the other side of the building. The fire wasn’t all that accurate, which means that I could make it—but probably not while carrying three limp bodies. I’m not sure about Mind Witch, either.’
“You mother fucker,” Atlas growled as he began pushing himself to his feet. “I’m going to tear you into little pieces for that.”
‘Silver?’ Devil asked, unconcerned about Atlas at this point. Bouncing up several feet into the air, he delivered a stomping double kick into the center of the man’s back to drive him face-first into the ground.
‘Already got runners… and more than expected,’ Silver reported, and then sighed. ‘Tinker did something super smart and safely captured a whole bunch of them in their grav sleds! But, unfortunately, that gave away the fact that the grav sleds had been messed with fairly early on.’
‘Sorry!’ Tinker sounded about two sizes smaller despite recently having grown seven inches. ‘The idea just hit me once I saw a few in their sleds and I asked the drones to lock them in. One of them near the front had un-tinted windows though, and they spooked some others by banging on their window asking for help. I let them out once I saw it happening but…’
‘People would rather chance the forest than the possessed grav sleds!’ Silver’s giggle still sounded like bells over their mental comms. ‘I could easily get the others out, but they’re running every which way, and you said no warning shots.’
‘Your warning shots make the ground explode,’ Devil grumbled as he prepared for Atlas, who regained his feet much more rapidly this time.
“I swear I’ll gut you for that,” Atlas snarled as he turned and threw another sloppy hook at Devil.
‘I can get us to the exit closest to where we plan to land the Osprey,’ Mind Witch entered the conversation after completing her thought-hopping recon. ‘But unless Tinker lands it right on top of the door, we are going to have to run through incoming fire to get to it. There are three men with pulse rifles on that side of the building and one of them knows what he’s doing. He won’t have a great angle, but running with three nearly catatonic Changed will really slow us down.’
‘Um… the autopilot says the closest it can land is the location I sent to your FDUs, given the terrain near the building,’ Tinker replied. And from her tone, that didn’t sound like it was very close to the building.
Devil had returned to showing off his close-quarters fighting prowess for his angel so he wasn’t in a position to use the Field Display Unite mounted to his wrist. He could have had Tinker send it to the HUD in the circlet she’d made for him, which could project the map into his eyes, but he didn’t need the information just yet.
Mind Witch would give him the pertinent facts.
‘If we ran in a straight line, we would be under fire for about thirty yards,’ his gothic love explained. ‘If it were just Kitsune and I, we could make it. I’m worried one of these kids will take a blast.’
