94: Masks and Deception

Masks and Deception

While the outside building appeared like a huge mansion with several buildings and warehouses connected to it, the inside of the building did not look elegant or extravagant. It was made with Hardstone and metal. The entrance led to a wide hall carefully guarded by soldiers. But even for these soldiers, what happened next were just too fast.

Only Suit was prepared and ready to fight the approaching threat. Knowing how several of his brother's fought against Richie, he immediately readied five Exoskeleton Suits.

The Exoskeleton Suits were programmed with heat vision and trajectory prediction that could match and attack enemies at the speed that Jet-Powered Exoskeleton's were using.

As the intruder believed to be Richie approached the gate entrance, Suit and his automated Exoskeletons raised their gun barrels.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two powerful sonic booms could be heard on the other side of the main door.

The figure changed direction on the last second and blasted its way inside the building.

The Suit's reacted immediately but it was too late for them to fire accurately and hit the target.

The target somehow managed to pierce its way through the thick doors decimating three Suits at its entrance.

Some of the more experienced soldiers managed to shoot at the entering figure but the speed exhibited by the figure was just too fast.

Suit and his surrounding robots immediately chased the figure. The Exoskeleton's accompanying Suit started to merge with the Exoskeleton he was equipped as they were moving towards the direction their enemy dashed off too.

BOOM!

Three figures who stood outside of a blazing room were to focus at their enemy that they could only stare at the zooming figure.

BOOM!

Another sonic boom was heard and countered the force of his flight until the figure stopped at the end of the hallways.

"Nice! You've grown! Talk to you later!" A cheerful sound was heard and another powerful sonic boom propelled the figure onwards, as it pierced through walls and rooms.

Near where the figure landed and left, Cliff and Lynd were standing with a confused expression. They had just broken through the wall to escape Meryl's rampage. But before the two could speak about the bizarre scene, gunshots were heard and the two had to dodge by entering the room the broke out off.

BOOM! Explosions rocked the area where they were.

"Trigger, Blast, Suit. Attack together with us!" Typical called out.

"But Young Master, that other person is headed to attack Master!" Suit answered back as its large bulking armor finally appeared in the East wing.

"Master is not someone who needs our protection! And what can you do? You've merged three Suits? Did that person destroy three already?"

"He caught me off guard!"

"No more excuses. If he got through the seven assassins outside, he can go through you. Just help us deal with the monsters in that room!" Typical shouted.

While the insides of the base were chaotic, the observing army outside continued their detailed analysis.

"Are the drones inside yet?" Pridgeon asked impatiently.

"Presider, the bug drones were able to slip in unnoticed thanks to the commotion. The team is carefully positioning them to give us clear visuals."

"We're in position!" Another soldier yelled immediately.

"Transmit the feed now! I want to see how strong Meng and Richie's disciples are."

Several images started to appear on the large screen. The video images were curved and distorted but were slowly starting to give a clearer image at each passing second.

"The bug drones are now syncing the images for clarity." The thin soldier reported. The respective perspectives of each drone merged with each other and the entire battle between the eleven warriors was broadcasted.

Arthur was clashing with Force, One and Specter. As the leader of the group, the assassins deemed it important to kill him first.

Lowengren was escaping the attacks of Clutch. The poison mist blocked his path towards Arthur. Behind Clutch was a thick flaming region with dark smoke. His attempts to attack Alean were met with an explosive counter as his chemicals were either extinguished by the fire or would blow up due to an unbalanced chemical reaction.

Lander and Alean continued to work together as they fought Twister, Strike, and Blur.

As the battles of the three progressed, it was clear that the assassins were keeping each fighter away from assisting their comrades.

One and Force moved at incredibly fast speeds. Specter was high in pursuit but kept his distance. Arthur utilized his own boosters to evade one and strike the other. One and Force attacked at opposite ends. Yet despite this strategy, Arthur could easily counter or evade the attack without looking back.

Specter idly observed from the distance as he 'hovered' over the air. Suddenly, he moved at incredible speed to clash with Arthur. One and Force retreated immediately.

Arthur frowned as he noticed Specter approaching.

A bright dagger appeared on Specter's arms which flashed a powerful and bright light.

Arthur didn't wait for Specter to get closer and immediately struck his two maces together..

BOOM!

A powerful blast occurred and the two were sent two flying backward.

Specter was about to crash on the ground when suddenly he stopped falling.

Arthur revealed an undamaged appearance and simply checked his maces.

"Ingenious. You have invisible wires that can move on their own and even harden. Your real weapons are those treads of yours that could either pierce through me or coil up to me, correct? That bright dagger is used to hide these hidden weapons of your attacks. Isn't that bit of an overkill? I already can't see the treads but you still took the effort to blind me."

Specter leaped back to his feet.

"And yet I was at the losing end of that exchange. Pangean Whiplash technology? And you seem to be wearing special gear to make yourself immune from it. I didn't know that American Miscellaneous technology has created such powerful steel."

Seeing that Specter failed to assassinate Arthur, One and Force immediately moved.

"Specter, move back." One ordered as he and Force came to an understanding and started utilizing faster speeds.

Their attacks glowed differently this time as traces of dark spots were forming in Force's fist and One's laser sword.

Arthur merely smiled and suddenly the two maces on his hand started to emit electric charges and vibrating.

"British Lightning Rod combined with American Miscellaneous metals and Pangean's whiplash…" Specter identified the technologies that Arthur wielded.

"Richie sure is generous." Force glared.

"The best for his disciples." Arthur gave a mysterious smile.

The three stood silently for a moment and then the next moment loud bangs were heard as each used their boosters and dove towards each other.

BANG! BANG!

The melee continued once more. Arthur's attacks were more dangerous as mini whiplash bombs and lightning would sometimes explode at Arthur's strikes. Arthur's timing was precise and his hits would always cause one to either stagger or back off allowing him to evade the next other assassins attack.

As Arthur returned to strike Force, Force exerted great effort as his fist charged with a shade of dark red energy.

"Foolish." Arthur scoffed and struck the fist with his mace.

BOOM!

Arthur used the whiplash explosion to turn around delivering a roundhouse mace attack towards Force's face.

Force attacked Arthur with another punch. But since he was still staggering from the last strike the momentum and force that he used on his second punch were weak.2

BOOM!

Blood started oozing on Force's ears as the lightning and an intense vibration radiated in his body.

Arthur was about to withdraw, but then Force's fist remained glued to Arthur's mace.

Force laughed heartily as his trap worked and One immediately delivered a quick slash.

Arthur countered One's slash with his mace. The moment the mace and the laser sword were about to hit each other, One canceled his laser sword's solidity and the sword energy dissipated.

The sudden disappearance of the laser sword allowed One to position the handle of his sword towards Arthur.

Arthur saw the predicament and could not help but admire his opponent. One was confident his laser unorthodox sword slash would kill Arthur before Arthur's mace could deal lethal damage.

One was right. Arthur would have lost. The deceptive attack would have killed Arthur instantly.

But Arthur had Selective Unlocking,

Arthur had long mastered a way to focus his Unlocking to one or two attributes boosting them greatly.

The moment his mace was stuck, Arthur focused on time perception.

Time slowed down and Arthur's brain started to feel the strain. A decisecond passed slowly in Arthur's perspective. Then Arthur could count by centiseconds.

One's cunning attack was easily seen through.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two whiplash explosions occurred as Arthur pulled the trigger.

The explosion sent One flying with his mask shattered. The other explosion caused Force to fall back ending the magnetic pull.

Arthur immediately released the handle of his two maces and boosted backward. Specter misunderstood Arthur's capability. Arthur did not have the armor to protect him from his own explosions. Arthur was simply timing his retreat to avoid the whiplash or ride it. The direction of which the two maces flew to from the explosion was also Arthur's retreat path.

And like a surfer riding an invisible wave, Arthur casually retrieved the flying maces as he flew backward.

Arthur suddenly spotted a dagger approaching on his peripheral vision.

Arthur strained his entire body to force his heard to turn. The dagger slid pass by Arthur's mask scratching it.

Arthur landed safely but his neck muscles were in pain from the sudden movements.

"You guys really are experts. Even in that scenario and the quick turn of events you were still able to send out such deadly attacks." Arthur admired.

One and Force had already stood up and glared angrily at Arthur.

"Too bad you lost that exchange." Arthur continued his insults as he gazed at Specter.

"Is that so?" Specter laughed.

Then the upper portion of Arthur's mask suddenly started cracking. Arthur realized it and immediately used the mace to scrape the upper portion of his mask ripping the top part off his face. A synthetic covering covered his face with only his eyes being revealed.

The upper half of Arthur's mask fell on the ground and it continued to crack as the part which the dagger sliced started corroding.

One and Force gave a devilish smile.

"You're not the only one with interesting technologies." Specter laughed.

"Corroding metal." Arthur frowned as he watched the terrifying effects of the corroding metal.

"We're professional's We never expect to win easily. So we always have a deception that we mask in deception."

"Tell me… If you had this, why didn't you just aim for my Maces from the start?" Arthur wondered.

"Force is interested with that mace you carry." Specter laughed.

"So instead of attacking my weapon, you decided to aim for my face?"

"Those thick glasses you wore when we met indicate you have poor vision. So you must be using advanced technologies to see. Especially when you're in a fight of this level. Your not the only one who can make deductions. Now that your mask is gone I wonder how you will fight. These wounds are worth the new technology you are offering us." One chuckled.

"My how greedy."

"Still putting up a calm front? Let's just end this." One readied a stance.

The three assassins were standing in three different locations surrounding Arthur.

"Wait." Arthur motioned before the three could move.

"What now? Are you going to tell us your last request?" Force laughed.

"No. I'm just unmasking my deceptions." Arthur smiled.

"You guys are completely off the mark. I don't need glasses. I only wore them because the Marketing team made me do it to give me a more 'cunning' and 'smart' look. I soon developed the habit of wearing it all the time." Arthur gave a sly grin.

The assassins felt threatened at Arthur's strange declaration and immediately attacked together.

BOOM!

A loud sonic boom was heard as Arthur moved faster than before. Even for these Assassins with well-trained eyes, all they could see was a blurring figure which moved upwards.

"NANI?!" One's great surprise caused him to instinctively cry out in his native tongue.

The blurring figure of Arthur who rushed upwards suddenly dove and headed towards Specter.

The wires wrapped around Specter immediately.

BOOM!

Another sonic boom sounded and the blurring figure suddenly changed its direction.

BANG!

One could only see Force's battered body flying in the air.

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