He had a name. Edward. The one he was looking for.
But there was no time to dwell on it. From what this man had just said, the woman currently fighting Lady Nagant was on the same level as Edward. That meant she was dangerous—and Raiden needed to move.
Without hesitation, he brought his hands together and launched two consecutive Shadow Balls.
This attack was quickly becoming one of his favorites—fast, powerful, and precise. Unlike Hyper Beam, it didn't cause massive destruction, making it ideal for one-on-one combat.
The villain, however, didn't even flinch. With a quick motion, he shaped the electricity in his hands into crackling blades, slashing through Raiden's attacks before lunging straight at him.
Raiden's eyes sharpened. 'He can alter the shape of his electricity??' That meant this man's ability wasn't just producing electricity—it was something far more refined.
"Electrokinesis…?'' Raiden muttered, piecing it together. 'A kinesis user, just like me.'
A strange thrill ran through him. He had fought many opponents before, but never someone with a kinesis-based ability like his own.
'I wonder…'
The thought was cut short as the villain shifted his stance mid-air. The lightning around his hands pulsed and changed form again—this time into two condensed orbs of electricity, which he hurled directly at Raiden.
Reacting instantly, Raiden extended his telekinesis toward the incoming projectiles. A flicker of blue energy surrounded the lightning spheres as he seized control, redirecting them in midair. The orbs swirled around him before reversing course, now hurtling back toward their original owner.
The villain's eyes widened slightly.
Raiden smirked. "Oh… looks like I can control his abilities."
But the effort was more demanding than it was worth. Controlling the electricity had taken too much focus and energy, and the man wasn't waiting around. In a flash, he closed the distance at high speed, forcing Raiden to drop the game.
Fine. No more testing.
Activating his support abilities, Raiden used Calm Mind and Agility in quick succession.
A surge of power coursed through him—his reflexes sharpened, his speed increased. The villain was fast, but now? Raiden was faster.
With his hands glowing white, he rushed forward.
Their clash was instant. Raiden struck first, landing two Mega Punches in rapid succession, immediately following up with two Mega Kicks. The villain braced, reinforcing his body with lightning, countering Raiden's strikes with his own.
Blow after blow, they exchanged a relentless barrage of strikes. The pavement beneath them cracked, chunks of concrete breaking apart as their attacks sent shockwaves rippling through the air. Each collision echoed through the empty streets.
Raiden quickly noticed something—his opponent's power was still increasing, but the rate was slowing down. It's finally stabilizing.
That brief moment of distraction cost him.
The villain's fist slammed into his face, sending Raiden flying backward. He barely had time to react before crashing into the ground, the impact rattling through his body.
But he wasn't the only one who landed a hit.
At the same moment, Raiden's tail lashed out, striking the villain square in the chest. The force of the blow sent him hurtling into a nearby building, shattering the wall as he crashed straight through it.
Raiden groaned, sitting up and rubbing his jaw. "Damn, that hurt".
"These drugs are really unfair," he muttered under his breath. He reached up and removed his helmet, now completely shattered from a single hit. Useless now. He tossed it aside.
The villain emerged from the wreckage, his face bloodied. A deep gash ran down his cheek, and half of his teeth were missing.
Raiden chuckled. The damage isn't healing instantly. That was a good sign. At least this version of the enhancement drug isn't as absurd as the last one in the hotel.
His eyes flickered with a blue glow as he activated Agility—twice. Power surged through his body, his speed skyrocketing to its current limit. The moment the ability took hold, Raiden vanished.
In an instant, he was behind the villain. The man reacted on instinct, pivoting and throwing a powerful kick. But it passed right through.
His eyes widened. 'An afterimage?'
A flicker of movement caught his attention, and he quickly scanned his surroundings. Then his stomach dropped.
Dozens of Raiden clones hovered in the air around him, each one holding a crackling Shadow Ball in their hands. Their glowing eyes locked onto him, their energy surging in perfect sync.
The villain clenched his fists. This… is bad.
Over the past two months, under Kaina's guidance, Raiden had developed two new skills. One of them was a technique that combined his raw speed with his telekinetic powers.
Double Team.
Using his enhanced speed, Raiden moved rapidly across the battlefield, leaving behind multiple afterimages. In an instant, eight identical versions of himself surrounded the enemy, each in his Mewtwo form, charged with power.
From every angle, the clones prepared black spheres of energy, crackling ominously in their hands. Then, in perfect synchronization, they launched them.
Eight Shadow Balls tore through the air, rushing toward the villain.
Panic flashed across the man's face. Desperate, he increased his lightning output, causing raw energy to surge around him like a wild, unstable aura.
Sparks crackled violently as he braced himself for impact.
But what hit him wasn't eight spheres.
It was just one.
The orb exploded against his electric aura, the force making him stagger. The rest? They had never existed.
His eyes widened in disbelief. The massive attack he had anticipated—the one he had just burned a huge amount of stamina defending against—had never come. He had wasted energy on nothing.
Before he could recover, a white flash appeared at his side.
A crushing kick slammed into his gut.
The impact sent him flying, crashing through multiple buildings. Walls shattered as his body punched through them, leaving gaping holes in his wake. His flight finally ended when he smashed into the pavement, coughing violently as blood dripped from his mouth. The attack had caught him completely off guard.
Before he could even think about getting up, metal debris from the wreckage around him twisted and bent, wrapping around his limbs and torso. A cocoon of steel formed around him, locking him in place. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn't move.
Above him, Raiden hovered, his glowing eyes locked onto the villain.
"Surrender now."
The villain gritted his teeth, rage bubbling inside him. He was about to spit out a defiant response, to tell this so-called hero to go to hell, to swear that he would never surrender—Then something struck his face.
The impact rattled his skull, his vision blurred, and for a split second, it felt like his brain had shifted inside his head. His face slammed into the ground before he could even process what had happened.
Raiden didn't flinch. Two months of training under Lady Nagant and Hawks had reshaped his approach to combat. His methods had become… a little cruder than most heroes would approve of.
He crouched down, eyes sharp. "I see you don't want to answer. Fine. I'll ask something else."
"You mentioned one of these so-called Apostles was here. Clearly, that's not you. So it must be the woman. Tell me— is she stronger or weaker than Edward?"
The villain chuckled darkly, spitting blood onto the ground. At first, the question seemed harmless. But it wasn't.
Raiden wasn't just asking about rank. He was measuring something far more important—how close or far he was from facing the true monsters in this organization.
"Stronger?" the villain scoffed, his bloody grin widening. "Hah! No. Edward is stronger. But..."
His eyes darkened. "She scares me more."
Raiden's expression didn't change, but his focus sharpened.
"At least if Edward kills me, there'll be something left of my body." The villain let out a dry, bitter laugh. "Your friend? There's a good chance there's nothing left of her."
Raiden narrowed his eyes. He remembered.
The way the ground melted at her touch. The way she manipulated that liquefied substance with terrifying ease. If that power had touched Lady Nagant...
He clenched his fists, pushing the thought aside. Whether or not his true target was stronger than this woman, she was still an important reference point.
Raiden didn't waste another second.
Focusing his telekinesis into his tail, he struck the villain's jaw with brutal force.
A deep, bone-rattling crack echoed through the air as the man's head snapped back. His body went limp, collapsing in the wreckage. Unconscious.
Without hesitation, Raiden activated a secondary device on his leg, sending a direct signal to the authorities.
It was over, at least this fight, after this Raiden quickly rushed towards Kaina.
As soon as Raiden arrived at Kaina's location, the sight before him made him pause. His eyes widened as he took in the devastation.
"And you told me not to break anything," he muttered, shaking his head.
The battlefield was in ruins. The building where the fight had started was almost unrecognizable—its structure melted and shattered to the core.
Surrounding buildings weren't faring much better, their facades crumbling, windows shattered, and debris scattered across the streets.
Amidst the wreckage, a woman stood, her body covered in a black, viscous liquid that pulsed repulsively. Despite the imposing sight, Raiden's sharp eyes caught the wounds marking her body—circular red holes marred her face, shoulder, leg, and abdomen. She was hurt, but far from beaten.
However, Lady Nagant wasn't in much better condition. Burns covered her arms, legs, and face, the latter bearing the worst of it. A large, ugly wound near her temple had scorched away part of her hair, leaving a bleeding gash in its place. Despite her injuries, her expression remained sharp, though her eyes flickered with frustration as she spotted Raiden landing beside her.
Clicking her tongue, she scowled. It was clear she was irritated that August had lost his fight.
Raiden, however, ignored her reaction. Without hesitation, he extended a hand toward Lady Nagant and activated his ability.
Life Dew.
A faint, bluish glow surrounded her as her wounds began to close. The deeper cuts sealed first, followed by the burns, their angry redness fading into smooth, healed skin. Raiden repeated the process, ensuring the worst of her injuries were mended. Unlike Recovery Girl's healing, which required energy from the patient, Life Dew drained only Raiden's own mental strength and stamina, leaving Kaina with no side effects beyond a slight relief from her fatigue.
Lady Nagant exhaled sharply, flexing her fingers as she tested her now-healed limbs. "Convenient ability," she admitted, though she wasn't one for gratitude.
Meanwhile, the enemy before them had widened her eyes in shock at the unexpected healing. Her hesitation didn't last long.
From beneath her feet, a surge of black liquid shot upward, its tendrils lashing out toward Raiden and Lady Nagant. It should have been an overwhelming attack.
Yet, nothing came.
For a moment, there was only silence, and then realization dawned on the woman's face, they annulled her quirk.
Disable.
Raiden was already in motion. Using those precious seconds where her abilities were neutralized, he propelled himself above her with a burst of speed.
Confusion. Psyshock.
The twin psychic attacks struck from above, slamming into the woman with enough force to drive her toward the ground. Yet, instead of fully collapsing, she managed to brace herself, dropping to one knee instead of crumpling completely.
Her resilience was more than impressive, but Raiden wasn't finished.
Yet, before he could land another strike, her hand shot out, gripping his tail in a vice-like hold. Her fingers tightened, and she prepared to hurl him away. But then—A single gunshot rang out.
A bullet tore through her forearm, leaving a clean hole.
She hissed in pain, instinctively loosening her grip. Seizing the opportunity, Raiden twisted mid-air and delivered a sharp kick to her back, sending her flying. As she tumbled, he locked onto her again and activated Disable once more, ensuring she remained powerless.
Lady Nagant, ever the sharpshooter, wasted no time. Two more bullets found their mark—one in each leg, forcing her to the ground. A third struck her abdomen, making her cough up blood.
When she finally skidded to a stop, crumpled like a discarded ragdoll, there was a brief, eerie silence. Then, she snapped.
A furious scream tore from her throat, filled with rage and defiance.
End of the chapter.
I wanted to upload another one, please leave some power stones, that could help me a lot.
Leave a comment, we are relatively close to the end of the arc.