"You fucking…. YELLOW BASTARD!!!"
The enraged Jason burst forward and raised his arms. He slammed the floor with a double hammer strike that rattled the entire building once more, sending cracks spreading through the ceiling.
Having sidestepped the attack, Dante raised his arms to guard against the scattering shards and splinters. Blocking his line of sight was a mistake as the gray hulk reached out and grabbed his leg at that moment.
"Shi-"
"RAAAA!!!!"
The room blended into a blur before a violent impact washed over Dante. With the air knocked out of his lungs, darkness invaded his sight as pain rushed through his nerves. He wasn't allowed the chance to understand what happened to him before the hulking man slammed him on the floor a second time then, giving in to his urges, he flung him at the wall.
"Guhh!!!"
Dante's thoughts halted, leaving him powerless as his body fell to the ground. Just when it appeared like he would get a moment of rest he saw the gray hulk rushing toward him with his right arm pulled back, ready to swing. Regaining his senses, Dante rolled out of the way at the last moment. Jason's fist pierced the wall and cracks quickly spread out, instantly reaching the ceiling.
'I… I don't know, Volcan…' Dante spoke internally, turning his attention to the counter in the corner of his field of view. 'This guy… he still has some juice in him…'
00:46 was all the time he had with Type 3-2. Forget finishing the fight; if he didn't get out of there soon, the armor would disappear, leaving him to face the Level 2 monster on his own.
[It might take a few more minutes.] The AI replied.
"Fuck!!!"
Rolling away from another hammer strike, Dante crouched down then leaped at the hulking man and delivered a kick right to his head. Jason wasn't phased and tried to grab him again only to get stumped in the face. Each strike came with an electric shock, but Type 3-2 had yet to recover much energy so the hulking man wasn't affected.
"This is what you get-" Jason lifted both of his arms again and swung down. "For playing the hero!!!"
Just as the fists fell down on him, Dante caught a glimpse of the ceiling and came to a realization. He rolled out of the way and before Jason's fists struck the spot of was standing in, he turned around, kicked the ground, and rushed toward the stairs.
CRRRACK!!!
No longer capable of holding itself together, the ceiling crumbled. First it was a few specs of dust and crumbs of paint, then the chips followed and right after entire chunks of debris. Jason was slow to react and by the time he noticed, the entire building collapsed with all of its weight falling over his head.
With the speed granted to him by Type 3-2, Dante was able to get to the upper floor in seconds. He followed the route he came from, passing the kitchen and the now-empty break room as he headed for the exit.
'Take it off!'
[Understood!]
The black and yellow suit of armor disintegrated into specs of light before disappearing completely just as Dante reached the back door. Slamming right into it, he exited the building and continued running, reaching the metal fence at the end of the narrow alley and jumping over it.
The entire apartment complex sank into the ground, breaking apart as it crumbled into a pile of dust. After running a couple of blocks past, Dante finally allowed himself to slow down. As he tried to catch his breath, the sound of sirens reached his ears and he turned around to see a cloud of dust slowly disintegrating in the air.
"No way in hell." He panted. "No way in hell that was… a Level 2."
[My calculations cannot be wrong.] Volcan said. [Though I have to say, that Enhanced Individual was capable of drawing a lot more power out of his meager capabilities. It is quite surprising.]
'Just say you were wrong.' Dante sighed.
[I was not wrong.] The AI replied.
'You're really stubborn, aren't you?'
Dante refused to believe that the monster they fought had the destructive power of a grenade and nothing more. EIs of the same level can still have gaps between them, sure, but even if they were to think of him as the pinnacle of Level 2, that still wouldn't do him justice.
Ruffling his crimson hair, Dante heaved a long sigh and moved his legs. He looked behind him at the dispersing cloud of dust.
'Well, are you at least sure that he wouldn't just walk it off?'
[I am positive.] Volcan replied. [I was unable to deduce the method, but whatever enhancement it granted to the individual named Michael Jason, it was only temporary.]
The fight against the enhanced Jason had a second win condition. Just like with Volcan's Type 3-2, the hulking man had a time limit on his powers as well. Dante only needed to last long enough for his powers to fade, but that turned out to be easier said than done.
In the end, with the building collapsing over him, whatever little time Jason had left probably wasn't enough to save his life. He was the target of a job so Dante didn't care much about him, but their encounter left him with questions he didn't expect to encounter.
'How the hell did someone like Jason get such powers?'
Organizations specializing in genetic treatments could be counted on one hand, but even among them the only one capable of creating superpowered beings was Eidolon. As one would expect, their methods were closely guarded secrets. Even if it was just a temporary Level 2 enhancement, how a bankrupt gambling addict got his hands on something like that, Dante could only wonder.
'I should ask Victor.' As the thought crossed his mind, Dante suddenly remembered a more pressing matter. 'Guess I'm not getting paid…'
For a moment there he forgot all about the reason behind his trip to Factory Town. Whether he was dead or alive under all that rubble, reaching Jason was no longer feasible, let alone getting him to pay what he owed. This was Dante's first gig now that he was back to working solo, and though it wasn't a complete failure, he couldn't help but feel a little down.
And as if that wasn't bad enough-
"Ah..."
A pang of pain spread through his body. Even though he took the armor off before the time limit, the impact it left on his body remained. Still, if it weren't for the protection it provided he would have been dead the first time Jason struck him. Even if he didn't get to use it for the full three minutes, it far exceeded his expectations.
'I seriously need to extend that limit...'
As he walked the empty street thinking of how he should go about it, something fell from above and startled him to a halt. The first thing he noticed was the crimson hair then the skin-tight jumpsuit. As an image began to form in his head, his mood took another dive.
"You!" Pointing a finger at him, the woman in black glared at him from behind her peculiar mascaraed mask. "I saw what you did!"