Chapter 29

The Lord of Vermilion’s Test 12

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Theo wanted to run away.

He wanted to just jump off the FNN building and run like hell.

Thanks to overclocking his brain, Theo was able to make it to this point without as much as a scratch.

However, he wasn’t confident that his luck will hold for long.

Truth be told, while Theo was desperately fighting to survive, he was also holding back a fair bit.

In his core, Theo still admired Superheroes for their dedication to world peace.

As such, he really really REALLY didn’t want to inflict any crippling damage to any of them.

In a personal level, Theo wanted all superheroes do what they did best. That’s why he admired them after all

In a more practical and sinister level, Theo still needed the superheroes to fight off the being simply too strong for him.

Until Theo could find a way to murder the over the top villains, the superheroes were his best meatshields.

Unfortunately, Theo’s current situation simply didn’t allow him to practice his love for the Superheroes.

Theo was simply too weak to fight off Sheriff, Asura and Vulture without badly injuring them.

With a sigh of defeat, Theo steeled his will.

“Oh yeah… what happened to that other mook of mine?”

A quick scan via his distant spy drones revealed that his last merc has also surrendered.

He was on his knees beside Vulture and the young Howard.

From the looks of it, the merc spilling everything he knew about Theo, which was next to nothing.

So that’s the reason why Vulture used nothing but shurikens for the entire fight.

He probably thought that Theo no longer had any means of touching him with 3 superheroes breathing down his neck.

Normally, that would be true, but this short respite allowed Theo to remedy the merc’s misunderstanding.

Theo threw a not-gold coin high in the air while he used the still raging firestorm created by his flamethrower to hide his movement.

One the other side of the firewall was lightly burned Asura.

Even though he could easily endure the burning pain, Asura was afraid of fire just like any other living creature.

As such, Theo went past Asura with ease.

Theo kept track of the not-gold coin as it descended.

At the right moment, a bullet bounced off the coin and blew a hole on the merc’s left eye

Theo couldn’t help but feel pleased of himself.

This was the second time he ever got a headshot with the bullet bouncing trick.

Theo would have made a victory pose if the threat of being beaten into a bloody pulp was so real

“What the-?! How did he get a clear shot from there?!” said Vulture in shock as her eyes went from the dead merc to the firewall and back again.

“Damn it! Don’t tell me there’s a sniper?!” said Sheriff as he nervously scanned the other buildings while keeping his guns trained on the firestorm. “Wait… don’t tell me… Asura! Check if he’s still there!”

Though extremely reluctant, Asura cleared the flames by jumping high and punching the ground in the middle of the firestorm.

The shockwave literally blew the fire off of the roof.

Based on how ragged Asura was breathing, it seemed that he has some trauma pertaining to fire.

Interesting.

By the time Asura was able to calm down and did a quick search, Theo has already able to sneak back to the helipad near Sheriff

Truth be told, the sneak from behind the firestorm to the helipad was absurdly dangerous.

If the firestorm generated slightly less smoke, Theo wouldn’t be able to dodge Asura and Sheriff’s watchful eyes. Neither of them were skilled trackers, thus their inability to keep track of Theo.

Most importantly, if Vulture wasn’t so busy talking to now-dead merc, Theo wouldn’t have made it this far.

While she received the same training as Theo in terms of stealth, Vulture had more experience in such matters.

She would have spotted him instantly if she wasn’t distracted.

For the first time in this one sided beat down, Theo had a chance to turn the tides around.

He wasn’t going to waste it.

Theo decided to take out the most dangerous of the 3 first.

“I’m really sorry about this Sheriff, but you need to go to the hospital for a bit”

Theo rushed out of his hiding spot and tried to perform a silent takedown.

As you’d expect of a superhero that has survived many battles, Sheriff’s instincts were not to be trifled with.

Sheriff quickly noticed Theo and open fired

Theo rushed towards Sheriff like a mad bull.

Since there wasn’t much distance between them, Theo quickly entered melee range.

Due to their close proximity, the slightly distant Vulture wasn’t able to provide a shuriken support, lest she hits Sheriff by accident.

Theo drew his gun, but Sheriff was able to shoot it out of his hand.

Out of desperation, Theo threw a left spinning back fist into Sheriff’s leg with all of his might.

The hit landed and both Sheriff’s legs snapped at the force Theo’s adamnatium left hand.

Not a single scream of pain left Sheriff’s lips.

What a man.

Theo used one archon battery charge to throw Sheriff off the building.

FYI: he did this as gently as possible.

“YOU BASTARD!” Vulture roared in her cutesy rage voice as she threw shurikens at Theo while charging forward

With no more erratic bullets to watch out for, Theo could calmly deal with Vulture’s shurikens by shooting them.

“Don’t be so melodramatic. Sheriff has his grappling lasso. He’ll be fine. He wont be walking anytime soon though” said Theo in a joking manner.

This was the problem with being a registered superhero.

While their secret identities remained a secret, their fighting styles were often used as an example for HAA students to study.

As such, Theo knew that Sheriff used a super tough lasso as a grappling hook alongside his silver revolvers.

Theo also knew that despite being a master marksman, Sheriff’s main flaw was his above average close quarters combat.

In the world of superheroes, above average was not good enough.

In a fair fight, a Theo vs Sheriff brawl could go either way.

However, Theo had absolutely no intention to fight fair.

A 3 on 1 battle with people of equal and greater skill than him was already unfair to begin with.

Honor and fair play can go screw itself.

The only reason he stood a chance was a combination of luck, skill and carelessness in the superheroes’ part.

He did feel really bad for Sheriff, but Theo needed to act like the bad guy for this plan to succeed.

And like any bad guy, karma hit Theo like a tank.

In this case, a rage filled Asura catapulted himself to Theo and delivered a lethal straight punch that was simply too fast for Theo to dodge.

Theo used an X guard with his left hand at front to block the blow, but it was simply too strong.

His right arm shattered instantly.

His ribcage resembled a jigsaw puzzle.

His lungs turned into burger patties.

His heart stopped.

And to make matters worse, he was blown off the building.

Asura’s eyes turned from blood hungry beast into a horrified child the moment he regained himself

This was probably the first time Asura has broken the 'thou shall not kill' moto

“I’m the one with the broken bones here you bastard!”