Both shared a chuckle at that. After a pause, Victor had to ask. “Why did you sleep with me if not for my charm?”

“At first, I was lonely, and you were good-looking.”

“After that?”

“You were good in bed.”

“I’ll take it!”

Victor could not help but huffed out his chest. Samurai shook her head in defeat. It was hard to out-talk the shameless. Then, they heard a scream. Samurai immediately turned with Victor half a step behind. It did not take them long to see the source of the scream.

A woman ran out of an alley with a young boy in her arms. Behind them were a pair of monsters. Each monster was about twice the size of Victor, but they were shaped like a snake instead of a grown man.

“Nagas?” Samurai verbally wondered before drawing her gun. Bullets flew. They hit the two monsters, stunning them in place. Samurai immediately holstered her gun, and it began to glow. Victor had seen this before and realized that the Six-shot Samurai was switching bullets.

“Fire bullets not working?” Victor asked.

“Those shots should have penetrated their bodies.”

Victor bit back a curse as the women saw them and began running in their direction. The monsters saw the new threats, and both reared back up with their mouths wide open. The move made Victor think of King Cobras and that the monsters were about to unleash an attack. That was just what the monsters did.

Two balls of fire came out of the monsters’ mouth. One was hurling towards Victor and Samurai. The other was launched in the direction of the fleeing woman. Victor stepped in front of Samurai and call up his Bark Armor. The monster’s ball of fire hit him, engulfing him in flames, but Victor was able to shrug it off.

The woman was not so lucky.

When the flames finally disperse, Victor saw an unfortunately common sight. The woman was face-down on the ground, her back covered in burns. She was not moving but the boy beneath her was. Knowingly or not, she had used her body to shield the boy from harm.

“Sweet Fist.”

Bullets, glowing blue, flew from Samurai’s magic gun as she shouted. Victor activated Bear’s Charge and rushed the monsters. The bullets hit the monsters and a sheet of ice engulfed them. The ice was thin, and it took the monsters just moments to break free. That was all the time Victor needs.

He launched himself at one of the monsters, throwing a powerful punch backed by Qi and Iron Body. The monster had no chance to avoid it. The monster gave a wet gurgle as the punch blew a big hole through the monster’s body. Victor heard the shriek almost immediately. He turned and saw the second monster launching itself at him like a snake. Victor put out an arm and the monster bit on it. Victor screamed. Even through the Bark Armour, Victor could feel the force of the bite. A normal human would have his arm bitten clean off, but Victor’s arm held as more bullets hit the monster. Ice formed and the monster’s movement began to get sluggish. Victor took the chance and punched with his free hand. The angle was bad but the force of his punch on the monster’s body was still enough to force the monster to release its grip on Victor’s arm. Victor’s injured arm hung limp by his side, but he ignored it. Victor punched again, this time at the monster’s head. The monster’s head blew off and its body fell onto the ground. Victor looked around, and finally took a breath when he saw there were no other monsters around. His arm chooses this time to throbbed in pain.

Victor looked down at his injured arm and saw blackish blood seeping through the bite marks. Victor cursed as he bend to look at the monster whose head was still intact. At close range, Victor realized there were differences between these monsters and the Nagas native to Nexus. The monsters were smaller, with a more cobra-like head. The heads of native Nagas looked like more like normal snakes.

Victor opened the monster’s mouth and as he feared, the monster has sharp snake-like fangs. If the monsters were poisonous, Victor could be in trouble. He did not know if his cultivation could cope with poison, much less poison from extra-dimensional beings.

Then, he felt it. A pressure coming high above him. Victor immediately turned to look at the Gap above him. The air around the Gap simmered, then it ripped!

From the enlarged Gap came a shriek that echoed through Velocity City. Time stood still as Victor stared at the Gap. Then, it appeared. Against the blue of the bright summer sky, a behemoth flew out of the Gap.

It was a huge bird of prey, with a reptilian face dominated by a pair of horns on top of its head that winded backward. The monster had the body of a bird, but it had no feathers. Instead, it was covered with dragon-like black scales. Victor had seen dragons before and the scales on the monster had the same look of beauty and power. The dragon-bird had a pair of massive wings and Victor estimate its wingspan was nearly a hundred meters. It also had a pair of short legs with powerful sharp curved talons.

The monster turned its head left and right, scarlet eyes looking curiously at the city below. Victor’s body froze, afraid that any movement would attract the attention of the giant monster. The dragon-bird’s wings stopped flapping, but instead of falling, it was now floating in the air. It opened its beak and shrieked. Victor saw a blue glow forming within its mouth.

“Oh-,” Victor never got to finish the sentence.

A bright-blue blast struck the ground, and ripped through the Northern Barrow like a giant laser, leaving destruction in its wake. Victor turned back to look at the monster in the air.

It looked pleased. Victor had no other word for the look on the thing. He turned and ran towards the Six-shot Samurai who was picking up the boy beneath the dead woman. They both had the same idea. They needed to get out of here.

The boy was staring at the monster above them in stun silence. That was a mercy. The woman was probably his mother. Wordlessly, Victor offered to take the boy and Samurai accepted. Carrying the boy with his good arm, both ran in the direction of the police cruiser. Victor hoped Night Leopard had not run off yet. She may be a hero, but it was only normal to run away from something like the monster above them.

Victor heard another shriek. Victor turned back to look at the monster in fear. The dragon-bird had formed another ball of light. Then, a flash of lightning flew toward the monster. Catching the dragon-bird by surprise, the lightning hit it and Victor saw tiny bolts of lightning spreading through the monster’s body. Stunned, the dragon-bird began to fall and for a moment Victor thought it would crash. Then, it’s wings rose and the monster level off. The dragon-bird turned its head and Victor did the same. He saw the source of the lightning, and almost felt like cheering.

Levitating in the sky was Thundersky. The Champion of Velocity City had arrived!