34 Kidla (1/2)
”Thanks for the good night,” Eun-ha kissed Hayden. ”Let's do this again sometime?”
”Of course,” Hayden nodded, leaning in again to kiss her. ”I'll text you when I get home.”
”Yeah,” Eun-ha nodded prior to alighting Hayden's car. When she alighted, she waved Hayden before she walked back inside her house. Looking back, she had some kind of premonition that there will be something this night. ”The night is unusual…”
Turning her back, she mumbled, ”I wonder what Ability does that guy have for him to keep calm in front of the Fox's Charm… A Level 2 wielder keeping calm… Interesting, I wish I could turn it off though…”
Entering her home, Eun-ha was met by her mother and father. Bowing to them respectfully, Eun-ha ran slipped past them. Consequently, the two parents sighed.
…..
By the time Hayden dropped off Eun-ha at her house, it was already 11:06 PM. Fishing his phone from his pockets, Hayden texted his parents to inform them that he was going to go home later than he expected.
”With that taken care of…” Hayden drove away. ”It's time to take care of whoever that person is.”
He reminded himself to move with absolute discretion, after all, he didn't know what kind of force he was dealing with here.
Driving out of White Canary Village, Hayden drove back to a Hangang Park, where there would be no one. Midway, he texted Eun-ha that he was home, turning on automatic driving so as to entertain her. He wouldn't want to arouse her suspicion after all.
”Where the hell is this kid going?” On the clouds, Kidlat was puzzled. Wasn't it too easy to chase Hayden out of the village? ”No, what if he already noticed me?”
Kidlat's instincts told him something was wrong. As a seasoned assassin, Kidlat has stronger instincts than normal, and he trusted his guts as it saved him in multiple occasions already.
”Let's not jump into conclusions, let's see what he's planning,” with a grim countenance, Kidlat shook his head.
A few minutes of later, Hayden stopped at the Gwangnaru Hangang Park in Gangdong-gu, at Amsa-dong, in Seoul. This was one of the quieter parks and that's precisely the reason he chose this particular Hangang park. In addition, it had a soccer field, a huge open field that he can fight Kidlat on.
Getting off the car, Hayden entered the park and walked towards one of the soccer fields. The park was deserted as it was 11:24 in the night. Reaching the soccer field, he abruptly took out his Sinukuan, turned around, aimed towards the sky, infused essence energy into it, and fired a bullet.
Kidlat, who was in the clouds, was astounded. The bullet was faster than normal, and as this was an unforeseen preemptive strike, Kidlat was unable to react in time. Even then, Kidlat unconsciously moved sideways.
Unfortunately, Hayden was at full focus when he took aim, calculating extensively prior to firing the sniper rifle, hitting the right shoulder of Kidlat, piercing it as he had no protection from essence energy at that time.
”Fuck, this kid…” Kidlat held his right shoulder using his left hand, immediately infusing essence energy all around his body and cranking up his Ability to full power. That was the moment he saw a bullet homing in towards his chest. ”Shit!”
Left with no other choice, Kidlat conjured bolts of lightning in his left hand and fired a lightning bolt towards the bullet with uncanny precision.
”Goodness gracious…” Hayden was amazed of this show of feat, still holding his Sinukuan as he jumped back a little. Suddenly, a streak of lightning befell upon the previous location he was in. ”Tsk, that was dangerous.”
At that moment, thunder resounded, a bolt of lightning struck the ground about 20 meters upfront, a figure appearing in its place. The figure was wearing a black stealth suit and appeared intimidating, his eyes glowing blue as if a god of lightning. Suddenly, a bullet fired out. Needless to say, this was from Hayden's Sinukuan. Kidlat's figure flashed, reappearing a meter away from the location. Snorting, Hayden kept his Sinukuan as he knew that its bullets would be ineffective now.
Hayden's perception of time slowed down, picking up the hand movements of the left hand of Kidlat, and the muscle twitches. Seeing this, Hayden stepped on the ground with force, propelling him upwards, as a bolt of lightning shot out below him.
Mid-air, Hayden stored his 20,000-credit suit into his Space Ring and fully activated his Indestructible Devil, albeit, without retracting his wings and tail. Gathering essence energy, Hayden drove it to empower his body, mind, and five senses, granting him seemingly boundless power.
Seeing this, Kidlat's right hand cackled with electricity, hurling another lightning bolt towards Hayden. The wound on his right shoulder was healing at a visible rate due to his Ability's Level 3 power.
Or, at least, that was what Hayden hypothesized. As for how it worked? Hayden remembered reading an article regarding electricity that can make the healing process of wounds faster by stimulating the cells.
”Let's just hope that that is his Level 3 or Level 2 Ability…” Hayden didn't want to think of other possibilities of Kidlat's additional powers from his previous two evolutions as that would simply get him anxious. ”Let's keep calm and deal with matters when it comes.”
Hayden took a deep breath as he revealed his wings and flew, infusing essence energy into his wings in the process. ”You fool…”
Kidlat shook his head as he gathered lightning bolts below his feet, charging towards Hayden's place as a lightning bolt. Despite appearing akin to a lightning bolt, Hayden was able to calculate that Kidlat was simply faster than his maximum flight speed by about 120 kilometers per hour.
”That's manageable,” Hayden uttered under his breath as he waved his wings upwards, disappearing from his position and evading Kidlat's charge.
He didn't dare slack off for a minute, continuing to go upwards prior to dashing forward. From his former upwards direction, a bolt of lightning shot out, nearly hitting Hayden.
He knew he couldn't use any of his weapons in this situation and opted to use both of his Abilities to its absolute limits, moving to the other side of the soccer field in an instant.
Landing on the ground, they were back to square one, with both of their positions reversed. Kidlat's shoulders has mostly healed, causing Hayden to sweat profusely. The first preemptive strike was not going to work again.
”I still have grenades…” Hayden recalled at this moment that he bought grenades from the weapons shop in Puting Araw. ”If this works, I'll be damned…”
Baring his claws and fangs, Hayden made the first move, moving in a zigzag pattern as a sonic boom was produced behind him. Meanwhile, Kidlat raised his right arm that was full of crunching lightning, which then formed into a spear.
”Holy shit!” Hayden went wide-eyed at the sight of this. Time slowed down at this moment, his brain attempting to determine where Kidlat was going to throw the spear. With Hayden's superior senses, he was able to predict the spear's trajectory and stomped his left foot on the ground with full power, the ground caving in from the sheer force as he was propelled to the right. He let go of the idea of using grenades instantly.
Hayden bended his body as he was being propelled, feeling the lightning spear nearly brushing against his cheeks, making him break out to cold sweat. ”This power, what the fuck…”
Super speed, powerful regeneration, mobility, and to top it all off, powerful lightning powers? Kidlat was basically a powered-up version of him! 'It was fortunate that I didn't underestimate him one bit…'
They reached an impasse with this, with Kidlat understanding that he would not be able to hit Hayden no matter how fast his projectiles were, and with Hayden understanding that he wasn't a match in any area, except predicting his next move, against Kidlat. Essentially, no one can up the other.
The two stared into each other's souls, each unable to move as there would be no benefit doing so at all. Shouting, Hayden spoke, ”I really don't see the significance of the two of us continuing this fight.”
”Me too,” Kidlat shook his head. He was actually admitting Hayden to be his equal! ”But, I'm sorry kid, I have a mission.”
”You were indeed sent by Kamay ng Lagim, huh?” Hayden sighed in dismay, his eyes unblinking as he prepared for the worst. ”Let's see, I have no advantages against you, you have no advantages against me, well, I guess there's nothing we can do here…”
Muttering that, he rushed out faster than the speed of sound. Similarly, Kidlat wouldn't back down without a fight, gathering lightning at his feet and hurtling towards Hayden, streaks of lightning behind him.
The two were nearly appeared matched in speed, meeting each other on the middle of the soccer field. When they collided, Kidlat was a little faster than Hayden in movement speed, though that didn't mean that Hayden lost out. Ducking a right hook, Hayden returned the punch with an uppercut. The second his fist made contact with Kidlat's chin, lightning surged throughout his body.
Regardless, Hayden clenched his teeth and pulled through, sending Kidlat flying backwards. Doing a backflip, mid-air, Kidlat discharged lightning in the direction of Hayden, electrocuting him.
Nevertheless, Hayden used Divine Perception to remove the pain and pumped the power of Indestructible Devil in his veins, constantly healing him whilst standing there, rooted to the ground and glaring towards Kidlat.