71 Neutralizing The Rampaging Daniel (1/2)
Arriving in the periphery of the Camp General Basilio Navarro, Hayden saw Daniel, sitting cross-legged on the ground, staring listlessly to the west. Hayden descended approximately 25 meters away from Daniel and retracted his wings.
”Who the hell is this?” Crimson Enchantress muttered with vigilance, prepared to protect Daniel. Activating her essence energy sensing, she was relieved, ”Oh wait, it's a mere Level 2 wielder… Daniel will be fine…”
In that instant, Daniel shot up, his eyes becoming silver as he outstretched his hands. 'Woah, haven't seen that color before…'
Nobody told Hayden that Daniel evolved. Wanting to move to get things over with, Hayden discovered he couldn't. 'The power to restrain movement? Nice power…'
That was when he noticed that Daniel's eyes became brown, a spike suddenly protruding out of the ground in front of Hayden and was going for Hayden's stomach.
Unfortunately for Daniel, Hayden activated his Indestructible Devil, making his body inanely tough. Making contact with Hayden's stomach, the sound of clothing ripping apart resounded as well as the breaking of the tip of the earthen spike. Needless to say, Hayden wasn't damaged at all.
Snapping, Hayden's trench coat disappeared into his Space Ring, all the while fully revealing the sculpted build outlined by the tight-fitting black military uniform.
Afterwards, white mist radiated from his own hands. Slamming his hand to the part where the uniform was torn, the clothes mended itself, the molecular bonds re-establishing.
Witnessing this, Crimson Enchantress was surprised of this unexpected development. ”What the hell is that? Is that his power?”
By that point in time, Daniel has changed his irises into light blue and blue, condensing water from the atmosphere and freezing it, changing it into ice spikes and sending it towards Hayden.
In response, Hayden used the Breathing Technique as large amount of white mists bundled up in his right hand. Forming a finger gun, Hayden shot plasma beams of life force containing extreme heat towards the ice spikes. This effectively vaporized the ten ice spikes.
”What in the world is that?” Crimson Enchantress exclaimed. At first, she thought of the possibility that Hayden was this guy disregarding the wings. However, once he did that plasma beam thing, she was quite certain that this was not Hayden. ”If this is not Hayden? Is it a new Puting Araw agent? No…”
She was getting increasingly confused by the second, to the point that she blanked out as she watched the fight between the man in the white fox mask and Daniel.
With that, Daniel shifted both of his irises into a gray one, gathering large amounts of air and launching it towards Hayden, who stood there and received the brunt of the attack.
”This is a waste of time.” Hayden sighed, rolling up his military pants. He then disappeared from his position, with Daniel ceasing his attempt to push off Hayden.
Appearing in front of Daniel, Hayden released immense amounts of life force from his hands and programmed it to invade Daniel's body to induce the four stages of non-REM sleep in the timeframe of a single second.
Just as he was about to touch Daniel to release the programmed Life Force, Daniel vanished from thin air. Through his Heavenly Sense, Hayden knew that Daniel teleported behind him and was throwing a punch at him.
At that moment, Hayden launched himself sidewards and rolled. During his roll, he sensed that Daniel was becoming covered by some sort of organic armor.
Changing his left iris into white, he manipulated light to create tons of 'Daniels' in a futile attempt to confuse Hayden.
Every single one of the hulking illusions dashed towards Hayden and punched him. Much to Daniel's expectation, Hayden didn't move a single muscle, not even a flinch. The light merely passing through him.
Without saying anything, Hayden burst with speed. Not letting Daniel react to it and teleporting, he kicked Daniel to the stomach, sending him flying, shattering Daniel's organic armor.
”Holy…” Crimson Enchantress was tongue-tied. ”He… Who the hell is this guy? Such immense physical strength…”
Daniel was strong, but if anybody will be capable of stopping him, that was someone who is capable of defeating people with absolute brute force.
She decided to see first how this would play out as she didn't really care all that much for Daniel. He was valuable, but he's also a disposable pawn. In her opinion, Daniel was someone useful, yet is not that vital for anything at all.
Anyhow, if she can seduce the man in the mask, who owned such ludicrous physical power, capable of neutralizing most of Daniel's powers, that'd be better. There was one concern though… ”What the hell is the identity of this guy?”
If the man was here, then he'd definitely have ties with Puting Araw or Kamay ng Lagim. There was no way in hell that Pangkat Anino would send in someone to defuse a threat that was acting against Puting Araw as Pangkat Anino held a grudge with Puting Araw.
What she didn't know was that beside her, a person coalesced with the darkness of the night was present. It was The Stalker, watching Hayden fight against Daniel.
”Wait, Daniel did all this?” Instead of focusing on Hayden, The Stalker took notice of Daniel. After all, there was no doubt that Hayden, a wielder that can stand toe to toe with a skilled Level 3 wielder assassin, would be capable of defeating Daniel, a puny Level 2 wielder. ”It seems that Daniel's power is much stronger than we thought…”
It was not that Pangkat Anino didn't take notice of Daniel at all the past six, seven, months. It's just that Daniel was overshadowed by Hayden's rare case, and the fact that The Stalker was there during their Level 1 wielder days. The Stalker witnessed how Hayden helped Daniel innovate upon his own powers.
”I'd have to report this alongside Hayden's newfound… Abilities?” The Stalker's hollow voice contained a hint of perplexity. ”Seriously, what the hell is that?”
First, back in Rain Sanctuary Hotel, Hayden created blow-torch flames, next, Hayden produced thrusters, and now, Hayden was freaking shooting what looked like laser beams from his hands to vaporize ice spikes. What in the world was happening?
Moving on, Hayden was back in front of Daniel, whose armor became nonexistent. For another time, Daniel disappeared, teleporting away from Hayden as he became invisible.
”Invisibility, huh?” Hayden bobbed his head. He was impressed of how much powers Daniel gained. 'Level 2… Let's see, first movement restriction, second is teleportation, third is that armor-like thing, and fourth is invisibility… Are there more?'
Meanwhile, Daniel was observing Hayden from 30 meters away, not knowing that Hayden actually knew where he was, not only from his capability of sensing airwaves, hearing heartbeats, and Daniel's own distinct smell, but also his Heavenly Sense, which can apparently bypass invisibility. Or at least invisibility from Level 2 wielders.
In that instance, Hayden felt the airwaves surrounding Daniel moving that suggested Daniel was stretching his arms. Abruptly, Hayden felt the sudden rise of temperature. ”Nice usage…”
Muttering that, Hayden stepped forcefully, launching backwards. On his hands, white mist seeped out, materializing into a thick stick shape and threw it towards Daniel, who responded by teleporting away again.
That was when Hayden noticed Daniel flying. He was unsure if this was a utilization of his gray iris, or not. Reappearing in his sights, Hayden perceived Daniel's eyes to be of orange in color and gray, a new color, confirming that the flight wasn't a subset of Daniels grey iris.
Thereupon, Daniel slammed his right hand downwards whilst facing Daniel, immense pressure building up on Hayden's shoulders. 'He never learns from his mistakes, does he?'
Hayden was irked of Daniel's actions. Hayden has withstood a powerful wind force that Daniel threw at him, yet, Daniel endeavored to put air pressure to try and kill him. It was an idiotic thing to do especially since you can deduct from the last two actions alone that Hayden, a masked entity, was more powerful than the average Level 2 wielder.
Revealing his wings in consternation, Hayden ascended at an amazing velocity, rushing at Daniel, a sonic boom produced behind him.
”Son of a…” In the invisible cover, Crimson Enchantress was once again captivated by Hayden. ”What fucking kind of Ability does this man possess?”
Appearing in front of Daniel, Hayden has already prepared a complexly programmed block of life force in his left hand. Forcing this block of life force to Daniel's stomach, Daniel's eyes widened, narrowed, and he fainted.
This essence energy, was after all, more intricately programmed than the one earlier, adding the command to invade Daniel's brain and brain stem so that it would instantly put Daniel to sleep.
Catching Daniel, Hayden slowly descended and placed Daniel down to check on him properly. Suddenly, a faint gut feeling pervaded Hayden's mind, looking in a certain direction.
Without a warning, Hayden stepped back from Daniel, a lady appearing in his sights. It was Crimson Enchantress. Seductively, Crimson Enchantress spoke, ”Oh, what a powerful man… Can I have the privilege to see the handsome face beneath that mask?”
”Go to hell.” Hayden said without remorse. ”Fucking whore. Step away from Daniel.”
Much to Crimson Enchantress' chagrin, Hayden wasn't affected at all. This impressed her further as no ordinary Level 2 wielder can possibly resist the effects of a Level 3 wielder's Ability.
You may ask what Hayden did? Well, the second he saw Crimson Enchantress, Hayden cut off his visual cognition through Divine Perception, inducing blindness for himself. This effectively cut off Crimson Enchantress' first medium of seduction, visual stimulation. Withal, it also decreased the power of it, in conjunction with Hayden's weak resistance to mental Abilities, it neutralized Crimson Enchantress' power.
As for how he figured that Crimson Enchantress was the one who came into view was that the second he laid his eyes on her, he was aroused. In fact, his removal of his own sense of sight was instinctual rather than voluntary.
”Come on darling…” This time, Crimson Enchantress activated the Level 3 power of her Ability, striving to take in a person that is mightier than Daniel. ”Let me see it?”