Chapter 34: Arc 1: Chapter 32: Malefic

"Dring Dring"

In the dim room full of smoke, the crisp ringing of the telephone resounds, making people feel agitated as it kept ringing.

Moments later, a female with an incredible body ratio stands in the shadows and picks up the phone, she slightly coughs and asks impatiently:

"Hello? Who is this? What business do you have with me?"

"I was introduced by some friends, they say you're the best mercenary the market can provide? I'd like to ask if you take commissions?"

The elder butler of Wayne Manor speaks calmly:

"I'd like for you to save someone in Oakland."

"Who's the target?"

The woman asked, which Alfred replied:

"A man named Merlin, he's wearing a baseball cap as well as sunglasses, he's slim and unnaturally pale. He's being hunted by a group of dangerous people so you don't have much time."

"Time isn't an issue, but you're giving me too little details."

The woman in the shadows sets aside her hair and says gently:

"Not to mention I'm on vacation right now, so I don't really want to do any jobs right now."

"500,000 dollars."

Alfred casually quoted a price:

"I don't need you to bring him anywhere since there're too many eyes on me. I just want you to save him and keep him safe."

"Mmm, how bout no, being a bodyguard is very troublesome."

The already impatient woman rejects in a harsh tone, but just as she was about to hang up, Alfred quotes a new price:

"Then let's raise the price...5,000,000 dollars."

"Fine! I'll set off as soon as I'm ready!"

The woman neatly lists out a bank account number, and as though she was never impatient in the first place, hangs up the phone and begins packing.

But before she could put on her combat suit, a call comes in; it was from the bank, her personal financial manager informs her that her pitifully poor bank account had just received a million dollars.

Yep, it was a deposit.

Such a straightforward client made this in-vacation mercenary extremely happy.

As she hums a song, she picks up a heavy black samurai blade and tosses her supple black long hair; as she waves her fingers, a crimson energy blade briefly appears on her fingers before disappearing again.

The female mercenary wearing an extremely exaggerating and revealing black combat suit steps forward and takes a black coat from the clothes stand; then, she swiftly walks up the spiral staircase.

Moments later, with the sound of a helicopter taking off, she takes off from her mansion in Las Vegas in her very eye-catching vehicle and heads towards Oakland.

Luckily, the straight line distance between these two locations were not that far.

The heroic female mercenary sits in the cockpit; she looks at the view down below and contemplates what we was going to buy once she receives her full payment of 5 million dollars. Although she had made her cut regardless if Merlin was dead or alive, reputation was still very important in this life-for-money business.

Not to mention, someone who could throw out 5 million dollars just to save someone was certainly not one to be easily trifled with.

The cost for breaking this particular contract was probably too high.

"Mmm, 5 million dollars-worth Merlin, just hold on for another half an hour and big sis will come save you..."

---

"Boom"

The wall ahead of Merlin suddenly blows up, punched through by a lethal bullet; the falling debris lands atop Merlin's face and body which causes him to stagger, but he dares not look back, he instead pounces forward and hides behind the wall in the corner of the alleyway.

He leans on the wall as he tries to catch his breath.

The hunt between him and the deadly assassin had been going on for quite some time now; the two of them have been battling from the warzone-like-neighborhood, all the way to the outskirts of the city.

He could almost see the highway and forest leading into the suburbs.

Merlin had dodged the last shot using his dark senses; if he didn't, the one being pierced through would not be the wall, it'd be his heart.

The hunter behind him was the attacker who killed the Howard couple, the one with a metal arm.

This guy's vital activity was special, and he had an extremely tenacious lifeforce; yet his brain activity was close to zero, one would never forget him once he senses him.

He's back.

Last time he couldn't kill Merlin and was instead heavily wounded by his retaliation, and now he has reappeared on the battlefield.

And this time, Merlin was out of hidden cards to play, as the Winter Soldier knew all his tricks.

He pulls out the clip from his rifle and checks, there was little ammo left. If he ran out of ammo, he would have no ranged attacks, which meant that he would have to fight the super killer behind him face-to-face.

With his crappy close-combat skills, he stood no chance.

"Bang"

Another bullet penetrates through the previous bullet hole and punches a hole through the wall, flying inches away from Merlin's shoulder.

Merlin immediately relocates.

He knows the super killer behind him may be equipped with some sort of infrared detector, rendering his Shadow Cloak useless.

He could only try.

There may still be hope for him if he could hit him by surprise with his black storm like last time.

Merlin fixes his resolve. He holds his rifle with both arms, and as the super killer was reloading, jumps out and aims towards the Winter Soldier behind him; using his dark sense, he pulls the trigger.

"Bang Bang Bang"

2 bullets land on the wall behind the Winter Solider, another lands on his arm, which sends sparks flying as the Winter Solider croutches down in a tactical posture.

He hears Merlin's footsteps using his exceptional perception and guesses Merlin's plan; he must be planning on running to him as he was being suppressed and use his dangerous dark magic explosion to heavily wound him once more.

But the Winter Soldier did not falter, instead, he takes out a round grenade from his ammunitions box on his waist.

Just when Merlin was 15 meters from the Winter Solider, a round object is thrown from behind the wall the Winter Solider was hiding at; it bounces and eventually lands at Merlin's feet.

It looked different from standard grenades.

Its shell was silver-white, as it was activated and thrown onto the floor, it did not explode immediately; instead there were odd orange lights coming from inside it.

It looked pretty at first glance, like orange sunlight.

However, as time passed, the orange light became denser, which gave off a dangerous vibe.

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Like a sun that was about to explode.

Merlin did not back down, he needed the lethal stimulation to trigger the dark powers inside him as to escape this perilous situation.

Just as he halted his pace, the orange light behind him exploded like a burning fire, spreading in a circular area.

Merlin's body turned into black storm from the explosion, and in this form, he rushed towards the wall that the Winter Soldier was taking cover in.

But the Winter Solider did not dodge, instead, he stood up unarmed.

He stood behind the low wall and watched as the black storm rushed towards him; his cold, scar-filled face lets out an expression of mockery.

Merlin had a hunch that something was wrong, but there was no time for him to think twice, so Merlin used all his strength to spread out and pounce at the Winter Soldier.

But behind him, as soon as the orange explosion covers a 10 meters radius, it suddenly stops as if it had hit a boundary, then the flames contract abruptly.

It was like a light spot expanding to the extreme and then contracting, the second phase of this special grenade generated an even more powerful pulling force that made the initial explosion feel like a firework explosion.

Merlin could feel as if the black fog he had turned into was thrown into a storm pulling backward. His black fog was less than a meter away from the Winter Soldier, but that was a distance he could not make.

As if a blackhole had opened behind him, all the black fog was pulled backwards.

In less than a second, the orange fire contracts and pulls everything that it had destroyed within the 10-meter radius back to the center, forming an odd sphere comprised of stone fragments, making a deep thud sound as it hit the ground.

And Merlin, with his energy depleted, returns to his human form.

He fell to the ground feeling extremely tired.

There was never a time he had felt so tired from transforming; as if his entire spirit had been depleted.

His final attempt was spoilt and he was out of ideas.

In this strange world, magic was not the only way suppress Merlin's magic explosion; with the right method, technology could do the same.

The Winter Soldier walks beside Merlin, he lifts the heavy sniper rifle and heavily smashes Merlin on the head with the butt of his rifle.

But he wasn't finished, he retrieved the combat knife he had lost from Merlin's hand.

Then he threw a circular metal sheet onto Merlin's body; electric currents jump across Merlin's body, causing him to completely faint within a short few seconds.

The Winter Soldier then takes the thermos cup from the unconscious Merlin's pocket and carries Merlin on his shoulder, he then turns around and leaves.

Mission complete.

He was going to bring this supernatural being back to his organization, maybe soon he would have another 'companion'.

Merlin had great potential, it was just that he didn't want to fully utilise the dark powers inside him. But in that organization, personal will was unimportant; they had a multitude of ways to twist Merlin's mind and brainwash him into the deadliest soldier.

Just like...the Winter Soldier now.

There was once a time when he was also a hero.

But as the Winter Soldier carried Merlin on his shoulder and prepared to call for extraction, a crimson blade suddenly flashes in the darkness behind him like the first light of dawn, and slices towards the Winter Soldier's back.

The super killer senses the impending danger and pounces forward, dodging the attack.

But the Merlin he was carrying falls onto the ground and rolls to the side.

The Winter Soldier barrel-rolls on the ground and lifts his gun towards the attacker; but before he could pull the trigger, a flash of white cuts the rifle in his hands in half.

"Shing"

The impact from cutting metal makes the attacker pause momentarily, but it also gave the Winter Soldier his chance to counterattack.

With a flick of both hands, 2 black combat knives appear in his hand; he watches the samurai blade wielding enemy in front of him, she was dressed in leather tights and looked like a female ninja, and fearlessly engages her.

"Dang Dang Dang"

The two didn't communicate, samurai blade and combat knives kept getting parried midair as they fought, the crisp sound of their weapons clashing together was like a lively melody.

The suddenly appearing female samurai was tricky to deal with, but so was the Winter Soldier.

As a war machine carefully nurtured by the ex-Soviet Union, using two short knives and his metal arm, his rich combat experience, as well as his beastly offense, he forced the female mercenary to retreat steadily.

"Not bad!"

The woman tosses her hair and blocks an attack from the Winter Soldier.

She clenches the fingers on her free hand and crimson energy gathers on it, as she waves her hand, a crimson whip catches onto the Winter Soldier's leg; then as the woman waved her arm, the Winter Soldier was picked up and tossed towards the field behind her.

"Bam"

The Winter Soldier spirals and crashes onto the ground like a hammer.

But after he regains his footing, the Winter Soldier swings his metal arm. The mechanism in his arm then activates and he swings it at the crimson whip with superhuman strength, breaking the crimson whip in half.

The female mercenary takes a few steps backward, she looks at the combat-ready Winter Soldier in front of her and glances to the unconscious Merlin on the ground, she planned not to keep fighting.

"He only paid for me to save someone, not to kill someone."

The female mercenary snorted, she kept her samurai blade and brought her hands together before spreading them outwards with force, causing crimson energy to fly towards the Winter Soldier like a bullet rain. The latter raises his metal arm and blocks the energy bullets, which caused yet another explosion which sent him flying.

The Winter Soldier quickly steadies himself and jumps back to the scene, only to find that both the female mercenary and Merlin had disappeared. 

More importantly, there was no serum in the thermos cup when he opened it.

That sly Merlin must've hidden the serum after sensing danger.

"For Wakanda!"

Just as the Winter Soldier prepared to pursuit the female mercenary, a roar resounds from behind him, and a vibranium spear flies like lightning across the air towards him.

The spear-wielding Wakandan warrior Okoye looked like a mess, she was protected from heavy injuries due to her vibranium armor. But the explosion caused by the Winter Soldier shooting down the chopper had ruined most of her face.

The blood flowing from her wounds made the fierce female warrior look like a demon from hell.

But his troubles didn't end there.

Fury, who had jumped off the chopper before it crashed, had cleaned up all the killers in the neighborhood, and was fast approaching from the sky with nearly 30 elite soldiers.

The super killer had to either ditch or kill his pursuers first before he could continue his mission.

The mission had fallen short.

Damn that mysterious mercenary...

 

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