Chương 151: 64 - COMMANDER OF THE DAMNED

German took a moment to clear his mind inside the library, waiting.

"German… what happened?" Tyene asked him.

"The child was saved… by another child, but I believe this will be able to hold their own." Tyene blew out of her mouth, which he couldn't hear in her thoughts, but he could sense.

"Bold of you to stream all that to me. You're making it hard to relax."

"I wanted you to hear the consequences of your indifference."

"I get what you're trying, but it's not going to work. None of this means anything to me."

"It doesn't… You and I have spent our entire lives letting things happen to us and around us under the commands of others, telling ourselves there was nothing to be done for the wrongs that occurred. This time… there is. There's a choice we can make. I made mine. And that was to be done, serving self-serving people. And I won't believe that the choice you made was to feel nothing at a child in peril. You have not sunk that low. Or are you just like him?" She stood up from her beach time.

"Pipe down already. I get the point." Tyene sighed, dropping her can of alcohol in the sand.

"You know this bolder version of you isn't bad… Maybe I'm not as far gone as I thought. But if you ever even suggest I'm anything like him again, I'll let Vienna take her time with you next time she kills you."

"Next time?" She shrugged her shoulders and took a deep breath, looking at the misty city under the light of the full moon.

"Tell me where T'balt is." Then at least for her, the entire world slowed to a crawl. Time dilation. Vienna Misling stared into the eyes of her commander, risen from the dead, looking more immaculate than before she put the bullet in his head. Dead soldiers surrounded them, and the mist was clear, giving them clear sight of the weapons in their hands. Vienna steadied her pistol's sights on his eye, but Hobbs held his by his side, not yet interested in a fight.

"To be honest, a part of me is glad to see you're still kicking. We sent a helicopter for you… Well, specifically for the stepdaughter, but neither of you showed up." He feigned looking around the area.

"We were told she'd be here. You haven't failed your mission, have you?" Vienna didn't answer, trying to piece together in her mind why the man had survived her shot and whether he'd survive a second.

"You were always a quiet one," he scoffed.

"Ever since we first got you. Probably why you survived, and the others didn't." Seeing her lack of response, Hobbs suddenly pointed his weapon at her. When he did, Vienna immediately fired. The shot burst through his left eye. But he only winced as if it were a spec of dust, even though his blood was spilling all over his flak jacket. The eye was a bloody tunnel leading deep into the dark inside of his skull. He held it for a moment. And then the eye blinked.

The bullet slid out into his cupped hand, and the eye was fine again. Vienna calculated in her mind. It must've been some kind of self-healing loot that prevented lethal damage. She reformatted her plan of attack.

"Damn…" Hobbs winced.

"You're willing to kill your own father just like that." Those were the words that charred her enough to bring her to speak.

"You tortured children into becoming perfect soldiers to fill your own pockets. You were never my father. You were my captor." These words in her mind were the most hateful she had ever said. Yet they came out stilted, a matter of fact, a result of Hobb's training.

"There were no chains around your neck. No prison cells. None of that. You were fed, housed, and trained. Not a slave. If that's what you felt you were, then why are you here, still carrying out my orders?"

"They're not your orders. I protect Tyene because it's what I want to do. She's my friend."

"Friend? Please… I know the way she treated you. Over 15 years, never even wanting to look at your face. And now suddenly she's your friend?" Vienna took another shot at him, her version of telling him to shut his mouth. He blocked it this time. The bullet ricocheted off the bone, tearing his flesh. But even still, his hand stitched itself back together.

"You're nothing but a product to her. A friend of convenience… because she needed you to survive. Trust my experience. When their money stops working, they'll bargain with all sorts of things. Because they know people like us are not only meant to survive this new world but thrive in it. Unlike people like them." Vienna kept her aim steady, despite knowing her shots weren't working.

"And you treated me differently?"

"I never lied to you. From the moment you entered my care, I told you exactly who you were going to be: A soldier, no attachment, no love, but a whole lot of purpose. If you think about it, that's the whole reason you're here and not a Zero Day stain on the sidewalk. The purpose I gave you." If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Stop wasting my time and pretending that cared what happened to me."

"I do care… You're worth all the men you just killed and 10 times more. It isn't too late to come back home, you know."

"Home… No. That wouldn't be home. I lived all my life without a home. Living in other people's shadows without a choice. I know she didn't always love me, but the difference between you and Tyene is that she gave me a choice. A choice I never knew I had because of you… I'm not here on orders. I'm here to kill you because I want to. So you don't create anyone else like me." Hobbs smiled, pressing his tongue under the point of his canine.

"Then let's see it, little girl. And I'll show you what that choice is gonna cost you." She unloaded the rest of her magazine into him. The man simply let them hit him, unworried about the damage. He fired his own gun back. Vienna slipped into shadow form to dodge as German spoke in her head.

"Hobbs seems to have a multiplied regeneration loot. That means he can heal from most attacks almost instantaneously."

"Almost?" she thought back.

"The theory is that you'll need a powerful attack that wipes him out faster than he can regenerate, which means basically instantly."

"Understood."

"Do you have any other offensive loots?" She grimaced.

"No. Shadow loot is all I have."

"You entered this fight with just one loot?"

"I prefer things the old-fashioned way…" She could sense him scoffing at that. But she never liked the feeling of loot as opposed to her other tools. Likely never would.

"Fine. But the theories are the same. I can't know what else he has until he uses them. Stay alive." German left her mind to attend to others on the battlefield. Hobbs kept a sharp eye on her shadow, watching it scale the white walls of Graceland and popping out above him. She shot three well-placed shots, not to kill but to force his own pistol out of his hand. The second shot made him drop his gun, leaving him open to being pounced.

She landed on his neck, hoping to fire the next bullet so close to his skull that it turned his brain to jelly. He struggled, but shadow loot wasn't just a stealth tool but an attacking one. The shadows on the ground rose to wrap around his legs and eventually arms, holding him still. Vienna placed the muzzle on the top of his head. When she went to pull the trigger, she heard something go, "Zip." And she immediately jumped away, a sudden searing pain in her trigger finger and its closest mate.

They were bloodied and on the ground. That was until Hobbs picked up her two fingers and rubbed the blood in his palm.

"Seems like you're gonna have a hard time playing with your toys now." Vienna squeezed the stumps where her middle and index finger used to be, staunching the bleeding. It was far from the worst pain she had ever felt, but she still couldn't calculate where the attack had come from. She was sure she had his limbs debilitated. Then he waved his hands at her, dropping her fingers as if they were bullet casings. Each of his fingers bore a strange set of black rings around them.

There was a glint of something extremely thin coming off of them. He suddenly smashed his hand downwards, and Vienna knew to roll out of the way. Behind her, a vine of foliage was sliced into several pieces, and the walls grew deep scratch marks that weren't there a second ago.

"German," she thought in her head, wanting answers to what loot this was. But again he couldn't answer. He couldn't hear their calls unless he was already tapped into their minds. She was going to have to figure this out herself. Hobbs then took the time to remove his flak jacket, deciding he'd be better off with a better range of motion. Underneath it was a long-sleeved black and grey undershirt, tight enough to squeeze his muscular body.

"Let's say we get serious now, shall we? I got a job to do after all." He attacked again, this time horizontally. Vienna ducked based on the motion and watched a tarp get torn to shreds behind her. But within the motion of his arm, he subtly brought down his middle finger to his palm. Then something sliced into her cheek as she was moving, drawing a river of blood from her face. She reacted by turning into shadow and slipping to a rooftop to break his line of sight, hiding behind a chimney. She felt the wound.

It was incredibly thin and cut cleanly. She recognized what kind of weapon could do such a thing while remaining inconspicuous at the same time.

"Razor Wire." Wire, as thin as a hair strand but as sharp as a scalpel. It was being manipulated by the rings around his fingers, she realized. But how long was it? How many lines were there? How much control did he have over their movements? She heard the zipping noise again. It sounded in both her ears, meaning they were ready to wrap around her entire body. She melted back into shadow as even the chimney was sliced to ribbons. She slipped inside the building before reforming and taking cover under a window.

It was far from normal razor wire, used in underground assassinations. Not even that could cut through solid stone as this could. This was loot-powered, meaning normal physics weren't exactly at play here. But they couldn't cut something without a 3 dimensional form, meaning her shadow loot would be her most useful asset here. Though like other loots of its kind, one could only maintain a shadow form for seconds at a time before being propelled back into reality. She needed to be cautious of that.

"You know, if it weren't for me, you would've rotted in an orphanage." Hobbs felt the need to announce as he paced around outside.

"No one wanted a girl like you. Robotic. Loner. Unlovable. That's what they used to say about you. They said you didn't feel anything like the other kids. They tried to label you with sociopathic traits. You can blame me for how you are, but the truth is, you were always gonna be a killer. No one could ever possibly love someone like you." Vienna reacted, using the shadow form to quickly close the distance. She reformed under him, quickly drawing her combat knife.

He closed his fist, drawing the razor wire towards her. She turned to shadow before it hit, reappearing behind Hobbs. This time he met her with his own knife. They clanged as she blocked his attack. But she was thinner and quicker. She slipped under his arm and swept his leg. They tumbled, with her ending up on top. As she reared the knife back, he grabbed her arm to prevent it from plunging into him. But she merely dropped the knife into her other hand and shoved it right into his chest where the heart was.

She clenched her teeth as Hobbs struggled to cough up blood through his.

"It's your fault… It's your fault…" she seethed. But he smiled as the wound began to close around the knife. She attempted to dig it in deeper, keeping a close eye on his fingers. They didn't move. But for some reason, she still coughed up blood, and there was a burning in her chest. She fell over, clutching her heart, struggling to breathe. Hobbs started to laugh.

"Lucky you… feels like you missed. Maybe missing those fingers messed up your aim." He stood up while she continued to writhe on the ground.

"What's… happening…" she struggled.

"What's happening is that you get to feel my pain now. A pain exchange loot. When I hurt, so do you… Unfortunately, you can't seem to heal as I can. So that means this fight is pretty much over."