Chương 38: Slaughter

There was a police car waiting outside Mason's apartment, disguised as civilians. They had been placed there the moment the warrant was put out, and police officers had been cycling day and night, just in case Mason might show up. The officers had long grown bored and were not paying as much attention as they should have, but even in their current state, it was impossible to miss the front door of the dojo getting slammed open.

They barely had the time to confirm it was Mason when the pavement cracked under his feet, and he projected himself up. Unaware of the two officers he had left shocked, Mason wore a face of stone as he rushed to the address he had been given. He understood he might be too late, or that he might have been given a bogus location, and that in any case it was a trap, but he had to go.

Mason understood his close ones might be affected by his actions, and although things had gone past what he could have ever imagined, he had still taken some precautions to protect his family. His parents and Elena all worked at Stark Tower, which was one of the most secure buildings in the city, especially since Tony often passed by New York. And as top executives of a company like Stark Ind., they had bodyguards following them even outside of work. They made themselves discreet, but they were there.

That was not enough to stop a determined super, but they were not that prevalent either. The security was enough that even a Hand team would think twice before attacking. The most likely outcome would be that they switched to the easier target, his little sister Audrey. On the surface, she was the least protected of his family, especially when she was at school. What no one but Mason knew was that she was classmates with Spider-Man, and if she was ever in any danger, he would leap to her rescue.

So their defence was not perfect, but Mason had not formed any bonds of such hatred that someone would want to kill his family just to hurt him. At this point, if anyone tried to go after his family, it would be to use them against him, and that would require kidnapping them, not outright killing them. But it seemed there had been a hole in Mason's defence, which was now eating his insides. It was not that he did not consider Minx as someone important to him, but he never thought she would become a target.

A gross oversight, in hindsight. One that filled him with a cold fury. As he moved through the city, Mason did not care to be discreet or 'clean' about his movements. He ran in a straight line to his destination, leaving potholes and hand-holes all over his path as he moved as fast as he could. The address Mason had been given was in Hell's Kitchen, smack dab in the middle of a residential zone. Mason did not let that slow him down as he extended his Divine Sense and locked on a familiar signature. Minx.

She was still alive. Mason did not slow in the slightest as he leapt from a building, covering the front of his body with Chi as he slammed into the wall of the third floor. The brick wall offered some resistance, but Mason still managed to blow a hole through it, landing right inside the room he had seen in that picture. Minx was not alone in the room, as there were three Hand ninjas surrounding her, alongside someone Mason knew. Lady Bullseye.

Mason was sure she had some monologue prepared, but he was in a state of such intense fury he barely even recognized her. She only had the time to react to his appearance when Mason reached the three Hand Ninjas and struck out. Mason moved at such speeds that they did not even get to raise their weapons when he slapped each of them once in the chin, with no Chi and at full power. A blow that would have stunned them, had it been performed by someone like Daredevil. With Mason, their necks were snapped on the spot.

The sound of the almost simultaneous neck snaps was a horrifying one that sent a jolt down Minx's spine, despite her current situation. As a normal, untrained person, she could not even follow what was happening, only hearing that sound. Mason was not in the mindset to comfort her either, as he turned his attention to Lady Bullseye, already ready to finish her too, when his instincts picked up on something. Divine Sense, when used to predict people's actions, typically only worked on a singular enemy.

However, a derivative use of it was heightened senses, which included the elusive 'sixth sense', which was nothing more than the information picked up on by the subconscious mind. Trusting his instincts, Mason covered his left hand in Chi, and swatted the air beside him. Precisely at the same moment, he finally picked up on what had triggered his senses: a bullet. A big one. Mason felt a severe pain in his hand as the bullet collided with it.

Although Mason managed to block the bullet, his hand did not come out of it unscathed. Half his palm exploded, the bones barely holding in place as the meat covering them burst. Not a single sound came out of Mason, though, as he instantly locked on the origin of the attack with his Divine Sense. A lone shooter, about a hundred meters away. The strange location now made sense; he had just the right angle to keep maximum distance and still have a full view of the apartment.

Feeling the sniper's intentions, Mason first ducked, only to find the sniper's aim shifting, this time to use a rebound. And if he did dodge, it would hit Minx. At the same time, a small army of Hand ninjas swarmed the room, in an effort to cut off all exits. Gritting his teeth, Mason covered Minx with his body, crushing the chair she was bound to as he felt the sniper fire. This time, because he knew precisely where and when it would hit, he managed to concentrate his Chi right at the impact.

But even with the better protection, Mason felt a chunk of his back get blown off, a mist of blood surrounding him and Minx. And still, no sound came out of Mason as he held Minx tightly against his chest and leapt out from the hole in the wall. Several blades blocked his path, but he simply covered her with his body. At the cost of several more cuts, Mason was free-falling with Minx. She screamed in both fright and astonishment, which relieved Mason ever so slightly.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Mason kept his Divine Sense trained on the sniper, and felt them rapidly moving to reposition. That earned him a little time. However, below, he could see Hand ninjas coming from both ends of the street. Had they brought their entire local branch to hunt him down? As he asked himself that question, he landed on the sidewalk, the impact sending an uncomfortable rattle up his legs, but he focused on sparing Minx from the impact.

That landing granted him a second of respite, which he took to examine Minx. At the same time, she looked up at him, still a bit hazy from the rapid sequence of events. And much to his relief, the moment she recognized him, she grabbed his shoulder, screaming, "Why did you come, you retard! It was obviously a trap." She slapped his shoulder repeatedly, but Mason only smiled, asking, "Are you okay?" She frowned, seeing her blows were not doing anything, and that he was not budging. She slapped his chest again.

"Shut up and run! They'll kill you." Mason offered her a smile.

"You're gonna be fine, alright?" That did not please her. Instead, she looked pissed off as she hit him harder, screaming hoarsely, "Do you think I'm some flower that'll get blown by the wind? If you don't run, at least fight, goddammit! I don't need reassuring, you cunt!" That only made Mason smile as he held her tighter, whispering, "I was the one who needed the reassuring. I'm the one who needs to calm down, because I'm about to do something bad." Minx rolled her eyes.

"Do you think I'm a three-year-old or something?" Mason sighed as he felt the sniper rapidly approaching and saw the ninjas surrounding him, their numbers increasing rapidly. Carefully putting Minx down, Mason noticed that she leaned heavily on her left leg. His smile did not waver, but Minx still noticed something and said, "I put up a fight when that weirdo took me. Injured my leg, but I'm fine; it's just sprained." Mason hummed and looked up as the sniper finally revealed himself.

He was dressed in a mainly black costume, with only the gloves, his belt, and his boots in white. There were also a few white stripes where the black and white met, alongside a target on his mask, on the level of the forehead.

"Mason, dear, I've been texting you! I almost thought you were going to really ignore me." He hugged himself tenderly, adding as he stared at Minx, "Your girlfriend did such wonderful work; it would have really sucked to cut her head off and drop it at your place." That was an obvious attempt to rile him up, but Mason's smile still dropped as he stared at Bullseye before replying, "I think there has been a gross misunderstanding. You think you have the upper hand here?"

Bullseye's smirk was wiped off, but Lady Bullseye landed nearby, scoffing, "You think being an Awakening Master makes you invincible? Your Breath only works on a single person; you are injured, and you have to protect a dead weight." Mason scoffed when Minx screamed from behind him, "You're a pathetic loser who couldn't stop talking about Mason. Can't even take your revenge on your own." Lady Bullseye did not react, but Mason smirked, addressing Minx, "That's actually what I wanted her to do.

Not kidnapping you, of course, but since she brought all her people, I won't have to chase them all over the city. I'll tell you about it once I'm done with them." As he said that, he extended his hand, catching a long needle that had been quietly thrown by Bullseye. It had been expertly thrown, but if Bullseye could throw it, Mason could catch it. Snapping back to Bullseye, Mason toyed with the needle, saying, "Useless."

Then, the fight started as Mason threw the needle at a nearby Hand Ninja, the projectile piercing through his chest and back. The Hand Ninjas were like a tide of red as they swarmed in from every side, up and down. Mason could see the tactic: overwhelm him through numbers so as to nullify his Divine Sense. They probably thought he could do nothing without it. Mason started by kicking the door of the store right behind him, which allowed Minx to take cover inside, before he burst into action.

The Hand Ninjas were well trained, and frankly quite fast, but at the end of the day, they remained trained athletes with no grasp of Chi. Mason circulated his own Chi through his body, using all of it to boost his metabolism. That did not make him stronger, but it boosted his healing speed, reduced the stress from any effort, and recovered stamina. Not a single bit was used to reinforce his attacks, which meant less power, but more lethality.

Ignoring the missing flesh on his left hand, Mason channeled his inner Hyūga as he opened both hands and sent palm strikes at them. Palms seemed nonthreatening compared to fists, but as Mason's hands slammed into the chests of the Hand Ninjas, he felt their chest bones shattering like brittle sticks, their inner organs exploding. Ordinary people could break rib cages with CPR, so a palm strike from Mason, who was somewhere around twice as strong as Captain America now, left them no chance.

The Hand Ninjas did not take his strikes willingly, of course, but he simply moved too fast for them to dodge as he rapidly struck out against all the ninjas who dared approach him. Mason saw Lady Bullseye pause in shock, which made him smirk, when he felt Bullseye intend to throw something at Minx inside the shop. Getting the precise timing right this time, Mason pushed one of the ninjas into the projectile's path, interrupting it as he yelled, "Useless!"

In the middle of it all, Mason felt his style sharpening in real time as he finally got to put his martial arts to good use. He had learned martial arts at a breakneck speed, but he had still lacked some experience. That issue had been more than made up for by his Divine Sense and superior anatomy, but he could feel himself unconsciously patching up his flaws. Of course, Mason was not perfect, and the Hand Ninjas managed to get some glancing blows in.

But Mason managed to largely ignore them, his Chi helping keep his blood inside his body. Minutes passed, and the seemingly endless tide of Hand ninjas was finally thinning out. Mason had killed over a hundred of them, maybe more, as he had stopped counting when they went over sixty. Their numerous deaths did not deter the ninjas in the slightest, their training pushing them to fight to the last man.

Knowing they would be facing an Awakening Master, they had already been told they were meant to use their numbers, so they would fight to the last one's death. But more importantly, every time Bullseye threw something, Mason easily blocked it and yelled, "Useless!" And it had finally taken in. Bullseye did not attempt to hide as he approached, understanding Mason had locked his Divine Sense on him. He may have also understood that there was no running by this point.

With the number of Hand Ninjas having severely diminished, and his proximity, Bullseye finally got some leeway to rapid-fire his projectiles, but it changed nothing. Mason was still faster than him, and since he knew precisely where he would throw, he used the still-rushing Hand Ninjas to block them. And finally, he made a mistake. He got too close. Bullseye had been the most annoying one of them all along, and the moment he got within range, Mason pounced.

Moving faster than Bullseye or anyone else could react, Mason slammed his body past two ninjas and instantly was within range of attack of Bullseye. He sent a punch for his head, intent on destroying it. The assassin's eyes widened, and he showed remarkable reaction speed as he tried to parry Mason's blow with his own hand. Except that Mason's fist might as well have been a cannon, as every bone in Bullseye's hand was shattered, the whole appendage turning into messy meat and shattered, fragmented bones.

Then, Mason struck a second time, bringing down his fist into a hammer punch, right on top of Bullseye's skull. Mason only felt coldness in his heart as Bullseye's entire skull shattered, the impact carrying down to destroy his spine as well. The psychopathic assassin dropped instantly, and Mason finally retrieved his Divine Sense, having exhausted about a third of the energy.

"Die!" Lady Bullseye, whom Mason had known to always be a picture of perfect tranquility, broke at the brutal sight and finally attacked. Mason watched her attack coldly as she jumped at him, katana slashing down, his Divine Sense reaching out to the Gravity Dao to trigger the Concept of Push. He did not set himself as the point of reference, but instead the ground.

The surrounding gravitational pull was suddenly increased as all the Hand Ninjas slowed down, and Lady Bullseye started falling slightly faster than she had intended, throwing off her attack. Her eyes widened as she tried to correct her course, but it was too late as Mason took a step towards her and impaled her with his good arm.