Ch269: Hit The Floor

Hit The Floor

Chenggong, Yunnan Province, China
October 4rd
18:45

After a short walk, I could leave the tunnel and reach the surface again. I had managed to lose the police again on my way here; unfortunately, the police pressure in the subway is too high, it won't work again next time. The police somehow always manage to be in the approximate area where I am, no matter how I move or how discreet I try to be. I have no doubt that the TianHui artificial intelligence has been following me as best it can. I don't know how it does it, because I have left behind every electronic device and avoided cameras, but it still follows me, even though it has no information about my exact identity. It's like playing hide-and-seek with my daughters, except at least they weren't using private cameras like people's cell phones. But this time, I plan to put an end to all that once and for all; just two blocks from here is TianHui's central processor base, the place where I can shut this machine down.

Walking a little further, I reached the street surrounding the base, and just by looking around, I could tell that something was wrong with this place. The street was in an area with several office buildings, a place that was not heavily trafficked outside of rush hour when everyone was going to and from work. That didn't mean that the streets were deserted all day, but there was always someone walking here or there. Everything was relatively normal, so what was the problem? There were 4 lizard men with spears guarding the main entrance in broad daylight. On the other side of that fence was a whole group of monsters walking around like it was a medieval demon castle in the middle of the financial district, and yet there was no panic or curious people taking pictures of the event. It was all strange. I wasn't the best person to talk about such a subject, but even at the White Moon Cafe, everyone was impressed by the monster girls who acted as maids and took care of the customers. It was what had made us famous in the first place, even though we were in a place with several themed restaurants where cosplay was normal, but this stood out like a third thumb and four left feet. Pedestrians just walked past them, ignoring them. They weren't able to notice the man-eating monsters walking just a few feet away from them.

It had to be Xian Fang's magic, she had done something to the place just like she did to her house, probably a less powerful or similar magic, a barrier that allowed normal people to not notice the horrible monsters running around freely. I think I can see it because of the clothes Tamamo gave me, but it still didn't make it any less dangerous, because if Xian Fang could do that just at the entrance, what would she be able to hide inside this place? I didn't know, but it would be up to me to find out on the fly, the time for the attack was approaching. Our group had agreed that we would attack the remaining three relics almost simultaneously, I would attack first to draw the police's attention as usual, then Wu Yan would attack the park, and finally Li Wei would attack the metal foundry.

The building itself is a tall ten-floor building, no windows, just a double heavy-duty security door pretending to be glass and a lot of concrete for the walls, it doesn't matter, it's obvious that the central processor was underground for security and weight reasons. A silent alarm would also be something obvious to put there, it probably has a direct connection to the police station to request immediate reinforcements, if I were Xian Fang I would do that. The security is ridiculous, entering and hiding inside is too much work for something that's clearly going to go wrong, once again it's better to just get there and force the entrance.

I see the time on a TV clock, 18:55, it's time to act, I check if my gun is loaded for the last time.

I start walking toward the entrance, pretending not to see the lizard men, until I'm right next to the fence. I started to climb it quickly and they noticed me, approaching with their spears to attack me while I'm still climbing. But I'm faster and reach the top by jumping behind them. I stab one of them in the neck with my dagger and take his spear to impale the other three with a single thrust. With no time to lose, I leave the weapon behind and head for the main door. I pull at it, but it doesn't budge, the door won't move at all. Instead of trying to figure out a legitimate way to get through, I transform my arm into that of a white dragon and pull on the door with my newfound strength, tearing it from the ground almost effortlessly and throwing it aside. I changed my body back into one that is much more appealing, returning to my normal figure that I like much better now. Well, there's no going back now, it's all or nothing.

Once inside, after passing through the reception area, there were several rooms, all filled with computer servers, rows and rows of computers permanently on, but no humans or creatures in sight. It made sense, though, because if a human technician came to fix something, he'd enter this part, not the deepest part of the building. Running down the left hallway, I manage to find several elevators. The buttons go from floor 1 to 10, but there was room for a round security key. Surely the key and a combination of numbers would give me access to the basement, but I don't have time for that. Instead, I break through the ceiling and climb back to the top of the elevator, breaking the cables with my dragon claws. It was the second time I had used this trick in a single day and I was already getting annoyed at having to do it this way, but the threat Xian Fang posed made it important to deal with her quickly. With nothing holding the elevator up, it began to plummet to the ground, descending faster and faster until it reached the last floor of the building. But luckily, just before it reached the end of its journey, the elevator's emergency brakes kicked in and managed to stop it gently in place. After forcing the door open a bit, I was able to enter the secret area.

The place has changed quite a bit. I am in a circular room, the walls are made of metal, from which several cables connected to different spheres emerge, through which you can see electricity flowing. In the center of the room I see a sphere with a floating crystal, no doubt important, but was it really possible that this small object was the central processor? Something didn't quite add up. But whatever it is, it will have to wait, because in front of me is the person who has been following me all this time. Inspector Cheng was waiting with his heavy suitcase, it was clear what the reason was.

"Mrs. Elise"
"I see you're finally tired of playing hide and seek, I'm glad you finally decided to do something intelligent."
"You saved me the trouble of having to find you."

"Funny, because to be honest, I wasn't trying too hard either.
"I mean, it's not like I've been very subtle these past few days."
"Maybe you should learn to run faster."

"No need, it was obvious that you would come here sooner or later, so it was best to just wait for you to come on your own."

"Well, you're right."
"So, how shall we do this? One on one?"

"Exactly, I trust that my skills will be enough to stop you."

"Sounds pretty damn perfect to me."
"Not many people have the guts to come at me head-on."
"Xian Fang, for example, doesn't."
"Go ahead, I'll give you the advantage of attacking first."
"Come, come as close as you want, come to your death."
"The true Dragon of War accepts your challenge."

Inspector Chang placed the suitcase on the floor and took off his coat, flexing his arms a bit before taking a stance and approaching me, firm and determined. Perhaps today would mark the fight he had longed for. The man took a step, then another, but with the third his speed increased and almost instantly he was right next to me, delivering a powerful blow. I only had time to twist my elbow slightly to try to deflect it. Next he threw a powerful kick at my face; I jumped back to avoid it and reached out with my other arm to touch the ground to recover afterwards, but the man wouldn't let me go and launched another attack at my arm, but luckily I managed to turn in time and get back on my feet.

"That was a good deception."
"But a normal human doesn't conjure up such speed out of nowhere."

Chang was much faster and more flexible than his physique or clothing would suggest. It seemed that, like me, he based his fighting style on deceiving the enemy and being underestimated.

"You're right, Miss Elise."
"You could say I have a certain pedigree, born by divine right, a gift for hunting."
"I am the monster who hunts monsters."
"Descendant of Zhong Kui when he was alive, the Ghost King, demon hunter."

"I'm sorry, I don't know him."
"But I think I have a rough idea, your ancestor was a dragon hunter, I imagine."

"Please, Zhong Kui has hunted over 80,000 demons."
"How do you want him to be remembered for trivial things like hunting lesser dragons?"

"Well, it doesn't matter, it's not like I'm dealing with the real Zhong Kui anyway, right?"
"I'm just dealing with a descendant so far away that he never knew him."
"Isn't that right, Mr. Chang?"

But before the inspector could answer, he went back to his suitcase on the ground and opened it. He took out two special tonfas, metal and with a pronounced edge, and skillfully spun them, showing that he was more than familiar with his weapon, and wanted to impress me.

"I wonder if the same can be said of you, Miss Elise."
"An ordinary person would never have gotten to where you are now."
"So the question is, what exactly are your family and your powers?"

"Ha, there's nothing like that."
"Even if I were still human, nothing would have changed.
"I would still be standing here in front of you, kicking your butt, and then going after Xian Fang to kill her as well."
"Son of total nobodies, destined for nothing, more like nomads."
"The strength you see was all gained by my hand, not by fate, not by inheritance, none of that bullshit."
"Just effort, skill and will."

Chang, still preparing, took several sheets of paper from his case and placed them next to his weapons, his tonfas glowing with a red light, one could see that they were imbued with fire to cause more damage. And if that wasn't enough, I saw him inject something into his neck, it seemed to be a stim shot of adrenaline to move faster.

"I don't see much of that effort and skill if you're just relying on having a body made of water."
"You should have a wound from being shot this morning."

"Oh, so you're saying that I have to be injured for you to be able to beat me?"
"All right, you're right, we can't have a fair duel unless we're both in the same condition."

Even though I had no real reason to listen to him, I accepted just for the pleasure of proving my point, so I changed my body back to completely normal, then took my dagger and cut my hand a bit.

"Here, look, blood and bones."
"Do you also want me to have one hand tied behind my back?"
"If you want, you can use some strange magic now, this would be a good moment for your surprise move."

It seemed that with what I had just said, I had finally managed to get on my rival's nerves. Inspector Chang lunged at me again with his surprising speed, damn, being super didn't mean shit if there was no skill behind it. I just waited for him to get a little closer, pulled my foot back to loosen the grip and just lifted my leg to throw my sandal at his face, the idiot didn't see it coming and took it right into his mouth to eat it. The inspector fell to the ground, then it was just a matter of using my dagger and plunging it behind his neck, from which came a lot of blood and muffled sounds from trying to breathe, then just silence.

"Too easy, a lot of crap and in the end it was all for nothing."

Once the problem was solved and I got my wooden sandals back, I walked over to the pedestal to take a closer look at the relic Xian Fang had left behind, the central processor of TianHui. The object was quite strange and yet peculiar at the same time, instead of finding a great piece of technological wonder, there was a crystal enclosed in a sphere with hundreds of gears all around it, glowing with a rather peculiar orange tone.

The artifact, unlike the previous one, had nothing to do with Chinese culture or an ancient relic as such; instead, it seemed to be relatively new. But it didn't matter, there was no time to admire it or study it, so I just took Avalon and crushed it with her. From the same crystal, a bunch of voices screamed horribly, then a burst of energy came out that immediately fried all the computers in the place; I almost got hit too, but thanks to Avalon and the kimono Tamamo gave me, nothing happened. A few seconds later, the emergency generator kicked in and the lights came back on, bringing with it a new problem: Inspector Chang's body was nowhere to be found. But that was impossible; I had seen to it that he was dead, that man was lifeless on the floor just a moment ago. But as if in answer to my doubt, several strange screams echoed throughout the building, this time revealing a new type of enemy.

Horrible abominations began to emerge from the ventilation ducts, a horde of deformed creatures rushing towards me. Their vague human shapes were mixed with animal instincts, they were more like Xian Fang's minions, a cruel horde of monsters, a mass of bodies where their strength lay in numbers. Among the first runners, I could see one in particular with his clothes still on, it was the inspector's suit; it seems the old witch couldn't even give her deceased bodyguard a break and decided to curse him as an undead to finish her order.

There was nothing else to do, so I ran back to the elevator corridor to begin my ascent to the surface. Despite what the awkward movements of the horde seemed to indicate, these creatures were nothing if not ferocious and fast. Despite my best efforts to climb as quickly as possible, these creatures scaled the walls with the ease of a spider. They quickly swarmed around me and launched themselves at me, but I fought my way through with punches and blows. The ascent was much more strenuous than the descent, but eventually I had made it back to the first floor, where another pair of lizardmen were waiting to attack me with their spears. I, for my part, already tired of so much crap, simply dodged them and took the spears so that they would be the ones to finish lifting me up, then I pushed them into the abyss of the elevator, where they collided with several horde monsters.

I had to escape quickly and try to find Wu Yan and Li Wei to see how they did on their missions. But as soon as I left the building, I saw something much stranger, something far beyond anything that had happened before. The night sky, the bright stars, like a mirror, the sky above our heads shattered, revealing in its place a huge magical circle that covered the entire city, as if it were the city of Remshys in Atlantis. But I could guess that this magical seal was not meant to protect the city from outside invaders, but rather to prevent anyone from leaving.

Worried about the horde following me, I looked back, but there was nothing there, no the police, not a soul, not a person, not a single sound. The city seemed to be completely empty, only the lights and televisions were working, but there was no trace of any living being as if all the city was abandoned. It seemed that Xian Fang had used another weird trick to stop me.