Chapter Five

After I stepped outside and walked a few blocks headed towards the nearest subway station, I noticed the streets I walked became increasingly empty. It could have been because it was the middle of the night, but I knew better than that. 

I heard a shot ring out, but it wasn’t from a bullet. A glowing green arrow punctured my right lung through my back. Of course, I immediately tried to draw breath, which wasn’t the best idea. I coughed, sputtered, and choked my way over to the nearest building corner and peaked my head out. Another shot rang out, this one clearly going for my head, but I dodged this one in time. Unfortunately, I didn’t see where the arrow came from. 

I took my back off the wall and faced it, pointing my palms at the ground and crafting an ice wall underneath my feet rising to roof level. As soon as I reached the roof, I saw another arrow headed towards my face, and I ducked in time behind one of those air conditioning/vent things found on roofs. As I peaked out again looking for the shooter, another arrow shot in my direction, but not for me, for the vent. I hardly had any time to react as it blew up in reaction to the glowing arrow, sending me over the edge of the roof. 

I opened my eyes to see the ground getting closer and I shot out my hands, crafting a slide of black ice to slow my descent. I still hit the ground kind of hard, rolling to a stop in the alley. I got to my feet and attempted to remove the arrow puncturing my lung. I realized I was so focused on finding out where the shooter was, I forgot to remove it. And if it could explode like with the vent, then…

I gritted my teeth and forced myself to keep quiet as I successfully removed it, pulling it through the front, so naturally doing it this way caused more internal damage. But my healing was kicking in. Maybe it was already time to find those other serums. 

As my lung healed, I inhaled and my eyes widened. Not from the pain--though it was present--but from the clean air scent I was inhaling. I thought it odd that I would smell anything that clean in this city, especially in this moment. I thought it could have been remnants of the vent I was smelling at first, but with it being a smoking pile of nothing now, I realized what I was inhaling: the scent of plasma coming from the arrows. 

I knew my senses had been enhanced since the first serum, but I was still getting used to them. This is why I couldn’t overhear Arid and Erza talking in the bar. I guess my smelling senses were getting stronger. 

I crafted another ice wall to propel me upward, but as soon as I reached the roof level, I created another wall on the edge of the roof, then extended a piece of the wall out towards me to keep me on the same level of the roof without putting myself on the roof. Behind cover, as I heard more arrows fly into the wall, I sniffed out the trails of plasma from the multiple arrows shot at me in the beginning of the battle and decided to follow the second one that was aimed at my head. 

From the ice platform I was standing on, I created a slide around the side of the building, dropping it behind the ice wall first, so the shooter didn’t see me leave from behind the wall. As I skated around the side of the building, I could hear the arrows still trying to penetrate through the wall I placed on the roof. 

I couldn’t help but smile wickedly as I followed the arrow to one of the roofs he was on originally. I landed and laid eyes on the shooter. I was behind him. The Noble known as Plasima had his back turned to me firing at my ice wall helplessly. The hero known for taking down drug operations all by himself I had at my mercy.

As my smile continued to widen, I crafted an icicle and planned to toss it through the back of his skull, but I wanted it to be a little more personal than that. I wanted him to know I had outsmarted him. 

Unfortunately his arrows broke through the ice wall and he realized I wasn’t there. Of course his first reaction was to turn around, but I still didn’t want to end it that abruptly. I wanted to fuck with his head some more. Next, I would take his bow. 

I dashed at him with my icicle and clashed against the bow. As we struggled against each other, I looked at his back and realized he had no quiver to carry his plasma arrows. Then I looked at the bow and figured it out. Once I did, I glared at him and kept my smile. His eyes widened and he jumped back, pulling on the bow string and crafting a plasma arrow in doing so. 

I deflected the arrows he shot. Each would have hit in a vital area had I not deflected. I couldn’t downplay his aim. With each deflect, I stepped closer. He then pulled back and created three arrows. As he shot, I spun, sidestepping the arrows and creating one of my own ice arrows in the process. As soon as I was facing him again, I threw the arrow through his shooting shoulder. 

This caused him to drop his bow. Finally. I crafted a small pillar underneath it and sent it flying through the air and into my clutches. When he saw his own bow in my hands, he didn’t look worried. Instead, we withdrew two knuckle dusters and readied himself, getting into a boxer’s stance. My smile disappeared. He had clearly lost, but wasn’t willing to give up. I was ready to end it. 

I prepped the bow and drew back on the string, aiming directly for his head. However, when I did this, the bowstring did not light, nor did an arrow appear. Odd. I figured it was a weapon only tailored to respond to him. Like Thor’s hammer. 

That didn’t matter though as I crafted another ice arrow and fired it at him. Instead of dodging, he punched it out of the air. He punched my fucking arrow.

He then kept his stance and waited for my next attack. He wanted me to get closer. I decided to indulge him and snapped his bow in half over my knee. Light burst out of it and then flickered as it died like a living thing. He kept a stoic face. His lack of fear was pissing me off. I crafted two icicles and dashed at him. 

First I slashed wildly with the right from the top right of his body to the bottom left, but he sidestepped it and went for a body shot. I stuck my left icicle out at his fist and he punched through the icicle, breaking it, but it stopped his attack from landing. I spun, crafting another icicle, slashing at his throat. He ducked and tried to uppercut me. I dashed back, dropping my icicles and using force from my ice coming from my palms to move out of the way in time. But, the Noble had something else up his non-existent tank top sleeves as the bottom part of the knuckle dusters extended with plasma, slashing at my chest.

As I stumbled back, clutching my bleeding chest, I saw plasma pointed like knives extending from each of the points on the knuckle dusters including the bottom. I wondered if they worked like his bow. I believed it was worth trying. 

I pointed my palm at his feet causing a pillar to rise beneath him, but he leapt into the air in time. While midair, I caused another pillar to rise and hit him in the stomach. He grunted, but didn’t drop his plasma knuckle dusters. I could force a spike out of the pillar and kill him now, but I wanted to beat him with his own weapons now. 

He stood on the pillar and leapt off it at me, swinging down on me, but with me having the speed advantage, I stepped to the side, spinning again and crafting another ice arrow, driving it into the back of one his kneecaps. He dropped to that knee but attempted to swing at me still, but I deflected his weak punch, making it so his elbow faced me and I removed a duster from the back of his hand: the safest way possible. 

As soon as the duster was in my possession, the plasma disappeared, as I figured. He began to laugh. This fucker had the nerve to laugh at me even though I had him cornered--metaphorically and physically on his knees. I put on the knuckle and struck him across the face. It was still a knuckle duster--plasma or not.

He looked back at me, a smug grin on his face. He was expecting to be beat to death. I didn’t have the patience for it. Instead, I crafted my black ice in the same shape as the plasma that came from the dusters when they were in his hands. When he saw me do this, his smile disappeared and his eyes widened. The fear was back. I couldn’t help but smile again as I drove the ice-spiked knuckle through his eyes, blinding him. Then, with the bottom spike, I slashed his throat, letting him bleed out before my eyes. 

I removed the knuckle duster from my hand and tossed it onto his body before sliding off the roof to continue towards my next destination, the subway. However, I would run into the next Noble, one different than the ones I had already faced. This one was one of the members of the hero team known as The Archs, the elite group of Nobles.