Hezekiah ignored her words, twisting off one of the caps.
—Type: Human—
—Physical Conditions: Alive—Severely Injured—Extensive Bleeding—
—Mental Conditions: Relieved—Agitated—
Her Mental Conditions changed?
He grabbed her by the collar, lifting her while holding the spray bottle in front of her. "My death is impossible. I can live any time I want."
"You fool!" She ripped the card out.
The gray mist dispensed on her immediately. Her eyes bulged before shutting. Swinging her arm, intending to cut with the card.
Hezekiah let go, stopping the attack with his free hand and strucked her in the gut.
Her vision darkened as she stumbled back to her palms, coughing. Footsteps approached, her hair was pulled. "Ahhh!" Her teeth grinded as she felt her head being torn apart.
Facing her was another spray bottle.
"Not ready to speak?" he asked.
"Just shut—"
He shoved the bottle in her mouth, pressing down on the nozzle.
The mist assaulted her throat.
She attacked with the card once more, almost cutting his arm before he let go. His breaths were heavy, fighting against the exhaustion.
"You damn idiot!" Her voice was hoarse. She clenched her throat, trembling as her coughs grew more intense. She fell to her side, shivering.
Hezekiah watched, wiping off beads of sweat. He grabbed the purse and threw it by her side.
Looks like one of those two "perfumes" was poisoned. Now what's your plan? You're bleeding out, your ear is marred, and your organs will fail soon. In the narrow chance the antidote is in there, hurry up and find it.
Hezekiah dropped to his knee, coughing up blood, still locked on to the bag as a clamping pain tightened within.
He saw her reach for the bag, struggling to keep her arm afloat. Until it's trembling ceased and fell against the ground.
"She died...?" He clenched his fist as his stomach continued to eat itself.
That doesn't help, at least not now. Did she really put it in the bag and not have a method to locate it? I mainly expected it to be on her person, but I wanted to be sure.
He performed another External Analysis.
—Type: Human—
—Physical Conditions: Alive—Severely Injured—Extensive Bleeding—
—Mental Conditions: Relieved—Calm—Worried—
She isn't dead.
Hezekiah drew three cards from his pocket. The higher the number, the higher the amount of force. He approached with sagged steps, wanting further confirmation.
He grabbed more random bottles from the bag, spraying them directly in her face. There was no reaction; if anything, her Mental Conditions only seemed to improve.
So that's how it is. In that case...
"Auuh!!" She screeched.
He shanked the cards into her stomach. Quickly covering her mouth, he dug his hand inside her collar shirt, slithering beneath her bra.
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Her cheeks spiked red. Torn between throwing his hands off or dealing with her new wounds, she shot her fingers at his eyes, he slightly shifted, grazing him.
"Took me long enough." Hezekiah quickly rose himself up. His head swirled, tipping his sense of balance. "Shit! Honestly, I was worried I made a mistake."
"You perverted scum! I'll kill you!" Despite her words, her concerns seemed to lie elsewhere. Blood still rushed from her wounds, and cards still impaled her.
"For a second, I thought you would." Between his hands was a tiny cylindrical bottle containing clear liquid. "Don't hide it in your bra next time if you're that sensitive about it."
She watched him twist the cap off, drinking the substance. "You're not all that. Get rid of the Huska Tools and you wouldn't be here!"
He exhaled after drinking. The dizziness was subsiding, just like the fatigue. Even the pain was quickly diminishing like magic.
"They're fair game. You used one first."
Although he chose not to use the pen, it was a stupid gamble. But it almost felt like he had to do it this way, though he wasn't entirely sure why. He knew all the faces of the Black Flowers, so seeing someone he hadn't seen before claiming to be part of some secret sect to dispose of people like him was interesting.
It took quite a bit of planning how he decided to take her down, and he was even more thankful he had the card deck split between two pockets. It was to surprise his opponent if need be. But in this case, he deliberately cut his hand on the deck that stayed hidden, betting he could spread as much blood as he could when he went to protect himself.
"Your biggest mistake is that you talk a lot, Irva. Telling me that audio recordings of Cevine and Jin were transmitted back to HQ? If you didn't do that, I couldn't have won fair and square." He tossed the empty container over the bridge railing.
Her teeth grinded as he stepped up to her, his face blocking the sun.
"You only got lucky because of a mistake." She said
"Isn't that the only way to beat anyone? I already knew you were aware of my special clothing. My fake death wasn't meant to actually trick you, but to buy me enough time for the card to come around. You wondered how I got so much blood on myself if the bullet didn't pierce me—it was so you wouldn't kill me immediately. And you fell right for it, and now your ear is forever marred."
Her chest heaved. "I didn't ask. You're done monologuing your 'masterful' plan, right? Get this over with and kill me already."
"Desperation would be more accurate, which you definitely took advantage of. Having me run my tail around trying to find the antidote was quite tedious. You even considered the possibility that if you did fill the bag with poisons, they might be used against you. All you had to do was pretend you were being poisoned if it ever came to it, letting my clock tick."
"Quit talking..." she whispered. "If it wasn't for the X-lens, that stupid eye lens you possessed, you would've suffocated by now."
Hezekiah crouched down, waiting to see if she had any more to say, but all he got was a resentful look in return.
Maybe. On another note, I'm interested in something else. He pulled another card from his pocket, its luminescent edges a stern reminder of its sharpness.
Her features stiffened.
Meeting her wasn't a coincidence. It had been a while since someone nearly killed him without brute force. And she nearly succeeded. If it wasn't for the X-lens being unaware of her identity, he would've been unprepared the second she sprayed him the first time, resulting in his death. Especially with the whole mugger situation causing more doubt about her identity.
"Why are you surprised? You weren't hoping for a quick death, were you? But I wouldn't mind granting that wish in exchange for telling me who you truly are, and what you know."
"Stop screwing with me. You're not as intimidating as you think."
Hezekiah rubbed his chin thoughtfully, his lips curling. "You think so?" He extended his hand, manifesting the pen. Her chest jumped at the sudden sight, perplexed by what she just witnessed. "I think you can be useful, but first I'd like to clean that attitude of yours."
Another Huska tool? But it just appeared out of nowhere!
"Teleporting us would be nice, but unfortunately that'll come at a cost. Not sure if I'm ready for that." He was already drawing a circle around them, checking his surroundings to make sure no one was around.
She fired that gun earlier. Even if it caused a few to run off, the police can be here any second. It's not ideal, but I should be able to make this quick.
"The more I think about it, ever since you were discovered to be alive, everything has been a shit hole!!" she yelled suddenly, groaning every time her body shifted.
"I shouldn't have lost!! You shouldn't be aware of the existence of Huska Tools, let alone own them! Vice Head Dynas and his dumb nephew spared you after all!!"
Another outburst? Depending on how I feel, maybe I might do something about it.
"Keep on fantasizing." He scribbled against the notebook paper.
—Custom Boundary—
-
Everything inside the boundary is invisible from the outside, and vice versa.
Irva immediately found a void surrounding her, turning her head to see it was just her imagination. For a second she considered she was finally hallucinating, but something told her that wasn't the case.
2. No sound can escape the Boundary.
3. One hour in here will be as long as one true second.
4. Any living creature will be created whatever the Rules Creator imagines.
5. Nothing can leave or enter the Boundary.
This should be interesting. I wonder how long she'll last.
"I could just force you to talk, but it doesn't feel right letting you off like this. I think it's time I showed you what could've happened if I decided not to be nice."