Feeling everything above and below him shift and shake as if they were on a ship on an angry sea, Gordon let his smile slip as what he was going to do next would require every ounce of his concentration.
The first part was easy: taking the shifting of the ground into consideration, he walked forward steadily as if he was an experienced seaman. Soon, he was approaching the villain who was just as stunned as everyone else, and of course, with no guns pointed at him, he was free to do what he wished.
A slight doubt appeared in the corner of his mind, but he put it away, as he had no other option but to believe that it wasn't important. All he could do was take care of what was in front of him, and right now, the villain's skull-like mask filled his vision, calling on the fury that he always used whenever he wished to take his performance to a new peak.
His master was a firm advocate of the fact that the ancient Indian sages were right. According to them, anger was a tool that could be used to sharpen one's mind. They even went so far as to suggest that those preparing for a tough exam or a tough task in life should learn to make themselves angry so that they could use that state, and then discard it at will.
Gordon always had enough anger to draw upon. The trick had always been finding a middle ground so that he wouldn't massacre those he was going up against, and right now, he already knew that it was going to be hard to stop himself from going too far.
A snarl escaped his lips as he sprang forward when he was a few steps away from the villain. The man dodged, having found his footing slowly but that didn't matter as the main part of Gordon's attack hadn't even landed.
'SPLAT!'
He winced as it arrived in the form of a large slab that fell to his right crushing fifteen people, five of whom had been about to point their guns at him again.
'20 down, 80 to go', he muttered to himself, hoping that the others wouldn't be is unlucky.
His skill over the integrity of buildings made it so that he could precisely choose where each part of the ceiling would fall, and he had tried, for the most part, to make it so that they wouldn't kill all those in the room. He wished that he could control the people in the same manner, as the reason behind the deaths that had just occurred was that they had moved from where they had been before in an attempt to get away from the part of the ceiling that had seemed as if it would crush them, but would actually have missed them by a few degrees to crash into the wall.
The sounds of the room's collapse threatened to overwhelm his mind, but he blocked them out with practiced grace. Turning his eyes to the villain again, he frowned as the last flute was taken out again.
"YAARGH!"
With a loud shout, he stamped down with his right leg, drawing on the blessing once again and casting a spell he had practiced a million times. The heaving floor cracked and splintered in a straight line from his foot to the villain, and with wide-open eyes, the man had no option but to jump to the side, foregoing all intention of using the flute on him.
Cleverly anticipating where he was going to land, Gordon yelled again and stamped down with his other foot. The villain understood what was going to happen: he leaped again as soon as he landed, but this time, he had to use both his hands which meant that the flute skittered to the ground and rolled away, no longer a threat in the equation of the battle.
Pushing himself with all the strength he had, he ran forward, knowing that this was the perfect opportunity. Even as he prepared the final blow, he commended his opponent in his mind. After all, the man had put up a good fight, but at the end of the day, he only had his bad luck to blame as he had been picked by fate to go up against Children of the Dragon.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
All along, the destruction he had wrought crashed to the floor, crushing a few here and there but missing the throngs of people for the most part. The heavy slabs of the ceiling had been constructed with no expense spared. Hence, they didn't break into too many pieces after falling from such a height, which meant that there were no errant pieces of rock that he had to be aware of on his way. Dust obscured his surroundings, but in anticipation of this, he had already cast a very minor spell that focused his vision.
He reached the villain and found that the man had just gotten to his feet. This didn't matter, though: the entire purpose of everything he had done until now was to catch him alone, as in hand-to-hand combat, there was no way that he was a match.
Drawing a machete and a short dagger from the belt at his waist, he roared once more and jumped, timing it perfectly with an upward thrust of the ground that gave him so much momentum that he was soon ten feet in the air. The villain had also managed to draw a sword, but he looked at Gordon with stricken eyes as he descended with the explosive speed of a missile.
At the last moment, the villain managed to duck away, but Gordon smoothly changed his lunge to a roll, and then got to his feet a moment later before sending the machete barrelling toward the villain's neck.
All other extraneous thoughts left him. All that was present in his world were his weapons, and the villain's vital parts. He hacked and slashed, weaved between blows and used the shaking of the ground to his advantage, pushing his opponent back, roaring with the rage and frustration of one who had been trampled by the world for far too long. The villain barely managed to follow his attacks. The only advantage he had was speed, but if Gordon landed even one of his attacks, the battle would be over. They fought between running people, between crushing blocks of concrete, between pools of gore that were treacherous if stepped upon and clouds of dust that swirled around them.
Gordon didn't even spare a glance for the governor. They had already planned this beforehand; the moment any tremors the ground were felt, the man would scurry under his large table which had been prepared so that shutters would descend on all four of its sides, giving him a safe haven where no one would be able to get to him. The table had also been fixed perfectly into the ground so that it would be unscathed despite the collapse of the room, and hence, even if the last villain was hiding somewhere, there was no way that he would be able to do anything to his target.
A scream sounded from his opponent, and Gordon grinned as the machete hacked through his left hand and went deep into the man's waist. The villain stumbled and fell, crawling back in a desperate attempt to get away, but he stopped in his tracks as Gloria reached his side and jumped on him with the intent to kill.
She plunged her two daggers into the villain's stomach, again and again and again as if she was a serial killer just out of prison, and Gordon furrowed his eyebrows as he remembered his master telling them that they should not let such base instincts take control of them. He didn't pay any more attention to the masked man; instead, his eyes searched the room for the last villain.
Everything seemed under control. There were only a few pieces of the ceiling that had yet to fall, and the last villain seemed to have given up.
But then… everything changed, and it all happened so fast that he could only keep watching.
Both of them had completely focused on the villain that was visible to them. But from all the people who had entered the room… one tall man stepped toward the table, and as soon as Gordon laid his eyes on him, his spine prickled with a foreboding feeling.
The man had some sort of walkie-talkie in his hand. He spoke into it, and to Gordon's shock, his own voice came out of it loudly.
"Governor, get out! The entire building is going to collapse!"
"NO!"
His own scream was lost in the loud volume of the other. The shutters around the large table opened, and with a startled squeak, the governor poked his head out.
The tall man smiled. Drawing a gun from his pocket, he pointed it at the governor's head, and it seemed that the odyssey was done.
Yet, Gloria said something unintelligible beside him, and a small pinprick of light flew through the air at the speed of a bullet.
It struck the villain's hand, making the gun fall to the floor. Gloria collapsed a second later, having used a spell beyond her limit, but at that moment, Gordon could have kissed her if she wasn't as old as his daughter.
He ran forward, intending to finish what she had started. But as he was about to reach his target… the man took out something from his coat and sent it flying in the direction of the governor.
At first, Gordon didn't recognize it. When he did, his eyes went as wide as saucers as he followed its path.
It was one of the boots the villains had used to great effect until now, retrofitted with a dagger at one end. It sped through the air after being thrown… heading straight for the governor's head.
He screamed, his throat going horse.
The entire building rumbled, the spell he had been controlling until now going amok in a desperate attempt to stop the inevitable.
But the dagger found its mark. The governor grunted with surprise, and fell to the floor.
And the villain laughed for a moment, and bowed as if his performance had just come to an end.