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Chapter 67: The Mystery Of Ian Rose II
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What happened next, however, was not within his expectation as a gunshot sounded. Ian could swear he felt the bullet pass right by his hair, and it even gently brushed his skin before going through the parachute wing.
'Wahh, I am gonna fall... Was someone waiting for me? It's more likely that they were targeting the crime lords, but I interfered though it's commendable for someone to target me despite seeing the spectacle I just made... What a heretic.
Ian shrugged his shoulds as he tried to take back control of the parachute. A single bullet wasn't enough to bring down the wing, and the attacker seemed to know that as he continued to fire.
His target wasn't the wings, but Ian, yet each of his bullets missed, and instead went through the wings, all due to Ian messing around with the parachute controls.
"Hahaha," Ian couldn't help but let out a small laugh as his falling speed increased, "Well, this is gonna be fun!" Whereas others would've been frightened by the unexpected, Ian embraced it and pushed it even further as he randomly pulled and moved the control strings of the parachute.
At one point in time, his surroundings became a blur, all he saw is the constantly changing scenery before it all came to halt. Ian felt an enormous push on his abdomen.
The sudden halt caused him a bit of pain as he found himself dangling from what looked like a high lamp. The parachute wing was stuck on the lamp while he was hanging in the air.
"Agh, you win some you lose some I guess..." Ian mumbled as he got his bearing. He was a bit dizzy due to the chaotic movement before, so it took him a few seconds to regain his clear thoughtfulness.
He looked around, specifically beneath it him then around him. He found the destruction left behind by the devil's breath right beside him. A very large hole, seemingly the aftereffect of a fallen meteor.
"Wow, I should do this more often... No, I should get better things," Ian was hooked, and there is no saving him just like there is no saving those better things from his grasp.
"Anyway..." Ian mumbled as he reached out to the parachute belt and unhooked it, allowing him to fall to the ground. It was only a distance of a few meters, so nothing too dangerous.
However, another gunshot sound. The bullet traveled through the air with its target being Ian's head. An opposite force took effect, it was called gravity as it pulled Ian down to the ground, making the bullet gently brush his hair and miss.
"Oh?? Ok?" Ian looked around in confusion, "Well, now I am curious about who could be so bad."
He didn't have to look for long as the attacker started making his way to him, making Ian raise his brows in understanding, 'I see, so he's so good that his every bullet would've been an instant kill. My power had to take effect.'
His attacker was wearing what looked like an advanced battle suit. The mesh suit was mostly black with a few parts painted in orange. The most prominent of which was his mask, half of it was painted in dull orange.
He had a sniper rifle in his hands, and on his back were two dark swords. Lastly, he had two handguns on his belt.
"Why are you coming close?" Ian asked, genuinely confused. Why not keep the distance advantage and snipe him from afar?
"Deathstroke." His opponent spoke but didn't seem to have any intention of expanding upon that or saying anything else. Instead, he threw his sniper to the side and pulled out his two swords.
"I see... You're ashamed because of how bad you are. I can't relate, but I shall grant you the duel you desire." Ian turned the situation into a show as he elegantly bowed before straightening his stance.
That simple bow made Ian miss something he shouldn't have... The voidness of logic as Deathstroke's mask twitched. Indeed, his face twitched to such a degree that it messed up the dimensions of his mask.
Ian let out a long breath as he also started approaching Deathstroke. He gently lifted his hands as he spoke, "This should be fun, so I will give you a chance... Unless of course you quickly knock me out. In which case, I am fucked, Hahahahaha... Anyway."
If what happened before wasn't enough to startle Deathstroke, then this did as a long silver sword materialized in Ian's right hand, and in his left hand appeared a handgun.
Ian clenched the handle of the Kryptonian sword. It was a bit too bulky for a long sword, and it had a hole-like slit on one of its edges.
He really wanted to test his fighting style. He wanted to since long ago, but he couldn't since it was too dangerous, not for him but for his opponents.
He took a very deep breath and entered a state of deep focus in remembrance of all the lessons he learned from Richard Dragon, and there wasn't a day where he missed training.
Ian focused on the most brutal and dealy of fighting styles and combined them to form a primary version of his fighting style.
It happened in almost an instant. They found their swords clashing, both were made of formidable materials, so not a dent was left on either.
While Ian has yet to step on the peak human level, he wasn't far off, largely due to his peculiarity as when he transfers his life force to Selina, he somehow finds himself more energetic, and his body began developing at an abnormal rate.
The monster before him however was something else as Ian felt his hand going numb by the impact though that didn't stop him from pulling the trigger of his gun only for Deathstroke to jump aside at an astonishing speed.
Ian had to be ready for the impact as Deathstroke performed a full-circle turn and used all the accumulated force on the attack forcing Ian to guard with his sword though he didn't try to face the impact head-on but allowed it to send him back, and he even jumped with the force before stabilizing himself a few meters back.
"Weaker than I anticipated," Deathstroke remarked. The first clash was no more than a test to see through his opponent.
'He surpasses me in speed by far, and also in power, endurance also perhaps? And I bet he's a better fighter than me by far. How am I out to defeat such a monster?'
Ian let out a chuckle as he started unloading his gun on him, just to prove a hypothesis of his. Indeed, Deathstroke just started approaching him while avoiding some of the bullets and letting others hit his armor.
'Well well well, what do we have here, even his armor is bulletproof,' Ian's expression, however, showed his fearlessness, or perhaps he had nothing to be afraid of as he threw the gun into the dark Rose and held the sword with both hands.
Ian's clothes on the other hand had an armor rating of Zero. Simple black sweater and tight black pants, allowing him to move freely. He wore light combat boots and a crimson mask.
He took a deep breath before leaping at Deathstroke while swinging the Kryptonian sword. His opponent took a gentle step back while guiding one of his swords alongside Ian's to change its destination.
His other sword was coming down on Ian with enormous force and speed... This is where things started to get weird. Ian allowed his sword to be guided aside and used that force to swing around, bringing his sharp sword towards Deathstroke's neck.
Of course, the sword didn't have enough time to reach its destination as Deathstroke's was almost at Ian's head, and the latter gladly situated his head in its way, just to make sure it can instantly kill him.
"Hmm???" Deathstroke was confused as he stopped his attack mere inches from Ian's head, and tried to pull back his swords to block Ian's blade while leaping backward, and he succeeded to a certain extent as all the damage he received was a deep cut on his armor.
A gentle smile surfaced on Ian's face as he traced his fingers along his silver sword, "Hmm, you're serving me well though I am still not used to your weight."
The Kryptonian sword is quite heavy and it took Ian a while to get used to it. It also didn't suit his style as he preferred light blades like Katanas, but one of Iron wouldn't have been to leave even a scratch on Deathstroke's armor.
"Why? Do you seek death?" Deathstroke found himself breaking his own code. He was speaking with who he assumed to be his target way too much, and he was okay with that.
Ian took his eyes off his sword and eyed the killing machine before him, "I can not die. I am just having fun, I am living thus I am alive, so how can I die? How can death welcome me in its embrace?
You must not understand the difference between the living dead, and the dead. The latter is not true death while the former are people you see every day that are dead.
They fear death, unaware that they're already dead, yet they wonder why I see death as nothing? People die long before their death, but I can not die because I am living, and the moment I stop living, I will gladly give my life away if I can."
Ian let out a breath, and spoke from the depths of his heart only to hear a kind of predictable response, "I see, you're insane..." Ian shook his head at that, "I am, but that doesn't make what I said any less true... You just don't understand."
Only Ian understood the meaning of those words, ones he believes and perhaps he sees himself experiencing, "Anyway..."
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