SHHOOM
Sebastian warps down, facing the culprit with a hostage in its hands. He looks at the monster up and down. It wasn't like the usual hulking abominations that he was used to putting down in S-rank missions. The monster had a humanoid appearance. It was probably just a couple of inches taller than him. It had pale black skin and long arms with sharp, claw-like fingers. Its upper body was large, even more so its mountain-like shoulders which blended with its head. It had no neck, its head was directly connected with its broad shoulders and has an ominous, round, gaping hole serving as its "face". Its legs were skinnier compared to its limbs
It took Sebastian a couple of seconds before making a connection upon seeing the monster's appearance. It looked eerily the same as the Ancient-level monster in the Red Square mission except this monster in front of him is much smaller and had a different color. He thought it looked familiar at first sight. He felt like he had seen this monster before. Now he knew.
He starts letting out a subtle smile. His smile gets bigger, turning into a laugh.
"Hey," he tells the monster a few meters away from him, still holding some helpless villager by his neck.
Sebastian was already in a bad mood heading into the mission. Now, he was in a worse mood.
"You remind me of something," he adds, still wearing a smile on his face but immense bloodlust all over his eyes.
The monster couldn't care less what he was talking about. It tightens its grip on its hostage's neck, plunging its razor sharp claws on it. Blood sprays on the ground and on the monster's leg accompanied with muffled sounds of struggle from the dying hostage. The struggling stops after a few seconds. The man's lifeless corpse still on its hand, the monster forcefully hurls it at the man in the suit standing not far from it. The man slices the corpse projectile in half, zero hesitation, eyes dead set on the familiar-looking monster.
He takes one slow step closer. He takes another. Mid-way through the next and he's gone.
SHHOOM
He appears right in front of the monster, both swords mid-swing. The monster is able to react accordingly and timely, blocking the dual slash with both of its arms – a wise decision.
Sebastian was slightly surprised. That wasn't a weak slash and although it wasn't remotely close to being his strongest either, it should've at least sliced off the arm that was in front. The monster is much tougher than he expected. A slight miscalculation.
Although he couldn't cut it off, he was still able to slice through around half of the monster's arm which he noticed started to heal almost immediately.
"Of course you can regenerate," he mutters to himself, already expecting it and was just waiting for confirmation.
Watching the two from a distance atop one of the cabin rooftops is a man wearing a black, double-breasted, long, military trench coat with 10 silver buttons aligned vertically at the middle. The man was drenched in the color black – gloves, pants, leather shoes, and a top hat with a sleek, plague doctor mask. With both his behind his back, the man was silently observing the two monsters battling in the middle of the ravaged village.
Sebastian was not in the mood to play around. He blinks out and appears behind the monster.
FWOOM
His swords are engulfed in black flames. The silent observer is shocked upon seeing this.
A void-empowered cross slash directed at the monster's back. Even it wouldn't survive this had the attack connected, but the monster had an excellent reaction and movement speed. As soon as the man teleported behind, it immediately turned around and opted to avoid the slash and jump back instead of blocking it. It was as if it knew that it was an unblockable attack.
Although it was able to avoid the fatal slash, the force of its swing was so powerful that its range wasn't just limited to it actual, actual physical range. The slash sent out a void-empowered shockwave which was still capable of reaching the monster who had turned around and backed away, facing him, now with an X-shaped scar on its chest.
"Ohohoho. Now this, THIS changes everything," the man in the shadows says to himself.
Sebastian disappears yet again from the monster's sight but this time, there was no sign of him teleporting. Even without the use of his ability, he was still insanely quick, blitzing in front of the monster in the blink of an eye. The monster transforms its right hand into a large, impaling spike, attempting to counter its attacker.
SHHOOM
Its strike hits the ground, Sebastian teleports to the right side of its body to slice off its arm that it has stuck on the ground, this time faster than the previous. The monster couldn't react fast enough this time, it was neither jumping back or moving its arm from harm's way.
As soon as Sebastian's blade started to make contact with the monster's skin, he notices something emanating from it. Something extremely familiar. Faint, black mist starts oozing out of its arm. A split second after, its entire arm is engulfed in the same black flame covering Sebastian's swords. His eyes widened. The monster was also capable of using void energy.
Now with its arm also coated in the same energy as his blades, the power boost it gave him was slightly cancelled out. His slash only cut halfway through its arm. Part of it was due to him being distracted by the monster's sudden use of void energy.
He is now in a rollercoaster of emotions, being annoyed, frustrated, and fascinated all at the same time. He teleports away but still near the monster, right in front of it, smiling and laughing.
"Okay seriously, what the fuck are you?" he asks the monster with a smile on his face.
He reaches into his earpiece to say something to Benedict. "Oh boy, do I have a present for you. Present for us both, actually."
Minutes earlier, he was intent on finishing the monster as quickly as possible. That has now changed. Now, he wanted to see what else the monster can do, what it is capable of doing with void energy.
"Yeah, I can see. And I know what you're thinking," Benedict responds.
"Oh, come on. It's gonna be fine," he reasons out.
"It's an S-rank monster with void energy, you moron. It's not a sparring partner, DON'T PLAY AROUND WITH IT."
"This is not a suggestion, this is an ORDER. Take it out ASAP," Benedict adds. "We don't know what this thing is going to do and we don't want it levelling the entire village. We have enough damage control waiting already."
Sebastian rolls his eyes. This was an insanely rare opportunity and he was going to take his time with it. This was not only a learning opportunity, he also was in the position of being in a fight that would be challenging for once.
He reignites the flames on his blade. He felt as if something wasn't right. "Ah, shit."
What Sebastian was using to teleport and the void energy that he was controlling and using to empower his swords are two separate things. The power that he was using to jump around and teleport is fairly infinite as far as he knows. The energy that he uses to perform this ability doesn't run out and is practically limitless. This is not the case for the void energy that he physically harnesses.
Sebastian is able to teleport mainly because of the Void – an actual, existing realm of black nothingness. Or what he has seen of it, at least. It is an unknown place far from the physical world where the concept of time does not exist. Where it actually is, what it is, or what is in it is something that no one knows, not even him.
Additionally, his teleportation isn't instant. He doesn't simply go from point A to point B in an instant. He visualizes the warp point and upon activating the teleportation ability, he is transported into the Void. Where he hovers the empty nothingness brimming with black mist. He exits the void by entering a misty opening somewhere in it – his warp point. Upon entering this misty wormhole, he is transported back into the physical world.
The farther the warp point is, the farther the wormhole inside the Void that he will have to get through will be. But this doesn't matter all that much as time doesn't flow inside the void. It could take him 10 minutes to get to the exit wormhole and by the time he gets back into the physical world, only a second at most will have passed and this delay is mainly due to him materializing into the physical world. The time he spends inside the void is completely irrelevant to the time that he is gone in the physical world.
As for the void energy that he harnesses, he absorbs and takes in directly from the Void. The energy that he has innately is not nearly enough for him to use. This only serves as a sort of key that allows him access into the void. He would need large amounts of void energy in order to physically harness it like he does for battle and to do it, he would need to stay and soak in large amounts of it in the Void itself. Additionally, this energy that he stores and uses runs out unlike the energy that he has innately. If it does, he would need to go back to the Void to refill.
After the recent coating he applied, he noticed that his reserve has nearly run out. It probably wouldn't be enough for another full coat. He wouldn't be able to spar with the monster properly as he now had a time limit.
The monster engulfs both of its arms in black flames. It attempts to rush the man standing calmly nearby. The monster has only taken one step when the man appears in front of him, covered in mist, aiming for its chest. The monster instinctively shifts its focus to attacking its opponent that bravely warps right in its face.
SHHOOM
The monster swings at the wind.
SHHOOM
He appears right beside its unharmed, void energy-covered arm, unleashing a lightning-speed, forceful, vertical dual slash on it. A slash so powerful it lets out shockwave of void energy slash towards the ground, creating an explosion.
SHHOOM
He warps out of the curtain of dust. A big smile on his face after it clears.
"Mine is better," he thought to himself while looking at the monster, now missing an arm.
The monster is unfazed by the injury it received. In place of its severed arm, it emits a large amount of void energy taking the shape of a long, sharp blade.
Watching it do this, Sebastian thought that the monster probably possesses an insane amount of void energy. From his experience he knew that simply just coating a physical object already uses a considerable amount of void energy. Creating an actual, physical object from it would have been three or four times the effort.
But then again, this was a monster. Monsters naturally have a larger tank and tolerability for ancient and presumably, void energy than humans.
SHHOOM
He teleports back in to resume the battle, this time only applying pressure on its makeshift arm made out of void energy. It was still tough, but he was still capable of slicing through it. Every time he would slice a portion of it off, the monster would just regrow it instantly. He was slightly impressed at the monster's ability and wanted to push it further. He wanted to see its limit.
Sebastian had an idea and although he knew it was a risk and would probably cost him a lot, he still went through with it. He sheathes his swords.
SHHOOM
He teleports behind the monster again – another back attack. The monster had seen this before, it wasn't going to get caught off guard again. It turns around immediately, its void spike completely ready for the surprise attack, strikes at the still misty Sebastian who teleports again, this time, near the monster's right side. Both swords sheathed on his back, the swordsman is now winding up a punch with his right hand. The monster effortlessly blocks it with its right palm.
"HEH," a wide, evil grin is written all over the man's face. He opens his closed fist and touches palm to palm with the monster, his hand starts faint mist followed by a quick glow of light.
FWOOM
A massive, point blank explosion echoes throughout the island.
SHHOOM
Sebastian moves out of the cloud of dust. He looks at his right hand, no damage this time except part of his suit's sleeve which was torn apart around two inches from his hand. He still lacked some control but it was ultimately successful. He only needed to iron out a few edges is what he thought.
Dust clears. The monsters entire right limb is blown off. A large part of its upper body including its head and torso were also slightly melted off along with its right upper calf residual void energy all over it.
His improvised attack couldn't completely blast the monster into non-existence. But it was fine as he didn't expect it to, anyway. The result was more than he could ask for.
From behind, he hears the sound of clapping, slowly getting louder. Whoever it was is casually approaching. "Bravo, Agent Isaac. Bravo."
Without looking back, he could already tell who it was just from the sound of the person's voice. It was the most recognizable voice he had ever heard in his entire life.
"You know, I had expected you to come," says the approaching third party in a thick, German accent. "I had also expected you to demolish little Number Two here," the man adds, referring to the monster that Sebastian was battling.
"What I did not expect is for you to do what have just did," the man claps again, the same person who has been watching them the entire time.
If not for the person's voice, Sebastian wouldn't have recognized him. He sees the man wearing a black military coat wearing an ominous mask.
"Crowe?" he was more unsure now than he previously was of the identity of this person. He could tell from the voice but he couldn't see the face.
"Ding ding ding! You are as bright as ever, Agent Isaac."