Beast pulled out the pistol from his hip.
"Get up!" Maria's sharp demand echoed. "If you really want to be number one, then you have to be able to beat this guy first."
If I want to be number one…
With those words, he heard Luna's voice echo from his buried memories, "Felix…get up. Every time you fall, you get back up."
I have to surpass him…
The blue-eyed agent reached his hand forward, only for the brute to tower over him.
"Any last words?" Beast asked.
He felt the criminal press the cold muzzle against the back of his head. In his mind formed the silhouette of David, looking back at him from the distance with a sharp gaze.
And if I have to surpass him… then I have to be…
Beast squeezed the trigger —
Stronger!
Felix grabbed his mask with an unnatural speed, placing it between the pistol and the back of his head. The bullets could not penetrate the aestrellium mask.
The blue-eyed agent rolled on the ground and slipped away, sprinting into the shadows.
"GRUH!" Beast growled and fired at him, only for the bullets to strike an afterimage — an azure mirage.
"What the hell—?!" Beast tightened his grip on the pistol, aiming frantically.
"What are you shooting at?" A muffled voice taunted him.
As he turned around, he saw the phantom standing behind him.
There was a large space once again between them. The phantom stripped off his black coat, revealing the bloody blue shirt underneath. His twin pistols holstered on the brown belts around his chest.
"You know… I've been having an awful day today." His body wobbled, and was crackling in blue electricity.
Beast grinned and aimed at him, "You and I both!"
Felix suddenly appeared right before him, striking with a bone-crunching punch, before kicking away his pistol with a spin-kick, "Don't talk over me."
Beast reeled back a few steps, clutching his aching stomach.
"As I was saying… Because I'm having an awful day, to blow off some steam..." The phantom's voice dripped with a hint of depravity.
"What was that?" The brute blew the blood out of his nose, and wiped the scratch on his cheek.
"I thought dogs were supposed to have good hearing."
"Fuck you just say?!"
What the hell is going on? He's acting like he's completely unharmed!
Beast stared at the blue-eyed agent, who stared back with a blank canvas covering his face.
"Between the golden lion, the two new recruits, that clown from earlier, and you… I think I'm done with today. For your sake, I'll give you ten seconds to grovel and apologize like the dog you are." His voice reverberated through the mask and echoed through the vast open space.
"Little bastard!"
The phantom nonchalantly approached the brute. Though the agent's face was covered by the unfeeling white mask, it was evident from his voice how much he was enjoying taunting the criminal.
Beast's eyes twitched, and he threw his fist with great speed. Although his attack swept up some of the dust on the ground, his claws was only able to strike another blue silhouette.
"Again, what are you attacking?" The phantom was standing on top of his fist.
"The hell—?!"
His mockery had clearly gotten under the criminal's skin. But before Beast could even shout, the agent stomped his heel against his face, using it to backflip away from him.
The brute staggered, the iron-soles left a throbbing red imprint on his face. But just like before, his tree-trunk legs refused to give in.
A few meters separated the two once more.
Beast's exoskeleton flared up, letting out a mechanical whir as if to breathe.
The chase resumed, but this time — Beast was no longer the predator.
Sparks flew as Beast's claws clashed with the phantom's ornate pistols. Exchanging strikes and slashes, but each time the wild giant got close, the phantom would vanish, replaced by a blue silhouette.
With every motion, a ghostly mirage was left in his place.
"Huh?" Beast muttered. His enemy was once again gone. No afterimage, no counterattack.
He then heard the sound of a hand brushing against cloth. He turned around and saw the agent dusting himself off.
"DON'T FUCK WITH ME!" The red rage in his face growing more and more apparent.
The brute rushed at him, the exoskeleton vibrating loudly as he let out a flurry of strikes. Blinded by rage, he let out an unrelenting assault, repeatedly throwing punch after punch after kick after swipe. He would not let him slip away again.
Overwhelmed by the rapid blows, the agent aimed his gun at Beast's face, only for the Beast to slip into his space and bite his arm.
"GRAGH!" The agent shouted.
In that instant, Beast took a swipe at the phantom's head, and the white mask flew into the air. Only for it to reveal Felix's glowing blue eyes.
The blue-eyed man lunged forward with an enraged grin.
~