The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 70 (Patreon)

I grit my teeth as Hookwolf reformed again even though this time I’d ripped him in half.

By this point I’d pretty solidly confirmed the Nazi cape didn’t feel pain in his metal form.

I’d torn off limbs, punched him hard enough that what I hit shattered, burned him with both lightning and fire magic to no real effect, and in a bout of frustration had even hit him over the head with a car…

And he kept coming like I’d hit him with a few pillows and a watergun.

He was also a lot better at wriggling out of things than I’d given him credit for. Not only was he strong enough to push his way out from underneath piles of rubble caused by me throwing him into the surroundings, he could even dig through the ground and solid chunks of rock by imitating a mining drill.

I’d found that fun little fact out after I’d practically buried him at one point and was prepared to call it my win, only for him to burst up underneath me like an antlion.

Just about the only thing stopping this fight from being an even more frustrating stalemate was the fact that Hookwolf was slowing down on how quickly he could generate more metal.

If this continued much longer I was going to have to take him down permanently or failing that – just toss him into the Bay and hope that he didn’t manage to disappear while I was busy doing other things. The thought of what a mass murderer like him with nothing to lose escaping into the city could do was really the only reason I hadn’t flown off already. Especially since I’d already seen a few examples of the bodies he was willing to leave behind already.

Doing that was a bit easier said than done though.

While I knew about his core, there was no obvious indicator where it was. And with Hookwolf’s form being a lot more fluid than I’d initially thought, trying to actually target it was more a matter of luck at this point. Case in fucking point, when I’d ripped him in half – it was the bottom half that had started regenerating.

Right, well I still had one option left to try before I just had to accept tossing him into the bay and hoping for the best. Even if it was going to be… a little rough on the surroundings.

My wings flared out as I took to the air while looking down on Hookwolf.

“Trying to run, you bitch?!” Hookwolf snarled, sounding like he was speaking through a blender.

“You’re not that lucky, Hookpuppy. Do me a favor and don’t die from this.” I replied as a green orb of magic started forming in front of me.

A Dragon Shot would be more than enough to probably straight up vaporise the Nazi if I wanted it to, but the bigger issue was that it would also vaporise everything else in its path. And while I might not care much about preserving Hookwolf’s life beyond not wanting to become a murderer because it was convenient, I absolutely didn’t want to accidentally kill some random homeless person that decided hiding until things blew over was safer than running away from the active cape fight.

If that meant digging a new hundred foot deep well in the trainyard because nothing else worked, then that was what I was going to do.

I took a moment to aim the spell and punched forward.

And three things happened at once.

The first was a giant green laser shooting forward as Dragon Shot fired. The second was a wall of metal spikes suddenly bursting from the ground to shove Hookwolf out of the way. And the third was two giants suddenly appearing from behind some of the more intact buildings while a star flew up into the sky and hovered over me.

It looked like the rest of the Empire had decided to show themselves.

Kaiser, Fenja, Menja, and Purity from the look of it. Combined with Hookwolf that was actually a decent amount of their remaining heavy hitters and a decent lineup if the goal was to stall me until I tired out.

The twins and Hookwolf for tanking damage and close up attacks, Kaiser for mid-range and battlefield control, and Purity for long range and aerial attacks.

It wasn’t perfect since there wasn’t really anything they could do if I managed to deal with Purity early and decided to just keep attacking from the air, but it wasn’t like they really had a choice on their part. The Empire didn’t have a big roster of flyers to call on.

“Hi Max. Finally decided to come out and play?”

“Gremory. And of course, after the damage you’ve caused us there is no chance the two of our organizations can remain in the same city. I hope you aren’t going to run away because you’re now outnumbered?”

I openly scoffed at that.

All of them had probably been nearby from the beginning and the plan was to jump me after Hookwolf tired me out. The only reason they had come out was because it was clear Hookwolf was definitely about to lose and without the surprisingly durable Changer or me deliberately being out on my own, any attempts to attack me would go much worse for them.

Hell, the main reason I’d gone for a finisher was because I’d figured they’d pulled back once it became obvious I wasn’t going to use my Balance Breaker and there was no point drawing out the fight when there were other issues in the city to deal with.

“Now why would I do that when I spent so much waiting for you to show your face?”

Just like Kaiser had planned to ambush and kill me, I’d been hoping to draw him out.

He was one of the few members of the Empire that absolutely needed to be brought down today. Otherwise he would just dig in somewhere else like the parasite he was and just rebuild.

“Then there’s no point talking anymore. Kill her.”

A little more blunt than I was expecting from him, but unsurprising. Kaiser was never a true believer in the Empire’s message. He just wanted it for the power it gave him and I did ruin that for him. Without his ability to lie, he had almost no ways to reassure his lackeys that things were under control. No ways to spin things that he wasn’t at fault for the Empire falling apart. And he couldn’t even try negotiating deals with his supporters right now without being honest about what he was willing to give them.

No promises of ‘higher positions’ or payments that he would walk back once he got what he wanted.

I was probably one of the few people he actually personally hated instead of just playing it up for his role.

Purity certainly felt the same, because she wasted no time firing a blast of white light at me.

I threw up a quick barrier but moved out of the way at the same time. And sure enough, Purity’s blast punched right through the hastily constructed shield. Not that it was too surprising, she was considered one of the strongest Blasters on the East Coast for a reason.

“You ruined everything! I was trying to be a hero and now they are trying to take my daughter from me!” Purity screamed at me, firing blast after blast in a way that was slowly pushing me closer to the ground. “Everything is your fault!”

I didn’t bother responding to her.

Not only did I not really want to deal with a person that decided wanting to be a ‘hero’ somehow made up for all the deaths she caused in the past, Fenja and Menja were now close enough that they were trying to swat me out of the air like a mosquito, though the one with the sword and shield was doing a lot better job of it than the one that only had a spear.

I spent a few seconds getting a baseline on how to deal with the three of them – Purity was fast enough to dodge my basic spells and the Twins were durable enough that they didn’t seem too bothered even when I did hit them – that I decided the best way to deal with all of them was to get in close.

In fact – since Kaiser had finally shown his face, it was time to cut loose just a little.

[Boost!][EXPLOSION!]

I used the surge of power to rush the spear wielding twin – I honestly couldn’t remember which was named which – and hit her as hard as I could in the stomach.

Both Nazi twins wore armor as part of their costumes, but it was more thematic than functional. Instead they relied on their power to dampen any actual damage they received when they grew to the size of a building. So it was pretty telling just how hard I hit her when the spear giant’s chestplate caved in under my fist and she fell to her knees before vomiting a frankly disturbing amount of blood on the ground.

“Nessa!”

That didn’t stop me from turning around and charging at her sister though, and the only reason I didn’t repeat the action on her was that Hookwolf read me and was already leaping in between the two of us. Once again I grabbed him and tore off two of his limbs before kicking him away, but the delay was enough for Kaiser to put up a defensive wall and for Purity to target me with a few more blasts.

That was fine. I might not have finished off both twins but one was definitely out for the count and Hookwolf was regenerating even slower now.

Even better, I had a perfect angle to fire a wide-area Dragon Shot directly at Purity.

I watched as the flier was swallowed by the green beam of destruction, only to frown as she came out the other side without so much as a scratch.

Super durability wasn’t one of Purity’s powers, but they did have a Cape that could grant that to others.

“I’m surprised you let Othala use her power on Purity.” I called over to Kaiser even as he tried to shishkabob me with a few lances of metal growing out of various surfaces. “What’s wrong, have trouble making a case for it without lying?!”

He didn’t reply but the amount of metal spikes trying to skewer me nearly doubled letting me know I’d touched a nerve.

Also, just then the communication spell my team used appeared by my ear. “Rias, sorry but are you done with Hookwolf yet?”

“Not yet Carl, Kaiser and some of his groupies showed up in the middle of the fight.” I replied. “Something wrong?”

“We’ve got a mess on our hands. Alex, Sam, and Clover took out Alabaster but when they went to check on the Undersiders they ran into a bunch of Dr Wily’s robots and the remainder of the Travelers. I already had Gloria and Amy head over to help but it sounds like the fight’s just getting out of hand. The Protectorate is on the move too, so there’s a chance things might blow up even more.”

I dodged another blast from Purity and fired back a Dragon Shot that still did nothing to her. Was Othala’s invulnerability just a straight time limit or could it be worn down faster with bigger hits?

Switching targets, I made a feint towards Kaiser and used the wall of metal he put up as a spring board to shoot back over towards Fenja and Menja while the sword carrying one was checking on her twin who had fully collapsed on the ground at this point.

Purity shouted a warning but it was too late. I ducked under a hasty swing of the giant’s shield before I hit her in the stomach almost in the same place I’d hit her sister and certainly just as hard.

I grimaced as another small swimming pool’s worth of blood poured onto the streets but that was both twins down.

“Do they need my help?”

“Not yet but there’s a good chance that battle spills over into more parts of the city. Just thought you should know.”

I was just about to respond when a flash of blue caught my attention solely because it wasn’t the searing white Purity generated.

“Oh no.”

“What’s wrong? Rias?”

“Gonna have to talk later, Carl. The Protectorate just showed up along with an annoyance.” I sighed before closing the call.

[Reset!]

And that was just poorly timed.

“Hold it right there, Villains! Your rampage of evil is at an end!” Paladin – because of course it was him – declared as he set down on the destroyed street with both Miss Militia and Triumph in tow.

At the same time Hookwolf and Purity took the time to regroup with Kaiser. Though it looked like Hookwolf was on his last legs since he was now only a couple inches bigger than a normal man and Purity was putting him between the two of us. I idly wondered if her invincibility was almost up.

Still, as much as Paladin gave me a headache just by being present – the fight with the Empire was almost over and having them be responsible for dealing with the Nazis while I left to help the rest of my Peerage would be ideal.

And then Miss Militia’s power swapped to some sort of drum-fed combat shotgun pointed squarely at me.

Ah. It was going to be one of those things, wasn’t it?