Afterimage

Hikaru's body shook in the air in pain but he refused to dismantle his angel suit as it was the last of his metal deposits. Although it was fire resistant to normal flamethrowers, it didn't offer much protection against Mega's arsenal. However, without it, he would be turned to ash.

Hikaru's backline of cells was continually replacing the burnt cells at the surface while getting themselves burnt as they moved to the front line. However, soon the emigration rate of cells to the surface was faster than the mortality rate.

The angel suit cooled down to the point that it was below the boiling point of water. He opened up pores in the suit. Steam came out as well as a brown liquid. Hikaru expelled the burnt dead cells and living cells that had high temperatures out of his body to cool him down.

Inside Hikaru exists the biomass of over ten thousand people. The losses were nothing. Damaged cells were replaced with premade cells; thus, the reformation was faster than regeneration through mitosis.

Hikaru lacked the speed to escape so he hovered in the air, prepared to dodge Mega's attack. Mega observed Hikaru cautiously. He wanted to see what Hikaru would do.

The Hikaru he knew was overpowering. He possessed many abilities and magic; which science couldn't fathom. There was a lack of research in that area but Dr Keno believed that it was just another energy system that they haven't tapped into yet. It might even be manipulation within the quantum realm or dark matter.

He knew that the past Hikaru was weak but he didn't know how weak. If Hikaru's personality was the same, then he could be hiding a trump card.

Realising that Hikaru was planning on doing nothing. He flew in.

As he got closer, he fired his right palm. He believed that Hikaru knew that at this distance, his flame attack could be dodged. However, what he fired till now wasn't at full power. Now that they were in the air and from this angle, he wasn't concerned about the casualties.

*Fwoom*

Flames expanded from the nozzle in Mega's palms into a cylindrical pole with a 2-metre diameter.

However, when the flames were gone Hikaru wasn't there anymore.

*Thwack*

Mega was swatted in the back by a giant 3-metre-thick whip. It covered his whole body when it smashed into him. Mega flipped over 20 times in the air until he regained control.

Hikaru inspected Mega. He had hit him with all his strength yet there wasn't even a dent.

Even so, Mega suffered a minor injury on his neck joint. His force-torque sensor was a bit damaged, which was not an issue on the battlefield.

Mega's calculations were perfect. Hikaru should not have been able to dodge that with his speed and aerodynamics. There must be an extra variable.

He examined Hikaru to see what was different. His wings were gone.

That was what the naked eye would see.

Mega with his bionic eyes saw that Hikaru's wings were flapping at a speed that would otherwise be impossible in animals.

A herring-gull would flap its wings at a frequency of 2.3 hertz (2.3 cycles per second). Tiny fruit flies beat their wings over 200 Hz which is once every 4 milliseconds, faster than neurons can fire. The flapping frequency of a mosquito ranges from 100 to 1000 Hz.

Mega calculated the wingbeat frequency of Hikaru's to be 1100 Hz. Hikaru no longer had bird looking wings instead it was now shaped like dragonfly wings. A loud metallic humming could be heard from them.

Mega fired at Hikaru with his right palm and Hikaru flew away. The chase was on.

Hikaru flew in figure 8 as a pillar of fire traced after him. Mega started using both cannons but Hikaru was dodging them with what looked like aerial acrobatics. While Mega was throwing his hands around like he was a muzzing champion at a night club.

Hikaru avoided them gracefully like a gymnast, rolling and somersaulting in the air.

Mega can fly as fast as a supersonic jet at a speed of Mach 1.1, faster than the speed of sound.

With Hikaru's wings, he can't break the sound barrier like an insect couldn't. Such a feat is only possible with jets.

Yet, Mega could not fly at his top speed because Hikaru wasn't flying in a straight line anymore, he was doing aerial maneuvers and so if Mega was flying too fast, he would fly over Hikaru.

If they were flying in a straight line then Mega could catch Hikaru but they were moving all around the place. Hikaru once again evaded Mega from his left underside to the right. Mega quickly did a U-turn in the air and saw Hikaru duck into a bed of clouds.

Vaguely seeing a shadow in the clouds, Mega fired his palm but when the cloud dispersed, he wasn't there. Instead, Hikaru's shadow could be seen in another cloud.

Mega doused that cloud with fire but once again Hikaru wasn't there either.

"Hahaha!"

Then, shadows appeared behind several clouds at the same time.

'Could the shadows be... Afterimages?'

Hikaru was moving so fast that he created several shadow clones.

Mega couldn't do that if he wanted to unless he was flying in a straight line moving in one direction. To have static afterimages, he would have to change the direction of his thrusters back and forth to do that and it would be a very inefficient use of energy.

That's why Hikaru's insect-like wings were superior in regards to fighting in 3D space. His omnidirectional speed was higher and he could navigate the air better.

Mega shot out fireballs in rapid succession and blew all the clouds away.

Hikaru flew out and hovered at eye level. No, slightly higher so that he was looking down on Mega.

The fireballs were ten times faster than a full blast from an incinerator cannon. The speed was obtained from sacrificing firepower.

Hikaru began beating his wings faster so that he would be fast enough to dodge them.

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