Chapter 11: Newcomers Join the Fight

While Duke was recapping things we already know, Alex was chasing Daniel through the warehouse. Whatever changes had occurred with Daniel, some exchanges had been made both physically and mentally.

His body was much stronger and faster than before, making him more than a threat on his own to Alex. This was something he had figured out the hard way when they clashed kicks, and he was knocked back and knocked over a forklift onto it's side, denting the side he hit.

But Daniel had lost a good chunk of his skill and strategy, which allowed Alex just that tiny gap to keep up and stay in the game.

They rushed throughout the warehouse, shadows darting among shadows, and every now and then he would turn back and clash, almost like a hit and run tactic. Sometimes they would be on solid ground, other times they would be running on top of the fallen shelves.

Despite the fact that chasing wasn't the safest idea, there really wasn't a better choice. Alex had no idea if Damien was down for the count, and he did not want to deal with two of them if they would both be in this state.

'And there's no way in hell he's gonna let me just go over and double tap his brother real quick. I'll just have to try and finish this one sooner rather than later.'

Terrain maneuvering was certainly something that Daniel was still doing, but proper observation and utilization was not. And thus he used this to his advantage, scanning around the building for a certain something.

Once he had spotted it, turned over from when one of them had smacked into it earlier, Alex hatched a plan, and manipulated the fight into it's direction. The two ran atop a shelf that was half fallen, it's top end still leaning a dozen feet above ground.

They ran with precision on the two separate sides, and at the peak jumped off towards each other. Daniel had sharpened both hands, intending to brutally stab him midair, and use the landing to drive his hands in further for a sure kill.

With a very different tactic, Alex basically tackled him out of the air. It played out like in slow motion as their instinct to live reach it's peak. With an iron grip he grabbed onto Daniel's wrists to slow them down, but slowly they still inched right towards his neck.

In Alex's sight, something slowly came into focus behind his enemy, something he had pushed the two of them towards and he narrowed his eyes. Sweat poured down his face and back, hair raised.

Those hands inched ever closer to ending his life, but something else would come first. Using the steel like arms he had grabbed as leverage, Alex swung up his legs, and waiting for the exact moment, loosened his hands and kicked as hard as he could.

Without proper footing, the force just sent himself flying backwards into a box, dust flying around him. Not wanting to assume he had one, he quickly swept away all the dust to look at what he had done.

Before he could see it, he could hear it. Coughs and sputters, water dripping like a broken faucet. Once he could see, he gasped sharply. Daniel was impaled on the upturned forklift, right through his chest.

Even now he weakly struggled to pull himself off of it, coughing blood with every breath he attempted to take. Unable to take his eyes off of it, Alex just watched the life slowly leave him, both his eyes and the energy itself as it floated away.

Had he planned to do exactly this? Yes. But intending to kill someone and actually doing so are two very different things, let alone your first kill. He told himself it had to be done, there was no way he was gonna let whatever dumb grudge he had go.

Eventually he managed to pull himself away from the horrific sight of his own creation, intending to finish the job for good. As he turned he found himself face to face with someone new.

A man with long, unkempt black hair, and messy stubble. Immediately, Alex put himself into high alert as he could feel the insanity lurking just beneath the surface. Whatever chills he had before just tripled the second he saw this guy's face. Whatever change Daniel had gone through before, this guy experienced it a long time ago.

The man sneered, long canines visible. He raised his hand into a claw, as black energy poured into it making an almost tangible aura around it. And then he swiped it, even a dozen feet away.

Alex felt nothing, smelled nothing, saw nothing and heard nothing. But his own instincts screamed at him to dodge, and so he did. Diving out of the way, he just narrowly avoided four lines of cuts that swept across where the newcomer had gestured, which cut through metal and concrete alike.

It had also dissected Daniel's corpse, something that had left a poor taste in Alex's mouth. 'Well, so much for concern for his friends. If he can even have those in a state like this.'

Whatever this new attacker wanted, he was talking this fairly slowly, which gave Alex a chance to analyze the attack. 'That wasn't raw force, no way in hell. I actually might have felt it better if it was. It's an ability, something I don't have one of yet. Now does it have a weakness, is the big question.'

Recklessly approaching someone with that ability, whatever it was, was a fool's errand. The enemy swiped again, horizontally this time, and Alex flopped onto the ground to avoid it, before springing to his feet and running around to circle.

His goal was to stay on the defensive and analyze for as long as he could, before launching a single and final offensive with everything he had.

By this point in the fight, it had been well over an hour since the fight had started. Which meant that it was finally time for the tides to change. Whilst he was busy focusing on dodging, Alex almost made a fatal error when he got surprised by his phone vibrating.

He quickly checked to see it was Duke calling him, and he answered while dodging another attack. "Hey, now's not the best time. I have an uninvited guest and he's really freakin scary."

Duke replied calmly. "What's the number one thing you need right now?"

Alex immediately retorted back, "Someone to shed some light on what the hell's going on would be nice. Now I'm sorry but I'm busy not dying I'm gonna have to call you back."

He hung up, in a panic as the enemy was slowly starting to attack faster and faster. He at first moved almost like he was in a haze, but slowly he not only gained speed, but frantic energy as a manic look was slowly starting to emerge on his face.

Suddenly Alex felt something building from on top of the roof. Unable to divert his focus, he just sat there and bought time for whatever it was to happen. Maybe this was the miracle he needed.

After about a minute, he felt a change as the building energy became an attack, and a giant fist slammed through the roof, opening a hole large enough for light to pour in. As the attacker slashed again, Alex noticed an immediate difference. "It's not invisible, it's a shadow. You were attacking me with shadows in a pitch black building, you cheeky bastard!"

Now that the slashes were actually visible, as dark black shadows that cut across the air that were generated from his own aura, Alex could finally make an actual plan to counter attack. And as Duke walked into the building, his sleeves rolled up and his stride large, he knew who to do it with.

"Hey, you're late!" He said this, but Alex had never been happier to see someone he didn't originally want to see.

Duke strolled up to behind the enemy, while Alex stood in front, both ready to kick some ass together.