Chapter 15: Deflective Man!

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Edward felt excited learning that. Not only was his work finally approved, he was even saving lives in the process.

Waking up to this, Edward naturally fell happy. He and Dragon didn't stay long at the mansion though as their plane would leave at 10 am.

Actually, it was a bit of a waste to take the plane to go from Gotham to New York as the two cities were less than an hour away by plane.

Thanks to this though, Edward managed to get back home before noon. As it was Sunday, Diana was home, and as he arrived she kissed him passionately before saying "I missed you."

Edward kissed her back and said "I missed you too." The two then spent their day together as Edward thought about his what he should do now.

Now that his training was finished, a lot of his time was freed. Diana would often be working, so he couldn't just spend his time with her.

Edward was torn by his options. On one hand, he wanted to learn magic, as it would not only allow him to become stronger, it could also potentially help him find answers on how to break through the Human Limit.

But there was also his Elephant Hybridization Serum, which wouldn't do much for him except give him money, which he didn't really care about, and reputation, which seemed to have become as worthless with what happened recently. That would really only be to help others, which was something he actually really wanted to do. And there was also the serum to help Barbara, Diana's friend who turned into Cheetah, to turn back into a human.

He had never been a good decision maker, but thankfully he had Diana. When he told her what was bothering him, she told him "Why not both? Didn't you say magic and science were more closely related than people thought? Maybe studying magic could help you develop both serums faster."

Edward kissed her in delight, realizing she was right. Although he usually preferred to focus on one thing at a time, this time it wasn't the right way to go.

So the next day, Edward presented himself in front of the New York Sanctum. Surprisingly, he was greeted by someone he knew, Stephen Strange.

The Sorcerer looked at Edward smugly as he flew down the stairs, with a red cloak floating with him in his back, and he said "Edward Bell, welcome to the New York Sanctum. I am this Sanctum's Master."

Edward rolled his eyes at the smug sorcerer and said "I would like to meet with the Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One."

Strange nodded and created a portal. Edward nodded at Strange in thanks and entered the portal. He was greeted by the sight of the Ancient One reading a book in a library.

As Edward appeared, he felt a third presence apart from himself and the Ancient One, running toward them.

A large Asian man approached, and looked at Edward warily. But the Ancient One, Yao, waved his hand at the man and said "No need to worry, Wang. This is our guest, Edward."

Wang bowed his head at Yao and said "Yes, Ancient One." He bowed another time at Edward before walking away.

The Ancient One smiled at Edward and said "This is Wang, the library's keeper."

Edward nodded and said "I have come here to learn." The Ancient One smiled and said "And learn you shall."

With a wave of his hand, a book floated from one of the bookshelves and went to Edward. The Ancient One said "Magic is a complicated art that can't be learned hastily. Before learning to use any spell, you must understand the basics of magic."

Edward nodded and said "That's exactly what I wanted."

The Ancient One smiled and said "There is one spell that could be of great use to you now, although it isn't really a spell, it is the Astral Form. This allows your soul to leave your body, letting it rest. This could allow you to continue researching while sleeping, for example."

Edward tilted his head as a thought came to his mind. To use his meditation technique, he had to concentrate to relax his mind and control his Chi inside his body, refining it. Although his Chi had already been refined to the limit, meditation was still useful as circulating his Chi would make his body healthier.

And maybe that to reach the next step with Chi, the solution was to reach the next step in his meditation technique. Maybe that if he found a way to put his cultivation on 'auto-mode', and achieve the same effects as when he meditates when he sleeps, or is in his Astral Form, maybe it could bring a qualitative change to his Chi.

Moreover, he already knew that it was possible to put his cultivation on auto pilot as some times he would lose his concentration for a moment for various reasons, and his Chi would continue circulating.

Even if turning the circulation of his Chi, which he called cultivation, constant didn't allow his Chi and body to pass the limit, it would still be extremely beneficial. His body would constantly be in perfect health, his injuries would heal at a quick speed even in combat and he would become far more resistant to poisons and diseases as they would be treated as soon as they entered his body.

If he ever found himself in an extremely hot or cold place too, circulating his Chi would allow his body to remain in the best condition possible.

So it was with a grin that Edward said "I would like to learn this."

The Ancient One nodded and said "I expected as much, you will find the steps to leave your mortal body in the book too. When you finish learning this book, come back to the New York Sanctum and ask Strange to be shown to the library. Wong will help you when that happens."

Edward nodded and gave his thanks to the Ancient One before he left with the book in hand.

However, as he was walking back home, Edward suddenly heard the sounds of gunshots some distance away. Edward ran toward the origin of the sound, curious about what exactly was happening.

As he arrived, Edward saw a large crowd, typical. Until they really felt the danger, most New Yorkers simply stayed behind and took pictures. Not a very smart reaction.

But Edward saw something more important behind them.

Several police cars were surroundings an individual, and several policemen were shooting at the person.

But their bullets had no effect as they bounced off the person they were shooting at, even injuring police men and civilians.

They had no choice though, as the person, whose gender was unknown as they were covered in a strange looking armor, was firing their own guns, a submachine-gun in each hands.

After a moment of observation, Edward understood the person's armor was special. It seemed to possess some kind of reflective ability, sending back all the bullets back to those who fired them.

The people were starting to get afraid too as the person advanced toward the crowd, ignoring the policemen and the helicopter of the news above.

Finally, the person revealed himself to be a man as he yelled "You cannot do any harm to I, the Deflective Man!"

Edward had the urge to roll his eyes, but he was right about something, those guns wouldn't do anything to him.

Since he was in the middle of a crowd and people were starting to run away, Edward simply transformed into his suit right there and then, it was much stealthier than going to a nearby alley and coming back. No one would pay attention to a single guy in the crowd.

It was only when he left the crowd and jumped over a police car that people started to take notice of him. Edward spread his Chi Sense to envelop the Deflective Man, and paid full attention to the rest of the bullets with his normal senses.

The police stopped shooting as the Deflective Man looked at Edward with a slightly raised chin and said with a smug voice "Serenity, Hero of New York! Die for me!"

He aimed both his guns at Edward as he said that, but before he even pulled the trigger Edward was out of the way as he knew ahead of time where he would shoot.

The Deflective Man sprayed bullets in a wide area in front of him, and even Edward was having trouble dodging them because the Deflective Man didn't really aim anywhere in specific, he just fired in his general direction, meaning Edward had to rely on his normal senses to dodge the bullets.

This showed him that his Chi Sense's weakness was actually weak people with no skill. Or rather, people who fought randomly. As long as there was an intent, Chi would move and he would feel it. However, if that intent was vague, then the directions he would receive would be blurrier.

This meant that he would be able to perfectly predict the moves of highly skilled warriors, but would struggle more against poorly skilled ones like this Deflective Man.

Well, that was without taking his martial training and other senses into account, as he easily shifted his body between the hail of incoming bullets, quickly reaching the Deflective Man.

The Deflective Man visibly started panicking, and Edward jumped forward with a burst of speed as he hit the wrists of the Deflective Man with measured strength at first.

However, the moment he did he was suddenly sent flying a few meters back, despite the Deflective Man not moving.

While he was falling backwards, the Deflective Man used the opportunity to try to shoot him, but Edward was able to quickly set foot on the ground and dodge to a side before jumping right back at the villain.

While doing so, he thought about what just happened, and this time lowered himself to a crouch, dodging bullets once again, and taking the Leopard Stance he struck the two guns with half opened fists, this was called the Leopard Fist, the strongest strike in the Leopard Style. He also put his entire strength behind that strike.

He expected the guns to break apart, but much to his shock and surprise he was once again sent flying backward, with even more force this time as he crashed into a police car twenty meters away, deforming it.

Edward then understood he was underestimating the Deflective Man. Apparently, it wasn't just his armor, his whole body, as well as his weapons, had that Deflective property. Moreover, it didn't just send back whatever force hit the guy, it even multiplied the strength.

Edward was pretty sure he couldn't send someone flying twenty meters away, so there had to be something strange with this man.

Another strange point was that the force that sent him flying didn't actually hurt him, it only sent him flying faster. What hurt was the collision with the car.

Edward thus quickly concluded that this man was either a mutant, or his armor was a magical artefact that allowed him to nullify, transform, amplify and send back incoming energy as kinetic energy.

He first thought this was nothing more than a fool who would be easily brought to justice, but it seemed there was more to this man.

"Hahahaha, even you can't do anything to me, the Deflective Man! Flee before I take your life!"

Scratch that, he was a moron. He didn't even take the opportunity of Edward crashing into the police car to shoot him. It wouldn't have hurt him as he would have dodged, but it would have at least made it harder for him to think and come up with a plan, which he just did.

Grinning under his mask, Edward rushed toward the Deflective Man!