Chapter 59 - Letting loose [1/2]

"He's not one of ours…. right?" one of the Rustborn goons in the alley asked their leader, scratching his head and looking confused. 

The leader snorted and flexed one of the large, tattooed muscles on his arm. "Of course not! Do you see any of our markings on him?" He crouched down and thoughtfully inspected the corpse in front of them, wondering if it had anything to do with what happened to Alita and their beheaded men. 

At that point, he immediately noticed the clear indent and markings of a collision on the corpse's underside. "Did he jump….?" the man muttered before finally looking up… at which point his eyes widened in alarm. 

"Shit!" he screamed and jumped out of the way. Immediately afterwards, an explosion of force rocked the alley, even making the walls tremble, as a young woman clad in crimson lightning crashed onto the pavement, sword in hand, twin braids and bomber jacket fluttering behind her, alley trash flying outward from impact. 

"Hahaha!" Alita laughed joyfully as power coursed through her body, and she slowly righted herself. Looking down, she could scarcely believe her body remained intact. Before today, she never would have survived a three-story high fall, let alone get through it unscathed. 

When Damian insisted she go through the window instead, she was reluctant at first, but… also intrigued. It didn't take much for Damian to convince her to do it, after telling her to simply charge her body with myst to survive the fall. 

"Glitch me!" she cursed with a wide, awed grin. "This is amazing!" 

Finally, she looked around and noticed five Rustborn thugs, each in various stages of cybernetic enhancement, staring at her with wide, fearful expressions and their leader, who surprisingly appeared excited instead. Alita's grin widened. "Hello! I figured it was my turn to ambush you people this time!" 

"Alita!" the leader growled, quickly pulling a small, pulsing orb out of his body and enclosing it in his large, cybernetically enhanced fist. "There you are! I don't know where you got that catalyst, but hand it over and surrender! We may not even kill you!" 

Naturally, Alita ignored his words, but also understood that the orb was a catalyst. Whereas before, she would have immediately fled, now she only felt a hint of trepidation. 

She quickly glanced up to look at Damian, who was looking down at her from the window with a lazy but encouraging smile. "Just have fun!" he yelled down from above with a thumbs up. "Let yourself go, alright? You'll be fine!" 

Feeling surprisingly energized by Damian's words, Alita started breathing faster as more and more myst surged through her body. She glanced back at her opponents. 

"Surrender?!" she purred, showing a level of mischief and playfulness that hadn't really come into play during her interactions with Damian yet, but did now that she suddenly felt freer and more powerful than ever before. "Why would I surrender when I'm about to kill my first Aethersynth!" 

The leader, who appeared excited before, became increasingly solemn as power continued to accumulate around Alita. "Bitch!" he snarled, as surprisingly colourless myst started to coalesce around his orb hand. "Have it your way then!" 

He turned to his compatriots, who stood frozen in fear. "Fire, you idiots! She can still die from a bullet to the skull!" At the same time, he charged forward, fists raised. Tiny vents and metal plates shifted on his fingers as the cybernetics inside prepared for combat. Colourless myst continued swirling around his hand as well. 

'So, that's the attributeless myst that most humans use,' Damian muttered thoughtfully from up above. 'According to Mom, the aspect affinities we Eldkin possess are much more infrequent among humans. This version is a little more versatile but overall weaker in power. Most importantly, though, that catalyst is garbage compared to Nox Aeternum. She'll be fine.' 

Meanwhile, still scared shitless but also aggressive, brave, or disciplined enough to listen to their leader, the five grunts screamed as they fired their weapons at Alita. Some possessed arm-mounted cybernetic armaments like the man Damian killed earlier, while others were holding generic, if futuristic, guns. 

But whatever their source, a hail of bullets with varying calibres surged through the air at Alita. Instantly, the widely grinnng young woman jumped into action. 

With supernatural speed and reflexes, as boosted by the myst coursing through her body, she side-stepped the deadly hail, somersaulted over the catalyst-wielding leader's head, and launched herself at the four goons by using the alley wall as a springboard. 

The alley was only a few steps wide and just about ten times as long, so there really wasn't much room, allowing Alita to reach them quickly, completely ignoring their catalyst-wielding leader. 

She reached the first goon before any of them could react and swung Damian's sword in a wide arc without much skill, completely relying on power. But in this case, power was all she needed. 

Nox Aeternum, sparking with crimson lightning, sliced effortlessly through the goon's body. Blood both splattered and evaporated while his body sagged to the ground, now in two pieces. 

But at this point, Alita was forced to halt for a moment, astonished at her own power. "Shit!" he cursed, filled with hyperactive excitement as she looked down at her own hands. "Is this what those Glowrats up in their towers feel like all the time?!" 

"Holy—! She killed Ian!" one goon cried out in a panic and started to back off a little, slowly inching towards the alley's entrance. 

"Keep firing, you glitch brains!" the leader screamed at them in a heavy voice as he quickly turned on his axis to pursue Alita. "And you! Don't make things worse for yourself, girl!" 

"Hehe, I could say the same about you!" Alita answered without even looking at the charging fist-fighter. Instead, she focused her gaze on the next goon and raised her blade. 

At the same time, two of the remaining goons managed to find their courage and continue firing, screaming in terror all the while. Bullets flew in her direction again, but she was now far too close to avoid them. Instead, she acted on instinct, roaring as a wave of crimson lightning surged from her body, blocking most of the incoming fire but not all… 

She felt the impacts on her body, but the pain was no more than a dull aching as adrenaline and myst coursed through her. The excited grin remained as her blade came down and sliced the next goon in half. 

"Dammit, aim for the head!" their leader exclaimed as he charged Alita, fists raised, now no more than a step away from her. Finally, Alita glanced his way and noticed the sledgehammer-like fists inches away from her face.