Hero Association Online Part 5
Proxima Midnight narrowed her eyes when she heard those words. To her, they sounded absurdly arrogant coming from a mere human.
For an instant, her disdainful expression seemed to grow colder. As if she had just realized that the woman standing in front of her was not only confident, but didn't even seem to be taking her completely seriously.
That irritated her more than she was willing to admit.
Proxima Midnight tightened her grip on the spear and its glow intensified. The energy along its blade split into several lines, as if small dark bolts were running across its entire length before gathering once more at the tip.
Wanda watched the change, slightly furrowing her brow for a moment.
Proxima didn't respond.
She simply took a step forward and disappeared with surprising speed.
It wasn't teleportation. Wanda could feel that. It was pure movement.
She appeared directly in front of Wanda, her spear thrusting toward Wanda's neck.
But before it could reach her, a barrier of red magic appeared in front of her, stopping the spear's tip.
The strike hit the barrier with such force that the protective shield shattered like glass. Even Wanda's eyes widened slightly at that.
Wanda instantly lowered her head on reflex as a laser beam shot out from the spear's tip, releasing immense heat that stretched several meters with ease, showing just how dangerous it would be to take that attack directly.
Several nearby heroes were forced to step back.
The island tilted once again, though this time several glowing hands, force fields, and emergency engines activated by the base's engineers managed to stabilize it.
More than one hero wanted to join that battle.
But under Owen's orders, none of them moved aside from protecting the island. To be honest, for them this was little more than entertainment right now, something that didn't even require anyone else to participate.
And if they did, the island would probably be destroyed in no time.
Wanda straightened herself after dodging the deadly beam and moved her hand as another thrust came directly toward her chest, redirecting the spear's tip.
With that same hand she made a quick motion, and a piece of ground beneath her rose up and transformed at high speed into a spike, shooting directly toward Proxima Midnight.
Proxima spun her spear, destroying the attack effortlessly.
But Wanda, still keeping her hand raised, closed her fingers together, and the small fragments of debris created when Proxima shattered the spike glowed red and flew directly toward her face.
Forcing her to turn her head away for an instant.
Wanda took advantage of that moment to raise both hands.
And the ground beneath Proxima Midnight suddenly rose into two walls at her sides and slammed together with an explosion of stone.
But Thanos's daughter, displaying tremendous skill, had jumped backward at the last moment, avoiding the attack.
Though not avoiding being covered in dust.
She spun the spear in her hand as energy once again flowed through it, but this time at a much faster rate.
And instantly she pointed it at Wanda and fired the energy beam.
At the same time, Wanda raised her hand covered in Chaos Magic and a deep crimson beam of energy shot forward, the two attacks colliding in the center.
For several seconds, magical sparks from both energies crashed against one another while residual energy flew in every direction, tearing apart the ground and damaging several nearby buildings.
Seeing this, Wanda raised her other hand and poured more power into the attack.
Then she lifted both hands, forcing Proxima Midnight to raise her spear upward, redirecting the energy beams into the sky.
The clouds split in half as the energy from both attacks sliced through them, leaving a perfect line down the center that could be seen even from space.
But Proxima Midnight, like the veteran warrior she was, didn't allow herself to be distracted for even a moment.
The spear charged with energy again in her hands, but this time the power began splitting into three glowing tips.
For a second, it looked as though there were three spears layered over one another.
Wanda tilted her head slightly at the sight, raising an eyebrow.
Proxima Midnight threw the spear directly toward Wanda, who raised her hand to stop it.
But halfway there, the three versions of the spear rapidly separated until the weapon split into three different attack trajectories.
And two of those spears were made entirely of energy, and they looked anything but weak.
Wanda's eyes glowed with red magic and she moved her hands in a wide circle to stop the attack. But only the original spear halted for a fraction of a second. The other two, as if they possessed a truly absurd amount of power, didn't stop.
The moment Wanda felt that energy barely touch her magic, her eyes widened.
But she instantly realized that even if she dodged those attacks, the island might take the hit.
So instead of moving, she crouched down and slammed her hand against the ground.
Which caused the island to suddenly drop several meters, creating a massive turbulence while nobody understood why.
Until they saw the two energy spears fly across the sky not far above them before a blinding flash of light that covered half the sky suddenly exploded like a nuclear bomb when the two collided with each other.
Wanda didn't even turn around.
She could feel the explosion in the distance while her gaze remained fixed on Proxima Midnight and her spear.
"Now I understand why this Thanos guy let you come," Wanda said, more serious than before.
Proxima pulled with her hand.
The original spear returned to her grasp.
"And I understand why he's wary of you," Proxima Midnight said, while she too wore a much more serious expression than before. The disdain she had shown at the beginning was gone, replaced by a fighting instinct that could practically be felt in the air.
On Owen's side, Corvus slowly spun his halberd while his wounds finished healing.
His gaze no longer carried the same disdain from the beginning, just like his wife's. Even so, he still looked arrogant and fearless. Though for a moment, something else could be seen in his eyes.
At least Owen noticed it.
Corvus lowered his stance slightly, gripping the halberd with both hands while never taking his eyes off Owen, who stood there holding his two daggers as if both men were measuring each other.
"We investigated you. We know your body isn't normal," Corvus said with a snort. "Let me tell you, mine isn't either," Thanos's son added.
Owen looked at him expressionlessly.
"Oh yeah?" he said in a dry, uninterested tone.
Corvus frowned in annoyance.
"Then let's see which one can endure more," he said as his halberd suddenly began to glow.
And he was the first to move, charging toward Owen at incredible speed, much faster than before.
The halberd descended diagonally and Owen raised only one dagger to block, already prepared to strike with the other.
But the instant the edges of both weapons met, a sharp screech rang out, as if something were trying to cut through his dagger on a molecular level.
Reacting in a fraction of a second, Owen glanced toward the dagger in his hand and twisted his wrist, turning the blade and forcing Corvus's halberd to slide off to the side.
At the same time, he lifted his leg into a kick, which began charging with kinetic energy the moment it left the ground.
Red repulsion energy from Owen flooded into it.
He kicked Corvus in the side.
Corvus also moved at an astonishing speed and defended himself with the shaft of his halberd.
But when the repulsion energy slammed into it, he was still blasted several meters backward before landing on his feet not far away.
Far enough for Owen to briefly look at his dagger.
Which now had a small nick along its edge.
Then he glanced at the ground where Corvus's halberd had barely touched when he redirected it.
It was a small cut.
But it looked as if it had been sliced on a molecular level, so perfect it was impossible.
At least for what was supposed to be an ordinary spear.
"Tsk. That was expensive," Owen said calmly, looking once more at the damaged dagger in his hand.
A weapon that was supposed to be impossible to destroy, considering it had been forged from the same material as the Destroyer of Asgard.
Yet there was no fear in his eyes toward either Corvus or his weapon.
But he did understand that the thing was quite dangerous.