130 The Dark Prince Descends III : Currents In Moscow

Anton and I were circling each other like a pair of wild wolves, each observing the other person and looking for an opening to attack. In the case of Anton, he's a little mere relaxed than I was, which was understandable seeing as he had the ability to create barriers out of thin air, in fact a power of any sort would give him an edge over me regardless of how fast or strong I was, so quite frankly I had all of my attention on this fight.

I moved forwards throwing a right hook that Anton dodged by taking a step back, the punch over extended me as my body was bent to one side and my shoulders were facing Anton. I pushed off the balls of my feet, only to unceremoniously slam into his green barrier, there was a dull thud as Anton was not even shaken a little bit. After I lost contact with the barrier, it pulsed for a second and then released a shockwave that pushed me backwards, making my feet skid across the tiled floor and releasing squeaking sounds in the process.

This time Anton took the lead in attacking as he followed and sent a knee strike to my midriff, I dodged it and sent a left cross under his jaw, but the barrier intercepted my attack again, releasing another pulse wave that pushed me backwards three steps. And then Anton proceeded to slam his massive foot into my stomach, throwing me off my feet, on top of the table and across it to the other side where I landed along with a few dozen eating utensils.

I couldn't help but wheeze a bit, my breath seemingly escaping me and refusing to fill my lungs. This guy was just not powerful with his barriers, his strength was not something that can be underestimated. I raised my hands up and used the table to support myself, slowly getting back to my feet as my hands grabbed a pair of butter knives on the table. I had a suspicion about his ability, but I'm not exactly sure if it would work, but I had to get hit for me to find out, and that would definitely not be pleasant.

I threw the knife at him, not at all shaken as it bounced of his shield again! I jumped over the table, and attacked with a flying knee strike, but Anton caught me from mid air, grabbing my keg as he proceeded to slam me into the ground, cracking and destroying the tiles beneath me as the move was hard enough that some of those tiles even cut me. Anton dragged me back up to my feet, his massive hands on my collar and around my neck as he reared back and in much the same way I've been doing in the game, slammed his forehead against mine.

*Thud*

My vision went white for a moment as my legs seemed to have lost power. I was dazed and very much stunned because I felt as if someone just smashed a brick on my head, heck even I don't think a brick could cause this much damage to me. Anton's head seemed to be made of some sort of iron plate or worse a metal block.

*Thud!*

God! That hurts, I'm sure it would leave a nasty bruise by tomorrow, assuming of course that I would be able to survive Anton and his massive head. But it's now or never, I needed to focus! I needed to fight back! I could feel blood trickling down from my forehead and slowly covering my face, I was dazed and probably had a migraine, but there was no way I'm going to let Anton get the best of me.

I pushed my head forward, using whatever strength I had left and slammed it into Anton's approaching skull. Anton's hands released my collar, and I fell back dazed, like a sack of potatoes. But even Anton didn't fare any better as he took four shaky steps backwards and had to rely on the table for support. I shakily got back up to my feet, the air around me somehow become electrified as the sounds of crackling electricity seemed to sound out. Anton's barrier seemed impenetrable at the moment, however he could not maintain the barrier around his body whenever he moves. Which is to say the only time he's truly defenseless, is when he tries to attack me.

With shaky and unsteady gaits I moved towards him only to run head first into a barrier, however the moment I met the barrier white electrical currents ran across it's surface, making me surprised as I stepped back, and at the same moment I felt the change in my body. The currents danced over the surface of the barriers before disappearing into nothingness, I wasn't the only one surprised by the sudden appearance of the electrical current, Anton was also confused. And in the process of doing so, I noticed his barrier faltering and I rushed forward with even more speed than I thought capable.

*Crash!*

His barrier was made of energy, but I released a crashing sound as I smashed through it and sent an uppercut at Anton's jaw. However he seemed prepared as another barrier sprang up to life around him, either way, I had no intention of touching him as I pulled back my punch a bit and let my fist light graze the barrier.

But it seems the shocks I would receive this night wasn't yet over as a bolt of electricity cake out of my hand, smashed through the barrier and slammed into Anton carrying him off his feet almost five meters into the air, before sending him back down. Even though I was terribly surprised by the sudden turn of events, I wouldn't let an opportunity pass me by as I made sure to catch Anton under his legs, hanging his body over my shoulders as I tilted my body backwards, directly over the metal dining table as I slammed him into it.

*Bang!*

Another blast of electricity seemed to escape from my body, delivering a mild shock to Anton who's body vibrated under me, but that was not the end of it. My vision seemed to change, everything seemed slower, and Anton and everyone else within the dining hall was no longer made of flesh and blood, but rather of energy that seemed to gather in massive clusters within their brain, before moving down to their body, lighting up a brilliant path.

I got up and blinked my eyes, and the somewhat x-ray vision disappeared and I was back on my feet looking at Anton with a perplexed look on my face that gradually turned into one of realization. To put it simply, I had just awakened my metal human abilities, and it seems to be something connected to electrical currents, or at the very least the one within the body of a living thing.

I took a step back from Anton, hoping to clear my head, but even though I couldn't see said currents anymore, I could feel it. And it wasn't something as feeling the electrical currents in a human's body, I could also understand their intent and reasons for moving, like I could read the currents in a person's body just as easily as Morrigan might be able to read the currents in a person's brain. I had a vague idea of what was going on, but I was still in the middle of a fight, and in that moment my senses were given me warnings.

I quickly shifted to the right, moving really fast my body left a silver white glow behind. Electricity sparkled in between my fingers as I dodged the bullet from Anton, but it wasn't over as he kept on squeezing the trigger. However I knew when, and how he was going to do it before he did. And so I stepped back, moved left, squatted and jumped to the sides as I dodged or rather evaded and got out of the path of his bullets before they were fired.

*Click! Click! Click!*

Seems Anton decided to give up on a fair fight the moment he realized that the rules of the game had changed. With me now displaying abilities, rather than finding out if my abilities were a counter to his, which quite frankly they're not, he would rather just nip the problem In the bud and avoid an unforeseen developments. He jumped back up to his teeth, his dagger in his hand as he held it skillfully and advanced towards me with massive strides.

Obviously he could not use his barrier to kill me, there was a lot of potential to his ability, at least I think so anyway; however he has not trained it enough, or it has grown strong enough to the point where he didn't have to take a passive stance when he used it. And since he couldn't rely on me or my people to exhaust ourselves against his barrier, it would be better if he killed me instead, besides I suspect it's not so easy to keep barriers active for as long as he had, never the less he was making a big mistake, but far be it for me to tell him so, this was turning out just fine for me.

He sliced down with his dagger, but I moved to the side and sent a jab to his throat the same instance he moved. He had good battle instincts as he stepped back and angled his blade, sending it stabbing to the side, directly towards my heart. But my left fist was faster and slammed into his jaw, pushing him back and making the knife lightly graze the button on my silk white shirt that was currently way more bloody than it originally was.

Anton stepped back reeling from the lunch and probably the doze of electrical currents that went with it. I sent a kick to his side, but his barrier sprang up and a dull thud resounded as my leg hit it. But that wasn't the end as I jumped up using my other leg as spring and gave a one footed drop kick against the chest of the approaching Anton, who immediately dropped his shield for a retaliatory attack.

There was so much power behind the kick that Anton was sent blasting backwards, his body smashing through a few chairs and clipping his head on one of the legs of the metal table, causing it to shake and a plate of chicken to fall on his head. He quickly got back up to his feet, but before he could form his barrier, a flying knee strike from me, smashed into his nose and sent him reeling again, just in time for me to send a super kick under his jaw that forced him to sit back on his ass, his mind completely dazed.

I moved behind him, wrapping my hands around his neck in an attempt to break it. But in that moment I felt all of the electrical currents within his body, the paths they follow was a whole lot more different than another people here. There was a fundamental truth to what I was experiencing in his body, as it seems as if the currents went through his body in a set pattern before moving back to his brain. And every time that current moved, I could feel the barrier covering Lamkova and the rest of her packets flickering just as dazed and weak as the person who created it.

I think maybe what I was seeing wasn't just electrical currents, for me it was just easier to perceive it as currents, since that was my own ability, and whatever it is, it had taken on a form similar to the electrical currents in our body. For lack of a better naming sense, I think I'm going to call it (META-CURRENTS). This was probably the energy or source of his abilities, and the fact that I could see it did not seem to be the end of my discovery. Relying solely on instinct, I closed my eyes.

I could see everything within Anton's body, the memories hidden within his DNA, and every move, twist and shift the META-CURRENTS in his body ever made. And then I took a deep breath, opening my eyes in the process as I began to draw that current into my body. I felt Anton stiffen as the nerves in his body seemed to light up with a green glow, then all of the light started rushing towards his skull. His body shook intensely, as a bloody red mist began to escape from his body and the nerves in his head lit up like a disco ball.

The currents gushed into my body, intermingling and becoming a part of me, I could feel new cells being awakened inside of me as I for all intents and purpose, completely absorbed every last trace of Anton's power. His previous healthy and massive form had shrunk as his skin became leathery, and the massive absorption of energy evaporated every single liquid within his body, until all that was left was a husk. The green glow over his head faded and I let go of Anton, and right before mine and everyone else's eyes, Anton the barrier user, turned to dust.

I'm pretty sure it was a jarring experience for the others, but it was an even more enlightening experience for me. Never in my life would I have expected such a thing to happen, but now that it did.....I was freaking terrified. But that was something I could deal with later, because right now! I still had some people to kill.