An Invisible Edge slashed into the base of the tentacles that were about to pulp Multiman but unexpectedly, her Edge barely managed to carve an inch into the shadowy stuff before it got snuffed. Frowning, she immediately infused Radiance into the Edge and sent it off. This time, it visibly cut through several tentacles, just not the entire clump. It was enough to allow Multiman’s original to escape his death, but that was about it. 

Yuriko flew over the street, ten paces above. She had a hand on her hip while the other was lazily held out. “That’s enough bloodshed, I believe. Surrender.” Her voice sounded a bit off since the motorcycle helmet covered her entire head. 

“Screw you, freak!” Tentagirl screeched even as she cast her shadow underneath Yuriko. Dozens of tentacles emerged and shot towards her, only to flatten and diverge when she solidified her aura about a pace from her body. The golden glow was unavoidable, and it lit up the night sky, although it wasn’t much brighter than the night lamps…or street lights, she supposed.

Multiman’s original crawled away from the fray while his boosted clones merged into a one hundred twenty-eight-powered copy. The assault rifle bullets were almost as powerful as artillery shells, and he fired them in a three-round burst, all of which were directed at Tentagirl. 

Yuriko snapped her finger and bisected the clone from crown to groin. She interposed her aura between the shells and Tentagirl, quite sure the plucky villainess would die from it. 

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The rifle bullets even exploded like artillery. She let some of the shockwave pass her condensed aura, knocking Tentagirl on her bottom. But even discombobulated, the tentacles didn’t stop. They reached up and around Yuriko’s bubble and completed the encirclement after a few moments. Then they started to squeeze. 

“Not bad,” Yuriko muttered as she felt the tentacles’ strength. They were actually stronger than what her incarnation body could put out, something that wasn’t so surprising in this world. Micro fissures crawled across the surface of her armour, slowly growing as the pressure increased. Yuriko hummed, impressed. 

She could use Radiance to sear the tentacles off her bubble, but it would be a waste considering how quickly Tentagirl could create new ones. Instead, she pushed the bubble outwards and spread out the tentacles, giving her a gap to slip through when she suddenly collapsed it. Strong they may be, but leverage mattered. She flew down towards the street while Tentagirl screamed in fright. 

The girl leapt out of the way and tried to conjure more tentacles, but got too distracted when she tripped over someone and rolled and flopped. Yuriko landed right next to her with her boot above the girl’s throat, not quite touching, but the threat was quite implicit. 

“Surrender. I won’t give you another chance,” Yuriko said softly, though with her Mien flashing Terror for a moment. 

Trembling, the girl nodded. Huh. Come to think of it, from what she could see of the woman’s face, Tentacle looked older than Yuriko. 

She snapped her fingers and sliced Multiman Original’s assault rifle, deducing that he copied his equipment, too. Huh, where was the third cape? 

Thud.

Yuriko blinked and turned around. The third cape with a balaclava covering his face, had somehow snuck behind her and attempted to touch her. Curiously, his attempt was at the gap beneath her helmet and her cropped jacket’s collar, where there was a gap that exposed a bit of skin. 

He leapt out of easy reach as soon as she turned, eyeing her warily. Yuriko shot her Animakinesis at him, intent on grabbing hold and immobilising him, but even before the golden hand could reach him, he already ducked out of the way. Follow-up attempts failed because he managed to move just enough for her to miss by a fraction of an inch or so. 

Yuriko escalated slowly. From everything she could see, the man…boy, wasn’t any tougher than a mortal, or perhaps a baseline Altered. He was handily avoiding her attempts at capture, and she didn’t quite want to kill him offhand via Invisible Edge. She snapped her fingers to unleash an Edge, but she aimed it away from him, thinking to find out if he could see it. He didn’t react, but then, she set the Edge to dissipate before it got more than a pace behind him. 

With her boot restingo Tentagirl, she couldn’t quite close in. her kinesis was painfully obvious, and she didn’t actually have the spare volume to just surround and grab him. She could if he were closer, but not at the range he was dancing on. Well, she could do something else. 

She’d given quite a bit of thought into what her costume could carry and she included a bunch of zip ties to secure prisoners. She wasn’t sure how that would help against Tentagirl, however, since it didn’t look like she needed her hands to cast her shadow. It was only because she was clearly threatening her and the fact that her perception was locked on was Yuriko secure in keeping just one strand focused on the girl. Yeah, zip ties are probably no go. 

Instead, she used three strands to focus her kinesis on Slipperyboy, but as with his new nick, he was incredibly hard to capture. He wasn’t moving faster than her Anima, far slower actually. Slow enough that if he didn’t move out of the way in advance, he would have been caught.

And…that was his power, wasn’t it? Combat precognition? Or perhaps an incredible combat intuition and modelling? It was the same for her, either way. She sped up her grabs, mixed in Edges that were tinged with some golden light. She prodded and tested over the next minute, dissecting how his power worked. He was also able to knock out Cardsharp with a touch so it wasn’t all precognition. 

And was it precog or sharp intuition? Yuriko was leaning towards the former considering he hadn’t made a mistake yet. Oh, she could have ramped up her speed enough that no matter what he did, she’d catch him, but that point was actually close to her limits too. How far ahead was he able to look? And how powerful was his mind that he could parse through all the probabilities to hit the right ones all the time? 

Oh. His face was practically swimming with sweat, and he was slowing down a tad. The game lasted less than two minutes. What a quick shot, Ehehe.

She was just about to finish it when, “Halt! Villain!” 

The shout was followed by a wide beam of coherent light, shot straight at her torso from an upward angle. Yuriko caught the beam with her aura and stopped it cold. It had enough kinetic force to knock someone down, but not enough heat to be a danger. She looked up and saw someone flying down from the skies. A figure surrounded by white light. The glow was bright enough to blind, especially in the twilight, but Yuriko could see curves, so probably feminine. 

The flyer shot another beam at Yuriko, stronger this time, but easily countered. The failed attack prompted a dozen more, then, a heavily charged one that split when she countered it rather than get negated. The fractured beams slammed into the asphalt and threw up gravel, which plinked painfully against the fallen. Huh, where was Slipperyboy? 

Tentagirl was struggling against her foot, but the moment Yuriko looked away, she’d already begun her counterattack. Tentacles made of inky darkness erupted from behind her and slammed into Yuriko’s Anima. Because she was restraining the woman with her foot, her aura there was thinner than normal, and Tentagirl used it to her advantage by wrapping her calf with several tendrils, then a simultaneous pull and a slam from the opposite direction, and with the unfortunate coincidence of Glowgirl’s blasts, unbalanced Yuriko enough that Tentagirl slithered out of the way. Before Yuriko could react, another blast by Glowgirl slammed into her Anima, and this one with enough force to crack her armour. 

“Surrender, villain!” Glowgirl yelled again. She floated about a dozen paces above the street, and about the same distance from her. “Look how many people you hurt with your larceny!” Glowgirl’s voice echoed oddly, but maybe its because of the light. And even though the light might have been enough to prevent people from seeing her face, she still wore a white domino mask anyway. From her features, she looked younger than Yuriko by a couple of years. 

Glowgirl shot another beam at Yuriko, but still to no effect. Glowgirl’s face showed frustration but her repeated exhortations remained calm. 

Yuriko floated off the street to Glowgirl’s visible surprise. She started and scooted back half a dozen paces. 

“Who are you!” Glowgirl demanded. 

“Regalia,” Yuriko answered after a moment. She’d picked the cape name after a few days of deep thinking. Using her real name felt gauche, and the new one seemed on theme anyway. As for why Regalia, it referred to her flared aura. 

“Brilliance.” 

“Pretentious,” Yuriko nodded. 

“Fark you, villain!”

“What makes you think I’m a villain?” 

Brilliance gestured at the surroundings. The trio’s goons were still laid out, and Cardsharp was still out. Multiman was captured, and the the flier arrived while Yuriko was stepping on someone’s throat and making the last guy dance…

Huh. 

She did come off as the baddie. 

Yuriko tilted her head and chuckled. “If I said I was not, would you believe me?”

“Surrender then!”

“Hmmm, no.” Yuriko shook her head, exaggerating the gesture because of her helmet. “You should prove yourself capable first.” 

“Why you! I’ll have you know I’m part of an independent Protectorate associate group!” 

“That’s quite the mouthful.” 

“Shut up!” 

“Well, why aren’t you attacking?” 

“Why aren’t you attacking if you aren’t surrendering?” 

“The real villains are escaping,” Yuriko noted. Tentagirl, Slipperyboy, and Battleboy were dragging themselves to their escape vehicle. 

Snap. Swish. Hsss!

Tires slashed. No escape for the wicked. Not on cars, at least. Huh, the driver’s fine, and only a few of the products have been ruined. She heard sirens going off in the distance. However, some of the villains did need medical assistance. 

Unless they all had the same accelerated healing that Scarlett and the other club members have…were they club members? Or were they victims of the Unfettered, too? 

“Don’t ignore me!” Brilliance screamed as she let loose a barrage of beams. Yuriko slapped one away, ducked under one, then juked sideways to avoid the rest. It was odd how Brilliance projected her attacks. She was actually punching the air in front of her. 

Yuriko hummed as she darted close, almost up to Brilliance’s face. The floating glowstick squeaked and fell back, actually, it looked like she lost control of her flight and dropped five paces down. Yuriko grabbed a flailing arm and tossed the flyer up, prompting another squeal. 

“Ahwawawa!” 

Short beam bursts out of her flailing limbs while Yuriko used her kinesis to stop them from damaging the concrete. 

“How long have you been a cape anyway?” Yuriko asked idly while Brilliance recovered her aplomb. 

“Two weeks…” the girl said sheepishly. Then she stiffened and pointed at Yuriko accusingly. “You’re trying to get info about my identity! Villain! Repent!” 

Yuriko tilted her head, amused. “I’m not. But you might need a better mask and more concealing clothes.” Brilliance was wearing civilian clothing beneath the glow. “Anyone wearing sunglasses can stare at you and maybe see.” She wasn’t sure of that, come to think of it. But since her Colligia was Radiance, bright lights were the least of her problems. 

“You!” 

“So, you wanna fight or what?” Yuriko mocked. 

“I am!” Brilliance air dashed backwards another ten paces and put up a boxer’s stance. “Watatatatata!” She jabbed and sent out beam bursts. They curved and coverage around Yuriko’s position, but did little more than make her aura waver for a bit. 

“Bril!!! What the fark are you doing, you daft chick!” Another cape ran down the street. He wore a domino mask, and his face was framed with soft golden curls. “You’re letting the Duad and the Caplan gang escape!” 

“Huh?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep