Maximum stood completely still as it stared at the man before him.
Donning black armor with mysterious blue markings all over his limbs and torso, along with a black mask accentuated with glowing blue horns, this was a figure that radiated raw power.
The Maximum hated him.
It didn't know why or how, but it had seen this man before, and more than the four-eyed man or its hunger, it instantly hated him.
Out of pure instinct, it lunged at the figure again, ready to attack despite having received a devastating blow to the gut before.
It clearly didn't learn its lesson the first time, as it received another powerful blow to the gut, more powerful than the first in fact, which sent it flying across the corridor.
Again.
The creature immediately recovered from this blow, however, and watched the man look at it with hatred building within the center of its core.
For a brief moment their eyes met from a distance.
Until suddenly there was no distance between the two.
"I feel like I've seen you before," Jake said, close enough to the creature's face it could hear him breathe. It seems in the blink of an eye, Jake has run towards the creature with his super speed.
Something Zack found extremely reckless to do.
"Jake! What the hell are you doing?!"
Zack screamed as a drop of cold sweat left his scalp and fell on the chest of a confused Paulina, who was watching the two begin to bicker.
"Look, man, just stay where you are! I got this. It seems I've seen this thing before somewhere, but I can't tell where."
"So you're telling me you know this thing?"
Zack screamed as a vein on his head started to pop.
As the two bickered, Paulina looked at Zack's friend, Jake. She knew about him and his mission involving the Shadow Baron but didn't hear any more of it. Not that she wanted to. The less said about the Lost Light, the better.
But this guy?
She immediately scanned him out of curiosity and gasped at her discovery.
"What's wrong, Paulina?"
Zack asked her.
"Th-this guy? He's your friend, Jake, right?"
"Yeah. You're the one who didn't want to talk about him, considering he's connected to the Lost Light now. What's wrong?"
"That blue energy he's radiating. It isn't Muman."
"What do you mean? He got his ability from the Shadow energy awakening his Muman genes. At least, that's what we were told."
"This isn't Muman genes, Zack. Neither is it Shadow energy. It's something else."
Paulina said as she turned toward the creature to give it a scan as well.
"This thing we've been fighting, it's some bizarre combination of Muman genes, some its own and others resembling Mr. E."
"Then it must be some sick experiment of his."
Zack said, looking at the creature, starting to feel somewhat sorry for it once he realized it had been put through such torture.
"Yes... but what's weird is it also has Shadow energy mixed in there as well."
"What?! But Mr. E doesn't have access to Shadow energy, so how does it have it?"
"Because maybe it didn't get it from Mr. E, but it already had some. Maybe it's... it's a member of the Lost Light."
Paulina said as she began to shake, now realizing the severity of the situation.
"So you're telling me this thing is some fusion of Muman genes and Shadow energy like Jake?"
"Yes, but I don't detect any Shadow energy in Jake at all. It's something else. Some sort of blue energy I've never seen before. And it appears to be reacting to the creature's Shadow energy. It's... fusing with it."
Once Zack heard this, he took a good look at the creature and noticed its body was mutating. Its pitch-black body parts and stomach began to glow blue all of a sudden.
"Ugh... Jake!"
Paulina cried out to him, getting his attention for a brief moment.
"Ah! You! I remember you! You're Zack's girlfriend. I don't think we've met. What are you doing here? Are you a super too?"
"Never mind that! Stay away from that thing. It's radiating Shadow energy, and whatever your body is made of is somehow reacting to it!"
"Oh, is that a fact?"
Jake said, frowning under his mask and turning back to the creature.
He noticed that his energy was causing the monster to mutate back into a smaller form. As blue energy began to envelop its entire body, its shape began changing from a hulk-like physique to something much less grotesque.
Something resembling that of a human.
Jake, now realizing what his energy was doing to the creature, rushed at it with maximum speed and proceeded to punch it again.
... and again...
...and again.
"What the hell is he..."
Zack said before Paulina intervened.
"He's curing it!"
"How?! You can't cure Muman mutation! You can suppress it, sure, but cure it?!"
"Because the creature isn't fully a Muman."
"What?"
"It seems the creature's nature is like some kind of matryoshka dolls scenario. Its Muman mutation is covering up its Shadow energy, causing the two energies to fight for control, turning the creature into this abomination. Jake's blue energy is merging with the Shadow energy, empowering it and allowing it to take over and return the guy to his human form."
"Woah... so does that mean that Jake can empower Shadow energy users?"
"I think so..."
Paulina said, but her mind quickly drifted towards another thought.
"If the Lost Light got their hands on this guy... we're all screwed."
Jake kept on hitting the creature, and for a while it couldn't retaliate. All it could do was lie down and take the hits as its body began to shrink down, causing it so much pain it began to wail in agony.
On hearing this, Jake suddenly stopped.
"J-Jake? What are you doing?"
Paulina said, afraid the thing would get back up with this window of opportunity.
"He can't."
"What?"
"He's starting to feel bad for it. I've known Jake for quite a while, and he isn't the type to let an animal suffer."
"Animal?! That thing is..."
"A mindless beast that runs on instinct. Your point?"
Paulina stayed silent. She got what Zack meant and got why he stopped. Despite this though, she couldn't allow this thing to return to its rampage.
"Jake! Finish it! Don't let its cries stop you! Take a look!"
Paulina said, pointing to none other than the injured Stacya.
Jake turned towards her and was horrified he didn't notice. She was bruised, and thanks to a horrible broken leg, she was in too much pain to notice him barge in.
Jake wanted to run over to her but then heard a small whimper from behind.
It was trying to get up.
Jake turned back to the creature and realized he couldn't allow something like this to keep going and hurting people.
Charging his arm with even more blue energy, causing it to glow so bright it made the onlookers start squinting, he punched the creature's face one last time.
The energy quickly engulfed the creature's whole body, causing it to scream in intense agony as its body morphed and smoothened to create a human form.
That's when the energy began to glow red.
Suddenly, the creature exploded in a giant ball of black limbs, gore, and red energy, sending everyone flying towards the nearest walls and blinding them all temporarily as well.
It was over. Jake had won...
To be continued...