Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 496: Bone Crown. (Part Three.)

The bone wall crumbled, and the Pope emerged from it. His eyes landed on Werewolf, but the instant he saw the crimson claws, his anger gave way to amusement.

"Uh-oh... didn’t know muties could use Sorcery as well."

Paying the comment no attention, the white hero shifted his gaze between the red-haired youth and the old man.

"Hey, fur face," the youth snapped his fingers a couple of times. "Stop acting as if this has anything to do with me. If I get a single scratch because of this, I’m gonna sue the fuck out of you."

Confusion clouded Werewolf’s thoughts, causing him to wonder if something was wrong with the youth’s head. Didn’t he attack White Arrow just now?

"I’m warning you," he said. "You better not make this more complicated."

The last word seemed to resonate with the furry hero, and he turned his gaze to the old man. That’s right. The mission was to capture Bone Crown’s leader, the Pope. That was the only thing he should be focusing on right now. Everything else could wait.

His muscles tensed once more, and he prepared to resume his assault.

When his gaze locked onto the old man, Werewolf saw him remove the cap from a small vial, then proceed to spill its contents. The vial seemed to be filled with white powder that scattered before even reaching the floor.

Bone Powder.

Realizing what it was, Werewolf didn’t hesitate to lunge. The Pope leaped backwards as the powder surrounding him coalesced, instantly forming a recognizable shape.

A giant skeletal arm spawned from behind the Pope. It’s creepy, long fingers scraped against the ceiling as it came swinging down, but as fast as it was, Werewolf side-stepped it with ease and clawed at his target.

A white plane formed in his path, but his crimson claws tore through it like a burning knife through a sheet of paper. The slash still failed to reach the target, who immediately distanced himself, forming a second arm. This one held a massive tower shield, and just by looking, one could tell that it was far sturdier than the white plank that was intended to block the earlier slash.

"Damned monster," the Pope clicked his tongue. "Where in the world did you learn to do that?"

Not intending on answering, Werewolf went for another attack. He was pushing himself closer and closer to the threshold of Level 5, and because of that, his thoughts seemed to be clearer as time went on, leaving nothing but pure killing intent.

He dodged a swing from the skeletal hand and jumped aside, narrowly evading a spike that sprang up from the floor. Another one shot out from the ceiling, and a third came from behind him, all placed.

All they did was slow him down, but they failed to stop him. Stretching his arm back, he prepared to rip the giant shield that the Pope brought forth. The distance vanished as his claws tore through the air, but before he could go through with the attack, the shield’s surface seemed to bubble up. Sensing the danger, the furry hero reversed his course, barely avoiding being impaled by the dozen on spikes shooting out of the shield’s surface.

"!!!"

Though the spikes failed to get him, the Pope’s skeletal arm managed to sink its claws into his left shoulder. Werewolf countered. The crimson arcs spreading from his claws slashed through the bone, dicing the arm.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t even take that point as the sliced arm shattered, once again turning into a cloud of white powder before gathering into a new form.

Three white missiles were spawned and then launched by an invisible force. One grazed the furry hero’s right flank, one shattered against his crimson claws, but the third pierced into his left leg. Recalling what happened moments ago, he grabbed the spear and yanked it out, tossing it away just before a dozen spikes sprang out of it.

Bone Sorcery both sounded and looked simple, but it turned out to be deadlier than he had anticipated. At the moment, Werewolf was fully transformed. Not only that, but he was at the threshold of Level 5. His hide was tough enough to block bullets without receiving a single scratch, and the muscles underneath weren’t so easily torn. The fact that the bone claws and spikes managed to injure him meant that the Sorcery had a lot more to it than just creating weapons out of ground human bones.

Another thing that became clear throughout this exchange was how formidable an opponent the Pope was. So far, the furry hero has yet to land a single hit on him—he didn’t even come close to landing one.

Werewolf retreated a few meters, his eyes watching his opponent as he took a few seconds to allow his wounds to heal and think of a different approach.

The Pope took that chance to prepare for the next phase of battle. The white powder surrounding him had grown thicker, and from it, more spears began to form. Something about them seemed different, however.

The spears began to spin, and by the time he realized it, the first one exploded forward.

Moving entirely by instinct, Werewolf dropped to the floor, barely evading the projectile. A sharp pain came from his right ear, showing that he wasn’t entirely unscathed.

The explosion that followed the spear hitting the building on the other side of the street was no different from the strike of a tank shell. Hearing it, Werewolf finally understood what was different about the spears.

Each one had a head carved like a drill, and when spun at high speeds, they could practically ignore air resistance, piercing right through the barrier that would have slowed them down otherwise.

One strike. It would only take one strike from those projectiles, and he would be dead.

"By the way," sound seemed to disappear, as if the entire world had gone silent. "I’m still a civilian, you know?"