A Second Chance

Part 17 - You're a beast after all...

I was now at the sewer system.

I still had a hard time believing that I actually beat Abyss and that at his full form. My guess was that he fed on fear, so by conquering it, I managed to defeat him and win. 

This meant that now there was Venom, Shockwave, and Ripper: they would be much harder opponents to fight, especially Shockwave and Ripper. 

Not to mention, Abyss, despite being the weakest of the four, gave me a run for my money. 

If I hadn't had that conversation with Mark about accepting my failures, I would have lost then and there to begin with. 

Well, at least I know some more about The Vipers. Come to think of it, Nightshade's name seems to be similar to Abyss and he said something about her being the boss. I wonder if she can access it. 

"Is Venom supposed to be lurking down here?" Mark inquired.

"That's the word," I replied, placing my trust in The Swordsman's intel. "I mean, The Swordsman has the best intel on The Vipers at the moment," 

"Seems logical," Mark agreed.

"How'd Abyss doing, by the way?" 

"He's currently locked up in a cell where he can't unleash his powers," Mark replied. "It's a relief, huh?"

"Definitely," I sighed. "I'd hate to see him causing any more trouble,"

It's weird that the fighter ranked 7th isn't present in The Purge. I thought he wasn't an executive, so he should have a presence here. 

"Mark," I began, "what's the story with the ranked 7th fighter?"

"You mean the blond guy?" 

"Yeah, him," 

"Well, ever since Billy dealt with him, he remained under the radar. No one's spotted him in The Purge or elsewhere." Mark replied. "He's pretty much like not in this city. Maybe he's overseeing another important district of The Vipers,"

"What?!" I asked in shock. "So he's not here?"

"It's a possibility," Mark replied. "I mean he's ranked higher than Ripper, he should've been in The Purge by now."

If I recall correctly, Abyss was ranked 11th, Venom was ranked 10th, Shockwave was ranked 9th, and Ripper was ranked 8th. The ranked 5th fighter/advisor would be somewhere between that gap. 

I decided to fight the squad in descending rank order(greatest to least rank) so that I could go from weakest to strongest. Say I fought Shockwave first, it's entirely possible that Abyss and Venom could have come to help defeat an already struggling version of me.  

Not to mention, they actually had powers, unlike those ranked below them - that was such a surprise! 

I never expected Abyss to defeat The Swordsman so easily, even when there was just a one-rank difference but Abyss' powers must have made it so. That really just showed how strong the higher-ranked elite fighters were. 

I guess it was true - those ranked 11th - 8th showed the true strength of the elites.

Well, that's only because of their powers, right?

I had a feeling that if their powers were removed, they would be ranked much lower. 

Abyss would definitely be lower ranked than The Trickster at a minimum - I beat Abyss effortlessly once I managed to cancel out his powers. 

I would assume that the others are going to be around The Swordsman's strength in terms of hand-to-hand since The Swordsman said that they were pretty good at close combat. I would be fighting them next...