Chương 54: To Overcome an Overcomer

General Lennox theorized that an average Unlocked individual would be able to evade and initiate high-speed attacks based on two factors; perception and their skill. The common ratio to an average Unlocked follows that 70% of their total evasive capabilities are based on Perception. The remaining 30% relies on the individual's skill and techniques.

The odd-ones-out in this theory, are individuals with Selective Unlocking, like Arthur, who through their unique state can allow improving their reliance on skill to a greater extent.

Another group who do not apply to this theory, are Overcomers. Lennox believes that to be an Overcomer, the individual must have at least 50% of their evasive capabilities dependent on skill.

And amongst all Overcomers, there was one who had the highest skill-dependent, evasive capabilities. The more his Perception grew, it would be multiplied by his high skills and technique.

That Overcomer brought terror towards his enemies.

Gargantuan's would even gather together and form a gravity field to maximize their light-speed attacks but use this immense firepower only as a defensive measure. It was reckless for them to attack as this Overcomer could "dance" in the midst of light-speed attacks.

Lennox, who constantly clashed and sparred with this Overcomer, estimated that nearly 80% of this Overcomer's evasive capabilities is based on skill alone.

Seeker knew of this Overcomer's strength. Simply put, an Unbecoming Advent Richie, can face an average Inhuman Proficient in battle and evade attacks.

The hidden bullet zipping through his own hair wasn't Seeker's trump card.

The bullet zoomed quickly towards Richie's face, but with a simple raise of his blade, Richie made the bullet 'slide' on the blade and redirected the trajectory of the bullet. As he was used the blade of his sword to redirect the bullet, he was already moving this same sword to slash Seeker.

Seeker stomped his right foot hard the moment the sniping bullet came into view and evaded the quick slash attack by jumping towards the left. Seeker then used his own sword to stab the nearest door to halt his flight.

The sword penetrated through the locking mechanism of the door and pierced through it. Richie was just behind him and was readying an upward slash as a combo to his previous downward slash which Seeker had just evaded.

Seeker stomped his left foot on the wall to stop the force of his jump and with another strong push, Seeker was now jumping upwards and was hurled nearly an inch away from the ceiling. He left his sword to remain lodged through the door. There was no time to retrieve it. However, Seeker was able to recover his balance from the piercing thrust and his kick made him soar higher.

This sudden change of direction made Richie miss yet another attack. His rising slash had to redirect some gunfire along the way and these milliseconds allowed Seeker to stay alive.

But this midair evasion was more than reckless. Seeker was sure to die this time. Cliff and Arthur's attacks would not be enough to hinder this certain-kill strike.

Richie readied his blade to slash. He wouldn't need to look back at Seeker. He was confident Seeker would be sliced.

Seeker turned midair and aimed his gun at Richie. These attacks would mean nothing.

Just then, the door where the sword was lodged in suddenly burst wide open.

Strangely, the sword that was once stuck also gave out and flew to the side as the door itself also opened.

Richie glared at the figure that stood behind this suddenly opening door and had one simple thought.

"That's one hell of a shotgun."

Charles had entered this room through the window. But knowing that Richie had an absurd sense of hearing, Charles made a strong jump from the window towards the door. He shoved the shotgun onwards to push the protruding blade off the door. And thanks to the powerful thrust that Seeker did to destroy the locking mechanism, the door could easily give way when Charles kicked the door.

Without missing a single second, Charles opened fire.

The pellets of the shotgun were zooming in towards Richie. Even Richie wouldn't be able to evade all of these bullets or use his sword to redirect every single pellet.

Or so they thought.

Overcomers have that title because they were Overcomers. Whatever the challenge, they would overcome. The moment the Richie heard the door opening, he knew he would die if things remained the same. It had been a very long time that he reached this level of danger.

Richie was so angry. He underestimated his enemies and he would have died. But this raging pride and the desire to live allowed him to reach what Seeker and his friends called the Unbecoming Proficient stage.

The sudden increase of his capabilities surprised Richie. He knew what to do if he needed to survive this surrounding barrage of bullets.

The moment he heard the door opened, Richie had already stepped back instinctively.

As if acting in synch with Charles' attack, everyone else were firing gunshots at the same time.

Richie frowned. Despite his new unlocked potential, he was still in a pinch. The bullets were traveling in a direction which anticipated his moves. Seeker had shot a bullet at his location. If he remained there he would deal with the shotgun pellets and Seeker's attack.

Richie jumped headlong towards the incoming shotgun pellets. He used his sword and with a rotating sweep, he redirected the bullets that would meet him in the trajectory of his dive. The sweeping attack redirected the bullets and created a small gap which in the middle and allowed him to dive through the shotgun attack unscathed.

Charles was already backing away to ready his shotgun for another attack. Seeker was preparing his footing to kick the wall and maintain his aerial advantage.

As he landed on the ground he easily dodged the incoming bullets that were sent by Arthur and Cliff.

Richie's speed was faster than ever. His adaption to his new speed was so disgusting that it made even the midair Seeker feel so frustrated at his own skills.

Richie swiped the last incoming bullet away and was one step closer to killing Charles. The last step was to deal with Seeker's second gunshot.

He turned around to peek at Seeker's attack readying his sword to swipe the bullet that he expected to be one foot away from him. But as he turned, no bullet could be seen. He quickly observed Seeker and noticed that Seeker's second shot wasn't aimed at him, but the door opposite of where Charles entered.

The shotgun pellets had shot through the middle of the door leaving a circle of bullet holes since Richie redirected the ones in the center of the shot radius. Seeker was executing a back dive as he shot the remaining parts of the door to complete this circle of holes.

Richie felt a chilling sensation on his spine. This was something new for an Overcomer. The smell of fear usually does not affect Overcomers. Even Seeker's full-blown scent would have not been helpful.

The sensation Richie felt was simply, fear. True fear brought about by worries and uncertainty. His Perfect Prediction had always allowed him to be wary of any dangers. But somehow, when facing these group of kids, Richie felt uncertainty and even confusion. Even on the onset, Perfect Prediction did not work. His instincts kept telling him that these kids wouldn't be a threat to him.

And his building fears came through. The circle of bullets had already weakened the integrity of the door and Seeker's finishing touches were just enough for her to enter.

SMASH!

A figure smashed through the circular wreckage. It was a small girl who held a sword and a handgun.

She was using the hilt of her sword to break through the door and aimed her gun towards Richie.

She opened fire immediately. Seeker was falling towards the location where his sword was thrown to and Charles continued to keep his distance. Ready to shoot at Seeker's command.

Richie stood at the center dodging and slashing the attacks, it was then he noticed that the girl who just entered had thrown away her gun and ran towards Richie with a slashing attack.

Richie frowned. It was one thing for these kids to shoot him, but to challenge him in close combat?

Richie launched himself to meet the girl's slash. However, Seeker suddenly appeared on his peripheral vision. Seeker was holding his sword with both of his hands. His left hand continued to clutch the gun with his left forefinger on the trigger with the edge of his other fingers clutching the sword handle.

"A gun-blade huh?" Richie laughed as he recalled his younger days.

Seeker slashed and pulled the trigger at the same time. Meryl also slashed her sword to cut Richie's head off.

Arthur stopped his rush and started shooting at Richie's leg.

While all of these were happening, Seeker winked signaling Charles to prepare for his attack.

Richie immediately knew that staying in this position would lead to another shotgun attack.

Richie used the tip of his sword to push Meryl's slash upwards allowing him to evade the slash as he jumped back to evade Arthur's attacks on his legs.

Richie executed a mid-air twist to evade Seeker's slash-and-shoot attack. Using the inertia of his thrust which redirected Meryl's slash, he thrust his sword downwards as he turned towards Seeker.

Seeker tried to dodge the falling thrust, but he was too late. The thrust slashed downwards on Seeker's chest leaving a large wound. Seeker's ribs could even be seen.

Richie was confident that this was enough to make Seeker relatively weaker and unable to fight properly. Richie landed and he then set his eyes on Charles who was inside the room.

He moved carefully avoiding the gunshots and sprinted towards the inside of the room.

That's when he noticed it.

A grenade was happily rolling towards the door of the room's entrance.

"Carlean…" Richie thought as he deduced that Seeker must have rolled this grenade discretely on the floor when he landed. The grenade rolled inside the room and was out of Richie's sight.

Seekers rushed attack was to redirect his attention. The rolling sound of the grenade which bumped on the nearby lamp and rolled back towards the entrance was not noticed by Richie. Never did Richie expect that this group would willingly put their life on the line by exposing themselves in the radius of a grenade's explosion. Seeker even deliberately allowed himself to be wounded to make Richie dive onwards and aim for Charles.

The grenade exploded. But instead of fire and shrapnel, what came out was a bright blinding light. It was a flashbang. This was once again, out of Richie's calculation. Why would they blind themselves? It made more sense for them to use a grenade!

Richie failed to close his eyes and was engulfed in the blinding sensation that the flashbang gave.

Richie had no time to be disoriented. He tried his best to make a decent landing and jumped to the side as a precaution in case his enemies would shoot through the open door.

As he dove and rolled on the floor, a painful stab was felt like a sword pierced through his right leg while in midair.

Meryl kept her eyes wide open during the explosion and rushed to stab through the wall and pierced through Richie's leg on the other side of the wall.

With his right leg pierced mid-jump, Richie's immediately used his sword to stop the force of his jump by latching it on Meryl's sword.

As the rest of his body fell, Richie used his left hand to hold him up high as the slightest twist in his position could add more wounds to his pierced leg. His right hand was just about to stab through the wall when several gunshots were heard.

Richie's right arm was wounded and another bullet pierced through his palms.

The sword dropped on the floor.

"Give up, Richie." Arthur ordered.

Richie continued to use his left arm to keep him up in midair.

"I can shoot your head anytime and Meryl can slice your leg too."

"Impressive. Did you calculate my position like your father? Is that girl your long lost sister?"

"Yes. And no. This is Meryl. She has a unique talent for being unaffected by bright lights."

Richie laughed.

"That's new. Oh well. I guess the younger generation has bested the older."

The door of the elevators opened once more. But instead of Gary the Aragarian, Alean walked out holding Gary's head.

"Your boss is dead." She calmly explained as she tossed Gary's head into the room for Richie to see.

"Well… I guess I should stop trying to kill you. Lucky you." Richie laughed.