89 Gorilla Zhang Yu vs Daniel

As time passed, the tension on all rooms within the Makati Scholar Academy increasingly heightened. These were kids raised in a time of peace. It was a given that they'd be terrified if the alarm sounded.

It was a good thing that Kim Min-jun and Zhang Yu was in a hurry, leaving them only enough time to invade a singular room. Otherwise, they would have killed everyone in all rooms without remorse.

Eventually, the two reached the seventh floor. The layout of the seventh floor was alike the other floors where students had classes. A row of classrooms on the right. A row of classrooms on the left.

In the middle of the row of classrooms was a big open area laid with white tiles. In the very middle was a fancy fountain. Omnipresent were small gathering areas of round sofas and tables. On the walls of each classroom were vending machines and charging stations. Such is the life of the students in Makati Scholar Academy.

Hayden and Daniel's rooms were literally on opposite sides of the building. Hayden's room had windows on the left side, while Daniel's had one on the right side. On top of that, Hayden's classroom was closest to the southern emergency exit, while Daniel's was closest to the north.

Standing in front of Hayden's classroom was Kim Min-jun. In his left hand, he pointed the MG 42 to the door. In his right hand was a colossal steel mace that easily towered over his own height. Its mace part was leaking of eerie light gray smoke, similar to those ghostly smoke in movies.

This was Kim Min-jun's Ability, Obliterator. Domineering, right? Because it had the right to be. Obliterator's Level 1 power was that it allowed Kim Min-jun to summon this mace. What's overpowered for this was that it can directly damage the receiver of an attack no matter how high impenetrable their defenses were.

Its Level 2 power was that he can use some sort of power called ectoplasm to shape things. He didn't know what ectoplasm is, but it was powerful. Ectoplasm was apparently the smoke wisps that appeared in his mace when his Ability evolved to Level 2.

In the present, he can solely use it to shape things. What's cool about this ectoplasm was that it cannot be touched by anyone else, yet it can touch everything. As long as he also willed it, it can go through walls.

However, due to his complacency and underestimation of Hayden's capabilities. Sure, he expected Hayden to be some sort of wielder, it was just that he anticipated that Hayden was simply a nobody who offended someone in the underworld. As aforementioned, it was pretty common for weak or even normal people to offend those in the big leagues of the criminal world.

Consequently, he bashed down the door to Hayden's classroom at the same time as Zhang Yu knocked the door to Daniel's classroom.

…..

Daniel's side.

A little earlier. While Hayden was concocting up a plan, Daniel sat in his classroom fiddling his fingers. He was uncomfortable. His brain couldn't think straight. He was good at fighting, but he was not that good at protecting.

He eyed his surroundings. He harvested too much human lives at this point that he didn't want to be the source of people dying. Well, regular human or wielder did, but the determination of Daniel was much stronger. 'How can I protect them!?'

Hayden's words echoed in his mind as he closed his eyes. "You're the most versatile wielder. Remember that and use that to your advantage. Become like water, shapeless. Adapt into the situation. Do not strain yourself and consider every possible option. The first thing you should keep into mind is 'have you ever been in an analogous situation before?'"

From those words, Daniel's eyes widened. He nearly shouted out 'Eureka.' Good thing he was able to stop himself.

Nobody noticed Daniel's irises becoming white and gray. Hayden began setting up an illusion in the area in front of the door. The illusion was that there were no people in his room. He bent the light here and there so that they weren't visible at all.

With great effort, he was able to make it so that his classmates and the teacher sitting on the teacher's platform wouldn't perceive blackness on the fragment where he altered the appearance of the room. He did so by creating a layer of light and creating another illusion. It was quite ingenious. If Hayden was there, he'd doubtlessly praise Daniel for that idea.

In the middle of the two boundaries, Daniel sucked out all of the air to create a vacuum. He also did that along the walls of where the entrance is, albeit incredibly thin, so that no noise would escape from the room at all.

The moment he finished laying all of it, the door flew off its hinges, nearly hitting the teacher on the platform. This caused his classmates to panic. As for him, he had no time to panic. Amidst the panicking crowd, Daniel stealthily took out a mask.

Because of the illusion, he had no sight of the perpetrator at all. Nor did his classmates. To make them faint, Daniel thinned the air of the classroom. 'I'm sorry, classmates and teacher.'

The clown was confused. He heard fighting outside yet ignored it. He figured it was just Kim Min-jun beating up that Hayden with his mace. You see, Kim Min-jun was a sadist. It was normal to witness Kim Min-jun smiling as he punched people and slowly torture them with his mace that broke bones with the slightest touch.

When he was the last remaining person standing, Daniel removed the illusions, converted his white iris into gray, and slammed air to the steroid-pumped clown, all in a timeframe of a microsecond. Simultaneously, he caught his breath as he got out of his school uniform.

Daniel's hands moved fast. Storing the uniform in his Space Ring, he pulled out his Puting Araw uniform, put it on, and slapped on his coat. To complete his get-up, he donned his plain white mask from the Ghost Unit division.

Exiting the room, he returned the normal amount of air in the room. The second he stepped out of his classroom, the jacked clown that possessed hulking arms slammed said arms downwards to him

Fortunately, Daniel's survival instincts were strong as he jumped backwards, avoiding the gorilla slam of the jacked clown. Mid-jump, Daniel mustered all the power of the air to hurl the man out of the classroom.

It was no use. Gorillas were already naturally heavy, with the heaviest gorilla being recorded at 267 kilograms. What more a primate literally named Stone Gorilla? In truth, Zhang Yu didn't even let out his full weight in fear of the floor giving out. Currently, he was at 270 kilograms. His full weight was 400 kilograms.

Unexpectedly, no matter how strong wind is, it can't possibly carry a ridiculously strong gorilla that was 267 kilograms, right?

Seeing this, Daniel reflexively switched his eyes into blue. With extreme effort, Daniel was able to produce a large blast of water that swept the Stone Gorilla off of its feet.

Now, the common area was a bit flooded. Daniel hurriedly exited the room in terror that the gorilla-clown would come back in there to kill his classmates.

When he exited, he was in time to see Hayden, who was wearing a plain black mask and a black hoodie with some sort of wolf symbol on the middle, punch another clown dude holding a tall mace on the floor. The clown dude rolled away with that huge mace to dodge Hayden's punch. It was rather comical in Daniel's perspective.

Refocusing his attention on the gorilla, he changed both of his irises into red. He gathered fire from his hands and blasted the accursed clown. The heat of the flames that Daniel produced was absurd. Even Zhang Yu's Stone Gorilla could barely withstand it.

Zhang Yu's clothes was burnt away, revealing the white-haired gorilla with stone-colored abs. The fur of Zhang Yu was not blown off due to it possessing stone-like characteristics.

Daniel ceased his fire blast. He weighed his options here. Movement restriction was a no-go since that was a gorilla in front of him. A wielder no less. Likewise, blindness inducement shouldn't be used against the gorilla. What if, in its blinded-state, the gorilla trashed around and destroyed the floor? That would be disastrous.

He ruled out everything that can't be used. Organic matter armor as he assumed that it would break in an instant if faced with the immense strength that the gorilla possessed.

Electricity since the Gorilla wasn't a good conductor of heat, there's a good chance that he's not a good conductor of electricity either. Light and darkness as both has no offensive power at all. Nature since there was no nature here.

Obviously air. Sure, he can create a tornado with it, howbeit, the damage that it would do on the school would be too much.

Earthen materials would doubtlessly have not that good effects against that tough hide as well. Phasing would purely be idiotic.

Invisibility would make the gorilla focus on Hayden, which is not that bad of an idea, but he wouldn't do Hayden like that.

Nature as Daniel's controls of plant, unlike all his other elemental powers, he cannot fabricate any type of plant. There was no plant here. Aside from that, plants would irrefutably be useless here too.

"I guess all I can do here is frostbite him?" Daniel's eyes sharpened. He swapped his red right iris into that of peach, while the other indigo.

Pushing essence energy into his body, he strengthened his physique. He ran towards the gorilla. Zhang Yu wanted to recover his bearings, but couldn't. The floor was too slippery.

Just as he was about to finally stand up, he saw Daniel in front of him. On the other side, a shout can be heard, "Daniel, dodge!��

Instinctively, Daniel heeded the words and took a step back. Afterwards, a bullet made of light came shooting through to where he previously was. He was saved from the shot. Nevertheless, a portion of his torso remained in the trajectory of the bullet.

That's when a throwing knife that was somehow rocket-propelled flew in front of him, intercepting the sniper bullet. The bullet lost momentum.

Daniel stared at the knife that was on the ground. It perforated the bullet cleanly. It was incomprehensible for him.

In his shocked stupor, gorilla Zhang Yu has stood up. He inadvertently teleported to the left side of Zhang Yu. He made contact with his hand and turned his head away to teleport away.

He observed the gorilla. Zhang Yu flinched, clenching his sides. He looked at Daniel with anger. "What the hell did you do to me!?"

'The frostbite didn't work as great as I hoped.' Daniel wandered if he should've used two irises. 'The area is getting frozen, yet, he isn't the least bit affected.'

Thinking that, Daniel shifted one of his irises into white, distorting light to create tons of Daniels. 'He isn't as sensible as that White Fox guy. This guy is stupider than him.'

With this line of thought, Daniel shifted the other iris into gold, completely making him invisible. He relocated from his position to an unexpected one, to the doorway of the classroom. This was so he could protect the people inside when the gorilla mindlessly charges into the room.

'This buys me enough time to formulate something.' Daniel double-tasked by bending light here and there to trick the gorilla.

"What the hell is this?" Zhang Yu growled in anger, smashing his fist on one of the Daniel phantoms. It dodged accordingly to Daniel's will. "Face me head on, you coward!"

The Daniel mirage didn't speak, fueling Zhang Yu's wrath further. Zhang Yu's eyes glowed red. "You will regret this!"

The following events of Zhang Yu was him performing moves of Donkey Kong in the 2050 remake of the Super Smash Bros. Basically, Zhang Yu flailed his arms around, attempting to punch any of the Daniel phantoms.

'Idiot.' Daniel clicked his tongue. He wanted to find a weakness of this gray-colored Donkey Kong to end it once and for all. 'A combination of toughness and superior strength is my strongest enemy, huh?'

His mind wandered into when he used the water blast beforehand. 'Water… Water… Why do I have the sense I'm missing something?'

…..

Outside, the second George made the shot aimed at Daniel, he heard the sirens of police. "Fuck."

He tapped his earpiece. "Guys, get out of there! You don't have to kill them right now. You can kidnap them!"

There were no responses at all. "Tsk. You guys say I'm the root of your problems, yet here I am, busting my ass to save your own asses."

Rolling his eyes, George steeled himself. He aimed at the black and white-colored police cars. He shot a light ray on one of the cars' engines down. This caused the car to explode.

Continually, he shot all ten racing police cars down. This created a ruckus among the small amount of people that roamed the streets.

"Guys, get the hell out of there!" Finishing up the police cars, George shouted on his earpiece. "Puting Araw will come soon! Do you guys want to get detained by them?"

Still no response. He peered through the small windows that were on top of each classroom on all non-window sides using his binoculars.

He faintly saw the figure of Kim Min-jun lying on the floor, the tiles around him cracked. That didn't last long as Kim Min-jun was lifted off the ground. As for Zhang Yu, there were no signs of him at all.

"Fuck. I apologize in advance for bailing. You guys are too reckless!" George heavily breathed out. He packed his belongings hastily in his panic. He folded the sniper rifle into his bag. Next, he packed away his laptop.

The second he twisted back his body to escape, two people was in front of him. It was Plague Doctor and The Stalker.

"W-who are you?" George instinctively took a step back.

"We're people who protects a certain person in here." The Stalker's hollow voice came out. "Plague Doctor?"

"Okay." Plague Doctor's crazed manner of speaking frightened George. George moved back as Plague Doctor advanced.

…..

A few minutes passed. A suggestion from Hayden, who was finishing up with the mace guy, roused him up. "Water. Encase. Bubble."

"That's it!" From these few words, everything clicked. He dispersed all of the Daniel mirages. That disconnected Zhang Yu with his rage-drunken rampage.

When he was removed from that, Zhang Yu was oriented to the direction of Hayden and Kim Min-jun's fight. Kim Min-jun was sprawled on the ground, all bloodied, unconscious, Hayden atop him, beating him up. On the side of Hayden's classroom were some of the braver of Hayden's classmates.

Some were watching from the doorway, including the 'Hayden' that Courtney created with her Spectral Fantasy.

"HAYDEN!" Upon the sight of Hayden, who had a three million credit bounty, Zhang Yu's rage came back.

He mindlessly approached the classroom on all fours. Unfortunately for him, the true Hayden emerged in front of him. Suddenly, Zhang Yu was lifted off his feet and flew backwards, much to the puzzlement of Daniel.

Daniel didn't witness what transpired as Zhang Yu was blocking Hayden's figure with his own bulky size. However, Daniel didn't question it, simply darting out of his classroom's entranceway towards Zhang Yu.

When he got close enough, he congregated his willpower to liquefy the water vapor in his surroundings. With great effort, he was able to produce a water bubble that will be able to contain the gorilla. Zhang Yu landed on his butt, approximately two meters away from Daniel.

Daniel dropped down and engulfed Zhang Yu with the water bubble. He exerted all the effort he can to lift the water bubble along with Zhang Yu.

Subsequently, he pushed the water inwards from all directions to prevent Zhang Yu to move. Hayden walked to him with Kim Min-jun on his shoulder.

"You should probably heat up that water." Hayden pointed out a notion to Hayden. "That way he'll faint faster."

"You're demented." Daniel's countenance beneath his mask twitched. "Have you contacted Puting Araw?"

"Yep." Hayden nodded, nonchalantly watching the struggling Zhang Yu. "A gorilla. That's new. Anyhow, Puting Araw is on their way."

…..

A little earlier. Back in Puting Araw.

The door to Anthony's office slammed open. His secretary walked in with a tablet in hand. "Sir Anthony. Hayden seems to be in trouble. As well as Daniel."

"What now?" Anthony groaned in annoyance. He rubbed his temples, expecting a headache. "What did he do?"

His secretary showed the news instead of directly informing him of what was transpiring in Makati Scholar Academy.

"Holy…" Anthony blinked his eyes rapidly. "Are they wielders?"

"If they weren't, do you think Hayden would activate the distress call in his badge?" His secretary returned him the question. It was evident from this that the two were fairly close.

"Well, call back up then!" Anthony's eyes widened, his right hand outstretched. His entire person screamed 'what the hell!?'

"Should I send out regular agents or those from the PAPPF?" His secretary didn't immediately get a move on.

"The PAPPF." Anthony's tone was urgent. "Go go go!"

On that note, his secretary vanished. A few seconds passed. Bryant (Engkanto) came inside Anthony's office.

"What happened? Myra is rushing out to the secret facility?" Bryant inquired.

"There's a 'shooting incident' in Makati Scholar Academy." Anthony didn't look to Bryant as he checked around his computer.

"You mean Hayden and Daniel's school? Oh yeah, there's also that new girl there, right?" Bryant leisurely took a seat on the black couch.

"Yeah." Anthony typed on his keyboard. "There's also the matter of that guy who was subdued by Hayden last night. I don't know what's happening, but Hayden specifically requested to be the one to interrogate him."

"Huh." Bryant rested his elbows on his knees, crisscrossed his hands, and rested his chin on it. "Is Kamay ng Lagim finally exerting their effort to kill our two most talented individuals?"

"Not at all." Anthony stood up and walked to the windows behind him. He was wearing a suit vest. His thick and muscular figure was absolutely stunning. "Black Devil apparently placed a bounty on Hayden and Daniel's head."

"Bounty?" Bryant's face formed a frown of utter disgust. "That Black Devil is a prideful person and a coward."

"Always has been. Especially after that day Rose killed Sitan (1)." Anthony walked to a glass cabinet. He grabbed two extravagant old-fashioned glass cups with geometrical design and a bottle of champagne.

He set down the cups and poured on both of the glass cups. He clutched one as he walked back to the window, overlooking Makati. In the distance, the cloud of explosion from the helicopter can be seen.

"I must say though, he's good." Anthony complimented Black Devil. "His Ability is powerful… But his cautiousness is something else…"

Bryant grabbed one of the wine glasses. His eyes squinted. "I must say. Lately you've been awfully obsessing over this Black Devil. You've never been this way before. In fact, you're much calmer these days."

"What can I say?" Anthony's face became neutral. "We've experienced things that other people don't experience. War changes people. Don't you think so as well, Bryant?"

.....

1 Sitan - Sitan, Satan in English, is a Filipino God of Darkness