140 Smiley

Annie and Marco locked eyes. They've tacitly agreed that they will put aside their differences for the moment as this was a matter of life-and-death. It's not like they were that petty to not work together in this situation.

"I'll be the vanguard. You stay at the backline." Annie verbalized her thoughts with a grim expression underneath her mask.

'You don't need to tell me that.' Marco, vexed at being ordered what to do in spite of him knowing his own role, didn't voice his misgivings out. This situation was not the time for complaining.

Marco summoned his crimson minigun and lay in wait for the right moment to fire. Annie dashed in without putting up a stance.

Fighting a human being or a fellow wielder was different from fighting against a four-legged animal. This mistake is why most wielders couldn't defeat the animalistic cognizants. This was hammered into her with her combat training in Pangkat Anino, who reared authentic cognizants for the purpose of training.

Being parallel in height with Smiley, Annie chose to smash both of her hands onto the head of it. Smiley evaded it by retreating back. This caused Annie to smash the asphalt on the ground.

Smiley, seeing an opportunity, pounced on Annie. Unfortunately, Marco was waiting for this opportunity too, firing his handheld minigun while it was in mid-air. This caused countless miniature explosions to land on its body.

Although, individually, the explosions weren't of significant strength, when combined, the force was enough to send Smiley flying backwards. Smiley whimpered out as it landed on its side and slid on the ground.

Annie seized this chance to run over and punch Smiley while it was down. Smiley's face was smashed into the concrete by the attack. Surprisingly, its skull wasn't crushed at all. It wasn't even dented. It was evidence of how durable a cognizant's body really is.

Grabbing ahold of its front legs with her left hand, Annie thrashed Smiley. She transmitted to Marco, 'Tell me when your rocket is at five seconds.'

'It's still on four minutes.' Marco stated to Annie. 'Can you hold on fighting that thing for that amount of time?'

'I'll find a way.' Annie savagely threw Smiley down the ground repeatedly. It was a comical scene. This persisted for 10 seconds, with Smiley seemingly not being injured by this whatsoever. 'Tsk, such a tough bastard. Ah… Shit!'

Annie's momentary lapse in concentration was taken advantage by Smiley, who bit her arm. Annie winced in agony from the bite. Stopping to calm herself down, she forced the fangs off of her arm.

Smiley warily circled around Annie. It was waiting for an opportunity to strike. On the other hand, Annie stood still, pleased by this. 'Yes, focus on me. Disregard Marco.'

Indeed, akin to a wild animal, Smiley overlooked Marco, who was sitting on the side. It was a mildly funny moment.

Eventually, Smiley stopped and pounced at Annie's back. Annie, who was anticipating this and preparing for it, turned around and slapped Smiley on the snout, causing it to fly out again.

Immediately, Annie ran to the direction of Smiley, and, for the second time, beat it while it was down. Frustrated, Smiley barked, pushed Annie off of it with its legs, stood up, and was prepared to howl.

Marco, who has switched into a red-colored sniper rifle, took aim, and shot the dog at the snout. The bullet, containing immense might, struck the irritated Smiley with a big bang. The explosion from the bullet still didn't kill it, simply sending it flying back with a yowl.

The spot where it was hit was enflamed by the sniper shot. Nevertheless, it was insignificant and was shrugged off by Smiley. Conversely, the sniper shot served to become a wake-up call for Smiley, informing it of Marco's presence and the threat he posed. As such, Smiley stared at Marco and ran. In the midst of his run, Smiley was going to howl.

Annie, noticing this, was annoyed by Smiley. The damned dog wanted to howl again! Who wouldn't be annoyed by that? Grumbling, Annie scuttled to Marco's side.

Defenseless, in an attempt to save his own hide, Marco changed into his minigun and rained hell down on Smiley. Unlike last time, Smiley withstood every single shot and pressed on.

In this manner, Smiley arrived in front of Marco. Smiley was going to smash Marco down when it felt that there was something else. It was Annie, sprinting towards Smiley. Akin to a train hitting a car, Smiley was sent away by Annie's attack.

Smiley was already acclimated to the battering that it was receiving, thus, it easily stood up again. Annie was now standing in front of Marco to shield him.

There was only a minute left till the cooldown of the rocket launcher was finished. Annie made sure to keep track of that and stall for time. Till then, she can't leave Marco's side. She has no chance on beating Smiley without Marco's aid.

Smiley, obviously angered, charged right back in. Annie wouldn't let Smiley touch a single strand of Marco's hair. Changing into her true four-legged form, she charged at Smiley.

Smiley, knowing that it was stronger than Annie, accelerated. It barked. This time, the bark took form into a cone in front of it, surrounded Smiley, and carried it along with it. It was an astonishing and unbelievable scene.

Annie and Smiley collided. Annie, being weaker than Smiley, was fine thanks to the absurd defense of a rhino. She was sent crashing backwards though.

This left Marco out in the open. Without remorse, Smiley charged in at Marco. As a response, Marco ran away and took out his crimsons shotgun. Calculating Smiley's strike, Marco fired the shotgun right at Smiley's face.

Every single shotgun pellet exploded on Smiley, finally making it groan in pain. This, with the added exhaustion of fighting at full power, along with the injury on its side, pulled it out from its state of anguish.

It wanted to retreat at that instant. It turned away, clearly planning on running away with its tail between its legs. Annie wouldn't let it do that, standing tall behind it.

Smiley growled at Annie. Timely, the cooldown of Marco's rocket launcher was finished. In a final bid to save itself, Smiley sprang towards Annie. Annie put her left arm in front of Smiley.

Smiley bit it with glee. Annie, withstanding the pain, removed Smiley's snout stuck on her arm with her right hand, grabbed it by the neck, and threw it upwards.

Marco, who already had his rocket launcher out, gauged where Smiley would end up and fired the rocket. Smiley exploded into bits and pieces, an Origin Crystal landing atop Annie.

Concurrent to Annie and Marco's fight with Smiley…

In a small open field, Steel Woman stood still with furrowed brows. She was on full guard as she didn't know where Caesar would attack. Invisible Hunter was that terrifying.

'How am I supposed to kill this woman?' Caesar was sneaking on the side. It has been five minutes of him observing. 'From what I can tell, her skin is at least as hard as steel.'

Caesar was talking about the hardness of her skin not in the conventional sense, but relative to the wielders' sense of what 'steel' is. That meant that he was anticipating Steel Woman's skin to be as hard as steel for a wielder. For a regular human, it was much more tensile than steel.

'Let's check it first.' Caesar stood in front of Steel Woman and deactivated his invisibility. He attacked Steel Woman with his right hand claws.

"Heh, you can't trick me." Steel Woman jeered, acting high and mighty. She turned around and swung at the air. "You're here, ain't ya?"

Precipitously, she felt the clashing of metal ringing. The sound originated from her neck. She expeditiously rotated to face Caesar. He was gone.

'He didn't use a clone?' Steel Woman was impressed by the guts that Caesar had. She has never faced a strong Invisible Hunter wielder in her life. She never thought she wanted to until now. 'He's smart. An Invisible Hunter trained for the purpose of combat and not with the mindset that their Ability is for retreating. Heh, interesting.'

'As I suspected.' Caesar retreated some ways from Steel Woman. 'Her skin is approximately as hard as steel for me. I wonder if this will work…'

Caesar took out a black-edged dagger. It was a Voidstone knife that all Pangkat Anino members has been issued with subsequent to Hayden's discovery. It was currently the new symbol of an Anino (Shadow, a Pangkat Anino member), other than the custom-made Arcane Gem insignia of course.

'Let's see…' Caesar conjured up an illusion of him sneaking up on Steel Woman adjacent to her. Steel Woman didn't dare take any risks anymore and punched the clone.

The clone, unable to take it, popped like a balloon. It even made that balloon pop sound. 'I see that her body isn't weighted the least bit. Is this a variant of Steelskin?'

Steelskin, as its name suggested, was an Ability that turned one's skin into steel. The steel's hardness was relative to wielders. One might notice that this was Iron Bull's Ability.

'Luckily clones don't have cooldowns…' Caesar continued to observe patiently. As a wielder with a stealth-based Ability, he had to be patient. Impatience would be the death of him.

Caesar summoned up another clone. For the next few minutes, all he did was create clones to charge to their deaths for Steel Woman.

"Fucker! Fucking fight me!" Steel Woman's cage was getting rattled by Caesar. "I know this is your style of fighting, but damn! There's no need to prolong it-"

Without a warning, Caesar materialized in front of her and stabbed her with the Voidstone knife. Cleanly, the knife embedded itself on Steel Woman's chest. Caesar exclaimed, "Wow, that is sharp."

"Uh… What is this…" Suddenly, Steel Woman's Ability deactivated itself, revealing every bit of her body for Caesar to see. "How… What…"

"Sorry, missy." Caesar was unfazed by the naked body. He wasn't a virgin, so why would he be? "It's part of the job."

Taking out the knife, he sliced the throat of Steel Woman cold-heartedly. The woman's body collapsed on the ground lifelessly. Turning Steel Woman around, Caesar dug the Origin Crystal out of her chest prior to using a match to burn the body.

'Hey, are you okay?' Afterwards, Caesar inquired to his two companions. 'I'm on my way.'

'No hurry, we've dealt with Smiley.' Annie sounded exhausted in the telepathic link. 'I suffered minor injuries. It's nothing to worry about. Don't you dare baby me.'

Caesar breathed heavily through his nose. He turned off his Whisperer. 'Ah, this missus is so reckless. I hope she can be the hero that she is.'

Succeeding this minor debacle by Steel Woman and Smiley, the mission proceeded as smooth as a baby's behind.

…..

At the same time as this was happening. Makati City. In a high-rise apartment. Faye was wallowing in grief the past few days. She ate solely one meal a day. She has fallen out of contact with her friends. She hasn't moved an inch from her bed.

It was a good thing that Annual Youth Pride week was a global week-long vacation, otherwise, she would've been absent-minded for entire classes. Which was what happened when there were classes last week.

Despite of the joyous occasion that is the Annual Youth Pride, she didn't have any energy to move due to being rejected, much less watch the beloved basketball matches. Also, why the hell would she? Hayden was in the Annual Youth Pride basketball team.

Lying back on her bed and cuddling up with a pillow, she teared up. By this point, her tear ducts were dried up. She was at the final stages of getting over Hayden.

'Okay, enough of despair.' Faye closed her eyes. 'Let's get some sleep.'

Being removed from the insomnia that she was afflicted with from love sickness, Faye got sound sleep. She even lucidly dreamt that she was in a world of peaceful darkness.

At 11:00 PM, she woke up gasping for breath. "What the hell was that?"

The drowning feeling she experienced in her dream was horrific. She was a great swimmer; therefore, she really doesn't, and wouldn't, drown unless under very specific conditions.

When she caught her breath and calmed herself down, she muttered, "What in the world is that name? Tala, The Goddess of Stars? Filipino mythos? So bizarre."

Rubbing her eyes, she unknowingly touched the middle of her chest. At first, she rubbed it as she yawned. Later on, when her mind cleared up, she noticed that there was a bump there.

She checked it with a tinge of fear. An unknown object was stuck in the middle of her chest. Who in their right mind wouldn't be scared?"

She was perplexed when she saw a white crystal jutting out of her chest. It was faintly glowing. It was oddly beautiful.

Faye reached out to the Origin Crystal. Bits and pieces of information surged into her head. A minute later…

"Origin Crystal? I'm an Ability Wielder? What's that?" Faye continuously blinked. Searching for answers, she brought her hand back to the Origin Crystal. The second round of information poured into her brain. It was a mind-blowing phenomenon.

"Humans that possess an Ability? So… I take it that my 'Ability' is Tala, The Goddess of Stars?" Faye's countenance creased in incredulity. "This is a dream, right? There's no way this is reality."

Faye was sure she was being delusional if she believed this. Superpowers didn't exist. Plus, Faye wasn't a reader of fiction. Nor a reader for that matter. She has no reason to be inclined to believe this one bit.

"A lucid dream, huh?" Faye bobbled her head side to side. "In my own room? Wow, everything is so lifelike."

She leapt up from her bed then stretched and yawned simultaneously. "Every action of mine is true to real life as well. Intriguing."

"Faye!" Abruptly, a voice came from outside the room. "Are you still awake?"

"Mom?" Faye shouted back. "Yes, I'm awake."

Faye went to their living room to see her mother in her white office uniform. She definitely just arrived from work. Faye's mom pouted, "Why are you still awake, my little darling? How've you been faring with Hayden's rejection?"

"I'm over it." Faye smiled at her mom, hugging her and kissing her on the cheek. "I'm okay now. How about work, mom? How's it going?"

"It's an office job, what do you think?" Her mother seemed exhausted. Faye was ridden with guilt that she couldn't do anything to help her mother. Ever since her father died, they had nothing.

The house that her father left in the will was sold as the memories of laughter and joy in that house was overshadowed by the single horrendous memory of her father's death. It was worse for Faye, who personally witnessed the macabre scene of her father's mangled corpse.

'Wait…' Without showing her suspicion externally, Faye realized she wasn't in a dream. 'What the… No, I refuse to believe that this is reality.'

Faye scrutinized her surroundings. There were no telltale signs that this was a dream at all. Her mother's words were coherent. The pictures on the wall were the same as it was supposed to be in reality. She sat. The cushion was as soft as it should be.

'This is reality…' Faye was in absolute disbelief. 'I have… Powers? Ability? What? No way. Is this some sort of cosmic joke?'

"I'm going to turn in, mom." Faye excused herself. "I'm sleepy from all the social media browsing and watching I've been doing."

"Good night, sweetie." Her mom kissed her on the forehead. "Sleep, okay? Don't open your phone anymore."

"Yes, mom." Faye sounded like an angsty teenager saying that. "Good night to you too."

With that, Faye scampered to her room. Inside, she sat cross-legged on her bed. "Tala, The Goddess of Stars… Well, I'd be stupid if I couldn't deduce that this 'Ability' has something to do with stars."

Mumbling 'Ability' alone made Faye felt silly. This was preposterous. There's no way that these so-called Abilities exist.

"What does it do though?" Faye kept her mind open for the meantime. If she did have powers, wouldn't that make life more interesting? Hayden would become a mere afterthought for her! "Does this crystal embedded in my body have the answer?"

Touching the crystal for the third time, she learned everything about this Ability she awakened. She was apprised that she can also hide her Origin Crystal.

What Tala, The Goddess of Stars can do is that she can transform into… Well, Tala. Once triggered, Faye will become an azure-haired goddess with glowing white eyes. Her skin will be riddled with glowing white tribal tattoos.

In that state, her physical abilities, mind, and senses are all enhanced. It grants her an immense immunity to cold and energy attacks to boot.

"This is the Level 1 power…" Faye whispered in contemplation. "Is there a Level 2? How can I get into Level 2?"

She analyzed the matter more. Thinking that she awakened recently, she threw this matter of leveling up at the back of her mind.

"Let's check if you can activate, huh?" Faye remained skeptical of the events. It was too outlandish to possess superpowers. She locked her door. "Here goes nothing."

Closing her eyes, she willed her Ability to be switched on. When she reopened her eyes, the first thing she perceived was her hand lodged with a glowing white tattoo. Her vision was as clear as day. Vigor was coursing through her veins.

She was rejuvenated. "Holy crap… It's true… It's not some sort of cosmic joke…"

Afterwards, Faye was at a loss for words. She marveled at the spectacle of her glowing body. She was galvanized to turn off the lights in her room.

Faye was awed of the beauty of the lights radiating from her that hit the wall. "I'm… I have superpowers… This can't be…"

She wanted to scream in excitement. Faye stopped herself from doing so. She exhibited restraint and took control of her emotion by deeply inhaling.

"Heh, what Hayden Emperador?" Faye snorted with a smug expression. "That no-brainer freak doesn't have this, does he?"