Chapter 178 Hound Vs Fox (1)

The golden hound raised his head. Locks of blonde hair fell across his face as he grinned at Lee Seng. Part of the golden hound's helmet and armor were destroyed. He pushed himself up and brushed himself off. He grabbed the base of his helmet and unlocked it and pulled it off. Long strands of blonde hair fell as he brushed it off to the side. He tossed the helmet to the side and let out a sigh of relief.

"Five down and Eleven stands last." The golden hound smiled. He lifted his hand and shook the metallic ball in the air. Lee Seng gritted his teeth. He could feel the Dark Matter shifting around in him. He could feel it wanting to come out.

'No, I can't.' Lee Seng reminded himself. He balled his hands into fists and angrily stared at the pale blonde man in front of him. His cocky smile wanted Lee Seng to rip him to shreds. 'I'll get us all killed.' He felt his jaw tightening.

"Hmph, to think they dispatched a lot of hounds just for one person. The kid of the Creator to be exact." The pale hound spoke. He shook his head and pulled another ball off his waist. He lifted it up in the air and Lee Seng noticed this one had a slightly different design than the others. "I don't know why they're going all out just for you. They wanna see a failure succeed or something? What does this even matter for you?" The blonde man shook his head and tossed the still mechanical ball up.

"You talk too much." Lee Seng dashed forward. The pale man sighed and threw the jingling mechanical ball forward.

"Catalyst: Multi." The ball flew forward forcing Lee Seng to block. The ball shifted trajectory mid-air and landed a blow straight into the side of Lee Seng. Lee Seng grunted as the weight of the ball forced him into the wall. The ball bounced off of Lee Seng and flew straight back for another hit. Lee Seng grunted as he threw his hand up. The ball froze mid-air as Lee Seng extended his arm outwards.

Lee Seng pushed himself off of the wall as he squeezed his hand. The metallic jingling ball caved in on itself. Lee Seng tossed the ball back at the pale man and gripped his katana. He dashed forward and swung at the man, who kept his grin as he dodged.

'God, this guy's pissing me off!' Lee Seng thought as he flurried more attacks at the man. Gravity oozed out of him and the strikes became wilder and released more gravity strikes. The tunnel shook with each hit as the golden hound smiled.

"Interesting. You're actually using your powers." The pale man noticed. He dodged the horizontal swing to his neck, pulling backwards and raised his still ball in his left hand. "Catalyst: Bind." The still ball expanded in mere milliseconds and wrapped around his left and hand arm. He backflipped, kicking his feet up towards Lee Seng, forcing the young man back and somersaulted backwards, creating more distance.

He raised his metallic arm up and pulled. The armor of the red hounds, shattered balls and rogue balls started to shake.

"I'll amuse you with this." He smiled. "Catalyst: Reforge." The scraps collided together and quickly started to create crude metallic balls. The balls flew and attached themselves onto the metallic arm as the metal began to hiss. The crude metal balls popped and hovered in the air before sinking back into the slots in the pale man's metallic arm.

The pale man motioned for Lee Seng to come and Lee Seng ran forward, swinging the humming katana. The two exchanged blows, dodging and weaving as a slash and a punch made their way into their opponent. The pale man landed a punch onto Lee Seng's arm. A crude metallic ball flew off it's slot as he pulled back. The metallic ball flew straight for Lee Seng, landing a hard blow in the same spot.

"Argh!" Lee Seng grunted. The crude metallic ball flew back and landed back in it's spot. The metallic arm crackled and hissed, pushing the crude balls outwards.

Lee Seng charged forward, again. The metallic balls flew out and circled the pale man before two balls flew straight for Lee Seng. Lee Seng slashed the first one in half before throwing up his arms to block the second. The tunnel shook as Lee Seng activated his gravity. He grunted as he held the crude metallic ball in the air.

"You're at a disadvantage, kid." The pale man spoke. "Your power is going to bring down the street above and bury everyone here in it before you can defeat me!" The half cut crude ball stitched itself back together and shot upwards, knocking Lee Seng's grip on his katana, sending the katana flying into the air. The ball flew straight at the sword and knocked it behind Lee Seng before pummeling Lee Seng with a barrage of attacks.

Lee Seng's gravity grip loosened and the crude ball immediately ripped from it's enemies grasp. The crude ball bounced off of Lee Seng before pulling back into the arm slot near his wrist. Lee Seng huffed as he tried to get a grip of his balance.

'I can't do anything down here…' Lee Seng thought. 'I can't use my gravity powers, so what if I use my Fox powers?' He began to turn to look at his friends when a crude ball slammed into his stomach, sending him onto the floor.

"Don't they teach you to not look away from your enemy?" The pale man moved forward. His grin was growing and a lock of blonde hair fell across his face. "I really thought I'd get to see the reason why the higher-ups are so interested in you. You're just a brat with a string of good luck. Tck, you aren't even worth bringing in. Maybe I'll brutalize you and send you to them. Then they'll know your worth." The pale man grabbed at a crude ball floating around him and held it.

"Catalyst: Combination." The crude balls paired with each other and created three larger balls. The balls slowly hovered around the pale man as he inched closer. "You aren't worth my time. Bye." The balls flew and slammed into Lee Seng, bringing up a puff of smoke. The pale man shook his head as he started to turn. He pulled the balls back, separating them without a word. The crude balls attached themselves back onto his arm. The pale man tapped at his right arm and his armor began to snake up to his ear, attaching an earpiece.

"Status update." The deep voice spoke. The pale man sighed and shook his head. He kept his back to the teenagers.

"They're dealt with." The pale man answered.

"And what about the footage?"

"You'll get it all. They managed to damage the head cam but other than that, the body cam is in tack."

"Good, Inmate 1453."

"You'll lessen my sentence, right?" Inmate 1453 asked.

"Yes, as discussed beforehand. The higher-ups will lessen your sentence and you will walk free in <strong>four</strong> years time."

"Four years?!? I thought the deal was to lessen it to a year?"

"Bring me the body of the so-called 'Eleventh Protocol' and we'll talk then." The deep augmented voice spoke. Inmate 1453 sighed and nodded.

"I'll bring him like discussed."

"Good."

Click.

Inmate 1453's armor pulled the earpiece off with a single flick of his wrist. He sighed as he began to shake his head. The sound of something squirming behind him caught his attention and he immediately turned around with a single crude ball floating in the air. A black void of Dark Matter and wisps emanated off of where Lee Seng was. It was standing as its body and bones cracked back into place. The boy's face was covered with a black mask with red and blue lines coming down its eye holes.

Ruby and sapphire eyes glared at Inmate 1453. The thing didn't move. It's Dark Matter tendrils whipped around as the cracking continued. Lee Seng's tail whipped and the Inmate noticed black Dark Matter tendrils had surrounded the tail creating some sort of 'flower bulb' effect with it.

"What the hell is th–"

The tendril bulb tail shot out and slammed into the Inmate. The Dark Matter tendrils quickly wrapped itself around the Inmate and slammed him repeatedly into the wall.

Crash!

Crash!

Crash!

Inmate 1453 released his crude ball and watched as it burst straight through the tail and tendrils. Lee Seng pulled the tendril and tail back, instantly growing it back. Inmate 1453 ripped himself out of the tendrils and tail and growled.

"So this is it. The main show has come out to play." Inmate 1453 chuckled. Lee Seng's eyes blinked at the man and vanished right before his eyes. Inmate 1453 scanned the area and released more crude balls, readying himself for a defensive fight. Arms wrapped around the man and tightened.

"You're starting to piss us off." Lee Seng's distorted voice spoke. "Let me feed on you."