Lizardman (2)
“Midas Girl, handle the small fry.”
I left the minions to Midas Girl and charged straight at Lizardman.
“Wait! You!! What do you think you're doing?!”
Midas Girl tried to protest, but I was certain she'd handle it competently on her own. Her hero rank matched Seo Ha-yoon's, and she was one of the Hero Association's so-called golden generation talents.
It's just that our powers don't mesh well.
The alloy she created crumbled instantly against shockwaves—not the best durability—but summoning and manipulating metal was hardly a bad superpower.
“Seriously... using people like tools whenever you feel like it!”
Midas Girl slammed her hand on the ground, dyeing the surroundings in golden metal. Kigigigigik!! The metal transformed freely like octopus tentacles, flying out to wrap around the villains charging with weapons.
Kigik. Kigigik.
The metal morphed into restraint cuffs, binding the villains without a single gap. That was the strength of Midas Girl's superpower. Heroes' main role was capturing and subduing villains, and metal she controlled moved so fluidly—it made for perfect restraints. It wasn't great against overwhelmingly powerful foes in terms of raw destruction, but for everyone else, she could take them down in droves like this.
The only problem is having Flash Seo Ha-yoon in her peer group...
Everything in the world was relative. She was just a tragic case whose status suffered from comparisons to Seo Ha-yoon.
Still, Midas Girl had put real effort into researching her abilities. It was easy to mistake her for being unserious because she was always off at photoshoots or on TV shows, but she genuinely wanted to improve.
“This is gonna sting a lot!!”
Midas Girl pressed the button on the gauntlets attached to her hero suit like gloves. Pajijijik! Sparks flew from her hands.
Oh. Right. She uses that gear too.
It was a glove-shaped stun gun. Midas Girl pressed the electrified gloves against the metal rising from the ground. Pajijijijijijik!!! The root-like metal extensions flashed golden. Electricity from the gloves coursed through the golden metal.
“Kuaaaagh!!”
“Ugaaaah!!!”
“Kuheeeek!!!”
The villains bound in the metal orbs were cleanly subdued by the shock flowing through it. Another advantage of Midas Girl's power: her summoned metal had excellent conductivity. She'd capitalized on that by adding stun gun functionality to her suit, restraining enemies in metal, then zapping them to take them down. Pretty solid tactic. As long as she could wrap them in metal, it was a guaranteed subdual—unless they were immune to electricity.
The minions were efficiently handled by Midas Girl. Now, just the lizard left.
“Blank!!! Midas Girl!!! Come on!!! Beg me to kill you myself, and I'll grant that wish!!!”
Lizardman glared at me and Midas Girl, licking the side of his face with his long, forked lizard tongue.
“Blank, you bastard—I'll chop off your limbs and drag you behind my bike!! And Midas Girl... you.”
Lizardman chuckled darkly, scratching at the stump of his severed arm. Blood oozed from the cut each time, soaking the ground. Ignoring his mangled arm like that was seriously tough! Is this what a villain's like?!
“I'll make you my concubine, turn you into a factory for bearing my spawn.”
Lizardman leered at Midas Girl, drool dripping from his maw.
“A f-factory... for bearing your spawn...! Y-you filthy...!”
Midas Girl's face flushed bright red at the blatant words. Classic lowbrow villain sexual harassment. I'd never heard anyone say that kind of thing in real life.
Seizing her moment of flustered shock, Lizardman lunged at Midas Girl. Had those over-the-top words been bait to throw her off? True to villain form—sneaky tricks on point.
Shiiiiiing! I swung my machete to block Lizardman's path.
“...!”
Only then did Midas Girl realize how close she'd come to attack and assumed a defensive stance.
“Get it together, Factory!”
I snapped her back to reality right away.
“F-Factory...? Don't just make up nicknames for people!!”
Midas Girl glared at me, clenching her fists. In her anger, she'd snapped out of it, at least.
Lizardman doesn't take hits well.
I knew that from the original story. His massive lizard-like body was optimized for absorbing impacts. In the original, Ida-in battered him relentlessly with barrier-wrapped punches, but Lizardman barely took damage. There was some backstory about layers between scales and muscle absorbing blows. Anyway, that's how it was. This Lizardman followed the same rules, so I'd prepped with bladed weapons.
“Guuaaaah!!!”
Lizardman roared, swinging his fist with all his might. Whoosh!! It grazed past my head with massive force. A direct hit would've taken it clean off. Even after losing an arm, he insisted on close quarters for a reason—he was dead certain he'd win up close.
His momentum was good, but unfortunately, Lizardman was terrible at hiding his emotions. Every time I swung my machete, he overreacted more than necessary.
He's scared of getting cut by the blade.
His arm had been sliced off by one, after all. His eyes fixated overly on my machete hand. Once I read his psyche, countering was easy.
Shiiiiiing!!!! I swung the machete wide, telegraphing it obviously.
“Ha!!! I saw that!!!”
Lizardman smirked, confident in victory, dodging the blade's arc and charging me. He was aiming to counterattack right after my swing. But I'd missed on purpose.
The moment all his focus locked on my machete—I struck.
Pwaaack!!!!
I smashed my fist into Lizardman's temple with everything I had.
“Heh. I told you punches don't work.”
Lizardman, still sure of victory, thrust his head forward at me.
“It's not a punch.”
I knew damn well about his impact resistance—why the hell would I punch him? Kaduk—!!! I jammed my fingers into the eye next to his head and gouged with all my strength.
“Kuaaaaaagh!!!!”
Lizardman twisted in agony as his eyeball was ripped out in an instant. No amount of impact resistance trained the eyes. As he writhed, I plunged the machete into his gut with full force.
“Aaaagh!! You fuuuck!!! Aaaaagh!!!!!”
Ignoring his deafening screams, I twisted the embedded machete upward and unleashed a shockwave from inside.
“W-wait...!! Lizardman is a villain we need to capture!! We can't let you kill him!”
Midas Girl echoed the same line as Seo Ha-yoon. But I'd already decided to kill him.
Gurgle. Gulp.
Blood poured from Lizardman's gut as he half-knelt, his body starting to twitch. I'd stabbed deep, then shredded his internals with an internal shockwave. I knew roughly what came next.
“Bl... kuheuk!”
“an... kuhuk!!”
“Kuh... you fucking dog...!!!”
Even vomiting blood, he hurled curses at me with impressive grit. Nice work completing the Blank acrostic poem, by the way. Here's your prize.
Pfuaaaaaak!!!!
Lizardman's body burst open like a satisfying balloon.
Ew. Refreshing.
Lizardman was cleanly dealt with. Time to head home.
“B-Blank!! Stop!!! I can't just let you go!!”
Midas Girl, who'd been staring blankly at the explosion, snapped into combat readiness.
“I don't plan on fighting you, Midas Girl. My target was Lizardman. Not you.”
“As a villain, I have to capture you!”
Midas Girl summoned alloy from the ground to block my path.
“Sir Blank. Other heroes and police are closing in. Time to escape.”
Rinrang reported via drone.
Escape, huh. Good thing I had something perfect. Lizardman's bike—the one he used to torture civilians—was right there, keys in the ignition, engine idling for wheelies.
That'd do for getaway. Honestly, I'd been wanting to ride one. Looked fun when Snake peeled out of Starfield last time.
“Let's meet again if there's another chance.”
I subtly tapped the drone beside me. Rinrang got the signal and triggered every alarm system under her control.
Weeeeeeng-!!!!!!
Alarms blared everywhere, making Midas Girl flinch and freeze. Seizing the gap, I quickly dismantled the bike's limiter, hopped on, and gunned it.
Vrooooom!!!!!!
I floored the throttle, racing through the pitch-black underground mall. The thrill of blasting down a non-road passageway on a bike was real—pure freedom.
“It's Blank!!”
“Everyone, move!!”
Cops building barricades to block the exit paled at the incoming speed demon and scattered.
Kwaaaang!!!
The bike smashed through the barricade effortlessly. Figured with all the crap stuck to the front, it'd plow right through. Tougher bike than I thought. Modified somehow? Anyway, way better than expected.
Thanks, Lizardman. I'll put it to good use.