Chapter 153 0153: The Allure of Cosmic Energy
Alex dispelled the camouflage and revealed Laura's battle-ready figure as a white-clad bald Inhuman descended from the air. Alex realized that the shockwave was created by a physical attack.
[I jinxed it…] Alex cursed. He was just droning on about Cosmic Energy being the only thing that could break through his camouflage. Lo and behold, an Inhuman with a power that harnesses Cosmic Energy appeared. He could see the flow of that energy running through that Inhuman's eyes, which was what presumably broke through ?Advanced Camouflage?.
"Surrender, Hydra agent. You're all out of tricks." The Inhuman said with a multi-toned voice. It sounded as if many people were speaking at the same time. Even the physical appearance of this inhuman was contrasting. Their body kept morphing between masculine and feminine shapes again and again. It was as if their physical body was unstable and would disappear from reality at any instant.
"Ahem…" Laura cleared her throat and said, "No."
The sound of static filled the air and arcs of electricity started appearing on Laura's suit. She immediately charged at the Inhuman with lightning-enhanced speed and punched them in the gut.
Unlike what she expected, Laura seemed to have hit an invisible barrier, and the Inhuman lazily smacked Laura, throwing her to the side. She flipped and landed on her feet.
[Those attacks are imbued with Cosmic Energy. You can't fight this Inhuman head-on.] Alex told her.
[Should I run?] She asked Alex as she charged up some lightning and attacked the Inhuman from a distance.
[We can fight this weird Inhuman for a while to gauge their capabilities. If they're too strong for us, I'll get you away from here.] He told her. Someone with the power to coat their body parts with pure Cosmic Energy was too invaluable for Alex. Devouring her would give Alex some rudimentary control over Cosmic Energy.
'If Laura can't take them, then I'll bring Jane here…' He decided, 'Even though it's the most rudimentary method of coating their body parts, the Inhuman is ultimately manipulating Pure Cosmic Energy. I can't give up on an ability that useful…'
Considering that the most basic resistance ability for Cosmic Energy would cost Alex a million EP, the manipulation ability would undoubtedly be exponentially more expensive. So, Alex had to get it no matter what.
Unlike Jane, who could only manipulate Cosmic Energy through Hofund, this person could directly control it. That's why Alex was even considering devouring them. He couldn't get Jane's manipulation ability since it wasn't hers in the first place. But this Inhuman was different.
[We have to go all out…] Alex said with determination and Laura instantly felt much more connected to him. After forming the level 6 bond with her, Alex could temporarily achieve a state similar to ?True Merge? without the drawbacks of memory and excessive existence sharing. Plus, Alex could control the degree to which they would merge in this case.
It would merely allow both Alex and Laura to temporarily achieve an extremely deep level of battle synergy. This would allow them to use all the abilities in their arsenal perfectly without the delay of Laura having to ask Alex to use one of his abilities.
As they both formed a deeper level of synergy, four thick tentacles appeared from Laura's back, similar to Doctor Octopus. As the tentacles appeared, the blacks of her suit gained a reddish hue as it was coated with Chaos Energy to counter the effects of Cosmic Energy to some extent. Alex also created a compulsion through Chaos magic to keep people as far away from this place as possible so that he and Laura could fight without any distractions.
Laura approached the Inhuman again with her limbs covered in lightning as she punched. This time, when the inhuman tried to wave her away, one of the tentacles blocked the attack and discharged even more lightning. The mix of Chaos Energy and lightning got through the flimsy Cosmic Energy membrane that was coating the Inhuman's arm and caused them to pull their hand back with a hiss. After all that, it was as if they'd just been lightly electrocuted.
As for Laura, she hit the Inhuman in the same spot a few times— their abdomen, but it didn't work. Changing tactics, she extended her claws and threw a kick at the Inhuman's neck. They barely ducked from the claw that was coming out of her foot. But her assault was relentless, she continued attacking the Inhuman without giving them any time to recover.
Soon, she knicked the Inhuman's arm. But instead of blood, there was the sound of metals colliding and the Inhuman's arm was perfectly fine. Even the Inhuman seemed surprised at how robust their defense was.
'So this person has only recently gotten their powers and isn't really familiar with them…' Alex understood the reason that the Inhuman seemed so defensive. They could coat their entire body with Cosmic Energy to get a physical enhancement. They could also cover their eyes with it to enhance them to even break through Alex's camouflage. It was a simple ability that turned insane solely by considering how overpowered Cosmic Energy was.
With the new discovery, the Inhuman seemed to gain some confidence and tried to slap Laura away again, but the tentacles that were coming out of her back kept interrupting those attacks. When the Inhuman was shocked by Alex's tentacle lightning discharge for the first time, their defense had gotten stronger and it didn't affect them anymore.
After a minute or so, "Enough!" The Inhuman seemed to have lost their patience and exploded with a speed that was difficult for Laura's physique to match and punched her square in the chest, throwing Laura away. Before she slammed into the building, the tentacles coming out of her back attached themselves to the ground and stopped Laura's momentum, helping her stand on her own feet again.
The Inhuman saw Laura's caved-in chest heal up rapidly in less than a second and narrowed their eyes. They pushed their ability even further and coated their body with even more of that 'empowering energy'.
'If this genderless Inhuman was using Cosmic energy more efficiently, Laura probably wouldn't even know what hit her, and she would be done for…' Alex was even more enraptured by the superpower and wanted it all the more. And this feeling was felt by Laura too as her desire to subdue the Inhuman increased even more.
She summoned lightning clouds in the air while continuing her fight with the Inhuman. This time, they were both on an equal level, with no one seeming to come out on top. The Inhuman was rapidly adapting to Laura's strength, mostly because they started tanking most of Laura's attacks, knowing that she couldn't get through the defense of that 'empowering energy'.
A few seconds later, a thick bolt of lightning fell from the sky, engulfing both Laura and the Inhuman.
With a bang sound, the Inhuman was thrown off their feet and slammed into the building as the lightning bolt dissipated, revealing Laura's figure. The blues of the lightning were like glowing arcs that were running all along her suit, there were even a few streaks that were glowing with a pulsating blue. Her claws turned from the previous silver to pure blue with most of the concentrated lightning energy being stored in her Adamantium-Vibranium skeleton.
The Inhuman coughed and walked out from the rubble in a relatively unscathed state, "You're strong…"
Under normal circumstances, Laura would've decided to talk to this Inhuman, but Alex wasn't really interested in talking to them and was solely interested in their ability. This also affected Laura's thought process as she didn't reply and approached the Inhuman again, leaving a trail of lightning in her path.
As Laura sliced at the Inhuman's arm, they snapped their arm backward with a hiss. Her claw might have failed to penetrate the Cosmic Energy barrier, but the now-empowered lightning ended up getting through.
'If this Inhuman's control over Cosmic Energy was even marginally better and their use of that ability was more refined, we would be having a very different fight…' Alex repeated the thought as he saw the way that the Inhuman fought. They had combat training, but their ability was so unfamiliar that they weren't able to adapt to it quickly enough and were stuck in the original convention.
'No wonder that Terrigen serum thingy was so important…' Alex thought.
With Laura's attacks finally having some effect, she pressed her advantage before the Inhuman could adapt and strengthen their defense ability even further. After a couple of minutes of continuously dominating the Inhuman, Laura realized that the same situation was happening again— The Inhuman was getting used to it and was strengthing their ability further.
Making an instant decision, Laura made her next move, steam started rising from her suit as her eyes started almost glowing with a mix of her original green, along with hints of red and blue. She let out a growl and attacked the Inhuman with a speed that they couldn't even react to before feeling Laura's slicing motion run along their torso, leaving a nasty gash on their skin.
This was the first time Laura was able to draw the Inhuman's blood.
'And it took activating ?Blood Berserker II? to do it…' Alex thought. The upgraded Blood Berserker ability was much better than the previous one. It gave Laura a greater boost to her overall prowess and even made the recovery period much faster.
With the first blood drawn, Laura quickly overwhelmed the Inhuman within a couple more minutes and they were soon kneeling in a pool of their own blood in front of her.
She didn't bother hearing what they had to say and extended her hand toward them as black tendrils escaped her palm and wrapped around the Inhuman. Alex started the devouring process as he deactivated Laura's berserk ability and removed their synergetic state.
"You were really dying to get her ability, huh?" Laura commented as she sat on the ground while panting, recovering after having to go all out.
[You have no idea… Cosmic Energy is one of the most overpowered energies in the universe. There are almost no other energies capable of comparing to it.] He told her.
"Almost?" Laura caught on to his words.
[Almost. There are some other equivalent energies, but that doesn't matter for now.] He agreed while focusing on devouring this new Inhuman.
***
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