Digesting my mocking speech, I noticed as the young man stumbled, nearly falling before using his Talent to catch his body and land on his feet.
’Gotcha bitch,’ reaching the dead center of the island, in my vision, Overwatch Low was nothing more than a spec in the darkness, a testament to the distance between us.
Although I wanted to rush forward, I figured I’d take my time and savor this battle, as it had been far too long since I had a good fight with another human.
Sure, it hadn’t even been a full month since I fought the Wyrm, but that was a behemoth of a monster, not a person, so while it was thrilling to an extent, it simply didn’t get my heart pounding like a good scuffle with someone using their Talent to struggle to survive.
Not to mention, the bulk of that Wyrm fight involved me being on autopilot, so that and this were two VERY different things.
Standing my ground and continuing to twirl my dagger like a sharp toy, I tilted my head while continuing to taunt my opponent through the walkie-talkie.
"Tell me something, poor little groupie; oh, should I probably call you Overwatch Low, or maybe you prefer being called Ryan Bishop, heh." When I said this, I heard the Walkie-talkie queue up as if he were going to speak, but I cut him off instead of allowing it to happen.
I was in control; this was my show, not his.
"Then again, who am I to judge? We all have hidden identities; take mine, for instance; I bet you would LOVEEE~ to hear about me, like how I was infamous, nay, notorious in the future, or as I like to call it, the Origin Timeline."
BOOOM BOOOM
When I uttered those words as if adding cadence to what I said, thunder boomed overhead, followed by several lightning strikes that hit the ground nearby, close enough for me to feel static charges in the air.
"Awww, how sad, it was a cute attempt at being fierce, but unfortunately, you missed; it seems your control over your Talent is lackluster at best, what a shame, and here I was hoping you’d put up a decent…"
BOOOOMMM
Interrupting my monologue, I noticed a flicker in the corner of my vision and, with my heightened senses, had barely enough time to launch my body backward, dodging a bolt of lightning that hit the very spot I had previously been standing.
As the surge of crackling blue electricity slammed into the island, it kicked up chunks of rock and dirt with an impact similar to a cannonball crashing into the ground.
"Oh hooo, that was a close one, hmmm whatever shall I dooo~." Seeing as my words were having the desired effect, I knew it wouldn’t be long until Ryan couldn’t continue standing by and hurling lightning at me as if he were Thor.
"You know, I’ve fought a handful of Weathermancers before, like there was this one weak ass little guy at the Gamma-Rank; hmmm, when was it againnnn~ ah yes now I remember, the Battle of Istanbul…hm yes that should be it."
That’s right; this wasn’t my first time fighting Ryan; in fact, I had taken down most of his original Faction in the Origin Timeline, and it wasn’t until I saw his Talent and the way he used it that I was able to recognize him.
How many of them survived that battle? I have no answer to that, as my focus was on other things, but I specifically remember getting a sandstorm thrown at me like a giant baseball due to this guy’s Talent.
However, since he and his Faction were barely blips on my radar in the middle of a much grander battle, I hardly paid attention to them as my sole focus was wiping out the big three European Factions at the time.
Frankly, his influence on the fight was so minimal that the only reason I even recognized him was because of the Weathermancy talent, which, as I’ve stated, was pretty rare to begin with.
Tilting my head to the side, I smiled a wide, crooked flash of pearly whites under my mask because I knew that he now knew who I was; the only question was…would he run for the hills or stand and fight me?
---
POV: 3rd person Ryan
"…ah yes, now I remember, the Battle of Istanbul…" The words struck Ryan as if he had misfired his Talent and accidentally hit himself with lightning instead of his target.
The battle of Istanbul was the last large-scale conflict before the notorious villain known as Xipher struck the leaders of the USAHA. Tens of thousands of Rankers fell to him and the army of people under his control.
The death toll was so high that the man’s danger level was upgraded to the highest known rating, essentially likening him to a walking calamity.
If before Ryan was startled by being found and chased, now he was practically about to shit himself out of fear.
While on the run, he had been observing the child chasing him the entire time and believed the kid was tiring, so he adjusted his original plan to run away to one involving a battle where he could eliminate the threat to himself and Jennifer Rowing in one swoop.
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However, upon reaching the startling conclusion that his opponent wasn’t some random ranker but instead a young Xipher, he was so frightened that he froze…losing control of his Talent for a moment and allowing the storm he had worked so hard to strengthen to lose more than 50% of its power.
"Xipher…Xipher returned to the past…he wasn’t dead…it was all a lie…" Unknown to Taylor, his identity reveal had fractured something in Ryan’s mind as he began reliving the horrors of the Battle of Istanbul.
The Screams, the blood, and seeing his friends murdered before his eyes were something that still haunted his dreams to this day, all these years later, and now, standing off in the distance, with his silhouette appearing in the stormy night…was the perpetrator of said atrocities.