A Most Unlikely Hero, Vol. 1 Read online

  And he was right. As Alex struck the inside of Azazel’s forearm, turning the attack wide, the Angelisian commander spun around and tried hitting him with a powerful backfist that Alex barely avoided by leaning his backwards. Even then, he could swear a few epidermal layers had been shaved off his nose.

  Azazel launched another powerful straight punch to the face. Alex had already predicted that he would do this. Instead of coming back up, he allowed himself to fall backwards. He pressed his hands against the ground near his head and tucked in his legs until they touched his chest. With the strength granted to him via his suit, he launched a double-mule kick at Azazel.

  Clang! The sound reverberated across the canal. Alex could feel his legs vibrating as he jumped back to his feet. That attack had not felt pleasant—it actually felt like his joints had been compressed—but it had served its purpose. Azazel stumbled back, off balance and unable to retaliate.

  Acting quickly, Alex stepped to the left. Azazel recovered quicker than he expected and a punch whizzed by his head. This didn’t deter Alex as he reached out, latched onto Azazel’s wrist in a vise-grip, and pulled. The armored Angelisian stumbled forward. Alex used his opponent’s precarious balance to put a foot through Azazel’s instep, ending his foe’s stumbling advance, and then launching a palm strike that bounced off Azazel’s segmented breastplate.

  “Yeowch!”

  A pause ensued in their battle as Azazel watched Alex run around the grassy canal, frantically gripping his now swollen hand and shouting obscenities.

  “Holy crap, that hurt! Why does this hurt so much?! What the frack is your armor made out of?!”

  “It’s made out of adamantine, the strongest alloy on Angelisia. A human such as yourself would never be able to break through it to damage me.”

  “I already know what your armor is made of! That was a rhetorical question!” Alex snapped, blowing on his hand. By Mars that hurt! It felt like he’d tried to stop a speeding shuttle by punching it.

  Alex made a mental note to avoid hitting that armor.

  Unfortunately, this left him with a problem.

  There weren’t many places on this guy that he could hit; the amor covered just about everything.

  The battle started anew, but Alex moved much more cautiously. He spent more time avoiding attacks than he did giving them. With so few places not covered in armor, he couldn’t safely launch an assault until he had ascertained where he could and couldn’t strike.

  The face was an option, obviously, but Azazel was so tall that Alex needed to jump if he wanted to hit this man in the face.

  His joints also seemed unprotected, but those required precision to hit, and he had never been the most precise fighter around.

  What about the knees? They presented a possible chink in this man’s armor, but he’d have to avoid those grieves. Alex cursed. Fighting this guy was proving to be more trouble than he’d initially assumed.

  One of the good things about fighting Azazel was that he didn’t have much speed. Oh, he was fast, but only in a linear manner. He could travel from point A to point B quicker than a speeding shuttle, but his infighting lacked quickness. His arms were so long that it took time for him to hyperextend them into a punch, whereas Alex could launch strikes at a quickfire rate.

  Not that it mattered in this instance. Alex could punch and kick as fast as he wanted. It would make no difference if doing so would only hurt himself. Azazel’s armor was just too strong.

  Alex realized that if he wanted to defeat this guy, then he would need to use Azazel’s strength against him. No two ways around it. When you couldn’t take someone down by knocking them out, you had to make them knock themselves out.

  Fortunately, Alex had some inventions with him that might help.

  Getting out his electro-whip, Alex leapt several meters backwards, and then struck out with his whip, which wrapped around Azazel’s left arm. Then he pressed a button on the handle. The whip coiled around the arm, tighter and tighter, until not even Azazel could pry it off, though that didn’t stop his opponent from trying.

  “What kind of weapon is this?!”

  “Ha-ha-ha! How do you like my electro-whip?” Alex couldn’t help but gloat. “It contains a pulse field generator that I can use to create a combination of different effects. Right now it’s being used as a magnet. Your adamantine suit might not be a known alloy to humanity, but it’s clearly made of similar ionic bonds, which means you’re now trapped.”

  His electro-whip didn’t just shock things. He could change the settings based on what effect he wanted, whether that was zapping people with electricity or bonding alloys together through magnetism.

  “So you say, but you seem to have forgotten something.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I am an Angelisian, and we’re well-known for being some of the strongest beings in the galaxy. Our physical strength is second to none. We can lift and throw several tons without breaking a sweat.” Azazel’s smile made Alex feel like someone had dropped a lead ball in his gut. “How much do you think you weigh?”

  “Um, about seventy-nine kilograms… oh crap!”

  “ARGG!”

  “WAAAAHHH!”

  Yanking his arm back, Azazel pulled Alex right off his feet. Alex’s stomach dropped to his shins as he flew toward Azazel like a heat-seeking missile. He screamed his head off as wind whipped by his face. His eyes watered and tears streaked across his vision as the wind stung his corneas.

  “Take this! Ha!”

  Alex coughed up blood and bile as he found a fist planted into his stomach. Azazel hadn’t even punched him; he’d simply held out his fist and let Alex’s own momentum do all the work. Alex had practically impaled himself!

  “Do you see the difference in our strength now?” Azazel asked as Alex weakly gripped the man’s forearm. His insides felt all squishy, and he was sure that something had broken. “A human such as yourself could never hope to protect Princess Gabrielle. You have no special powers, no unique abilities, and your physical qualities are laughable. Though I’ll admit you are not unskilled at fighting, and you are stronger than I imagined a human to be. However, it doesn’t change the fact that you lack the strength that King Lucifer is looking for in one of Princess Gabrielle’s marriage candidates.”

  “…” Alex mumbled under his breath, the sound coming out more like a wheeze than spoken words.

  Azazel frowned. “What was that?”

  “I said…” His grip on Azazel’s forearm loosened. “… Don’t underestimate me!”

  Alex’s grip inexplicably tightened as he used the outstretched arm as a bar to swing himself around and launch a double-heel kick that smashed into Azazel’s face. The sound of a nose breaking was like music to his ears, but he wasn’t done yet.

  He let go of the arm while Azazel stumbled backward. Using the strength granted to him by his suit, Alex dug his hands into the grass, and lifted his legs until his body was parallel to the ground. Then he hooked his feet behind Azazel’s knees and pulled them back with a strong, swift yank.

  Just like any bipedal mammal, an Angelisian had several weaknesses. One of them was the joints. When Alex pulled his legs back, the joints they were hooked behind came with them, and Azazel fell onto his back with a loud thud.

  Alex leapt into the air and tried to end the fight by smashing his feet onto the prone Azazel’s face. It didn’t work. Azazel rolled out of the way. The ground didn’t crack when he hit it like it did with Azazel’s heel drop, but as Alex pushed himself off the ground and into a bull-rush, deep imprints showed where he’d been standing.

  As Alex rushed forward, Azazel launched a punch meant to ring his bell, but he avoided it by tucking himself into a forward roll. The wet ground rubbed his back as he came up from his roll. He landed in a crouch and lashed out with another hook that was meant to take out Azazel’s legs.

  Azazel didn’t allow this. He moved back, and then came in with a stomp that smashed into the grassy earth, but Alex lea
pt backwards and yanked out his whip. A quick flick of his wrist caused the light particles to wrap around Azazel’s leg. Then Alex yanked on it. Hard.

  “Oh, this is not goOD!”

  Whoof! Azazel’s head hit the ground. Alex grinned. His opponent must have been seeing stars by now.

  Not one to miss such a golden opportunity, Alex leapt into the air, soaring at least 15 meters above ground, and then landed feet first on Azazel’s face.

  The ground cratered around them as if a meteor had struck it. Dust and debris exploded like a miniature hydrogen bomb going off. Azazel’s legs and arms jerked like they were suffering intense muscle spasms.

  Alex jumped off his opponent and landed a meter away from his fallen foe. His breathing was heavy, his chest ached with sharp pains, and his legs were shaking. He really hoped that his last attack had finished Azazel off.

  “D-did I win…?”

  “He-he-he…”

  “Eh?”

  Eyes widening in shock, Alex watched as Azazel climbed to his feet. His armor had several grass stains, though it remained otherwise unscathed, and his face looked a little battered. Blood leaked down his nose, clearly broken, and a crimson trail dribbled down the left corner of his mouth, which he wiped away.

  He was smiling. “It appears that you are more than just some random human that Princess Gabrielle has chosen as her champion. You are indeed a skilled adversary. I am surprised by how strong you are. I did not know humans could generate that much power.”

  Alex wondered if he should inform Azazel that they couldn’t, and that he was only this strong because of Gabrielle’s suit.

  “However, do not think that you will be able to defeat me with such weak attacks. It’s just as I told you, I am a commander of the Angelisian army. A love tap like that won’t be enough to defeat someone such as myself.”

  So, this guy was basically saying that his last attack, which was the cleanest hit that Alex had landed thus far, not to mention his most powerful, was not enough? Oh, that was just lovely. He so wanted to fight against someone who could take his best attack and get right back up like it was a bug bite.

  And was it just him, or were Azazel’s eyes glowing a demonic shade of red?

  “Now then, I believe it is time for me to take the kid gloves off.”

  Alex groaned. “I do not like the sound of that.”

  “Here I come!”

  “EEK!”

  Alex bolted when Azazel shot forward like a human—Angelisian—bullet. Only the heightened reflexes given to him by the suit allowed him to avoid becoming a human pancake when Azazel tried to steamroll over him.

  He rolled to the left, coming up on his feet, and tried to wrap his whip around Azazel’s leg again. Unfortunately, Azazel was moving much too fast. Instead of his foe tripping, Alex found himself being dragged along the ground like a dog owner holding onto the leash of an overly enthusiastic rottweiler.

  Fortunately, Alex was smart enough to let go, but most of the damage had already been done. His clothes were tattered, his face was red, and he felt like a walking bruise. He climbed wearily to his feet, wondering if the way his legs wobbled precariously was a sign of his Vestibular System being damaged or if it was just exhaustion.

  Whether he was injured or tired mattered little, as Azazel came back at him. Alex was forced to dodge a series of powerful strikes. Each punch nearly caused him to stumble, not because they hit, but because it was so powerful that it displaced the air. It was a lot like being slapped in the face.

  Okay, I’m exhausted, I’m injured, and this guy is relentless. I’m pretty sure I have no hope of winning, unless I can pull a miracle out of my ass.

  Yes, his defeat was all but guaranteed unless something happened to change his situation. Did he have anything that might help him?

  Some quick thinking on his part allowed Alex to slip away from Azazel. He pulled an object from his pockets and, timing it with Azazel’s movement, threw it at the other man’s face. The object struck the Angelisian and detonated, but rather than release fire and shrapnel, it released something bright pink and sticky.

  “W-what is this stuff?! I can’t see! Can’t! See!”

  The gum-like substance, a form of rubber cement developed by Alex, covered Azazel’s entire face, forcing the man to drop his guard and reach up to try and pry the stuff off.

  Not wasting a moment, Alex launched himself into the air, grabbed Azazel’s head between his hands, and rammed a knee into the man’s face. Azazel’s head snapped back.

  Alex landed back on the ground, rushed forward, and then leapt into the air and drilled Azazel in the face with a double-heel kick.

  Bang! Like an old-school cannonball being fired, the sound rang out like thunder, echoing across the landscape. While Alex landed on his feet, Azazel crashed back first into the grassy slope, which broke apart. Grass and dirt flew into the air, obscuring the area.

  Alex would have loved nothing more than to continue his assault, but that proved impossible when the rubber cement-like substance broke apart after his foe smashed a fist into it.

  That was the problem with this particular invention—it only worked for a few seconds before the atmosphere caused it to harden and turn brittle. How disappointing. On the other hand, Alex would’ve been stuck to Azazel during his assault. Alex doubted there would be another chance to use it again. This guy didn’t strike him as the type who fell for the same trick twice.

  “Very good,” Azazel complimented as he climbed to his feet. “You are a tricky opponent. I can see now why Princess Gabrielle is taken with you. However, it’s all over now!”

  “What?”

  Before Alex could do so much as blink, something slammed into his chest with agonizing force, like a dreadnaught crash-landing on top of him. He didn’t even have time to gasp before his entire body soared through the air. His insides screamed as everything blurred around him. Then he slammed into the ground.

  And everything hurt.

  The world tumbled. His bones were jarred. His back screamed and his head was battered. Dirt and grass filled his nose. He would’ve coughed, but he didn’t have the breath. He was a ragdoll, rolling along the ground like a useless sack of old parts.

  With a loud “OOMPH!” Alex landed on his back. His eyes were wide open. The light from the sun was blotted out by a shape, a figure. Azazel. The Angelisian commander descended on him, a single foot extended, glowing a bright red as air friction caused the entire limb to catch fire.

  Is this it?

  Was this the end? The limit of his strength?

  Is this as far as I can go?

  So much for his promise to protect Gabrielle. It had been foolish of him to think that he could protect anyone, much less a princess, from people like this. He had been naive in thinking that he could become a hero by protecting her from her old man’s suitors.

  So, this is a human’s limitations, huh? How pathetic.

  Alex closed his eyes and smiled, already prepared for defeat.

  “ALEX!”

  A shout penetrated his mind. It was Gabrielle! The desperation in her voice caused his eyes to snap open.

  I can’t give up here…

  If he gave up now, then Gabrielle would be forced to marry someone against her will. Could he live with himself if he let that happen?

  No…

  He couldn’t.

  Can’t give up…

  He wouldn’t.

  I won’t give up!

  “In that case, why don’t I lend you a hand,” a voice said inside of his head.

  As Azazel descended upon him, Alex felt something come over him, a feeling that spread through his body like an infusion of energy. It encompassed his being, engulfing him. He felt light. Strong. Invincible. Like he could take on the whole galaxy if need be. He wouldn’t lose here!

  Azazel’s foot crashed against Alex’s right arm. The ground exploded around them. Deep chasms opened up. A crack traveled from the grassy plain to the canal, splitting it apa
rt and causing the water to explode as if underwater mines were detonating one after another.

  Azazel’s eyes widened. Alex lay on his back, inside of a massive crater, his left arm raised, blocking the leg that should have crushed him into a fine paste. Instead of crushing him, Alex held the leg in an ironclad grip. His fingers were digging indents into the armored grieve.

  “This isn’t possible!”

  Alex planted his free hand on the ground, using it to push himself up. He felt awful, as if his internal organs had been crushed. Yet even as he moved into a crouch, the wounds became more bearable, less painful. The adrenaline coursing through him must have been blocking out the pain. He also felt stronger, and that strength grew with each passing second.

  “No human should be this strong!”

  “Don’t…” Alex grunted. “Don’t underestimate me!”

  With a loud roar, Alex stood to his feet and spun around. Azazel, still caught within his grip, was lifted off the ground and spun with him. The Angelisian commander wailed as Alex continued rotating. He moved faster and faster. Everything spun by in a dizzying blur of colors. Then, with a final, ferocious roar, he tossed Azazel away, sending his foe flying.

  Alex leapt out of the crater, his clothing in tatters, his bodysuit hanging off his frame, ripped and torn. The silver veins, the Nerve Synapse System, had gone dim, but it still appeared to be working, as he felt power flowing through him. Several meters away, Azazel landed back on the ground, which cratered under the weight of his armor.

  Alex glared at him as he got back up. “Tell me something, why are you so keen on taking Gabrielle back home when you know that her father is going to force her into a loveless marriage? Can’t you see how wrong that is?”

  “I do this because King Lucifer has ordered me to return her safely home.” Crossing his arms over his chest, Azazel’s expression was about as serious as they came. “Of course I feel for Princess Gabrielle and her situation, however, the orders of my king are absolute. You do not disobey the man who has conquered three-fourths of the galaxy with nothing but his own power and charisma.”