Marvel: King of Mythology Chapter 16

Chapter 16: That's One Annoying Mofo

I didn't expect Nosferatu to be such a good choice for the night.


“Who are you?”


This was definitely not something I can do with Hercules, especially when the distance between us was so huge.


“I go by…” I recalled the name I was made to use during the cage fight, but it made me physically cringe. “Nosferatu.”


So, even without thinking much, I blurted out the first name that came to my mind.


“Nosferatu…” The man with the skull mask and a hood mumbled, “A new variable.”


Variable. 


Felt like he was evaluating the situation, and taking this chance I saw Spider-Man throwing a kick at the hooded figure.


But to my surprise, he caught Spider-Man’s leg with ease. “But you are not a variable, Spider-Man.” And with that he threw Spidy a few feet away from him.


“S-Sir, I didn’t r-reveal anything.” The man who Spider-Man tried to interrogate said, “Please help m–”


Fuck.


Without a second of hesitation, he shot the man right in the head –blowing his brains out.


“Taskmaster!” Spider-Man yelled, but I understood that this just wasn’t an everyday villain.


He was different.


He was dangerous.


I tried to disarm him again, trying to gain control over the other gun that he just equipped.


But this guy was not easy.


“I can see you.” He muttered and I could barely react before a grenade came flying at me.


If not for my speed, I would have been blow–


Shit!


“Too predictable.”


It wasn’t a grenade but a smokescreen as the moment it exploded, fog surrounded me –blurring my vision.


“You shouldn’t have intervened.”


I felt a punch right at my gut and if not for the increased durability, it would have messed me up pretty bad.


“Ugh!”


I saw him trying to shoot, but Spider-Man finally came back to his senses and shot towards his hand, sticking his web over the hand and pulling back the skeleton masked man.


“How are you so early?” Spider-Man asked, surprising me.


He knew this guy was going to be here?


“You aren’t the only one with informants, Spider-Man.” The man said before melting off the web with a glowing dagger. “And you have been sloppy with your tracks.” 


The fuck was this guy?


Seeing the chance, I tried using my ability to make the rubble and scraps fly to him at a high speed, hoping to at least surprise him a little.


But this guy was just a little too difficult.


“I have seen such tricks too many times.” 


He deflected the rubble with his cape, surprising me with its durability. 


This made me realize this wasn’t a villain, at least not a simple one.


He was a mercenary.


The way he talked, acted only with the minimal movement and targeted only the weaknesses –he was a trained professional. 


Amidst this chaos, Spider-Man threw a punch but the man reacted with each. Each kick, each punch that was thrown at him –he reacted to it with ease. 


I didn't have a weapon to attack him either, and seeing his movement, me jumping to attack him blindly wouldn't work either.


But just as I was absolutely blown away by his fighting style, I was breathless as I saw him go on the offensive.


How can such a fighter exist?


He replicated the exact moves, the exact punches and movements made by Spider-Man and improved it on the fly.


The fuck am I looking it?


I had no choice, I swept in. Thanks to my enhanced speed, it didn’t take long before I closed the distance between us.


But while I was glad I was on Nosferatu Essence to save Spider-Man, Hercules would have been a better choice to face the person in front of me.


“That… was a strong hit.” He mumbled, “Super Strength.” he mumbled, “Almost the same level as Spider-Man.” 


I didn't know Spider-Man had super strength, but it didn’t matter.


What mattered was that he blocked my attack.


And just as easily he pushed me back.


But thankfully, Spider-Man was able to shoot a web string at his leg before pulling him –making him stumble back a little. 


This gave me enough room to breathe and jump back.


He wasn’t invulnerable.


He did feel pain and he could be made to fall.


But how?


Thanks to him losing balance, Spider-Man was able to land a solid kick that threw him quite far. 


The hero jumped towards my direction, landing right next to me.


“We have to face him together.” He suggested and while I wholeheartedly agreed, I had no clue what to do.


It wasn’t a fist fight, but a tactical one.


“My telekinesis won’t be enough.”  I said, “We need something better.”


<<Essence Duration Left: 15 minutes>>


Fuck, just when I thought this couldn’t get any worse.


“You two are annoying…” The man grumbled, walking out of the rubble with no visible damage. “Spider-Man you have always been an annoyance, but you too…” He pointed at me, “Will pay today.”


Saying this, he finally took out a sword –one that he seemed very experienced with.


“We are fucked, aren’t we?” I asked the hero, but he wasn't willing to give up. 


“We can’t give up.” He said, “We cannot win against him in fighting style or strength.”


He said and I felt his punches, he wasn’t as strong as us but his technique allowed him to target weaknesses which were deadly.


“We have to immobilize him.” I said, just not sure how.


“If we can do that,” Spider-Man said under his breath, “I will be able to knock him out.”


“We don’t have time,” Think think think, “I’ll distract him, you work on something.”


Saying this, Spider-Man immediately jumped towards him.


Dodging and moving through the sword movements.


I threw the rubbles and broken shards at him to allow Spider-Man to dodge from time to time. 


<<Essence Duration: 5 minutes>>


Fucked, we were.


The masked man, covered in armor and high tech gadgets.


How the fuck do you defeat that.


“You haven’t improved at all since the last time we fought, Spider-Man.” He said, “You are still weak.”


He walked past the bodies, crushing and breaking them with his heavy boots.


“When was the last time you killed a man?” Taskmaster asked, landing a straight punch to his gut. “Never. That is why you are weak.”


Killing someone does not make you strong, but it can steel your heart.


However, it wasn’t absolute.


But then I noticed something.


Nothing was absolute.


His senses weren’t either.


He missed something important, well, ‘I’ missed something important.


Blood!


The villain shot a man, he crushed a man, Spider-Man broke a man’s jaw.


There was blood everywhere.


I had been a fool. But I can’t be any more foolish. I would only get one go at this –one, chance to catch him off guard.


“Spider-Man!” I yelled, “Back off!”


The hero immediately jumped back, not thinking much and simply following the command.


As for the villain, the moment he sensed something wrong and tried jumping back –I yelled at Spider-Man.


“His legs!”


Spider-Man immediately understood and shot at his legs, connecting his webs to his feet.


He wasn’t strong enough and Taskmaster wasn’t stupid enough to let him pull like earlier.


But this was different.


Please fucking work!


“Now!”


I yelled and immediately focused on the blood, making it flow directly under his feet.


The liquid under his foot caused him to lose balance, while Spider-Man finally managed to pull him –causing him to fall face towards the ground.


This was the chance.


I immediately sprouted spikes from the ground using the blood and it penetrated his armor, poking and injuring him at multiple places.


<<Essence Duration: 7 seconds>>


While he tried to get up, I hooked him to the ground with the blood.


“Immobilize him!”


And thankfully, Spider-Man managed to cover the man in his web fluid from head to toe –not allowing him to move a muscle and preventing him from cutting through it.


<<Essence Duration Ended!>>


<<Essence Cooldown: 59 Minutes>>


Fuck…