Still (Y/N)'s POV
"Well then, can't keep the bad guys waiting!" I exclaimed valiantly, slamming my right fist into my left palm as I stood tall on my roof.
"To be fair, I don't think they'll be sittin' around for ya. Technically speaking, super-you doesn't exist yet" Nightmare commented as I began my journey along the rooftops.
'Even better, the element of surprise means I can stop people without them getting all jumpy' I responded, using a few lampposts to swing and jump across a street.
"And they would be jumpy because...?" Nightmare asked, clearly not following.
'Well if you know what you're doing is going to be suddenly and violently interrupted, wouldn't you be a bit on edge?' I countered, instinctively raising an eyebrow as I landed on a new roof.
"And you're saying normal criminals aren't already like that with cops?" He questioned, a flash from someone's phone diverting my attention to the street.
'Well cops have a very loud siren, we have very surprising flamey-punches and several variations of stabbings' I answered, giving a two fingered salute to the person who I realised was taking a picture of me. 'I hope she got my good side' I thought.
"She ain't get a solid picture. I saw when the camera lens do its taking-picture-thing, I cloaked you in a full body shadow so the picture wouldn't register you" Nightmare explained smugly. "We can't let your debut get spoiled just yet, can we?" He added as I arrived at an apartment complex.
'Huh, well thanks I guess' I responded as I looked the building up and down.
'Good times' I reminisced, looking to the right and seeing the fire escape down. 'Well then, couldn't hurt to get the scouting out of the way' I thought before lowering myself towards a nearby alleyway. I dug my feet into the wall before diving to the opposite wall and grabbing onto a pipe that went down the building. After I got a good hold on it, I quickly slid down with the intent of walking around to the fire escape for a safer way up. However, as I touched down onto the hard concrete ground, the sound of footsteps got closer and in a panic I dove into the nearest, deepest and darkest shadow. It was next to a pretty awful smelling dumpster, but the smell was hardly noticeable in comparison to the worry I felt deep within my body. The footsteps were heavy, and unfortunately for me, they were undoubtedly getting closer. For some unknown reason, and not unlike with Lazari, several of my instincts kicked me straight into fight or flight mode. I wasn't sure what to do, but all I could think of was to stay hidden and stay on guard - so that's what I did. I stayed crouched low, but kept my arms up in the best defensive stance I could hold from my position. The footsteps stopped on the other side of the dumpster, and that meant whoever it was had come into earshot.
I could hear laboured breathing pretty clearly, but it didn't sound entirely human - which was most likely what was the cause of my current surge of emotions. The breath sounded somewhat animalistic, it was similar to a wolf in the fact that it was a low-rumbling noise and it sounded like the person was also faintly growling at the same time. As if to keep the comparison going, they started sniffing the air like something trying follow a scent. As it got closer and closer, the stench of fresh blood filled the air around me. As if to put me more on edge, I heard something being roughly dragged along the ground towards me. I watched a shoddily-bandaged hand slam down and grip onto the front corner of the dumpster as a tall and burly man sniffed the air and slowly shuffled towards me. "What's that smell...?" He asked down the alley, his voice was incredibly deep with a moderate Irish accent.
After he spoke, I cursed silently as a sudden surge of pain rocketed through the back of my legs and I dropped from crouching down into my knees. I clutched my calves in pain, but as I looked up this man was stood in full view and looking at the wall above me. From below I could see he had bandages over his eyes as well as a silver pendant around his neck, the color complementing his unkempt, dark gray hair. With him stood before me, I saw that he was wearing clothes that seemed rather odd. He wore a long dark brown coat that went all the way down to his ankles, accompanied with a thick leather shoulder cape which was coated in splatters of blood. He also wore formal trousers and shoes, as well as a light black formal shirt. As if to style-up his look, he wore a bizarrely patterned cowl as well as a wide brimmed fedora to hold down his ear-length head hair. "The sweet blood... oh it sings to me..." he mumbled lowly, seemingly enticed by the smell as I felt the bandages around my Rake-wounds soak in what I could only assume to be what he smelt.
"Looks like we found something interesting..." Nightmare commented as this man huffed desperately, his breaths visible to me in the winter weather. "If this gets ugly, I'll focus on healing and you can focus on the not dying" he added as I watched a pool of blood grow from the dumpster's blindside.
"It sings to me..." this man repeated, most likely in reference to my blood he was smelling. "It's enough to make a man sick..." he added, a toothy grin creeping its way onto his face and exposing his large canine teeth. Before I had realised it, he had brought his fist up and it was less than a foot away from me when I zoned back in.
Making a snap decision, I tucked and rolled out of the way which caused his fist to slam through the metal of dumpster. His head followed me as I moved, but as I watched him try and rip his hand out I looked down to see I was now stood in the pool of blood I saw from a second ago. Quickly looking towards its centre, I saw a pale woman wearing a red brooch around her neck laying lifeless with a messy trail of blood leading out of the alleyway behind her. 'Well that explains the dragging noise' I thought, clenching my fist at the sight of this corpse. I quickly turned back to see this opponent diving at me with his arms out and his mouth open, as if he intended to kill me like a wolf would. I tucked and rolled once again, the pain slowly fading but admittedly still distracting me. I did my best to stand up, and as I did he turned around to 'face' me before speaking once again.
"Too proud to show your true face, eh?" He asked, smiling once more.
"Hmph" was all I gave in response, reaching back and putting my hand on my wakizashi while trying to endure the pain in my leg.
"Oh but what a sporting hunt it was!" He exclaimed, referencing something I had no idea about.
'A Hunt? Is this guy off his rocker?' I wondered, watching him now softly cackle to himself. But as I was thinking, he reached behind him and from under his coat he pulled out a deceptively large axe with a bandaged handle.
"I don't know, dumb dumb. If you ask me, a super-powered, axe-wielding, blindfolded old dude with a blood fetish who drags a dead lady around meets the perfect description for a sane human" Nightmare chimed in sarcastically.
'Hey, in my defence, he could be normal by non-human standards. I mean, I live with a girl who's half-mythological creature, share my body with a demon, I'm best friends with a ghost who uses technology as her medium and I lost my virginity to a bleach-burned serial killer who has no eyelids and killed her whole family' I responded, drawing my wakizashi to meet his downward strike in a clash. 'So who am I to judge?' I asked, pushing him back with a kick to the chest.
'Man, he's strong' I thought, side stepping another strike. 'And fast!' I added, ducking underneath a side swipe that was monstrously quick. I planted my feet before launching myself up at him, headbutting him in the chin and sending him staggering back. Not wanting to waste time, I dashed forward to make up for the space between us but ultimately that landed me right where he wanted. With a villainous smile, and a grunt of exertion, he swung his axe up with tremendous force. I attempted to block it with my own blade, but as they connected I was sent hurtling back to the entrance of the alley. I watched him slowly scrape his weapon along the ground, sparks flying off of he ground as he ominously walked towards me.
I diverted my eyes to my weapon for a moment, and I saw that he had chipped a small part of the blade with his strike. I let out a grunt of annoyance, realising that this guy was definitely a high threat. "Beasts all over the shop..." he said, loud enough for me to hear now instead of mumbling. "You'll be one of them, sooner or later" he added ominously, clearly still caught up in this delusion. Not wanting to waste time, or take this out into the street, I darted forward to 'meet' him halfway. I did my best to stay ahead, so when I closed in and he smiled I already knew what my next move was. As he swept his axe up, I sidestepped the attack before countering with my own. Using a spin for both momentum and style, I drove as much of the blade as I could into his side. The attack landed well and he let out a breathless gasp and hunched forward, so with as much strength as I could muster I slashed the blade so it sliced open his front as he flew back and hit his back on the sharp corner of the metal dumpster. I didn't move for a few seconds as I watched his limp body lie still, I wasn't confident that I had won and as such I waited for something. Whether that 'something' was seeing his chest rise, or seeing him rise, I was expecting something that would lead to another round in this fight with him.
However, what I didn't expect was for him to curl up into a ball and clutch his head while he chanted something to himself quietly. Against my better judgment, I took a few quiet steps towards him and after I did I quickly realised I had endangered myself once again. Once he got back up, still holding his head, he looked up to the sky and let out a deep scream of both pain and anguish. Before my very eyes I saw him instantly more-or-less double in size and transform into what could only be referred to as a werewolf with a halted transformation. He stood massively, at around 13 feet tall, and most of his clothes stayed intact. Each of his nails looked like black knives jutting out from his fingers and his feet whilst his toes had burst through his boots. The bandages stayed over his eyes, however his hat had been blown away and his scraggly, dark gray hair had become the fur that covered his head. His jaw seemed to open wider than it should've, before he let out a raging cry and bore his animal teeth at me. As he stared in my direction with murderous intent, I braced for his next attack as he ripped off the forearms of his sleeves and revealed his muscular, yet human, arms. "WHAT THE FUCK IS HE!?" Nightmare exclaimed, either impressed or horrified at this new transformation.
I was about to craft a response, but by the time I could start thinking this 'man' had launched himself into the air in the blink of an eye. And before I could even fathom where he had got to, he had already slammed into the ground in front of me as he struck me over the head with immense force. The strike caused me to keel over, and for a second I had lost my vision. 'Jesus fucking Christ! What the fuck is he!?' I questioned, looking back up at him only to have his massive claws swipe at me. I noticed it just in the nick of time, since as the claws were millimetres from my face I had dropped and rolled underneath them before finding my footing and regaining my ground. 'He's even faster now!?' I thought, taking a few steps back to try and cover some distance. 'How the hell am I meant to keep up?' I wondered, watching him rear up another attack. He planted his right foot behind him before rocketing towards me, his arms and claws raised. He closed the gap in less than a second, all I could do was throw up my guard but even with that the hit was significant. I was sent flying back once more, but I thankfully managed to catch myself just before the exit of the alley. 'Speed and strength, huh?' I thought, rubbing my sore forearms that just took the hit of a lifetime. 'Guess I just have to go all out!' I concluded, cracking my knuckles as I watched my opponent pant rapidly.
Mimicking his move, I planted my foot and rocketed forward with my fists raised. He threw up his guard, widening his stance and crossing both of his forearms just as I did, but thankfully he also ended up obscuring his vision in doing so. With that in mind, I dropped low and slid under his legs before popping straight back up onto my feet. Seeing an opening, I gripped my wakizashi tight and plunged it straight into his lower spine. 'Dead centre' I thought with a cocky smile, now hearing my opponent roar in pain. However, my overconfidence got the better of me and I ended up taking the full force of a backhanded swipe. His massive forearm collided with my upper chest and before I realised, I was thrown into the brick wall behind me with an intense force. As I tried to pull myself back to a good stance, I realised that no matter what I did that I wasn't actually moving. 'Damn, am I in the wall? Talk about monstrous power!' I thought, realising my current predicament. By the time my eyes returned to my opponent, I was in time to watch him snarl angrily before ripping my sword out of his back. After the blade left his body, I watched him flash a toothy and cocky grin before snapping it in his hand and discarding the scraps. 'Awh, man! That was so expensive!' I mentally groaned. Seeing one of my prized blades tossed away like common trash apparently struck a nerve, because as I was still trying to pry myself out of the wall I ripped my dominant arm out with such force that I ended up breaking part of the wall and ripping chunks of it out.
I didn't have time to take notice that immediately though, since after I made this move my opponent had already attempted to attack me again. As he went for a punch to my head, I did my best to dodge but being stuck in a wall limited my manoeuvrability. I managed to swerve the first one, causing it to fly over my shoulder and punch into the wall as if it was nothing. From there, he had already brought his other hand into my gut before letting out a barrage of strikes against my struggling form. He hit me with punch after punch and slash after slash until he had to stop to catch his breath, which unfortunately was quite a while. In reality it was maybe a minute or two of relentless attacks, but from the utter force of them it felt like I had just endured hours of punishment. As I weakly continued to try and pull the rest of my body from this indent, Nightmare spoke up. "Heya, if you want some help: we could always switch out..." he suggested.
'No thanks, buddy' I responded, feeling blood drip from my nose. 'It's not that I don't trust you or anything...' I began, wiping my nose with my free arm before using it to try and pull my other arm out. 'It's just that-'
"You don't trust me?" He asked, finishing my sentence and making me smirk.
'You get it' I responded smugly, a dumb smile sitting in my face. 'Now if you don't mind, I need you on healing since I'm not allowed to use powers' I added, gripping my sleeve and forcing my arm out along with some chunks of brick.
"Oh yeah, about that..." he began as I watched my enemy regain his composure. "You've been able to use your powers for a while now" he explained as I aggressively kicked my legs out of the wall and sent chunks flying towards my enemy.
'How long is 'a while'?' I asked sternly, if the loss of my weapons didn't anger me then this lack of information definitely did.
"Well..." he began, his tone sounding a tad nervous. "Ever since you came to this timeline..." he mumbled embarrassedly as my enemy reared another attack.
'And you wonder why I don't trust you' I groaned, crossing my arms as I waited for this attack. 'Can't even remember vital information, I might've died if you didn't tell me that you know?' I scolded, effortlessly ducking the attack and watching his arm go through the wall again.
'Does he seem slower to you?' I asked, instinctively ducking his other punch and watching it be resigned to the same fate as the other. 'Or is it just me?' I added.
"Maybe you're doing less now?" he questioned as I punched my enemy in the jaw to counter an attempted bite. "Considering you were making a conscious effort to not use powers before, since you don't have to think so hard anymore maybe you've become more naturally focused?" He theorised as my opponent ripped his arms out of the wall again.
'That's probably it then' I responded nonchalantly, nimbly dodging the barrage of attacks that was being thrown at me again. 'Welp...' I thought, seeing an opening.
'Time to finish this!'/"Time to fuck shit up!"