Chapter 94: chap

The shattered asphalt of the city’s industrial sector gave way to a graveyard of rusted iron and crumbling masonry. The decommissioned kinetic-reactor facility loomed against the midnight sky like a hollowed-out concrete fortress, its massive cooling towers long silent and choked with weeds.

Jayden approached the perimeter with absolute caution. Light bent completely around his frame, his invisibility leaving him as nothing more than a ghost shifting through the dark. He paused at the tree line, his eyes scanning the exterior of the facility. The surrounding chain-link fences were intact, the rusted staging yards entirely deserted. There were no hidden vehicles, no thermal signatures visible on his immediate radar, and no ambient noise save for the whistling wind.

He didn’t trust it. Avoiding the massive, rusted front blast doors where sensory tripwires or pressure plates might be buried, Jayden circled to the eastern flank of the structure. He approached a thick, reinforced concrete wall, concentrated his willpower, and activated his intangibility. His body transitioned into a spectral state, slipping flawlessly through three feet of solid aggregate and rebar without making a sound.

Inside, the facility was a cavernous void of shadows. Towering, dead reactor cores stretched up toward a vaulted ceiling crisscrossed with corroded catwalks and hanging chains. Jayden walked silently across the dusty floor, his boots leaving no prints as he maintained his phased weightlessness. He moved from the primary generator hall to the auxiliary control rooms, searching every dark corner.

He found nothing. The entire facility was completely empty.

There was no Pioneer. There was no one at all.

A profound wave of disappointment washed over him beneath his mask. The anonymous tip had been a complete bust. He had actually been hoping it was a trap; at the very least, an ambush would have given him a collection of Syndicate heads to break and a few mouths to force answers out of. Now, it looked like he had wasted a perfectly good night.

He turned on his heel, preparing to phase back through the perimeter wall and head home.

But then—

"Leaving so soon?" A voice cut through the silence of the massive hall, echoing sharply off the concrete walls.

Jayden froze. He slowly turned his head toward the source of the sound. Standing atop a rusted observation platform twenty feet above the facility floor was a man in his late twenties.

He was meticulously dressed in a sharp, tailored dark jacket that contrasted heavily with reinforced tactical combat pants and heavy boots. His hands were encased in high-tech, metallic-plated gauntlets. He had slicked-back ash-grey hair and sharp, avian features pulled into a cruel, amused smirk. He wore no optical enhancements, no visors, and no goggles. Yet, his naked eyes were locked dead onto the exact coordinates where Jayden stood. He was staring directly into the eyes of an invisible man.

Jayden remained perfectly still, keeping his cloaking active. He wasn’t even surprised the man had appeared out of nowhere. What bothered him was the fact that the man could see through his invisibility, but he didn’t engage yet. He needed to identify the target before deciding whether to paint this room red or just walk away. Mentally, he triggered Dragon Eye, forcing the System to pierce through the man’s identity

A detailed holographic screen materialized in his vision.

——————

*Name: Silas Brown

*Age: 29

*Level: 62 | Rank: S-Rank

*Ability: Photon Vision (Laser Generation / Electromagnetic Spectrum Perception)

*Hp:

——————

Jayden’s brow raised in genuine surprise beneath his mask. A dark grin spread across his face. The tip hadn’t been false info after all. Silas was exactly where the message said he would be, and judging by the smug, casual posture of the Level 62 Pioneer, he had set this entire scenario up himself. This was a deliberate trap.

Jayden also deduced that the reason he could see him through his invisibility was because of his ability. He could perceive light distortions and thermal signatures natively, which meant Invisibility was ineffective against his vision.

Jayden let his cloaking drop. The ambient light bent back into place, revealing his dark tactical suit, his jacket, and the smooth, terrifying void of his black mask.

Silas’s grin widened as he leaned against the rusted railing of the catwalk. "Well, well, well. If it isn’t the Hunter himself. You actually showed up," he chuckled. "Tell me, didn’t it cross your pathetic little mind that this might be an ambush?"

Jayden tilted his head, his voice coming out in a low, modulated baritone. "It did. I just didn’t care." He said flatly.

"Hahaha!" Silas laughed, the sound echoing through the rafters. "I love that confidence. Truly, I do. But that exact brand of arrogance is what’s going to get you killed tonight."

Jayden didn’t answer immediately. His eyes shifted beneath his mask, scanning the dark entryways, the broken windows, and the upper catwalks. He braced himself, expecting a tidal wave of Syndicate foot soldiers or secondary Pioneers to shatter the walls and surround his position.

But seconds ticked by in absolute silence. Nothing happened.

Jayden looked back up at Silas, his posture relaxing slightly. "Well. Where is it?"

Silas blinked, his smirk faltering for a microsecond. "Where’s what?" he asked, confused.

"The trap," Jayden said, crossing his arms. "Or did you really put out that tip just so we could meet up for a solitary, one-on-one fight?"

Silas shrugged. "What if I did?" he said. "Is that so hard to believe?"

Jayden chuckled. "No, I guess not," he replied. "It’s just that, so far, I’ve had to hunt down every single Pioneer on my list myself. You’re the very first one to volunteer himself to an open death."

Silas adjusted the gauntlet on his right hand, a dangerous light flickering in his eyes. "Perhaps I’m just that confident and arrogant as you are." He said.

Jayden’s blood began to pump, an electric thrill of anticipation rushing through his veins. He was itching for a brawl. He slid his left foot back, sinking into a low, perfectly balanced martial arts stance. "Then let’s see which one of us has the power to back it up."

Silas uncrossed his arms, dropping from the twenty-foot platform. He hit the concrete floor with a heavy thud, his knees absorbing the impact flawlessly. He brought his hands up, framing his chest in a highly refined, aggressive combat posture. "I should warn you, Hunter. I don’t play fair. I tend to fight incredibly dirty."

"Bring it on," Jayden countered. "I like a challenge."

Silas smirked. Then he exploded forward.

Whoosh.

The S-rank Pioneer crossed the distance between them in a fraction of a second, his heavy boot cracking the dusty concrete as he launched a blindingly fast left jab aimed directly at Jayden’s head.

Jayden slipped the punch to the right, the wind of the strike whistling past his ear. Then capitalizing on the slip, he drove a brutal right hook toward Silas’s exposed ribs.

Silas anticipated the counter. He dropped his right forearm down, blocking the hook with a sharp metallic clang from his gauntlet, and instantly spun on his heel. His momentum carried into a devastating spinning back-kick targeted straight at Jayden’s sternum.

Jayden crossed his forearms in front of his chest, absorbing the impact. The sheer kinetic force of the kick sent a shockwave through his arms, sliding his boots back three feet across the concrete floor, leaving dark rubber streaks in the dust.

Before Jayden could even reset his footing, Silas was on him again. The Pioneer launched a ruthless three-punch combination—a snapping right cross, a left hook, and a rising uppercut.

Jayden ducked beneath the cross, wove to the inside of the hook, and parried the rising uppercut with the palm of his hand. He then stepped into Silas’s guard, driving a ferocious knee strike directly toward the Pioneer’s midsection. Silas slammed his hands downward, catching Jayden’s knee, but the raw strength behind the strike forced Silas backward, his boots skidding across the floor.

Jayden didn’t give him room to breathe. He blurred forward, throwing a straight right punch packed with massive force. Silas, realizing he couldn’t parry the sheer force in time, waited until the very last second before Jayden’s fist reached his face. Then he activated his ability.

Silas’s eyes suddenly ignited with a blinding, superheated crimson glow.

At point-blank range, a twin beam of pure, destructive photon energy erupted from his retinas. Jayden’s tactical reflexes screamed. He couldn’t dodge the light-speed laser attack from this distance. So instead, he triggered his intangibility.

The twin crimson lasers passed directly through Jayden’s phased head without drawing blood.

But Silas hadn’t aimed just to hit Jayden. The beams tore through the empty space behind the Hunter, striking a massive, primary load-bearing concrete pillar and a heavily suspended, multi-ton kinetic transformer box hanging from the ceiling. The concrete pillar disintegrated into molten slag under the extreme heat, and the thick steel chains holding the transformer liquefied instantly.

A deafening, metallic groan echoed through the facility as the entire ceiling structure began to fail.

Silas immediately executed a series of rapid, acrobatic backflips, clearing the immediate blast zone as thousands of pounds of reinforced concrete, shattered steel beams, and heavy machinery came crashing down directly onto Jayden’s position. The impact shook the entire facility, sending a massive, choking cloud of gray dust and debris billowing into the air.