Fantasy Assassin in a modern world

Chapter 97 - Homunculi

Loki had just knocked out the final soldier from the Star of Dawn and sighed. He looked at his body that was full of holes and his shirt which was torn apart. In the soldiers' perspective, the Shadow aka Loki was able to dodge all the bullets with ease, but the truth was with his current strength and being in such a narrow passageway made it near-impossible to dodge all of those bullets. 

Due to Loki's speed and his skills, the soldiers were unaware that they were actually able to hurt him. Loki had stopped the bleeding, he breathed slowly as he circulated his mana through his entire body.

Loki then spotted where the bullets were located and used his needles to pull them out. Once that was done, Loki circulated his inner energy that worked in tandem with his mana. The two different spiritual energies helped Loki heal his wounds a bit, but he didn't want to heal them fully yet. 

'That was more dangerous than I expected. These guys without any spiritual energy are pretty good. The weapons of this world are f*cking frightening. I better learn about all of the current weapons that could harm martial artists.' 

...

Mark and several guards of the Martial Arts Department were at the entrance battling against the soldiers of the Star of Dawn. Even though he and the other guards were powerful warriors that could destroy a normal gun wielder, but against the bombardment of the anti-martial artist weapons, it was a difficult battle. 

The two Grandmasters that were in the Martial Arts Department, were also facing their own powerful opponents. They were currently in a life and death battle with two homunculi from the Star of Dawn. 

These Homunculi are artificial humans that have powers that far surpass regular martial artists. They are considered to be the masterpiece that the Star of Dawn created to deal with the mighty Grandmasters. Unlike the martial artists who accumulate their power over time and enhance said power with techniques, the Homunculi were already strong from the very start.

Each Homunculi had the physical strength to easily lift a blue whale, they were fast enough to move faster than even the fastest cars, they were sturdy enough to be unaffected by bullets. Yet that wasn't what made them able to contend with the terrifyingly powerful Grandmasters who were just as strong and were able to use inner energy. The thing that made the Homunculi able to fight evenly with Grandmasters was their unique abilities. 

The unique abilities of the Homunculi were different from each other, some could control the elements like fire, water, and air, others had great regenerative properties and could heal almost instantly, then there were some that could make their bodies harder than any alloy known to man, and many more variety of abilities. 

It was a good thing that creating a Homunculus required a lot of rare materials. The incubation time for them to grow into their adult bodies was also a problem. Even though they could be forcibly made to grow faster than normal, it still requires at least a few years for a Homunculus to grow into a battle-ready specimen. 

...

Bernard who was a fist fighter was having a rather difficult time fighting the Homunculus in front of him. The Homunculus Bernard was facing had a special ability which was to change its body's composition from solid to liquid, making most attacks Bernard made almost ineffective. 

On the other hand, Niko's opponent was a Homunculus that could harden its body making it near impenetrable. The spear Niko was using was unable to so much as scratch his opponent. 

Though both Bernard and Niko couldn't damage their opponents the same was happening for the Homunculi. The two Homunculi were defensive types and didn't have strong attacking power and had only the basic strength of a normal Homunculi that would've been enough to face a rank ten martial artist, but against a Grandmaster, it wasn't enough. 

The two sides were at a stalemate, the only thing the Martial Arts Department of Leim City could do was wait for the reinforcement the Elite Dragon Brigade would send. As they were still locked in a ferocious battle, Bernard noticed something weird. It was true that the current forces that the Star of Dawn sent would be an even match against the Martial Arts Department of Leim City, but if they wanted to take it down before the Elite Dragon Brigade arrive they should have needed a much larger force. 

'Tsk, I see, so all of this is just a distraction. That means that they were really here for the Twin Stars!'

"Mark! Head back and look for the Twin Stars!"

Bernard shouted his command but then he saw that Mark and the guards were being encircled and could not escape. Bernard gritted his teeth as he wanted to save his men but the Homunculus blocked him. 

"Get out of my way you f*cking puppet!" 

The old man who exuded the temperament of an old sage suddenly got angry. It was such a weird sight to behold, as the old man Bernard who was usually calm emitted a violent aura. 

"Niko! Let's do this!" 

Hearing Bernard's shout Niko nodded his head as he too burst out with his powerful inner energy. The Homunculi went into defensive postures ready to receive any attack the two had in store. 

"Demon God's Fist!" 

"Raging Hell Fire!" 

A giant red fist appeared above the sky and descended on the Homunculus that could harden its body. The moment the fist descended the Homunculus used every bit of his strength to stop the large fist. The power of the fist was so great that the very ground on where the Homunculus stood cracked. The Homunculus continued to resist but under the pressure of the giant red fist, the Homunculus's body began to crack until it was squashed by the giant red fist. 

On the other hand, the Homunculus that could turn its body into a liquid form did not fare better. The spear that Niko threw at it was burning violently and everywhere it passed by was scorched. The moment it pass through the liquid form of the Homunculus it burned every cell in its body until there was nothing left. 

The two Grandmasters had expended a lot of their inner energy to perform those moves and were breathing heavily, but they didn't have time to rest.. Niko quickly came to the aid of the surrounded guards, and Bernard sprinted to the passageway where Loki and Twin Stars were supposed to be escaping.