Chapter # 7: The Bird of Hermes vs. the Snake of Asclepius (Hand of the Dog and the Snake)
I looked into his eyes; they couldn't bother me anymore and where nothing but a nuisance now looking cockily at me, pissing me off.
The man called Ban Mido, last heir to the cursed witch clan of Europa, the last bearer of the Jagan, hehehe, it was the first time I had met one like him, he could actually pose a threat.
"Come on then Ban Mido, come forward." I said feeling all charged up as the river of blood continued to pour into me, the pentagram in the back of my hands shining bright crimson in anticipation.
He faced me, pointing silently to his companion Dr Jackal to leave the field of battle along with the unconscious blonde in his arms.
"Mido Kun-" he began but was silenced by Mido's hand, his eyes were centered on me alone, looking ready to commit murder.
The Doctor nodded and vanished in a swift movement, leaving us to ourselves, didn't matter they would die after I'm done with this one.
"Seems like such a waste, having to fight you looking like a brat, but I guess it'll have to do."
"Hehehe the shape I take is meaningless, my power is still here, and it's aimed right…at…" I disappeared from his view, with all my speed I moved behind him in a second. "YOU!" I threw my strongest punch right at him, he reacted right on time catching my tiny fist with his left hand without even turning back to face me, he didn't move but the floor cracked into pieces under the pressure of the attack.
"Not bad fanged boy, now let me show you what a real punch is like." He flinged me into the air whit his left and swung his arm forward with incredible strength, hitting me squarely in the stomach, causing me to cough a mixture of saliva and blood, my very organs were bleeding, even though they healed soon enough, it was still painful.
Normally a blow like that would have sent me flying, but he held me in place and striked again, and again over and over until a pond of my blood lay at his feet, when he released e, letting my body fall slowly to the ground only to connect my face with his foot before I touched the ground, sending me flying towards the wall, effectively breaking it and sending me into another.
"Come on ya little bitch, you're boring me, put a little fight at least." He said, walking through the whole he had made with my body and stepping into the room.
I staggered up, my face smiling despite all the blood falling across my face, I was simply too excited.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! I love it, give me more, more, more, more, more, MORE!" I launched forward, fist closed and ready, but he predicted my every move, every blow I threw at him he countered effortlessly, with the simplest move, the bastard wasn't even looking at me.
He grabbed my arm and broke it with his elbow in a quick succession of moves, then continued to my other.arm, leaving them with the bone poking gout and hanging limply at my sides.
He grabbed me by the neck with his left and prepared to hit me with his right.
"Hey, just to be sure here, you are immortal right?" he didn't wait for my answer, assuming I would have given one.
"Snake Bite!" he shouted, showing his anger for the first time as he trusted his open palm against my face, separating my head from my body as if it had been made of paper, and crushing it against the wall, splattering the bloody flesh all over.
As always felt strange to remain conscious without a head, but I had gotten used to it. My remains turned into the thrash of the world, bugs, centipedes, rats, a ton of them.
"Aww crap, that's disgusting, stop this bug bullshit already." He said, grossed by the swarm of filth surrounding him and climbing up his body.
Still I wasn't fully there, next came the bats from the darkness of the room, surrounding him in the air while biting what they could reach, as he struggled helplessly to him them.
They were all distraction of course, as beneath him formed a pool of shadows without him noticing, my eyes opened with that pool of darkness, and in the middle opened a giant mouth bearing its giant fangs, ready to swallow him whole.
"You still don't get you fool, you can't eat me." And then I saw it for the first time, circling around him, almost transparent was a giant serpent, it wasn't solid enough yet all it touched turned to shreds, including my bats and insects.
The head seemed to move accordingly to his hand, which he now aimed at me.
"Snake Kill!" he shouted, this time hitting me his left, the snake hissed and launched at me in the floor, crushing it and sending us both to the level beneath the one we were.
I fell like liquid darkness into the ground, resuming my form, this time I decided it would be best to take my strongest form again, with my black leather suit and long smooth hair.
He fell too, gracefully even, adjusting his shades before turning to look at me.
"Ahh back to your old face I see, good, I like that one better." He disappeared for a second and reappeared in front of me, and hit, but I caught it this time, head butting him, breaking his nose and shades.
"Keep that confidence snake boy; I want to crush it along with you." I said, as wiped the blood from his mouth, straightening the bridge of his nose without even flinching.
"That's funny; want to know something interesting though, so far I've only used 50 of my power, how about we take it up to 80" he said, around him the snake reapered this time, it was more solid, looking at me and retracting for attacking as he raised his hand.
"With this hand I'm going to tear you apart you filthy vampire."
"Just try."I summoned forth wings on my back, and from them erupted dozens of razor sharp hands, aimed at him.
He ran against me, and I threw my attack then trying to rip him apart but got diverted away from him by his mere aura, his killing intent was even bigger than mine, all I managed to do was scratch him, a lot but none more than superficial until he finally reached me.
"Up yours ya freak." I flew apart in pieces, too many for even me to count, splattered all over the place, this guy…he was truly stronger than I would have taught.
As quickly as I could I reformed, still I staggered, breathing heavily now, I had never had any trouble with a fight, I was usually me who played in a fight, tormenting and playing with my victim until satisfied, but somehow this guys was doing it now.
"Man, you won't just die would you, that English broad never said it would be this difficult to get you, to be honest I'm getting sick of this, I never liked this place and I certainly don't like you, so let's speed things a bit." His face flustered in concentration, the very floor around him cracked as his power increased, he was going for all the 100
"Ok, I'll indulge then." I snapped my fingers and summoned my coffin from the room above; it fell like a heavy brick behind me, breaking the solid ground.
"Even now, at thy right hand, until this cursed fate is spent." He chanted, and I decided to do the same.
"The Bird of Hermes is my name." behind me the coffin seal shone as bright as those in my hand as it began to open.
"Is the one who houses, Asclepius, who descends from the milky way on high, Therefore I invoke thy." He said, crouching in preparation for attacking.
"Eating my wings to make me tame." The coffin opened fully, and from it came a tidal wave of blood, separating into dozens of little tendrils, hooking to my body, feeding it and transforming it. The black leather turned to white, as did my hair as I reached the peak of my power.
"Now feed with your fangs of poison!" he screamed, his arm suddenly turned into a monstrosity, made of scales and spikes, his finger resembling the jaw of the serpent, which had disappeared…no, fused with him completely, at a 100
We attacked the same; the straps in my hand broke under the force of my power, as my hand shape shifted into the jaws on my familiar, Baskerville, thus monster hand and monster hand clashed.
The force of impact was destructive, the floor, the walls, the pillars, they all broke apart to pieces, the echo of our clash resounded through the room as a cloud of dust rose.
I tried to focus my eyes, ignore the pain I told myself, I was extremely weakened, even an immortal like me could be left useless if overextended like I had, using all my power at once like that, but it was the only way I could match him.
My hair and suit began returning to their usual darkness, and then I noticed the giant hole at my side, my entire right arm and half my chest was missing, blood poured freely from it and it wasn't regenerating, the surroundings seemed scorched, like a holy blade had made them.
Why, that boy's power weren't like that, they certainly weren't holy, then I saw him, as the cloud of dust dispelled. He was worn as well, with a few wounds but whole unlike me, he had won I suppose.
His right arm still withstood that monstrous form, but looked cracked, like dry clay, and finally began falling to little scraps, revealing the natural arm, though there was still something odd to it, it had a strange kind of glow.
"My God." I gasped, as I noticed that behind him, protruding from the back of his arm, was a long white wing, it seemed so glossy and transparent, like his snake before reaching his maximum.
"You were tougher then I thought, you actually forced me beyond my limit, congratulations man, you're the second." He said in a pained voice and then collapsed, he might have been stronger than me, but he wasn't an immortal.
I tried to stagger up but the wound prevented me from doing so, damn, despite everything I laughed, again I was bested by a mere human, jajaja, so fitting, I loved it, and yet again he had failed to kill me, leaving half dead, this Ban Mido was a real man, he was worthy.
Still, why can't these "men" ever finish the damn job, I coughed some more blood again, I would heal eventually but it would take me quite a while.
"A job well done Mido Kun, you never cease to impress Me." said the voice of the Jackal, as he appeared behind me, smirking casually as strolled towards him picking him up in his arms before proceeding to the nearest door.
Instead of leaving however, he opened it for some rather unexpected guests.
"Mind your way Miss Hellsing." He said as Integra herself entered the room, followed by Walter, Seras and a short girl in a tight purple Chinese suit, with short hair, brown skin and a little star tattoo.
"Had any problems getting here Miss Poison." He asked the little girl next.
"No, I know this place well enough by now, besides it's no big deal, I just transported
The client and her butler as requested, my job is done, poor Ban had the toughest part." she said, caressing the hair of the unconscious man in Jackal arms.
"I certainly am impressed," said Integra this time, looking from me to him. "I half expected him to fail, but he got the best of Alucard after all, good for him. Walter." She said imperiously, as the butler pulled a small black suitcase, handing it to Miss Poison.
"Make sure they get it, they did their job fully perfectly, I'm satisfied, and now Alucard," she said directing her attention to me. "You have a lot of explaining to do." I rolled my eyes at her and cursed under my breath.
"Well...I'm waiting."
3 Days Later
"So…you got your money at least." said a peaceful Paul, looking at me and Ginji in our mullets, bandages, and collection of bruises and wounds.
"Damn right, I don't care if half my body is dead; I'm getting its worth ten million times over, ten million yens to be precise." I said happily while bordering in the insane, finally I would be able to clear all my debts and buy a new apartment, and get the attention of all the F cup breasted girls in town, fucking yes baby.
"Akabane San is supposed to bring us our pay anytime now." said Ginji between painful coughs, his lungs had been damaged seriously after all.
Just then, the door bell ringed, as the dreaded transporter entered the café, waving at Natsumi and Rena Chan, giving them a small black suitcase, before finally sitting in front of me and Ginji.
"Would you get me a cup of coffee please?"Paul nodded and left, somehow his face suggested something was wrong.
"Ok Cacabane, show me the money." he look estranged at me for a second.
"Money? Oh you mean your payment; oh I just gave it to your friend, the owner of the café."
"What, as instructed by Hevn San, the money was to go to the payment of your tab here." He said as Paul brought him his coffee.
"Yes and by the way, you still owe me ten more yen." He said before leaving again, this time with a satisfied smile on his face.
"DAMN THAT LOUSY E CUP BITCH, SHE'S A DAMN HUSTLER." I yelled in anger, smashing the table and hurting Ginji in the process.
"You two are as delightful as ever." I turned angrily at him.
"Then what the hell are you still doing here Jackal."
"Two things, first I wanted to pass the congratulations from Miss Hellsing to you two, they managed to re chain Vampire Kun and took him back to England, as it turns out, he had escaped because Miss Hellsing had laughed at him when he tried to seduce her, calling him an…old fashion twit." Hmm that would explain it I guess, too much proud can hurt a guy.
"And secondly, I wanted to propose you to join me in another job, courtesy of Hevn San. Apparently there's been a string of strange murders in Tokyo, an assassin dubbed Kira has been killing some highly important people, criminals really, but of the legal kind, so a guy called Detective L Lawliet has asked for our assistance, if you wish to give it, to find this man and stop him." He said while resting his face in his interlocked fingers.
"Well I could use the money, so what the hell; at least there won't be any supernatural bullshit in this assignment." I said, not knowing any better. How wrong was I.