MARVEL: GAMER PATH - CHAPTER 46 (Patreon)

Confident in my abilities, I followed Ulysses to Hydra's trap, knowing full well that he would ally himself with them upon arrival, but that didn't matter, in fact made my entire original mission all the more easier, after all, now I had a reason to kill the black arms dealer. In all honesty, all I could do was chuckle, chuckle at the stupidity behind Hydra’s plan, I mean, this was at best a very desperate attempt on Hydra's part to take me down, something that was far below their cunning standards.

“We are here,” Ulysses cackled, as his men opened the doors to his warehouse.

“Good,” I nodded, focusing on the minimap. Each red rot on it was a target, a life I would take today, so I had to have an accurate number, so that I could count the bodies afterwards.

“Mr. Walker,” That… voice, Edward?!

I gritted my teeth, “Edward,” above me, on the second floor of Ulysses warehouse stood the man that tortured me for months, the man whose pleasure was my pain, my last personal loose end.

“Hydra’s Exterminator, that’s how they call you, the Unbounded Knight, poetic isn’t it?” Edward chuckled under his breath, his eyes on me, as more and more soldiers started to appear.

“So, what is this Edward? Hydra’s last attempt to capture me?” I inquired, noticing how the agents were not drawing their weapons, this made me uneasy.

“Oh dear no,” Edward shook his head, “We know now, after what happened to the Winter Soldier, that you can’t be contained, you are a threat, one that needs to be eliminated.”

“And you plan to do that, by having your goons stare at me?” I snorted.

“My goons? Well, I suppose after you killed so many agents, I did get a few promotions, but no, we know that we can’t kill you by simple means,” Edward grinned, delighted by something.

I eyed the man, wondering what was his game, there had to be something, something that made him feel safe, he knew I was a threat, he knew no normal human could possibly take me alone, he knew that, and yet, he was as calm as a monk.

“You are buying time,” I muttered in realization as a new red dot appeared in my minimap.

“I am,” Edward nodded, “One of Hydra’s strongest weapons, a weapon that we had to push, to eliminate you, Hydra’s greatest threat,” at this he smiled, “We studied you, you know? Your behavior, your reaction time to attacks, everything, and we learned a lot, not as much as we would’ve liked, but enough to know your detection of possible hostile target is not infinite, in fact, is limited to a certain area around you,”

The constant attacks, they weren’t outright trying to capture me, they were trying to study me, “I see, so that’s why you hired Ulysses to bring me here,”

Interrupting Ulysses took a step forward from behind me, “Lovely little job, easily the easiest few billions I have ever made,” he grinned.

Hmm, I might rob the guy after I am done with Hydra.... I’m gonna rob the guy, “Good to know,” I smiled, opening a portal to a cell with no doors, that Fury had graciously provided, then as the realization hit Ulysses, I pushed the man into the portal, closing it.

“Fuck my life,” Ulysses sighed, before the portal fully closed.

“As I was saying, you hired Ulysses to keep me focused on what was inside the base, and not what was coming,” I chuckled, a humorless chuckle.

“Yes, the man was paid a few billions for his service, and he performed admirably,” Edward nodded, as the new red dot I had seen on the minimap arrived at the base.

Using [Sight] I went to where this new enemy was, and was shocked, [Hydra Hive LV 131] the… man, no the creature they had brought looked like it came from a nightmare, his entire body was made out of worms… no parasites, small and big ones all squirming around, and to top it all, the closer I looked, the more disgusted I felt with what I was seeing, each and every single of these parasites had an HP bar, all of them making Hive, the worst part was, that within all of that… I saw a man, being eaten by its newfound powers, suffering a pain like no other.

“Hydra created a monster…” I hissed.

“Hive was supposed to be a project for the future, soldiers blindingly loyal to us, because they simply had no choice, you pushed his creation,” Edward grinned, bowing, “Behold, Hydra’s first step to world domination!”

At this Hive came into view, his steps making wet slimy sounds, “You must be… The… one… I… must… kill…” 

“Worry not, Mr. Walker, after your death, I will make sure Emily comes back to Hydra, after all, all Hives need a queen,” Edward smiled at me.

“You must really want to die, I assure you, there are far easier ways to do so,” I growled, my eyes on Hive, for now, nothing else mattered, I had to kill this abomination, the rest was inconsequential, Hive had to die, and then, the mad minds that created him.

[New Quest Created = Destroy Prototype Hive.

Prototype Hive is a mutant abomination, an experiment transforming a normal agent into a weapon with undying love for Hydra, should you fail on defeating Hive, the world as you know it, will forever change.

Objective: Kill Proto Hive

Rewards: 5.000.000EXP, ???, ???

Failure: Death]

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I looked at Hive as he, or it approached me, his eyes filled with something I quite couldn’t read, hate? Hope? Suffering? I couldn’t really tell, with each step there was a sick, wet sound, like lips smacking over something slimy. A few steps from me, it’s head slid from his torso and toppled to the floor, startling me, for even on the ground, it was looking at me.

“Time… to… die…” It grinned, the wet sound of his movements getting louder and louder, soon enough the body started to break down, to shake, to bubble with movement, like a swarm of worms trying to break a water balloon. 

“This shit is disgusting,” I muttered, creating a shield around me.

The parasites that broke from its body started to circle me, each one being between five to ten inches long with rows of tiny teeth that made them look like leeches.

“Enough,” I said, blasting the creatures with with a few mana bolts, for whatever they were, I didn’t want to touch them, something inside me told me, it would be a very bad idea to fight this as a melee, the last things I wanted was to give one of those things access to my body.

Fast, and with a slimy sound the creatures that once circled me regrouped in four points, making a square around me, then, with a low but audible hissing sound they started melding into one another, creating four masses of abnormal, bloated things that grew into four glistening towers of darkness. 

Now, instead of one, I was facing four creatures, they had reformed, taking the shape and color of what I could only describe as nightmarish creatures, born from the imagination of Lovecraft himself.

“You can’t beat us, you can’t kill the many,” The four abominations hissed, the four walking towards me.

“You’re a parasite, I legit only need 10 bucks and a Walgreens,” I shot back, laughing at my own joke.

Hissing, the four slimy entities ran towards my shield, slamming themselves against the magical surface with enough strength to crack the floor beneath me under the pressure. Taking that into consideration, I knew I had at best two minutes before the amalgamation of parasites managed to break my shield, so I had to plan for it before it happened.

“I saw your beginning, Mr. Walker, and now, I will see your end,” Edward who was watching the fight smiled, “How truly fortunate I am,”

Ignoring the little bastard, I focused on parasite attacking me, using my telekinesis to push all four against the walls, confirming something I wanted to confirm, which was if I could hold them all together, or they would break apart, it seems that as long as they are connected making a form, I can hold the collective of them, good, now I had to find a way to kill them all at the same time, fire usually works for such creatures, but I have no fire related skills.

“Resistance… is… futile…” the parasites said with one voice, reforming into a single entity once again, its HP still at 100%, meaning that thing was receiving no damage altogether.

Using [Sight], I looked all over the base as the monster approached me, each room empty of the means I needed to destroy the creature, no fire rooms, no flamethrower, but that was good, the world was my battlefield.

“I would really like to… who am I kidding, I would not like to fight you like a man, you disgust me,” I smiled, looking in my minimap to see if Hive was complete, or a part of it was hiding, I needed to kill all of it, not just the majority, but much to my dismay, there were too many red dots around to tell… that bitch. “Hahahaha!” to think he had prepared for this, he knew the multiple enemies would confuse me, and fuck my detection, I mean, I couldn’t really focus with Hive keeping me entertained, they knew I would try and kill all of Hive, they planned for the possibility of me winning, which is why I was surrounded by Hydra agents, to help Hive hide.

“Move, run!” Edward hissed, noticing I had finally caught on to his plans. 

Move? Run, ain’t that wishful thinking.

“DIE!” Hive hissed, slamming his slimy tentacles against my shield, making cracks on it.

“Not today,” I winked, opening a portal to where all the Vibranium was, then after jumping into the portal, I checked if the room was clear of enemies, and once I had confirmed such thing, saved all the Vibranium in my inventory, with that done, I jumped back to the portal that was still opened, slamming against Hive with my shield.

“You can’t hurt me!” Hive hissed, his voice breaking in something akin to pain.

“I can’t,” I admitted, my attacks were dealing no damage, for apparently for each parasite my attacks killed, two were born, so Hydra like it was sickening. “But, I also can,” taking a deep breath, I opened a portal behind Hive, and ran towards the parasite, planning to tackle him with my shield into the portal.

“Hive! Dodge!” Edward roared, but it was a bit too late, his strategic thinking had been wrong, he first thought I would fail to notice him and the agents working as human VPN’s for Hive, then he idiotically thought that once I discovered his plan I would go and kill them to make my search for all of the parasites that constituted Hive easier, a stupid thought, I had no need for it, because with Hive having parasites out of his body, I had confirmed something, as powerful as this creature was, it’s victory against me was a bet, and bets have awful odds against the ones who makes them.

Trying to follow Edward’s command, Hive tried to break down, but unfortunately my first discovery of his body helped me here, for I was keeping him together with my telekinesis. 

With a confident smile, I tackled the abomination into the portal, dropping a few dozen bombs behind as Hive and I went through the portal that connected into the middle of the air, closing the portal, I saw as Edward looked at me in shock, and realization, it didn’t matter if Hive had parasites separated from its main body to survive, it didn’t matter he brought all of those agents to cloak said parasites, for the base would soon become a lifeless waste land, for instead of one bomb, like I had been using for each Hydra base, I threw around forty, as for Hive.

“You won’t kill me!” Hive hissed, struggling against my telekinetic hold, and I wasn't gonna lie, it was hard, at much I would be able to keep him in place for a few more seconds, but that was alright, that’s all I needed.

“I won’t, Kīlauea will,” I grinned, looking at the active volcano we were currently free diving into. “I wasn't sure how fast or resilient you are, so a volcano will do,” at first I thought of simply bombing the place with Hive inside, but there were many possibilities were that could go wrong, so I decided to take the majority of Hive to a place were parasites didn’t like to be, extreme hot.

“No… NO!!!!!!” Fear, well, I guess this settles it, the volcano was a good idea, I chuckled as we reached the volcano, where I started to push Hive into it with all my magic and telekinetic prowess. It’s struggles were stronger now, and I could barely hold it in one piece as it was, but before it’s form could shatter into a million worm like entities, I shoved the abomination into the active volcano, with me being a few meters away the extremely hot lava, seeing how Hive hissed in pain, before it’s life faded away.

[Quest Completed = Destroy Prototype Hive.

Prototype Hive is a mutant abomination, an experiment transforming a normal agent into a weapon with undying love for Hydra, should you fail on defeating Hive, the world as you know it, will forever change.

Objective: Kill Proto Hive

Rewards: 5.000.000EXP, Immunity to all forms of parasites, parasite killing blood.]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP!]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP!]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP!]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP!]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP!]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP!]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP!]

[YOU HAVE LEVELED UP!]

Level 125, I guess it’s not bad, looking at my mana, the shield alone that consumed eighty percent of my mana, and the struggle with Hive the rest, I would need to stay in place for a while.