Wretched Joy 15 (Patreon)

Commissioned by southmonk

Wretched Joy

Chapter 15

-VB-

I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. 

I found my latest targets, and, well, it was soon going to be show time. 

To my surprise, the Empire had finally put some brain cells together to defend against me. For one, instead of allowing their capes to roam about individually, Kaiser got them to stick together at all times. There was no returning to civilian life while I was on the roam. Secondly, the capes stayed deep inside their core territories. They didn’t even venture close to Medhall! 

Well, everyone except Kaiser. He still went to his board meetings and worked as the CEO of Medhall Pharmaceuticals, but he was the outlier, mostly because he was the one who probably made the decision.

If the bastard thought that I was going to let him get away with this just because he was the CEO of a big company giving out a lot of jobs, then he better think again.

But that’s not here yet. 

What was right here were four capes close to me: Crusader, Rune, Victor, and Othala. 

Out of those four… Othala was the biggest hurdle for the simple fact that I didn’t think I could punch through her all or nothing invulnerability. 

Since that was the case, I’d prepared something very nice. 

I sniffed as I pulled out a sniper rifle out of a bag, and whistled as I moved about to set up the gun.

This … was SVD, or more commonly known as the Dragnunov Sniper Rifle. While I, an American, should be using an American-made and private sector-engineered sniper rifle like Remington’s M24 or Lew Machine & Tool Company’s L129A1 for this job, those were hard to get as a supposedly dead man. But a shitty Russian gun? I didn’t even have to pay for it! They were a dime a dozen among a bunch of the racists I already killed! I mean… it wasn’t as plentiful as AK74, but that’s like saying water’s more plentiful than ice. 

So.

Where was I?

Oh right.

This.

I laid down, aimed down the scope, got comfortable… and pulled the trigger. 

It took one second before me pulling the trigger and a deafening bang of a gunshot ringing out and Othala almost spinning in place as my bullet shattered the window and then punched through her temple from one end to the other, showering the wall next to her with a spray of gore and bones.

I didn’t even bother to stand up.

“Rune.”

Instead, I aimed down the sight again, looked at the compass towards where someone might be hiding, and shot. The bullet this time punched through the brick walls … but there wasn’t a change in where the compass was pointing. If I got my target, then the compass would move in circle slowly and aimlessly until I spoke the next target’s name. 

But it didn’t.

Whoever I just shot at wasn’t dead. 

So I pulled the trigger again. 

And again and again and-.

The compass spun.

Nice.

“Victor.”

The compass’s needle snapped towards-.

Huh.

That was moving pretty fast. 

I stared at the compass for a few seconds before sniffing. Victor was heading my way. Interesting. Was he angry that I killed his wife? 

I didn’t even bother to pack up the gun. It’s done its job. 

Instead, I grabbed my bat, stood up, and looked down at the streets below. Narrowing my eyes and staring between the streets and my compass, I tried to look for Victor. 

… And then I found him. A Mercedes-Benz sedan. Couldn’t tell you what model it was because I didn’t care to know much about cars in the first place. 

Instead, I watched as it came to a skidding halt below the very building I was on top of… and I jumped off.

Victor got out of the car and rushed into the building, and I clicked my tongue, having obviously miss-.

That’s when I spotted a trio of pale ghosts rushing towards me with spears in hand. 

… Oh, clever little boys. They set up a little trap, and Victor being Victor (knowledge thief that he was) knew that after I took out their support and transport, I would come for him instead of Crusader. So they had Crusader ambush me while Victor played bait. 

The ghosts rushed me… and I teleported into the building’s lobby.

Victor was looking outside with a pair of pistols at the ready, and did not expect me to teleport behind him. People were screaming as they ran for cover, and Victor obviously got word from Crusader, because he began to turn around.

I swung faster. 

My metal bat struck him in the ribs … and then carved through it as if it was a lair of soap foam. The flesh, bones, and gore I carved up splattered and painted everywhere to my left and front behind Victor, and the man himself tumbled down, half-gasping, half-gurgling. 

I didn’t even bother to gloat. 

I just pulled my bat up and brought it down on his head.

A bunch of women in the lobby screamed and shrieked as his head exploded under the force of my enchanted bat and there was only bits and bobs of his skull, hair, and skin left of the back of his head.

The rest had exploded out like a blood bomb had gone off, painting everything and everyone with his blood. 

“Ah~,” I crooned as I straightened myself. “That felt nice. Another Nazi dead.”

The people, who witnessed something even Brockton Bay often didn’t show, probably didn’t feel the same. 

Traumatized, most likely. A head did pop like a balloon in front of their eyes, after all. 

… whatever. Not my problem. They’ll be better off once I’m done cleaning the streets.

Crusader’s ghosts came down but stopped outside the lobby’s glass wall when they saw Victor’s headless corpse still minutely pumping blood, though the rate had slowed down significantly in the ten seconds or so since I’d exploded the head. 

I looked at the ghosts and grinned, not that Crusader can see. 

“I’m coming for you next, Justin!” I laughed. 

The ghosts ran away.