CHAPTER 179: CHAPTER 179: OUTCLASSED

"Oh?"

An amused smile crept on Riley’s face. He looked at the size shifter straight in the eyes, and then at the students who were taking videos and photos of them with their laptops.

"Should you be saying that in front of all these people, Size Shifter?"

"Forgive me for not sharing your decorum," the woman scoffed. "No, there’s not much decorum to share, considering you just revealed who our target was. Did he tell you?"

The woman glanced back at the fake Darkday. The fake was about to shake his head, but found that he couldn’t do so at all.

"Perhaps," Riley said, shrugging as he stepped closer to the woman. "Then you might as well tell me your name, no? It would be awkward to address you every time with Size Shifter."

"You shouldn’t be addressing me at all."

"I do talk too much, do I not?" Riley covered his face and sighed, shaking his head before revealing one eye to the woman. "But you know my name, Size Shifter. It is only right that I know yours, too. It—"

The woman disappeared, not letting Riley finish his words at all.

Tricky, extremely tricky.

Riley was now experiencing another problem. His powers were new to him, of course, considering he had not even awakened them for more than half a year. But he has, ultimately, always been evolving astronomically, even more so when he gained Replica Ricky’s abilities.

That meant that he had numerous tricks up his sleeve already, maybe hundreds.

But now...

I am at an impasse.

He had tried controlling the very air where the woman disappeared into. After all, she wasn’t actually disappearing, but just turning minuscule. At least, that was what he thought—but her abilities go beyond that.

If he was right, then the woman could shrink herself to the point that his telekinesis could no longer affect her... and live, no. Thrive. That alone puts her on the same level as the members of the Hope Guild.

And that meant only one thing. That for now...

Uh oh. I am outclassed. But, I suppose this would be fun. If I am not able to beat her in strength, then defeat her somewhere else—and from one of Father’s teachings, there is only one way to beat someone you can not defeat.

Riley sighed, and his eyes slowly turned toward the fake Darkday.

Turn to the ones they obviously care about. The fact that she did not scold or kill you, even when she suspected you of revealing your plans to me, indicated that you are important to her, Fake.

And for that, I suppose...

"Grah!" The fake Darkday stood up—no. Riley made him stand up, only slightly lifting him up to force him to stand up with his shattered leg. And not even a second later, a shadow loomed over him.

He looked up, only to see a ballpen the size of a lamp post falling toward his direction, its point coming directly for his head.

Riley only tilted his head at this, and the giant ballpen changed its path and flew toward the fake Darkday instead. Before it could reach the fake, however, the woman appeared to catch it with one single arm.

Yes, she was now, at the very least, five times larger than a normal human. She didn’t stand on ceremony and quickly ran forward, using the pen like a javelin as she rushed at Riley.

Riley flung his finger downward, and the back of the pen followed it and slammed through the floor tiles just a foot away from Riley’s feet, violently stopping the woman in her tracks.

Before the impact could actually jolt her, however, she once again disappeared. Only to reappear in front of Riley before the pen could even fully fall to the floor, her leg already sweeping toward his ankles.

Riley was able to stop her, of course, only for her to disappear again.

Well, it didn’t matter. The only thing he needed to know was that the woman truly did care for the fake Darkday... and that she wasn’t going to kill him.

He didn’t need to fight her, just agitate her... by targeting the fake Darkday, and him alone. Riley raised both his hands like a conductor, and everything around them started to float. From the towels provided by the resort, all the way to the chairs. Riley might not be able to affect her, but he can affect everything around her to confuse her.

The towels twisted into ropes before lashing toward the fake Darkday, and at the same time, the chairs splintered and their shards flew in the same direction. Even the inflatables were going for him. One of the students almost lost his shorts, too.

"Stop it!" The woman appeared in front of the fake Darkday, once again in her larger form as she protected herself from everything that was flying toward him.

"And what are you doing?!" she screamed at her companion. "U tebya te zhe sposobnosti! Dai otpor!"

"Ne mogu! On namnogo sil’neye menya!" the young man screamed back. "Garazdo sil’neye!"

"Fuck!" The woman turned even larger, swatting away everything before turning back to Riley. She was about to say something, but saw the emotion inside Riley’s eyes... or the lack of it.

No, not exactly lacking, as there was something else there. Something she had only seen once in her life.

It wasn’t natural like a predator playing with its prey, no.

It was hollow. An empty curiosity.

Like a child asking, "What would happen if I do this?".

It was the exact same expression one of her instructors back from Russia had, her... interrogation instructor.

And if her interrogation instructor started that question, that meant that someone was ultimately going to die in the most painful way possible.

Riley Ross was going to kill her companion.

And once she realized that, her eyes turned cold.

"I don’t kill children," she said. "But you are no child."

And Riley, well, he responded by smiling and tilting his head down. He waved both his index fingers, and all the things that were shooting toward the fake Darkday changed direction toward her instead.

But once again, she disappeared. But the towels didn’t change direction at all, and instead flew at Riley. And then, the towels all opened up and flapped right in front of Riley.

The woman appeared right in front of him, her hand grabbing through the towel and straight toward his neck.

Or at least, that was what was supposed to happen. Instead, the only thing the woman grabbed was truly only the towel, and Riley wasn’t on the other side at all.

Instead, he was right behind the fake Darkday—his arms wrapped tight around his neck.

"You are not the only one who can pull a disappearing act, Size Shifter."

The size shifter quickly turned around, only to see Riley choking the fake Darkday tight; his legs locking both of his arms behind his back to prevent him from even struggling.

"Disappearing was one of the first things that Father taught me," Riley whispered, his arms gripping tighter by the second. The fake Darkday couldn’t even scream anymore.

The woman didn’t say anything at all and only disappeared again. Riley tried to focus and push his telekinetic abilities to their limit, but he couldn’t detect her at all.

And so, he just shrugged and tightened his hold around the fake’s neck. And it wasn’t until the woman made herself known to him that Riley finally knew where she was.

She was inside his skull, the size of a mite.

Riley was finally able to focus, and she was speaking—only audible once he focused his telekinesis solely on her. And although it wasn’t clear since she was only making the most minute of vibrations, Riley was still able to understand her.

"I know you can hear me. Let go of him, or I will kill scramble your brains from the inside out," she said, and Riley only responded with a firm—

"No."

But instead of tightening his hold on the man, he did the opposite. He let go enough for the fake to let out a whisper.

"Ona..." the fake said. "Ona... vnutrí moyéy golový, Nat."

I can feel him inside my head, he said. He wasn’t panicked at all, no. He... was accepting his fate. But of course, Nat wasn’t going to accept that.

"Nat. Natalia? Natasha?" Riley whispered, "I finally know a part of your name, Nat."

"Let go of him!" Nat screamed in his mind, "I am serious, I will kill you!"

"Then..." Riley smiled. "...I suppose we all just have to die together, Nat."

And with those words, the fake Darkday started to bleed from his ears and nose.

"Stop it... I said stop it!"

And with those words, Nat enlarged herself into the size of a baseball—completely scrambling Riley’s brains from the inside out. He instantly went limp... and died.

But of course, the brain is a tricky thing, and it triggered something with his telekinesis...and the fake Darkday’s head exploded into mush.

And all of this happened right in front of more than a hundred students.