In the sewers, above them, the explosion of the enraged destruction ball had opened an enormous hole. The young humanoid mutants used it to regain the surface. There too, the buildings had not escaped the blast, and the damage was considerable.
— Do you think Mutreph is dead? asked Mertana, intrigued.
— Surviving such an attack is no easy thing, answered ErMut, but we must remain cautious. Earlier, Mutreph proved tough.
— That's true, said Saramut. But we are completely exhausted. If he were still alive, what would we do?
ErMut kept silent, striving not to consider that possibility. Yet it was logical: if Mutreph had survived, the humanoid mutants found themselves in a desperate situation.
In the sewers, the thick smoke was gradually dissipating. The humanoid mutants remained focused, the tension at its peak: their lives could depend on it.
— Guys, for our own good, let's go recover farther away. If Mutreph is truly alive, we're going to pay dearly.
Saramut frowned.
— What? Are you joking?
— I don't look like I'm joking. If he's alive, he'll kill us all, for the simple reason that we have no energy reserves left. We're at the end of our strength.
— We only have to call on Team A, now! If we leave, Mutreph will go to Monor City and wreak havoc there!
ErMut fell silent again. Saramut, irritated by his behavior, exploded.
— Your attitude disappoints me. You're in no state to do without superior help: don't let your ego deceive you. It prevents you from thinking correctly, and because of it you want to endanger lives in Monor City. I don't recognize you anymore, ErMut. I didn't know your ego was so excessive!
— She's right, ErMut, said Mutjack. Put your ego aside this time. We all lost against Bakuzan, but that doesn't stop us from knowing our priorities: kill Mutreph and save Monor City.
— I agree with both of you, Mutjack and Saramut, said Mertana, but let's not conclude too quickly that Mutreph survived. It's possible he's truly dead.
— Mertana, it's better to consider the worst, replied Mutana.
ErMut sighed.
— Fine. Saramut, warn Team A.
Saramut smiled.
— Understood, ErMut.
She closed her eyes and concentrated.
*Team B to Team A, do you read me?* she said by telepathy.
*Yes, we read you, and we're right behind you*, answered Bakuzan.
Saramut opened her eyes again, surprised.
— Behind us?
She turned around and saw Team A approaching. She smiled and raised her hand.
— Great, we're here, this way!
The other members of Team B turned in their turn and spotted Team A.
— Wow, they had already spotted us! exclaimed Mutjack.
The two teams met. Zeltania, impatient, wanted to know everything.
— Why did you use the enraged destruction ball?
Bakuran snickered.
— Pff, what a lame name!
Everyone looked at him with a disapproving eye, which calmed his mockery.
— So, tell us! resumed Zeltania.
— We used it against Mutreph, answered Saramut.
— And is he dead?
— We have no idea.
— I have a question, said Sakolomé.
— Yes, Sakolomé, I'm listening.
— Why didn't you warn us as soon as you spotted Mutreph?
Saramut swallowed.
— Uh… well…
Bakuzan interrupted her.
— Either they were attacked directly by Mutreph and, caught up in the heat of the fight, they didn't have time to warn us. Or they had the situation under control. Or they let themselves be overcome by an excessive ego and wanted to settle this matter alone. So, which case are you in?
The entire Team B looked away.
— I thought so.
— Listen, Bakuzan, we're truly sorry, said Saramut.
— It's not serious. What's done is done. The best thing is to move forward and settle the score with Mutreph.
— Exactly, approved Bakuran.
Bakuzan moved a little away from the others.
— I'll need a bit of silence, please.
A deathly silence fell around them. Bakuzan closed his eyes and concentrated. Then he opened them again.
— Apart from us, I sense no other presence here. Not even that of a corpse.
Team B swallowed.
— That means Mutreph survived our attack, said Mutjack.
— I'm afraid so.
— But where could he have gone, to no longer be perceptible around here? asked Zeltania.
Bakuzan closed his eyes again.
— Detection mana!
A bluish mana spread rapidly throughout the area. It was so heavy that the humanoid mutants felt stripped bare under this pressure, as if Bakuzan could see them right into the inside of their bodies.
— Grrh!
— That's impressive! breathed Saramut.
They could only be fascinated by this extraordinary technique. How could he be so strong?
Bakuzan opened his eyes again, and his mana vanished.
— I've found him. But he's also spotted me. He's no longer very far from Monor City.
— What? That means he continued on his way? exclaimed Mertana.
— All of you come closer to me.
The others stepped forward.
— Teleportation!
A mass of aura enveloped the young Satsujin Otoko and the young mutants, then made them all disappear. Farther on, the aura reappeared, with the humanoid mutants and the Satsujin Otoko.
— Wow, you really master magic, Bakuzan! gushed Saramut, impressed.
— Hey, careful, Saramut, I see where you're going with your compliments, said Zeltania. But know that Bakuzan is my boyfriend, okay?
— Huh?
— Be quiet, said Bakuzan. Here's our opponent.
The entire team looked ahead: Mutreph was sitting on a rock.
— At last, there you are, black-haired boy. I spotted you earlier, when you were searching for me with your aura. You've come with the young humanoid mutants from earlier. Ready to settle this?
— Hey, Mutreph! called ErMut.
Mutreph turned all his attention toward him.
— How did you manage to take no damage from our attack? You're intact, as if nothing had happened!
— Dematerialization. It allows me to withstand anything, without the slightest scratch.
Mutreph stood up.
— I see that I won't be able to go quietly to Monor City as long as I haven't gotten rid of you. So I'm going to kill you all, then I'll go.
— Let me laugh, said Bakuzan.
Mutreph looked at him, intrigued.
— You don't yet know what's waiting for you, young man. That's why you're so pretentious. You too, are you mutants?
— No. We are Satsujin Otoko.
Mutreph smiled.
— Ha ha! It was to be expected: coming to Gu-HoiT and meeting at least one Satsujin Otoko. Personally, you don't impress me. I've never seen any before, but I doubt you have what it takes to beat me.
He then looked at Zeltania.
— And you, little one, are you a Satsujin Otoko too?
Zeltania shook her head.
— No, me, I'm a mutant. It's these three boys in front of us who are the Satsujin Otoko.
She pointed to Bakuzan, Sakolomé and Bakuran.
— Oh, I see.
Sakolomé and Bakuran took a step forward.
— Well, you, the repulsive thing, from now on, you're my business, said Sakolomé.
— And mine too, added Bakuran.
— Pff, if you think you can beat him with two, you're kidding yourselves, shot ErMut.
Saramut, for her part, was intrigued: she had already seen a glimpse of what Bakuzan was capable of, but not of Sakolomé or Bakuran.
— Ha ha, I…
Mutreph did not have time to finish his sentence: Sakolomé had already delivered a violent punch to his head. The blow pinned him to the ground and broke his bones from head to toe. The humanoid mutants remained stunned, by this speed, but also by the ease with which Sakolomé had hit Mutreph.
— Buwaaah! How can he move so fast?
Sakolomé leapt back.
— Don't tell me it's already over?
A silence fell, all attention fixed on this fight that was about to begin.
Mutreph liquefied and reconstituted his broken body.
— When I use dematerialization, my body also performs a reset: all my old wounds disappear, and my body is made new again.
Sakolomé smiled.
— Super: we're going to be able to have a bit of fun.
— For a moment, I thought I wouldn't even be able to hit him, breathed Bakuran.
Sakolomé and Bakuran took up guard.
— Ready, Bakuran?
Bakuran nodded. They attacked. Mutreph dematerialized.
— Bakuran?
— Don't worry, I've got this. Killer freeze!
Bakuran touched the ground, which froze until it reached Mutreph's liquid form.
— But… that's impossible!
Mutreph was frozen by the ice, and Sakolomé came to strike him.
— Killer quick!
With a kick, Mutreph's frozen body exploded into a thousand pieces. The humanoid mutants remained silent, mouths wide open, stunned by this spectacle.
— Looks like it's over, said Bakuran.
*How?* a voice resonated.
The pieces of ice gathered, then liquefied. Mutreph resumed his body.
— You think you've got me that easily?
His body took on metallic and massive appearances.
— Watch out, it's solidification! cried Saramut.
Mutreph was now nothing but an imposing mass of armor.
— You're going to die!
He ran toward Sakolomé and struck with his fist. Sakolomé dodged with ease and countered with a powerful kick to Mutreph's neck. Under the impact, the head detached from the body and rolled a little farther.
Sakolomé took a strange combat stance.
— Killer barrage! Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!
He hammered Mutreph's metallic belly with countless blows, and the metal broke under the power of the young Satsujin Otoko's impacts.
Bakuran leapt into the air.
— Sakolomé, get clear!
Sakolomé moved away from Mutreph.
— Killer disintegration flames!
He stretched out his hands, and greenish flames devoured Mutreph's body, reducing it to dust in a few seconds. Bakuran landed back on the ground. Sakolomé looked at Mutreph's head, lying on the ground.
— You'd better give up: you're no match for us.
— Ha ha ha! You're funny, kid. As long as a single molecule of my body exists, I'm capable of reconstituting myself entirely. Having destroyed a large part means nothing. I told you: dematerialization is also a reset.
Mutreph's head liquefied, and his body regained its full size.
— You see?
— The best thing is to disintegrate you completely…
Sakolomé then saw, without understanding, a metallic fist hurtling toward him at point-blank range, two centimeters from his face, ready to smash his skull. He dodged it by reflex, ducked, then struck Mutreph in the belly. Mutreph spat saliva, and smiled.
— Not bad, little one!
— The forty-nine vital Killers!
Sakolomé appeared behind Mutreph, his back turned.
— What's this technique? said Mutreph, turning around. Getting behind me isn't…
Without understanding how, Mutreph's body began to shudder strangely, forty-nine times, from one side to the other, and shockwaves seemed to slightly twist the space around him. It was a violent, brutal and rapid shudder. No one knew when or how, but it seemed that Sakolomé had struck him forty-nine times without anyone being able to see it. It was so fast that Mutreph himself only felt the damage from these forty-nine blows after five seconds.
Mutreph writhed in pain and spat blood.
— Damn it, what did you do to me, kid?
— I destroyed all your vital points, forty-nine times in a row.
Mutreph widened his eyes.
— Forty-nine times? How many times did you hit me, exactly?
— Forty-nine times, that's all. But, you know, by reinforcing one's physical abilities with energy, one can double, even triple the power of one's blows. You see?
Mutreph liquefied again and resumed form. He sighed.
— Metamorphosis!
His body swelled, and a nauseating smell spread everywhere. Sakolomé felt small tingles on his skin, just like Bakuran. On the side of the young humanoid mutants and Bakuzan, all were covered by a shield created by Bakuzan.
— Is that all? called Sakolomé.
— What?
A vapor escaped from Sakolomé's body, so dense that it prevented Mutreph's from reaching him; the smell no longer affected him. Bakuran did the same, but with his mana, which consumed Mutreph's putrid vapor.
— You're only using energy? Mutreph asked Sakolomé.
Sakolomé nodded.
— Let's finish this!
He took up a combat stance. Mutreph sighed again. He was disturbed: from the beginning, he had been getting manhandled, and he hadn't even inflicted the slightest damage on these two kids. Then an idea came to him.
*Before protecting themselves the way they are, they first breathed my vapor, which means they're infected from the inside… Wait a second: I used that earlier, so how is it that the young humanoid mutants are still alive?*
— I cleaned them from the inside, said Bakuzan.
Mutreph and all the others turned toward him, intrigued.
— What?
— I read your thoughts. You were telling yourself that they had breathed your smell and should have died. Think again: the organism of mutants, or humanoid mutants, is very solid. It produces antibodies capable of saving them against an external toxin. Your vapor is packed with cytotoxins and neurotoxins, they could have gotten through it, but after a serious illness that would have carried them off this evening. But, since they're my teammates, I cleaned their bodies from the inside during the teleportation. So they no longer have anything to fear: they've even gained resistance to poison. Your thing only works effectively on ordinary humans, you know?
Everyone was stunned. Mutreph, for his part, felt frustration, fear and the urge to kill rising within him.
— You, the black-haired kid, you're going to suffer!