Chapter 86: Wielders of the omnitrix
Ben had no time to react.
However, his Ultimatrix could.
It was already too late to dodge, so the failsafe within the Ultimatrix decided to save its host in another way.
It transformed him into Swampfire using its emergency power reserves, and as it did, The spear of mist found its target and impaled Ben directly through the head.
Luckily, Swampfire possessed incredible regeneration as a plant-like alien. His head had already begun reforming, that was the reason the ultimatrix had chosen this alien.
But before the regeneration could finish, Ben's hands ignited into flames and then without hesitation, he swung his fiery fists toward the direction of the attacker.
He couldn't see the enemy or identify their power, but his years of training at the Plumbers Academy had not been in vain, allowing him to adapt to various combat situations. He was a battle-hardened warrior and his body moved on instinct alone.
He felt his fist collide with soft flesh covered in fur.
'Noble creature? Corrupted? No... Judging by the fact that its wielding a weapon, it should be uncorrupted... It could also be a human with a Transformation aspect or a unique flaw...'
Ben's head was still reforming, however he could tell somethings about his enemy, such as the fact that their rank must be around the awakened and ascended rank due to their speed.
Then, Ben unleashed a cloud of toxic gas from the gaps in his body, the green gas spread around him and the attacker and the moment the flames touched it, a violent explosion occured blasting both ben and his attacker away..
All of this happened in just five seconds.
Breathing heavily, Ben looked at his attacker and as he did, a frown formed on his face.
"You..."
His attacker was a feline-like humanoid alien with a sleek black and blue color scheme. Black mask-like fins framed his glowing green eyes, and a thunderbolt design ran down his chest and back. Spike-like blades protruded from his arms and legs, resembling that of a hedgehog.
It was a Citrakayah — an alien species renowned for its speed and agility but this wasn't just any Citrakayah, as there was a very familiar badge on his chest..
The Omnitrix symbol.
Ben gritted his teeth and shouted, now that his head had regenerated:
"How stupid can you be?! Look around! There's a literal cursed deity fighting right now! We could both die if we fight here!"
Hugo, in his Fasttrack form, smiled as he spun his spear and began circling Ben.
"Ah, but does it really matter, brother? We're both going to die anyway " His grin widened. "However, I'd feel much better if I'm the one who gets to impale your head with my spear."
Ben frowned deeply. He had known that Hugo wasn't in his right mind, but right now he seemed completely bloodlusted loosing whatever reason be had. Rage and a burning need for revenge had clouded his judgment.
And... Him being called 'brother' freaked him out, he did not like that one bit.
'Teengers are the worst...' ben groaned, then looked at Hugo with a serious expression.
"I defeated you before. Easily, if I recall," Ben said, taking a combat stance. "Do you really think you can withstand me just because you've become a Titan?"
Ben wasn't in the best shape and his ultimatrix was running on emergency reservs but he could tell Hugo's Omnitrix didn't have much juice left either — the boy was deliberately staying in a lower class to avoid detransforming, ben had noticed that.
'Master control... How devious...'
Ben was certain that he had the upper hand before, but now, at their current states... He wasn't too sure and so stalling until one of them timed out seemed like the best option even if it was a gamble.
"That contest between us was never finished," Hugo replied, imbuing his spear with a strange glowing orb. "You'd be a fool to claim victory, I also owe you a great debt for what you did to me. You've shown me much kindness, brother… and it's time I return that kindness tenfold, child of the beast."
"Fine," Ben said in a solemn voice. "A death match it is. ICome at me, child of war."
Fighting a speedster in the form of swampfire was not that bad of an idea, after all he could regenerate and use the terrain to his advantage.
Furthermore, the natural speed of a Citrakayah was not as great as that of a Kineceleran like XLR8, but Citrakayah were far better suited for combat, possessing higher durability and strength then the average Kineceleran.
Hugo turned into a blur once, charging toward Ben with his spear, ready to deliver a powerful thrust. Right before impact, Ben unleashed a mass of thick vines from the ground to tackle him, the vines did not come from the earth, instead ben had placed a seed underground when he and been were talking.
It wasn't enough.
Using Fasttrack's sharp reflexes, Hugo leaped over the vines at the last moment, then followed up by swiping his spear across the vines in one clean motion cutting them.
Before ben could do anything else, Hugo slammed his shoulder into him, sending him flying dozens of feet away.
Mid flight , ben rooted his legs into the ground using Swampfire's minor Shapeshifting abilities and raised his arms, producing a unique type of toxic gas before igniting it.
A terrible wave of flames erupted from his hands, spreading across the battlefield and causing the very air around thel to boil.
Hugo became a blur again, running sideways to evade the firestorm. Ben tracked his movement, sweeping the flames wherever Hugo went and scorching the already devestated land.
He held a slight advantage here, after all he was operating at the level of an Ascended Titan, while Hugo was only using the power of an Ascended demon.
Still, Ben knew Hugo could raise his class at any moment, even if doing so would have damaged exhausted him.
'...I'm doing this wrong.'
Why was he trying to fight a speedster with a non-speedster alien in the first place?
Ben abruptly cut off the wave of fire. The moment he did, Hugo rushed him again.
But this time, Ben slammed the Ultimatrix.
His rank dropped back to the awakened rank... but his speed skyrocketed.
His limbs grew longer and lost Swampfire's plant-like appearance. A semi-armored, velociraptor-like plating materialized over his skin as black orbs formed on his feet. A powerful tail with five blue stripes extended behind him, and deadly claws emerged from his three-fingered hands
He had assumed the form of XLR8
After all, it was only fitting for a speedster to fight another speedster.
"For your information," Ben said, lowering his visor, "XLR8 is faster than Fasttrack… even if their ranks differ."
With that, Ben activated his ability and dashed toward Hugo at a blinding speed — so fast that Hugo could barely react.
A Demon was powerful, yes but a Titan, no matter the rank, could overpower the next four classes above it. This was not always the case in higher rank but the rule generally held for the lower ones.
Even though XLR8 was faster, Fasttrack was no slouch and so Hugo reacted almost instantly, blurring sideways to dodge the assault before swinging his spear at ben with terrifying speed of his own.
Clang!
Ben leaned back at the last possible moment. The spear blade sliced through the air just inches from his visor, causing his claws to scratch against the solidified mist spear. He countered instantly with a sharp kick, forcing Hugo to leap backward.
"Even with all your powers, you're still pretty weak. " Ben taunted, already circling him at high speed.
Hugo grinned savagely, his eyes locked onto the bloodied Ben. "Is that so? Then why don't you use that Ultimate function of yours to even the odds?"
As he said those words, Ben flinched slightly. It was such a minor movement — so subtle and quick that anyone else wouldn't have noticed it in the heat of battle...
However, Hugo's mind was operating at the same blistering speed as his body, thus he instantly recognized that the flinch hadn't come from pain or injury.
It had come from his words.
"Oh… so you can't use it right now." Madness ignited in Hugo's eyes as his grin widened. "Run, Benjamin. Run!"
Hugo exploded forward, his spear thrusting forward in a furious barrage of lightning-fast strikes, each aimed to Peirce Ben's chest. Ben weaved and dodged using superior speed and experience but Hugo refused to let up, pressing the attacks aggressively.
A speedster with a weapon was a dangerous thing.
Hugo had Ben's memories of how to use most of his aliens, but he lacked Ben's years of real combat experience and honed instincts. Their movements, fighting rhythms and overall battle styles were fundamentally different from each other, yet one thing was clear.
Hugo possessed the superior battle style, while Ben was the better fighter.
Ben moved with terrifying efficiency, wasting no motion, his body reacting on pure instinct, amplified by xlr8 speed and when Hugo thrust his spear again, Ben snatched the shaft with one clawed hand and drove the other straight into Hugo's left eye, piercing it.
A pained scream tore from Hugo's throat, at the same time, he instinctively kicked Ben hard in the chest, sending him flying back.
Hugo clutched the ruined eye socket, blood pouring down his face like a crimson waterfall...
His eye was gone, just like that.
"Bastard…"
Before he could recover, he saw Ben spinning his arms in rapid clockwork motions, which looked ridiculous from his perspective.
"What the spell are you doing—?"
Before he could understand, a powerful vortex of wind erupted from Ben's arms, generated by his insane rotational speed.
Dust, debris, and shattered earth were sucked into a raging miniature tornado. The swirling winds disrupted Hugo's balance and bloodied vision, causing him to be lifted from his feets.
However, Hugo refused to be trapped. With a thought, he reshaped [Nothing] from a mist spear into a Shéng Biāo — otherwise known as a rope dart when not used in combat— He hurled the weighted blade into the ground, channeling a small burst of soul essence into his arm for extra power.
The dart impaled the earth with a solid thud, anchoring him. Hugo immediately slid down the rope with blinding speed, reaching the ground in less than a second.
'Now what…'
That lunatic version of himself was still spinning tornadoes everywhere so running normally wasn't an option...
'I can't transform into something else right now... If I activate my awakened ability, I won't be able to maintain any form due to essence exhaustion…'
Hugo glanced at [Nothing] again, and suddenly a new idea sparked in his mind.
Why change forms when he can anchor himself to thr ground instead?
He commanded [Nothing] to change shape once more while burying his hands into the ground to keep himself from being flung away. The mist weapon transformed into a pair of boots this time, sleek and spiked mist boots with sharp talons that pierced into the earth, anchoring him firmly to it.
With his new footing secured, Hugo turned and sprinted in the opposite direction, using Fasttrack's immense speed to generate his own counter-tornado.
"Nice try!" Ben shouted.
Ben finally stopped spinning his arms and launched himself forward like a missile. With terrifying speed, he delivered a devastating spinning heel kick directly into Hugo's side.
The impact was deadly and brutal, sending Hugo flying with blood erupting from his mouth as he tumbled through the air and was once again caught by the raging tornado.
However, this time he had a plan, one Formed in mere nanoseconds thanks to his spinning mind.
While being violently tossed around, Hugo summoned the [Polymorphic Crystal] in his palm, holding into the small red crystal and then, he instantly activated its [Envy] enchantment unleashing all the stored kinetic energy from the memory, directing it straight into the heart of Ben's artificial tornado.
Kinetic energy alone would have been useless against a real tornado but this was the concentrated power of an Ascended memory, which was different from mundane kinetic energy.
The world erupted in blinding crimson light, painting a beautifully harrowing image.
BOOOOM!
A massive shockwave exploded outward, spreading in all directions. the violent gusts of wind generated by Ben suddenly vanished as the tornado collapsed in mere moments.
Hugo, no longer supported by the vortex, came crashing down hard toward the broken ground.
However, at the last second, he decided to copy what he had just seen Ben do and so, Hugo spun both arms at insane speed, generating a powerful localized vortex around his body, however his vortex was intentionally made much smaller then the uncontrolled tornados that ben made.
The sudden upward gust of wind slowed his descent, allowing him to land in a rough crouch instead of a devastating crash.
The moment his feet touched the ground, Hugo charged again. This time, he abandoned the spear entirely and attacked with his bare fists, throwing fast, aggressive combinations.
Ben was always half a step ahead. He dodged with surgical precision, slipping every punch and countering with sharp, stinging strikes that steadily wore Hugo down.
Their battle was a blur of blue and black, two speedsters moving so fast they left afterimages. Blow after blow was exchanged, the momentum of the fight shifting every few seconds with both fighters matching their opponent perfectly...
Neither of them liked how close it was.
Hugo suddenly feinted low blow, then exploded upward with a vicious uppercut aimed straight at Ben's Ultimatrix, hoping that he could detransform Ben or destabilize his watch.
Realizing what Hugo was trying to do, Ben twisted his Body and the punch grazed his side instead of hitting its target, then He immediately caught Hugo's arm with both hands, used the boy's own momentum against him and slammed a powerful knee into his stomach.
But Hugo refused to disengage, continuing to wrestle Ben in this awkward position.
For a brief, terrifying moment, the two of them were locked in a brutal contest of raw strength and speed, grappling and pushing against each other while still moving at ridiculous velocities, with ben trying his hardest to push Hugo away from him and Hugo latching onto Ben like a Parasite.
Then something strange happened.
Both the Ultimatrix and Omnitrix began glowing at the same time, red and green light merging into a brilliant glow.
Both ben and Hugo eyes widened as they heard the voices of their watches:
[Omnitrix detected…]
[Synchronization…]
[ERROR!]
BOOOOOOM!
A violent explosion of energy erupted between the two devices. The force was so catastrophic that both shapeshifters were ripped out of their transformations mid-motion, their watches forcefully shutting down from the backlash.
Ben and Hugo crashed hard into the dirt, reverting to their human forms.
Hugo slowly pushed himself up, completely naked and covered in life threatening wounds. He let out a tired chuckle, looking at his body... or ben Tennyson body to be specific, but he could barely see the difference nowadays.
With a thought, he summoned his [Asura] mantle and shaped it into wrappings that covered only his lower body, preserving his dignity, or at least some of it.
[Nothing ] was almost completely destroyed, having received much damage during the battle due to the speed and quantity of the impacts it received.
Not wanting to lose his beloved memory, hugo unsummoned it back into his soul sea.
Ben stood up as well, still wearing Albedo's torn and ragged clothes. The two of them looked eerily identical, mirror images of the same person...
Hugo smiled, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth and down his missing eye socket.
"What do you say, hero of heroes?" He raised his bloody fists. "Shall we settle this with our fists?"
Ben couldn't help but grin back, cracking his pale knuckles.
"Yeah… that would be nice." He rolled his shoulders with a pained groan. "I don't need the Omnitrix to beat you."
Hugo chuckled darkly. "Before we kill each other, I want you to know one very important thing." His bloody smile widened. "Sumo Slammers and Mr. Smoothie sucks."
Ben's grin faltered for a second, clearly offended.
"Just shut up and fight."
The two broken wielder of the omnitrix stared at each other for a heartbeat.
Then, with savage roars, they launched at one another.