32 Issue #31: X-Pyra
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Issue #31: X-Pyra.
(General P.O.V)
Miles Morales was unlike any other spider-man.
Leave alone his widely different backstory, his own powers were a level higher when compared to other Spider People.
Out of all those abilities, the most well known and maybe even his signature move, was the venom blast. An attack that when released, unleashed a devastating burst of bio-energy from his limbs.
But that was far from the only special ability he had.
And in Kane's case, while a venom blast to the face could solve a lot of problems, he was first and foremost, an assassin.
A killer.
And his job demanded stealth more than it did power.
In other words, out of every Spider ability he had access to, none was as compatible, or complimentary to his assassin skills as...Invisibility.
Spider Sense was a close second.
But even it paled in comparison to invisibility. The ability to disappear from sight.
And the reason was pretty simple.
Kane was already trained to completely erase his presence. He could dim any sounds he made by a special foot technique called the Ghost Step.
Ghost step, required an immense control of his body. Where in he was rendered almost completely weightless.
He would leave no footsteps or tracks behind.
Add invisibility on top of that? And you were facing an enemy you could neither see nor hear.
The true Assassin Spider.
-0-
On the small Island that acted as the guard post for one of the scariest and most powerful creatures of the Underworld,
A gigantic Hellhound with three heads was standing in the middle of a storm.
Said storm was not a natural weather phenomenon, rather, it was an onslaught of slashing attacks that fell on Cerberus hide.
The slashes left light injuries on the Guardian of the Underworld, as it failed to defend against the Assassin Spider's unexpected attacks.
The attacks came from every direction, not always aimed to cause damage, but also to wear it down.
The right head howled in pain as it's ear was scorched, the fur singed by what looked to be lightning.
A burst of blue flames escaped Cerberus body, spreading out through the entire ground.
The flames went high and far, even blanketing the surface of the river Styx, terrifying the lost souls within its depths.
This wild burst of flames was but one of many released in the minutes following the ongoing fight.
"Come out come out little Pup! You can't hide-!"
One of the heads snarled.
Only for it's statement to be cut off by an earth shaking impact on it's chin.
The left head immediately got knocked out, a shockwave passing through its skull and rattling its brain.
Cerberus' body staggered in place as one of its heads flopped onto its chest, dead asleep.
While the Central Head begun barking at it to wake up, the right head seemed to go ballistic.
Large fire balls escaped it's mouth, pelting the entire area.
Some stray shots even landed on the cliff behind, causing huge explosions that dislodged large debris-boulders that fell on the pool of water below.
Splash!
Splash!
One of those boulders, it's potential weight in the dozens of tonnes, seemed to change direction while in the air, falling on top of Cerberus.
There was a flare of Blue Fire and the 3 headed monster raised it's two heads, breathing out a storm of fire overhead.
The boulder was immediately turned into ash and smoke.
The smoke covering the air was subsequently blown away, revealing a dozen more smaller sized rocks descending upon the Underworld Guardian.
"I told you! It's useless!"
Central Head furiously roared out.
It and the right head widened their jaws for another flame breath, only for web bullets to land inside their glowing blue maws.
It only took a second to flash burn the webbing but within that second, Cerberus was pelted by the dozens of rocks, getting buried within them.
-0-
(An underteminable distance deeper into the Underworld)
At the end of the River Styx, Hades' Underworld palace was in a state of reconstruction.
Indeed the aftermath of the battle that had occured here a few weeks ago was yet to be erased.
The souls of the dead lugged huge rocks and other material up a ramp constructed on the backs of Titanic creatures.
One of those creatures was a truly heaven defying bone dinosaur.
The tip of its tail reached a few miles below the bridge/dock, just a scant hundred meters above the lake that the five underworld rivers fed into.
At the end of it, was a cave of some sort.
Through the cave's mouth, denizens of the underworld- millions of souls-carried up large stones and other materials using the spine of the dragon as stairs.
The journey up was incredibly far and would have taken a single person more than a few days to reach the top.
But if the dead had something, it was time.
-0-
Within the confines of the Lord of the Underworld's throne room, shadows danced under the green light of the glowing gemstone chandelier, hanging from the ceiling.
The walls were lined with cracks, and a layer of dust covered the ground.
At the foot of the stairs leading to the throne, Rhadamanthus sat cross legged, eyes set on a glowing crystal ball placed on a cushion before him.
The crystal ball displayed the battle happening between Cerberus and Kane.
"He's going to lose."
A deep voice rumbled forth from the Throne above the stairs.
Rhadamanthus turned his focus to his Lord and Master. Hades was leaning his cheek on the palm of his right hand, a frown on his visage as he watched the fight.
"Yes."
Rhadamanthus muttered under his breath.
The weight of the dead butterfly in the inner lining of his robes felt particularly heavy.
"Then again, he has surprised us before. Few can survive Tartarus."
Rhadamanthus shrugged, his eyes glinting in a strange light.
"Mmmh."
Hades merely hummed.
"Even so, Cerberus was right. He is unprepared. Willful but that can only go far when facing a God like Ares."
"But he's not alone, Lord Hades."
The Judge reminded him.
"A mortal might struggle against a God. But a powerful mortal like him and a demi-god working together? I would hate to be Ares."
He was right.
Despite the poor showing, Hades still felt the assassin could be useful.
But Kane's defying power, while impressive could only go so far.
Which meant Hades would personally have to stake something. Had to assist in his own limited way.
"Rhadamanthus."
Hades called out to the Judge.
"There's a certain soul in the Asphodel Meadows I need."
Before Hades could give out the name, the fight displayed in the crystal ball suddenly changed.
Hades sat up, green eyes unblinking.
"Well..."
Rhadamanthus chuckled to himself.
"That is totally unexpected."
Hades rubbed his chin.
"Indeed. It seems...we might have underestimated Mr.Kane."
He had to agree.
(Kane's P.O.V)
I hate fighting close range.
Sigh. I feel like that will eventually become my Mantra.
That said, an opponent like Cerberus needed an adjusted strategy that demanded a mix of both close, mid and long range attacks.
Invisibility and Ghost Step, ensured he couldn't see me to take control of my flames, but I was still wary of using them.
Spider Sense seemed to peep everytime I considered calling them out to either teleport, or add to venom blast for increased power.
So I was stuck with every other trick in the book.
I cut off the webs around the debris that had fallen on Cerberus, landing on the ground before the mound of boulders, my chest rising and falling fast.
Despite ny enhanced Stamina, using Spider Sense to hop over the wild bursts of flames Cerberus released, while still using invisibility and Ghost Step AND venom blast was slightly taxing.
But the result was that I'd taken out one head.
Only two remained.
And my next hit was guaranteed to finish this. I just had to wait for the perfect instant.
Timing was everything.
The mountain of rocks begun trembling, the cracks along the debris glowing red as streams of blue fire leaked through.
Meanwhile, my right hand surged with waves and waves of bio-energy, the electric charge frying the sleeve of my shirt and turning my entire forearm golden.
It was more power than I'd ever packed into a single venom blast. Even more power than when I'd punched at Circe.
Back then my control over Bio-energy had been laughable at best.
But in the week following that, I'd gotten a better handle of it.
The air around my hand crackled with streaks of lightning.
I started walking forward, slowly at first and then the tip of my foot slammed into the hard ground and I raced forward at the fastest speed I could reach.
The surroundings blurred, everything unneeded went out of focus.
My attention was firmly on the debris Cerberus was burried under. And my hand, swung back ready to deliver the final blow.
This fight is over.
-0-
The boulders collapsed ontop of Cerberus glowed, melting before a massive explosion of fire sent everything outward.
Red rocks and molten lava blew into the surroundings, and Cerberus was revealed- body reforming from the flames.
He was smaller.
No longer over 20 feet.
The biggest change however was instead of a single body and 3 heads, Cerberus had split it's body into 3.
3 individual hellhounds flanked each other, standing side by side.
Kane -unseen and unheard- did not allow himself to be distracted by the unexpected change.
He chose one of the Hellhounds(the Middle one) and prepared to unleash his devastating blow.
Kane's Spider Sense blared at him in warning. But he was too close, barely a few feet from landing his strike.
So he chose to ignore it. He chose to risk it.
For one single instant, he thought he had succeeded. For one single instant, the critical hit was guaranteed.
The Hellhounds' raised their heads to the sky and as one...HOWLED.
The air trembled.
His mind went fuzzy as the sound slammed into him and raptured his eardrums.
A mouthful of blood escaped Kane's mouth from the impact of the soundwaves unleashed by that single howl.
He instantly lost his invisibility, the bio-energy rippling around his hand was released into the already devastated surroundings, striking at the ground.
Sand and rocks followed his body as he smashed onto the hard ground, creating a groove with his back.
The Island groaned, a crack appearing in the middle, under the Assassin' disoriented form.
Kane's body fell into the forming trench, his chest smacking on a rock ledge, before bouncing off and falling toward the flood of water that had poured into the crack.
For a few minutes, pandemonium reigned. Then the soundwaves strong enough to liquidify a normal person's organs died down.
Cerberus stepped to the edge of the trench, now back in his real form of 3 heads.
"You got overconfident."
All three heads said, matter of factly.
"Some assassin you are. It's a shame. You were almost worthy of the gift."
The guardian's eyes roamed over the suspended form of Kane, the assassin clinging to a web that was attached to the side of the trench.
Kane said nothing, merely glaring up at Cerberus. There was no way to dodge what was coming.
Cerberus widened his jaws, a swirl of fire brewing within. In a silmuteneous action, 3 pillars of a blue firestorm hit the trench.
A collosal wave splashed on the sides of the large cliff.
Around the small island, the waters raged. The island itself splintered apart.
With a resounding series of rumbles and churning water, it sank beneath the river Styx.
Standing on a cloud of blue flames, Cerberus huffed.
It's favorite spot was gone. All because of Kane.
Say what you will, but that Pup had been tenaciously strong. Only his apparent lack of ingenuity with the flames had held him back.
The mission was accomplished. Kinda.
Hades had ordered him to test the Pup, but...yeah, Cerberus got carried away and killed him.
Oh well. It was his fault for being weak.
The Guardian turned to face the waterfall, returning to it's watch position.
Thwip!
From Cerberus' right, a web covered in blue flames shot over his shoulder, attaching to the face of the cliff over a hundred meters away.
Thwip!
On his left, just over the other shoulder, another web-also covered in fire- clung to the face of the cliff.
Cerberus turned around too late.
By the time It was reacting, the 3 head monster had received a blow to it's chest, that sent it flying through the air.
It's back slammed onto the cliff at such a high velocity, that It Was driven inches inside.
Heads spinning, the Guardian of the Underworld sniffed, looking out at what had delivered the devastating blow.
Cerberus could only gape as a spider made of flames scuttled along the cliff, filling the Hellhound's vision.
The spider was shaped like a black widow, staring at him with 8 red glowing eyes. 8 red eyes that seemed angry with him.
And within it's body, Kane's vague form could be seen, his entire body covered in burns...that were already healing.
