Chương 29: Smurfing

Lady Bullseye exploded with the same speed as earlier, but Mason merely grabbed her extended foot. This forced her into an awkward position, as Mason's grip was crushing and was not something she could simply escape from. Yet, much to her shock, Mason did not press his advantage, merely pushing her as he looked haughtily at her. It enraged her, but she did not let it get to her head. She had been trained to eliminate her emotions.

Patiently waiting for her to recover, only when he was sure she was fully ready did Mason make an attack of his own. Although Mason had been struggling with the Dao for the past few weeks, that was not to say his training had not been bearing fruit. Although his Spirit remained dormant, his Essence and Breath had both tremendously improved, and were now standing shoulders to shoulders, right under his Spirit. He had also pushed his physical body even further beyond, reaching a strength of half a ton.

That was about forty percent stronger than a super soldier. And that was all around, not just in terms of lifting strength. Of course, his body still answered to physics, so his large mass naturally slowed him down, but Mason still moved faster than her. He did not bother with a fancy technique; he went for a simple, telegraphed gut punch. She tried to block, but his fist gained a faint yellow luster as he coated it with Chi.

She barely had the time to register the change when his fist barreled past her guard and sunk into her flesh. She released an involuntary gasp, losing her breath as she was sent flying back. She lost all her grace as she crashed on the ground, wheezing in pain. Mason's strength of half a ton was without any enhancement. If he added his Chi into the mix, depending on the amount, he came closer to a full ton. If not outright enough to kill, it would at least severely injure any normal human being.

However, while Chi empowered his punch, it was also the energy of life and had inherent healing properties. Whenever he hit someone with it, some of it would inevitably be transferred over, and even trigger a reaction in their own Essence. The pain remained just as potent, and bones would still break when enough force was applied, but it would hardly kill. It was exactly what had happened to Lady Bullseye. She had been incapacitated, but she was nowhere close to dying.

Crouching to her level, Mason reached for her neck, which finally made her lose her cool as she very obviously panicked. He ignored her thrashes and grabbed at the thin fabric of her mask before tearing it off. A plain Asian face was revealed. Her mask had not been doing much to hide her identity, but now Mason knew for sure that were he to see her without her mask, he would recognize her.

Enraged, Lady Bullseye finally recovered enough to attempt an attack, but Mason swatted her wrist aside as a child had attacked him, and said, "Hasn't Master Izo taught you anything? You have not even stepped into the Awakening Realm, you useless thing. I wouldn't be surprised if you were the reason he picked up drinking." The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Shaking his head, he hammer-punched the side of her head, infusing the blow with Chi to send her brain rattling. Even with her training, she was knocked out by the blow. Slowly swiveling his head to look at the still superhero, Mason asked, "Cat got your tongue?" Daredevil, who was still on edge, replied tacitly, "I am almost certain she is part of the Hand. And she called your shared master a traitor. I think you've had a better link to the Hand than me all along."

Mason rolled his eyes, thinking about the old man, clicking his tongue in frustration, "That would be if I knew where he was. That old fossil disappeared to deal with old students of his… I suppose he meant the Hand." Daredevil hummed lowly before warning with a jerk of his head, "The police are coming. I'll reach out in a couple of days." The blind hero leapt away with the help of his billy club, while Mason watched him in surprise.

He would have to be dense not to understand this was Daredevil agreeing to help him. He had not expected it to be this easy. Daredevil definitely did not trust Mason fully, but Mason did not care about that. All he needed was information, really. Mason's goal was to erase the Hand's influence from the city, which could be achieved in a number of ways.

The easiest would be to ally himself to their enemies and slaughter them to the last man, but not only did Mason not favor mass slaughter as a solution, but he was also pretty sure the Hand possessed some bullshit revival powers in the comics. The Marvel equivalent of the Lazarus Pit, or something. Besides, even if they were killed, they were based in Japan, and they still had allies in the city. Even if he killed them all, he would only bring their allies to his door.

If he wanted to root them out, he would have to hurt their interests in the city, take out their members, find their allies, and only when he had done all that would he be able to storm their headquarters and cut off the head of the snake. The Hand felt like an insurmountable mountain to a single person, and even with his power, Mason knew that the chances he could take on the Hand as a whole by himself were slim to none.

Even if the organization did not have a single Awakening Master, their sheer numbers would be enough to overwhelm him. Also, while Mason had grown stronger, he was still weak to modern weaponry. If he were to face a small group equipped with firearms, he was confident in dodging them, but his Divine Sense was something active. A single sniper shooting from afar was probably enough to take him down, not to mention more extreme means.

Even if the Hand refused to use advanced weaponry, he was quite sure they had at least a few Awakening Masters, since Izo had apparently been part of the organization, and they were enemies with K'un-Lun. But it was not like he had much of a choice. Besides, while training on his own certainly provided results, Izo had been adamant in his little booklet that conflict and life-or-death situations were the only real food to a martial artist.

The old man was a bit intense, but Mason would not refuse some real challenges. Although he had not told anyone about it since he knew the kind of reactions he would have gotten, it had been no coincidence he had laughed when he had fought the Hulk. He liked it. Conversely, Lady Bullseye had disappointed him. Bored him, even. Watching her limp form, a hint of a smile appeared on Mason's face. Humiliating her had not been something he had particularly enjoyed, but it had a purpose.

Like Daredevil, he was pretty sure she was part of the Hand. She had come alone this time, but Mason was hoping that by humiliating her and letting her go, she would come back with reinforcements. That would offer him a better chance to find which hole they were hiding in.