The first mistake Ethan made was trying to fight Shawn like a normal opponent.
The second was realizing, too late, that there was nothing normal about a man who could cross thirty meters in less than a blink.
Rain hammered the parking lot in steady sheets, turning the cracked asphalt into a slick black mirror.
Shawn leaned against the hood of a rusted-out sedan, arms crossed, that same lazy grin on his face like he was waiting for a bus.
Marcus stood ten meters away, rifle raised. He had the stance of a man who had done this before—knees bent, shoulders squared, finger already taking up slack on the trigger.
Shawn didn't even flinch.
Marcus fired.
Bang!!!
The muzzle flash lit up the rain for a split second. The bullet punched through empty air where Shawn's head had been.
A blur whipped past Marcus's left side. The rifle was ripped from his hands so fast the strap snapped like a rubber band. Shawn's voice came from directly behind him.
"Too slow human."
Marcus spun, elbow already driving back. It hit nothing but rain. Shawn was already five meters away, rifle dangling from one hand like a toy.
He tossed it aside. The weapon clattered across the asphalt and slid into a puddle.
Ethan stepped forward. Lightning crackled over his knuckles, blue-white and shining bright. He had felt this power before, But right now it felt useless.
"Stay still for one second," Ethan growled.
He lunged.
His fist cut through air. Shawn wasn't there anymore. A hand clamped onto Ethan's shoulder from behind, fingers digging in like steel hooks.
Then the world flipped. Ethan's feet left the ground. He flew sideways, body parallel to the lot, and slammed into the brick wall of the old auto shop at the edge of the parking lot.
The impact sounded like a car crash. Bricks exploded outward. Ethan's back punched straight through the wall and into the dark interior of the building.
Ethan pushed himself up. Chunks of brick slid off his chest. He rolled his shoulders. Nothing broken. No cracked ribs.
The high level strength had turned his body into something that laughed at normal damage. But his pride took the hit anyway.
He climbed back through the hole he had made in the wall. Rain hit his face again. Shawn stood in the middle of the lot, hands in his pockets, watching him like this was a game.
Marcus had recovered another weapon, a pistol from the small of his back, and was circling left. Ethan met his eyes for half a second. They had worked together long enough to read each other without words.
But Shawn moved again.
This time Ethan tried to track him. He really did. The speedster became a streak of color and displaced air. Marcus fired twice.
Both shots missed by meters. Shawn appeared behind Marcus, drove a knee into his spine, and sent him stumbling forward. Marcus caught himself, turned, and emptied the rest of the magazine in a tight spread.
Shawn wasn't there.
He was already behind Ethan.
A fist connected with Ethan's jaw. The force lifted him off his feet again. He spun through the air and crashed into the side of a parked delivery van. Metal crumpled. The van rocked on its shocks. Ethan slid down the dented panel and landed on his ass in a puddle.
He tasted blood.
One thought burned through the haze: high strength means nothing if you can't land a hit.
Ethan stayed down for a moment longer than he needed to. Not because he was hurt. Because he was thinking.
The rain kept falling. Puddles spread across the lot in shallow sheets. Cracks in the asphalt showed rusted rebar underneath like exposed bones.
Overhead, power lines hummed on their wooden poles, feeding the city grid that ran under the entire block.
Shawn wasn't teleporting. He was running paths. Repeating the same efficient arcs over and over, using the open space like a racetrack. Predictable once you saw the pattern.
Ethan's original skill set, the thing he trained to perfection, Pattern Recognition, clicked on hard. Not just surface level this time. It expanded.
He saw the angles, the flow, the way the water conducted electricity, the way the rebar formed a natural lattice under the concrete. He saw exactly how to turn the entire parking lot into a weapon.
A system prompt burned across his vision in clean white text.
[New Emergency Objective:
Ground the Messenger.
Reward: +1 AGI Point → Multiplied (100x)
Ethan exhaled. He didn't need to hit Shawn. He needed to take away every place Shawn could stand.
He shoved the last of the debris off his legs and stood up.
"Marcus!" he shouted.
Marcus was already moving, pistol empty, heading for the far edge of the lot where an industrial transformer box sat behind a chain-link fence.
He knew the plan without being told. They had run drills like this in the last safe house.
Shawn noticed.
Of course he did.
The blur snapped toward Marcus again, faster than before, with much brutal force.
Ethan didn't chase him. He dropped to one knee, planted both palms flat on the wet asphalt, and let go.
Not just a single bolt like before, but he overcharged everything he had.
Lightning poured out of him in a silent flood. It sank into the concrete, into the rebar grid beneath, into the rainwater that covered the entire lot like a shallow lake. The energy spread fast. The parking lot inhaled it all.
Then it lit up.
Blue-white veins of electricity surged outward in a perfect lattice. Every puddle became a conductor. Every crack in the asphalt became a wire.
Shawn took one more step mid-sprint.
And the world turned on him.
At normal speed the grid would have been dangerous. At Shawn's speed it became a meat grinder.
Every footfall generated friction against the charged water. Static built instantly. The electricity shock him instantly. The power of zeus took the current and turned it into density. Density became drag. Drag became force. Shawn's own velocity worked against him like invisible chains.
He stumbled.
For the first time in the fight, he stumbled.
His body hit an invisible wall of feedback. The electricity arced up his legs, wrapped around his torso, and locked every joint. He dropped to one knee hard enough to crack the asphalt.
Shawn shook. His eyes were wide. Not with pain but Something worse.
Fear.
Ethan walked toward him, with a small smile No rush in his part.
Shawn looked up. "You, what did you—"
Ethan placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I adapted, cunt."
He didn't explode lightning outward now, He just pulled it inward. If he could pour out, he could pull in.
Divine Siphon activated. A skill he made up right on the spot
The skill didn't rip everything out at once though. It took a clean fraction. One percent of Shawn's speed essence. But for some reason, the system multiplier kicked in immediately.
[100x reward system activated]
1% became 100%.
For a single moment Ethan felt it.
"Wha-?"
Not movement. Time itself bending around him. The raindrops slowed in his vision. The wind paused. Every sound stretched. He could see the individual arcs of electricity still crawling across the lot.
He could see Marcus twenty meters away, mid-stride, mouth open to shout something.
Then the moment snapped back to normal.
Shawn gasped. The glow in his eyes faded. His shoulders slumped. The blur that had defined him vanished. He looked… ordinary. Just a man on his knees in the rain, breathing hard, skin pale.
Marcus walked over, boots splashing through puddles. He let out a low breath.
"You know," he said, glancing at Ethan, "for a guy with the power of a god…"
He paused.
"You're still a tactical nerd."
Ethan looked down at his own hands. The lightning was gone. For once they weren't shaking.
"The nerd part," he said quietly, "is the only thing keeping the god part from blowing us both up."
A new system window appeared, brighter than the others.
Divine Siphon Complete.
Skill Acquired: Messenger's Velocity (Temporary Transfer – 1% base → 100x multiplier applied).
Duration: 72 hours.
Permanent AGI Point awarded: +1 (Multiplied).
[100x Reward system Activated]
+1 => 100 AGI
[Congratulations 🎉]
New Ability Unlocked: Partial Velocity Integration.
Warning: Integration may cause temporal disorientation. Recommend controlled testing.
Ethan closed the window with a thought. He could already sense the edges of it. The way the world could slow if he pushed.
Shawn tried to stand but unfortunately his legs gave out. He sat back down hard in the puddle.
Marcus leveled the pistol at him again, just in case.
Ethan crouched so he was eye level with the speedster. "You came at us like we were the problem. Like we were the ones who needed to be erased." His voice stayed flat. "Next time you pick a fight, make sure the other guy doesn't have time to think."
Shawn didn't answer. He just stared at the ground, chest heaving. Still feeling the jolt inside his body
Marcus nudged Ethan's shoulder. "We should move. The grid probably tripped every alarm in a three-block radius. Cops or worse will be here in minutes."
Ethan nodded. He stood up and looked around at the damage. The parking lot looked like it had been hit by a localized lightning storm.
Scorched lines. Cracked concrete.
One car still smoking from where his lightning hit, but even though he had damaged it all, It felt right. Not destruction for the sake of it. Just the cost of winning.
They left Shawn sitting there. No longer a threat for the next three days at least.
As they walked toward the edge of the lot, Marcus reloaded his pistol with steady hands. "You're getting better at this. Scary better."
Ethan didn't smile. "Better isn't my goal Marcus, for now Surviving is. And making sure the next guy who shows up with a system power doesn't walk away thinking he can treat us like target practice, like our local super hero there."
Marcus smiled. "It's you and me, we can handle anything, just don't fucking leave me again. We are in this together now."
"Haha, Roger that."