66- Amputation (6)

The Wolverine released a roar bereft of any traces of humanity. The mutant’s muscles bulged as he turned his head, staring at Mason with a mindless rage. And finally, six metallic claws popped out between his knuckles.

Mason did not dare take a chance and immediately retreated away from him, the claws passing right where his leg had been a moment before. But Mason barely landed when Wolverine followed on all fours, leaping claws-first at Mason.

Mason focused his Divine Sense on Wolverine, but for the first time, he was unable to predict his actions. All Mason felt was that endless rage, which blinded Wolverine’s very reason. Wolverine was left fighting on pure instinct, and that was exactly what he was best at.

Carefully watching the claws, Mason dove under them and delivered a full-powered punch to his gut, where there was no skeleton to protect.

The claws easily cleaved apart the hard stone behind Mason, while Mason’s punch ruptured Wolverine’s guts, leaving a dark red, almost black depression. But it was like he had not attacked at all, the Wolverine not slowing down in the slightest. His claws met virtually no resistance as he wildly slashed at Mason, forcing him on the back foot as he could only dodge them.

Mason knew that if he tried to block those claws, he was losing an arm at best.

Wolverine moved like an unstoppable killing machine, never tiring, never slowing, never stopping. Defence only meant prolonging the inevitable, so Mason forced his opportunity. Wolverine had a longer reach thanks to his claws, even with the size difference, so Mason had to use his legs.

He sent a Chi-powered kick into Wolverine’s side, forcefully sending him flying to the side. Using Chi against someone like Wolverine was about the worst thing one could do in a battle, under normal circumstances.

Wolverine was unstoppable not only because of his Adamantium skeleton, but also because of his exaggerated healing factor. Any blow Mason dealt to him would heal in a matter of seconds, and Chi boosted that healing factor.

As a result, that kick completely healed Wolverine’s ruptured gut. This meant that using Chi would only help Wolverine recover.

However, using Chi also completely converted the piercing power of his strikes into concussive blows, adding a powerful knock-back effect to his attacks.

So although he healed, Wolverine had his balance broken, his body folding on itself, and before he could recuperate, just as his feet touched the ground, Mason was there again, driving another Chi punch into his gut, and followed with a sudden grab to the throat.

Mason did not use Chi this time, and Wolverine’s neck was like butter to him as he ripped it open. His fingers clamped on the invincible spine, clenched to absolutely no effect on said spine, and he pulled, taking everything in front with him.

Muscles, veins, and the carotid artery were ripped open, something Mason thought would for sure stop the Wolverine, even if temporarily. After all, even Wolverine needed to breathe, or get his brain oxygenated.

And yet, even as his lifeblood sprayed on Mason, covering his front in red, Wolverine appeared to remain unstoppable as ever, swinging his claws wildly after only a momentary stutter. Mason dodged by ducking, but winced when the tip of one of the claws barely caught him in the shoulder.

It was barely a glancing blow, but the Adamantium claw cut through his flesh with insulting ease. Mason had urgently coated the area in Chi at the very last moment, but it made absolutely no difference to Wolverine’s claws.

Fortunately, the claw itself only caught the very edge of his shoulder, resulting in a relatively minor injury. And still, Wolverine did not stop.

His high-intensity efforts made his blood pump, which only served to spray more blood. As the two fought, exchanging blows, a horrifically beautiful pattern was drawn on the black rock ground beneath them, one that followed their graceful and savage dance.

Wolverine fought with wild abandon, his injuries all but ignored, but Mason had the initiative, which was what gave their dance its grace.

And despite his earlier rage, Mason found himself more and more excited, even amidst the rising frustration that came with fighting Wolverine.

Mason hit Wolverine about twenty to thirty times for every small claw Wolverine managed to hit, and even those were kept to glancing blows. Mason’s every hit was also lethal, and yet Wolverine remained tireless, his blood seemingly infinite.

Mason’s stamina was nothing to scoff at either. He kept his Chi within for the most part, fueling himself with it and only using it in attacks when he urgently needed to get away from Wolverine. The circulation of his Chi helped Mason also remain tireless. However, his injuries did not magically heal, even with the help of his Chi, and the more they fought, the more numerous they grew.

But not Wolverine. His injuries healed at a visible speed, so much so that Mason had to rip his throat apart several times, and he even dug out his guts several times. To keep him manageable, Mason had also been tearing apart Wolverine’s tendons, those he could hit at least, but even those only incapacitated Wolverine for a few seconds before they would heal.

There was something deeply unnatural about fighting the Wolverine. As the minutes passed, the blood that had pooled beneath them had become thick enough to splash around with their fight, filling up like a small pool.

This was no mere healing factor, Mason quickly concluded. Somehow, Wolverine’s X-Gene allowed him to create matter, replacing the tissues and blood lost, seemingly infinitely. In reality, it was no weirder than someone infinitely shooting lasers from their eyes or controlling magnetism with no clear limit, but Mason still found it stranger for some reason.

The two fought for a while, with Mason dominating the fight yet understanding perfectly well that he was only on the course for failure. He still did it, in the hope that there would be a limit to Wolverine’s healing factor, that he would grow exhausted, but Mason erased that notion by the time the stone started turning red from all the blood.

Mason’s rare uses of Chi strikes certainly did not help either, but tiring Wolverine out was not an option.

The obvious weapon to use against Wolverine would have been the Gravity Dao, since Wolverine had a much heavier body because of his Adamantium skeleton, but Mason’s mastery of it was not nearly good enough to incapacitate Wolverine.

His best use of it, when he merged his Spiritual Energy with the Gravity Dao, could only restrain him temporarily, which by itself was not enough. So it would fall to the other technique, the Fire Dao with Chi.

Chi would help Wolverine heal, but if it was strong enough, it should be able to knock out even Wolverine.

But even that strike had to be well placed. Mason had already tried with regular strikes, and discovered that Wolverine’s Adamantium was astonishingly good at absorbing kinetic energy. So if Mason wanted a shot at knocking out Wolverine, he would need to hit the weakest part of the skull, so that as much force as possible would directly transfer to the brain.

Unfortunately, that weakest part happened to be at the base of the skull, which was very hard to hit even with a normal opponent, not to mention one like Wolverine.

But the breakthrough Mason sought presented itself after a while, in the form of Izo. One way or another, Mason’s master had apparently managed to shake off the members of the Chaste, most probably by killing them.

Mason did not spot him at first, but once he did, the two shared a tacit understanding of what to do, without a word spoken.

Mason led Wolverine until Izo was exactly in his back, and his master sprang from the shadows, driving his blade through Wolverine’s left oblique. Even in his enraged state, Wolverine remained an excellent fighter, even if in his own way, and thus immediately turned to swipe a claw at Izo. But his turning speed was slowed by the blade still currently in his oblique.

So, Mason used precisely that moment to use his gravity fusion technique, suppressing Wolverine in both body and mind. Even Wolverine’s boundless rage was stunted for a moment, which Izo used to rapidly slash at Wolverine’s other oblique as well as tendons in his limbs.

Strangely, Izo only used a finger, yet it cut like a blade. His finger was not as sharp as Tiger’s Most Beautiful Daughter, but it was still sharp enough to cut. In his state of heightened perception, Mason could feel the Dao at work.

But that only passed through his mind as Mason focused on doing something he had never done before, and that was to use two different facets of the Dao at the same time.

While keeping his gravity field up, Mason called upon the Fire Dao, merging it with his Chi to form the same amorphous mass as before, as if his fist had turned into a small star. It shone white instead of the usual Chi yellow. It was a perilous action, as Mason not only used two Daos at the same time, but he was also using all Three of his Treasures, but in a bout of sudden inspiration, he succeeded.

Even in his suppressed state, Wolverine’s animal instincts warned him of the danger, awakening a small part of his mind, but even that was not enough with his tendons cut and his frame suppressed by gravity, allowing Mason’s Star Fist to hit the base of Wolverine’s skull.

Space itself was forcefully compressed, folding under the weight of that punch. The air exploded with fire, burning Wolverine’s scalp and flesh to cinders as the force transmitted to his brain.

First, a shockwave exploded from the point of impact, sending both Izo and the blood and gore around them flying. Then, Wolverine’s head was sent into the ground with such force that the dark stone beneath cracked open. The collision created a loud metallic sound as Wolverine’s face had been burned off completely by the fire, leaving only his skull.

Then, the impact of Wolverine’s head with the ground triggered its own explosion, nearly making Mason trip over in his state of exhaustion.

But Mason did not care for that, as he stared at Wolverine’s mass intensely. He felt himself tense when he thought he saw Wolverine’s body twitch, but in the end, he did not get up.

He had taken down the Wolverine.