Marvelous Martial Arts (A Marvel Story)

Mason silently followed Daredevil as they closed in on the scene of the fight, hiding his presence as well as he could. Izo had not trained him in ninja arts; the old man had barely had the time to teach him martial arts, but it was dark, and there was distance.

They heard the gunshots first, before they arrived at a scene of pure chaos. Two small armies were facing each other, shouting incomprehensibly while they unloaded a hail of lead and fire on one another.

But as Mason landed on the roof of a building overlooking the fight, he quickly spotted a strange figure amidst it all. While both sides shot at each other from a distance, a woman was right in the midst of one of the groups, slaughtering them with her blade and martial arts.

Her looks were just as strange as her behaviour; she was covered from neck to toe in a skin-tight suit, white with thick and thin lines of black coursing through it. It hugged her body so tightly that it looked closer to a second layer of skin than cloth.

Her face was plastered white with makeup, her lips full and painted red, her eyes covered by a black domino mask, and with a target painted on her forehead. A literal one, black too.

She dressed like a super villain, acted like one too, but if she had been part of the Marvel Universe, Mason did not know about her, although the target painted on her forehead told him she very likely was connected to Bullseye.

Going by the ease with which she was slaughtering armed men, she had definitely been trained well. Actually, now that he looked more closely at her, Mason felt like there was something almost familiar about her. About the way she fought.

But while Mason watched perplexed from above, Daredevil dove straight into the fight. The Man Without Fear moved with frightening efficacy, first targeting the group without the lady in it. Mason’s attention momentarily focused on Daredevil, his Chi observing his moves.

Mason could tell that Daredevil was not holding back. Each of his blows thundered in the open air of Hell’s Kitchen, the power behind each of his blows crippling the poor gangsters suffering his wrath.

Because what else could Mason call this but wrath? It was controlled, cold, but it was still wrath nonetheless. A rage at the rot gangrening the city, a righteous need to deprive the world of its parasites.

Daredevil did not kill, that was true, but he did not shy away from breaking bones and giving concussions. It made Mason wonder whether Daredevil had ever killed someone by accident, although the more he observed him, the surer he became that was not the case.

Anyone else hitting with that kind of power and brutality undoubtedly would have, but Daredevil’s senses were so advanced that he probably had a unique understanding of the human body.

It was fascinating to Mason. His own Divine Sense was powerful, capable of predicting the actions of living beings and connecting to the greater truths of the universe. However, when used in combat to predict someone’s actions, it was usually limited to a single person.

Daredevil, on the other hand, did not actually use Divine Sense because his Breath did not ‘emit’ energy. Instead, it appeared that his Breath had been so thoroughly mutated that it had become something more passive.

As for comparing Daredevil’s Breath to his own, it would be meaningless, as Mason could sense, even from a distance, that Daredevil’s Three Treasures remained dormant. Actually, now that Mason thought about it, Daredevil was in a surprisingly similar situation to his own, before Awakening his Essence and Breath.

Although he was closing in on the peak of the Body Refinement Realm, or peak human conditioning in layman’s terms, his Breath, probably because of his mutation, was solidly in the Awakening Realm in terms of sheer power, despite remaining dormant, just as Mason’s Spirit had been.

It made Mason wonder what Daredevil’s Breath would be like once awakened, although he understood that the odds of that happening any time soon were close to none.

Daredevil might have trained his body close to the human limit, farther than most Olympic athletes, but he remained wholly uneducated in the matters of Internal Alchemy. Even for the most talented, it normally took years to even get down the cultivation technique. And there was still a chasm between a ‘peak human athlete’ like Daredevil and the peak of the realm, the ‘Super Soldier’ level. One that could only be reached through mastery of Chi.

Although now that he thought about it, Daredevil had seemingly sensed his Chi the first time they met, so maybe his mutated Breath would allow him to fly through the normally tedious training. Food for thought.

Cultivation aside, it did not take long for both martial artists to take care of their side of things, and wound up facing each other amidst a sea of bodies. While Daredevil had been ‘merciful’, only giving concussions and broken bones, the woman had massacred her side.

Below, Daredevil felt a red-hot rage burning in his gut as he took in what the woman had done. He might have recognized the men as Maggia-affiliated; that did not warrant their executions.

Still, he felt cautious of her. Her heart was calm, too calm. Not to mention she had slaughtered a whole group of men; the sheer effort should have sent her heart racing, yet she felt like she was asleep.

His adrenaline still racing through his veins, Daredevil groaned, ”Who are you?”

Taking a stance that made Mason raise an eyebrow above, the woman grinned with blood-thirst, replying, ”Does my disguise give you a big enough hint already?”

Before Daredevil could reply, she sprang out like a wound-up string, reaching him nearly instantly. She was fast, he realized as she sent her foot past his guard, into his jaw.

Taking a step back, Daredevil stopped her advance with a low kick, grinding his teeth to ignore the pain flaring in his jaw. She was faster, but she was weaker.

The two fighters slowly circled each other; the woman gave a mock bow, her posture an obvious bait he did not take. ”Fine, I suppose I should not bully the blind. They call me Lady Bullseye.”

Daredevil frowned, sending a jab with his left. Lady Bullseye dodged it, but that only opened her to the flying knee strike that followed. She pulled up her guard, but she was still forced several steps back as both of her arms were dulled with pain.

Daredevil was about to follow up when he felt a second heartbeat coming down from the sky. Solis’.

Lady Bullseye barely recovered from the strike when she felt a shift in the wind, and someone land behind her. Her trained reflexes had her leap away instantly, but it was pointless as Mason made no attempt to attack her, simply watching her with an amused expression.

The two fighters paused at the new arrival, and Daredevil was the first to break the silence, ”What are you doing?”

Keeping his eyes trained on Lady Bullseye, Mason said, ”Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt the kiddie fight, but I had to greet my fellow disciple.”

Daredevil was visibly confused, and Lady Bullseye’s normally calm heart suddenly spiked. Even with her training, she failed to keep calm.

”What are you talking about?”

Crossing his arms, which was a clear sign he was not taking her seriously, Mason snorted, ”I can recognize the old man’s style when I see it. I assume you’re one of those rowdy failures he was talking about?”

Normally, Mason would have felt some sentiment of kinship at meeting a fellow disciple under Izo, but this was clearly not someone he wanted to be associated with. Although he did not remember Lady Bullseye from the comics, her mere connection to the monster that was Bullseye was enough to peg her as a bad person in his books.

Mason’s Divine Sense, which he had extended to Lady Bullseye, told him that she was feeling rage, but the emotion felt dulled as she regained her cold mask from earlier and asked clearly, ”That old traitor took a new student? I wish I could see his expression when he learns I’ve killed you.”

Mason chuckled as he felt her immediate intent to attack.