Chapter 280: Wanda — Anyone Who Ruins My Date Dies!
Interesting — turning into Tsukasa's form, of all things. I always figured it only went one way, Tsukasa copying other Riders — never expected this Ethan guy to have the matching function in reverse. Summoning Riders like me, AND transforming into someone else's power like Tsukasa can — now that's an enviable set of abilities.
Wasn't Dai-Shocker supposed to have been wiped out by Tsukasa already? So how's there a whole new Driver like this floating around? Kaito mused privately, watching Ethan stand there transformed into Kamen Rider Decade.
Still — no telling if that belt would even work for someone else. Now that's a nice little treasure. His eyes gleamed with open greed, fixed hungrily on the belt at Ethan's waist.
After all, his own Driver had been stolen too — he'd already tasted the sweetness of "borrowing" a belt like this, and he knew exactly how much power one could hold.
Still, turning into Tsukasa doesn't mean you can beat me at it. Nobody knows him better than I do.
With that, Kaito launched his attack at Ethan.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, Wanda and Loki weren't idle either — both sorcerers, trading spell for spell.
A commotion this size naturally drew a swarm of onlookers.
"Whoa, look at all these Riders fighting — are they filming some new movie or something?" a passerby asked, curious.
"Nah, I actually saw the pink one earlier — that's the Lord of Hell's Kitchen, Ethan Cross, transformed. He just saved a bunch of hostages some green-skinned guy had taken," another bystander answered.
"I saw that too — there were plenty of rich folks in that group. I recognized a few faces from photos. They came running out looking totally rattled — must've just gotten taken hostage!" someone else chimed in.
"Why is it always Hell's Kitchen coming to save people, again? What's the federal government even doing? We pay all these taxes, and it's the people we've been looking down on our whole lives who end up saving us instead?" an angry voice cut through the crowd, striking a chord with everyone nearby.
A wave of murmured agreement rippled through the onlookers — frustration with the federal government mixed with genuine gratitude toward Hell's Kitchen.
Amid the chaos of the fight, the hostages Loki had been holding took the opportunity to slip away. Their faces still carried the raw look of people who'd just clawed their way back from death's door.
But the moment they were safely clear, their groveling posture from moments ago evaporated, replaced almost instantly by their usual arrogance.
After all, the sort of people who got invited to an event like this were, without exception, rich or powerful — used to looking down on everyone from a great height, especially the federal government. They were the ones footing the bill for that government, after all!
"Damn it, I'm filing a complaint! Is this what passes for public safety in the Big Apple these days? Bunch of useless bureaucrats!" a man in an expensive suit bellowed furiously.
Traces of terror still lingered on his face, but his usual arrogance had already fully reasserted itself.
"Fuck. Can't believe I actually got saved by Hell's Kitchen trash," another woman muttered, unable to help herself.
She felt a flicker of gratitude toward Ethan for the rescue, sure — but her prejudice against Hell's Kitchen's people ran deeper than that.
"Honestly, Hell's Kitchen's people feel more reliable than the federal government at this point. This is the second time Ethan's saved my life now. Hell's Kitchen's streets look a little rough, though — maybe I'll donate something to fix them up," a middle-aged man mused.
He seemed to have developed a genuine trust in Ethan, going so far as to consider donating toward Hell's Kitchen's infrastructure.
"Isn't it weird that both of them turned into the exact same Rider, though? Makes you wonder if this whole thing is staged..." a young woman said, doubt written across her face, clearly questioning whether the fight was even real.
"The hell it's staged! That green-caped, stuck-up bastard is the one who kidnapped us in the first place! Getting saved and still complaining — no wonder you got grabbed in the first place!" a man shot back immediately, voice thick with anger at Loki and gratitude toward Ethan.
"Okay, okay, let's just get out of here already. I am not getting grabbed again — I'm leaving the Big Apple the second I can! This city is not safe!" another woman urged, her voice trembling slightly, clearly still shaken from the ordeal.
Reactions among the rescued crowd varied wildly — some genuinely grateful toward Ethan, others somehow managing to resent him too, blaming him for not saving them sooner and sparing them the humiliation of groveling in the first place.
Most of them, though, simply slipped away from the scene in silence without a word.
None of this mattered much to Ethan and Wanda, still locked in combat — saving that crowd had been an afterthought to begin with, not the point of the fight.
Still, having saved them, Ethan fully intended to collect something for it later. He wasn't running some charity operation. Not that he needed to handle the details himself — Uncle Fisk would take care of all that on his end. Nobody was walking away from this one for free.
Ethan and Kaito's fight kept escalating, their figures crossing back and forth across the battlefield, every clash seeming to tear the air itself apart. Loki's fight, by contrast, was going considerably worse — the situation was turning badly against him.
Loki's usually composed face had gone tight with strain. His armor, battered under Wanda's chaos magic assaults, now bore a gaping, unmistakable hole — visible proof of just how much pressure he was under.
A flicker of real alarm rose in his chest. This woman's command of magic was far, far beyond anything he'd expected.
Loki's own specialty was illusion magic — the kind that let him fill a battlefield with phantoms and false images, plunging his enemies into confusion.
Against Wanda, though, his illusions seemed to accomplish nothing at all. No matter how he wove them, she always found him with unerring precision, as if she could see straight through every trick he threw at her.
It left Loki thoroughly demoralized — his illusion magic rendered useless cut his effective strength dramatically, while Wanda's attacks only grew fiercer by the moment.
Are all the people around Ethan monsters? he wondered, unable to shake the thought. How are they all this powerful?
Just as Loki sank deeper into that unsettling thought, Wanda's next attack came crashing in.
This time, she seemed to be drawing on everything she had — the air around them thick with the overpowering scent of raw chaos magic.
"It's because of this pretty-boy jerk that my date with Ethan got completely ruined today! Anyone who ruins my date — dies!" Wanda's eyes burned with murderous intent as she glared at Loki. If it weren't for him, she and Ethan would still be out on their happy little date — who knows, maybe even taking things further tonight.
And now this man had gone and wrecked it all!
At the thought, Wanda swept both hands through the air, and four crimson phoenixes made of pure chaos magic materialized out of nothing, circling overhead with a deafening, piercing cry.
Then she thrust both hands forward toward Loki, and all four crimson phoenixes shot toward him at devastating speed.
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