Alex widened his eyes, an opportunity presenting itself. "If that is the case, then I'll do that quickly."
"Quite confident of yourself, aren't you?" Raven said. "Come at me, will you now? I don't want to wait all day."
"I sure will" Alex said, rushing straight at him and trying to slash him with his sword once he got close. However, Raven easily dodged it and launched Alex into a brick wall with a flick of his finger.
"You see. At first, I underestimated you" Raven said, leaning against the wall casually. "But now that's not the case."
"Underestimating or overestimating won't change anything" Alex said, standing up. "The outcome will always be the same. Which is you dying."
"Quite the speaker aren't you?" Raven said, taking out Alex's puppet and a needle. "I don't like talkers that much-"
Alex noticed him taking out his puppet and a needle, which caused him to instantly react by appearing right in front of him, only leaving behind a split second blur afterimage.
Raven saw Alex's sword closing in on him, only a few inches away from his face. However, he didn't panic and simply slashed the puppet, causing Alex to slightly stagger and lose his momentum, causing Raven to dodge easily.
It was looking like Raven was winning until he suddenly coughed up blood. "Ah, cutting off puppet's heads takes quite a toll on my body. If I cut off a puppet's head again, I'll die but that's the fun in life. That is the entertainment you want. The more risky, the more exciting."
"Sick bastard" Alex said, who crouched and touched the floor with one of his hand, causing the brick path of the street to start melting, which took only a few seconds to completely melt, causing both Raven and him to fall down to the severs.
"Ah, I almost forgot about your awakened power" Raven said casually, not too surprised by the sudden change in environment. "First, you could manipulate metals and now you can melt them. Not much of an upgrade, is it?"
"It seems that you are the one talking too much" Alex said, taking up a stance. "I thought you hated them."
"Ah, my apologies" Raven said with a smirk, his voice clearly sarcastic. "I hope you will forgive me."
Alex didn't answer. Instead, he sharpened his eyes and charged forward. However, suddenly, his leg got cut off by Raven, who used the needle to cut off the puppet's leg. And as if things couldn't get worse, as soon as Alex tried to get up, Raven cut off his other leg too.
"Now, you can't move at all" Raven said, coughing a little blood due to his heavy usage of his power. "It seems that I have won."
Alex clicked his tongue in annoyance and clenched his sword, knowing that Raven was right.
But despite that, he still decided to fight because Alex launched his sword right at Raven with all of his force, using every bit of power in his body. However, it didn't work as Raven simply moved to the side, causing the sword to travel far into the sewers.
"What could that have possibly done?" Raven said, glancing at him and then in the direction of where the sword went, his voice disappointed. "Getting desperate are you?"
"Well, I am in a good mood today so I am thinking of sparing you." Raven said with a smirk. "However, I have a condition."
Alex didn't move a muscle and simply stared into Raven's eyes with a serious face. "I am not interested. Just kill me already."
Raven ignored his words and continued. "A hero will sacrifice himself to save the world. However, a villain will sacrifice the world to save himself."
Raven then took a few steps forward and whispered into Alex's ears. "The latter sounds much better, doesn't it?"
Alex clicked his tongue once again. "What are you trying to say?"
Raven smiled, extending his arm. "It is simple. Join me in the mission of ruling over the world. You will prove very useful to me or...you could die here. Or maybe I'll kill your friends right in front of you."
Raven then stood up, keeping his hand extended. "So? What will it be?"