The days slowly passed. Each day, Ed worked to divide up the flesh of the large yellow crocodile. Then he would spend the rest of the day relaxing while he fished. He wasn't worried about Harmony, as the war was still a couple months away. World Walker would give him status reports each day and could always come fetch him in the event of an emergency.
The baby crocodile continued following him between the shack, the large crocodile corpse, and his fishing spot. In frustration, Ed had picked up the little croc and tossed it with all his strength across the island. The croc returned nearly ten minutes later, completely uninjured. It seemed to want to be thrown again, as if they were playing a game.
Soon, two weeks had passed, and Ed finished his work. World Walker returned to the island and created a portal to bring him back. He stepped through the portal, and a brief moment later, he returned to Harmony.
"By the way..." Bolin said hesitantly. "What's that thing on your shoulder?"
"Huh?" Ed turned his head left, spotting a red tail resting on his shoulder. Then he turned right and saw the baby croc resting its head on his other shoulder. 'I didn't even notice him. This croc must be good at hiding its presence like the larger croc, not that I was paying particularly close attention.' He had gotten used to the presence of the little croc over the last two weeks. It constantly climbed into his bed when he slept, and his lap when he fished. It was like a new dog that was overly attached to its master. 'Weird.' He sighed while shaking his head. 'Most baby mutants avoid humans or attack them. I've never heard of one so willingly following a human before... Ah, maybe it's due to my mutant flesh? It might recognize me as one of its own kind.'
Awakening from his thoughts, he looked towards Bolin. "It's a croc that likes following me for some reason. Guess I'll keep it. It could be useful someday if it ever gets as big as the other crocodile I saw on the island. It's too bad that it'll probably take a while before reaching that point, making it useless for the upcoming war."
"I see." Bolin nodded. "I adopted a mutant once. It tried to eat me, so I killed it and ate it." He spaced out, seemingly lost in his memories of his beloved pet or meal.
Ed walked away, heading for the training field. Ray stood ramrod straight, yelling orders towards rows of ordinary soldiers holding steam rifles. The superhumans from before were practicing on their own. They flew into the skies in squads of ten, their flames scorching anything that came near them.
"Hey!" Ray waved. "Long time no see. What's up?"
"I trust we have enough blood by now?" He questioned. "Where did you guys keep the soldiers and their blood? Their quarters or the hospital? It's almost time to begin creating the next batch of soldiers."
"Oh, that." Ray nodded. "They're all at the base hospital. Same goes for the supplies."
"Got it." He nodded. "Thanks." He waved as he left, heading towards the base hospital. This was a different hospital than the isolated one where he had setup the blood slave farm. The base hospital was the normal hospital used by all of the soldiers of Harmony. 'I figured the soldiers would prefer staying in their homes. They probably lost too much blood to continue doing so. It's a bit extreme taking so much blood so quickly, but it was necessary with the war just on the horizon.'
Soon, he reached the hospital. The soldiers for the mana-infusion experiments were on the 2nd floor. These soldiers were different from the first batch. None had families that would miss them if they were gone. They also acknowledged and agreed to the inherent risks of the experiments. If they died, then it wasn't anybody's fault, at least on paper anyways.
Ed pulled a doctor aside. "Where are we keeping the blood collected from these soldiers over the last month?"
"Hmm?" The doctor's eyes widened as he realized who he was talking to. "Ri, Right this way, Forge!" He excitedly led Ed to the basement. Big piles of blood bags were stacked in the corner. They were divided by blood type and had labels associating them with the soldiers they originally came from.
"Thanks." He nodded towards the doctor. He flicked his hand a couple times, gesturing for the doctor to leave. Then he set to work. His powers melted the floor, raising numerous cauldron-like objects from it. The various blood bags floated into the air. The plastic melted off of them, falling to the floor. Then the blood flowed into the cauldrons. He scratched a name into each cauldron, associating them with whichever soldier's blood they held.
Ed stacked some vials of mana-powder on a table. He removed a small amount of blood from the nearest cauldron and moved a grain of light mana-powder into it. The blood instantly vanished, seemingly annihilated by the powder. He collected another blood sample and tried lightning mana-powder. This made the blood spark with electricity, scorching it black. The tests repeated until he discovered that fire mana-powder was the compatible type for this cauldron of blood. No other mana-powders worked at all for it.
'Hmm." Ed rubbed his chin. 'From what I've seen, espers always tend to have at least two elements present in their core. The same goes for mutants. Even those light-type rabbits I caught had small traces of other elements within their cores. But these ordinary soldiers only have one elemental affinity type. I suppose it's related to their lack of a mana-core. I'm guessing that it's impossible to form one without at least two elemental affinities when you're born.'
He took the vial of fire mana-powder and began mixing it into the cauldron of blood, using only a single grain at a time. Soon, he finished. He went upstairs and retrieved the soldier for the experiment.
The soldier was a short man. His eyes widened in fear as he climbed down the stairs into the dark and gloomy basement. Rows of cauldrons filled with blood made for a creepy sight. The dim lighting only exasperated the issue.
"Are you ready?" Ed asked.
The soldier gulped so loudly that even Ed could hear it. Then he nodded.
"Good." Ed smiled. Just lay down on this table." A table raised up from the ground before the soldier's eyes. "You're the first test subject. Congratulations. If we succeed, then great power is in your future."
A greedy look appeared in the soldier's eyes. He lied down on the table and closed his eyes.
Ed melted a tiny hole into the soldier's arm. A small amount of blood, less than the size of a fingernail, flowed into the soldier's body. He observed carefully as he waited. The man's skin turned slightly reddish, sweat pouring down his body. A few minutes later, the effects disappeared. The man seemed completely healthy. Ed focused his mana and could detect a small trace of mana within the man. So little that it was of no significance.
"Good." Ed nodded. "We'll begin your 2nd treatment tomorrow. Send down the next soldier while you're up there. Inform the rest to form a line."
The experiments continued, one soldier at a time. Each one obtained insignificant mana infusions. The benefits were negligible, much to the dissatisfaction of the soldiers, but Ed refused to rush things. Injecting too much mana at once would just have the same effect as on the woman in Georgia, likely crippling them for life with mental retardation.
Days passed. Each day, the mana infusion treatment increased in intensity. Soldiers had different reactions based on their health, but the reactions were mostly consistent with the other soldiers of the same element. It usually involved a lot of sweating with bits of elemental power contained within the sweat. This wasn't that bad for the water, wind, and earth elements. However, the fire and lightning element soldiers started experiencing burns. The dark and light element soldiers had their skin corrode, leaving them covered in ugly rashes and scars. They even suffered some internal damage to their veins. Fortunately, all of these minor issues were easily fixable by Ed.
Soon, an entire two weeks passed. The war was drawing nearer, just a bit longer than a month away. All of the soldiers' mana-infusion treatments had finished.
"Good." Ed nodded towards the men. "Unfortunately, your mana-levels are nowhere near supporting a mana-core experiment. However, all of your bodies have increased in strength drastically."
"Is that all?" One soldier questioned. "I don't mean to complain, but we're nowhere near comparable to those superhuman soldiers that shot flames from their limbs."
"Right." Another soldier nodded. "We'd be demolished by them instantly. Our bodies are just a bit better than ordinary men. It doesn't seem that useful."
"That's why we're now starting phase 2." Ed smiled. "If things go as planned, then I guarantee you'll be an even match for the superhumans."
He chased the soldiers out of the lab, leaving only one behind for the next phase. It was the short soldier that he had done the very first mana-infusion on. The soldier lied down on the same table as last time.
Ed picked up a heavy yellow backpack from the ground. It was the condensed blood, bone, and flesh of the large crocodile. 'I've removed all traces of mana from the crocodile flesh. It should be able to adapt to whichever type of mana a soldier has.'
He set to work on the soldier, first turning off the man's pain receptors. The arms and legs were first, as that was what Ed was most familiar with. The bones, muscles, nerves, veins, and more were replaced by the crocodile flesh. Then he moved on to the rest of the body.
The soldier's skeletal system was first, followed by the rest of the flesh. 'Mm. If things go as planned, then in the future, the soldier's bone marrow will automatically produce mutant crocodile blood. This blood will be capable of holding far more mana and oxygen, greatly improving their capabilities. This is necessary for them to properly utilize the strong crocodile muscles.
Soon, he had finished replacing almost everything. Next was the most important part, the internal organs. He started with the heart, for if he failed there, then there was no point in wasting time replacing everything else. Fortunately, things went well. He replaced each organ one by one. It wasn't long before he had replaced everything except for the skin and human brain. Even the soldier's eyes had been remade.
Ed finished by replacing the man's skin with the yellow crocodile hide. He mixed in some ceramic fiber to return the man to his ordinary skin color. Fortunately, ceramic fiber was easy to get in numerous colors, making it ideal for maintaining soldier's original skin colors. The men likely wouldn't be too happy if he made drastic changes to their appearances. As for the brain, he had no plans on messing with it. There were limits to what he could do and rebuilding a human brain from mutant flesh was far too complex a task.
"How do you feel?" Ed questioned.
"Ugh!" The soldier rubbed his head as he groaned in pain. From the outside, he looked perfectly normal. However, he could hardly be considered human anymore. In fact, he was about 95% mutant. The soldier opened his eyes and blinked a few times. His vision slowly focused. "Grr!" He growled. Suddenly, he leapt up from the table, charging straight for Ed!
Ed hurriedly made chains spring from the ground and wrap around the soldier. The soldier should have easily been able to escape the chains with his strengthened body, but he was unfamiliar with the new body and was in a stage of rage or shock.
"Hey!" Ed yelled. Thwack! He slapped the soldier heavily.
"RAGH!!!" The soldier twisted and tugged against the chains. His eyes turned vertical like a crocodile's eyes.
'Am I going to have to kill him?" Ed sighed to himself while shaking his head. 'What a waste.' He lifted an arm, preparing to vaporize the poor man.
Suddenly, another growl rang out. He turned around and saw the little crocodile on the floor. It was growling towards the raging man. As it did so, the man slowly calmed down. His eyes returned to normal. "I'm sorry." He gasped heavily while kneeling on the floor. "I don't know what happened to me."
Ed nodded, a trace of fear appearing in his heart. 'I'll have to be more careful during my own body conversion. As an esper, the effects shouldn't be as extreme on me. But I need to lower the ratio of mutant to human flesh.'
He walked towards a corner of the basement and melted the walls to create a series of crude cages. He turned towards the soldier. "I'd like to keep you under observation for a few days if you don't mind."
"Sure." The soldier easily agreed. He appeared to be afraid of hurting others while losing control.
Ed glanced at the crocodile and smiled. "Good job."
The crocodile snorted while holding its head up proudly.
"If you're going to keep following me around, then I guess you at least need a name. Let's see..." He rubbed his chin in thought. "How about Lizard?"
"Hiss!" The baby croc rapidly shook its head back-and-forth, evidently displeased with being named after another species.
"How about Croc?" Ed questioned.
"Grr!" The crocodile shook its head back-and-forth even faster.
'What kind of pet is this picky about its own name?!' He stared speechlessly at the shameless crocodile. 'My dog I had as a kid was more than happy when I named her Kat!' He thought for a few more moments when he suddenly thought of Yuki. Her powers were somewhat similar to the crocodile's. Fire and water were opposites just like light and dark. 'Yinyang? No, that would make for a dumb name. It's the symbol of Taoism, right?' He glanced at the crocodile. "How about Tao?"
The crocodile snorted again, but without shaking its head this time. It scurried forward and climbed up Ed's body in a circular pattern. It rested on his shoulder while holding its head high, seemingly pleased with its new name.
'Maybe mutants are more intelligent than I thought. This might warrant further research in the future.' Ed thought as he stared at the crocodile. 'Well, that's for another time. For now, I need to figure out the ideal ratio for mutant to human flesh.