About a week had passed since my final lesson, and I was soooooo bored. After going out and fighting Valdus every night I thought that I would have welcomed the respite, but I just felt like I was going out of my mind. I tried to keep practicing on my own, but believe it or not, sparring against air isn't quite as stimulating as fighting a 6'8" man for hours on end.
I ended up spending most of my time trying to work on my Projection Sights. After all, they were probably the main reason that I was able to keep Valdus distracted long enough to Morph, so I decided that I'd keep working on them. I also wanted to try to get a handle on Strengths, but I still wasn't having any luck on that front. I couldn't stop thinking that if I could eventually figure out how to do those then my Morphs would be much more powerful… but then again, I probably didn't have enough marks to use both Strengths and Morphs at the same time. Even during the two-minute fight that Valdus and I had, I ended up using around half of my marks just to use the few Morphs that I did.
That was my biggest source of frustration. My mark count was so low that when I fought, I could only rarely use a Sight because if I used a Sight for every stab or swing, I would become soulless in less than ten minutes. Luckily for me, Morphs don't use that many marks, so I can last longer than I would if I used, say, Shift or Projection Sights as my primary type. But still, I couldn't be too careful. There were plenty of ways for me to minimize my mark usage with Morphs, most notably by using static Morphs as opposed to dynamic morphs.
The most apparent difference between static and dynamic Morphs is that static Morphs are Morphs that change the structure of my body permanently, and can only be reversed by performing another Morph. The Morph that I used to give myself rabbit legs, and the one that allowed me to slip through the bars of my window each night are static Morphs. Dynamic Morphs can only produce a temporary change and will correct themselves immediately after I stop expending marks, like when I put calluses on my body, or when I move muscle fibers. We don't really know what exactly determines which Morphs behave this way, but as a general rule, the more complicated the morph, the more likely it'll be static.
Essentially, static differ from dynamic because static Morph changes only require a one-time use of marks, though they typically cost more to perform. Dynamic Morphs cost less usually, though they need a constant flow of marks to maintain the Sight. That's why I try to use dynamic Sights for as short a time as possible.
Maybe I should try using my statics before I fight? I pondered to myself while I Blasted a big sack of rice I had quadruple wrapped and placed in the corner of my room. I shook my head. It's not like I'll ever be in a situation where I'll know I'm going to be fighting ahead of time.
KNOCK KNOCK
I jumped as a sharp rapping on the wood of my door startled me off my trail of thought. I quickly stopped what I was doing, and stood in my room, unsure of what to do. My aunt and uncle rarely came down to my room, and even when they did, they never bothered with knocking. I didn't even have a lock on my door.
After a few seconds, there was another knock, a little more forceful than the first. This spurred me to hastily get to the door and open it up.
"Coming!" I called out so that my aunt Meera or uncle Salstone wouldn't think I was ignoring them. I opened up the door ready to say sorry, I had been asleep when they first knocked…
But it wasn't either my aunt or uncle on the staircase that led down to my room. I mean, both of them were there too, I could see them standing behind the man at my door, looking confused and irritated. But I wasn't paying much attention to them since my best friend was standing in my doorway.
"Donny!" Raul Beamed at me, quickly drawing me into a strong bear hug. "It feels as though it's been ages!"
I just gaped at him. I didn't know how I should react. Of course, I was ecstatic to see Raul again, but he was at my house. There was no way my aunt or uncle would have known about Raul, and now he was sauntering in like we were teenagers and he was just coming over to play a game of Ranger Wild. I knew that the second he left I was going to have my ass handed to me by uncle Salstone.
He released his hold on me (which my poor spine appreciated) and scratched his beard. "Though I suppose it has been a few months now." He grimaced. "I really am sorry about that, things have just been busy as hell with my work." In a fraction of a moment, his bright smile returned. "But I've been talking with your relatives, and how would you like to come and spend the day with me?"
I really shouldn't have been surprised. After all, at this point, you'd think that I'd have gotten used to Raul's spontaneous decisions, but I was still caught off guard. I've always been really honest when I'm off guard, so I responded with how I really felt, which was, of course, an immediate-
"Hell yeah!"
Immediately after I said that I glanced at my uncle who was staring daggers at me. I was genuinely worried he was about to send a Projection at me, but he seemed to hold himself back after glancing at Raul. I glanced between them, wondering why my uncle was being so passive about all this. It occurred to me that maybe Raul had bribed my uncle to let me go with him. I mean, he was rich enough from what I'd seen. He probably came here on a gorgeous, jet black horse, and when my Aunt Meera came out to see what all the fuss was about, he dismounted with a flourish, at which point my uncle would've come out and seen Raul with all of his obvious wealth. His salesman greed would definitely rear its head, and he'd demand payment to set foot on his property, then Raul would say-
"Donny?"
I started and looked up at Raul, who was now halfway up the steps.
"Well? You comin'?" He smiled while raising an eyebrow.
I could see my uncle almost at the top of the stairs already. I guessed that some form of approval must've happened while I was lost in thought. I took off after Raul, hoping we could get out of the house before Uncle Salstone changed his mind.
But I guess I didn't have to worry. Neither Uncle Salstone nor Aunt Meera said a word against me leaving. In fact, we made it all the way to the front door before either of them said anything.
"Make sure you're back by sundown, understood?" Uncle Salstone said, glaring at me.
"Yes, sir," I responded automatically. That meant I'd have almost the entire day to spend out of the house. I could barely believe it though. I was actually allowed to go? What was going on? I was starting to think that the idea of a bribe might not have been so ridiculous now…
"Donavan!" Called out Aunt Meera from the direction of my room. I flinched, thinking that I should've known it was too good to be true. Aunt Mera was about to put her foot down and make the embarrassing, dangerous household Common stay cooped up in his room…
"Don't you dare go out without your hood and gloves!" She scolded me, popping me upside the head. "I won't have anyone seeing a Common leaving or entering this house!"
It was just one surprise after another. Maybe her reason didn't exactly make me all warm and fuzzy, but still, I was really going to go and hang out with Raul. I nodded silently and quickly put on the hood and gloves.
"Alright!" Said Raul, clapping his hands together, "I'd say it's time we got going, don't you Donny?"
"Uh, yeah…" I said, still unsure that I wasn't dreaming.
I started to walk away when I felt a small hand on my shoulder.
Zord's spear, what now!? I thought to myself, turning my head around to see what my uncle, the owner of the hand, wanted. I was so close, and I wasn't going to be told that I couldn't go at this point.
But when I saw my uncle's face, it wasn't the glaring, pig-like face that I had come to know for twenty years. His eyebrows were drawn inwards, but not in a scowl. Instead, they were drawn more up, making wrinkles on his large forehead. And his mouth was pursed like it always was, but it wasn't so thin. His eyes looked wider than usual, but that might have just been because he was normally squinting. All around, I didn't know how to react to this, because I'd never seen him look at me like this.
"Donavan, just-" He started to say, "Just… Don't get into any trouble." And with that, he did a 180 and marched back in the house, slamming the door behind him.
I stared after for a few moments. What was that about? Is he..?
I breathed out sharply through my nose. Well, that was a surprise. No one could see my face thanks to the hood, but if they could, they'd see a small smile on my face.
"I won't," I told the closed door.
Yet another hand on my shoulder, this time belonging to Raul. "Don't worry, I'll make sure we keep to the good roads today," He said, winking at me. As we started walking Raul said casually, "After all, we wouldn't want your relatives to worry."
Despite my imagination, it seems Raul neglected to bring a huge stallion and had just walked here. We chatted casually as we walked out onto the busy street. We may have looked a little strange, a middle-aged man in nice, though not extravagant, robes, and me in an opaque hood and gloves, but most people were too busy minding their own business to care much.
"Where are we going?" I asked curiously.
"Well, I figured we could go get some food, and just mill about the plaza. There are lots of performers there you know." He said, grinning at me.
I laughed, knowing he was poking fun at me for my imagined stunts from the incident of the previous year. But I quickly got quiet as I remembered the one-sided beating that I had received immediately afterward.
Raul noticed my sudden change of mood. "Oh, I'm sorry Donny! I didn't mean to bring that up. But you know…" He said, bending over to get a comically close look at my arms, "I think these have evolved from pillars into… into…"
He scratched his head, straightened up, and laughed boomingly. "Well, in any case, you're strong now! Much stronger than you used to be. By the way-" He smiled proudly at me, "I heard about your last lesson with Valdus. Good work. Not many men would have been able to best him the way you did."
I felt my face get hot "I-I mean, it was mostly luck," I muttered.
"Luck?!?!" Bellowed Raul, laughing and drawing just about every eye in a hundred yards to us. "Luck had nothing to do with it! I heard what you did with your legs, and it was brilliant! And if part of it was luck, what's so bad about that? Luck is part of the game! Part of the thrill! A good audience loves that lucky little slip that turns a fight around!" He continued to laugh and slap my back encouragingly.
As per usual, Raul always managed to put a smile on my face. I laughed and joked all the way to the market plaza, where we got some sort of meat on a stick that looked pretty suspicious to me, but Raul swore up and down was delicious. With a little bit of sauce, I bit into it, and true enough it was fantastic. I kept eating my stick as Raul got us some drinks to go with them, some sort of strawberry thing. He excitedly bolted off into the crowd towards a large crowd of performers who seemed to be in some sort of mock fight.
I caught up to Raul just in time to see what was obviously the climactic scene. There were nearly a dozen people strewn about on the ground as if they were dead, fake blood all around them, burns and cuts on their skin. Blue and red uniforms distinguished who was on who's side. There were only two people left, a man and a woman. The man had a helm that exposed his bearded face, and a heavy-looking halberd in his hands. The woman wore no helmet but had a sword and a small shield on one arm.
The man lunged towards the woman in what looked like a wild thrust to me. I smiled, thinking that the woman would win in just a moment, all she needed to do was dodge or deflect the halberd with her shield, and the man would be too off balance to recover in time. Then she could easily cut him down as he tried to regain his balance.
But instead, the woman caught the spear square on her shield. Due to the force of the blow, she was thrown off balance herself and stumbled back several feet. I frowned at her choice, though the rest of the crowd roared their approval. I looked at the man, thinking it was certain that he would follow up with another thrust now that the woman was off-guard and stumbling.
I was disappointed to see that instead, he elected to spin around in a wide arc that made the crowd back off a bit, attempting to decapitate his opponent with a big move move. I narrowed my eyes. Surely he must realize that the woman would regain her balance and dodge with the extra time it took to swing that massive thing. And that was exactly what happened, yet the crowd was eating it up. I glanced at Raul, and unsurprisingly, he was cheering the loudest of them all.
I smiled and laughed at myself. It's just a performance anyway, it's not as if they're actually trying to hurt each other.
I did my best to enjoy the rest of the performance without judging the actors' combat technique too much. They continued a back-and-forth of ridiculous- I mean, flashy blows, with the occasional bright, harmless projection sight thrown in. Eventually, the man started to gain the upper hand until he finally disarmed the woman, catching her sword in midair. He knocked aside her shield, and flashed forward, pressing the blade to her throat. I figured the show was over and started to clap- when suddenly he dropped both of his weapons and kissed her.
I gaped my mouth in surprise, but the rest of the crowd burst into applause. I looked at Raul, but he seemed just as confused as I did. He smiled though, shouting over the din,
"We must've missed an important plot point!"
"You think?!" I called back, grinning.
Raul chortled, signaling me to come with him. We left the area, laughing about the fight scene. It seemed that, even though he could see all the mistakes, Raul still could tell how bold the movements of the actors had been.
"I actually watch things like that just to laugh at those parts." He divulged to me, grinning mischievously. He stopped suddenly, looking at a cart a little ways off. "Oh! Look, it's shaved ice! Have you ever had that Donny?"
I shook my head "No, what is it?"
Raul looked at me, "Well, it's ice. That's been shaved!" I spread his arms wide as if expecting me to gasp in surprise. I just scowled at him, and of course, he laughed. "Sorry, sorry! It's ice that's been shredded very thinly, and syrup is poured on top. A fantastic treat to have in the summer. It might be a bit early, but it should be fine, don't you think?"
"Definitely," I said, thinking of how sweet it was probably going to taste. I started towards the cart.
"No, no!" Raul said, stepping in front of me. "I'll go get them, you go save us a seat," he said, pointing to a pair of tables in the opposite direction as the stand. One of the tables was occupied by four men wearing cloaks, but the other was empty.
Raul was already bustling over to the shaved ice stall, so I just shrugged and went to sit down at the table, sitting down with my back to the other table so I could face Raul. He seemed to be taking his time deciding what it was he wanted, but I didn't mind. He looked back at me and waved. I started to put my hand up to acknowledge him…
Suddenly, I felt a strong hand gripping the top of my hood, nearly ripping out my hair underneath.
"Well, well, don' this look famil'yer." Said a rough voice. While I hadn't heard it in over a year, I could never forget it. I couldn't see his face yet, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was the fat man who had nearly killed me a year prior. Before I could do anything about it, my hood was yanked off of my head, exposing my face and eyes.
I quickly jumped up from my chair, but there were already two men there to grab either arm and pin them behind me.
What the hell?!? I was completely bewildered. This was going too smoothly for them, and they didn't even seem surprised to see me there. They were reacting so fast, it was as if they were expecting me-
I barely finished the thought when I was punched hard in the stomach by the fourth man, who I could see was the fat man's partner from before. It wasn't all that powerful, especially when compared to Valdus, but thanks to getting distracted I hadn't had time to layer a callus on top. Still, I didn't do much more than grunt.
"Well, well, well, looks like that old guy was tellin' the truth." The fat man grinned maliciously, then scowled at me, "Just 'cause ya got lucky las' time, you think you ken go walkin' where'er ya want ta?" The fat man snarled, spraying spittle on my face.
This was filling me with a sense of deja vu. It wasn't that long ago that this same man was kneeling over me, beating me senseless, and I had been powerless to resist him. And now, there were two other people with him to help hold me down.
But this time, I wasn't afraid.
The fat man had been leaning forward towards me, and his face was mere inches from mine. Without hesitation, I slammed my forehead into his nose, no Sight necessary, making him yelp in pain and stumble back, holding his face. The two men holding my arms yelled in surprise, but I wasn't going to give them a chance to do anything about it.
Before the fat man could stumble back too far, I strengthened my legs with the muscle from my arms and kicked up off the ground, then off of the fat man, sending my legs up over the shoulders of the men holding me. My arms, which had suddenly become much thinner, slipped out of both men's grip, and I landed behind them. Before they were even able to turn, I transferred muscle back to my right arm and back, grabbed the head of the man on my right, and slammed it into his buddy's head. I figured they would most likely both be out of commission for a little bit.
Thanks to my maneuvering, the only man still uninjured was the thin man next to the fat man, though he didn't look like he was going to be doing much fighting. All the white of his eyes was exposed, and he stood rooted to the spot with his mouth gaping. I figured there wasn't much point in attacking him. Besides, the fat man was probably recovering-
Speak of the devil, I saw a solid-state Projection just in time to dodge, though I was off-balance, and caught the next one on my ribs. I had cushioned the blow though, so it wasn't all that bad. I caught my footing and faced the fat man, who was still holding his nose, which was gushing blood. He looked furious… no, worse than that. I could tell by his purple face, his eyebrows that were nearly touching each other between his eyes, which were burning with incredible intensity, and teeth that were grinding so hard that I swear I could almost hear them. This man truly wanted to kill me, to annihilate me from the face of Roma. I normally would've been scared. But honestly, compared to Valdus, this thing was nothing but an overweight house cat.
"IW KILW YU!!!" The fat man gasped around his shattered face. He raised a hand, but not at me, rather straight into the sky. He shot off a burst that emitted a red light for about fifty yards until it dissipated. I looked back at the man in confusion and saw that he was grinning in a way that I would describe as evil. I wasn't given much time to ponder this thought, because that was when the real battle began.
Please note that I don't use the term "battle" lightly. The scuffle up until that point hardly even qualified as a fight, but rather a one-sided beatdown for the most part. But just a few seconds after the fat man fired off his flare, a large group of men appeared all around me. Some of them Shifting in, some just stepping out of the small crowd that had stopped to watch the commotion. There were at least twenty in all. I didn't even have time to wonder where they came from, and how they had time to set a signal like that. All I knew was one thing;
I was royally fucked.
If I were to take them all on one at a time, I wouldn't even break a sweat, but having to fight 20 men, some of them Shifters and Projectors, all at once was going to be hard, even if they weren't all that strong alone. And being smack in the middle of them was probably the worst spot to be, so I did the only thing that I could, even if it may have seemed crazy. I dashed forward and started beating the crap out of the closest Shifter I could.
My strategy was going to be to take out all of the long-range fighters first, then take out everyone else carefully and methodically. I wanted to Morph to get my Alpus feet, but I just didn't have the time. Instead, I was improvising by sending muscle to my legs for an instant, leaping to my target, then kicking, punching, headbutting, or whatever else I could to take them down. Rinse and repeat. It wasn't a bad plan, and honestly, it probably would've worked if I hadn't been a Common.
Something Valdus had taught me to do during my training was to get a feel for how many Marks I had left in me. It was difficult to do, and it took some time to learn, but since I had such a small supply, we decided it was worth the time invested. Because of this, I knew that just taking out one person like this took up almost 10% of my Marks. So I only did that to one guy before switching to a new tactic. Dodge like hell until I can strike, then put as much force into it as I could. It wasn't a pretty tactic, and I was getting hit by plenty of Projections, as well as regular punches from the swarm of opponents around me.
If only I had my sword I grimaced to myself, none of these assholes would be able to touch me then.
But that was just the excuse of a boy who was in over his head. I was losing. I had taken out over half of the attackers at this point, but I only had a few marks left, and I was bruised all over from taking so many hits. It was frustrating beyond belief, but I was going to lose. Vaguely, I wondered where Raul was…
"DONAVAN!!!"
I voice bellowed at an unbelievable volume, and I knew it could only have been the work of Projection Sight, but I didn't have time to look at whoever had called out. The man in front of me, however, looked towards the sound- only to have a heat Projection wash across his face.
He reeled backward, screaming and trying to do something to ease the burning on his face, but unfortunately for him, that provided an opening that was just too perfect to pass up. He ended up unconscious, in case you didn't guess that already.
"Donavan!" Called a shriller voice, and not quite as loudly, though still with decent volume.
This time I looked over, and I couldn't believe my eyes. As I watched, uncle Salstone Blasted another opponent with his usual thief-deterring heat Sight, while aunt Meera threw rocks with her Strengths.
"What are you doing here?!" I cried out, right before being hammered by another Projection.
"Never mind that!" Uncle Salstone hollered, "We were just-" He hesitated, "In the area! Now hurry and run!" He launched another Projection.
But despite my uncle's intentions, I knew they shouldn't have come. Neither my aunt or uncle knew how to fight, and very soon, these men would turn on them. I had to get them to leave now.
"Just go! Don't worry about me, I'll be fine!" I called, knowing I definitely would not be fine, "You've got your shop-"
"SHUT UP!!!" Uncle Salstone bellowed, getting red in the face, "You think you're gonna start giving me orders now?! Just shut up and come on! If you think I'm losing you too, then you're an even bigger idiot than- GUH." b
'Guh'. That's the only way I can describe it. I remember it clear as day, the exact way he sounded. The way that midway through his cry his words seemed to take on a liquid form, how his back arched with the force of that Projection, how an initially small spurt of blood sprayed out of his mouth, and how I saw a small hole open up on the right side of his chest and a thin Projection came out his front. But even though I can remember all these details so vividly, I just can't put into words how I saw my uncle's chest pierced from behind.
"SAL!!!" Cried aunt Meera, bending over to grab my uncle before he could fall, but before she could grab him, the same projection that impaled my uncle struck the top of her head, sending her straight to the ground. The top of her head was bleeding profusely.
Time was slowing down. There were only two men in front of me, and I took them both out in an instant. I honestly don't remember what I did, but I do remember that I didn't care what happened anymore, I just needed to stop those Sights from hitting my aunt and uncle.
Caution was in the wind. I started sprinting towards my aunt and uncle, knowing that the perpetrator must be behind them. I soon saw him, and, of course, it was the fat man. I had lost track of him during the fight, and I suppose… No, it didn't matter. I didn't care where he went. I didn't care what he was trying to do. I didn't even care why he did it.
I was going to end him.
My legs started creaking, changing shape, and giving way to new muscle and bone shapes. Instead of running, I started leaping. I watched as the man gazed in horror, watched as he tried to turn and run, and watched as I drove his face through the cobblestones on the street. My vision was red. I was in danger, but I didn't know where to go. Maybe I can turn around-? Wait! Other things are attacking me from that direction. I should stop them since I can't run right now. Go quickly. I'm closer to them now- I should move out of the way of that, it looks painful. Okay, It missed me. And now this one stopped moving. I should make those stop moving too. I passed two others who had stopped moving, but they had stopped before. Before I started seeing red. Before-
My head split open, and my vision, which had been so red, was going black. But just before I lost sight of everything, I saw just the smallest bit of white. And a nice, though not extravagant, robe.
"Raul…" I croaked, and blacked out.