Soon, Chiron's skin entered the first phase. The color of his skin slowly changed, becoming bright red.
Chiron knew he needed to do something about this. To be precise, he needed to lose blood. But at the moment, his muscles were filled with pain from the sealing of the technique on his body. On top of that, his body felt heavy. Just moving a finger felt like he was trying to push a bus.
Chiron lay in a coiled position on the ground. He tried to move but couldn't. Soon a thought crept into his head, whispering softly to him, much like a mosquito before it nestled its pointy tongue on flesh for a drink.
He could hear it. He had not even started his journey and depression was starting to creep in. Telling him to just lay there and give up.
For a few seconds, Chiron really wanted to just lay on the floor and get it over with. After all, it was just Death and he had been through it before. But all of a sudden, he could feel a boil from deep within him. It came from his soul, his blood, his BEING.
Apart from that faint whisper begging him to give in to Fate, Chiron felt like everything that made him who he was, beat at him not to give up. No! It was he beating at himself not to give up.
With that thought in mind, his eyes resumed their determining look. He remembered his oat-his promise to himself and for a few seconds, he felt a bit of shame that he had even thought about quitting.
He suddenly remembered that the system had said that he should defend against Fate. This meant that the battle he was currently fighting, was between him and Fate.
His lips were still bleeding slightly from the last time he bit hard at them, but he still cracked a slight smile. He looked at his hands. Over the last two years, he had literally trained every part of his body. It was not only his muscles that had seen significant changes but also his bones and fingers.
As he looked at his fingers, he thought to himself, "why not!?"
As excruciatingly painful as it was, he brought his hands together, albeit slowly.
Meanwhile, the elders were still chanting as the technique was slowly activated. At this point, his skin had already moved past the first stage and was well on its way to the second.
Chiron gritted his teeth as he used his fingers on his wrist, tearing in as deep as he could. Slowly, the blood started to flow out. But it was not enough. He pierced deeper with his fingers into the injury, tearing some more at his veins.
Because of his coiled position on the floor, the elders did not notice what he was doing.
Chiron by the favor of having to fight for his life for a long time on his own was smart.
He had run many jobs in different vocations. Although he could not call himself a master of all trades, he could definitely boast of being a jack of many.
From this many trades, he had learned quite a lot of things. In fact, one could say he was a kind of a living multi-vocational intelligence book.
Normally, just making a cut on the wrist would have taken a lot of time for him to bleed a lot, but because of the activation of the technique, his body temperature had climbed by a lot. Therefore, speeding the rate at which he bleed. This was something he knew.
His blood flowed, mixing with his sweat on the ground, slowly spreading. However, he noticed that none of them stopped the chanting or suggested stopping it.
By now, he was sure they could see the bleeding on the ground. Yet, no one stopped.
Chiron gritted his teeth through his pain, "if you idiots won't stop, then I'll stop it myself."
Because of the lack of flow of blood to his wrist, he could not use one hand. So he decided to use his teeth.
Just like the jaws of a hungry dog would snap on a piece of meat, Chiron's jaws snapped on his other wrist, biting and pulling until he severed the veins there. Just like the burst of a pipe, more blood flowed out.
By now, his body had already turned black and started to glow. However, just when the bang was to come, the glow suddenly stopped.
Like the engine of a vehicle slowing coming to rest, so did his body. The glow of his skin slowly became red and then resumed its normal shade.
It was at this time that the elders noticed the blood on the floor. This was another flaw of the technique. To ensure that it is activated, it temporarily blurs the attention of those around it.
As soon as the elders noticed the blood on the floor, they rushed to his rescue.
By now, Chiron had already entered Hemorrhagic shock due to massive loss of blood.
However, as he slowly passed out, he got a notification that made him smile.
>>Congratulations, you have successfully defended against Fate<<
>>Congratulations, you have been awarded 10 points for defending against Fate<<
.....
It took a long time before Chiron woke up. His eyes opened up to see a familiar ceiling. This was his room. He had been brought back home. By his side laid his younger sister. She slept next to him.
He sighed lowly, "Shit! By some shitty miracle, I made it."
What he had just experienced was many times worse than the time his father tried to take his life. If he had been just a little bit indecisive about doing what he did, he would have ended up dead.
In fact, no one knew but he had saved not just his own life but the life of the elders and the rest of the clan too.
He tried to get off the bed but the pain from his muscles and especially his wrists he had been brutal with sent him back to the bed.
Just then, he remembered the alert he got. He willed and the Fate change system appeared before his eyes...