I waved my hand across my face, but I could only see it pass by my right eye. There was this odd blank canvas stapled to my left eye.
No. This can't be happening.
My left eye was blinded.
The barista shot another discharge towards me, so I ducked and fell to my knees. But I did not rise back up. I felt defeated. Even though I could feel the tears stream down from it, the eye contained within my lids no longer functioned. I could only see through my right eye.
My sight had been divided in half.
The aftermath of my blinding began to set-in. A violent migraine pierced through the left side of my head, all the way from the front to the end, like a knife had just been jabbed through my forehead. The pain was immense. The pain was absolute. It felt like it was permanent, like there was nothing I could do about it.
"Agh! Agh!!" I grabbed my head and screeched in pain, throwing my face onto the floor. The barista noticed my vulnerable state, and with his remaining hand, aimed another shot at me. But the shot didn't come as immediate as I expected. He held his form to charge it up.
"I got your eye, didn't I?" The barista suddenly yelled. "That's for taking my hand off! And now this is to break even!"
He released a powerful discharge towards me.
Fuck.
My head was still on the floor. I was in the worst position to avoid the incoming attack, if it was even possible at all. With my loss in sight, my loss in morale, and my current position, avoiding an electric blitz seemed impossible.
It'd have to be a miracle.
The world quickly slowed to the slowest it ever has, as if time was at a marginal halt. I was left alone with one working eye, as a bolt of excruciating electricity rode its way through the air towards me. Out of everything I should have tried to do in the moment, I could only reminisce on a single memory from the past. It was from a time when I was still in school, specifically seated in a science class where we learned about the human body. My professor was teaching a particular lecture that intrigued me.
"In the loss of a sense, the other remaining senses will be heightened. The brain compensates for the lack of the sense by redistributing all the effort into what's left. To put it simply, the other senses are amplified when one is lost."
My professor's words made me curious. I raised my hand. "What if more than one sense is lost?"
She smiled at my interest. "Then the few remaining senses are even further amplified."
"But how? Why?" I asked.
"Imagine it this way. Pretend that the five senses are five factories, and in each factory are 100 workers. Each factory has the same number of workers therefore they all produce at the same rate. But if one factory suddenly shuts down, then those workers are evenly distributed to the remaining factories. That means that 25 would go towards the four factories left, and each factory would then have 125 workers. With more workers, the rate at which they produce would be both faster and more efficient. The same goes for the five senses. If one is lost, then all the work and effort previously used for that sense is now redistributed to the remaining four senses, further refining them as a result."
My professor's words stuck by me out of pure interest. I never would have guessed I'd be able to use myself as an example for her studies.
In the loss of a sense, the remaining ones are amplified.
I had not lost my sense of sight completely, but rather, lost the sight of a single eye.
With the absence of my left eye, the right one's sight should be amplified. All my other senses should be amplified as well, even if slightly.
In addition to the amplified senses I received with Flow State as a result of lacking a Fractal, the loss of my left eye's sight should have magnified everything even more. This perspective was the only way I could cope with my given loss. It was the only way to reignite my morale.
I take this as an unintended advantage.
As I continued to look at the floor, I could hear danger approaching. The sound was distinct and immensely loud and clear. I could tell how close it was to me, just by listening closely.
Crackle…!
It was the incoming lightning bolt shot from the barista's left hand. Without looking, I could feel it resonating through the air as it approached. Even before it came into contact with me, I already felt like I could predict its touch. If it touched me, I'd be electrocuted to a point of fatality, like the level of discharge from the electrically-charged debris but multiplied by a hundred.
The debris conducted his electricity, but only for a brief moment.
Having already thought on my school past, another one of my professor's science topics ran through my head.
Metal is a great conductor of electricity.
In the milliseconds before I'd be shocked to death by the discharge, my remaining eye, gleaming with magnified sight, spotted a fork and took an instantaneous opportunity. I grabbed it and chucked it directly at the barista, making sure to intersect the electric bolt along the way. As it did, the fork conducted as much of the electricity as it could before impaling the barista right in the chest, transferring all of the discharge energy right into his body.
Zzzt—!!!
His body shook uncontrollably. The aura of electricity he previously tamed now sparked erratically all over the place.
"Ack—! Agh!!!" He dropped to the ground in a seizure. I watched as he rattled around the floor desperately trying to take back control, but it was no use.
The exterior to your body may have been resistant, but the inside would be affected just the same as anyone else.
I'd thrown the fork hard enough that it jabbed through the skin on his chest. It punctured deep enough to embed itself and remain erect even as he shook around. His eyes were beginning to roll up by now.
"Urgh—!!!"
My 22nd victim was about to establish himself.
Finally, the spasm stopped. He laid motionless on his back with his head tilted over, foam pouring out of his mouth. Occasional twitches shook his body representing the final bursts of life leaving him behind.
I played right into Ian's hands in the end.
I understood that there was no going back after what I'd done. Not only had I taken 22 innocent lives, but I'd also murdered someone who pleaded for their life.
I tried to reason with him. He just wasn't listening.
I looked down at my bloodstained hands, only through the sight of one eye. Although I won the battle, it came with a cost. A loss.
I had to do what I could to survive.
I really was on my own now. And now that I was, I had to force myself to accept that the things Ian told me were true. Even if I couldn't believe it, the proof was surrounding me everywhere at my feet.
I really am strong.