John shot up from his chair.
His face was pale and cold sweat was on his brow.
There's something I'm missing. THERE'S SOMETHING I'M MISSING!
This thought screamed through John's mind as a sense of malaise danced within him.
What was it? Would John ever know?
Either way, it was there. There was something missing.
"Um. Are you okay?"
John turned his head in the direction of the voice.
Before him was a tall girl. She was only about a foot shorter than John. She had dark pink hair that went down to her middle back and had a confident glint in her eyes.
"Are you okay?" The girl asked.
"I'm fine."
"You sure. You were screaming, then you jumped and looked scared." She said with a look of concern on her face.
John raised his brow at her; confusion was glinting in his eyes.
"Really? I don't remember that." Said John
The girl seemed to nod. Almost as if she had understood something from John's words.
"Are you John?" She asked
"Yes."
The girl smiled. She walked towards John with her hand outstretched.
"Well, nice to meet you. My name's Cassandra."
John shook her hand firmly.
"Yes. Nice to meet you." John said
"I'm one of the warriors part of Jean's team." Said Cassandra.
John nodded.
"Cool. I'm a warrior, too." He said
Cassandra smiled.
"Would you like to go hunt trolls with me?" She asked
The calorie cool-down should have finished by now. Why not.
"Sure."
....
Cassandra walked with calm and quickly paced steps as John labouriously blubbered after her. His speed shuffle created a sheen of perspiration on his head as he staggered forward.
"Could. Could we go a little slower, please?" Asked John
Cassandra simply shook her head and continued to walk.
Ugh
John returned to blubbering.
....
War. It's a great evil in our world. One woven with the spilling of blood, the crushing of dreams, and the creation of hells yet unknown.
Now, John stood on a battlefield—a place made solely for war. And for some reason. John felt happy for the presence of war around him.
Because if it weren't for war. He would have to do something a thousand times worse.
Cardio.
"UGHA CHEEEEEEN!"
Screamed a large troll as it ran towards John.
His mouth watered.
"Hold on." Said Cassandra as she put her hand in front of John to halt him.
"I can take this."
Cassandra jumped forward. She created a dagger from nothing and stabbed the troll in the eye.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The troll screamed a song of agony as it toppled to the ground.
Cassandra created another Dagger and stabbed it in the most puckered of places.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Then she slowly began to remove the skin from the troll's body. A cruel smile was on her face as she did so.
"TAKE THE PAIN! TAKE IT!"
Screamed Cassandra as she ripped the skin from the troll's body. She was literally gutting it alive.
John and his Dragons watched this with expressionless faces. What did it matter to him what happened to a Troll?
He was going to eat it anyway. So why did it matter to him what Cassandra did to it?
After almost ten minutes of pain, the Troll finally took its final breath. Cassandra grinned as it did so.
"Mhhhhh. The power." She mumbled to herself.
As she did so John walked up to the mutilated body.
Without saying a word he lifted it up. He unhinged his jaw. And let the troll slide down his throat.
The troll slid down without any issue. And once it reached the inside of his throat it was crushed into a paste. Like that, the troll was easily digested.
{110,000 calories consumed! +1 strength + toughness}
"Wow."
Cassandra was looking at John with a gobsmacked expression on her face.
"You should become a competitive eater." Said Cassandra.
John looked at Cassandra with a smile on his face.
"You know. One day, I'd like to do that." John said
Cassandra smiled back. However, after seeing what she did to the Troll.
That smile felt more than a little fake.
....
{200,000 calories consumed}
Cassandra and John killed around sixty trolls throughout their hunt. By the end of it John was thoroughly tired and almost on the verge of collapse.
{+1 to cardio vascular!}
John hobbled after Cassandra as she walked back to the mansion with the prep in her step.
"Hey. Quick question." Asked Cassandra.
"Yes?"
"Where'd you get those dragons from?" She asked.
"Oh. I found them." Said John
"Is that it?" She asked
"Yeah. I just. Found them. That's it." Said John
Again, Cassandra nodded as if she had understood something.
"Oh. Okay." Cassandra said
~She concerns me.~
John couldn't help but feel some sense of fear at her words.
...….
John sat upon the trimmed grass of Jean's mansion. His house was almost too well put together, considering the current state of the world.
Ugh. The wealth gap. That's all John could say to himself.
The wealth gap. Surely it couldn't be anything stranger than that.
DING DOOOOONG!
Cassandra rang the doorbell.
No response.
DING DOOOOOOOOONG!
So she rang the doorbell again. And again.
No response.
DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
"WHAT!"
The door swung open as Jean's head shot out.
"We want in."
Jean just rolled his eyes.
"I was working. Asshole." Jean promptly turned around and walked away. He left the door open though.
John laboriously pulled himself to his feet and followed Cassandra through the doorway.
He had to pull himself through the doorway with his pile of blubber. But he managed to squeeze through.
"Hi"
And revealed before him when he walked through the door was a face he had never seen before.
He had a meek hunched posture and had the eyes of a man who would do anything.
John could only think one thing as he saw this face.
Fuck. Why is everyone so strange?