[Adonis, as I've always told you, everything comes with a price. Whether it be power, fame, wealth or even happiness- it all has a price that we must pay.]
[If I'm not wrong, soon, I will die. I don't know how, I don't know who, what or why but I know that I will die. In fact, it's not just me. Your mother and your siblings will die as well.]
[You'll be left alone to shoulder the burden of my past recklessness and it pains me to know that I will not be there to help you face such monsters.]
[My son, I do not know what they will do to you. In fact, I do not want to know.]
[All you must remember as you are forged under these flames is that you are only as weak as you allow yourself to be.]
[Let your back remain as straight as possible, your gaze as sharp as conceivable and your heart as pure as fathomable. Do not let them break you, my son.]
[If you manage to survive the heat of the tempest of flames that is to come, here is what you must do if you wish to survive…]
"Hufff…hufff…huff…"
In the depths of the Keilah forest, Adonis ran with all he could, his breaths heavy and laboured and his eyes glistening with unshed tears as he remembered more and more of his father's words.
"Hey! Stop fucking running!" Screamed one of the guards that chased after him.
Despite the pathetic state of his body, surprisingly, Adonis ran egregiously fast as he weaved in and out of bushes and trees, hoping to tire out the group of guards that followed after him.
'I can't keep this up. If I tire myself now, I won't be able to go on for much longer.'
His heart steadied and he made his choice. Turning around, Adonis immediately lowered his stance and exhaled a deep and heavy breath as he analysed his opponents.
'From what I've gathered, the amount of people I can control at once is proportional to my physical stamina and their mental fortitude.'
'Currently, I'm spent, so I won't be able to fully control any of them.'
After he'd escaped the Styl mansion, using Master Aryel as a distraction, he'd expected his route to be smooth sailing until he reached his destination but unfortunately, there was an issue.
In his own stupidity and ignorance, Adonis had forgotten to kill the man he'd used [Snatch] on. As soon as the man had woken up, despite the chaos caused by Master Aryel, he managed to gather a few guards to chase after him.
It was a stupid and childish mistake coming from him and normally, from a twelve year old, such an oversight would be expected but in his current situation, Adonis couldn't afford any mistakes and this one had cost him direly.
Regardless, there was no point in focusing on his mistakes. From here on, every experience would be a lesson and this was his first one.
'There are four of them. One high level guard and three weak ones. The weak ones were injured by the white robed warrior while the high level one seems to be still suffering from the effects of my Gift.'
'I need to focus on my advantages. I'm small, fast and nimble, so I'll aim for their lower body and bait them into lowering themselves and engaging into grappling so I can aim for their vitals.'
Naturally, though Adonis had been trained from a young age by his father, he wasn't anywhere near the level where he could analyse and peel away his enemies with such ease.
This was all thanks to his gift [Snatch]. What he'd snatched from the high level guard was his battle experience and iq.
'Let's do this.'
Adonis took the initiative and dashed forward, his hand swiping the earth below in the process as he grabbed a handful of dirt.
"Listen, we only want to-ARGH!"
The guard that had been speaking found himself blinded, unable to retaliate as Adonis advanced and ruthlessly punched his lower nether regions.
His knees buckled and he dropped into Adonis' rapidly rising punch and just like that, the man was knocked out cold, again.
'Okay, I'm doing good. Three more.'
Adonis rolled to the side, dodging a fist as he then rolled once more, dodging a hurling ball of fire that had been launched by one of the guards.
His hand moved on its own and he grabbed the spear of the guard who he'd knocked out and as he did so, [Snatch] seemed to fully awaken and the experience he stole was fully assimilated into his mind.
He took a step forward and thrust his spear toward the guard closest to him, his form akin to a master's but unfortunately, the guard, too, was experienced as he parried using his sword.
As if he'd expected this, Adonis used the force of the deflection as fuel as he spun and his spear zipped across the air, leaving a nasty wound on the guard's chest.
'How the hell is this kid's body so strong?!'
Adonis took another step and his spear moved alongside his third Gift, [Layer].
Before the guard could even process what had happened, he found that the world had suddenly become cold as waves upon waves of blood dripped from his neck to the rest of his body.
The guard fell, his body drenched in blood as even in his last moments, he couldn't understand how Adonis had managed to move so fast.
'Two more.'
[Layer], was just as simple as his other Gifts. It allowed him to layer his actions atop of one another. In other words, he could double his speed or even make one strike, have the power of ten or even accelerate his cognitive speed.
The only downside was that just like [Snatch] and [Order], it drained a huge amount of stamina from him. If it wasn't for Adonis' strange body, any normal being would've already collapsed.
He'd only just awakened his gifts and had no mastery or familiarity with them and yet, he was already forced to use them in overdrive.