Chereads / Path of Chaos / Chapter 9 - Cold-blooded

Chapter 9 - Cold-blooded

"That takes care of that problem." Liam said casually. Rowin still had his hand pointed upwards, his face showing pure disbelief. 'I just wanted to stop her from attacking. I... I didn't want to kill her. No! It's not my fault! She's the one who attacked us, I was just defending myself.'

"That was a powerful move, how did you even know you could do that?" Liam asked Rowin, forcing him to snap out of his thoughts.

"Huh, I... Uuh... Didn't really expect it to be that strong either. I just threw the rock with as much power as I could muster." Rowin answered but Liam could see that his gaze looked blank.

'I forgot that he was still new and hasn't done this sort of thing before. I should help him out since he saved even though he could have left me to die.' Liam thought as he placed a glowing palm on Rowin's shoulder. A single tendril of green light could be seen under the skin of Rowin's neck heading to his head. The blank look that Rowin had slowly disappeared and his eyes turned to normal. At least that's what Liam hoped.

Liam's ability was a mystery even to himself. He could heal wound regardless of how fatal they were as long as the person wasn't dead. He could even regrow limbs that were lost years ago. His ability was good for wounds but terrible for diseases. He had once tried to heal someone that had a viral disease and it didn't end well.

His ability kept healing the body while simultaneously strengthening the virus. The man had to be burned alive in order to completely destroy the virus that had become immune to the medication used. The only thing that Liam had gained from the experience was the ability to heal emotions.

He wasn't exactly healing them, he was just stopping the brain from reacting to certain things in a certain way. What Liam had done to Rowin was force his brain to stop reacting to the action of him taking a life. He had done it to a few of his classmates before so he knew that it would work.

While Liam was thinking about his ability, Rowin's thoughts were drastically changing. 'She started it so she got what she deserved. It's not wrong to fight back when your life is at stake. I was doing the world a favor by killing her. Plus, her life wasn't that important. There's no way to judge the importance and value of a life. The value of a life is all about perspective.

'Anything can be worth more than a life. If we were starving, I would gladly leave everyone to die in exchange for a meal. I understand now, it's not so bad to kill anyone who has no value to you since they would do the same when I lose value to them.' Rowin, affected by Liam's ability, came up with a twisted reason that allowed him to get over the conflicted feelings in his heart.

"Let's go, we need to scout out the area and come up with a plan to survive this test." Liam said as soon as he saw that Rowin had put his hand down. He was heading to another apartment complex on the opposite side of the street when something wrapped around him and lifted his body up.

" It'll be easier if we checked things out from the roof." Rowin said as he shot upwards with Liam in tow. They had reached the roof in a few minutes and were now staring at an expansive city. They were in the residential area of the city where the buildings were tall but not tall enough to disappear into the clouds like those in the central business district.

On a rooftop a few buildings away, there was a group of students standing in a circle. Rowin had put up a barrier in case of a long range attack coming their way but Liam had dispersed his worries by waving at the group. The group gestured for them to come over and Rowin had no choice but to take Liam there. He didn't trust the members of his class after meeting Anna but Liam had insisted.

"Nice of you to join us Doc. We thought that you would be hiding somewhere, away from the fighting." One of the teenagers, a tall boy with a large body said as he patted Liam on the back.

"You're gonna break my back if you keep that up, Titan." Liam said while gritting his teeth. The pats didn't seem that heavy but Liam's reaction said otherwise. " Anyways, this is the new guy, Rowin."

" Since you still haven't gotten a codename yet, we will call you newbie for now." Titan said casually with his large hand resting on Liam's shoulder.

"What do you mean by codenames?" Rowin asked Titan who seemed to speak for the group.

"Anyone who joins the special training class is given a codename by Mr B based on their behavior or ability. Before you ask the reason for the existence of the codenames just know that it's for your safety. Some of the people we compete with have connections with powerful people and won't hesitate to try and find us if we win.

" The codenames replace our real names in the records of our special training. This means that the only people that know our real names are Mr B, Principal Gretta and those of our class. Not even other students know about the special training class so if anyone asks just tell them that you are in class B." Titan explained everything to Rowin since he was one of the oldest students in the special training class.

" Anyway let me introduce you to the others." Titan said while gesturing to the four students beside him. " The one with the glasses is Terry, codename Phantom. The one with solid gold eyes is Peter, codename Beam. As for the two girls, the blonde is Cindy, codename Blondy. The dark haired one is Kate, codename Eagle. I'm aware that the names sound horrible but we didn't really have a choice."

After that, the group chatted for a while to get to know each other better before making a plan of action. They didn't really have a solid plan so Rowin thought that it was better for him to set off alone. Before he split from the group, Titan gave him a list of people to look out for. The descriptions were vague for some but he couldn't do anything about it.

Bidding the others farewell, Rowin set off to find the only person he felt that he could trust, Chris. He flew around the buildings in the residential area with a barrier wrapped around him. He noticed some scorch marks on the road and sides of the buildings that seemed to head in a certain direction.

Rowin had been following the scorch marks that led him towards the center of the city for a few minutes. He suddenly slowed down when he heard multiple voices and laughter coming from around the corner. Rowin flew to the top of the building and peeked from the edge of the rooftop.

Below him, in the middle of the road, he could see four students wearing the uniform of the academy they were competing with. They had surrounded someone from Rowin's class and were having fun beating him to a pulp. Rowin wanted to leave as soon as he noticed that it was Ryan getting beat up but he hesitated.

He didn't understand how they had caught Ryan in the first place so he decided to observe them. Ryan had curled up into a ball and blue sparks were starting to appear on his covered hands. There was a sudden increase in the amount of electricity coming off him, forcing the attackers to retreat. Ryan saw his chance to escape and transformed into a bolt of lightning.

The blue bolt was headed for the rooftops but an ethereal yellow chain had caught him in midair. Ryan's body materialized in an instant and he fell to the ground. Multiple bones had broken upon impact and it was only a matter of time until he died from the wounds. The group itself didn't seem to be in a rush to finish him off as they stood around him and watched him struggle.

Ryan wanted to use his power to at least take one of them down with him but the yellow chains somehow stopped him from doing so. He eventually gave up and stared at the sky, waiting for death. Ryan thought that he was hallucinating when he saw the outline of someone at the edge of the rooftop with their hands extended.

There was a loud booming sound caused by four objects simultaneously shattering the sound barrier. Ryan reflexively shut his eyes and he felt a warm liquid splash on his body. The smell of blood was overwhelming and the taste of iron on his tongue when he tried to open his mouth made him gag. Ryan opened his eyes and saw the face of his saviour.

'This guy looks familiar.' Were the last thoughts Ryan had before he felt something heavy press against his head.