Clive felt a mix of relief and satisfaction as he handled the sudden attack smoothly. Even though he was a bit surprised by the girl's kick, he had expected something like this. Reacting swiftly, he blocked her kick, catching her ankle firmly as it neared his body.
With a strong slap, he sent her head snapping to the side, and she fell to the ground with a sharp gasp, blood seeping from her mouth as she groaned in pain. "Ugh…" she muttered weakly. Clive quickly took a step back, bracing for more attacks. His instincts were right—he heard footsteps and saw a stone flying toward him. With a quick dodge, he avoided getting hit, making it look like the boy who had thrown it didn't aim properly.
A moment later, another boy leapt down from a tree, where the girl lay groaning on the ground, grinning and swinging a branch to strike Clive.
Clive, completely aware of his surroundings, used his Alteration ability to make the branch soft and brittle. When the boy swung, the branch broke apart harmlessly, surprising him. Clive feigned pain, clutching his head and stumbling slightly with a low groan to make it look convincing. "Ah…!" he grunted. The boy, believing he'd succeeded, laughed and called over another boy, who stepped out from hiding.
The first boy went for a low kick to knock Clive over. But Clive was ready. He absorbed the kick's force with a slight pivot and quickly countered with a hard punch to the boy's face. The boy staggered back, grunting in pain as he clutched his nose. "Ow…!" he muttered, wincing.
Seeing a chance, the second boy ran up behind Clive, aiming a punch at the back of his head. Clive ducked smoothly, turning and delivering a powerful reverse kick that landed square on the boy's jaw with a sickening thud. He fell to the ground, yelling out, "Ahhh!" and clutching his face in agony.
Without hesitation, Clive bent down and delivered a final punch to each of them, making sure they stayed down, their groans filling the air. "Ugh… stop…" one of them muttered weakly.
Breathing steadily, Clive wiped off his sweat.
'I guess my MMA training paid off,' he thought, grateful for the friend in his past life who had introduced him to it.
He glanced around, scanning for any other hidden attackers, but only the sounds of the defeated opponents' groans reached him. The attack seemed to be over—at least for now.
Clive ignored the groans of the kids lying on the ground. A small part of him felt bad for beating up kids his age, but he quickly pushed that feeling away. These weren't normal kids—they wouldn't hesitate to do the same or worse to him if they had the chance. This was just how things worked here.
He crouched down near one of the boys, who was holding his face in pain. "Hand over your flags," Clive said calmly but firmly. "Unless you want me to make this worse."
The boy glared at him but quickly looked away when Clive tightened his grip on his shirt. One by one, the group handed over their flags without arguing. Clive collected all four and stood up.
"Don't try this again," he warned. "Next time, it won't end this easily."
As Clive walked away, he glanced at the flags in his hand. He didn't care about the points they represented, but he needed to pretend he did. Acting like he was just another participant was the best way to avoid suspicion.
Clive made his way to the cave where he had been training. It was far from the main road down the mountain, hidden enough that no one would stumble upon him by accident. Afterall it did take him a few days to find this place.
After entering the cave, he left the collected flags at the entrance, hidden behind a rock. He didn't want to take any chances as the flags might be bugged by HYDRA.
After leaving the flags, he moved deeper into the cave. Inside the cool, dark space, he sat down in his regular corner and took a deep breath.
Using his ability, Illusory Creation, Clive created an image around himself. To anyone looking in, it would seem like he was meditating peacefully, his eyes closed and his breathing slow. In reality, this illusion was a cover for his training.
From the moment he first tried out his powers, he had used the Illusory Creation to hide is training. Afterall, practicing openly was too dangerous.
Once he was sure the illusion was perfect, he sat down and let out a deep sigh.
Clive had been working hard to keep up his act in front of HYDRA for the past month, but it was wearing him down. The dark circles under his eyes showed how tired he was. He was always worried that HYDRA might notice something odd about him and try to capture him. No matter how much he tried to act like the old Clive, he couldn't copy everything about him. The memories he had were just a brief summary of the previous Clive's life—enough to know the basics but not enough to mimic every little detail. It was like reading a short biography and then pretending to be the person.
This constant fear of messing up was exhausting. Every glance from an instructor or a fellow student felt like a test. He told himself he was just being paranoid, but deep down, he knew HYDRA wouldn't hesitate to strike if they found something off.
The only thing that gave Clive some peace was training his Reality Manipulation ability. It was his safety net, the one thing he could depend on if things went wrong. Training in secret at the academy was risky, but Clive didn't think he had any other choice.
He couldn't wait to train until he got out of this place because he didn't know what the future held. He might fail one of HYDRA's brutal tests or be sent on a mission as cannon fodder. Without proper training, he wouldn't stand a chance.
Letting out another sigh, Clive decided to stop wasting time and start his training.
...
.....
....
While Clive had started training in his cave, in a quiet room, three women and five men sat around a round table. The air was tense as they waited. Suddenly, the door opened, and a man in a neat HYDRA uniform walked in. At once, everyone stood up and saluted him.
"Sit down," the man said firmly. They obeyed quickly as he took the seat at the head of the table. This was Captain Kessler, known for being strict and loyal to HYDRA. His sharp eyes looked around the room before turning to the woman on his right.
"Commander Graves," he said, his voice steady, "why did you call this emergency meeting?"
Commander Graves stood up and saluted before speaking. "Captain, I believe that student Clive Bixby may have awakened his mutant abilities."
The room went silent. Captain Kessler's face hardened, and the others glanced at each other nervously.
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