Dan stood up, a crazy smile across his face and his eyes blazed into a steady flame. The presence around him now was heavier, as if it were closing in on the air inside him.
"If you want to be a knight," Dan declared with an air of challenge in his voice, "you could at least have withstood this much."
Aleck's senses screamed in warning as the air grew heavy around Dan's sword. It thickened, pulsating with an intensity that seemed to weigh on Aleck's very being. He instinctively raises his guard. The once-boyish diction and countenance of the fight took on a much heavier face.
Dan gripped his wooden sword in one hand and the energy accumulated visibly around it. The resonance aura that emitted from him seemed almost alive, coiled to strike.
"I know you know this already," Dan said with a mix of pride and excitement, "but this is what the power of resonance can do."
It was an electric feeling; the air seemed charged. There was something very eerie in that silence: no noise apart from the deep growling of Puck, the dog.
"Tell him to stop!" screamed Perora, standing along the sidelines with eyes wide in fear and holding tightly to the hem of the dress.
Rodger did not look her way. His face was set all on Aleck, unreadable but intense, as though he was testing the boy through the very fight itself.
Aleck gripped harder, his body shuddering under the weight of the pressure. But his eyes never blinked, locked onto Dan's every move. The challenge had been issued, and Aleck knew there was no stepping back now.
Aleck knew the distance wasn't enough for Dan to strike directly, yet his instincts screamed for him to stay on edge.
Dan raised his sword with one hand, executing a sharp vertical slash.
Whoosh!
A cutting projectile surged toward Aleck, its speed slicing the air. Aleck, his heightened focus honed through his power-concentrated vision, caught the motion in time. He rolled to the side, narrowly evading the attack.
But Dan wasn't stopping.
With relentless precision, he launched slash after slash, filling the battlefield with projectiles from every direction, leaving Aleck barely any room to maneuver. Dodging, leaping, and twisting, Aleck desperately sought a way to close the gap.
The leash holding Puck snapped. The dog bolted, ignoring the chaos, heading straight for Perora.
The leash holding Puck snapped. The dog bolted, ignoring the chaos, heading straight for Perora.
Dan's eyes flicked to the movement, frustration flashing across his face.
"Stay put, damn it!" he growled, his voice sharp and commanding.
Even as he leaped forward in a futile attempt to stop his own attack, it was already too late.
"Puck, stop!" Perora screamed, her voice trembling.
Rodger tensed, preparing to jump into the fray, but he knew he wouldn't make it in time.
Aleck's sharp gaze darted to the commotion. Instinct took over.
In an instant, Aleck appeared in front of Puck, moving with a speed so sudden it seemed like he had teleported. A projectile was already hurtling toward him.
With no time to think, Aleck raised his right arm to meet the attack. He pushed with all his strength, forcing the deadly slash upwards.
Clang!
The effort succeeded, deflecting the projectile away. But the force was too much. The blade's edge cut through, severing his arm in a single, brutal instant.
Blood sprayed into the air as Aleck staggered, his face pale but resolute. His breath came in sharp gasps, yet his body remained firm, shielding the dog.
Aleck stood there, staring at the sky, as if for the first time in his life he realized what saving someone meant.
The others came running toward him. Perora couldn't meet his eyes; her hands trembled. Dan and Rodger looked at each other, unsure of what to say. The weight of what had just happened silenced them.
But Aleck spoke not a word. Serene, hunkered down, reached up to the floor, and snatched up his arm. Without any effort whatsoever, he positioned it back onto his body.
In one motion, the limb clicked back into place. His fingers flexed as if the amputation had never occurred. The only sign of trauma was a delicate, pink seam where the severed flesh had joined again.
The crowd stood frozen in their faces mix of amazement and disbelief.
Rodger's thoughts were burning quietly with anger. "Damn kingdom, turning kids into monsters."
Aleck seemed to notice that they were still quiet and gave a reassuring smile. "You don't need to worry. My body parts can reattach… as long as it's not my head."
His careless tone left the rest of the people speechless, the absurdity of the words hanging in the air.
This was a miraculous healing factor that was experimented on, shared by Aleck and all the other children. It is a byproduct of intense experimentation by investigators whose bodies, in a way, were changed by a series of treatments and experimental medications that go a bit invasive.
Their veins were crafted to have an exact, sealed response, nearly as if the veins were a living being to reconnect severed tissue. Limbs were reattached without any openings and restored functions with surprising speed. The bodies were designed for adaptability and for functionality under conditions of extreme nature to ensure survival in emergencies that seemed irredeemably dire.
This was not overnight. While external wounds such as amputated limbs could mend in a day or two, internal damage and blood loss took longer. But their systems were adaptive, resilient, a true testament to the brutal ingenuity of their makers.
Aleck bounced his reattached arm by punching the air, flexing and extending his fingers in all manners of gestures just to make sure everything was going to be normal. The movement felt fluid-like, as though the injury never happened.
Puck slinks away from Aleck and slips into Perora's lap; curling in with a pitiful whimper. Her chest heaves rapidly, telling of the great terror she escaped.
Perora's voice crashed through the tension, rough and jumbled. "Aleck, are you all right?" She looked obviously effortful to understand what she just saw, her eyes blinking between Aleck's arm and his face.
Dan sat back a few paces, apparently frozen with horror. He laid his sword beside him and gazed dully at his hands, no doubt visualizing what would have happened had Aleck not intervened-an experience he could hardly rid himself of.
Rodger walked over to Aleck, his face a mixture of curiosity and hidden worry. He leaned his head to one side, intently examining the reattached arm, yet speaking in a composed voice.
"It doesn't hurt even a little bit?" Rodger asked, his voice almost conversational, though his eyes gave him away.
Aleck blinked. The question left him speechless for a moment. It wasn't what he'd anticipated—he hadn't expected fear, disgust, or anger, but not this.
"Now that I think about it." Aleck said slowly, scratching his head with his good hand. "It probably stung a bit when it was cut off. But once it reattached itself, it just felt. normal again."
His own answer puzzled him, and he furrowed his brow, deep in thought. He hadn't really considered the mechanics of it before. It was simply how his body worked, and he had never questioned it.
Dazzled by the answer, Perora quickly pushed for more. "So you know how you did it?"
Aleck nodded slowly, afraid to go any deeper. He hoped a simple acknowledgement would stop it there.
But Perora's unrelenting stare probed him, her eyes all but begging for an honest answer. It wasn't a question so much as an anguished request for comprehension.
Aleck shrugged, giving up. "Okay," he grumbled.
"You won't get in trouble for telling me, will you?" Perora asked, her voice soft but tinged with concern.
Aleck shrugged. "I don't know, actually. They never gave me a protocol for. this," he said, gesturing vaguely. "I mean, what do you even do when you're out here, living away from the capital? They never prepared me for that."
Perora frowned slightly, her expression reflecting both confusion and worry.
Rodger was standing there with his tight face, but in his head, he was a whirlwind. They never intended on leaving him alone. They were only waiting. Waiting for Ethan to fall.
Aleck shifted uncomfortably under Perora's stare before finally giving in. "The mechanism. it's not easy to explain," he said. "But basically, my veins-they were altered. They act independently, like they have their own minds. They can reattach limbs, heal internal injuries, and stop bleeding. It takes time, sure, but it works. That's how it's designed.".
Perora's eyes widened, awe and unease crossing her face. Rodger did not even react outwardly.