by Luca Braña
“Should we just discard him then?” Dr. Gacha asked. Subject 443 had no use to them, in fact, if they could study his body and recreate his ability without the drawbacks, he would be a far better advantage to them.
“Excuse me sir, but I would like to object to discarding 443,” another scientist, who was working on the post-combat analysis spoke up, causing the three scientists sitting at the main screen to turn to him.
“Is that so? May you share your reasoning?” the head scientist questioned. He noticed that Dr. Ferdinand and Dr. Ivanovski nodded their heads in agreement with the other scientist.
“Maybe there is still some value we can extract from him?” yet another scientist who had been working on the slow-motion camera for details, said, making the head scientist blink.
“Yes? If there is, may I know what?” Dr. Gacha asked, exasperated. His science team should know by now that he doesn’t take suggestions without well-developed reasoning first.
Another scientist rose from his workstation. “Perhaps we can find a way to cure his disease and counter the negative effect his ability poses on his body?” he suggested.
“At this point, we would need to make an autopsy to avert that particular effect for the future,” Dr. Gacha spoke, his frown deepening. What was making his team defend a worthless subject? More scientists rose from their seats and spoke against the discarding of 443 with random ideas and guesses. It was nothing like how a professional and respected science team should behave.
“Uh, sir, what’s going on?” one of the few scientists who wasn’t defending the boy spoke up. Dr. Gacha noticed that only certain members of his science team were not speaking up and seemed confused by the reasoning of the other advocates.
“Sir, maybe we could just let the rat go?” a security guard spoke up, causing the head scientist to snap his head towards him. Something was wrong, he knew it, but he could not figure it out. Were they compromised? Was someone from the outside using a sort of mental interference against them?
He could understand their reasoning though. Subject 443 was mostly useless to their project, but if they were willing to spend some extra time on research, they would surely find a way to use his unique abilities of degeneration.
“Very well, I accept your reasoning, call off the-” Dr. Gacha’s eyes widened as he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was one of the magical researchers, whose face was grim.
“Sir! We are under mental interference! I’m ordering the mages to place this room under a lockdown!” the man said before turning back to a group of assistants who now had staffs in their hands, “Activate mental blockades, now!” The researchers nodded their heads and started their chants.
Watching the room regain their bearings as the mental interference subsided, the head scientist frowned. Someone had tried to interfere with the combat experiments. He would find out who it was and how they did it, but for now, the team must return to work. He turned back towards the main screen, noticing that 443 had arrived to the arena and was looking up at Drago as the screen turned black and the lockdown commenced. This room would be isolated until he could be certain they were safe from a mental attack. It would be a pity, but there were cameras that would record the combat for future analysis. Regardless of what would happen now, the combat would continue.
10
“No, dang it!” Tela yelled into Myo’s mind as he made it to the point of no return—the entrance to the arena. Myo was scared stiff, but Tela reassured him and told the young child to walk as slowly as possible towards the arena and she would try to make them cancel or change the match.
“They did something… I can’t reach the minds of the scientists I had tagged anymore! I’m sorry, little Myo… Please, just hang in there as much as you can!” Tela said in desperation. He nodded, looking to the ground.
“So, they are going to make me fight a kid? A weak-looking child with barely any meat on his bones?!” the giant dragon scoffed as he glared down at Myo, who had arrived at the arena. Myo trembled under his gazed.
“At the very least… I’ll get to rid our future army of a pathetic, unworthy weakling like you!” the dragon roared as he uncrossed his arms, standing tall to intimidate the boy.
He was enormous, powerful, and scary. More than anything else, Myo wanted to be back in his mom’s arms, where she would tell him everything would be all right and—
“PAY ATTENTION, FOOL!” the beast yelled as he stepped in front of Myo, casting a dark shadow on him. Before Myo could react, the mutant delivered a powerful kick against him, embedding his body into the far wall.
“G-GHA!” Myo screamed in agonized pain as he spasmed from his muscles cramping. No, no, not now!
“If you can’t even fight, I’ll just end your pathetic life here!” Drago snarled as smoke emitted from his mouth. Myo opened his eyes in pain, looking up at the dragon about to roast him alive.
However, as he prepared to launch his attack, he suddenly turned to the side and sent a wave of flames that way instead.
“Myo, quickly! Me and the other mind users are trying to cloud his perception! Get out of the wall!” he heard Tela’s voice scream in his head. He was a burden, wasn’t he?
Groaning, he activated his power and used it on the walls surrounding him, weakening them enough to get out of the wall. Falling to the ground in pain, he blinked as he noticed something. His muscles stopped cramping! This was probably thanks to the treatment he had received from Reddox earlier!
Looking up at the giant dragon who seemed confused at what had just happened, Myo lifted up his hand and pointed at his head before freezing. No, he wouldn’t, he shouldn’t! He focused his palms on the dragon’s legs.
The dragon snapped from his confusion as he felt a stinging sensation on his legs as if his muscles were slowly burning. Snarling, he turned his head in search of the culprit and located Myo, whose body was enveloped in a sickly brown aura.
“I don’t know what you’re doing, weakling, but it’s not working!” he yelled as he pointed to the boy, causing a bolt of electricity to shoot towards him.
“Gaaaah!” Myo yelled as he was struck by the bolt, triggering his already weak muscles to spasm and cramp once again. Drago walked forward with a snarl on his demonic face.
“I don’t know what just happened, but it won’t work again. The attack I used against you is one of my weakest, yet, for you to be reduced to such a state, it’s pathetic!” he said in disgust as he raised his arm to squash Myo, but something weird happened.
To the dragon, it felt like the boy was in one position and suddenly in another, which he corrected accordingly and crushed the weakling underneath his fists. In reality, he missed Myo by several meters, though the impact was enough to send him rolling.
Forcing himself to get up, Myo cowered in fear. He knew Drago was barely trying, he was just playing around with him! But he didn’t want to die!
I… I need to weaken his muscles… No, not the muscles, the bones, I need to make them brittle! he thought to himself as he focused on the legs of the giant creature. Instead of trying to weaken his musculature, he focused on degenerating his bones.
Drago growled and groaned in pain as he felt a sting in his legs, but this time, it felt deeper, even more painful. His bones, he could feel them eroding away!
“Stop running away and accept your fate, weakling!” the dragon yelled as he turned towards Myo, who had a look of terror in his eyes as the giant beast walked towards him, seemingly unbothered by his disintegrating bones.
“No… No, no, no! Stay away from me!” Myo forced his frail power to work harder, increasing the pain in Drago’s legs, which only made him angrier. Snarling, the dragon swiped at the little boy, ignoring the confusion he felt for a moment and clasped his hands around Myo’s thin neck.
“YOU JERK!” a voice yelled from the seats, making the dragon turn his head to see a blue-haired child bashing against the barrier, a blue aura covering his body, “STOP! YOU ALREADY WON! LET MYO GO!”
&
nbsp; “Oh? So, there are people who care for you, huh, you little ant?” Drago whispered, lessening the pressure around Myo, who breathed relief before the beast started to squeeze him again, strangling him.
“CURSE YOU!” Cyko yelled, forcing his power to deliver stronger attacks against the barrier, but it still held.
One of the mages turned back from the fight to look at Cyko with a sly grin.
“This barrier is made to withstand such attacks, you know. Your pleas are falling on deaf ears,” she said as Cyko’s rage increased, knowing he was powerless.
A scythe blade flashed across the mage’s face and caused her to pale in fright and look back to Cyko’s partner.
“This barrier can’t block Scythe! I won’t let him continue to hurt Myo!” Magy hacked against the barrier, making deep gashes that were repaired as soon as she could leave a new one.
“Muahaha!” Another mage who turned back to look at them, laughed with crazed eyes. “This barrier is made to keep people in… AND OUT! And before you think of doing so, the arena entrance is also sealed!” he spoke as if this was pure entertainment, not children getting hurt.
Out of nowhere, black stars rained upon the barrier, followed by concentrated plasma shots, giant vines slapping against it, twin streams of white-hot fire, a powerful blast of concrete-breaking water, and finally an earthquake localized at the base of the barrier that made it hard for the mages to stand.
“Myo is part of our family, too! We won’t let him get hurt!” Anna yelled from her seat, firing plasma shots against the mages, whose faces started to look panicked.
“I’ll help Myo!” Starry yelled as she increased the number of falling stars against the barrier, followed by stronger attacks from all eight of the orphanage siblings.
“Reddox, help out too! We can’t let him hurt Myo!” Ellyn yelled from her own seat, using her wind bow to send shots. The redhead nodded and out emerged all six of his grimoires to start raining arcane spells against them.
“Everyone… Thank you so much!” Cyko thought to Tela, who broadcasted his thought.
“Ha! HAHAHAHAHA!” Drago laughed maniacally at the number of people trying to help. “So many powerful fighters, all trying to save a weakling! Pathetic! ONLY THE STRONGEST WILL SURVIVE!” he yelled in glee as he brought his arms up, ready to use all his strength to throw and crush Myo.
“No… No… I… I don’t want to die here! Mom… Daddy… Cyko… M-Magy… Please help!” Myo screamed in his head, body filled with agony by the beast’s grip, but just as he was about to be thrown on the ground... Drago’s grip went slack, letting him fall to the floor, which, while painful, he survived.
“GRAAAAAAHHHH!” Drago yelled in pain as a skull-splitting headache sprung in his vision, filled with excruciating, negative emotions from all those present in the Coliseum.
“CURSE YOU! DON’T INTERFERE WITH MY JUDGEMENT!” the dragon yelled, putting both of his hands against his head.
Myo, who had crawled away, took notice of what was happening. Drago, yelling in pain while clenching his head, big brother Cyko, big sis Magy, and several others using their powers against the barrier… Why… Why would they go so far, for someone as useless as him?
“Myo… Don’t give up! We are all in this together, remember? We won’t abandon you! I promise!” Tela whispered to only him, filling him with warm feelings to combat his self-loathing. Why… Why was she being so nice? Tela started to help, encouraging as many children as she could to start helping out and using her own telekinetic powers to put enormous pressure on the barrier. Soon, cracks started appearing, causing the mages to put more power into it.
“AUGH!” Drago shouted as the pain in his head and his anger increased, “ALL MUTANTS! RUN INTERFERENCE AGAINST THE NORMALS! NOW!”
Many of the beastly mutants who were watching the commotion with eager eyes howled and roared in bloodthirsty anticipation, ready to feast on the blood of their leader’s enemies before launching themselves at the other children.
The entire Coliseum was in chaos—the non-mutants fought against the mutants, while many others, human and mutant, were scared and tried not to get hurt in the brawl. This was, however, to the relief of the mages that needed to maintain the barrier, as fewer attacks were focused on them.
“No… NO!” Cyko and Magy yelled simultaneously as they were pulled away from the barrier by the giant lion mutant Tela fought on the first day. He attacked them with both his stone weapons and projectiles, giving them no choice but to fight back.
Drago, upon seeing the chaos, laughed as the pain in his head lowered to a manageable level. “HAHAHAHA! NO ONE! NO ONE DEFIES ME!” He turned to a shell-shocked Myo, who was looking at commotion with wide, terrified eyes.
“See, weakling? All of this caused because of a pathetic, weak child like you! Now, not only you will have to die today… BUT SO WILL ALL YOUR LOVED ONES!” Drago mocked as he took a step towards the paralyzed Myo.
For the first time in his life Myo felt rage... Rage at the scientists who put them here, rage at the guards who tormented them every day, rage at the fight his friends and surrogate family were in, risking their lives to try to help him… Rage at this giant dragon for being one of the main people responsible!
The murky brown aura that had been covering him shifted into a clear, golden tan glow with several markings appearing all over his body. He looked at the approaching dragon with a new sparkle in his eyes and pointed at his leg, willing it to disintegrate.
Drago, who was about to laugh at another feeble attempt to harm him, widened his eyes in shock as he felt the bones in his leg suddenly turn to dust.
“GRAAAAAHHH!” Drago roared as he fell to one knee. Impossible! How could this brat, who was so weak just a few moments before…
“I WON’T LET YOU HURT MY FAMILY!” Myo yelled in opposition as he ignored his own pain and pointed at Drago’s other leg, forcing the bones inside to disintegrate, causing Drago to scream in agony as he fell over, his legs unable to support him.
“FOOL! DON’T THINK YOU’VE WON!” Drago shouted as electricity ran across his body and before Myo could react, launched a stream of lightning at him. Myo’s entire body spasmed, but he refused to scream. Using all of his strength, Myo pointed his shaking palm at the arm Drago was using to send the lightning stream at him, and willed the bones to degenerate into dust.
The dragon bellowed as his arm fell uselessly to his side, stopping the electricity from flowing towards Myo who grunted and gasped, but refused to go down before his opponent, who glared at him.
The downside of his powers was that his own muscles degenerated the more he used them. The stronger he willed something to disintegrate, the stronger the backlash would be. Already, he could barely feel his legs, but he would not go down!
Screaming in defiance, Myo willed the bones on the giant dragon’s only remaining arm to disappear into dust. The dragon fell to the ground completely. The young boy smiled at last. He had done it… He had defeated the strongest mutant!
Meanwhile, Cyko and Magy had just finished off the lion mutant who collapsed to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. They were about to return to their previous work of destroying the barrier when suddenly, their bracelets activated, trapping them in tendrils of energy. The enhancer felt his body grow heavy, he could feel the tendrils sucking his energy away and paralyzing him. He struggled with all of his might. He would not leave Myo alone at a moment like this!
Then, with his tired eyes, he saw that Myo was doing well against the dragon, bringing him down with his willpower alone. Eyes widened in shock, he could only think that Myo, his little brother, had really come a long way. From a scared, traumatized boy to the hero he was now, Cyko couldn’t be prouder. Yet, he felt nauseous, as if something, anything, could happen to Myo if Cyko couldn’t break free from his bindings to save him.
Cyko’s eyes widened as he saw the dragon raise himself from the ground, launching himself at Myo.
“MYO! WATCH OUT!” both
he and Magy shouted at him.
“MYO! BE CAREFUL!” Tela’s voice suddenly invaded his mind, making him turn his head towards Drago too late, as an enormous fist made contact with his frail body, sending him flying.
“To be pushed so far by an insect like you… So humiliating!” Drago grunted in hatred, glaring at Myo, who was pulling himself from the crater he landed in, “if you wanted to defeat me, you should have aimed at my head or my heart! I am a DRAGON! A disintegrated bone is just a trivial wound for me!” The giant dragon was using a single leg to support himself, the arm he used to punch Myo bent at an odd angle.
“Gah!” Myo coughed into his hand, grimacing as he tried to stand up. Looking at his hand, he saw blood. His insides felt like paste and he couldn’t feel his legs anymore. His arms were intact, but even then, the backlash had degenerated them to a point where it was hard to move them without feeling horrible cramps, but he tried to persevere through it.
The dragon was approaching, painstakingly using his regenerating limbs with hate evident in his eyes. Myo let out a small laugh. It seems… he really was too weak. If he had been willing to kill Drago, to use his powers fatally… he knew what would happen. He would die. He would never see the outside world again, he would never be able to laugh at big brother Cyko’s jokes, he would never be able to receive big sis Magy’s affections, he would never again be able to talk to Tela… But if he couldn’t stop Drago now, that’s exactly what would happen.
“No, no! Myo, get up, please, get up!” Tela yelled in distress, trying her best to cause interference against Drago as she resisted the strength draining tendrils. He withstood her mental attack, but she kept trying.
“Myo, please! Get up! Fight back!” she begged in desperation, tears running down her face as she looked at the battle with hopeless eyes.
“Tela… Please, tell Cyko and Magy that I love them… I love you… and everyone else…” he thought to her with sincerity, letting his feelings of love and gratitude flow, even as he glared down at the dragon approaching him.