Chapter 2
(edited by Zhaernon&Hayashi)
I paid my respects for the last time and walked away with Flora by my side. Although the pain and grief tried to overwhelm me, thanks to Flora’s presence, I was able to resist. No matter how dark those feelings inside me were, she was like a ray of light repelling them all.
We walked through the woods to the parking lot, no words leaving our mouths; they were not needed, just her presence nearby was enough.
We were finally nearing the opening when a strange sensation hit the back of my head, like a sense of dread coming from just a few meters ahead. I stopped in my tracks with confused Flora beside me.
“Stay here, no matter what.”
She opened her mouth to complain but, seeing the resolution in my eyes, she understood that it was important. She sent me off with a nod of her head .
One careful step at a time, I entered the parking lot. Strangely, a few cars were left: there was my red one and Flora’s green one. However, 3 unknown cars remained. I was the last one to leave the party so to whom could they belong to?
I approached my car, while the feeling, that it was a trap, kept on returning to my mind and, I really hate to admit it, I was right and I fell right into it.
From behind the 3 unknown cars came Robert and Marcus. Paul was probably somewhere nearby, acting as a lookout for unwanted problems.
Cold sweat ran down my back as the duo approached me at their own leisure. Robert was smiling wickedly, clearly exposing his intentions, while Marcus had a more resigned look on his face. He was probably against this but couldn’t disobey Rob.
“My cousin, what are you doing here this late? Don’t you know it’s dangerous being alone at night? You could meet some bad guys. How lucky for you to have met us here!”
“Yay, so lucky….”
My tone of voice was exactly how you could imagine, this bastard of a cousin evidently took offence to what I had said during dinner and now wanted to get a little payback. Physically, he beats me in all aspects. If I were to simply rush at him, 9 out of 10, I would become minced meat in one hit.
However, this didn’t count my spiritual power and senses. I noticed that, when I focus with my eyes closed, the world around me slows down and I can move my body like in a third person video game. I’m still unaccustomed to moving like this but, it’s worth a shot, I guess.
Closing my eyes, I tried to focus as fast as I could to enter the meditative state. Too bad that my racing heart and fear of the surroundings kept on interfering. It felt like trying to stop a car while pressing on the accelerator.
At least I made Rob baffled for a few seconds by closing my eyes. Too bad that he took it as sign of my surrender and started beating me. The first punch landed straight on my right temple, it hurt like a motherfucker and sent me onto the cold earth.
He then sat on my stomach and started beating the hell out of my face. I wanted to retaliate, but I knew I had no chance with my former self and kept on focusing; Finally, after the 45th “the pain is not real.”, I managed to convince myself and enter the meditative state.
Immediately, a scene was projected in front of me: a guy was laying on the ground with a face smeared in blood. I guess it was me? And another one on top of him slowly descending his elbow onto the laying guy’s nose.
Rob’s face was like that of the devil, his ferocious expression complimented that wicked smile and his crazed eyes. Tiny drops of (my) blood covered his face like war paint and his knuckles were bleeding from the inflicted blows.
Now was the time to retaliate. My arm moved like a whip, blocking his elbow. The way I controlled my body was like follows: I move and my body imitates me, like the final scene from “Real Steel”.
In another move, before his eyes could understand what had happened, my legs moved, grabbing his neck from behind and moving his fat ass off my chest. (I did this once in a match, so I’m 100% sure my character can do this too.)
When his body left mine, we both rolled away taking positions opposite of each other. His eyes, first startled, focused on me, letting me feel the brunt of his killing intent. Even though I was observing this scene from outside, that gaze sent shivers down my spirit spine too.
His arms formed a defensive guard in front of his face. He probably felt my change and decided to face me seriously. Now, that’s a pro. If he wasn’t trying to beat me, I’d be impressed.
On the other hand, my body’s stance was somewhat sloppy. Especially when compared to his. Since he was taking a defensive guard, I decided to take an offensive stance focused on speed. My figure had a sorry appearance, with all the blood and cuts on my face.
Without wasting any time my left foot sprinted me forward. I was 2 meters away from him now and he didn’t even flinch at my move. Landing on my right foot I sprinted at his left, hoping to catch him unprepared with my zig zag movement.
Too bad it didn’t work. As soon as I was in his range, a jab left his guard, directed at my head. Thanks to my new senses I saw it and somehow managed to avoid it by bending my body backwards. The fist passed above my head, just an inch from my nose.
I was now at his left unguarded flank and I tried throwing a jab to his face from the left. However, I have underestimated him, his body bent towards the left, almost falling. I stupidly tried to chase after his face, big mistake. I noticed his rising leg a moment too late. He wasn’t just avoiding, he was preparing a lateral kick!
I tried moving my body as fast as I could, but my position was too awkward and I couldn’t perfectly control my body when using the third person view. The kick hit me a little above my crotch, sending my body a few steps backwards.
Not wasting the occasion, Rob infused force into his left foot, jumped towards me and, spinning his body in the air, landed first with his right fist in my face and, with another spin, a hook kick to my neck.
(I’m not entirely sure this can actually be done by a human, it would require sense of balance and reflexes way above what I can do, but entirely theoretically, I’m 79% sure it should be possible.)
That totally destroyed my concentration. My body fell limp on the ground, foam forming around my mouth. I… had been totally and utterly defeated.
Change of POV
Jorge had fallen to the ground. He had fought valiantly, at least at the end. Too bad his opponent was someone way out of his league.
Rob stared at the convulsing body on the ground. He had mixed feelings. He had beaten Jorge a dozen times now, but this was the strangest fight they have ever had till now. At first he had surrendered and then, suddenly, he started acting as if possessed, moving faster and dodging hits like never before.
Towards the end, he had raised his expectations. His blood started boiling and then? He fell in “one” hit (more like a deadly combo). A hint of disappointment appeared on his face.
He would usually conclude his little “sparring sessions” by spitting on him, but today he wasn’t in the mood. With a nod of his head he and his brother left the scene.
After a few minutes…
Flora had heard someone yell from the direction Jorge went in. Even though she wanted to rush to him and help, she decided to stay still and wait as told. In the end, she heard the noise of engines running, and cars leaving.
She raised her body and went to look for her friend. After walking a few steps she reached the end of the trees and there she saw him, badly beaten. Foam and blood mixed on his face and were forming a puddle on the ground. A similar puddle lay a few meters away.
The shock froze her in place. She covered her mouth with a hand, ready to cry. However, she held back the tears and wanted to run to Jorge, she had to help him: but was stopped in her tracks when she noticed two silhouettes walking away.
She recognized them as Jorge’s criminal cousins. In her head she had already understood what had happened, now she had to wait for them to leave before she could help Jorge.
Too bad she was noticed…
Another change of POV
A man in his forties-fifties was looking at a monitor, at the brawl between two guys while a third one just observed the situation.
His hands had gone white from how hard he had been squeezing them; his face had both shock and anger with a hint of fear mixed in. Close to the end, his face seemed to gain some hope, but it was quickly extinguished as one of them fell to the ground, convulsing.
The man clenched his fists again and said: “You all are going to pay for hurting my son.”
As he said so, he got up and went to call an ambulance.
BBBBBBACK TO THE MC!
Ouch… pain everywhere, my body is on fire… it hurts… it hurts so much… That last kick must have seriously fucked me up, wait…. I feel pain from my body, but I can’t really feel my body!
Don’t tell me he severed my spinal cord and I’m now feeling phantom pain!
No… it can’t be!
I can’t end like this! I had finally obtained power, and this’s how I end? Crippled by a trash cousin?
*sob* no, no….
“Kyaaaa!”
What was that?
I heard a scream, a woman? I’m not going crazy, right?
“Let me go!”
Wait that voice…. Flora, oh shit she’s still here! Damn girl, I told her to remain hidden!
I need to get up to help! But… why won’t this body fucking follow my orders! UP! RAISE! WAKE UP! MOVE! FIGHT! OBEY!
“huaraghghaharjgftanjkjkljkl!”
(this one: imagine it as the scream of a mad man, sorry for bad sfx)
Third person view.
After flora had seen Rob and decided to hide, Rob seemed to notice something. Just like a dog catching a trail, he felt his instincts tell him that someone was hiding near the forest’s perimeter.
He made a final step, before changing his course by 180° and rushing to where Flora was. Upon realizing she had been discovered, she let out a scared yell, further giving up her position. In a few seconds, like a beast, Rob had jumped on Flora pinning her to the ground.
“What do we have here, a little stray cat?”
“Let me go!”
“Oh no, we can’t let you go just like that. You would just go to the police, and we don’t want that, right Marcus?”
“No, we surely don’t, hahahaha.”
Said Marcus while laughing to himself. He slowly made his way to where Flora was and upon seeing her, a trail of saliva formed on his chin.
“B-brother… can I take care of her?”
“You sure you can?”
“DEFINTELY!”
He coupled his declaration slamming his right fist against his chest with a wicked smile that revealed just how he was going to take care of her.
Rob inwardly sighed, sometimes he wondered if they were really his brothers. One was a womanizer that loved to indulge in women, even against their wills, the other was a drug addict, spending most of his money in drugs or on having fun at the disco or any other place where he could dance, drink and do drugs.
Although he too was a criminal, he had no addiction or interest in women. He was more concerned about watching over his family and the business.
Once he had the dream of leaving this shithole behind and make a living by fighting as MMA fighter, but he never had the determination to leave everything behind. In the end, he was swallowed by the life he despised and all thoughts of going away disappeared.
He nodded his head to Marcus and left the girl to his peculiar care. He didn’t even have to say anything. The moment he left the girl, Marcus was already on top of her trying to strip her, while she was trying to resist.
Rob walked away while Marcus did all that. With every step he took, the sound of struggling became fainter. He threw a gaze at Jorge on the floor, he could tell he was still alive because of his breath interacting with the blood puddle.
He wished Jorge had put on a better fight. However, it was already over and from what he heard, with his last kick, for Jorge it was over forever.
Suddenly, he heard a strange cry coming from Jorge lips. He approached a little, but the temperature around his body was incredibly high. The blood on the ground started to evaporate and he could see the heat distorting the air surrounding Jorge’s body.
Marcus jumped back, moving out of the high temperature zone, startled. He observed how the zone around Jorge body slowly turned into hell: the concrete on the ground turned black from the extreme heat, the cry coming from his body increased by a few times fold, now perfectly audible even from a distance.
“Huuuuuuuuaaaaaaarh!!!!!”
With a last loud cry, Jorge’s body finally moved, his two arms heavily landing on the ground leaving huge cracks on the ground and spreading a huge flame wave that pushed the cars a few centimetres away while also melting part of the glass and paint job.
Even Rob was hit; it cut through his clothes like a hot knife through butter. It left a horizontal scorching black mark on his chest, while at the same time pushed out all air from his lungs and flinging him a few meters back against a tree.
Finally awake and enraged, Jorge looked around searching for Flora. He was so pissed off, he didn’t even care about the flames around him or his sudden increase in strength. Within a moment he knew where his body was, he could feel every living thing within a huge radius and he also felt Rob’s weak signal but confused it for an animal’s.
Marcus saw the scene of his brother’s death and the new monster-like Jorge; he was so engrossed that he didn’t even notice Flora getting up with a stone and hitting him from behind. His body fell limp with a thud. Flora, heavily breathing, looked down at the scum she had hit and was immediately approached by a concerned Jorge.
However before he could say anything, a third character barged in that moment. Paul had rushed into the parking lot as soon as he had heard the boom generated by Jorge hitting the floor.
When he saw the sorry state of the parking lot, he immediately demanded to know what was going on.
“What the fuck happened here!?!”
Rebirth Online World 