Chapter 6: Fight

  The moment Lieutenant Finn hit the floor, the room froze—not the crisp, elegant stasis of her power, but the jagged silence of a group of pedestrians watching a drive-by. Calum’s brain short-circuited. Since when did training mean murder? Even in a world where a guy down the street could sneeze mustard gas, this felt… excessive.

  Cain’s laughter shattered the stillness, a wet, gurgling chuckle that belonged to a hyena on nitrous oxide. “Oh, marvellous!” He skipped toward Finn’s smouldering body, humming show tunes.

  Calum’s stomach did a backflip as Cain crouched. The provost’s left arm twitched. Then it… unfolded.

  His flesh rippled like a time-lapse of roadkill decomposing, tendons slithering like eels, bones elongating with the snap-crackle-pop of Rice Krispies. By the time Cain’s hand? Tendril? Probe? plunged into Finn’s torso, it resembled something out of HP Lovecraft's darkest dreams.

  The squelch echoed.

  “Ah, perforated liver!” Cain crooned, "elbow"-deep in Finn’s abdomen.

  Calum dry-heaved.

  The healing process was worse. The grind of reforming ribs, the wet snap of skin stitching itself—would haunt his nightmares for weeks to come. Finn’s back arched off the floor, a silent scream trapped in her throat as Cain’s hand pulsed like an artery made of living maggots.

  When he withdrew, Finn’s skin sealed together like molten plastic, leaving unblemished porcelain skin that gleamed like melted wax.

  She bolted upright, gasping, alive, intact, and visibly traumatized.

  “Ta-da!” Cain wiggled his now-human fingers, still glistening with her blood.

  “Now that we’re done with our little… interlude” His grin widened. “let’s continue!”

  The hologram screen displayed accompanied by confetti and a kazoo rendition of Happy Birthday CALUM vs FELIX

  Calum's lungs forgot how to breathe as Finn’s trauma-vacant eyes and the squelch of Cain’s probe-tendril looped in his skull on repeat. Distracted by his thoughts he hadn't realised when his legs had carried him into the arena.

  Across the arena, Felix spun his katana with the casual flair of a guy who’d mainlined too much Demon Slayer. The blade caught the light, casting anime-grade sparkles that suddenly felt a little bit too menacing. Katana Kid’s eccentricities suddenly weren’t so laughable now that Calum could see just how sharp that katana was.

  With a fluid motion, Felix sheathed his sword. In the same heartbeat, the blade flashed—shink!—like a scene torn from an anime. Three meters away, a steel training dummy slid apart with a sigh, its severed edge mirror-smooth. Calum’s bladder threatened mutiny.

  Cain's voice boomed, warped and distant, as if heard underwater: “…aaaaand BEGIN!”

  The word detonated in Calum’s skull rebooting panic spiral. His body moved before his brain could think—fight-or-flight jackhammering through his veins like a rabid animal. It was funny how he had never realised how deep powers burrowed into your lizard brain. Just like flinching from a car backfire the use of powers can happen reflexively.

  His subconscious mind clawed through options, frantic as a rat in a flood:

  Concrete floor—too brittle, too weak. Nitrogen in the air—useless. Aluminum gum wrapper? Pathetic. his blade cuts steel like warm butter—

  The gum?

  Not the wrapper. The gum itself. Stale, half-melted, wedged in his pocket forgotten. His subconscious latched onto it and didn’t hesitate. Channels tore open inside him, a firehose blast of power. Charges burned—two, three, four, gone in a heartbeat, scorching his nerves like vodka poured straight into his veins. The gum jumped into his palm snaking up his arm in a molten polymer tide, his skin screamed. His cells itched.

  ***

  All of Felix’s training had not prepared him for this. X-grades loomed in his mind as forces of nature tsunamis in human skin, calamities that could shred S-grade teams like tissue paper. But the trembling boy across the arena?

  Pathetic.

  The X-grade stood frozen, sweat glueing his shirt to his chest. Felix had done his homework: during the warm-up chaos, he’d catalogued every threat. But Calum? The kid had spent half the session napping. The only anomaly was his friendliness with that monster —a fact that coiled in Felix’s gut like rancid sushi. Catching Enoch's grin out of the corner of his eye a suspicion grew that maybe this Callum was more than what meets the eye.

  “Instincts,” Felix muttered. Standard meta-combat doctrine—rattle the newbie, trigger their fight response. His blade had sung through a dummy’s neck, steel parting like hair under a razor. He’d watched for the telltales: ozone crackle, temperature drops, the vrrrt of gathering energy. Instead, Calum just… trembled. Like a rabbit hearing the shotgun’s click.

  “No tells,” Felix breathed. Either the kid was Oscar-worthy at playing prey, or his power operated without any obvious visual clues. Neither option sat well.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Has Cain announced the beginning of the bout Felix’s thumb caressed his katana’s hilt. No instinctive defence. No aura. Just… fear. Classic C-grade tells. Maybe the X-classification was a fluke. A clerical error. Or—

  Calum’s arm twitched.

  At first, Felix thought it was a tremor. Then the boy’s hand bulged, skin stretching like overfilled latex.

  “What the—?”

  Calum’s scream was raw, animal. His fingers bloated into sausage links as something swelled beneath his skin—a molten, honey-coloured ooze surging up his veins.

  Felix’s katana flashed, reflexively defensive. The blade sliced the air as Calum’s arm erupted.

  It wasn’t an arm anymore. It was an elastic whip of semi-liquid polymer, snapping forward with the crack of a bullwhip. Felix twisted—too slow. The gum tendril grazed his sleeve.

  Mistake.

  His jacket hardened mid-swing, fabric crystallizing into a concrete prison. Momentum became an anchor. Felix’s ribs slammed arena tiles, breath escaping in a whoof. Above him, the tendril recoiled, dripping honeyed sludge that splattered across the arena.

  Move.

  His dagger flashed—a hidden shiv biting through petrified cloth. Freed, Felix rolled imagining the gum-whip cratering the space where his skull had just been. Adrenaline sang in his teeth as he vaulted upright, katana raised… and froze.

  Calum hadn’t advanced. The boy stood rooted, staring at his nearly severed tendril only held on by the barest traces of sinew. Felix’s blade arm trembled—with relief? Triumph?—until the X-grade knelt.

  No.

  Pressing the tendril to the stump it reattached like magic and it was then that Felix knew he was in for the fight of his life.

  Here's a brief description of the power grades

  G-Grade: Average human ability.

  F-Grade: Peak human ability.

  D-Grade: Transcends natural human limits.

  C-Grade: Surpasses all natural terrestrial organisms.

  B-Grade: Exceeds all pre-1940s human-engineered creations.

  A-Grade: Comparable to the destructive force of a nuclear warhead.

  S-Grade: Exceeds A-Grade capacity by a minimum tenfold multiplier.

  X-Grade: Beyond measurable quantification.

  Speed: Composite of reaction velocity, sprint capacity, and striking speed.

  Power: Raw force/energy output producible by an individual.

  Durability: Ability to resist harm/alteration to their base condition.

  Intellect: A composite of the user's general intelligence, fight IQ, information recall, creativity, and computation speed

  Potency: The extent to which one’s abilities modify reality and supersede opposing powers.

  Potential: Composite of capacity for power escalation and circumstantial transformative impact.

  Utility: Composite of versatile functionality, adaptability across scenarios, and practical value.

  The following is an estimate of the characters' attributes using the previous criteria based on displayed ability in the story so far.

  Ivan P.- S-Grade, Power: Invincibility? + Super Strength? Minor Gigantism (11 ft 7 in)

  Speed: D+

  Power: B+

  Durability: X

  Intellect: C-

  Potency: X

  Potential: B

  Utility: A-

  Felix B.- S-Grade, Power: Weapon Enhancement(Sword Focus)? Minor Super Speed?

  Speed: B-

  Power: ~S+++ (Variable, max X, more realistically B-A)

  Durability: F+

  Intellect: D-

  Potency: A+

  Potential: A+

  Utility: A-

  Lt. Finn- S-Grade, Power: Motion stopping field? (Doesn't seem to affect lasers)

  Speed: S++ (power activation speed is instant, F without accounting for activation speed)

  Power: ~X

  Durability: ~ (durability not including power- G+, with power active S++)

  Intellect: B

  Potency: X

  Potential: A+

  Utility: S+

  Cassandra C. - S-Grade, Power: Disintegration field?

  Speed: B+ (power activation/ attack speed is A+, D- without accounting for that)

  Power: S+

  Durability: D-

  Intellect: F

  Potency: S+++

  Potential: A+

  Utility: S++

  Enoch - X-Grade, Power: ??? Minor Super Speed?

  Speed: ??? (minimum B+)

  Power: ??? (presumably over D)

  Durability: ??? (unknown hasn't been hit yet)

  Intellect: ??? (minimum B+)

  Potency: ??? (power unknown)

  Potential: ??? (power unknown)

  Utility: ??? (power unknown)

  Callum V. - X-Grade, Power: Fuse.

  Speed: G

  Power: ~ (Variable, without power G-)

  Durability: G-

  Intellect: C-

  Potency: ~

  Potential: X

  Utility: X