Free Web NovelChapter 91: Chapter 90 - Burn
Point-of-View: Adelmira Hartley
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"So, uh...what does it feel like?" I inquired curiously.
"Huh? What does what feel like?" Responded Petra with a raised eyebrow.
Spelling it out feels super embarrassing...but I’m way too curious...
"Well, you, uh, you mentioned before that you, you know, had s-s-sex with your brother...I’ve, uh, never done that stuff before, so I was just wondering," I replied sheepishly.
Today’s the 27th of February, and a while had passed since Petra was brought here. X brought her to my cell a few times, and after we got to know her, we decided to tell her about my objective of breaking free from Eden.
And she was on board without hesitation, because she wanted to see her brother. She also talked about him a lot, and I do mean A LOT.
So, one day, X joked about her ’banging her brother’, her words not mine, and to our surprise and shock, Petra casually confirmed it. That was about a week ago. And it’s been on my mind ever since...I mean, when you hear something as crazy as that, it’s only natural that you’d be curious about it, right?
"Hm...I dunno, it’s hard to explain," Frowned Petra, seeming unsure how to answer, "I guess I’d say it feels exactly how you’d imagine it to feel. That was my first impression, anyway."
Huh, I feel like that doesn’t really answer my question, but okay. I feel too awkward to press her any further about it.
Anyway, we were currently in a training room, helping each other get stronger. We’d finished a sparring session against each other, and were now going through our respective books of Skill techniques.
"You know, I have to say, Space Skill techniques make no sense to me. With my Aqua Skill, once I’ve got the visualization down, the rest is just a matter of practice. But looking at the techniques in your Space Skill book, it’s all Greek to me," I remarked, as I glanced at the page she was reading.
"Yeah, yours does look a lot easier...but I’m glad I got the Space Skill. And this technique in particular...Thought Communication," She responded, looking a bit frustrated...I guess it’s a really difficult one to master.
"What does it do?" I asked her.
"It’s like telepathy...but there are several conditions that need to fall into place before it can be used. First, to clearly picture the person you want to communicate with. Second, they need to have the Space Skill AND master this technique too. Third, they need to be trying to contact you at the exact same time," She sighed with a grimace.
Seriously?
"Wow, that’s, uh...sounds like a pretty complicated process, huh."
"Yeah, it is. In other words, not only do I need to count on my brother working on and mastering the same technique, but I also need him to try and contact me simultaneously. I’ve gone through every single technique in this book, and this is the only one that I can realistically use to contact him. There’s also the portal technique, but its difficulty level is far too high, and I’ll have to practically search the entire planet until I find him, so this is definitely the best option. Well, unless there are techniques not listed in here, I suppose," She remarked, before letting out an irritated groan, "Damn it, I just can’t figure this out!"
Come to think of it, X did say that the Space Skill is probably the hardest one to master. Conventional thought processes and mindsets aren’t enough, those with more creative and out-of-the-box mindsets are the ones who tend to be capable of mastering Space Skill techniques.
And I think Petra can do it...she comes off as fairly normal at first glance, but the way her mind works is just a little bit...weird. Which makes sense, given the surroundings and environment she grew up in.
"Well, it’s probably not something you can figure out overnight, you know," I pointed out objectively, before asking, "By the way, how likely do you think it is that your brother is working on the same technique?"
"Hm...I’d say it’s about fifty-fifty. But if he’s got access to other techniques that let you find or communicate with someone that aren’t in this book, then it becomes a lot less likely. But I can’t worry about that...I just have to focus on mastering this technique without overthinking things," She responded with a grimace, before letting out a slow exhale as she regained her focus.
I should probably keep quiet and let her concentrate. I’ve built up a pretty decent arsenal of Aqua Skill techniques, so I’m in no rush to learn new ones, but I probably should try to master some of the more complex techniques.
I then froze slightly as I heard Astra’s voice from outside the room...ever since that day, when I...when I killed that family, she’s been making no secret of her hostility and disdain towards me. The looks she gives me have a real murderous vibe to them.
So I’ve been making an effort to stay the hell away from her. She seriously scares me...
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Point-of-View: Luna Castillo/Astra
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"Way to go, bringing me a person to kill without me even asking, I approve," I grinned as I gratefully patted Trevor’s shoulder.
"Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not doing this to satisfy your sick desires, this is to help you train. We captured a Harmony Category 2, and you’re going to fight him. I’ll supervise and step in if it looks like you’re going to die," He responded dryly, as he shook my hand off his shoulder.
"Well, whatever, I don’t really care about the details so long as I get to burn someone!" I exclaimed cheerfully.
After I was robbed of my excitement and had my spirit crushed, I was brought two people to play with, but in my excitement, I ended up breaking them earlier than I’d have liked.
They were normal humans, not Meta-Humans. According to Trevor, they were random homeless people that they’d taken off the streets, before telling me that this was a one time thing and that they won’t be doing it again, since kidnapping normal humans is too risky or something.
And so, I was kinda depressed for a few days. They still forced me to train and stuff, the heartless bastards, but today, I finally snapped out of my funk. It’s felt like it’s been forever since I got to kill someone!
"We’re almost there. Need anything before you start?" Trevor asked me.
"Hm? Oh, can I have a knife or some kind of blade?" I requested hopefully.
"Huh? Why? You haven’t trained with one, so you won’t know how to properly use a blade in a fight," He responded with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeahhhh, but while burning is fun and all, there’s no blood! I wanna make my opponent bleed," I sighed wistfully.
"Oh. Well, I won’t give you one today, since it’ll just weigh you down. But that said, I’ll have you train in combat with a blade another time, we can figure out what length works best for you later."
"Hm...I guess that’s better than nothing," I grumbled in response.
"Okay, we’re here. Win and the next Harmony member we capture is yours, deal?" He proposed as we stopped in front of a door. freeweɓnovel.cøm
"Oh, now that’s what I’m talking about! Deal!" I accepted without hesitation.
"Just so you know, there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to capture another one any time soon. Also, at your current skill level, you’d barely qualify as a Category 1, and your actual competence level is likely at Category 2, thanks to your inexperience. Keep that in mind as you go into this fight," He advised me.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it. Thaaanks, dad," I replied with a roll of my eyes.
"Stop that, you’re creeping me out."
We then arrived at the room where the captured Harmony member was being held, before he opened the door and walked in. I followed in after him and looked around...there was a man at the back of the room, his arms seeming to be bound behind his back.
Oh, and X is here too. Yeah, and her Nullification is active, guess she was here to keep this guy in check until we got here.
"About time you got here. I can’t keep up my Nullification forever, you know," She sighed at Trevor.
"Noted. You can leave now," He responded with disinterest...huh, but it kinda seems like he’s trying to deliberately appear that way.
"I think I’ll do just that," She replied dryly, before strolling towards the door and leaving.
Her Nullification then ceased, and almost immediately, flames burst out around the restrained man, as he burnt the ropes around his wrists.
"You Eden bastards, I’ll kill you all!" He snarled viciously, as he formed a couple of swirling fireballs in his hands.
"Okay, he’s all yours," Remarked Trevor, as he took a few steps back and gave me some space.
Hehe, don’t mind if I do.
As he blasted the charged up fireballs at me, I swiftly activated a technique called Flame Wall...normally, this forms a straight wall of flames in front of you, but I adjusted this one so that it bent in the middle, in a sort of shallow v-shape pointing forward.
His fireballs slid off my fire wall and harmlessly flew past me across either side, before I changed the shape of the flames of the wall into a sharp, narrower shape...
"Now, take this...Pyro Skill: Blaze...Arrow!" I exclaimed with a smirk, as I fired it at him.
He sprang out of the way in alarm, dodging it at an unnatural reaction time...okay, that probably means he has the Physical Skill too.
At first, I kinda found yelling out the name of a technique to be kinda cringy and embarrassing, but the reason they do it is because saying it out loud helps improve visualization...and when I tried it out myself, it worked.
The more accurate your visualization, the more effective and potent the technique is, and what seems like a pointless act at first, actually makes a fairly significant difference.
"Don’t get cocky, bitch!" Snapped the Harmony guy, as he suddenly fired a sharp, rocky bullet at my head.
I quickly tilted my head off to the side, the projectile nicking the top of my right ear as it narrowly missed doing more significant damage. Woah, that was close!
I then froze and hurriedly sprang back as the man shot towards me rapidly and closed in on me almost immediately after I dodged his attack. I blasted out flames from my mouth, but as I lost my cool, the attack lacked intensity.
He easily slipped past it and behind me as landed, before getting me in a tight headlock, sealing my hands inside clumps of rock before I could burn him. Crap, not good! He’s choking me pretty hard, and I can’t properly direct my flames at him without the use of my hands!
In that case...right as my vision started to blur, I pushed my chin into his grip, opened my jaws wide...and then viciously chomped down, sinking my teeth into his arm and eliciting a yell of pain from him.
"Y-you feral bitch, let go!"
You first, asshole!
He let out an agonizing scream as I strained my jaws and bit down as hard as I possibly could, feeling my teeth tearing into his skin and flesh, until...he finally let go of me, as I tore off a chunk of his arm with my teeth.
"That tastes nasty," I smirked as I spat out the bloody meat, smashing the blocks around my hands onto the ground and breaking them off.
He began to form a fireball with a pained expression on his face, before I swiftly closed in on him and placed my palm on his stomach, unleashing an intense burst of flames and scorching the skin on his abdomen with a loud sizzle, eliciting another scream of agony from him.
I then slipped behind him and gave him a taste of his own medicine, grabbing him in a tight headlock, wrapping my legs around his arms and torso tightly.
It really did taste awful when I bit his arm...but the sensation of my teeth tearing into his flesh felt incredible. I wonder what biting into cartilage feels like...
Let’s find out.
As he desperately tried to break free from my grip, I chomped on his ear, and as my teeth dug deep into it, I violently pulled back, tearing off his ear, and as he screamed for the umpteenth time, I swiftly raised my palm over his open mouth and blasted a small but intense fireball into his mouth, burning his tongue as a strained, gurgling cry of pain erupted from his mouth.
And then...he went limp, before collapsing onto the ground. Huh? What the heck?
"Is he dead already?" I groaned in disappointment.
"No, I think he just passed out from the pain," Sighed Trevor with a shake of his head.
"Cool, that means I win, right? Hey, could you chain this guy up and then let me know when he wakes up again? I’m not done plucking the wings off this butterfly just yet," I responded as I stood up and stretched my arms.
"Sure, that should be fine. Still, that was quite a wild display on your part...you actually bit parts of his body off, twice."
"Heh, yeah, pretty awesome, right?" I grinned, as I wiped away the blood dripping down from the sides of my mouth.
"If you say so. But, you should know, this guy has AIDS, so you should probably wash the blood out of your mouth."
Huh?
"W-wait, what!? Sh-shit, I’m pretty sure that I accidentally swallowed at least a few drops, what do I do!? Fuck...fuck, fuck, shit! Hey, why didn’t you tell m-...!?" I began in indignation, before trailing off as I noticed him struggling to hide a smile, "...what’s so funny?"
"Oh, nothing...just the fact that I was kidding. Well, I guess it could be true, but how would I know about any medical conditions he may or may not have?" He responded with an amused chuckle.
"Not cool...total dick move, dude."
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