I huffed as I stood across from the Special Grade, Adrian—my body slick with blood, the ground slicker.
Massive rings of blood floated around us, undulating and pulsing like sentient halos. They were a distraction from his true weapons: the miniature orbs of blood orbiting his body.
Supernovas.
With a snap of his fingers, they detonated, scattering drops of pressurized blood at impossible speeds in every direction.
My Seventh Sense flared, and I folded into myself, activating Domain Amplification just in time. He increased the pressure by twisting open a valve on the rippling surface of three Supernovas. Violent streams of blood shot out, slamming into my barrier and flinging me backward.
Piercing Blood, he called them.
Pressurized blood fired at the speed of sound—a death sentence to anyone who lacked Precognition paired with Domain Amplification or Inverse.
I hit the wall feet-first and bolted sideways, running along it as the crimson lines chased after me. I twisted, ducked, and flung a knife mid-air with. It fired like a rifle shot. Adrian barely ducked in time, but I wasn't done.
I tucked low and fired five more blades. The two remaining Supernovas intercepted them, shearing through the knives and nearly boxing me in. My Seventh Sense kicked in again, mapping out routes of escape in perfect clarity.
I sprang forward, spinning mid-air. A Piercing Blood skimmed my shoulder, carving a shallow line before I landed. Adrian clenched his fist with a wicked grin, and the orbiting rings bloomed and contracted, forming a viscous net meant to crush me from every side.
I answered with my newest trump card.
Technique Reversal: Expanse.
I snapped my fingers, and a shockwave of pressure exploded outward. My eardrums burst. My skin bruised. The sheer force shredded my fatigues as the expanding wave slammed into the blood constructs, scattering them into mist.
The blast cracked the arena floor, continuing until it struck Adrian. He stood unharmed—his transformed body now encased in crystalline blood. His shirt was gone, but his scowl was intact.
He lowered his arms, having instinctively shielded his face, and glared at me.
Twenty spars—and twenty failures to land a single meaningful hit. Until now.
To be fair, I hadn't been holding back; my control over Positive Energy simply hadn't been where I needed it.
But every fight with a special grade had driven home a simple point: the battle with Lily hadn't been a real fight. It was a tantrum from a girl who'd never truly lost.
Adrian might've been weaker, but he was the more seasoned fighter.
And Misha—don't even get me started on her.
I'd lost to Gina instantly. George had taken my hand in a single move using Curse Piercer. Ade only stopped him because he had to.
If I couldn't beat the lowest-ranked member of this little End-of-the-World cult, what did that make me?
I gathered Positive Energy into a vague tube, fine-tuning it with my Curse Energy senses and Seventh Sense. Then I ran it through my Inverse Technique.
A cone of pure destruction erupted outward, the recoil blasting me across the arena into the wall. Adrian braced against the onslaught in his transformed state, hissing as the shockwave rippled through him.
"What kind of bullshit reversal technique is—"
I flicked my finger again. The recoil burst it open, and it regenerated instantly. The blast was more concentrated this time, tighter—and it shattered his crystalline armor in a rain of shards.
The lower-grade sorcerers had already cleared the viewing platforms, leaving us space to fight in earnest. I bunched my fingers again to unleash another reversal—but a Piercing Blood struck first, hidden beneath the scattered crystals. It would've taken my head clean off if I hadn't switched back to Positive energy and tanked it head-on with Inverse.
The impact hit like a bomb, raising a veil of dust. Adrian appeared through it, dagger in hand. I summoned my katana, blocked, and flicked again—another compressed shockwave stumbled him. My leg arced out with Overdrive, sweeping him off balance, and I slashed at his neck with Ratio flaring. Blood bubbled from his skin before my blade made contact. He blocked with his forearm, sprouting another Piercing Blood in retaliation.
Curse Inventory: Maw.
The inspiration struck like lightning—and the technique manifested instantly.
A shimmering hole appeared above my chest, swallowing the incoming torrent of blood. Adrian's shock mirrored mine.
He kicked out, but not before my blade severed his arm. I instinctively sent both blade and limb into my inventory—there'd be no better chance to copy his technique.
After all this time, I'd only reached seventy percent comprehension of Blood Manipulation. Earth Manipulation and Ratio had hit a hundred, but the rest hovered in the nineties. When Artisan asked about my third technique, I'd shown her Ratio to keep her off my back. Her unimpressed stare told me she wasn't convinced.
Still, I was looking forward to trying this limb-stealing tactic on the others. Artisan and George were the white whales.
Adrian's kick landed squarely in my chest, hurling me across the arena. Pain flared, but I forced myself up. Before I could rise fully, a blood spike pressed against my throat, grown from the stump of his missing hand.
I caught his bicep, reversing Inverse with my free hand, ready to blast him across the room again—when Gina's voice sliced through the tension.
"That's enough."
Adrian growled, and I nearly echoed him. The fight was just getting good. Who knew what else I might've unlocked if we'd kept going? Realistically, though, I'd hit the ceiling for today.
"It's eight o'clock," Gina said coolly. "You know how Priya gets when he's late."
"So? It's him she'll take it out on," Adrian muttered, pressing the spike until he drew blood. I scowled at his monstrous face and detonated Expanse, flinging him backward. He landed smoothly, blood swirling around him, and glared daggers at me while I ran Reverse Cursed Technique through my body.
He was about to charge when Gina appeared between us.
"That wasn't a request, Number Five."
He gritted his teeth, the spike lengthening slightly.
"You know I hate it when you call me that."
"I wouldn't have to if you behaved."
"The shoe will be on the other foot soon enough," he sneered, curling his remaining fist. "We'll see how smug you are then."
He reverted to his human form like a man slipping out of armor, glanced down at his missing hand, and sighed before regenerating it with RCT. Then he stormed out.
I turned to Gina. "What did he mean by that?"
She crossed her arms. "We've been here a month. In that time, you've been split in half, peeled like a potato, infected with enough disease to wipe out a small nation, and forced to regrow every major organ except one."
She was talking about my brain. I fought not to look unsettled.
"Your point?"
"They plan to extract your brain today," Gina said quietly. "Artisan is hoping for a breakthrough in one of her projects, and Priya thinks you'll survive the process."
I goggled in disbelief, stunned by the news, then quickly found my anger. "You can't be serious! What about reaching Special Grade? About getting a Domain Expansion? Isn't that what Artisan wanted?"
"She can get that by studying your brain up close," Gina said. "She didn't have that luxury with your father." Her voice softened slightly. "According to her, your slow progress is throwing off her timeline. The procedure is worth the risk."
My heart hammered. Rage flooded through me.
Every plan, every sleepless night clawing toward improvement—all of it, wasted. This could've been a test, a final push to break me completely. Get me to reveal my hand.
They'd already tried that when they dragged Sasha and Candice here and made me watch as they were tortured. I'd only screamed into silence, channeling everything into my growth.
Every night I'd torn my channels wider, hoarded every level-up point, hidden my trump cards—Blockbuster and Venom—for the day I needed them.
"She can't do this!" I roared. "She's taken everything already." Sasha, Candice…
The only thing I have left is my dignity!
Gina let me have my outburst, then spoke calmly. "For what it's worth, I you'd have made a hell of a Special Grade, maybe even better than Shelim and me eventually. What just happened today proved that."
"Don't," I snapped. The words came out low, final.
For a long moment, I contemplated escape.
It was a suicidal fantasy, but it certainly beat getting dissected.
Three of the five Special Grades were in the hideout, and the entire facility was crawling with enhanced soldiers and brainwashed metas. Even if I somehow beat the odds and kill every last person in here. I'd still have to face up against Artisan.
And as things stood, I wasn't even sure most of the Justice League could beat her.
It would be a long, pointless fight.
Still, if I was going to die, I might as well take a swing.
Without hesitation, I materialized Venom and Blockbuster injections from my Cursed Inventory and drove them into my thighs.
Read up to Chapter 107 on patreon.com/artandcreativewriting