No plan ever goes according to plan.

I am well aware of that.

Therefore to minimize the chances of any unexpected or unfavorable deviations, I always try to take into account the action, reaction, and impact of nearly all elements accounted for in the plan.

Some elements are small, like the patch of slippery and muddy ground or the cold wind. Their impact on the plan, though, can differ; slipping and breaking your neck might sound like an idiotic misstep but it can happen. In fits of panic, mistakes proliferate.

While other elements have a more altering effect on the plan and are borderline detrimental. No finding my rifle for instance, or finding him however is irreparably damaged. In this case, the plan might as well be a failure, if you haven't accounted for it that is.

However, I did. Borrowing Bell's sniper rifle is my contingency had I not been able to access my rifle, for some reason or another. She might be upset or even refuse, but nothing I can't fix with words.

Thus why every plan needs contingencies.

Nevertheless, contingencies can not secure the success of your plan, they can increase the chances of its success, sure, but in no way guarantee it. Contingencies are not all-powerful, they have limits, and that is; contingencies are made from the elements you account for...

... you can't consider elements you're not aware of.

And there is a lot I am not aware of.

A Shredder appearing out of nowhere, with no warning, from behind me and so close that one of its bladed fingers sliced the side of my shoulder, is not something I have taken into consideration.

Fuck!

My vision was blurring, I tried to blink away the water that was pooling up in them as I struggled to breathe. My shoulder did it get ripped off? No, it didn't. Fuck. It only got cut on the upper side, but the pain made me want, to wish it just got ripped off. Maybe if it did I wouldn't feel that much torture.

It felt as if someone is cutting my shoulder with a dull hand saw until halfway into the bones, then started pouring salt into the gash. It burned like lava.

It felt as if a swarm of millions of microscopic locusts was devouring me, eating every muscle, tendon, ligament, and even bone, from the inside out, beginning with my shoulder.

I want to scream.

I want to bash my head into the ground.

But I didn't.

Instead, I pushed and pushed, gritting my teeth and pushing all of the feelings I am experiencing right now. I pushed down the fear, helplessness, confusion, anger, and resentment. I pushed everything down like an overpacking college girl attempting to cram everything into her suitcase.

Click

Fortunately, I successfully activated my gift right a fraction of a second before the Shredder's claw started leaving my right shoulder. A euphoric moment overtook me that didn't last long before I felt a coldness wash my brain and quiet and calmness settled in. The world started to gradually slow down as my thoughts quickened by 43 times my normal thought speed.

My vision flashed with a transparent blue light, before fading out and revealing the bar's minimal data superimposed with my vision; A progress bar to the top left and a streak of numbers in a small font size at the bottom center.

The progress bar at the top left is Bar More, the visual representation of how long I can keep my ability active. It is blue in color when it's whole currently however it is light orange. Focusing on it, I immediately got its percentage, 64.3%. Which translates to 43.4 seconds if I only use the bare minimum of my gift. This raises the question of how long I was unconscious to recuperate that much, after all, the last time I activated the ability, the Bar Mode was at 46%.

I can the Memory Pull of the ability and review the memory registered while I was unconscious. Though I might be unconscious, the brain isn't dead, even in an unconscious state, is still subconsciously saving any doable sensory information, like sounds. And with the audio data calculating the duration of my unconscious state will only take a fraction of the Bar Mode.

But that would be an inefficient use of cerebral energy.

Rather than wasting resources on a process that had no immediate or favorable impact on the situation, it would be more effective to use the same amount of resources to reduce the pain level by shutting down 85% of the pain receptors in the brain. Not all of them were closed off however as that may cause undetermined long-term harm to the brain and body.

Stolen novel; please report.

And so I did launch [closing 85% of pain receptors].

The operation was immediate. The disturbing pain originating from the right shoulder went from crippling to a dull, almost unnoticeable ache. And since the operation was outside of the bare minimum of the ability, it did reduce the Bar More for what would equal 3 seconds.

BM (Bar Mode) = 59.1% (40 seconds).

Launching the operation to reduce the pain is the first and primary action since activating the ability because not only would the pain have disturbed any further action, but it might have also a more drastic effect, now that the Shredder is extracting its claw from the right shoulder. In other words, had the pain receptors not closed down the pain could result in an intense signal capable of forcing the brain into a state of unconsciousness.

The outcome of such a scenario is death, 87%.

I turned my head back to analyze the circumstances.

The Shredder behind me, its appearance is identical to those I have met so far. It stands 2.23 meters tall from the ground to its shoulders, which protects its head. Using its left arm to support its weight, while its right is pulling back in slow motion.

The Shredder has three long fingers, but it is more accurate to call them blades. Slightly hooked, 1,4 centimeters thick, and they have no joints, in other words, it just three long, sharp, hooked blades attached to a flat.

One of those hooked blades is prying itself from my right shoulder, the second blade has stabbed the ground a distance from my left shoulder, and the third blade should be a distance to the left side of my ribs.

With a quick, spontaneous analysis I concluded that the Shredder either miscalculated my head position or the hard winter ground stopped the blade's advance or both. Had the finger blades been shorter or had the soil been muddier, my head would no longer be attached to my body.

The numbers representing fear, at the bottom center of my vision, spiked when the conclusion I almost died without knowing how or who was reached. But I ignored them, they are irrelevant.

Rather, I analyzed the Shredder. This is the second time I come across one this close. For the first one though, I didn't have time to visually examined it. I just got my ability awakened, and exploring some of its capacity took almost all of my time inside the hyper-focused state. When the ability activation time runs out and the Shredder died, I didn't have the energy nor the courage to analyze its body.

Even later, when I paced by close to where it died, out of fear, I choose not to approach that place, which I find regretful. Truly, most of my actions outside of the scope of my ability are either wasteful, irresponsible, or outright foolish. Not that it was surprising. I am already well I am riddled with imperfections and defective sections of self; feelings.

Fortunately, Until now, none of the actions and decisions I've made without the aid of my ability have been irreversible or excessively irresponsible. But it is only a matter of time. Emotion cloud judgments. And are vulnerable to their emotions. They would rather pursue an irrational decision made by these fickle things than a reasonable one made by sane judgments.

What is more, I am already showing small symptoms of going on such a clouded route. Having regret for taking Eric hostage, for instance, regretting the decision of acting against someone who pointed their guns at you and at the time showed hostility is completely unreasonable and unacceptable.

The second, and most prominent symptom and the most detrimental; is the decision to stay and fight with the military team. Not that flight would have been a good decision, rather, running away is the worst decision. Even with my ability active, I think I took the right decision by choosing to stay and fight. But the issue is not the decision itself but the reason behind the decision or more accurately the feelings.

I chose to stay and fight because of feelings I began to develop unconsciously for them, for her. And I used reasonable and logical considerations to justify and fool myself.

I need to make something about this.

But not now.

My analysis of the monster turned into three threads, the other two to analyze myself and for planning, all of that took less than a second. And it also happens the Shredder only needs one second to retract its arm back and another to contract its muscle before swinging it back down, with no misjudgment in its target; my head.

I didn't waste time just thinking either. I did start preparing myself as soon as the blade left my shoulder.

I synchronized all my muscles all over my body; from the soleus muscles on my calf to the pectoralis major in my chest. My right shoulder is injured, I can still move it, but that would be extremely unadvised since the repercussion of doing so might result in a long terms sequel... but I do not have a choice.

I swiftly turned on myself, my back against the ground, directly facing the Shredder as it brought down its bladed hand, I raised my legs up and meet it halfway. Both my feet aimed at the two spaces between its fingers and...

"Umg."

The impact on my legs forced the breath out of my lungs. I heard and felt my bones creaking and saw my legs shaking as they started losing in the strength contest... but it was alright.

I pushed up and back with my legs.

...my intention isn't to stop the bladed hand with my legs but to deviate its trajectory.

Traces of this monster's claws are still on the jeep. And to make that type of damage, sharpness is not enough, strength is required. I have not miscalculated its strength compared to mine. The probabilities of me stopping that arm are below twenty percent. Hence why if a could not stop it the better alternative is to shift its trajectory.

And it worked.

The claws' course moved from my head to the dirt some distance above it, and my legs followed with them.

The next step started as soon as I was in a peculiar variety of the plow pose. As soon as my feet touched the ground I pushed, my back and neck bent backward, and my arms pushed. All with perfect synchronization and momentum with no place for unbalance in any of the movements.

0.67 seconds passed from the Shredder's claws drilling the ground to me standing in a crouched position, face to face with the Shredder, less than human arm distance between both our heads.

Now for the next step...