I thought that this day could not get any worse. I started the day off by being rejected by my crush for "being an ego driven asshole", later on I found out that my car was stolen. Without any transportation I had to walk home. When I finally reached my dorm building I found out it was quarantined, because of a damn locust infestation. Not just any locust, the big fat dangerous man killing ones. Of course my wallet was stuck in there too. So I thought things couldn't get any worse, and boy was I wrong.

While I was looking for a nice cardboard box to sleep in I got lost. I have to admit that I lack a proper sense of direction. The winding paths of this labyrinth-like city were not doing me any favors either. Sometimes I really hated this city. Of course I ended up in a “perfectly safe” dark alley. Oh look, a resident of this dark alley. So now I'm being robbed by some idiot wrapped in rags and brandishing a knife. What drove this guy to attack someone so much bigger than them? The guy was half his size! To be fair though many hybrids were around that size. It was possible he was just a small, malnourished, human idiot taking on someone clearly outside of their ability.

I mean it clearly isn’t a fair fight, not to brag but I have a decently imposing figure and stand at 6'1, and even though I'm not in the best shape (i'm just rusty OK) I can handle myself in a fight. Maybe it was the look on my face that gave the robber his confidence. I am not in a happy mood and my brown eyes and hair likely showcase this (being disheveled and what not.)

Unfortunately, for him I'm not sad, I'm pissed off. How nice of this punching bag to come and offer his services to me.

As the robber slowly began to approach me, I scanned my surroundings for something to use as a weapon. The alley was filled with trash cans, dumpsters, and other kinds of garbage receptacles. The perfect place to hide a body. No wonder the robber chose this alley. So I decided that I would take out the trash with the trash.

I snaked my arms out and quickly grabbed a hold of a metal garbage can lid and a heavy garbage bag to use as a makeshift flail and shield combination. As the robber ran at me I caught the knife in the lid and slammed the garbage bag down on my opponent spilling wet garbage all over him. I guess my training wasn't useless after all. I dropped the remains of the garbage bag and took the knife out of the lid.

I picked the robber off the ground and put him up against the wall. This guy was surprisingly light. I hope I didn't just dump trash all over a kid. I couldn't tell after all the robber had rags covering his face, a simple if effective way to hide one's identity.

Better safe than sorry. I ripped the rags off and the face underneath belonged to a tentacled squid-like face with human-like eyes. To the best of my knowledge this squid was no kid. Good, now I wouldn't feel guilty. I shoved the rags in the robber's mouth and engaged in the therapeutic activity of stabbing the ever living shit out of someone. It wasn't the first time I've killed before but it was the first time he had ever been so up close and personal doing it. 

I don’t take particular joy in ending a life although I do enjoy fighting. It is a harsh world out there after all, dangerous monsters and mutants in the wastelands, mages and gangs in the cities, not to mention the various factions vying for control of this small city-state I now called home.

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Not wanting to attract any of those aforementioned groups I dragged the body to one of the closer dumpsters and prepared to throw the body in. I am kind of tempted to carve my clan’s symbol into the corpse. It might draw more attention to me but I could also build a reputation. Pride vs. Safety. The perfect tool was right there. The knife was still stuck in the body. Pride wins this time, who knows this might even convince muggers to stay away from me in the future.

Of course nothing is easy for me, I tried pulling the knife out of the body but it remained stuck. Grumbling, I put my foot on the corpse and attempted to pull the knife with much more force than before. I succeeded but landed on my ass. Maybe I used a bit too much force... My attention wasn't drawn to my aching booty however. The once shabby rusty metal knife was covered in blood and slowly changing shape. As the blood dripped down the dagger it began to take the shape of a dark grey stiletto.

"So I do have an ability! Take that mom!" I shouted to no one. Although.... How useful was the ability? I mean all I did was just change a knife's form. There was no way I can just accept that my ability is useless, my pride won't allow it. THIS CALLS FOR SCIENCE! I tried stabbing the body again... Which did not work. Maybe I can only use one kind of blood? I tried cutting myself and putting my blood on the knife, which also didn't work. I probably need a new knife and body I thought to myself while stowing the robber's corpse inside the nearby dumpster.

Unfortunately my shouting earlier had attracted two more people. They were wrapped in similar outfits to the last guy wrapped, but instead of being armed with knives these guys were armed with baseball bats. The first thug was shaped like a normal person, while the second had a big scaly tale and a snout, and probably was completely covered in scales. These guys shall now forth be called now: thug 1 and thug 2! All jokes aside I am not confident that I can take these two on, they are clearly bigger than the last guy and I am not a world renowned fighter or anything. Time to turn on the old Greyholm charm.

"Alright guys, it's not my first time being mugged. Just take my stuff and don't harm me." I said, attempting to appear calm. "He's definitely hiding something, let's knock out a few teeth." Thug 1 said. That backfired badly for me, maybe I should have just run, but how could I know that the guy was a paranoid idiot. "Please sir, don't hurt me!" I begged, each word stinging my pride and making me cringe at myself. As long as I behave everything should be fine. Then I spotted it, the blood trail leading to the dumpster, squid boy’s blood trail. How could I have been so stupid. The blood trail he made. Calm down, Cyrus. How likely was it that these thugs even knew each other? Well since they were working in the same area as squid boy it was actually very likely. OKAY PANIC TIME. FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE ENGAGE!

CALM DOWN CYRUS. If I try to run I'll probably just get lost again and they'll get the jump on me. If i'm going to fight I have to do this smart. I proceeded to raise my hands up and fake a surrender. When the thugs got close enough to rob I aimed for a weak spot and kneed thug 1 in the nuts. Thug 1 stumbled backwards using his hands to protect his now injured junk. Then I kicked thug 2 in their crotch. Nothing happened. I tried it again, second verse same as the first. “Oh, shit that's a girl!” I uttered out before being slammed in the chest with a baseball bat.

She picked me up with her free hand and placed him against the wall much the same way I had done to the squid thing I killed earlier. Karmas a bitch and so is she. He did have one trick up his sleeve unlike the squid he wasn't unarmed. He jammed the stiletto in her neck. It slid in without much trouble surprising me. That knife is pretty well made I guess. Unfortunately that didn't kill her but it did make her drop me. As soon as I was dropped, I spotted thug 1 sitting on his ass nursing his injured crotch. I dashed towards the thug and kicked him in the head as hard as I could. His head slammed against the alley wall behind him back, and I saw the light leaving his eyes. Unconscious or dead. Either way one down one to go

I prepared to attack the remaining thug but found that she was still facing the wall and wasn't moving. The stiletto still jammed in her neck. The dagger! It’s actually doing something. No way was I going to pass up this opportunity, I picked up thug 1's baseball bat and slammed it into the stunned thug, beating her with it while making sure not to dislodge the stiletto. Finally, these asholes were dead. After taking what money they had I dumped the two bodies in the same dumpster as squid guy.

More testing was required, but I was feeling pretty hopeful about his newfound ability. I left the alley looking for a motel ready to pay with my newfound money. Oh shit! I forgot to check if thug 1 died.

I’m sure that won't bite me in the ass later.