There was something about putting some added pressure to a task that you do all the time, that made it next to impossible. Alex had experienced this phenomenon in many aspects of his life. He had done a lot of handy work in his life before his accident and old people had a terrible habit of hovering over his shoulder when he was working. Something that he had done a million times now felt like rocket science. Or when he went to a public restroom that didn’t have dividers in between the urinals. Suddenly, he would feel like his body was betraying him and he could no longer get it to function.

He was currently experiencing that. It didn’t help that they didn’t use the standard qwerty keyboard, or English characters for that matter. The shapes looked fairly similar to his untrained eye. He spent far too long punching in the complex password into the computer. To stall for more time he had barricaded the door shut. He wasn’t proud of it, but he had even used the body of the Zotari that had been in the room with him for a little extra weight. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture in the small room and he needed everything he could find. The slamming on the door matched his heartbeat that was pounding in his head and he could barely hear them.

The door started to slide open slightly and the sounds from outside started to grow even louder, only increasing his anxiety. He had finished with one of the three passwords, but he was running out of time. The door was nudged even further open and Alex decided to take a second to slow their progress. Putting his palms together, he charged up a death ray. The second the door opened far enough open, he blasted anyone he could with a superheated projectile. Two Zotari slumped over instantly, their heads removed from their bodies. The remaining warriors recoiled in fear giving Alex the time he needed to slam the door shut once again.

This process repeated multiple times and Alex was finally able to finish putting the passwords in. The second he did, he slammed the enter key on the keyboard and the lights went out, hopefully throughout the entire city if he did his job right. Now, he had only one job left in his master plan—escape. How was he going to do that? He had no idea, but the pounding had only intensified likely signifying that the number of enemies he currently had was increasing.

After a quick search of the room, he found that there were no other exits aside from the solitary door.

Dang! I was hoping for a cool escape through some air vents or something. I was gonna be Tom Cruise.

Looks like he had to make some space for his getaway. He needed to disorient them enough so he could dash out unscathed. Without many options, Alex decided he would rely on his strength to get him out of his current predicament. The group was a little more organized now and they pushed together, forcing the door open further with each passing second. Alex could barely resist them and he was lucky that they didn’t have a higher leveled Zotari among them or else he would have already been overpowered. He channeled some energy to force the door mostly closed once again. He got as far back from the door as he could. For this to work he would need as much of a running start as he could get.

He timed their movements to capitalize at just the right moment. The door slid open with each push until it was finally wide open the Zotari looked like they had just won a monumental victory. Their jubilant expressions were instantly wiped from their faces when they saw Alex rushing forward like a bull. He bowled over the Zotari standing directly in the doorway, grabbing one of the final ones in his path. He slammed his fists into its face until it went limp. At that point, he flung the unconscious alien back to slow the Zotari that had remained on their feet. Flailing limbs entangled with three more Zotari, knocking them to the ground.

Alex didn’t wait to see how many were giving him chase. He needed to get out of there. The complex was a maze and Alex didn’t have time to sort out a path. He simply barreled through any corridor he passed. On more than one occasion he had to brawl with a few Zotari at once. Since they were all such low leveled, these fights weren’t much of a hindrance. He wasn’t too worried about the Zotari inside the complex. It was the ones that were surely on their way that pose a real threat. If he wasn’t gone by the time they arrived, he wasn’t sure he would make it out of this alive.

The door flung off of its hinges as Alex blasted through the passageway, finally exiting the building. He wasn’t sure which way he was going to head, but he just knew he needed to put as much distance as he possibly could between him and the complex.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

After he ran for around twenty minutes, he started to slow his pace. He wasn’t sure if anyone was following him, or if he had lost them in his mad dash, but the last thing he wanted was to run into a patrol right now so he started moving much more carefully. At each crossroads he listened for any movement before moving through the intersection.

I’m going to make it out of here, Alex thought confidently.

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Krizzik watched with earnest. This would be the first step in their retaking of Tristix. If they could take the city back, not only would that give them a better foothold for a counteroffensive, but it would give his people the morale boost they needed so desperately. With each loss, their will was declining. If he couldn’t muster up a win soon, this war would be all but lost.

While the grub’s return had been far from what Krizzik would have preferred, he still had hope that the awakened would be able to help them. His growth was astounding, more so than he had even hoped for. If he couldn’t take back the city, no one could.

That was why when the lights went out all across the city, Krizzik only smiled. His gambit had paid off. He had stuck his neck out to get the grub back, and now he was seeing the fruit of his labors. This would be the spark that would ignite the hearts of his soldiers. The vision of the dark city brought a bonfire of light to the Saxan’s future.

This didn’t mean that they would be able to strike just yet. Alex still had a few more missions to complete. Krizzik had given him all the tools he could and now it was out of his hands, but this was a good sign. He tried to keep his emotions in check, but a roar from the camp pushed him over the edge and he allowed himself a moment before he would compose himself. There were preparations to be made.

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Alex kept waiting for something to go wrong. Something always went wrong. And yet, nothing ever did. He finally left the city after what felt like hours. There weren’t any pursuers from what he could tell and he took his first full breath in a long time.

Well that’s a nice change of pace. Am I getting better at this or did I just get insanely lucky?

It wasn’t perfect by any means, but this had been his best mission to date. He didn’t feel like he could pinpoint any blaring mistakes he had made. Any time something had seemed to go wrong, it was mostly out of his control.

There was something that was extremely wrong however. Alex’s foot was itching like crazy. At first he wasn’t sure why it was. He just started scratching at it like it was a pan with crusty eggs on it. It felt so good and yet so bad at the same time. The relief was sensational, but the second he stopped scratching, his foot felt like it was going to catch on fire. He had to stop itching until he found his campsite, but when he settled in he started at it with renewed fervor.

After half an hour of intense scratching, something changed. It was still itchy beyond belief, but now, there was a tiny nub. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but after a while he needed to slow down his scratching because it started to hurt. He retracted his Eonsteel from around his foot and looked on in equal parts horror and amazement. There was a little nub where his pinky toe had been before it was so rudely removed from his foot.

Alex watched in amazement for the next hour as his severed toe began to regrow. It was like watching a time-lapse of nature itself. He had always enjoyed videos of a seed growing into a fledgling plant. This brought him similar joy. It nearly brought a tear to his eye. He wondered what the limits of this ability were.

Is it going to grow back exactly the same? Is it considered the same toe or a completely new toe? Is it going to be longer?

He pondered on that last question for far too long before shaking his head to refocus.

There is no way I’m trying that. I don’t know if I’m ever going to be brave enough for that.

Alex was just going to have to live his life, working what he was born with because that was way too risky. What if he chopped it off and it didn’t grow back? He hadn’t really had a chance to utilize it to its full potential before his accident and he had just been given another chance. Not that he envisioned himself banging everybody he possibly could, but he wanted to keep his options open.

He looked at himself and realized he likely had a better chance at pulling ladies now than he ever had before. He hadn’t really taken the time to take it all in. It was always a constant struggle to even stay alive. But when he looked at himself now all he could think was that he looked like a legitimate superhero. His muscles had muscles. He could even see his veins bulging through his suit. Was that a normal thing for enhanced humans like himself? Who knew, but it looked awesome.

He hadn’t seen his face since before the tutorial. Apparently the Saxans didn’t believe in mirrors, so he didn’t know what he looked like that way, but it had to be at least somewhat improved. He had seen before and after photos of people who had done a total body makeover by putting in the time at the gym and they always looked better. Well maybe not always. The guys that juiced up always had the nastiest back acne he had ever seen.

After Alex fantasized about returning back to Earth for far too long, he spent the rest of the night going over the notes that Krizzik had left for him about the next steps in his siege. There was still a lot to do, but he was feeling more confident than ever. He could actually do this. It helped that Krizzik had done all the prep work. All Alex had to do was follow the plan. He could do that, right?