I didn't get to relish the feeling of being able to finally see because a fleshy tentacle erupted out somewhere to my left and pierced a fellow clown through their chest. The resulting scream made me panic and the world suddenly got brighter; As if my eyes were cameras, a blue hue tinted my vision. It was wavy, rippling every time a person moved in the stands and I watched with fascination as the energy swayed, moving, slithering from person to person.

The stands looked like the surface of an ocean to me and in the middle of that deep ocean is a whirlpool that sucked water in a black vortex straight to the center and to a... thing- I tried to look at it; blob-like, circular? No, my eyesight and panicking mind is playing tricks on me- it- it didn't have a shape, more like a mass of organic matter that changed every second. In some places, the mass pulsed and I can see veins of varying color move underneath the surface.

I focused on a vein, staring as it grew out of the skin, surfacing like some purple, headless serpent before erupting and lashing out into a nearby person. The guy screamed but his family didn't seem to want to hear his call for help. He got sucked in and pulled into the mass of flesh, eventually disappearing. That guy seemed to have been the last thing the blob needed to grow even further because it started to mutate after the guy's outstretched arm sunk beneath the flesh.

A head popped out of the blob followed by two yellow eyes that immediately locked into me. Something clicked inside my head when I met its creepy yellow eyes and I subconsciously started sucking in the energy around me. I don't know if it noticed or not but even if it did, I'm pretty sure it would have done the same thing anyways- that is, sending out another tentacle to stab me with.

My eyes widened for a single second before I suddenly used the energy inside of me and turned it into something else. I felt myself getting stronger and my reflexes sharper. Then everything slowed down, the tentacle included. I didn't think twice to twist my body away from the tentacle and that is when everything went back to normal.

I almost bit my tongue when pain washed over my entire lower back. The upgrade in my reflexes had been a godsend, without it, my tongue would've definitely been cut in half just now.

I heard the sound of something being pulled back and in the corner of my eye, I saw the tentacle that hit me reel back to the blob. Even with all my boosts, that thing almost hit me, and thinking about it reminded me of what happened to the clown earlier- the way their chest erupted in blood, and how something sharp and leathery entered one end of their chest and out their back. A phantom of the pained scream that came out of their mouth echoed in my ear and my heart started racing.

My back felt painful. I reached out with my right hand and tried to touch it. A squelching sound entered my ears and I felt something wet and warm through my gloves- my heart beat even faster, the sound thundered in my ears and I- I don't want to die-

My plea got answered and I felt myself sucking in more of the energy around me, it went through my skin and stayed under it. It made me feel stronger than before. My skin started to tickle, followed by my muscles, the ticklish feeling crawled across my body, to my organs, head, neck, ears, and eyes, when every part of me started to feel funny, that's when I consumed the energy to boost myself.

The ticklish feeling disappeared, replaced by everything slowing down. I looked around; everyone was panicking, their mouths hanging open, staying that way because of the time stop. The people, the same ones who wanted to watch us risk our lives stopped in running poses; arms in front of them, legs flailing wildly, and skin red from panic and exertion. Tentacles, all of them colored in a deep purple, are all over the place, their thin, sharp tips pointing to someone unfortunate enough to be in front of them.

A few tentacles were halfway through a strike, some of their targets probably aren't even aware that they've been targeted. A few others... well- if the face of horror that a turning woman had as she stared at the tentacle aimed at her back is any indication, then she definitely knows what's gonna happen to her when she gets stabbed by it.

The time stop allowed me to see a few people getting assimilated too, some had half buried faces into the blob, their skin stretched, mixing with the organic flesh of the blob as if it was made of clay. A man directly in front of me had his mouth opened wide while trying to call for help, his eyes were panicked, and the entirety of his face is, by now, connected to the blob. His face is nothing but a circular patch of skin with eyes, nose, and a screaming mouth on the thing's skin.

And the blob itself... looking at it calmly, I now know what the thing attacking the circus is: Doughey.

The guy, thing, bioweapon- whatever it is, Doughey is supposed to be an A-Lister, a super at the top, someone- something that the Peerless is supposed to handle if it decides to come out. I don't know why he's here, attacking a humble circus while also going all out but now that I know who he is, I only have one goal: Escape.

There's no fighting Doughey. Not when you're not stronger than his ability to assimilate organic matter. And I honestly didn't want to know if I'm stronger than it.

The world went back to normal speed and I started to panic again. I glared at the ground, willing myself to teleport. Teleportation is a staple for most of the magic themed capes but it seems that I don't have it because the only thing that I managed to do is become heavier, the extra weight did help me land on the ground faster but knowing that I can't cast spells removed a bit of my confidence in escaping the blob of flesh assimilating everyone.

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I landed in a cloud of dust and didn't waste a single moment in pushing myself out of everything else- the metal dome, doors, the stands, people- none of them were safe from my charge as I crushed and pushed them away with all my might. I ran, continuing until I reached the outside of the tent. Somehow, I got lucky enough that I didn't get caught by some stray tentacle but none of that is in my mind right now, the only thing that's important is to escape and that's exactly what I did.

I ignored everyone I could, even those that asked for help. I pushed past them, I didn't care if they were young or old, what mattered is that I lived. None of their lives are more important than mine.

Something hard hit my chest when I pushed through a stand, someone screamed behind me, incoherent and barely understandable, but the panic in their voice is there. I ignored all of it and tackled my way through the panicking masses.

People fell over but that isn't the most concerning thing that I saw, no, it was one of the tentacles piercing through the tent and going out to hit someone in the leg before dragging their screaming form back inside.

I suppressed a shiver and ran to the ten feet tall brick walls that surrounded the circus and separated it from the slums.

The power that ran across my entire body died down the moment I climbed the top of the stone wall. I scaled it for half a minute and other than some slight back pain, I didn't feel anything. I rotated my arms and almost fainted from the relief of cracking my stiff shoulders. Well, that, and the part where I spent minutes trying to climb a 10 feet tall wall while gritting my teeth through the pain. Feeling slightly lethargic, I rubbed my lower back and involuntarily, my left eye twitched from the jolt of pain.

I hissed, "fuck that hurts." And it really did! Seriously, for someone that's mainly considered as a joke, good ol Doughey can really land a punch. And I still can't believe that he was somehow just "Getting started" back then.

The guy really packs a punch.

Turning around, I held back a grimace at the sight of the burning circus tent. Everything and I mean everything is up in flames, the flags, the walls, stalls, furniture, games, a few rides, and the barrels of rum that are, quite frankly, overpriced for something that tasted so bland and bitter. Everything being made of cloth probably didn't help the chances of keeping the fire from spreading either.

And in the middle of all that sat this... monstrosity of a blob. Purely made of thousands of tons of flesh, fat, and other organic matter, the brown, smooth blob with two long hands that wouldn't be strange to see in a gorilla is called Doughey, the villain that you don't want to see when you're in this part of the city. The cape is a cannibal in a strange sense because it's not exactly that he wants to eat people, but he does it voluntarily in order to grow his mass and get new features for his alternate form.

It's safe to say that whoever is left inside the tent with him when everything went to hell, is probably a part of him now.

Standing over 23 feet tall, Good Ol Doughey is jutting out of the tent, his smooth, bald head shone under the orange light of the flames. He flailed his arms around, hitting anyone unfortunate enough to be in the limb's trajectory and catching those who didn't get hit. I didn't need to explain what happens to the people who get caught between his sausage like fingers.

Morbid fascination did get me curious enough to see the entire process though. And seeing Doughey's mouth expand down to his neck to reveal the mutilaed interior of his throat is honestly one of the few things that I thought I wouldn't see during my life. Also, amidst the half digested/assimilated hands, legs, and other body parts, sat, strangely, a lone torso with an intact head.

The guy, who I think is the actual Doughey, had brown hair and a face full of freckles, his torso is muscled and is on the leaner side of things. I saw his half naked self sit on the upper part of Doughey's throat before he made eye contact with me, he slid downwards moments later.

And that is when Doughey's fat, neckless body turns to me with an even uglier expression on its face. The face, if you can even call it that, is completely flat, it had no nose, no mouth, and the only real features it has are these two, yellow bright eyes that glowed under the darkness. Like some apex fatman, the flabs of fat present on the thing's face gave it wrinkles and a clay-like look.

Though, everyone knows that whatever Doughey's fleshy body is made out of, it isn't clay.

And not wanting to be turned into whatever material does make up his body, I turned away from the lumbering now 30 feet tall giant and fled with my tail between my legs.

The circus is dead and I really didn't have business in staying and watching the aftermath.

I didn't stop running for so long and even when a part of me is sure that I'm out of Doughey's range of influence, I kept running, I didn't want to stop. I ran and ran until my legs started to burn. By that point, I'm more than certain that Doughey wouldn't be able to catch me but I kept running anyways, sliding into alleyways and taking detours to make sure that if he did follow me, then at least he wouldn't get to know where I live.

I continued running, moving past the shitty abandoned building full of mutated roaches that people like me call home. I didn't even turn to look at it when I passed by. I only slowed down when my legs got so tired that only the adrenaline kept them from buckling down, but still, I kept moving, just with shorter strides this time.

Sweat dripped down my back, my body is leaning forward, my chest burns and something hot and acidic is threatening to rise up my throat. I took in a deep breath and felt my heart get squashed between my lungs, my chest started to tickle, then I started coughing. For a while, the sounds of me uselessly clearing my throat were the only things that my ears picked up and when everything stopped, bile went out of my stomach and into my throat.

With a dry heave, I lurched forward and puked, the pang of acid that assaulted my mouth caused tears to form in my eyes.

And that's when the crying started.