The wounds inflicted to Ajax have already stopped bleeding.
He grits his teeth as he pushes the frozen bodies of the men who stabbed him away. Their hands were frozen into the position holding their blades, so the swords were pulled out of Ajax's skin at the same time as he pushed them away.
As soon as the swords leave his torso, his wounds heal completely. He can feel his shredded intestines knit themselves back together. His kidney is also restored completely. The skin that was once perforated is good as new.
Neither he nor Shaula had done regeneration tests to organs of importance but he puts it into the back of his mind that even complex organs, such as his kidneys, can repair themselves either naturally or by a mere influx of energy. The air grows colder as water vapor in the hallway condenses onto his clothing and skin.
Ajax starts to appear as an apparition of frost within heartbeats.
The two frozen corpses he threw away land against two people, a man and a woman, who Ajax had already passed. The two living humans are knocked back by two hundred pound frigid corpses each and try to regain their balance.
Two down. Five left to go. Then, the bomber himself.
There are three people in front of Ajax now. He focuses on Orin still behind the three of them. He has to kill him now. His pain is only urging him to move forward. He's so close to victory here. Ajax doesn’t know how long it will take for Orin to explode but he knows that he has seconds before this building faces collapse.
However, there are three people in front of him. This time he realizes that they might actually pose a threat to him. Somehow these people, unlike the ones that he had killed so easily in the other building, have the ability to match his speed. He's going to have to be wary. He’s never faced opponents like this before.
One of them moves towards Ajax holding a metal bat.
How's he so fast!?
Ajax dodges the man swinging his weapon directly at his face by bending backwards, almost as if the bat is a limbo stick. He feels confident that even if he loses his balance he can still catch himself. However, a second man uses Ajax's imbalance to swing a large sword directly downwards into Ajax's horizontal chest.
Oh no–
“AAAAAHHHH!!”
Ajax feels blinding pain while the sword slices through Ajax's right pec as if it were butter. His breastbone and the ribs holding his right pec are sliced through. The sword moves past his ribs and slices through Ajax's right lung including some bronchial tubes. The feeling of the air being forced from his lung directly into his chest cavity is an unbelievable pain.
This swordsman was somehow able to position himself to Ajax's right side, having perfectly used the opportunity given to him by the man with the bat. Ajax involuntarily coughs and only blood is pushed out of his mouth, spewing forth in a spray upwards.
His back lands on the ground this time forcing even more air out of his right lung and into his chest cavity. Luckily, the air isn't stuck there, it's actually forced out through the wound that the sword had created in his chest. The pain of a punctured lung feels different from the pain he’s faced earlier.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
If Ajax didn’t know any better he would think that he was having a severe heart attack, though he knows his heart still works by how fast it is beating at this moment. To his ears, it sounds like a drum, incessantly going on and on.
Ajax feels immense fear and pain as he contemplates the wound on his chest. He feels like the closest moment to death he's ever felt has to be now. His eyes dart back and forth between the man who swung the bat at his face, the man who has stabbed him as well as the third man who is holding his own sword.
They're standing there dumbfounded. As if they didn't expect their tag team attack to work. They believe instinctively that a person who has faced an injury like this is moments from death and they are standing there as if asking themselves whether they can start celebrating right now.
The amount of blood from Ajax’s mouth and his chest wound that is expelled onto the floor is another indicator. For a moment, they forget what they had already seen from the man. That he had already healed two sword strikes to his belly.
Ajax’s perception is slowed down farther than he has ever slowed it down. The three men truly do look like they are moving at slow motion. He can feel all the energy he's absorbed so far raging through his body as his muscles and bones enhance themselves in preparation for the expression of his desire to live.
He wonders, through the pain, why he is here. Why did he choose to do this? Is he really that good a person? Did he ever believe he was willing to challenge the risk of such pain in order to defeat and kill all of these terrorists? Sure, it’s every kid's fantasy, perhaps every man’s fantasy, to stop a terrorist attack in progress.
But, the tremendous suffering he feels at this moment makes him wonder why he decided to be so stupid. He wants to cry right now. His heart starts beating fast enough to support the needs of his current fight for survival.
He knows that he was supposed to be an engineer. He was supposed to go to a reputable university. He was supposed to show his parents his achievements. He was supposed to see his sister grow up.
What did he do to deserve this? To be brought to this place, this hellish place? To have to do this?
Who did this to him?
Why is he forced to feel this pain? Why did he find out about these terrorists, him alone? Why was he the only one who could save these innocent people? What kind of place is this?
His questions keep repeating within his mind. He wonders over and over again, but can find no satisfying answers. His anguish and sorrow turns to anger.
I’m in hell right now. I’m fighting against… demons. I need to… to kill the demons. I need to kill them!
His eyes turn to the man standing over his body, holding the blade that has destroyed his chest and right lung. Within moments, the wound in his chest stops bleeding. The man perceives the change and realizes that things aren't over yet. However, his body enhancement spell cannot compete with Ajax's angered state.
Before he realizes it, Ajax grabs the man's upper arm with his right arm. The man is frozen solid before he can even blink, let alone yell for his compatriots to help him.
One of the two remaining attackers standing over him returns to a battle ready state but her carelessness can only cost her life. She tries to stab Ajax directly in the head this time with a thin blade. However, Ajax pushes the frozen corpse of the man he’s holding with his right hand leftward to block the sword stab.
The sword is too thin to successfully pierce through the frozen flesh and reach Ajax's head, though it does nearly touch his eye.
Without wasting a moment, Ajax grabs the leg of the man with the metal bat with his left hand and freezes him solid. The energy of the man is being guzzled by Ajax's own speed and strength needs. At the current rate that he is absorbing energy, Ajax will have to absorb the body heat of someone every three seconds to maintain this perception and agility.
The woman with the thin blade pulls her blade back and Ajax throws the man with his long sword still in his chest back towards the woman with just his right hand. The body barely flies but does force the woman terrorist to quickly retreat. He then removes the longsword from his chest, the wound healing instantly.
His pain finally disappears, but the anger remains.