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Chapter 19: My New Arm

The second time in my life did I feel like murdering someone, like boring my hand into a stomach and ripping their guts out. Though it was my own desire, it was the gem in my hand that longed for it and amplified my emotions. I could feel its wrath.

“Back up, Hercu. You're not in the right mind.” Miru walked passed me like he owned me. Like he possessed me.

“Like a slave.” An inner voice, full of rage, hissed between gritted teeth.

Crackling lightning tore free from the pores beneath my scale skin. Energy branched inside me. A power no one could stop, not even Miru.

I flashed forth. The wicked grin on my lips distorted my face. A surge of green lightning burst free from my hand and the whole alley flickered in fear.

“I’ll tear you all to pieces.”

I hurled my arm back, readying myself to throw a lighting punch at the bastard noble.

A stinging shock put a spike in my wheel. It felt like my arm burned up. No trace left of my overwhelming confidence. The world clouded over, lightning slamming everywhere.

Miru pulling down his blindfold was the last thing I saw.

—

I dipped in and out of consciousness to tremendous pain in my hand, people rummaged on me, and nightmares slammed down on me whenever the pain knocked me out again.

When I awoke properly a whole day later, I first had to listen to a fat lecture from Nita. I was no longer allowed to use my right arm outside of training.

But actually, I didn't care. I was more frustrated and sad that I stripped myself from the chance to say goodbye to Anna and Xenia. I'm sure Xenia didn't think I was so cool after my failure. I was a useless big sibling.

We were already on our way to the Dawn Sea to meet with the other crews from the Dawn Tide Breaker. They communicated by hawk mail.

Lisa, James, and Darrick accompanied us, making them our newest recruits. But except for a nasty look, I couldn’t do anything to Nita. It was the own decision of the three.

While I spent the next few days resting my aching arm, I tinkered on my prosthesis with the smarties, who looked like fools but had a lot more engineering experience than me.

I told them about all my ideas. They found things like flying ships or jet-powered shoes they found ridiculous, but they were interested in my suggestions for my prosthesis, so we worked out a big construction plan. This way, deciding which tools and weapons we would want was much more manageable. Besides, drawing a blueprint and playing around with ideas was fun.

As for my fingers, we planned to reinstall a lockpick in the index finger and a needle blade in the thumb. We also thought the little finger could use a shot of home-brewed poison. It wasn't powerful, but enough to knock out a grown man.

Even though we all loved the idea, we had to put our plans for a finger gun on the back burner. We just couldn't find a way to generate enough force when we had so little room in the fingers. The mechanism for my retractable blade didn't work out the way I wanted either, so I decided to take care of it another time.

My idea to connect the grappling hook to the prosthesis worked out. Initially, I just wanted to put a bullet with a spindle on my forearm. However, Colt, one of the few blondies in the crew, came up with an even cooler idea. If it wasn't for him, I'd have been lost because the other two, Dean and Rowan, weren't talkative at all. Colt's idea was to use the forearm’s shell for better armor and instead integrate the grappling hook inside.

Unfortunately, the hook's size and the rope's length had to suffer for that. We built the hook as part of the palm so it couldn’t be seen. The steel cable, the air pressure system, which we connected directly to the main motor, and the spindle were then installed in the forearm below the central piston system. We had to replace a few of the gears in the wrist with smaller ones, limiting movement, but after a bit of tinkering, everything fit.

The outer shell would be a thick Jade Mint reinforced black steel plate. The same material that was used for the Jade Mask. The finger knuckles we provided with small spikes as with a brass knuckle.

And at the latest, the prosthesis looked like the purest killing machine. And rightly so, because this thing cost a fortune in materials, not to mention the hours of work it would take to build it.

Well, at least we managed to build some things in the few days.

[Prosthesis Status]

Hand:

Thumb: Steel Needle-Blade

Index: Lock-Pick Tool

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Middle: Empty

Ring: Empty

Little: Weak Poison Vial

Knuckles: Steel Spikes

Palm: Short Grappling Hook

Backhand: Steel Gauntlet Casing 1

Arm:

Forearm (Outside): Steel Gauntlet Casing 2

Forearm (Inside): Steel Rope and Main Piston/Gear System

Shoulder: Main Engine and Double Cartridge Slot

We didn't have enough Black Steel left for me, and since it was rare to get, we switched to the standard variant. Nevertheless, this was anything but a lousy prosthesis. And we still had a lot of improvement for the future ahead of us.

After my few days of vacation, I was allowed to train again with Nita, who took me even harder because I now had two arms again, blah blah.

After dinner, the smarties and I continued tinkering. I was again chosen to go up to Captain Reysan and ask for more Jade Mint. I didn't think they did it to mog me. They were just reserved people.

Well, it still wasn't pretty. Since the last conversation with the captain, I felt he ultimately reduced me to my mutated arm. The dripping drool in his mouth was the only thing missing from his stares. And it didn't make it any better that he had talked about eating me!

I corrected my limp posture and quietly tested how my voice sounded when I arrived in front of the captain's cabin. However, as I wanted to knock, I heard a voice, and I couldn't help but eavesdrop.

“Don't you play games, Miru. The boy mustn’t be wasted. He cost us a lot.”

“I know. I didn't think my mixture would hit so bad.”

“At least now we know he has some talent.” Steps circled around. “Listen, I want you to train him personally, and when he's ready, you can—”

That Reysan suddenly stopped talking could have been for many reasons, but I took no chances with these guys and quickly got the hell out of there.

The smarties were disappointed when I lied that the captain had refused to give more Jade Mint, but it wasn't the first time, so no one was suspicious that I hadn't asked at all.

Expectedly, the next day, when Nita beat me—trained me, Miru showed up.

Nita noticed he wanted something and ended the round with a nasty kick to the pit of my stomach.

“What's up?” she asked nonchalantly.

“Good morning, Lady Nita. If it's not inconvenient, I'd like to take over training for a while?”

“Oh, sure.” She looked at me, watching as I clenched my stomach in pain. I swear this woman was a sadist from the finest.

“We can continue tomorrow. We still have a few days until arrival.”

“Honestly, I would completely take over training until then.” Miru nodded discreetly over to the captain's cabin.

Nita grunted. “All right, but don't break my little boy, will you?” She shot me a wink.

“I knew she was enjoying it!”

“Of course, Lady Nita.” Miru bowed. “Let's get started, then.”

She sighed. “Show him what I taught you, Hercu. And don't let him tease you.” Nita went to the captain's cabin.

“Sure . . .” I watched her back, confused. “What did she mean by don't let him tease you? Miru is—”

Jerking, I lost my footing and landed flat on my face.

Miru circled me.

I sat up and rubbed my back. “Hey, I thought—”

Another kick came at me, and this time, he aimed at my face. I rolled over backward and struggled to my feet. But Miru was gone.

Reflexively, I spun and jammed my elbow behind me, where I expected him to appear as he always does. I brushed against his coat.

He didn't seem to expect it, but his speed was unbeatable, even with the surprise on my side.

Palms, fists, elbows, and knees flew at me. An exchange of blows, much more unsettled than any fight against Nita, took place. Miru's attacks were more random and faster but also much shorter.

The short range made it much hastier, and I had to shift gears faster. He worked less with feints or extravagant moves. Miru was just straightforward and, therefore, precise.

Every time he would knock me out, he would adjust to just graze me instead of hitting me full-on so we wouldn't have to take breaks.

After a good minute, I slowly ran out of air. The dryness in my throat scratched, and sweat ran down my whole body.

Still, I wanted to keep going until I had hit at least once.

As Nita had taught me, I created space for myself with some distance and waited for a counterattack opportunity when he would follow.

Miru came at me with a beautiful lunging right fist. It reminded me of how I attacked the Nobel boy a few days ago. Was Miru trying to show me how many gaps there were in my attack?

Instead of dodging, I raised both hands to block and kept my eyes on his fist. However, when Muri arrived and his punching path was about to adjust to get past my block, I kicked him in his extended elbow with full force. His arm flung up uncontrollably. And as he continued to come at me with his momentum, giving him a nice jab to the face was easy.

But again, it didn't matter. Whether he expected it or not, his reflexes were simply inhuman.

He tilted his head to evade my punch and rammed me to the ground with his shoulder. I cushioned the fall as best I could and raised my hands again.

Miru stopped. “Short break.”

“Again, a parallel with the Nobel boy. Is he trying to make fun of me? Was that what Nita meant? Rather subtle teases, huh, Miru? I guess it suits his nature.”

Miru had no bead of sweat on him while I got grilled in the warm sun as much as I was out of breath. My clothes were completely soaked.

The day went on like this, and I vomited more than once from overexertion. At some point, Hale put a stop to this, and I could finally rest a bit. I skipped working with the smarties that evening and headed straight to my hammock.

Thoughts of Anna and Xenia swirled around my mind, but I couldn’t do anything about it. It was just frustration. We could have had a proper goodbye if I hadn't fainted, and I wouldn’t have embarrassed myself either. I hadn’t even gotten the chance to catch up with Anna, not even a little bit. I had so much to tell her, and she certainly had so much to tell me.

The boy I had seen only as a shadow crashed into my thoughts as I swam in nostalgia. I knew him, but I didn’t know who he was. Why couldn’t I see him properly? And . . . my eyes grew too heavy, and the dark dragged me into the dream world where I met the same boy again.

But without the black veil. And a lot younger.