“He’s a Physic, Enchantment type.” Ina informed them quietly, her calm yet alert eyes not leaving the large-bodied man that just appeared.

“Aw, the mundane girlie remembered. I’m touched.” He spoke, a mocking grin spreading on his face as he crossed his veined and bulging arms and confidently stood in their way. “How about the other mundane, remember me?”

Calvin flinched, feeling a dull ache from his ribs as he was reminded by the earlier attacks. His eyes dilated, brows furrowed, glaring towards the culprit. “I’ll make sure you’d wish I didn’t.”

“So scary.” The man chuckled, raising his hands in pretend fright.

Calvin looked to Ina, and the latter did the same.

They nodded at the same time before pointing a finger towards the back. A second later, two barrels appeared from thin air, each one containing weapons they had looted from the raided workshop.

The other children that froze due to the appearance of the menacing man were suddenly thawed upon the sight of the barrels. Of the weapons. It was fight or flight, and the two had already chosen for them.

“There’s eighteen of us.” Calvin spoke sternly, both for himself and for the people behind him. “Just one of him.”

“But he’s—”

Ina suddenly grabbed Alden by the wrist and pulled him backwards, interrupting his train of thought. A sharp wind suddenly blew his short brown hair upwards, revealing two dilated irises staring in disbelief at the sight of the enemy’s fist barely missing him.

The man didn’t let up, casually twisting his body and sending a powerful straight towards Calvin who was right beside him.

Calvin, already expecting the man would attack him from his disgusted glare earlier, had ducked and rolled the moment he saw the man near him.

All the others backed away with frightful faces, some tripping on those behind them as they panickedly shuffled backwards.

“What? Did you think I was dumb enough to let you little shits make a plan? Not like you can do anything to get past me, but it’s better to be safe, you know?” The man’s unchanging grin turned dark.

“It’s called manners. Even villains have that.” Calvin quipped back, trying to buy time to think of a plan. ‘Fuck! What do we do?’

“Well, unlucky you. I ain’t no villain, kid. I’m a fucking freedom fighter—”, the man dashed again, his speed faster than before. Calvin couldn’t even let out a sound of surprise before he felt an impact on his side, “— you’re just a fucking mundane.”

“Calvin!” Ina and Quinn screamed in concern.

Calvin’s body rebounded off the wall, crashing on the ground below. He felt a dull pain in his arm, a large bruise was undoubtedly forming. In a stroke of luck, however, he had found his pocket and worn the shirt. The super shirt.

Ina ran in and jumped to hit the large man on the head with the help of gravity. He was quick on the draw, easily grabbing Ina’s rolling pin and tossing her back to Quinn. Quinn grunted, catching Ina and cushioning her fall.

Some of the others gained courage, using their powers from afar to try and deter him. Wind picked up and formed into blades that sliced towards him, flames appeared in the air in the form of cards that were flung with explosive power. Birds of ink, silver cutlery, whip of pure water, all of them threw everything towards the man.

Wind shredded, fire exploded, ink splashed, silver rang, and the whip cracked. A cloud of smoke blanketed the area of devastation, making a glimmer of hope bloom from the children.

A glimmer that was snuffed just as quickly when the smoke cleared.

The man was grinning, flexing his arms as he crossed them in front of him. “How’d you like that! You golden-spooned little shits? Scared aren’t you? Good! I worked hard to be this fucking awesome, not like you you silver-titty-sucking fucks. You don’t deserve any of your powers!”

They paled, slowly backing away as the man’s stature seemed to tower over them as he got riled up from his own rant.

He chuckled grimly at the children’s retreating figures.

“Wait your turn, kids. I can’t kill y’all, but this one here’s a free meal.” He turned back to Calvin who had sat himself up, holding his bruised arm. “What’d you say earlier? You’d make me wish you didn’t remember me?”

“Congratulations, you have a memory slightly better than a fish.” Calvin replied through gritted teeth.

The man laughed darkly, glaring disdainfully towards him. “I’m going to make this slow. You fucking mundane.”

‘Those goddamned eyes— hm… eyes.’ Without pause, he immediately pulled on his power.

There was a significant drain on him, like he just summoned half a hundred pebbles all at once. A grin couldn’t help but spread on his face as he watched the man’s eyes change color in its entirety.

Like balls of darkness, they blocked all light. And consequently, his vision.

“What the— alright, whos the fucker that turned off the lights?” The man started tapping on his holowatch, clearly trying to use it as a light source. “Fucking— open the lights before I start killing all of you!”

Calvin slowly and silently got up as the man was starting to panic. He stepped softly, as soft as he could, before jumping up with his stun stick raised.

Bonk.

“Ow! You fuck!” The man swung towards him, but Calvin had already jumped backwards out of his range.

“Now! He’s blind!” Calvin shouted to the others in the back. He pointed to the now-overturned barrel with its contents spilled on the ground. “Beat him with sticks!”

Calvin jumped in again and smashed the man’s temple with the stick from below, disorientating him and sending a shocking jolt into the man’s body. He seemed to shrug off the lightning, but the stun effect stayed true albeit more muted.

The man cursed and sent a backhanded swing towards him.

A thud rang out as the man’s hand bet with his old trusty [Impervious pebble]. Calvin smirked in glee, but paled slightly at the sight of his undamaged hand.

Another stick struck the man on the back of his head and behind his knee, Ina had rushed along with Quinn, brandishing a cudgel of their own.

The crocodile girl joined in on the fun, brandishing two of the cudgels like tiny drumsticks in her enlarged scaly arms. She slammed both down on the man’s back, making him stumble forward from the force.

Brought to his knees, the others got the message and started dogpiling on the man. Every stick went down with no abandon, hitting his head, his back, and his ass.

“Fuck! Ah!” He cursed, every attempt to strike back met with a mysterious immovable resistance.

“I.” Bonk. “Fucking.” Bonk. “Told you!” Calvin grinned while smashing the man’s head repeatedly and summoning a pebble whenever he tried to get up or move his arms.

“Fucking— Enough!” The man, now bleeding and bruised on his backside, roared with unbridled fury.

In the man’s hands suddenly appeared a syringe with green fluid sloshing inside. With a swift stab to his other arm, the needle shot out of the metal casing and pierced through his skin and into his veins, letting out a flow of the green liquid into his bloodstream.

With instant effect, the man’s veins bulged and shifted into a sickly hue, his muscles swelled into an inhuman size as he let out guttural and beastly growls. The others started to notice the transformation and started to back away with shaking arms. The rest continued to smack him with greater force.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The man’s arms suddenly dug into the floor, piercing straight through rock and rebar. With a grunt he heaved the entire floor up in a mighty arc, lifting a huge chunk of rock up as he stood. With a beastly roar, he slammed it back down, creating cracks, a quake, and a crater that freed him from the children’s bullying.

“I’ve had enough of all you fucking kids! Fuck those centrist bastards! I’m going to kill you all!” He shouted in undisguised fury, his muscles turning a shade greener as he started fuming and growling like a wounded beast.

“Run!” Alden shouted, making everyone scatter away from the rampaging man.

The man turned to where Alden’s voice came from and charged, letting out a roar before crashing straight into a wall. An explosive force shook the entire corridor as the man’s strength formed an enormous crater on impact.

“Fucking kill all of you… faking kill… kill…”

Rage boiled over the man, his senses starting to deteriorate as evidenced by the slurring and mumbling of words. He walked around blindly, flinching and staring towards every sound in earshot.

‘Okay, invincible hulk-monster. What’s your weakness? [Impervious Pebble] can probably stop him, but damaging him? It didn’t even leave a scratch when he wasn’t drugged up to his nuts, I doubt it will now either.’ He peeked out of the corner he was hiding in.

The man turned towards him with his black eyes. Calvin quickly ducked back into the corner, his heart drumming a metal beat. ‘What do I have in my pocket that could— the flask?’

He took out the flask, making the panel appear in front of him.

Super Absorb

Fragmented Essence detected. Absorb? Yes No

‘I hope this is something helpful.’ He confirmed it and proceeded to absorb the essence. The same thing happened as before, a white light that flowed into him, yet this time it was shorter. Much shorter. ‘Uh… that’s it?’

Confused, he pulled up his information screen.

Super Information

Super Name None Super Attributes Super Status Alive, Bruised, Slight-Fatigue(Physical, Spiritual), Fracture(Ribs), Spirit-severance, Presence Reduction(Plain White Shirt), Body Enhancement(Plain White Shirt) Super Body 0 (+1) Super Quest Road to Heroism II, A True Hero's Name Super Mind 0 Super Points 0 → 1 Super Spirit 1.5 → 1.7 (-0.5)

Super Powers

Impervious Pebble Gourmand's Instinct Color Control

‘A fraction of a point in spirit and one free point. Better than fuck all, I guess’ He immediately added the point to super body as it seemed to be the most useful right now.

Strength immediately filled him. He didn’t bulk up suddenly like the green monsters roaming the halls right now, but he felt a lightness in his body and a tightness on his skin. An odd feeling, to say the least, but not uncomfortable.

“Hooh…”, he breathed out, letting the the tingling feeling in his body slowly rest and disappear, “alright. Let’s—”

“Found you.” A guttural voice scraped his ear.

Instinctively, he dove forward with all his strength, dashing and almost headbutting the other wall due to the unexpected power in his legs. He heard wind whistle behind him, followed by a gut-busting impact and a crumbling wall.

He rolled and stood as fast as he could, turning to face the monster man. The instant he did, he came face first with a green fist heading towards his head.

The imminent punch approaching his face disappeared, replaced by Alexander the ‘swapper’.

Calvin looked at him wide-eyed before nodding to him in appreciation, not wanting to say anything in fear of attracting the green man. Alexander nodded back, and the both of them started sneaking away towards where the others were regrouping.

It was only a corridor away, back to where they choked the old man. They met Alden, Regina, Ina, and Quinn, all alertly paying attention to them and the hallway behind.

“Everyone okay?” Calvin whispered.

“Yeah, you?” Ina asked, her gaze dripping with concern.

“Peachy.” He looked to her leg, seeing the bruise made when the green man had grabbed and threw her to Quinn.

Alden coughed quietly, pointing to somewhere further in the hallway. “Everyone’s in that room, better with less people out here.”

“Corridor’s too tight, everyone was tripping over everyone else back there.” Ina nodded.

“We need a plan.” Calvin steered the conversation.

“To smack the monster dude.” Alexander added.

“I don’t get his power. He seems invincible.” Regina frowned.

“No” “Not invincible.” Quinn and Ina said at the same time, surprising each other. Ina gestured for Quinn to continue. “He was bleeding from his back. When we were hitting him earlier, I saw blood through his shirt.”

Calvin’s brows raised as he remembered something. “He said nothing when you guys bombarded him with powers, but he groaned in pain when I hit him in the back of the head.”

Alexander nodded. “So, it’s a canon gimmick? Invincible but only from the front?”

“Or it might be tied to awareness. Maybe he has to be aware of the attack coming to be able to nullify it.” Ina suggested. “Either way, back of the head or torso seems to be the best spot.”

“That’s not even counting that green monster transformation he has.” Calvin added, shivering from almost getting hit in the face with that cement-crushing fist.

Quinn shook her head. “It’s a drug, not a power. Something really illegal.”

“More illegal than illegal?” Calvin raised his brow.

“Much more.” She smirked.

“Super illegal. Got it.”

“Can’t we just go past him? Isn’t there another corridor we can go through?” Regina suggested. “It can’t just be that hallway.”

Calvin projected and examined the map, tracing where they are and where they need to be. Right now, everyone was probably in agreement that the exit was a better choice than looking for their holowatches. Including him.

“Here. Another corridor.” Ina pointed.

“It’s a longer way around, but there’s no green power-lifting monster in the way. I vote we head there instead.” Alexander spoke, his eyes scanning the map thoroughly.

“It seems the safer way.” Ina nodded. “Besides, we don’t know if other supervillains are already headed this way from the commotion he’s causing. He might be able to serve as a distraction at least.”

All of them agreed to the new plan and made their moves. Regina, Quinn, and Alden went to get the other students while the rest went back to scout the route. Mainly to scout if the green man was now rampaging on the route.

They peeked out the corner and saw the man, still cursing at a random wall. ‘Still there, guess the blindness I gave him hadn’t disappeared when he transformed.’

Alexander nodded at him then made a shushing gesture to remind him to shut the fuck up. He gestured towards Calvin, miming a slow walk with his fingers, then pointed to the other side of the corridor.

Calvin nodded and sneaked to the other side, careful not to hit any of the debris and make noise.

The two waited for a few minutes until a line of people came from behind Alexander. The two of them gestured the ‘shut the fuck up’ signal towards the incoming group, followed by the ‘he’s right fucking there’ signal pointing towards the monster.

Fortunately, the universally understood signals for survival had been understood immediately by the group and all began to move quieter. One person at a time, like children crossing a dangerous road.

Unfortunately, while Ina was passing through, the ankle sprain she was sporting was taking its toll. Her leg wobbled and she almost stumbled forward, only luckily catching herself with a soft stomp.

She sighed internally.

Clatter.

They all froze, looking at the source of the sound. It was Calvin, leaning forward to catch Ina when she was about to trip. He had nudged a piece of debris with his foot as he stepped forward.

He looked towards the green monster. Void-like eyes stared back at him from the other end of the corridor. It heard.

“Fuck.” He cursed, looking at Ina in a panic. “Run!”

As he shouted, he pulled on his power to summon a few pebbles in between him and the green man in an attempt to stop its charge.

A heavy thud rang out in front of him, the green man’s fist had hit a few of the pebbles and stopped a few meters away. The man was heavily breathing and growling, his sanity fully transformed into whatever creature he was right now.

He disappeared, circling around the immovable pebbles in breakneck speeds, grabbing Calvin by the neck and pinning him to the wall before he could react.

“Mundane.” He growled in his beastial voice.

‘Great. He completely remembers me even in that state.’ Calvin thought while struggling to pry the man’s hand off. Even with two points in super body, all he could do was wrench its grip enough to open a gap and summon a pebble. “Gah! Fucking— let go!”

He kicked and struggled, constantly summoning the pebble before it disappeared so as to not get choked by the man who now had two hands over his neck. He could see veins bulging in anger and effort, trying to crush his life saving pebbles.

“Alden!” Alexander shouted, turning to him. “Hit me in the back of the head with the stick then use your power!”

“I— my power doesn’t work with—”

“Make it work!” He interrupted him, his eyes turning back to the monster. “Now!”

Alden hesitated slightly, but complied and readied a swing to the back of his friend’s head. Without sound, Alexander was replaced with a muscled back of a confused monster. Riding the momentum, Alden pulled on his power as he smacked the back of the monster’s head with as much force as he could.

The green man leaned forwards slightly from the impact, before another compounded on top of it.

Then another.

Then another.

Impacts kept ringing out from the back of the monster’s head, making it dizzy and hazy as the power didn’t let up. The monster’s skull started to crack, the frequency of the impact started to increase.

Calvin, now beside Alexander, looked towards where he swapped with the green man. It was on the ground with its head getting buried deep into the cement every second. Alden was starting to pant and collapse, but he kept pulling on his power in desperation.

Eventually, the impacts stopped, leaving a green monster on the ground with Alden lying on the floor breathing heavily. Some of the others, including Ina, carefully walked towards him, asking if he was okay.

“Damn… didn’t think it would work.” Alexander muttered, turning to Calvin. “You okay?”

“I feel like I’ve heard that question too many times in a single night.” He grumbled. “Thanks for the save.”

“Yeah.” Alexander chuckled, shrugging like it was nothing before jogging towards Alden.

Calvin kept staring at the green man on the ground. ‘Wait… is he still?’ “Back away! He’s—”

The green man stood up, dent in the back of his head, turning towards Alexander with a monstrous anger.

“Shit!” Alexander cursed, immediately being grabbed by the green man by the arm. The green man’s other hand shot towards his neck and started choking the life out of him. “F—fuck…”

“Stop.” A sonorous voice filled the air. “Damn… I went here to scold my right hand man and his fat ass friend, only to see my crib demolished to shit.”

Calvin wanted to turn to look towards the voice, but it was like his neck was made of stone and his body imprisoned by invisible glass. He suddenly felt dizzy, almost in deep nausea, but the force holding his body hostage disappeared.

He turned, finally seeing a man in pajamas, back slouched like this was just another lazy Saturday. There was an object around his neck, a metal collar that had all the signs of it being tinker tech.

The man let out a disappointed sigh, his eyes void of emotion and color scanned the corridor and every person in view.

“You little shits are such a handful bunch, huh.” The man spoke, unhidden annoyance in the tone of his voice. “Even made this fucking moron use his drugs. I didn’t think it would be easy but goddamn, this is annoying. Fucking… how do I make things simpler for all of you…”

His eyes sharpened, looking towards them with an intimidating gaze. There was a moment of silent contemplation before the man nodded grimly.

“I’m going to have to kill one of you, huh.”