I ran to the main square and knelt besides a tree as I opened my backpack. It wasn’t the most secure place on earth, but given that there was a huge fucking Minotaur down the road, I guessed no one would notice the guy who was putting on a neck gaiter and pulling it up to his nose. I took the green goggles placed them over my eyes and pinched the gaiter with it so, with a bit of luck, it wouldn’t fall down and reveal my face to the whole world to see.

I took off my jacket and sweater and placed them both into my backpack before throwing it into some bushes wishing no one would steal it. I kept the wool gloves on though.

I looked at my sneakers and stopped to think for a second. Was I really going to do this? Was I really going to fight against a whole ass minotaur so I could save my friends?

You can bet your ass I was.

I closed my eyes and thought. I had seen three unconscious people littered in the road, three of the Heroes that worked in this town. Why wasn’t the police or other emergency services coming? I opened my eyes and looked around towards the sky, far off in the distance, towards the riverside, I could see flames rising into the sky, probably another attack, and a big one if the flames were anything to go by.

“Well, it wouldn’t be fun if it was easy…” I said. Given what I knew, it wasn’t going to be enough to stall for a bit, I was probably going to end this myself.

I stood up and began running. I felt a bit of residual energy moving inside me as soon as my body began picking up speed. I moved towards the building in front of me, the one adjacent to the now half destroyed post office, and prepared myself. I hopped, landed in a crouch and, as my legs absorbed the energy from the impact, looked up to the building’s rood. “Five meters” I said, “Easy.” and aimed.

It was after I jumped that I noticed how long it had been since the last time I used my Ignition for real, it had been years, but as soon as I felt the wind fly past me, all the exhilarating memories of when I was learning how to use it came back to me, and it was as if I had never really stopped.

But it was obvious I was still very rusty. I barely made it to the edge of the roof and I had to pull myself up.

“I really hope no one saw that.” I sad, crouching in the flat roof and moving in all fours towards the other side, where the sounds of screams and shouts flooded the streets.

I hid for a second next to the roof’s edge and looked into the street. Travesía had stood up and was staring at the three meters tall villain with a face filled with rage.

“THAT’S THE FACE I WANTED TO SEE, LITTLE HERO!” Yelled Minotaur. “SHOW ME YOUR TRUE COLORS!”

I moved my eyes away from the beast as he pounced towards Travesía and the other two recovering heroes and focused instead in the group of 20 or so people that laid tied in the open plan that used to be the city’s post office. Surrounding them I could see four armed people. “Guns…” I whispered, I wasn’t very versed in actual combat, but I assumed it was safe to think they didn’t have an Ignition of their own and were compensating with guns. “Back wall is still standing strong, still a few standing pillars.” I smiled a bit. “That makes it a bit easier.”

I gazed towards Minotaur and the barely standing trio of heroes and prayed that they would hold onto the villain’s attention for a few more minutes. I looked down to a fairly clean space of ground between two of the lackeys, “Let’s do this.” I said and vaulted over the roof’s edge, falling with my legs outstretched beneath me.

I felt my feet touch the ground and put a bit of force into my muscles to soften the impact, just as I used to back in the day when I was learning to jump off trees without getting hurt. I could instantly feel the energy of the impact gather in my thighs as a swollen mass of energy before it expanded an moved to other parts of my body. “That’ll do for the charging.” I said, scaring the two men I had landed between, who turned to look at me. “Oops,” I said before snapping both of my fists towards their faces and sending them flying into the air before they landed in the broken tiles that covered the floor as two wet rags.

I looked at them flying majestically through the air before looking down at my feet and whistling a little. That had come out a bit more forcefully than I had intended to, but at least I could see they were still breathing in the ground, even though they were not moving.

“It really has been a while…” I said as I felt around inside myself, taking a glance at the mass of energy that had built up from the fall. It was a lot larger than I had expected it to be before jumping, something had most certainly changed within me from when I was first learning to use my Ignition.

I looked at the group of hostages and saw my two friends looking at me with bewildered eyes, I mean, it’s not every day that you see someone fall three stories, land without breaking his legs and punch two guys into next Tuesday without even breaking a sweat. I felt a smile forming behind my mask as I looked away from them, hoping they hadn’t recognized me. I focused my eyes on the two remaining lackeys who were just now reacting to the sound of their friends being sent flying.

I dropped into a running stance and launched myself towards one of the still standing pillars with a kick. I moved a lot faster than I had expected, but I managed to turn in the air and land against the pillar with my legs first, absorbing the impact with my knees the same way I had done before.

I lingered there, stuck against the pillar only by the friction of my shoes against the concrete. I looked up and focused on one of the lackeys.

“Conservation of energy punch!” I said mostly to myself as I kicked the pillar with enough force to crack it and sent myself flying towards the man with a bewildered expression. I felt my fist crash against his chest and I looked a bit in awe as he was sent flying towards his other confused partner. I think he was unconscious before really knowing what had happened to him.

I softened the blow a bit by absorbing part of the energy back into my body on impact by the way, I’m not going to kill anybody.

The second lackey, unable to react quickly enough, fell to the ground beneath the unconscious weight of his friend just in time to see me land close to them. As I got up and closer to them, I could see him trying to wiggle out from beneath his friend, but he wasn’t able to do that before I flicked him in the forehead. Even without my powers, I could pack a mean flick, so between this powered one and him hitting his head in the concrete floor with the whiplash, he was knocked out instantly. “And that’s that taken care of.” I whispered, quickly running around moving the place picking up their weapons and throwing them in a pile far away from them.

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So focused was I in my endeavor, that I didn’t really notice the sounds of fighting had stopped in the street.

“That was easier than expected.” I said before I managed to keep myself from jinxing it. I kind of understood what that last lackey had felt before I punched him as I flew through the air and landed with my shoulder against a wall at the other side of the building.

As I fought against the fog of unconsciousness and tried to stand up, I heard Minotaur’s voice coming from somewhere ahead of me. “No one told me there was going to be another hero…” he said, his voice lower and almost unrecognizable to before, as if he was talking to someone else and didn’t want anyone to hear him. “I’m telling you, I just threw him against a wall… you don’t know anything about another hero?” I finally managed to focus my eyes as the beast got closer to me. “I’m cutting it pretty close here… but yeah, I can do that…” He said before rising his voice to how it was before. “MINOTAUR WANTS TO FIGHT! HERO!” He bellowed as he lounged towards me.

He sent a massive arm resembling a tree trunk flying in my direction and I managed to focus just enough to propel myself away from the hit, I did not manage avoid the pieces of ruble in my way though, so I ended up in the floor a mere few meters away from where I had started, just in time to see Minotaur’s arm cracking the piece of wall I had been laying against. “Oh… shit…” I whispered, he wasn’t puling any punches.

If it hadn’t been for my Ignition absorbing part of the shock, I would have surely broken something and I would have been dead by now, nothing but pieces of meat stuck against a concrete wall. I needed to step up my own game.

Minotaur had a confused look in his face as he looked at his hand, as if he was asking himself how was it that he didn’t have my blood on it. I brought myself to my feet and cleaned the dust off of my jeans. “A bit overaggressive, aren’t we.” I said, with a whole lot more mock in my voice than I had intended to, but I wasn’t going to stop to apologize.

Minotaur looked at me as if he was looking at something that shouldn’t exist, and for a second his voice went back to what I assumed was his normal voice. “How did…” But he stopped himself and contorted his face with anger. “DON’T RUN HERO!” He yelled and ran towards me at a speed far exceeding what a being of his size should possess. He had both of his arms open, as if wanting to hug me.

I jumped over him, who was around three meters tall, and landed behind him. “Sorry pal, I have nothing against hugging my friends, but my parents taught me not to get hugs from strangers.” I heard a roar as I turned to look at Minotaur. “Aren’t you, like, getting bigger?” I asked.

And he was. His upper body was turning more and more beastly as the seconds passed. “DON’T RUN!” He bellowed, the hole building shaking with the sound.

“Easy, buddy, we wouldn’t like people thinking you are a bully, right?” I said, if I was going to mock a beast of a man that was, by now, at least seven times as strong as me, I was going to bring in the big guns. “See what I did there? Bull? Bully? I’m so funny!”

“NO JOKES!” He yelled, his speech getting worse and worse by the second, as he got his hand around a fallen pillar. “NO JOKES!” He bellowed as lounged towards me and swatted the pillar in my way like some kind of gigantic baseball bat.

“Did I hit a sore spot?” I asked as I jumped into the air and tried to make myself look like a ball. My arms felt the impact first, and I felt energy surge all over my body, I’d never done something like this, but as I thought, it had worked at mitigating most of the impact and at helping me get some more energy. I was sent flying through the hole in the building’s facade and across the empty street. “Home Run!” I said as I uncurled and landed in the floor, or well, attempted to land.

I just really kind of flopped and barely managed to stop myself from hitting the building at the other side of the street.

Minotaur’s roar echoed through the streets as he came out of the building and ran towards me. “So that’s getting him outside of there done,” I said. “Now I just need to beat him…”

“HERO!” I heard. “HERO NOT RUN! MINOTAUR KILLS HEROES! BALL HERO AND HIS FRIENDS! MINOTAUR KILLS THEM ALL!”

I looked around and saw the mangled bodies of the three heroes from before. They weren’t dead though, as I could see them trying to crawl away. “Me?” I asked sarcastically. “Ball hero? I think you have me confused with Ballor, you know, that one hero in Antofagasta? I’m not about to steal his whole gig.”

But Minotaur didn’t hear my masterful retort, and as angry as he was, I would have trouble believing he was listening to anything other than his own screams. He began running in all fours towards me. “It’s time I begin to take this seriously,” I said and crouched into a running stance pointing towards the villain who now resembled a train wreck in motion. I focused in the energy buildup I felt like heat all over my body and redirected it towards my legs, I felt them flare up in heat, as if I had just run for seven kilometers non stop, and, as I kicked the concrete, I released it.

I saw the world blur around me. I clenched my teeth to keep them from clacking and my left fist, redirected some of the energy towards my arm.

I could feel the muscle tensing and bulging inside my t-shirt as Minotaur’s huge fist closed in on me and I met his punch with one of my own. I’m pretty sure I heard the muscles and bones in my left arm scream in pain, though I might have been the one who did it, really, your guess is as good as mine.

What I am sure though, is that I saw how Minotaur’s fist was sent flying back, stopping him in his tracks and making him lose his balance

I could see confusion in his eyes, not understanding I was using a lot of the power he had used in me against him. “I’m not DONE!” I yelled as I landed with my right feet in front of me and twisted my body, filling my torso and right arm with most of the remaining power I had.

I heard my muscles ripple and creak beneath my skin as my right fist flew towards Minotaur’s exposed chest at an incredible speed. I felt my knuckles connect with his rough skin and heard the scary sound of bones popping and breaking as I lifted him one or two inches off of the ground. Not enough to send him flying but enough to make him completely tip to his left, leaving his head exposed, the path clear for my left arm to connect a third strike.

I gathered all that was left from the power and prepared for the last punch in case he tried to do anything, but it was never needed. As soon as Minotaur hit the floor, he began to shrink to a mostly human size, he was still big, and two small horns remained in his head, but he was nothing different than a normal unassuming human man with breathing problems. I had taken all the fight out of him with that last punch.

“Who… Are… You…” He said, his voice raspy, before falling unconscious.

I didn’t have time to answer, as I heard the sound of sirens coming my way. I checked that my gaiter as still covering my face, turned around, and began running away in the opposite direction to the sound.

My muscles ached worse than ever before, and I was pretty sure I had torn something and broken something else with those last punches.

And yet, I couldn’t help but feel exhilarated.

I had fought.

I hadn’t been scared.

And I had won.

My own power had won.

I didn’t forget to go pick up my backpack later that day.

Everything was still inside.