‘While I abhor the bastard to the core… If there’s one thing I can respect about him… It’s that he always got what he wanted. Yes his father made sure of it. Yes, the authorities ignored all of it. But on the day he entered class, he took immediate control. And the rest of the school bent the knee not long after’

‘No one spoke out against him, because he held a firm grip and didn’t let anyone within his reach, outside of his control. He kept everyone in check, ruling with the only emotion that works. Fear. And the fucker started it by making an example out of me. So I’ll reciprocate by targeting the strongest within my reach’

Silas peered down at the unconscious boy straddled and secured by iron clasps that held his legs and arms down to the sides of the bed. No doubt relaxed from all the wasted energy squirming only hours ago. He observed as the muscled student’s eyelids remained still, engaged in a false state of reality. But his pleasant dream wouldn’t last for long.

Silas clutched at a scalpel displayed by a cabinet case. Such a tool was often unutilized in a world of magic and potions. It remained clean and sharp, as it awaited to be used. Its only application was in cutting out parts of an eroded body. Parts too corrupted to heal.

‘Yet revenge begets more revenge. It’s a bridge only burnt when the other party loses all will to fight back. As they become trapped through a moment of vulnerability. As fear overwhelms them. And they become weak. They become ignorant. And they allow for the cycle to repeat’

“Watch the hallways”, he commanded the only other conscious soul within the room.

“Why am I even helping you with this?”, he winced as the scalpel Silas held gleamed in the air.

“Because you know of the chaos that’ll ensue. And you’ll make use of me as I will you”, ‘because even that fucker had goons’, Silas squinted at him to fall in line.

“Haaa… You were supposed to pay me to learn of my intentions”

“...”

“Fine, stop glaring, I’ll do it”

With the only entry secured, he focused on his goal. That goal was the sheet that the patient hid under. As he clutched the sheet, he folded it in 2, cutting off a small piece before rolling it to form a rope. He put one end under the boy's neck, performing a hangmans knot before hoisting the other end over a support beam on the ceiling.

‘I wonder if such knots are employed in this world. I’ve yet to bear witness to an execution…’, he mused as he finally drew his free hand back for some extra momentum.

Slap, Slap.

Silas squished the boy's cheeks together after his slaps, applying a cloth made by the sheet he cut off earlier to his mouth.

‘He’s a deep sleeper?’

Sswip

“MMMMMRPH”, the boys eyes opened wide, but his mouth was clasped by a foreign source.

He could feel blood squirt from a vein on his arm, leaking onto his tanned skin. It didn’t help that with his bulging muscles, that the veins were equally prominent, as if protruding through his forearms.

“Do you remember me?”, he spoke with a deadpan expression.

But the boy's verdant green eyes only glared deeply into his own, his dense brows furrowed as he lunged at him in an attempt to escape his bindings. To no avail.

Silas hoisted on the end of the rope, the boy's head pistoning up as it was pulled by the neck, while his lower half remained pinned to the bed. His eyes bulged as the oxygen left his lungs.

“I know how it goes. You’ll seek remuneration for today. Probably spout some bull by your family’s name. But I’ll pay it back in full before any debts start accumulating”

The boy squirmed in a futile attempt to divert the situation. And it wasn’t long before Silas witnessed a crimson red glow emit from his veins. Slowly moving across and to his arms. Yet he had a tool prepared for that.

Sswip, Ssswip

“Grrrrrrraaa”, the boy lost more oxygen in his desperate attempt to conjure a spell.

But with the veins cut off, the mana merely flooded outside the veins bounds, leaking into his bloodstream without control. Diluting it with its colour, but it was harmless to the body.

Body cultivators with the means often formed a rank 1 or 2 core first before fully focusing on their body. A part of why was to employ the conveniences of simple magics in everyday life. But the main reason was that it allowed mana to be moved to specific parts of the body. In order to perform a simple type of technique that could bolster specific parts of the body marginally until one’s mana drained.

“You’re not still trying to conjure something are you?”, Silas stabbed the scalpel into the boys hand, but it didn’t burrow very deep despite the force he applied.

Yet on encountering more resistance from his hardened skin, he couldn’t help but realize the scalpel's durability wouldn’t last against such a tough exterior. It was perhaps best used against veins or innards than to deal with the skin of a body cultivator. Such were the limitations of iron tools.

‘Yet the healer of such a renowned academy deals with such shitty tools? Unbelievable. He’s probably sold off the better equipment, or at least secures it somewhere safer than a display closet’

With a hand free, he decided to lift up the boy's clothing, exposing his tanned abs while still Asphyxiating him. And with all revealed, he found another glow emitting towards his belly.

‘Well, good thing I have my steel dagger’, he reached under the bed out of sight, though with the boy struggling to breathe he wouldn’t have noticed anyway.

Silas brought up the dagger and cut straight in, the veins hidden deeper than on his arms. But as blood continued to spill, he used his power to leverage it all downwards, carrying it with a force greater than gravity as the blood slowly leaked under the bed, pooling in a sphere underneath it.

“Grrrrr- Plaaaaargh! Why?!”

“Oh”

The cloth around his mouth came loose. So he promptly let go of his dagger and pushed it back up while answering him.

“I don’t really want to subject my ears to the sound of your misery. I’m not like Leo, I’m not like Kiyah. I need not listen to your nasal voice as you beg for mercy-”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

‘Oh, he’s gone’

The body went limp as he fell unconscious as if drowned by his spiel. Silas let go of the rope, letting the boy breathe, if he could even still do so. Though a body cultivator wouldn’t die from just this. But Silas still needed him awake.

‘I don’t really have a way of resuscitation…’, but he couldn’t help but look at the potion closet.

‘Hm… Later. For now, chest compressions’

Thump, thump

Cough, cough

“You’re back so- No. Don’t think you’ll escape so easily”

He walked out of sight to the potion display while the blurry eyed boy drowsily recalled his bearings, struggling as he chucked a fit once more. He glanced at the potions on display, some labeled heal, others detoxify, some with different coloured liquids, but most of them were filled with red.

‘Well I’m sure they won’t notice’

The display was conveniently unlocked, probably on account of there being a single person working there. And on happenstance they actually needed it, it had to remain easily accessible. So all he had to do was grab it, reaching for one at the back, and holding it by the shaft. The shaft was thin and easy to clasp, but the base was rounded to fill a larger space. He twirled the potion a few times, watching as the red liquid inside swirled to each side.

‘But potions don’t regenerate blood… I wonder if it can jumpstart his heart? No I won’t try such luck, I’ll just cleanse his wounds before the doctor gets back…’, he stared at the squirming boy, as he continued to act with high intensity.

‘Well, after I’m done…’

And so he next opened up his stomach.

‘Though it proves a little resistant, it’s more resilient than when I stabbed Dromunds arm, and weaker than the others… Or maybe was it similar to when I lashed out at Thaite? He has to be Dark Bronze ranked then, possibly Light Silver’

He proceeded to pour a little of the potion at the large gushing wound, before he clutched at the organs within. But his attention drew to the spleen. He grabbed it, the slimy texture slipping through his finger creases.

‘Didn’t Brombock mention a pierced spleen? But how did he know?’, he questioned while observing the hole still healing within it. Potions truly worked wonders when drunk instead of applied to the exterior.

‘While I’m not too versed in spells, I don’t recall an observation type existing that granted x-ray vision… Perhaps he’s a gift relating to one? Not all gifts have yet to be replicated into spells after all…’

But his attention focused on realizing the incessant howling of his victim.

“You’re just lucky it hit that. You can live without a spleen, though I wonder the effects a potion would have on a lung. I believe you can live without one…”

“Mrphhhhhmrphh!”, the boy looked on in defiance.

Time went by unnoticed as he continued to apply new wounds on him. But the most severe was made to his mind. He even tried to reach up there, but the scalpel wouldn’t reach from his nose. He also attempted to test a theory on eye regeneration. And it did regenerate, but the iris remained red and bloodshot. By the time he was done, half the potion he had acquired was emptied. But at least the boy was still breathing, though his eyes remained vacant as if in shock.

“Mhmrhphhhhmrrph. Mhmrphhhhh…”, the boy lay groaning in misery.

“He’s coming back, whatever you’re doings gotta sto- Oh”

But his mutilation ceased on the call of Tendan, absorbed in his thoughts as he looked at him in his bloody uniform.

“Hm, if he’s coming go distract him”

“Dude… You fucking masacred him…”, he stared wide eyed at the scene in front of him.

Wounds littered the body, his stomach opened up. Blood leaked from the table, but it only seemed as if gravity was taking its course.

“If he’s coming, go now”, Silas flicked his arm, awakening him from his stupor.

“Fuck, right”, he shook his head as he hurried off, leaving them alone once more.

“While it’s a shame I couldn’t break you now… We’ll meet again and finish things off”, he spoke as he opened up his leg with his dagger, cutting into some tendons.

“Mrrrphhhhhmrrmmmm”, the boy cried a handful of manly tears.

‘I’ve damaged enough of his insides to put him out of commission for the rest of the day’, and with that thought he started applying the last of the potion on the exterior of his flesh, watching as it slowly sizzled together.

‘At least this is a higher tier than from the local stores’, but when all his external injuries were being treated, he tugged at the rope once more, stealing his mouth binding as the wearer needed it no more.

It didn’t take long before the boy lost his breath. By the time he was unconscious, he finished cutting the mouth cloth into pieces with his other hand, as he used them to help cover some of the boy's bleeding wounds. On the application of his skin, he made sure the cloth absorbed any excess potion liquid that hadn’t fallen into the wound yet.

The potion would need time to take its course. The fact it was high tiered helped heal faster, but it wouldn’t be fast enough to stop the bleeding from spoiling his garments, alerting the doctor as a result. He next pulled down the boys rolled up clothes, hiding the cloth and wounds.

The last layer was the sheet, as he undid it from the knot he previously assembled. While the sheet came loose, he briskly applied it to the boy, tucking the ends under his mattress, as if tucking him into sweet dreams. It wasn’t a moment after that he heard a pair of footsteps leisurely enter the room.

Before they arrived however, he dispelt his dagger and all the blood flew into his empty potion bottle. He walked over to a window, holding the potion before him as he unlocked it and opened it up. Yet he kept the potion by the ledge. His thoughts conflicted if he should chuck it, but he swiftly made up his mind, as a breeze flew in to disrupt the bloody smell.

“What are you doing there?”, the doctor spoke in his husky voice.

“The air was stuffy, he likes it fresh”

“Did your talk go well?”

“He never woke up”

“Hmm… Is that so?”

The doctor walked over and cusped his palm on the unconscious boy's head.

“He’s hot and sweating”

“That’s why I opened the window”

“Hm…”, he looked over to the scalpel by the desk.

“That’s not where I placed that”

Yet Silas rolled his eyes as he turned to him, keeping the potion behind his back.

“I picked it up? It’s different from a dagger”, it was not a common tool students were subjected to.

“Hmm…”, the doctor looked back to the boy as if to discern evidence of mistreatment.

Silas took this as a chance, walking down the pathway with the potion to his side. He nudged Tendan as he passed, jolting him as he sighed. Alas the doctor called out first.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’ve checked on him, what more do I need to do?”

“Hm”

“Ah, did you enjoy your drink sir?”, but Tendan stood forward while Silas walked past him.

“It was an adequate refreshment, sure. But the buzz won’t calm me should I require to work more”, he squinted while analyzing the boy’s body as a result.

Tendan spoke for longer while Silas walked further down. He stood off beside the cabinet that he had earlier acquired the potion from. Only taking a step away as he heard a voice calling for him, facing the man that gazed back at him.

“Ah. What did you say your name was?”

“Silas”

“What?”, Tendan questioned.

“Hm?”, the man turned his back again, as if indecisive where best his attention was required.

“I thou-”

“No”, Silas interjected before Tendan could pose a problem.

“Ah, nevermind. I see”, he turned to fulfill his job at diverting attention.

“I don’t…”, the man whispered, but his eyes had eased.

Silas took a step closer to the cabinet again placing the bottle back where he found it, right at the rear end. Then took an immediate step past it as he turned to find no one paying attention to him.

‘It’s red enough, it should blend right in’, he then took his time as crept by the entryway.

His movements were slow and methodical as he moved his crutch at a measured pace. He ensured to remain as stealthy as possible while his crutch creaked with every step against the wooden floorboards.

On applying his back to the entryway door, he couldn’t help but glimpse at the simple latch lock system that the sliding door employed. But then more important thoughts laid on his mind.

‘Should I wait for him?’, he peered at Tendan, scratching his head as he spoke to the older man at the end of the room.

‘I’m supposed to be acting as their friend, but he’s sufficiently distracting him… Well, he’s served his use’, he instead shrugged as he walked out to the hallway without him.