Chapter 41: Will
Zan prepared himself. Blood dripping from his head, this wasn't like anything he had ever faced.
The red-haired boy looked at the massive man, seeing that there were two of him standing there, and then he looked at himself.
At this time he was only twelve and weighed around ninety pounds. The man before him was quite literally twice his weight and more, while also being at least two feet taller than him. As much as Zan worked out, even the muscles he was proud of were much smaller than the man's gargantuan, burly legs.
At least he had one advantage, he thought to himself. The bonus of seeing two of everything, while his opponent only had one functioning eye. In Zan’s optimistic head, that was like four times the advantage!
A terrible scar laid over the man’s left eye, so naturally Zan dashed over to the man’s left side as fast as he could and stuck to it. The massive man did not know why he was doing such a thing, and naturally he could care less. He did the most logical thing and simply ran after the boy.
The red-haired runt ran across a dense group of trees, and quickly the man noticed how difficult it was to track the boy who was running on the blind side of his vision. Everytime he swerved his head to the left, the only thing he could catch was a glimpse of the rat running out of his right eye’s field of view.
Zan meanwhile was playing a minigame, trying not to hit the trees that seemed to have doubled in quantity. Luckily, the man wasn’t observant enough to ask himself why Zan was avoiding the trees to such a large margin.
PHEW!
Something whistled in the air, the man turned his head at the same time and that was when a rock slammed right into his temple. The boy threw it with all his strength and all the coordination that his brain had left him.
Unlike the rest of the man’s body, there weren't any rippling muscles to protect his head, so the blow shook his brain and blood leaked out of his skull.
It should have been a small victory for the boy but instead he cursed out loud. That rock was meant to hit the man’s other eye, not his head. Normally he would have been able to hit such a small target effortlessly, and blinding the man in both eyes would have all but guaranteed his safety, but now…
“You fucking cunt!!! I’m going to smash your skull open!!!”
Zan was right, while it made him quite dizzy, it also made him ten times more furious. As he was getting ready to run once again though, he suddenly stopped. The boy watched in surprise as the massive man tripped on his own legs and fell to the ground.
While he quickly scampered up to chase after the little runt again, by the way he was stumbling it was evident how much that blow affected him.
‘I might be able to get away from him now if I just ran away…’
Sadly, pride got in his way.
‘I bet I can knock this guy out though.’
Zan ran through the forest once again, sticking to the left side of the man’s vision. The massive giant ran without consequence, he was practically bulldozing through the bushes. Even some of the very young and weak trees were snapped in half at his reckless charge. The red-haired boy in response ran to an area with larger, older trees. If the man wanted to charge into those wooden pillars, Zan would welcome him to do so with sincerity.
On the way the boy picked up whatever random objects he could, and threw them at the man. A rock, a stick, a squirrel— whatever thing he found on the forest floor, he pelted at the man. The giant learned his lesson once however, and did his best to protect his head from all sorts of attacks.
The boy did not relent and instead threw all kinds of objects at his legs, focusing on the shallow wound that he previously made on the man’s leg.
The man frequently closed the distance with the boy, yet every time he was so close to grabbing the little shit, the boy found some lucky way to slip from his grasp. The first time, he had a handful of dirt thrown at his eye. The second time, the boy threw a snake he found on the ground at him. The third time, he ran back around and threw that crying little girl at him. She screamed in absolute terror before she fell unconscious from hitting the charging man.
A small war of attrition was taking place as cat and mouse endlessly ran around the forest. Luckily the boy incorporated cardio into his exercise plan, while the man focused only on his muscle.
The numerous objects the boy threw started to eventually wear down on the man. As hard and muscular his body was, it could not match the hardness of stone. Well, at least not in this area of the world.
The man practically stopped running to catch his breath but the boy kept throwing rocks at him all the same, even going as far as to pick up the rocks that he previously threw. The boy did not stop throwing them even when he saw the man start to fall over. A stone hit the man’s head, then his knee, then his hand, Zan would not stop until he was sure the man was done.
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The young boy’s heart started to race at the prospect of beating someone much stronger than him, even if he did use sticks and stones. All he could think of was that single achievement, and the pride and satisfaction it would bring him.
Beating someone meant you were better, that’s all. And Zan wanted to be the best.
That line of thinking was obviously flawed, and its very foundation was filled with issues. Somewhere in the boy’s head however, was that fixation, that obsession on being the strongest, on being the best no matter how he achieved it.
…So much so that it introduced him to a plethora of problems, and distorted perceptions on the world.
THUD!
The last rock was thrown right at the man’s head, and he finally fell over. Zan’s mouth turned upwards and shined a triumphant smile. Slowly, he walked over to the man’s collapsed body and stood above it. The boy crossed his arms and raised his head to the sky. reveling in his ability, reveling in his achievement. What was that saying? The bigger they are, the harder they fall?
“Brother?”
Zan turned around and what he saw was his beautiful sister, her clothes still wet and dripping with river water. The little girl must have swam to shore and ran here as fast as she could. It was pointless though, because he had already taken care of it.
“Ele–”
Zan’s instincts suddenly kicked in and he swerved his body quickly.
“Watch out!”
THWACK!
A gigantic fist smashed through his left hand, driving into his ribs.
A red-haired boy was thrown across the air.
THUD!
His back slammed into the base of a tree as he coughed up blood. The falling leaves covered parts of his vision but he could see the man stumbling over.
Zan’s left hand was all but broken, and his ribs were fractured from the leftover force of the man’s gigantic fist, yet he raised his left arm anyway to protect him from the coming blows.
The man was weak and dizzy, but the amount of force that 220 pounds of furious muscle could generate was still devastating for the pre-teen boy. A fat leg approached Zan’s head, and despite the skinny left arm blocking it, the strike drove into his brain and smashed it around. Furious kicks mangled Zan’s left arm, the leftover force of the kicks slamming his head left and right.
The boy’s eyes started to close and his brain was quickly starting to shut down from the impact of it all. As Zan’s destroyed arm fell, darkness consumed his vision.
The man grabbed a rock from the ground and swung it down on his head.
THUD!
Zan’s eyes opened wide once again. At the last moment, a crying little girl slammed her tiny body into the man’s arm, and shifted the momentum enough for the massive man to miss. The rock in his hands fell a few feet from the boy but in the next moment the man swung his fist back, landing a backhanded strike on the girl’s head, and knocking her unconscious. A giant bruise was left on the girl’s face and in the next moment, the man proceeded to approach the girl and rip off the ragged linen off her body.
“No one said I couldn’t have my way with you first.”
Zan’s vision started to fail and he could feel his consciousness collapsing. The pain in his body and the damage to his head led the boy’s brain to practically demand him to shut down all of his functions. He told his legs to get up but they stayed in place. He told his arms to move but they would not move. In frustration, the boy did the only thing he could do, and bit his lip to try and regain any sort of autonomy.
The bleeding red fell from his mutilated lips, and the few moments of mental alertness it gave rise to was not wasted. Darkness was settling in his vision, asking him to rest but the boy refused it. His body screamed at him but he screamed louder at his body. The burning will inside him rebelled against the pain and rebelled against fate altogether. In his mind’s eye, he directly visualized the power of his sheer will, entering and empowering his body to move.
As Zan screamed at his body to get up, the fabric of reality had started to bend. The forest, the river, the sky started to break open and gave way into primeval darkness. The boy did not stop at any of these circumstances and simply continued to focus his will. In the effort to will his body to move, his own consciousness and will was reentering the present state of his body.
Quin, who was busy calming the eldritch flesh of Zan’s body, was thrown off from the three-layered force that burst out of the figure. The eyes and mouths on Zan’s gray flesh were starting to close, but they opened wide again, infuriated and more awake than ever.
The eldritch flesh started to plunder the orb’s reserves again, leading to an overwhelming river of power entering him. The mouths opened and they bit into his human flesh once again, intending to devour it all this time.
Yet, this time, something stopped them. A powerful, invisible will brought them to heel.
In response, the eldritch flesh seemed to have its own mind, and deep in the etheric layers of the body, it manifested its own will to retake back control. In a layer of the universe unseen— purple, liquid aura started to ooze out of the eldritch flesh.
Yet…in turn red auric flames burst out from the boy’s headspace and mercilessly crushed that purple aura. The burning flames led to a high pitched etheric scream but in the end, Zan had taken full control of all the powers in his body.
In a much deeper layer of the universe, the fates swirled and twisted once again. There was truly only one thing that could change fate, and it was the single, illustrious, exalted power of will.
Zan calmly opened his eyes to observe all the changes that happened, but he closed them once again, returning to a time of the past.
A massive, disgusting, one-eyed man was ogling at the body of his little sister. Silent footsteps approached the man, until Zan deliberately stepped on a stick, making an audible snapping sound. The man wobbly turned his head, and in the next moment, a small wooden shiv with a sharp point entered into his remaining working eye.
The man screamed like a pig, and Zan treated him as one.
The massive man flailed back in a pathetic attempt to of revenge, but the only thing he hit was air.
And then, a stone hit his knee. He did not know where it had come from.
But he did hear the crunching leaves.
So he ran at the sound of them. His size made his flailing look like an enraged giant, but to Zan it was just a pathetic attempt by a subhuman beast.
Each time the boy attacked the man, he would deliberately make a sound to lead him where he wanted.
A tree branch breaking, leaves crumpling— all these sounds only kept reminding the man of what he had just lost.
Blinded physically he could not see, and blinded by untold fury, he lost any sense of foresight that could have saved his life.
The sounds of flooding water emerged back into his ears, but the sound that Zan made was much louder.
‘That sound was close!’ The man thought.
‘He tripped! I’m pretty sure he tripped! I’m gonna fucking tear that boy apart! I’m gonna rape his fucking corpse!’
The massive man lunged forward, only for Zan to find the weakest point in his center of balance.
A well-timed kick tripped him, before two sticks broken from a tree branch approached his head. One entered and sunk ever deeper into his bleeding eye, while the other, sharper stick, entered his throat. The man then fell, right into the flooding river.
Zan silently watched him sink into the currents, before walking deeper back into the forest.
…
Elea had awoken. Staring at the wooden ceiling, she found herself in the small shack that Zan had built all by himself. Albeit built roughly…
Layers of blankets covered her, and on her head was a messily wrapped bandage. She heard a light snoring sound, and to her left, she found her brother sleeping upright on a chair directly facing her.
‘I guess you really did take care of it, huh? Wait. What the heck?’
The little girl looked at herself, confused.
‘Why am I wearing Shelly’s clothes…?’