I didn’t need to see how fast Blurring Man was. I felt it plenty. I blinked once and he hit me three times. Once in the stomach, once in the chin, and once on the cheek. My Shimmer-Armor cracked in each location, desperately trying to keep my body safe. That didn’t stop me from nearly falling over from the force of each hit. When I stumbled back and regained my composure, Blurring Man just stood there, his head cocked at me. Even with his eyes blurred, after seeing how McLeod looked at everyone, I would always recognize the look of someone who was looking upon an inferior being.
“Not fast enough.” I could barely make out what he said.
“I’m not sure, I’m still standing.” I tried to stand up taller, maybe puff out my chest a bit. Looking confident and capable was just as important as sounding it. “Those were some decent punches. You’re fast enough, maybe, but not strong enough.”
“You won’t be standing for long.” He cracked his neck and got a few good pops out.
I wasn’t much for talking while getting my butt handed to me, so when Blurring Man was on me in an instant, I kept my mouth shut. Made it so I wouldn’t bite my tongue off, too. His attacks came from everywhere. My head, chest, arms, legs, and I’m pretty sure he even got a few hits in on my feet. There was no pattern that I could discern at his speed. At least Alex managed to get a few good punches in on the guy. Even tired and with a bad shoulder wound, I was just destined to be his punching bag until my armor couldn’t take the beating anymore.
My saving grace was that my armor held. For whatever reason, he didn’t spend too much time focusing on one area. He was with McLeod, so maybe he just wanted to flex his muscle like Eric did. Whatever Blurring Man’s reasoning, my Shimmer-Armor held strong, letting my actual body receive minimum damage. It wasn’t long before the game of trying to anticipate and reading his attacks became repairing my armor as quickly as I could.
“Good armor,” Blurring Man told me, stopping his beating for a moment. I wasn’t going to complain if he wanted to take five. “But how long do you think you can keep it up before I break through it?”
I generated two spears above either shoulder and threw them his way, which he effortlessly dodged, the element of surprise that gave me the first hit having vanished a while ago. I had to be careful. If I launched them too hard or too far, they’d be right on a path for Val and McLeod. Hitting McLeod didn’t worry me. In fact, that would have been awesome. I was pretty sure the more likely scenario would have been me impaling the blonde keeping him busy. If she went down, there would be nothing stopping him from killing or taking Rebecca.
Rebecca.
I was ashamed that I forgot about her, even for a moment. I didn’t need Blurring Man’s attention shifting anywhere, so I had to walk around and make it look like I was taking a different angle of attack when I was just trying to protect her with my body. It killed me to not have myself between him and her. She hadn’t been the target of any of his attacks to that point, and there was no need to push my luck.
“Can you run so fast you can go through time?” I asked. I was both trying to stall and asking out of genuine curiosity. I got a good look at Rebecca and saw that she was sitting on the ground, covering her head. She was playing the powerless and terrified bystander role perfectly, not drawing any attention to herself. Awesome. It was up to me to figure out how to beat Blurring Man. “You know, like in comics and stuff. Can a man really run fast enough to turn back time?”
“A man? No, but I’m no man.” Oh brother, another one who thought that his powers made him a kind of god. I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes at him. Naturally, he had to toot his own horn some more. “Lord McLeod is right. We’ve all transcended beyond normal humanity.”
“Lord McLeod? Seriously?” I was annoyed he didn’t give me an answer to my time travel question, making me take his silence on the matter as a form of denial. If he could turn back time by running that fast, I didn’t think there was another man on the planet he would need to call his lord.
“He is our king. You make it sound like you don’t respect him.” Again, his cocky head tilt. To him, not bowing to a murderer really did make me an inferior being.
“I can’t respect someone who’s killed as many innocents as he has.” I lobbed two more Shimmer-Spears his way. I didn’t expect them to hit, though it would have been just dandy if they did. At least a tight hallway gave me an easy enough space to throw my spears through.
“Everyone will, in time.”
“No one’s going to respect him except freaks and killers like you! He slaughters people, rips apart families, and treats humans like they’re bugs.” I never thought I’d ever have that kind of dialogue with someone. I never thought there would be someone who could shoot fire and hated normal humans to the point of slaughter either. “You guys are completely insane.”
“The noblest and boldest ideas are the first met with skepticism.” Blurring Man was really sold on that nonsense idea. I didn’t have to be Lori to see that he truly believed that he was helping pioneer some courageous new dawn. I decided then that I didn’t think his voice changing trick was cool anymore. “Do not forget that history is written by the victors, and as you know, McLeod does not lose.”
I was tired of him talking, so I took the practical route. I conjured up three spears and sent them his way. Instead of just trying to get a lucky hit, I tried to lead them in a pattern that would make him run into the wall, get hit by at least one of the spears, or both. Ideally both. My brief moment of weakness when I thought it might be worth joining them to save my skin had come in my old home in Oregon after one of McLeod’s attacks. I had no interest in and no intention of suddenly believing in their cause.
Surprisingly, the third spear actually caught is left shoulder, right as he tried to flatten it against the wall. Okay, great, so numbers were the way to go. To be fair, I wasn’t entirely sure if it was my strategic genius that made Blurring Man get hit, or if it was him being worn out from his much more equal fight with Alex. Oh well, the results were results.
“Slowing down there, Fleet Feet?” I didn’t really want to taunt him because I was feeling cocky. Actually, the hits he put against my armor were weighing heavier on my body than I had originally expected. Stupid soreness. The only thing I wanted was to keep his attention on me instead of anyone else. “I can keep this up for another week, you know.”
“Right.” He shattered the spear embedded in his shoulder with a grunt, and I felt that one pretty good. I had a sinking feeling that part of what made the base of my skull tingle wasn’t just how many of my creations were destroyed, but how they were destroyed. “You have such a beautiful and amazing power. You could be a god in this world. Your strength would be feared even among our ranks with time and training.”
“Thanks, but not interested. I’m not a god. I’m just a guy trying to finish high school.” Crap. I hadn’t meant to give out that bit of personal info. It just slipped out in my carelessness. I was so tired of him trying to get me to join his side, I was ready to say nearly anything to make him shut up. “But thanks, I’ve worked hard on my Anomaly.”
“Not hard enough, I’m afraid.” The voice came from behind me. Shocked, I turned my body around to see the Blurring Man standing right in front of my face. He slammed a vibrating, sparking fist into the upper-right part of my armor, completely destroying it. There was another crack that I didn’t hear until I was knocked to the ground. “Truly, your mastery of that power would have been magnificent to see.”
If he said anything else after that, I couldn’t hear him. Pain flared out from my right shoulder and the chest area surrounding it. I tried to take in a deep breath, a sound that came out as more of a pitiful wheeze, and it came with more pain. Even the tiny breaths sent jolts of agony all through my body.
“If I had to guess, I’d say I shattered your right clavicle.” That sounded like it could have been right. If he told me he punctured my lung or dislocated my shoulder, I didn’t know enough to disagree. He could have done all three and not even known it himself. Standing over me, he his idiotic cocky head tilt going on again. “Is this the first time you’ve broken a bone? It’s pitiful, really.”
He was right, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of confirming his guess. Instead, I tried to make another spear to attack. It crumbled uselessly above my head. I tried redoing my armor next, but it just fizzled and popped out of existence. My breathing just would not settle. Every time I thought I would get a good lungful of air, the pain would stop my mind from being able to focus. I couldn’t put together a good enough connection with my creations to get them to materialize fully.
“I take no joy in ending the life of a child,” Blurring Man said, placing a vibrating foot in the center of my chest. I screamed from the pressure it put on my injured area, unable to muster any strength to try and free myself. It felt like his foot was about to vibrate right through my chest and shatter my rib cage. “I am sorry for your suffering. I will make your death a quick one.”
I didn’t know how he planned on killing me, and I wasn’t eager to find out. My life didn’t really flash before my eyes either. I just had a few memories and future scenarios play out. All things considered, I felt lame about it. I imagined Shelly congratulating me for graduating high school, celebrating Megan’s birthday, and I even had a brief one of Rebecca and I living a long life together. I know, eager for someone who’d only been dating her for a couple days, but the mind under the influence of expected death and a broken collarbone is allowed to reach and indulge a bit.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
I still didn’t know what he was going to do. Whatever his superspeed plan was, it crumbled to bits like my recent Shimmer-Spear creations. His vibration suddenly stopped and I finally got a good look at the guy. He was a completely unassuming kid who looked like he belonged in college. All that bravado and talk of being a god was coming from someone barely older than myself. More humiliating was the fact that I was taken down so easily by someone barely older than me. McLeod with his years of experience I could understand. This was not a loss I was happy with.
“What the hell is this?” He looked down at his hands, eyes widening in realization. His voice was higher than mine, and I really got why he went through the trouble of doing his entire disguise. The intimidation factor just wasn’t there when he looked and sounded like that.
“You won’t be using that speed ever again.” Through the pain, I was able to make out her voice. I only saw her when I craned my neck up, a movement that just about made my shoulder feel like it was going to explode. Grimacing, I saw my redheaded savior placing a hand on the Not Blurring Man’s back. “Now you’re just like those normal people. The ones you think you’re so much better than.”
Before Not Blurring Man could retaliate, Rebecca put him in a familiar hold. I was already wincing from my predicament, but I would have been wincing if totally healthy, because the throw she was about to do was rough on my back. Sure enough, she contorted him awkwardly and flipped him over her body. He didn’t land with a crack like I did, though he did groan in pain. He may have broken my clavicle, but I felt a kinship with him from that throw.
Rebecca ran to my side and kneeled by my head. She placed both hands on either side of my face, looking over me for injuries, her lips pursed. “Are you okay?”
“You know, this is just telling me that I should get knocked on my back more often.” I put my left hand over her right and carefully sat up. Though I was still hurting, I felt a billion times better with her there. “Thank you for your help.”
“Please don’t make it a habit.” She looked down toward my collarbone and went pale. I followed her gaze and saw that there was a lump sticking up against my shirt.
“Dang, is this swelling? It shouldn’t swell that fast.” I wanted to try poking it. After all, it probably looked worse than it felt. Probably. “Maybe it’s bone or muscle.”
“It’s gross,” Rebecca said with a confident nod.
“What the hell did you do to me? Where’s my speed!?” Not Blurring Man was leaning one hand on the wall, inching his way toward us. Definitely not as scary without his power. Even without his power, he looked at Rebecca with hatred that told me more than any words could. “Give me back my powers, you bitch!”
He reached out for her, keeping one hand on the wall for support. I was just barely able to get a Shimmer-Spear made, but when I did, I wasn’t risking it fizzling out. There was a brief flash of pink and purple in my vision, and Not Blurring Man’s hand was pinned against the wall. He barely had time to get his scream out before I pinned his other hand to the wall with another spear.
His pained yells and groans made me feel a touch bad. He was barely older than I was and he had no powers. Then again, I had no proof that Rebecca’s power removal was permanent. Someone who was able to move that fast and shatter bones so easily wasn’t getting the benefit of the doubt from me. Plus, he just sort of pissed me off with all his posturing. Even though Rebecca did the heavy lifting, I wanted to do something to contribute. Teamwork and numbers were my strength against superior powers.
“Will he get his powers back?” I whispered to Rebecca even though I didn’t think Not Blurring Man would have heard me over his own yelling. She shook her head and winked at me. “Good riddance.”
Rebecca helped me to my feet, taking care to only pull on the left side of my body. I was sure I heard a grinding sound coming from my right collarbone area. With Val and McLeod still fighting, I decided to blame their scrap for the noise. Maybe I’d just gotten my bell rung like Lori and was dealing with some auditory issues from a concussion I didn’t know I had.
“Can you stand okay?” She kept two hands on me for support and only removed them when I nodded.
I looked down at Val to see how she was doing. There were black scorch marks all over the walls. McLeod’s blue flames were so bright that they made it hard for me to look down the hall, and Val was still right there, in the thick of it. I had no idea how she could stand to be so close. From my position, I couldn’t see any visible wounds on her. She had said McLeod could hold his own against her, but without her armor, I was seriously impressed with how she was doing. Despite it all, even her blonde locks managed to look perfect.
“I’m going to try to throw a spear at him,” I told Rebecca in a hushed tone.
“Are you sure? Lori had a gun and was scared to hit Val.” She placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Do you think you can hit him?”
“They’re slowing down,” I said, pointing down the hallway. Even though it was with my good shoulder, the movement still hurt enough to make me wince. “I think I can hit him with it. If he doesn’t see it coming, I don’t think he’ll be able to break my spear before it hits him.”
When I looked into her green eyes, they were filled with worry. I could see how much she didn’t want me to get involved. She didn’t say anything, instead pursing her lips and giving my shoulder a small squeeze. Maybe not a full vote of confidence, but I wasn’t giving myself one of those either. I turned my focus onto McLeod and his attack patterns, or at least what I could discern from them. I didn’t have a lot of tactical or combat strategy expertise.
The good thing was that they’d shifted their positions overall. When Lori had her gun aimed at them, it was right at Val’s back. Any shot that would have hit McLeod would have been in an appendage. When I watched them, both their sides were turned to me, and McLeod’s sword hand was on the far side from me. It was the perfect chance to hit him. I didn’t have to kill him with Val there. If I knocked him down, she could use the opening. If I could get just enough to incapacitate him...
“Don’t move, don’t move.” The Shimmer-Spear I just formed was already trying to break into pieces. Gritting my teeth through the pain, I forced it to stay together. I couldn’t find what I thought was a true hole in his attacks, so I was waiting for his sword to lower. It only took a few seconds for me to find the opportunity I had been looking for. When I saw him start to lower his sword, I sent my spear out as fast as I could.
“Lord McLeod, to your left!” Not Blurring Man might’ve had his hands pinned, but he didn’t have his mouth sealed shut.
McLeod glanced over from the call of his underling. Casually lifting his left hand, he shot a condensed torrent of blue flame at my Shimmer-Spear. It vaporized it like it was nothing. Sure, it hadn’t been my sturdiest attack ever, but I thought it would have been able to hold up a little bit more than it did. My connection to let me feel just how easily it was destroyed, causing me to feel the familiar tingle at the base of my skull.
I’d been so preoccupied with that feeling that I failed to account for where the torrent of fire would be going after it destroyed my weapon. Because I’d sent it flying from my left, the flames were headed toward Rebecca. That’s when it felt like everything slowed down for me, giving me enough time to make a new plan. Okay, that was a lie, I just acted on instinct.
Sadly, I wasn’t at the top of my game mentally. Instead of putting up a barrier or some armor on my left arm to try and mitigate the attack, I just pushed Rebecca behind me with my left hand. It got her out of the direct line of fire—literally—which had been the overall goal. Shame about my left arm, though.
The torrent of fire hit me right on the top of the forearm. Instantly, everything was incinerated down to the bone, and then that was turned to ash too. The force from it sent me spiraling around onto the ground. The spears I had pinning Not Blurring Man to the wall were destroyed from my focus being totally shattered. I heard him hit the ground with a small thud, and there was another noise of something getting hit that I didn’t see. I was staring at the terrible state of my arm.
The torrent of flame had been thin enough that it didn’t cut my arm off. It was strong enough that it punched a hole clean through, like stabbing paper with a knife. There was just enough flesh, and I guessed muscle, on the outside of the hole to keep my arm together. If I used that arm to prop myself up, there was no way it could have supported the weight. The damage around it wasn’t nearly as bad in comparison. The horrible third-degree burns were like a quiet spring picnic compared to the hole. The farther away I got from the center, the more intact nerves I still had.
That pain was unbelievable.
I hadn’t ever even burned myself cooking or baking, so it was an entirely new experience for me. No matter what I did, the pain wouldn’t stop. I moved my arm in the air. Still hurt. I pulled it to my chest. The moment it touched my shirt, it felt like I was being burned all over again. It was a blessing I didn’t wear something with long sleeves. The fabric might have melted into the skin around the edge of my wound.
And the smell was just terrible. There weren’t enough words in the English dictionary to describe how awful smelling your own cooking flesh was. If it just smelled like cooking meat, that would have been bad enough. Either burning human doesn’t smell quite the same, or there was something about his fire that made it worse.
So, like any rational person, I settled on screaming my head off. I didn’t get sick, despite the gory sight in front of me. But I was screaming like I was in a horror movie. Even though I couldn’t feel any pain directly in the center, the rest of the burned area did more than enough to make up for that.
“You have guts, I’ll give you that.” Through my blurring vision, I saw McLeod throw a small grin at me. “Most wouldn’t try that, even if it was a blindside attack to a distracted opponent. I commend you, young man.”
“Please, just let him go. Don’t hurt him.” It was Val, saying her first words in what felt like years at that point. It was raw with emotion and pleading. “He was the one who made sure I was safe here.”
“Oh, dear daughter, why didn’t you say that before?” McLeod laughed, almost as booming as his commanding speaking voice. Echoing off the walls, it felt like his voice alone caused my wound to throb with agony. “As a token of my gratitude, I won’t pursue you. All of you may leave.”
“What?” Val sounded dumbfounded, so it had to be out of character for him. “You’ve never let someone go from a fight.”
“You’re correct, but none of those people have ensured my daughter’s safety either.” McLeod stared me hard in the eyes. It felt like his blue fire was crawling up my spine. “Boy! You’ve done me a personal service by giving her a home. You, my daughter, and your other ally are all free to go.”
Val looked like she wanted to fight about it. “No! I won’t let you destroy their homes. You won’t destroy more!”
“Then regroup and plot to defeat me in the future, daughter. But I recommend you take my advice. This is a mercy that has been gifted to very few.” He turned his head and looked behind him. His cold eyes settled back on me. “And I suggest you hurry, because I will not be stopping her from chasing after you, nor will I talk her out of her grudge she has for you.”