Eric enters his apartment and sets his stuff down. He grabs a soda and sits down. His cat hops onto his lap. "how are things misty?" the cat meows. "good to hear." He sits back and thinks about how empty it is.

Since his mother died in a car crash, his home has been less lively. He adopted a cat from the street and named it after her. Partly in remembrance and to feel less lonely. A knock arrives on his door. "oh shit." Eric looks at the calendar on the wall and sees March 31st, 2558 on the wall. He quickly runs to the door and opens it. On the other side is a short but wide man. "I'm here for the rent."

Eric looks sheepishly. "sorry, Mr. Matthews, I don't have it right now. But I can get it by tomorrow."

The landlord seems annoyed but quickly calms down. "fine. But this is the last time, okay?" Eric nods vigorously. The man turns away. "there's a good lad." Eric closes the door and sighs.

"I forgot what day it was. I got to get going." He refills misty's food and water before quickly leaving the apartment complex. It is dark outside; he checks his phone and sees that it is 10:27. "good, still have half an hour before it starts." He sprints across new San Francisco.

He arrives outside a bar with a large sign that reads "bozo's bottomless bar" it was run by a superhuman with the power to make alcohol out of nothing.

Eric quickly runs to the side door and knocks. A small slit opens on the door. "Password?"

"Übermensch"

“come in." the door opens up. Eric walks in a follows the man down a set of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs was a large room filled with people.

In the center was a ring with two men fighting. One shot some laser from his eyes, while the other had metallic skin. The latter was winning-handedly, and it seemed the laser couldn't melt the man's skin. Eric walked over to a tall man with black glasses. "sorry I'm late." The man puts his hand on Eric's back.

"don't worry, my friend; there's still a few minutes before your fight."

Eric pulled out 200 bucks. “Who am I fighting, and what are my odds?"

the loud bell dings and a voice speaks. "The winner is ALLOY." cheers and boos resound.

"that's who you'll be fighting. The odds will be 20-1 in his favor." Eric hands him the money.

"place this for me."

The man nods. "sure thing. Please do me a favor and lose. I got some serious debt."

He says jokingly. Eric chuckles. A man dressed like a bouncer walks up to him.

"follow me." Eric follows the man to a separate room that leads to the ring. After a few minutes of waiting, he saw the light in the corner of the room light up, signaling that it was his time. As he walks out, he hears the announcer.

"in the left corner, we have the metal man himself… ALLOY. With 22 wins and five losses, an impressive record. In the right corner, we have the powerless powerhouse… PRIMARCH. With 15 wins and 20 losses when It comes to regular humans, no man is his equal." Eric stepped into the ring and looked at his opponent.

Alloy stood at 5 foot 9 and had silvery metallic skin. He had decent muscle mass. Still, nowhere near Eric's. Alloy looked at Eric and scoffed. "this is no place for mortals." Mortal was a derogatory term used by superhumans against humans.

The announcer spoke again. "3…2…1…FIGHT!" Alloy lunges at Eric with his fist raised, only for a leg to kick him directly in the head. Alloy fell on the ground for a moment, clearly rattled.

The announcer spoke again. "a direct kick in the head from Primarch that had to hurt on both sides." Alloy tried to recover but couldn't due to a knee arriving directly at the bridge of his nose.

"How is he unharmed?" Alloy thought. He looked at Eric only to realize that he was mistaken. Large bruises appeared on Eric's shin and knee. Before he could do anything with this info, Eric had put him in a headlock with his legs wrapped around his waist.

Alloy tried to struggle, but the pressure around his neck was incredible. Alloy quickly lost conciseness. Eric looked up at the crowd. "FINISH IT, FINISH IT, FINISH IT." The announcer, hearing that, spoke.

"it seems the people have spoken." Brass knuckles clanged on the ground in front of Eric, and he picked them up and wore them.

He sat on Alloys' chest and began beating him. Bits of metal and blood began flying out of alloys face. As eric kept beating him, the beating drowned out the sound of the spectators. He was in a blissful trance. With a large smile, he beat alloy, the blood and bone flying around. The sound of the hits landing, the sight of the blood, and the feeling of his hands crushing bone were intoxicating to him. Eventually, a loud crunch resounded throughout the bar, followed by cheers and boos from the spectators.

Some were excited about a hefty payout, whereas others had lost money on what seemed to be a sure win. Eric stands above Alloy's bloodied, beaten corpse and releases a primal, guttural scream. Just as he was about to leave, he noticed someone in the crowd, and it was his teacher, Mr. Johnson looking at him with a mix of pride and disappointment on his face.

Eric quickly leaves the arena and washes his hands. Before limping into the crowd. He sees Mr. Johnson and goes over to him. "look, I can ex-"

"no need. I understand you have bills to pay. But why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to worry." Mr. Johnson sighs.

"you did well out there, kid. Let me give you a ride home. You must have messed your leg up, kicking the human equivalent of an I-beam."

Eric and the teacher leave the bar. "oh, I forgot to collect my money. I'll be right back." He re-enters the bar and finds the man with glasses.

"Hey, kid, you nearly forgot your money."

"Thanks." The man gives him the money, but as he turns to leave, he sees a large muscular man blocking the door. The man with glasses speaks.

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"you cost me money today, kid, and as I said, I have many debts."

Eric turns toward the man. "you should have bet on me then; it's not my fault you misjudged." The man laughs.

"you're right. That mistake was on me. You should know this isn't personal. You were just an easy mark, there are quite a few humans in need of healthy organs at low prices, and you are a walking piggy bank."

Eric's eyes widen, and he turns to run. The tall man blocking the door begins to move. Eric throws out a kick to the man's throat. He is met with a snapping sound and immense pain. He collapses. His leg is broken.

"This is Jeremy. His powers are low-level super durability and low-level super strength, and he won't fold as quickly as Alloy did." Eric stands up, putting as little weight as possible on his broken leg. He looks Jeremy in the eyes and reaches into his pockets.

He pulls out the brass knuckles and puts them on. The man with the glasses laughs. "Christ kid, you don't stay down. This has been fun, but I don't have time for this. Jeremy, finish this." Jeremy nods and throws a punch toward Eric.

Eric dodges and grabs his arm before throwing him to the ground. He begins punching Jeremy as hard as he physically can. It doesn't do much to the man, but it does hurt. Jeremy tries to get up, but Eric grabs a bottle and stabs him in the eye.

Jeremy cries out in pain and quickly stands up. "you little fucking mortal!" he throws out punches that Eric narrowly dodges. Eric looks for a time to strike and finds it. He throws a punch directly at the man's Adam's apple, which connects, but then a fist hits Eric square in the chest. Eric feels his ribs breaking as he flies across the bar.

Jeremy coughs repeatedly but manages to catch his breath. As the man walks toward him, Eric wonders if this is the end. Suddenly the man starts bleeding out of his eyes and nose and dies.

The man with glasses is shocked. "who gave you permission to lay hands on my student?" the teacher said with a voice that sent chills down the spine of the man with glasses.

"Now, wait just a second. I'm sure we can all-" his head exploded like a popped grape cutting him off.

The teacher quickly runs over to Eric. "don't worry, kid, I know somebody with healing powers." The teacher used his power to lift Eric's body down the stairs and into his car.

As they are driving away, Eric asks a question through pained breaths. "how did you do that, Mr. Johnson?"

"the guy with the glasses didn't have any defensive powers, so that was easy. As for the guy with the durability power, you would be surprised how fragile the human brain is. Even with defensive powers, 250 pounds of force directly on his brainstem sent him to god same-day delivery."

Eric was shocked. Telekinesis was known to be a relatively weak power, but his teacher used it like a pro.

"I used to be a superhero in the golden age and picked up quite a few tricks over the years."

Eric was stunned; he had no idea that his teacher had been around for so long.

"did you fight in the superhuman war?"

The teacher's look suddenly darkened. "Nah, I had already retired by then, so I went into hiding until the war was over."

The teacher said it casually, but Eric could see the teacher's grip on the steering wheel tightening. Eric decided not to press further. A few minutes later, they arrived outside a shady abandoned building. The teacher lifts Eric out of the car with his powers and knocks on the door. It opens, and on the other side is a tall man with long black hair and a beard.

"what is it, Nathan?"

"I need your help. A student of mine has been hurt." The man with the long black hair sighs.

"Sure, bring him in."

Eric is floated into the building and onto a couch. The man with the long hair rolls his sleeves and pulls out a knife. Eric braces himself, expecting the man to cut into him. He is surprised when he sees the man cut into his hand. A drop of blood leaves his hand, and he collects it in a cup. Eric's eyes widen when he sees the cut on the man's hand close up nearly instantly. The man took the cup of blood a poured a single drop into Eric's mouth. Immediately Eric felt all his broken ribs and bruised organs begin to mend themselves nearly instantly.

"you got pretty messed up, kid. What happened?" Eric sat up, and the healing finished.

"I was fighting a guy with low-level superhuman strength and durability."

The man with black hair nods. "what are your powers?"

Eric shakes his head. "don't have any."

The man's eyes widen. "going up against a guy like that without any powers, do you have a death wish?"

Eric's expression hardens. "I've killed men with powers before, and they aren't all they're cracked up to be."

The long-haired man turned to the teacher for confirmation. "I saw him kill Alloy with his bare hands."

The man looks stunned. "you mean the super rookie that's been making the rounds in the underground circuit?"

The teacher nods. Eric stands up. "that reminds me. Why was Jeremey so hard to kill, but Alloy was a pushover?"

the teacher pushes Eric back onto the couch. "you need to rest before you start moving. To answer your question, Alloy only had hard skin; his internals were just as weak as a human's. This means he was just as susceptible to concussions. In contrast, low-level durability increased the durability of the entire body, internals included."

Eric makes a mental note of that. "still, you managed to damage him pretty effectively by going for his eyes and throat. If you had known what you were in for beforehand and were prepared, you probably would have won."

Eric feels a little better when he hears that. The long-haired man looks toward Eric. "my name is D. how did you end up fighting in the underground?"

Eric sighs. "I like fighting, and I have bills to pay," Eric said succinctly.

D laughed. "wait for a second… are you Primarch?"

Eric smiles. "Yeah."

"I saw one of your fights once. It was against the Reverse. The guy who could reverse his physical condition?"

Eric laughs. "I remember that. I had to beat that guy six times before he gave up."

D chuckles. "he came in with so much confidence, saying, "it is only a matter of time till I win." But by the end, he was crying from the pain."

D and Eric laugh. The teacher sits down and takes out a cigar.

"Don't those cause cancer?" Eric says.

"I've got cancer like six times. Thankfully I'm friends with a walking panacea." The teacher lights the cigar.

"Hey, why were you watching an underground fight, to begin with, teacher?"

the teacher sighs. "I was there to talk to the guy running it, and he has connections to the Colosseum, and I wanted to get you in. apparently, there will be an opening next year."

D's face immediately darkened. "you're planning on joining the colosseum?"

Eric nodded. "Yeah."

D sighs. "I don't mean to shit on your dreams, kid, but the Colosseum is no laughing matter. It's not like the underground fights where most fighters have little training; the fighters in the Colosseum are hardened warriors."

Eric nods. "I know they are, but I am too. I won't give up until I have shown the world what I'm capable of. I want to see the fear in the eyes of the world when I show them who and what I am.”

D sighs. "even if it costs you your life?"

"If I were scared to die, I wouldn't have started this journey, to begin with," Eric stated with no hesitation in his voice.

D sighed. "all right. I know you won't give up but at least let me help."

Eric looks confused. "How?"

D smiles. "I've been around the block several times and picked up some tricks."

The teacher has a look of realization. "d you can't be thinking what I think your thinking."

D's grin grows wider. "I am thinking what you think I'm thinking."

Eric looks even more confused. "what is he thinking?"