Seeing that his provocation worked and the multicolored veil appearing on the kids skin, Alistair thinks to himself while backing up to put space between them, "That veil is definitely something that enhances him like Michelle said... She didn't know what it enhanced though so I need to be careful- Whoa!"

Mid-thought, the kid moves a pace that betrays his looks. He quickly springs forth, covering a ten feet distance almost instantly and punches Alistair right in the nose. Sending him tumbling a few feet away.

"What the hell was that?! Michelle said you can only increase your abilities by a small amount!" Alistair shouts with indignation.

"Tch, so that's why you got so confident. Do you think that all information is reliable? I am much more powerful than I was a while ago!"

He flashes another gesture with his other hand and another veil merges into the one already over his skin, turning the veils color on his arms a darker color than before.

"Great... Michelle is going to owe me big time for this." Alistair complains to himself as he gets up off of the ground and then gets into a fighting stance he saw one of the students use in combat training.

"You really think you can beat magic with your body? Combat training is a joke in these situations! The one with magic always beats the one without!" The rotund kid says as he starts moving towards Alistair again with his fist shrouded in darkness.

"I know you can't be hurt by normal blows. You are a sturdy bastard. So lets see how you like this!" He grabs Alistairs hand and twists it behind his back and pulls up to get him in a chicken wing lock.

Alistair goes on the tip of his toes and looks up in pain. "Ah! Damnit! Let go!"

The rotund kid smiles darkly as he starts slowly wrenching Alistairs arm up higher and higher.

"You shouldn't have gotten involved. I may not be able to kill you on school grounds, but getting crippled in fights like these are a common occurrence around here."

Alistair drops to his feet and crouches down before jumping up as fast and hard as he can. This was a move he had seen a girl use in combat training when she was subdued. However, if she saw how Alistair is using it she would be horrified.

The moment his feet go flat on the ground a sickening crack comes from his shoulder. With the opposing force of the hold disappearing, the chubby kid fell forward from his own force. Only for his chin to be met with the top of Alistairs head.

The chubby kid flies up off his feet a few inches before falling flat on his back unconscious.

"Thanks for the heads up. Now I don't need to worry about people asking me what happened here since it's such a common occurrence."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Alistair lands back down and holds his hand over his shoulder. He says his peace before running off as fast as possible. He needed to look in pain because he knows someone is watching. The moment his headbutt connected he felt a terrifying blood lust lock on to him from somewhere.

He holds his shoulder and runs out of the hallway to his room in the dorm. He sits down looks at his arm in the mirror opposite of his bed.

He sees a bald boy with a calm face and a bone shaped outlining of skin protruding from his right shoulder.

He touches the protrusion and feels nothing as he pushes it back down to where he presumes is it's proper place. He looks back to the fight he was just in and hopes that Michelle got away safe.

He realizes how lucky he was that he had been able to see the combat training spars and reactions of everyone. If he did not know how he was supposed to "feel" at the moment he was put in the arm lock then things could have ended a lot worse for him.

He sighs and hangs his head thinking about how much more he needs to learn to truly feel safe. While he is looking downward though, he sees a black hand print on his right forearm and thinks back to the black veil that appeared over the boys hands.

Just as he wanted to reflect on everything in more details, the pain that he does not need to pretend to feel once again reemerges in his stomach. With a torrent of pain assaulting him from the inside, he notices it get stronger and stronger.

As it gets stronger, he notices the black mark on his arm start peeling away and incinerating into nothing. He can't control himself much longer as the black mark on his arm is fading faster and faster the hunger grows stronger to the point of consuming his sanity.

Eventually Alistair is unable to bear the pain anymore. He falls to the ground in his room and blacks out. Moments later he springs to his feet, he is met with his reflection as he stands back up. What he sees however is not himself.

He sees a bald pale creature with jet black eyes and instead of pupils, there are two swirling spirals in the center. His fingers become elongated and his teeth become sharper. He jumps out of the window of his room into the darkness of night.

...

Just outside of Utopia, there is a known zombie nest in one of the suburban areas. It has been a mission that companies have been charged with since they found out about it. However, the only ones who would throw themselves into the face of death without a care are the truly strong or the truly suicidal.

There have been rumors about a specific herb growing due to the massive amounts of undead that can help boost the inherent strength of someone who properly consumes it.

A lone man walks up to the front of the building that has the most zombies crowding it. As carefully as possible, he proceeds to make his way past the zombies. They are reported to not attack as long as one is able to mask the smell of their blood or do not make enough noise to be considered a threat.

He walks past them into a room with a skulls shaped herb in it's center. A hole in the roof accentuates it's majesty as thunder cracks loudly in the sky illuminating the herb in brief flashes.

He walks up to it after confirming the window on the opposite side of the wall. He walks up to window and slowly opens it to avoid noise. Then he walks to the herb and takes out the tool that changed his life, his knife carved from the tooth of a squirrel demon.

In one swift motion, he grabs the herb with his gloved hand and deftly cuts at the roots of the herb before making a mad dash to the window and leaping out of it. Shortly after the shrieks of the zombies come rushing at him from behind.

He does not look behind as he runs to his beat up jeep as fast as possible and drives off. After driving, he pulls out a map that has multiple X's and O's on it. He puts an X through the spot where he was just at and begins heading to the next closest O on the map.

He throws the herb into a pack of assorted herbs and minerals in the passenger seat before whispering to himself.

"Just wait for me you big oaf... I haven't given up on you..."