Chapter 25: Fuck You Too

‘What the hell?’

I looked all around me but Roland had vanished. Just a second ago, he had used a pillar of earth to escape the hole we were in, but he had somehow managed to vanish.

‘That’s right, his unique power,’ I thought.

Roland’s unique power was light manipulation. He had already proven to me that he could turn invisible before, but it was likely that he had far more powers than just invisibility with light manipulation. But it would be unwise to share any more abilities with me since the third selection, a tournament, was still coming up. So, he was almost certainly only using invisibility. I didn’t have much to be worried about though. Unique powers were not natural to humans, so not only would they always drain psychic energy quickly, but they would also come with drawbacks. Roland wouldn’t be able to remain invisible for long.

I formed a barrier around every part of my body, it would shield me from most attacks and give me some time to think of a way to force Roland out into the open.

The moment I formed a barrier a fire hydrant was suddenly thrown in my direction. It shattered harmlessly against the barrier I had formed. A sprout of water shot out to the side with tremendous force, strong enough to push a fully grown adult to the ground.

‘So, there you are.’ I thought, smiling inwardly. Roland had made an error, the way he had broken the fire hydrant caused the water to be pushed onto him. While he was able to easily divert the water with his powers it revealed an unnatural gap, that’s where Roland was standing.

I immediately went on the offensive, leaping toward him I concentrated psychic energy into my right arm. I felt my limb tremble with energy as I approached Roland. He diverted part of the fire hydrant's water towards me but I merely put out my arm. The psychic power in my arm absorbed all the energy, allowing me to continue without slowing down.

With a few more steps I was now face to face with Roland. While he was still invisible the general area he could be in was small, and the amount of space that he was forcing the water to go around was minimal.

I swung my arm at Roland and my fist collided with… nothing?

‘What the hell’?

It was then that I felt myself get punched in the face. I felt the bones in my jaw dislocate as I was slammed into the ground. I hit the ground hard enough to form a small crater in the ground and blood began to spew out from the side of my head that had crashed onto the asphalt road. I clawed at my head and pulled out a small rock that was covered in blood.

‘Shit.’

A well-known fact was that attacking and defending with psychic powers was extremely difficult and could only be done by A-Rank’s and above. The multitasking of such contradictory ideals was a hurdle for the human brain to subconsciously cross. Roland used this fact to his advantage and in the tiny window of time where I would transition from offense to defense, attacked me.

‘This is bad, my powers won’t work in this state.’

Psychic powers were greatly linked to the brain. Any injury to it could greatly affect psychic powers in unpredictable ways. One could even end up killing themselves on accident if they weren’t careful. In real combat, a brain injury, no matter how small, could mean the difference between life and death.

Roland once more slammed my head into the ground, shaking my entire world and leaving me in a horrendous daze. In this state, my psychic powers could operate in uncontrollable manners, and I was at a significant disadvantage.

‘Well, back to basics.’

Before Roland could slam down on me again I blasted a large amount of psychic power into the ground, sending myself flying into the air. The basics of psychic powers would be the ones most likely unaffected by a head injury. This meant that I could still send out psychic energy and use body enhancement, however, controlling psychic energy once it left my body would be off the table.

‘I estimate I only need about a minute before I can use my psychic powers perfectly again.’

When I landed on the ground I immediately filled every part of my body with psychic energy, reinforcing it to the point where I was stronger than steel. But Roland didn’t attack me, instead, he moved further away and began speaking to me.

“Are you going to use your unique power, Mark?” Roland asked me.

“Unfortunately no,” I replied. “I don’t mean that disrespectfully of course, but I’d prefer to keep the specifics of my power a secret for now.”

Earlier in the day I had explained to Violet and Roland the basics of my unique power but I refused to tell them any of the specifics. The more about the specifics they knew the more likely they could figure out how to take advantage of the weaknesses the ability had. With the third selection still coming up it would be foolish to reveal my ability so early.

While this conversation was occurring I tried to deduce how Roland had tricked me into thinking he was standing next to the fire hydrant. After a few moments of thought the answer became clear. It was quite simple really, he used his psychic powers to divert the water while being a distance away. The fact that I hadn’t thought of such a possibility was, frankly, pathetic of me. In a real fight against a villain, running in headfirst like I did would have ended with me dead.

‘I have a lot to learn.’

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Well,” Roland said, “I suppose that’s fair eno-”

My punch slammed into Roland who was left completely surprised by the sudden attack. Something I had always wondered was why some people engaged in conversation during combat, in most cases it was just a waste of time. Of course, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t take advantage of their habits. Roland likely expected me to allow him to finish talking, since I had done that for his previous sentence, and I used that expectation to catch him off guard.

‘30 seconds left.’

I immediately launched into a combo of physical attacks on Roland. Blow after blow, each attack enhanced with psychic energy. A person who didn’t reinforce their body would find every impact to have broken their bones. Roland had already reinforced his body but I had already thrown him off balance with my first attack. As long as I kept hitting him I would build time for my brain to fully recover.

‘23 seconds.’

I launched a punch into Roland’s gut, causing him to keel over. Using the momentum of his body already folding, I slammed his head into my knee, breaking his nose. Roland attempted to throw a punch to my face but I was able to block it easily and return with a punch to his face. One of the basics of physical combat is always protect the face, something Roland didn’t do. Whenever he attempted to counterattack he allowed his hands to drop from his face.

‘16 seconds.’

My attacks couldn’t deal sufficient damage to affect Roland’s brain, so his psychic powers were still operating perfectly. This of course meant that Roland would likely be able to push me back in the next few seconds.

I swung my left leg in an arc directly into Roland’s side. I felt bones beneath the skin crack slightly and felt his psychic shielding begin to falter. However, as I attempted to remove my leg Roland grabbed it. I felt him drag the leg around him, swinging me into the air like a doll.

‘12 seconds.’

I stabilized myself in the air, twisting and turning my body until I was in a position to safely land. Upon touching the ground I immediately reinforced my body once more. In an instant, Roland had already launched a spear of flames toward me.

‘9 seconds.’

I felt the fire engulf my entire body. My body was reinforced but physical enhancement could only go to such an extent in changing the human body. It was easy to become more durable or make myself stronger, but doing things like becoming fireproof required much more focus. I felt my skin begin to burn and blister wherever the fire touched, turning my body into a meat sack of burnt skin. My mind was drawn back to the second selection where I had seen an applicant’s body on fire and even watched his face melt from the heat.

‘No, don’t think about that right now. 5 seconds.’

I slammed my hands into the ground and a hole opened up beneath me. Dropping down, I curled up and hid myself from the flames. Roland’s fire was large enough to obscure his vision of my body, for a few seconds he wouldn’t notice I was gone, and that was all the time I needed.

‘3 seconds.’

I felt my mind suddenly clear, as though an invisible fog I didn’t even notice had been lifted. My body began to rapidly repair itself. I felt like every cell in my body had suddenly been electrified to rapidly operate beyond regular capacity.

‘Looks like that required just a little bit less time than I thought.’

Immediately I leaped out of the hole I was in, jumping through the fire fast enough to come out unharmed. Roland’s eyes followed me in shock and he quickly disabled flames. While in the air I pulled my arms inward and the windows of buildings all around me shattered. Shards of glass floated in the air, waiting for my command. While still falling I forced all of them to fly at Roland.

Thousands of tiny glass missiles attacked, any one of them could slice a tendon, lacerate a limb, or stab an organ. Roland was forced to shield himself on all sides, hiding himself in an earthen dome which the glass was unable to penetrate. But this was a significant mistake on his part. He couldn’t see me, but I could see him. When I landed on the ground I allowed my right arm to stop controlling the glass and instead begin charging up an attack. The attacks of the flying glass slowed as a result of my divided focus but it wasn’t enough to allow for Roland to release his earth dome.

‘More energy, I need more energy into this attack.’

As a Mid B-Rank, Roland’s overall psychic capacity was almost guaranteed to be higher than mine. The longer the battle went on, the more important psychic capacity would become. Because of this, I decided to bet a large amount of psychic energy into this final attack. I could feel my arm bursting with power and I began to feel sharp, painful spasms.

‘This is all I can manage,’ I thought to myself, wincing from the stabbing sensations in my arm.

I allowed the glass shards to fall to the ground. Amongst the piercing sounds of breaking glass, I sprinted towards Roland’s earth dome. The power contained in my arm squirmed excitedly, waiting to be released in what was bound to be a powerful explosion.

‘This is gonna hurt Roland.’

I lifted my arm and threw it forward. My entire body rotated with the punch, adding as much momentum as I could into the attack. The earth dome, which had easily survived the attacks of hundreds, if not thousands of glass shards, crumbled away like dust, revealing the inside. And inside was…

“AAAAAH!!!” I screamed out in sudden pain.

A blinding light burst from the opening of the hole. It shined as bright as the sun and was a million times closer. Instantly I felt a searing pain fill my eyes as my vision suddenly filled with a brilliant and perfect white. My ears rang from the overwhelming information that had just entered my brain and I fell to the ground. I attempted to press my hands into my eyes, hoping to ease the burning sensation I was feeling with dull pain, but it did nothing. My vision, despite attempting to close my eyes, was filled with nothing but white.

‘SHIT, SHIT SHIT!!!’

I had made a mistake, Roland had only used light manipulation for invisibility so far. I hadn’t expected him to manipulate light by suddenly making a fucking flash bomb appear.

As I rolled on the ground, groaning in pain, I felt Roland grab my head. Yet I could still only barely feel it as every one of my 5 senses had been completely overloaded.

‘No, this isn’t just from light, he must have somehow used the light to launch a mental attack.’

Mental attacks had an unlimited amount of possible effects and just as many possible routes for actually attacking. Somehow, Roland must have used his light to overwhelm my brain and send me into a painful sensory overload.

“Aaaagh,” I groaned painfully as Roland shook me. I heard him say something to me, it echoed loudly in my head yet at the same time appeared to be muffled, as though underwater. The distortion and artifacts made it almost impossible to make out what he said.

I began to try and fill my brain with psychic power, attempting to flush out the mental attack. To cause any actual physical damage, mental attacks had to be massively powerful and could mostly only be done by A-Ranks. This meant that my psychic abilities would still operate perfectly as long as I could remain focused. By moving psychic powers to my brain I would be able to flush out a mental attack at the level of a B-Rank and below.

Unfortunately, Roland knew this and slammed my head into the ground, multiplying my pain exponentially. In this state, I was completely helpless.

“Mark, can you hear me?”

Roland’s voice suddenly broke through the mental chaos I was in, granting me a small piece of relaxation.

“Do you surrender Mark?” He asked me.

I shook my head. There was no way I was surrendering, as helpless as I was there was always a chance, an opening, a moment for a mistake to arise that I might take advantage of. With all my strength I was able to begin speaking to Roland, albeit, nearly incoherently.

“Fwugkh yohwu.”

…

Roland stared over Mark as an A-Rank flew over and began to heal him. Roland had knocked Mark unconscious with a powerful blow, leading to Mark’s head bleeding.

With Mark now being taken care of, Roland fell into exhaustion. He gently touched his face and sides, feeling the numerous areas where Mark had hit him during their fight. He repositioned his broken nose with a crack and felt blood drip down his face. For a moment, Roland was genuinely worried he could lose, he couldn’t see a way out of Mark’s beatdown. It was only a single second, one tiny, nearly imperceivable moment of hesitation, that Roland was able to grab Mark’s leg.

‘I need to learn some martial arts,’ Roland thought to himself. ‘Had I not been able to grab his leg, I would be in a bad situation, even with my capacity being so much higher than his.’

As he recalled his memories of the fight, Roland chuckled at Mark’s final words before Roland bashed his head in. Mark, even when under a mental attack, was smiling slightly as he said his words.

‘He knew he had lost, he was having fun at that moment,’ Roland said inwardly.

As Roland felt around the painful parts of his body, he felt a smile creep around his face. He looked towards Mark and decided to respond to Mark’s earlier, near-incoherent words.

“Fuck you too.”

End of Chapter 25