The weeks began to pass by and Master’s words proved prophetic. My endurance had noticeably skyrocketed. What used to be torture became… well, easier torture at least. I could at least last longer before my body wanted to cry to death. At least on the treadmill, the Stairmaster remained my biggest enemy, even if I was able to go up it for longer, faster, and easier.

  I looked up.

  [10]

  I’d noticed it for a few days now but despite my endurance definitely increasing, and even my strength and speed noticeably going up a little… my power level hadn’t changed. Well, the big numbers. I was sure the smaller numbers hadn’t changed much, if at all, either because I could still feel that barrier. It felt closer but… not that much closer.

  “Master, why-”

  “Going to save you time, I can already see the thoughts rolling through your head. It’s because ability doesn’t mean you can draw it all out. Power level goes up when you go up in strength in some metric. But you’re not. Simply because you can’t use it all, doesn’t mean you don’t have it. Until you can use all your strength and then increase it, none of your numbers are going to change, so don’t worry about it.”

  I frowned harder. My body… still had more it could pull out? I thought I’d adjusted to my new power level already… but clearly I hadn’t.

  “Stop frowning, this happens to everyone. Power level starts going faster later in the higher tiers, sure, but it also means at times you break through farther than you think. Your body can, in a way, outpace itself. Think of it as mini-potential. You can do something, you theoretically have the power to have run for this long and this easily weeks ago, but you personally can’t.”

  “It’s like learning a new limb…”

  “Exactly, especially for you. You jumped four of the major early power levels and slammed into a wall. It’s going to be a bit before you are pushing your true maximums higher.”

  I thought about how long I’d been at it. Even if I’d ignored the six months of hell and the three months of rest…

  “Am I going fast enough?”

  Master raised an eyebrow.

  “For what?”

  “To beat Vega.”

  Master snorted.

  “Yeah. You are.”

  “But-”

  “Let me guess, you’re worried about running out of lifespan. Bah. Trust me, you don’t need to worry about that. Even if you didn’t have a way to increase it, you’re perfectly on target to get that strong. Don’t worry about nonsense like that. Just focus on your running.”

  I continued on the treadmill for a bit, my heart rate high but my breathing at least steady.

  “Wait, if I didn’t have a way? What?”

  “Come on, you aren’t stupid. Well, I hope so at least. You saw Vega right? All the reports say he looks somewhere around twenty or so, correct? Hell, I’ve seen his poster in this very gym. Yet they also say he’s over a hundred years old. Power level can increase your lifespan.”

  I blinked. I did, kinda, know that. I mean, I should have known that. But I had just, never thought about it. Wait, how long was I going to live if-

  “You’re probably going to die today if you don’t get your head out of the clouds and stop thinking about nonsense.”

  Master said, a very casual tone in his voice. I destroyed the thoughts and got back to running before I truly pissed him off. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder how long my journey would go. How hard I’d have to go. Would it take me a hundred years? Master was old, who knew how old, and yet… he only had three [???]’s above his head. Surely… it wouldn’t take me hundreds of years to be able to beat Vega… right?

  I frowned. Well, I needed power but it wasn’t like I needed to-

  At that exact moment, like a small bomb going off, there was a loud noise near the doors. I turned quickly and I wasn’t the only one. Not all the gym goers here were necessarily fighters, no matter how hard they pushed, but a few were. And I could see it on a few faces as I’d turned. How instantly on alert they were. I found myself in the same boat, memories of being ambushed by rats or a sudden loud noise scaring the shit out of me bubbling up to the surface of my memories. It was like I was suddenly back there, fighting, at death’s door, in the shit and the piss.

  Danger. Danger. Danger.

  My heart thumped solidly and I was trying to look at the enemy, only to meet blazing red eyes.

  I raised my eyebrows. It… probably… wasn’t an enemy? A loud noise alone wasn’t enough to put me in fight mode but…

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  Someone had entered the gym and pushed the doors open with pure, unrelenting fury in their eyes. It was unlike any I’d ever seen. Master’s cold hatred was nothing like those burning red eyes. The turtles, the rats, even Ragual or myself, I’d never seen such hot hatred and rage before. It was nearly all encompassing in that man’s soul.

  I pulled back a little, focusing on what I was seeing. A man, young, probably around my age. He wore no shirt, had grey skin, red eyes, and two arms and legs. Short silver hair, black pants, and an absolutely chiseled chest. Like god damn.

  And a look of utter rage and hatred on his face.

  [10]

  My eyebrows raised higher. We had the same power level.

  He had practically rammed the doors, causing them to slam into the walls and create such a loud noise. If they weren’t as strong as they were, he might have even broken them with strength like that but the gym wasn’t made that weak. He had slightly frozen with all the looks at him but it was more so like he was preparing for a fight than anything like nerves. Seeing that no one was going to go out of their way to punch him, he marched himself to the front to check in. It was like a malevolent black aura followed him.

  For some reason though… he seemed so familiar. It was… strange. Where had I… seen him before? My mind spun as I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Where had I seen his looks before? It wasn’t his body, I’d not seen anyone like that in Vega before but that wasn’t surprising. No, but it was, something else. Like I’d seen it all my life but different. But-

  At that moment, words reached me. Whispers and gossip from the surrounding gym goers.

  And they destroyed me.

  ‘Look at him… another refugee huh?’

  ‘How many do you think survived this time? I heard it was another solo survivor this time.

  ‘Again? How many does that make this year?’

  ‘How should I know? They die so fast early on… and it’s not like Vega or Smile are telling anyone much. They just release them into the city.’

  ‘Well, it’s how our parents and grandparents got here. Maybe he’ll adapt. But sheesh, that makes it the, what, third? Fourth time this year?’

  ‘What, are you complaining? That’s way slower than the previous years.’

  ‘Wait, really?’

  ‘Duh, do you even pay attention?! Vega usually kills at least three small village communities a year, a big town every five, and a city every ten. But he has been really aggressive the last few years. I heard most didn’t even have any survivors at all…

  ‘It’s a miracle there’s anyone left on this planet…’

  Hushed whispers of fear, pity, and sympathy mixed and surrounded me.

  I was looking at me. That man, he was me. He was me from the past. That look of rage, that utter fury, that hatred. It was unique. Now I knew, how everyone had always known I was a refugee. How could you not? When that utter fury was overtaking you.

  But far more than that…

  It was like a bomb had gone off inside me. My fists clenched, my eyes shook, and I felt the barrier on my power level shake around.

  ‘Vega.’

  He was still out there. Killing people. Destroying people. Destroying families, communities, villages. Three a year? A big town every five and even a city every ten? So, so many deaths. So many people killed and murdered and destroyed by one man. By one utter fucking monster.

  So much death. So many killed. He did it again. And again and again and again. How many were going to die? How many were going to be destroyed? How many were going to be tortured and told to come get revenge tauntingly? As if to spit on all their efforts, as if to laugh in their very faces?

  “Mutai?”

  Vega… you bastard. You monster. You took them all away. You… I’m going to kill you. I’m going to murder you. I’m going to tear you apart! I’m going to make you regret ever being born! I’m going to, to-

  The rage was like a tsunami! My heartbeat sped up, my blood pumped so hard, and my mind grew hazy but the rage cut through it all. I could feel my breath getting heavy, harder, as if flames were going to come out. He had to die. To be destroyed. I could feel my soul shaking with pure and utter rage. I’m going to kill you! Tear apart your face, rip out your organs, your bones, break you! Break you!

  “Mutai.”

  I took a step forward. Words tried to call out to me. I ignored them. They weren’t important, they didn’t matter, they were stupid and useless. I felt the surety of destruction sing through me as I headed to a particular man.

  He turned around fast, practically feeling my eyes boring into him. His own rage nearly sparked and I saw him only barely resist trying to kill me here and now.

  “What the fuck do you want?”

  “I’m going to kill Vega.”

  My words seemed to hit him like a cannonball. I didn’t care if it was the right thing to say or what he needed to hear. No, it was, more than that. Seeing him, I could only, I had to say it. I had to scream it. I had to demand it from the world. That creature, that traitor of the world, had to be removed. Had to be destroyed and ripped apart. I could no less scream it in this man’s face than I could stop breathing. I had to. I must.

  His fury only seemed to grow stronger at that.

  “Fuck you! I’m going to kill him!”

  I laughed. A dark, harsh, pained laugh. Yeah, yeah master seemed to always be right, that bastard.

  He’d once told me that my desire for power was too distant. That only scars remained but not a burning need. He’d been right but now? Now was different. Just seeing this man…

  I have to go farther. Try harder. What the fuck am I doing?

  “I’ll race you to it then.”

  He glared at me, hot, harsh, pained. It was so beyond what I could remember feeling but I’d been like that once too. How could I forget my rage? How could I just let it go? I’d been too content, too happy. Every second of every moment that Vega was alive, was more lost people, more people like this man living through the same hell I’d been through. Losing everything, being thrown into the quagmire of pain, having to push harder than anyone just to try to reach the same heights. It was hell, dark and sticky like tar, threatening to pull you under and into the abyss to suffocate you in your own burning hatred.

  The fact that this man hadn’t already attacked me was only because he could see the same look in my eyes. If someone had walked up to me, right after my family had died and told me they’d kill their killer… I’d have gone into a murderous rage.

  But we were kin. I could see it, I could feel it, and so could he.

  I stuck out my hand.

  “Mutai.”

  He grasped it, trying to crush it into paste, only burning red remaining in his eyes.

  “Vincent.”

  At that moment, I knew, deep in my soul.

  I’d found myself a brother.

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