“If you’re done having your moment and picking up strays, can we get back to work already?”

  Master didn’t understand but that was fine. I practically hopped back on the treadmill and waiting for it to get faster and faster was agonizing. But slowly, it increased. And increased.

  And I ran. Harder and harder. Faster. This wasn’t fast enough. How fast was Vega? How quick, to fly over the whole world? I had to be faster. Quicker. Better. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t lose to him. In anyway. Ever.

  My feet pounded until I felt myself feel like I was flying forward. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t even kind of enough. I had to be far more than this. I could feel it, my glass like barrier coiling around me, and I broke it. It was in the way. I needed more power and I couldn’t afford to wait around for hundreds of years while countless people suffered and lost their lives. While more people like me were created. Every one of them… was a personal failure. I was sitting here, smiling, relaxing, while that beast destroyed families just like mine. While I let him live.

  I refused to be so passive anymore. Where was the Mutai that tore through the sewers, surviving like crazy? Where was the Mutai, the Warrior, that fought Ragual? Where was the Mutai that trained like an insane monster for weeks just for an increase of .01? Enough playing around, it was time to get serious.

  Thump

  I turned to my right, only to see Vincent going just as hard as me. He glanced my way, snorted, and just kept running. I smiled and felt it then. That I truly wasn’t the only one aiming for that impossible peak. There were others like me, as awful as that was. I couldn’t… let them down. Or myself. Or my family. Vengeance would be mine, no matter how much I had to fight for it.

  As the oxygen pumped through my lungs, the blood rushed through my veins, and I felt my heart skyrocket in speed, I knew it. Deep, deep down into my bones.

  It wasn’t enough.

  Could I beat Vega? No. The Water Elemental? The Alligators? The Chain Wraiths, the truly large rats?

  All no. And yet they weren’t so distant as Vega. They weren’t somewhere in the world. They were right below my feet and at any time master felt like, he could clearly send me right back. What have I been doing these past few weeks, going so leisurely? Was I even trying?

  As my speed increased, as my power level rose, as my body became closer and closer to truly being mine, I realized the answer. I hadn’t. I’d been so damn happy and that wasn’t wrong. That lightness… it was glorious. I wasn’t going to fall into the pit of darkness, doing whatever it took. But seeing Vincent… a fire had been lit underneath me.

  I needed to be stronger. I don’t think I could survive, seeing a million more people just like Vincent. To see all the reflections and mirrors of my own past. To know that for every moment I existed, and for every refugee like myself that I saw, there were hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people for each one that didn’t survive. I alone represented hundreds of dead. I was the last one of my village, of my home, of my community, of my own past. Even the land was no longer truly around, stripped for parts.

  It was a weight but one that no longer felt like it would ever hold me back, but shove me forward down my own path.

  “Master.” I said between breaths.

  “What?”

  “I’m going to win.”

  Master was silent for a while. Before speaking up.

  “I already knew that you idiot. Just focus on your running. We have a lot more to do today. You’re not even ready for the true training.”

  No more words were needed. Master was right. This was all just to get me used to my own body, to realize my own strength. Long before muscles improve, there’s strength in them. In times of stress, horror, and danger, people can go beyond what they thought were their limits. But there was never any limit. Just their mind, body, and will not realizing their own strength. That was me right now. We weren’t breaking limits. We were squeezing out all of me, getting me used to my own self that had advanced so rapidly, so that I could do the true goal.

  Increasing those limits.

  Breaking them and shattering them entirely.

  Over and over again, until I could win. Until I could beat that demon that haunted my soul.

  And as I ran, I could hear it. The steady thump of feet, the ragged breathing, the blazing malevolent aura like being next to a furnace. Any time I even thought of complaining, of slowing down, of relaxing, it was blown away by that simple information. That someone was chasing me. Chasing my strength. Trying to beat me to my goals.

  I was going to be the one to kill Vega and I wasn’t going to do it by slacking off.

  Soon, the hour ended and the next work out appeared. I pushed until my arms felt like lead. And then iron and steel and then jelly. Until they felt like they’d shatter.

  And the whole way through, Vincent did the same. The same amount of reps, the same amount of weight, the same amount of time. He chased me like a maddened dog, as if screaming that he wouldn’t be out done. That he was the one that was going to win, to beat Vega, to avenge his family.

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  I could practically hear the strength of his teeth grinding together, could see the destruction he was putting upon himself, how he destroyed himself to keep up. If it was someone else, maybe I’d say to them, to slow down. To relax, to take it easy, to not hurt themselves.

  But I’d been Vincent. I knew. That wasn’t what he wanted, needed, or would even work. In fact, the very idea of trying to do anything but help him get stronger made me repulsed. He needed this. I knew, I knew deep down, he needed this even more than me. A way to push forward. A path. Anger, hatred, despair, they were all so, so very vicious. And when you added helplessness, when you truly thought your dreams were impossible, when you started to sink to the depths of those emotions…

  ‘A shitty couch, a trashy computer. An old TV. Modern furnishings in a crappy apartment. An old memory. Browsing through the horrible technology called the internet. Just another piece of trash trying to get in my way. Useless. My island was better, so much better. I was never going to win. It was over. My life was over. It's all for nothing. I should just… I should just…

  Pictures of guns, one already ready to be ordered, thoughts galore… but not for Vega. They’d never work. Never. But… if all of my family was already dead I should just…’

  I grimaced. I’d been a coward in many ways. Couldn’t kill myself, couldn’t try anything new, couldn’t give up, couldn’t do a lot. I’d let those feelings bury me until I was on the precipice of destruction. Hell, the gangsters in many ways had just been assisted suicide. It wasn’t like I was drinking and roaming the shittiest parts of the city thinking things would improve.

  Vincent… he just needed to hang on.

  As long as he had a path, he wouldn’t self destruct. As long as he had someone’s back to follow, he wouldn’t fail. I could do at least this much. I could do what I wish someone had done for me. Carved a way forward, given me a way to get where I needed to go. Didn’t hide behind smiles, didn’t say anything useless, just pushed and pushed without harming me.

  Those first days… are the worst days.

  Another machine. Another. Until-

  “Alright, it’s time for lunch. You too new guy.”

  I blinked.

  “Master, the nutrients will be fine today-”

  “Oh no, you bastard. I can’t just give these shots willy nilly. I’ve got to calculate different stuff for them. I’ve already factored in lunch, so we’re having lunch. Come on.”

  I got up to leave but Vincent didn’t. He kept pushing.

  Master stopped and glared both at me and Vincent. Then he sighed and grumbled to himself.

  ‘Damn brats… useful fools…’

  The next second Vincent was blinking in shock, standing next to me and I could feel master’s aura pressing down on us both.

  “Listen you ungrateful bastard. I agreed to one disciple. To train you to beat Vega. But I’ve been trying to grow a plant in a void. Some competition will be healthy for you. So I’ll say this. Oi, new guy.”

  Master’s aura pressed down, practically physically, on top of Vincent. I could see his eyes bulging and his muscles straining, the veins popping out. It was like a cold, unfeeling mountain of steel coated in ice was crushing you. It hurt, it was unfeeling, and you could do very very little to stop it.

  “If you can beat Mutai, I promise to help you train you better than any other Dojo in this city. In fact, I’ll even throw away this useless jackass of a disciple and take you on instead.”

  “”What?””

  My eyes widened in shock. I’d just wanted to help someone like myself, but what was going on now?!

  “You haven’t been in this city long but there are people walking around that could destroy buildings with ease. Use the Vambrace on your arm on me.”

  Vincent, thoroughly looking like a fish out of water, decided that following along with the crazy strong man was better than asking questions. After all, using your Vambrace to check how strong others were wasn’t exactly uncommon. Every once in a while people would raise it casually.

  Vincent did so now and I decided to look at the number as well. After all…

  [???]

  That was all I could ever see. My cursed ability seemed to increase in relation to my power level, with a base of ten initially and then double whatever I had after that. Which meant unless I was half of master’s power level, I was never going to be able to see it.

  And the number I saw…

  [432]

  “”OVER FOUR HUNDRED?!””

  Me and Vincent cried out at the same time.

  I knew master was strong… but this strong?!

  Vincent looked like the fire inside of him was about to go out. Unlike me, he’d probably grown up all his life knowing all about power levels. He’d probably known his, his family's, other people’s, what it meant to be strong, and more. For me it was shocking based on what I’d seen. But for Vincent?

  It practically broke his world view.

  Unlike me, he probably hadn’t had time to casually look at Vega’s power level. He might have, foolishly, assumed he was merely at a hundred or something. A level four hundred plus standing in front of him was like he was relearning all over again the truths of the world. He was stunned still, mouth agape, staring forward.

  That wasn’t what concerned me though. Master being ridiculously strong was a given. No, it was the words master had said before.

  “Master, what did you mean before?”

  He snorted.

  “Exactly what I said. You act nice normally but the second you don’t like me for something or feel a bit more arrogant, the curses and old man and bastard start coming out. And then the second I answer questions or start training you, it’s ‘Master master master’. It’s annoying and you’re ungrateful for how much work I’ve put into you. Still upset about being put in a near death experience for a little while.”

  I blinked in shock.

  “You want me to be more respectful?”

  “No. Gods no. I want you to share a bit of my pain. And some healthy competition will be exactly what you need. After all… you’re not the only one with the qualifications to beat Vega.”

  I turned, staring at Vincent, my mouth agape. No. No, Master couldn’t mean…

  Two of Master’s fingers were glowing in an odd manner.

  “It seems we’ve found a second person with the same potential as you.”

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