31: Magism

  "Get out of my way!" Erik roared, and the metal trembled.

  With a wave of his hand, a rain of bullets heading in his dire was easily deflected; the projectiles made a 180-degree turn in the air, returning directly to where they came from.

  "Argh!" There were choked screams followed by several bodies colpsing lifelessly to the ground.

  Without sparing them a sed ghe former prisoner hurriedly stepped over them, fog on that sixth sehat allowed him to feel all the metal within several meters around him to cover his back as he advaoward his objective, toward his mother.

  ‘Just a little more, I'm almost there.’ Erik felt fidence growing inside him as he advanced further. After all, no matter how many German soldiers stood in his way, it was exceedingly easy for him to dispose of them. Even without the invasion the camp was suffering, Erik felt he could have destroyed this entire pce by himself.

  Such growing arrogance came to a halt when a blue light projectile was fired in his dire. Erik had never seen anything like it before, and it was only by pure instinct that he ma several nearby metal-den debris to form an improvised wall in front of him.

  A wall that ierced in an instant.

  ‘What?!’ He barely mao throw himself out of the way to avoid being pulverized.

  Clumsily rolling on the ground, Erik crawled until he could get a clear view of his new enemy, a sight that made his fideurn once more.

  The Hydra soldier aiming in his dire suddenly met his death wheal in his on twisted, causing the energy shot about to be released to explode point-bnk against him.

  This time, Erik did give a sed go the remains of the man. Where had he e from? And what was that strange blue light? His curiosity iqued, but only for a moment, as a tremor caused by another nearby explosion quickly brought him back to his senses, making him keep running.

  He could find the ao his questions ter; right now, he o focus.

  It didn’t take him long to see the thick, tall wall separating the men's prison from the women's, a wall that was now almost pletely colpsed due to one of the explosions that had been happening.

  Passing through the rubble, Erik sharpened his gaze, giving the area a quick s. The chaos was very simir to what had ravaged his side of the camp, except here, there seemed to be a much greater presence of his "beors." Erik didn’t know who they were or why they had begun attag the camp. The only thing he knew was that as long as they bore the colors of the Polish fg somewhere on their bodies, it meant they were on "his side"—in other words, they were against the Germans.

  Therefore, the boy helped them as much as he could while making his way through. After all, the fewer Germa alive, the easier it would be for him to escape with his mother wheime came.

  A time that was fast approag, he could feel it. He just had to find her, just had to take her hand, and everything would be alright. He would protect her, as he had promised his father. He would save her.

  With such thoughts filling his mind, Erik ran across the battlefield, carefully every woman who crossed his path, searg for a familiar face, a familiar voice. But with every mihat passed without finding her, his ay began to grow more and more.

  "MOM!" He finally reached the point where he started yelling at the top of his lungs. Perhaps if she heard his voice, she would e to him—that was his thought.

  "MOM!!" His shout, even amidst the jumble of other sounds filling the area, echoed through the pce along with the screeetal.

  Of course, the nearby German soldiers noticed this and, without hesitation, aimed at him—a foolish decision that blew up in their faces along with their ons.

  ‘Annoyances.’ Erik ched his teeth in anger as he dispatched all the ehat stood in his way.

  There was a crash followed by a bestial roar that reverberated everywhere, causing the ground to tremble. At aime, Erik would have paid more attention to such turmoil, but right now, he didn’t care—even if the devil himself decided to emerge from the jaws of hell to destroy the world.

  Nht now, all that mattered to him was finding his mother.

  "Erik!" And as if God had decided to answer his prayers, her voice reached his ears. With bloodshot eyes, Erik spun around sharply in the dire where he had heard her scream.

  Despite all the dust and smoke filling the air, Erik was still able to see her, tnize her. She looked thinner, more fragile, but without a doubt, it was her—it was his mother.

  "Mom!" he cried out excitedly, starting to run toward her, nearly stumbling in his haste.

  "Erik!" His mother screamed his name once more upnizing him, and though shaky, she too began running toward him with excitement. Both were just a few meters away from embrag, from being together again.

  But Erik had fottehing, something that should have never left his mind, something he learned when his father died in his arms while their home burned due to the war.

  God did in this world.

  One moment, his mother was running toward him, smiling, tears beginning to fall from her eyes.

  The , her figure vanished abruptly as something faster than bullets swept past her like a blur.

  "Ma?" Erik almost stumbled. Not uanding what had just happened, his feet slowed as he saw the blood-red stai in the spot where his mother had stood just a sed before.

  "Grrrrr." The low, guttural growl made Erik look to the side. Under any other circumstances, he would have taken a step back upon seeing what was before him. There, standing on all fours on the ground, was what could only be described as a humanoid deformity—a monster slowly chewing ks of flesh between its long, yellowed teeth, with unfocused eyes filled with red veins and a blue light pulsing through its irises.

  A terrifying sight that could inspire deep fear with just a gnce—or at least, it would have if Erik wasn't so numb at this moment, so detached from his owy that any sense of danger or fear he might have felt had pletely shut off.

  His emotionless gaze fixated on the beast until he noticed something, until he saw the broken, battered body it was holding in one of its hands.

  The body of his mother.

  Thehing turned red.

  "AHHHHGGRR!!"

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  A few moments earlier.

  "Damn it!" James growled, and with a swift motion, he pulled his cws out of the deformed skull of one of his enemies—ehat were now nothing more than corpses at his feet. All around him, the pce had been torn apart, left in ruins due to the fight he had been waging against three of the monstrosities Hydra had sent to Auschwitz.

  John and his team had learned of their presen the Auschwitz camp thanks to Charles, and the task of dealing with them had been assigo the sed-stro member of the team. Meanwhile, the others focused on Shaw. It should have been a simple task for James, if not for the fact that one of the monsters had mao slip away while he trated oher two, who had turned out to be strohan anticipated.

  "Shit!" Gritting his teeth and furrowing his brow, he began running at full speed, following the st trail of the beast, the grouh his feet sinking with every step he took.

  He had been careless, too fident, and now who knew hoeople had died because of his mistake.

  "AHHHHGGRR!!"

  "What!?" James stumbled, not from the gut-wreng scream but from the screeg sound of metal that apa.

  He saw, all at once, hundreds of metal-den debris begin flying through the air in a specific dire—the very dire he had been running toward.

  "Great, now what?" Of course things had to get even more plicated, right? Why not? With a grunt, he took a stroep than the previous ones, ung himself into the air, crossing the distaween him and his target in record time, giving him a much clearer view of what was happening.

  "Huh?" What greeted him, of course, was not what he expected. Sure, there was blood and some bodies, but the most surprising sight was seeing his target being struck by hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of metal debris from all dires at high speed.

  Had Charles's sister arrived? No. James dismissed that thought as he looked at the mess around him. Although it hadn’t been long since Cassandra joihe battlefield, she had learned and adapted quickly, managing to master her powers well enough that she wouldn’t make unnecessary moves like the one James was witnessing now.

  After all, it didn’t matter how much debris you hurled at one of Hydra’s monsters; their bulletproof skin would treat them as mere nuisahat would only serve to dey, not defeat.

  Cassandra khis, and therefore she wouldn't waste her energy like this unless she had no other option, and James doubted that such a weak monster would er her to that point.

  So, he focused his gaze along with his superior senses and soon found the culprit, causing him to raise an eyebrow upon seeing him.

  One of the prisoners? And a young o that, one who seemed blinded by rage. James, who was still in the air thanks to his previous great jump, looked attentively at the tration camp. If the boy kept using his powers so recklessly, he would end up demolishing the entire pce before he could even scratch the monster.

  He o calm him down, so without thinking any further, he used one of the debris flying through the air to propel himself towards the ground at great speed.

  "Kid, you have to—" He reached Erik's side, but before he could finish speaking, a rain of metal interrupted him, sending his body flying dozens of meters into the distance.

  "Get lost!"

  Erik didn't eveer the person he had just sent flying; all his attention was on the enemy in front of him, the mohat killed his mother, that took the only thing he had left in life.

  With pure boiling rage, he ched his teeth and stretched both hands in its dire. The metal under his and followed his movements and began attag the beast, but no matter hoieces of debris struck it, the monster seemed to ighem pletely, with not a single visible wound on its body.

  "DIE!"

  "Grrra!"

  Tired of beilessly struck, the monster roared, and with a movement of its hand, the metal shattered and tore apart easily. Then, like a onball, it propelled itself forward, breaking the sound barrier in an instant, plowing through everything in its path without entering aance.

  Erik couldn't eve to such a high-speed movement.

  Just when the monster was less than a timeter away from reag him, a blurry figure arrived at his side, pulling him out of the way just in time.

  "Damned impulsive brats!" Erik didn’t uand the words sihey spoke different nguages, but he reized the voice, having just heard it a few seds ago before sending its owner flying.

  How was he still alive?

  James was a bit annoyed; sure, the hit hadn't really hurt him, nor had he been injured by it, but no one liked getting struck when they were just trying to help.

  Leaving the boy behind him, James looked at the monster, ready to rush in and quickly kill it, but before he could take a step forward, dozens of metal rods surrounded his body, coiling around him like snakes in an attempt to immobilize him.

  "He's mine!" Although the metahuman couldn’t uand the boy’s words, he could grasp the hatred ament veyed by his eyes and tone of voice—emotions he had seen many times over his immortal life, causing him to hesitate for a moment.

  Meanwhile, Erik looked at his enemy, who was also watg him, or more precisely, James standing beside him. The immortal metahuman triggered the beastly instincts in the monster, causing it to hesitate in attag recklessly.

  Notig its hesitation, Erik didn’t rush either. Although he still felt the boiling rage inside him, nearly dying a few seds aght crity back to his mind. After all, how pathetic would it be if he died without at least avenging his mother? He had already failed to protect her as he had promised his father; he had no iion of failing to kill her murderer.

  That’s why he took a deep breath and regained trol of his powers. He had already realized that charging in with blind fury ointless. His enemy was to to be beaten by something like that; he needed something different.

  ‘This is-?’ He hadn’t noticed before due to the shock, but now that he focused, he could feel it—ihe monster’s body, there was metal, small amounts but metal heless.

  Quickly, he tried to use it, to pull it out of its body, but the monster wasn’t just tough oside; its interior was just as resistant, and Erik’s attempt only served to irritate it rather than hurt it.

  ‘That’s why it didn’t fly out of him during my earlier rage.’ Even if the metal was i, it was still restricted by the monster's own body. So, how could he hurt it?

  Erik couldn't find an ao that question, as the monster, irritated by his attempt to pull the metal i, stopped hesitating and lunged forward.

  Only this time, Erik wasn’t caught by surprise. Even if his eyes and other senses were uo follow the inhuman speed of the monster, his sixth sense, which allowed him to even stop bullets mid-flight, erfectly capable of sensing the movement of the metal ihe creature. This allowed Erik to react to its movement, intercepting its charge and sending dozens of pieces of debris crashing into it, f it to be violently thrown back.

  "Let’s see if you withstand this!" With superhuman effort, Erik trolled all the metal he could, gathering it into several pieces that he sent flying with everything he had, feeding his power with his rage and pushing past his limits once again.

  From behind, James watched the battle closely, ready to intervene if necessary. The boy was strong, but his weakness was clear to the immortal: he could only trol metal. If he were like Cassandra, capable of exerting her power over all kinds of objects, the boy would have already won. Without a doubt, the amount of force he could exert with his ability was astonishing, but being limited to only metal signifitly restricted his forms of attack.

  The fight reached a stalemate for a few moments, with the monster uo reach Erik and Erik uo hurt it. It was a deadlock that would eventually break, as one of the two would give io ck of endurance, and James knew who that person would be.

  'Sorry, kid, but I’ll have to step in.' James didn’t like interfering in others’ affairs when they clearly didn’t want him to, but he knew Erik wouldn’t be able to kill the creature on his own, not as things stood. If he let the fight tihe risk of the monster getting lucky aher killing or severely injuring Erik would be too great.

  'Even if you end up hati doesn’t matter.' Flexing his muscles, he prepared to break the metal rods that had him “captured,” but before he could, a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

  James sensed a familiar presence, and soon a face he reized appeared in his vision.

  "Leave it to me." John, who had e from who knows where, gave James a fident smile before stepping forward and speaking in perfect German.

  "Hey, boy! How about using this?" Hearing words he could uand and sensing something flying towards him, Erik turned his head only to find a round shield, adorned with a white star in the ter, flying toward him.

  'What's this?' fused, he caught the shield with his powers, making it levitate around him with curiosity. It was metal, no doubt about that, but at the same time, it felt different from any other metal he had entered before, something he could tell since his powers allowed him to easily distinguish between different types of metallic materials he came across.

  After a moment of admiring the shield, Erik turoward the person who had thrown it to him. He didn't know who John was, where he had e from, or why he had decided to give him the shield. Still, he oward him aurned his gaze to the monster, which was still being bombarded by the metal debris under his trol. Despite his efforts, the creature still hadn't suffered a single scrat its body.

  Could he really do something with this shield? His doubt was uandable, but he also khat he didn't really have any other options. He wasn't foolish and had realized that he wouldn't win if things tinued as they were. His stamina was starting to run out, and soon he wouldn't be able to keep applying the same pressure that prevehe monster from approag him.

  ‘It's this or nothing.’ g his teeth, he looked at the shield a his powers flow through it with all the strength he had left, a thin stream of blood trig from his nose.

  Then, his bloodshot eyes turoward the monster, and without waiting any longer, he sent the shield flying toward it. The air split apart, and much faster than the speed of sound, the shield—made from the most powerful metal on the p—flew unhioward its target, leaving a trail of blue and red behind.

  "Shhhhing!"

  The monster saw it ing but was uo dodge it, as the metal around it coiled around its body like s, preventing it from moving.

  In an instant, the edge of the shield reached the creature, and like a sharp bde, it struck its neck. Without entering aa cut through its skin in a motion, sending its head flying through the air.

  As the monster's body stopped struggling a limp, Erik smiled. He felt his sciousness begin to fade, and before passing out pletely, he sent the shield back, throwing it toward John with a grateful look.

  He then colpsed to his knees, pletely unscious, but before he could fall pletely, John stepped forward and caught him.

  "It's ly what I had pnned, but I guess it'll work," John thought as he surveyed the destru around him. His inal idea had been to rescue Erik along with his mother, but it seemed that even the best-id pns entered ued difficulties.

  Or rather, no pn, no matter how perfect, could go off without a hitch?

  'I'll have to refihat quote before adding it to my diary.'

  Shrugging, he looked at James, who had already escaped from his "impriso" and had approached.

  "Tell me everything that happened."

  He o know what had gone wrong.

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  Note:

  Long wait, right? thank you for your patiend uanding.

  I debated for a while over the fate of Erik's mother before making a decision, which wasn’t easy, but I believe it’s the right one. I know it’s not what many expected, but I hope you uand.

  Finally remember that You already find the chapter (and several more chapters) of this story on Patreon ( patreon.maCruzader ) All the support received is appreciated ;D