บท 55: Graduated

///Lost'sForward/// 100 Power Stones = 1 Chapter

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At first, the Orc didn't notice. Olive's blood flowed in reverse. It flowed up the Orc, climbed its body and returned to its vessel.

Amidst this phenomena, the Orc relished in its successful hunt. For a mere moment, the Orc amused visions of praise from its brethren and even possibly a reward from the Chieftain.

Before the Orc's fantasies could bloom, however, danger suddenly clouded its senses!

The Orc's eyes shot open and hovering above its hand — an eyeball made of blood bore into the Orc.

The eye had three black irises that protruded from the orb of blood with unnerving symbols carved around the eye's pupils, mere shadows within the greater abomination.

The Orc clenched its hand to crush Olive's skull, but unlike before, Olive's head felt impenetrable. Underneath the Orc's palm, a thin dome of blood coated Olive's head and resisted the Orc's fingers.

Confused, the Orc clenched even stricter and thick veins unearthed from the Orc's forearm.

Then, the helmet of blood exploded with spikes.

Long needles of scarlet pierced the Orc's flesh and ran through its hand. The blood spikes tore through the Orc's muscles and tendons, pierced its bones, and severed its nerves.

Immediately, Olive's limp body was released and she fell to the ground.

The Orc, now with holes large enough to peer through in its hand, saw red.

It lifted its foot the size of Olive's chest above her head and struck down!

*thud*

The Orc's foot slammed against a solid shield of blood!

The Orc stomped again! Again! Again!

Then, as the Orc's foot plummeted once more, a geyser of blood erupted from Olive's pores and steeled into a lance of crimson!

The Orc's foot fell and slid onto the spike. The blood spike penetrated the bottom of the Orc's foot and pierced through its leg, its heart, and eventually its skull.

Due to the angle of the eruption, the spike severed the Orc's vertebrae and beheaded the beast.

For a moment in time, the Orc's body slid down the blood spike while its head remained where it was pierced — with a lance of hardened blood drilled through its skull.

The blood sucked back into Olive and the Orc's head fell.

In the dead of night, two limp bodies lay next to each other. The Orc's body drained: blood pooled out of it and dyed the grass crimson.

Meanwhile, Olive's body squirmed in the pool of the Orc's blood while her own red river flowed within her and slowly put her pieces back together.

Her blood guided her bones back into place and cast them in a blood iron casing. From the outside, Olive's corpse splashed in the Orc's blood like a fish out of water. Eventually though, her spasms subsided until the only movement left within her was the rise and fall of her chest.

Olive survived.

***

Leon gave up on thinking. It wasn't so much a choice he made, but one that was made for him.

At first, Leon wanted a simple life. A life like his father's — one filled with luxury, comfort, and leisure. He played baseball as a hobby, but his father construed it for passion; then he pushed training, hired professional coaches, advertised his games… for all Leon knew — his father probably bribed his way into his D1 team.

Thus, Leon's plan changed. Not so egregiously, it only shifted from a life of leisure to a life of leisure plus baseball and that wasn't so bad.

Then, Leon was summoned. He gained power and joined a militia. When he returned, he assumed his life would be like it was before; leisure and baseball although now he could add levitating to his daily life.

That's what Leon expected.

Until he saw his blurred face on the news and heard his barely distorted voice edited over the film of him flying.

And like baseball, his father was all in.

Brand deals, equipment, training, he even commissioned a famous French designer to construct his son a super-suit.

One day, Leon was called into his Dean's office. His father was present beside the Dean and the two appeared remarkably chummy. As Leon entered, he witnessed his father and the Dean shake hands — a deal had been made.

"Leon!" His father welcomed him, "I've got news for you!"

Leon asked begrudgingly, "What?"

"You're graduating early. No more of this baseball nonsense, we need to be ahead of the curve!"

"Mhmm! Mhmm!" The Dean nodded along.

"You'll be graduating with a degree in business next week. After that, we're heading to Greenland." His father's stern voice left no room for negotiation.

Leon glanced at his Dean, but the older man avoided his eye contact.

The father and son left the United States immediately after his graduation. They rode a private jet to Nuuk and landed on a strip of land just purchased by Leon's father. After an hour-long drive to Nuuk, Leon was led to a mansion in the center of Sol — the wealthiest of the three districts of Nuuk.

His new home was ginormous — three floors, thirteen rooms, nine bathrooms and ten baths. The interior was sleek and modern, white marble lined the floors and sleek hardwood decorated high ceilings.

The property came with a basement fully modified into a working gym. In addition to the gym littered with standard equipment, Leon's father also installed a boxing ring and purchased various exotic weapons for his son to train with.

Days passed and Leon was called to his father's office. His father presented him with a stack of papers and a pen. He looked at his son dully.

"Sign it."

"What is it?" Leon asked.

"A contract with the UN."

"The UN?" Leon looked perplexed.

"Why not the new one? What was it? Guard?"

His father pulled his spectacles off. He clasped his hands and leaned back into his leather chair.

"As of right now the two entities are one and the same. G.U.A.R.D. is piggybacking off the resources of the UN until they can support themselves." His father said.

"Okay? And?"

His father sighed, "I have a working relationship with their Secretary-General. It's a better contract."

"Could have just said that from the —"

"Sign the papers!"

"Okay!" Leon did as he was told.

Two days later the father and son took a limousine to the facility still under construction around the Gate. They met with Secretary-General Barber and delivered the signed contract with both of their representatives present.

From there, Leon's future was put to discussion.

Superhero, military, private defense, should he raid the Gates or remain on Earth? All and more was discussed with Leon himself saying very little during the meeting. Ultimately, it was agreed upon that Leon needed to start with training.

Training his physical body, his weapon skills, his survival skills, hostage negotiation — at the end of the day, Leon needed to become an elite soldier. That much was set in stone.

The aspects still up for debate included what exactly Leon was training for? Although having never seen the monsters themselves, Leon's father and Mrs. Barber critically understood that what one was fighting against made all the difference: for example, a fight against a mundane human in contrast with a fight against a monster as large as a house.

Of course, the ladder was an exaggeration — there hadn't been any beasts of such magnitude yet, the largest of them rivaling buses — but nevertheless, human vs. inhuman was a very important distinction.

Important enough, apparently, to ask Leon which he preferred himself. The answer, unsurprisingly, was beasts. This created a bit of an issue however, as who on Earth could train someone to fight beasts of which Earth didn't possess?

At best, Leon could learn from distinguished masters around the globe — as scarce as they may be — remnants of the past still remained to this day. In fact, the most popular form of combat most readily accessible was mixed martial arts, a cesspool of various forms and techniques mushed together to achieve a single goal — domination over one's opponent.

For an Awakened with an enhanced body, this decision would be filled with many prospects. Renowned fighters would be honored to pass down their techniques to a disciple of which contained vast and otherworldly power. For many martial masters, the Abilities of the Awakened were lottery tickets to global recognition — Abilities could quite literally make martial arts everything it's always dreamed of being.

At least, that's the case for those with enhanced physiques. Leon, on the other hand, has a nerfed form of telekinesis. He is quite literally the opposite of someone who engages with their physical body. He was gifted with a power that by requirement affects distinct objects and this effect neither enhances, strengthens, or buffs the objects effected.

With that said, it became increasingly clear that Leon needed to study under a weapon master; a weapon master who wielded something that didn't require exorbitant strength and was preferably used for hunting wild animals instead of other people, i.e. not a gun.

Those two measly requirements cut the list of potential candidates from hundreds of people down to less than a handful.

It was at this point that Secretary-General Barber signaled one of her agents in black. The agent promptly left the room and disappeared for some ten minutes. When he returned, he slid a closed folder across the desk.

Leon's father opened it.

The profiles of four people spread before him.

Three of them were archers. One of them was a rope dart user.

A rope dart user?

It's an ancient Chinese weapon primarily used for showmanship, but when rediscovered in the nineteenth century the rope dart was given a second chance.

Integrated into other forms of martial arts, the rope dart evolved into a device specialized for assassination and retrieval.

The ancient weapon consists of, who would have guessed, a rope and a dart. The rope is typically anchored around the hand and spun around the body. By utilizing the momentum of the rope, the martial artist snaps the rope across any available joint (foot, knee, elbow, neck) and the metal dart is launched in the direction of the snapping motion.

The three bowmen were different too, from each other at least: one used a short bow, one used a long bow, and one used a great bow. Of the four candidates, two were men and two were women.

The men were elders, aged past sixty, and ran their own schools to pass on their teachings. One of the women was like this too — significantly aged and occupied with China's Olympic bow team.

Interestingly, the final woman was relatively young for the rank of grandmaster status as her profile put her at age thirty-seven. She had an extensive history of bounty hunting within the outskirts of China and is known in various other countries as some kind of bandit.

When Leon saw the woman's profile, and hence saw her image, his eyes sparkled. She was a black woman with box braids. Her eyes were fierce and her stare was incredulous. Scars obscured her dark skin and piercings dug into her ears and eyebrow.

Leon read her name.

"Shani Kindiki…" He muttered.

"I'd like her." He looked to his father.

Meanwhile, his father rubbed his face. None of them were up to his standards to begin with, but if his son wanted one to screw around with — he could afford it.

"Fine." His father nodded towards Barber who then signaled her man in black.

"In the meantime, before Miss Kindiki arrives, I suggest Leon joins G.U.A.R.D.'s active venture into the Gate. It's all people he knows, other Awakened who have signed with Director Adams, so he should be able to adapt quickly." Barber smiled.

///LostNoteFound///

Howdy there partners!!

Thank you DevilGod_of_Chaos, WalkingBush, Hooverfh, UnKnownEntity001, and moofin for the stones!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!