Chapter 11: Chapter 10: Manipulation At Its Finest
The city was strangely quiet, filled with dust and debris of all sorts. There was so must dirt in the air, a normal person would most likely suffocate from the lack of oxygen.
But despite the sting in my eyes, I kept them wide open, rapidly moving them around.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up straight, like trees in a rainforest.
I readied another CityNova, just in case...
I felt my fist connect to something earlier when I threw my first CityNova, but I couldn't just assume that something like that would take out Hrydib.
As I mentioned before, and though I'm not particularly proud to admit it...
I'm completely on edge.
Yes, that's right. Me, THE Daniel Rainer, is on edge because of a stupid person with a stupid name like 'Hrydib'.
As ridiculous as it sounds, it's true.
I had never ever seen a stunt like what Hrydib did earlier with the horde of Cannes.
Maybe if I really tried, I 'could' match his speed, but it would be the first time I truly doubted my Powers.
Something like that would be tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of times faster than the speed of light. (Don't judge me, why should I bother doing the math?)
It might be honestly be a little out of my league.
But that didn't mean I was going to simply accept defeat. I'm Daniel Rainer, student of John Rainer, and I wasn't going to lose to my pathetic junior!
I clenched my fists, and slammed them into the ground.
The force blew away the surrounding dust from the air and created a larger crater beneath me.
Immediately, I activated my instincts, scanning the area for any sign of Hrydib, so I could launch another attack on him.
But...
I didn't sense him.
I spun around, trying to find a disturbance in the air around me. Trying to pick up a single sound, smell, or even a vibration that wasn't normal.
Something.
But no.
It was exactly like my fight with John.
His entire existence felt like it had evaporated, disappeared from reality.
Completely vanished.
In a slight panic, I turned to intellect and wits.
Hrydib was about twenty meters away from me when our friendly duel began. And I rushed at him at approximately zero point four seconds after it started. If my CityNova was charged up to release—
"Ooohhh..."
Suddenly, a weak and pained voice resonated through the devastated land.
"Huh?!" I looked back up, looking for the source of that voice—
There he was.
About two hundred meters away, in the middle of the desolation of the city, a figure of a man lying, shattered, on the ground.
Hrydib groaned in pain, barely even moving. And I'm sure the few movements he made was just simply muscle twitches made by a broken mind.
"H-Hrydib?!" I suddenly rushed forward at lightning speed, and was kneeling by his side in a fraction of a second.
From the looks of his chest, it seemed that he had broken about seventy-five percent of his ribs. His right arm was bent a near one hundred and eighty degrees, and his knees were twisted inwards, as if his joints just simply gave up on supporting his body.
"Oh God..." I whispered to myself.
Having no medical training at all (or was just too lazy to get any), I couldn't do anything to help Hrydib.
"Ouugghh..." Hrydib suddenly opened his eyes.
"H-Hrydib! Are you o—"
All of a sudden...
"aaaaa...WAAAAAAHHAHHHHHH!!!!"
Hrydib, a giant of a person, who was taller than me by a literal head, began brawling his eyes out.
Because of his fractured arms, he couldn't reach up and wipe his tears off.
I stared dumbfounded. I didn't know what to do.
Shit.
What have I done?
Now...
John is definitely gonna kill me!
"Hrydib... I..." My hands shook and trembled.
I was so goddamned angry!
How dare he make me doubt my power! And because of that, I was now going to be scolded by John! I was going to lose some of my privileges and it was all Hrydib's fault.
Damn it!!!
The world was so unfair.
"Hrydib—" I tried speaking to him, but...
"Daniel?!" The door to the Simulation Room opened, creating a rift between reality and simulation. It was like door suddenly opening from thin air.
And the room itself, sensing this disturbance, immediately shut down, and the world around me evaporated again, turning back in to the room of screens.
"Hrydib—" John gasped when he saw Hrydib in his broken form, wailing in pain on the ground. "Daniel! What have you done?!"
He rushed up to him, on the opposite side of me, and tried comforting the crying Hrydib.
"I-I..." What could I say? "I didn't know that—"
"I told you to go easy on him right!?" John barked in my face, "You know what— Just go to your room, I'll deal with you later tonight."
"I—"
"Now." John's right eye was suddenly engulfed in black flames. I could almost feel its scorching heat on my skin.
"I..." I bowed my head in shame. "Yes, Master..."
I thundered off towards the exit, my mind filled with the thoughts of revenge.
Why did I have to be punished?!?
--
"WAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! WAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!"
John stood in the middle of the room, facing the door with his arms crossed and stern look plastered to his face.
"He's gone now... You can stop, you know?" He said out loud.
Hrydib continued wailing on the ground, his body still shattered and broken in pieces.
"Master, I said you can stop!" John turned and yelled towards him.
"Oh?" He reached up and threw on his hood with his good hand. "Well Okay then."
And like a robot with magnetic joints, his body began mending together like screws and gears being fixed back in place.
His broken ribs inflated like a balloon. His arm stretched out and fitted into place with a loud crunch. His legs spun around and began emanating this weird knocking sound as it twisted back to normal.
"Meh. That was getting a bit old." The hooded man jumped to his feet, his body, which looked crumpled and crooked earlier, was completely fine now. "So, how's life, John?"
"What the hell are you doing, Master?!" John spread his arms angrily.
"I'm just having some fun with Daniel, of course!" The hooded man responded in a cheeky voice.
"By making him think that he almost killed you?!"
"Exactly."
John scowled deeply, "I only agreed to this 'acting' because you promised it wouldn't affect Daniels well-being! I'm pretty sure traumatizing him DOES affect his well-being!!"
"Oh please..." The hooded man turned away, "He wasn't anxious because of me. He's just scared for himself."
"What?!"
"So you haven't even figured it out for yourself yet, huh John?" The hooded man replied sarcastically. "But it seems that Daniel was has this... say 'problem', with humility and empathy."
"I know that—"
"So what have you done to fixed it?"
John froze to a statue. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but he was absolutely speechless.
"Just as I expected. You've done NOTHING." The hooded man sighed and disappeared into a flash of blue, reappearing by a wall by the side.
He leaned on it with his hands in his hoodie pockets.
"I have done SOME-things!" John retorted. "Li—"
"But have you been doing the RIGHT things?" The hooded man emphasized. "Did you ensure that the things you did actually HELPED to break his relationship with arrogance? Or has it only made it stronger?"
John averted his eyes away, not having any more things to say.
"As I said before, he wasn't scared for me. He was scared of what YOU would do to him, for what he had done to me."
"So you're saying that you manipulated him into fighting you, making him scared for no reason, just so you can say this to me?"
"I wish to make you finally make you realize how much of a jerk he has grown to become." The hooded man pointed an accusing finger at John, "Because you wouldn't change him."
"But why do you even care?" John glared at him. "Why does this suddenly affect you? Why are you trying to help, despite having done this SO many times before?"
"Because why can't I not?" The hooded man pinched the edge of his hood and ever so slightly pulled it upwards.
John widened his eyes in horror as he stared into the hooded man's eyes.
"...can you stop me from doing what I want to do in my life?"
John looked away instantly. "No... Master."
The hooded man turned away and walked towards the door.
"I think it's time we change Daniel's flawed look on the world." The hooded man opened the door, he took off his hood, and it turned into the childish face of Hrydib.
"Maybe it's time to knock some sense into him." He spoke just loud enough for John to hear. "Before it gets any worse..."
He paused momentarily.
"...and finally he meets someone he can't defeat alone."
*Arc 1; Conclusion*
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
TheAssassin213
TheAssassin213 Hey guys, I’m sorry to announce this, but I’m gonna take a break for a couple of weeks. My term exams are coming up and I gotta study.
I should be back by April, so until then, see you guys.
As always, thank you for your patience.
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