Chương 65: Burning

The mask sat on me like the sun's rays after a deep night. Disorienting, still blinding and depriving me of clarity, but granting me warmth. Granting me the signal of things changing. That was enough. That warmth washed away the pain and soreness and the remaining burn of electricity in me.

"Oh look at that posture! All slouches before now! That's your full height, isn't it? If only we got some meat on those bones! You'd be quite the killer, Leo."" I'm not Leo."

"Excuse me?" My mistake with my tackles was always going for the mid body, the legs. That was to knock them down since normal people couldn't take them. This guy wasn't normal. He likely knew that weakness. I'd just have to aim higher. There was no need to bend my legs all the way. I could stretch my foot out with all the force I usually put into my legs. Even though I wasn't using as much strength, focusing it on such a small area was still enough to rocket me towards him. Higher than the midsection.

I stuck my arm out, letting the crook of it land at his neck. He came flying down with me as we hit the ground. There was no time to wait, as I scrambled to take a mounting position over him. One of my knees sat over his shoulder to keep his arm from raising. Bringing both fists up, I swung them down with just a little push of strength down onto his chest. His ribs cracked under the blow like eggshells.

"Hoo!" Casney yelled out.

"An actual idea! Your instincts are kickin' in too, now?" He inquired before suddenly a hand was in my face, yanking at the mask.

"That mask such a big deal to you? It's just some rubber!" He then let go of it, letting it snap back against my face and causing me to flinch. In that one moment of distraction, a hit to my chest knocked the wind out of me. It didn't hurt as bad as before. Why didn't it-? That was it. The same little bit of strength I left in my foot. Just focus it. There's no shape or form to it, my muscles didn't change or anything, but I could tell where it was being focused. It moved up to my chest when Casney struck me.

I could just let it distribute. I felt the electricity coming on, and I immediately let my head clear, fending off the paralytic pain and giving myself an opportunity to get to my feet at the same time as Casney. Raising my fists, he followed suit.

"Oh, look at you. You want to toe the scratch? I'll humor you." We stood across from each other, coiled like vipers in view of mice. Neither of us knew who was the prey in this situation. We both sat on the delusion of being each other's predator. The goal was to keep my ideas simple. There was no need to try and be ten steps ahead from the start. Just try to move one step forward while pushing him one step back, and that leaves me two steps ahead. Do it enough and I'd be a hundred steps ahead. All I had to do.

Easier said than done when fighting someone with far more experience and enough strength to compete with me. He threw out a short, quick punch at my face, compelling me to bring my hands up and focus my strength on that spot. Barely felt it. Was my strength already increasing? Lowering my hands to get ready for a counter, his other arm was flying at me. I opened myself up to it. All I could do was bring that focus up to my face and pray for the- KRNK Huh? He pulled his hand back, revealing multiple gnarled fingers.

With a little melody of pops, each one finger took back its shape.

"God's wounds, that mask is a lot tougher than it looks! Did they put Dumb Metal in it?" Didn't need to answer. Needed to attack. Keep it simple. I threw a punch out at him, which he slipped by. That was fine, since he already showed me how to throw a headbutt. As he waved towards me, I leaned my head forward, all my strength still focused on my face, and slammed my forehead into his nose. Blood flew as he stumbled back, and he held onto his face.

"Now we're talkin'! Suppose you don't need my rantin' now, do you?" He was still holding back. I had to make sure he regret it. While he was still recovering from the bloody nose, I ducked down this time with my punch, landing a clean shot towards the middle-right area of his stomach. He immediately bent over from the pain, groaning. For someone who couldn't die, he sure could get hurt. Maybe all that bullying he talked about meant he hadn't been hit back enough in normal ways. Good enough for me.

Taking advantage of the opening he left, the simplest move was to just start swinging. My punching form wasn't the best, I was too used to using all my strength. Keeping it limited, focused to just my hands and arms, I was causing nowhere near as much harm. If I tried that on Technofiend, he probably would have killed me. Thankfully, this wasn't Technofiend. Casney kept his arms up, withstanding most of the hailstorm of blows.

Occasionally, I could feel bone crack under the force, but it seemed to not stay with him. He kept healing too much. Had to start dialing it up a little. See where the limit was. I started asking for more strength from my body. Just a bit. The hailstorm persisted. I could see dents forming in Casney's arms, his shoulders, his hands. I was doing more significant damage that was taking a bit longer to heal. But still, he was healing fast enough that it let him keep his ground. You might be reading a stolen copy.

Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. He was the third person so far that I've fought who could conveniently just heal away whatever I hit them with. Technofiend repaired his body, Gleditsia just regrew whatever I did to him, and now Casney here. It was bullshit. Sure, I could swing with less caution, but it meant everything I did just kept. Getting. Undone. I wasn't letting him keep a step forward. It wasn't happening. For once, I wasn't letting my efforts be undone. More strength.

Overwhelming healing's worked before with the last two. This guy couldn't even whip out any added counters. The collar still wasn't zapping me. I still had it under control. Now I could see damage that was too much to heal quickly. Jagged bends in limbs. It only took a few swings before his arms hung limp in front of him. That left him open for one clean strike, for the middle of his face. KRNCH My fist dragged across one side after the middle of the impact, skull and viscera deforming against my hand.

Blood splashed out against the nearby wall. His eye hung out of the socket. Most of his jaw was pulverized. Agent Casney finally took a step back, holding a hand up.

"Goob Lorb! Holb on-!" He held onto his face as it slowly crackled and popped as it put itself back together, his eye being sucked back into the socket.

"Okay, we're clearly seeing how high you can go in the strength department. I think that's enough of a test-""No, it isn't."

"Yes, it is-" WHAM Intentionally weakened that strike. Just wanted to hurt him as I struck across a healed part of his jaw.

"You think you can just beat me down like I'm one of the heroes you killed?" I asked, bending a leg up and putting more strength into it, sending it right down onto his knee. KRK Bones popped. He groaned.

"And the second I get to hit back, you think it's fair to call it off? No. I'm getting my fair shot. You can't die, right?" Another swing, into the side of his head. Keeping the strength out of my hands let me just smack him around. It likely hurt, but no worries about downing him too early.

"So it shouldn't be a big deal to let me vent some steam on you." I raised my arm up, hand spanning out, putting more strength into it as I slammed it into the top of his head. His head pushed into his chest cavity. Would almost be funny-looking if it weren't a human body. Muffled shouts came from his torso as I grabbed him by the shirt, hurling him towards one of the walls.

"Doesn't feel good, getting hit back without being able to fight back, right? For an agency that wants superheroes, you sure don't like seeing what heroes do to people like you." Casney's head forced itself out of his body's ribcage as he got back to his feet.

"You're startin' to upset me, son. You react best under pressure, so of course I laid the pressure on with the thing I do best," he groaned out, rubbing his face.

"And you picked all the wrong moves. You weren't pissing me off at all. I know everyone's scared of me. I know they all plan on things that screw me over. I'm well aware." I began approaching, prepared to unleash another storm of blows on him.

"I don't care. The only thing that's pissed me off is thinking you're the only one allowed to hurt anyone here. You wanted a superhero, and you're getting one who's punishing that exact behavior." Finally reaching him, he tried to throw a punch out at me, but I put my face right in the way. Focused what strength I could there. His hand and arm collapsed under the force. From there, I moved the focus into my hands, throwing punches out that didn't just hit him, but went through him.

I was punching holes through his body, like I was just reaching through water. Every strike sent red flying. There was no need to plan too much of it, I had worn him down enough psychologically that I could think clearly. Multiple times, I clearly hit something important. Something soft that pulverized in my grip. At some point or another, I gave up on just hitting him with my hands. I could do more. Gripping his body as it knit together, I began slamming it against the wall.

Every strike sent blood and viscera flying out of him, painting the walls up and down. I kept this up for four, five, six more slams at least. The room had gone from white to a mix of red and brown rather quickly. Tancred told me the first kill was the worst. So it made sense that the following ten to twelve kills would be easier. Especially on a man who got back up from every single one.

The only reason I didn't get to lucky number thirteen was the door suddenly opening, and speak of the Devil: It was Tancred, standing there, arms hanging at his side.

"Kid. Leo-"" I'm not Leo."

"Don't you pull that shit on me, brat. You're Leo Holt. Kid with no family and nothing in his mind except burning himself out to warm others up." Tancred began approaching, hands in his pockets, continuing to talk.

"You think this is warming anyone up? Making a Pollock painting out of the biggest scumbag the American taxpayer bankrolls?" He gestured to the blood everywhere.

"He can't die, Tancred. He'll be fine. Thought it was fair to be beating me around like it wasn't an issue-""You got that payback when you slapped his fucking ugly head into his gut. You've gone so far past payback that you're choosing some unnecessary ferality as though that's at all within your barely-present personality." Who was he to talk about choices? After he chose to turn me into this-"I get it, you're still fucked up from killing a man last week. Maybe we shouldn't have wound you up in here so soon.

Unfortunately, Casney is too much of an asshole to consider the gentle approach." Trying to downplay it. He didn't even realize what I know now.

"And what, you were doing better? Shoving me and May into a goddamn raid? Then locking me in a room with him?" My gaze snapped towards Casney, whose body was reforming. Occasional wheezes and groans came from him.

"I wasn't exactly trying to get into fisticuffs with you, so I'd say I was going a lot fucking gentler! We're going off-track! You're choosing to get too used to brutalizing the human form. Yeah, Casney'll walk this off and be back to being a piece of shit in the next half hour. But if you keep this up while it's just a villain who ain't immortal?" Tancred gestured to the blood splatters on the wall.

"It's gonna seem all too easy to paint 'em across the pavement, kid! That's not what we have you on for." He pointed a calloused finger at me.

"Superheroes don't rely on unnecessary cruelty. Sometimes people die, it's shit but your position means you have to hold yourself to a standard where your first step isn't brutalizing them." He rubbed his forehead, groaning.

"This entire thing was a fucking mess. Casney, quit playing possum, you're able to talk at this point." A bubbling groan came from what was available of Casney, half of an arm coming up to hold onto his slowly-unbruising head.

"The Hindoos always talked about karma, and I think that was a lot of my karma comin' back to bite me. But I think this was constructive."

"Did he give you fucking brain damage? How was this constructive!?"

"Well, for starters, his collar stopped goin' off!" Casney's arm, now reformed, gripped the wall hopelessly as his legs began rebuilding under him, leading him into this almost half-squat.

"So he's figured out how to balance his instincts and his powers. So now we can start testin' the mechanisms directly. I've already got some theories on what the Sam Hill he's doin'. Nothin' concrete yet, though."

"You are a fucking maniac, Casney."

"And that's what I'm here for, my boy!" As they continued to argue, my gaze passed from them to the window. There, I could see my reflection. My mask, covered in blood. On the other side, Sam just staring in horror.