Chương 31: Life or Death

It takes longer than you think to be choked to death. Movies try to make it look like it's only seconds, but that's because they need your attention span to stay on board. Your train ticket from life only comes after minutes of someone pushing down your airways, constricting blood vessels, purpling your skin, and leaving your face in a forever mask of open-mouthed horror. That's if they were using two hands.

Catgirl here only had one, but there were five skin slicing claws on each finger and she really wanted to kill me, so it kind of made up for that. Still, it might give me a solid two minutes before deoxygenated death came for me. That was if I could remain conscious. I had used my power enough times that the world was fuzzy before her fingers had wrapped around my throat. Now, with her talons digging into the back of my neck, drawing more of my ever shrinking blood supply, everything was just shapes and shadows.

Not to mention the fact that my brain had no other use than just sliding around in my skull, rocketing with pain with every movement. Luckily, her vape didn't give her super strength otherwise my head would have popped off like a cork. Instead, I struggled to breathe, like trying to suck air through a Capri Sun straw- possible, but not enough. My two hands pried at her one, trying to leave out my broken fingers, but her claws were like a vice around my trachea.

Still on top of her, I jerked to roll away, but her grip never moved from my neck and she whipped my head against the pavement where it cracked and then everything went black. It was strange to be dizzy and yet not able to see anything. Your mind is in an invisible tidal wave, everything whirling around except there isn't anything actually there. A boulder landed on my throat, weighing it down, blocking all oxygen from the remains of my airway.

My eyes opened to see her blurred shape straddling my waist as she leaned on my neck with her one good arm, pressing down with all her strength. Her eyes were millimeters away, shaking pupils expanding out like black holes, teeth biting down on her smiling lips until blood dripped out onto mine. Choking feels like an impending explosion. A countdown ticks off in your head as your lungs wait to expand again, brain screaming for more blood. But it never comes. The nice part is, after awhile, you stop caring.

People are afraid to die when they're healthy and well. That's why torture is so effective, because when all you feel is pain, you'd do anything to end it. Even death can be a relief. Gran would be disappointed though, that I hadn't fought to the end. The woman would bite, kick, even just spit until her last breath. I twisted my head from side to side. On the far right, I gulped in a small breath before Purple Lipstick elbowed down further to close it off. A green message popped up. DANGER!

DEATH OF SUPER IS IMMINENT! Gee, thanks for the unnecessary notification, bucko. Bet you'll tell me next that water is wet. Would you like to make a purchase? Dying with pop up ads was so American. But my eyes glazed over the menu. Stats Strength: 0 Agility: 0 Constitution: 0. 5 Charisma: 0 Intelligence: 3 Focus: 2 13 Hero Points Available 50 Villain Points Available Would you like to make a purchase? Yes/No I lifted shaking fingers into the air and pressed the green yes button.

Maybe this was happening in the afterlife, maybe it was real, who knew? Options flashed in front of me. Strength upgrade cost 100 HP or VP Agility upgrade cost 100 HP or VP Constitution upgrade cost 50 HP or VP Charisma upgrade cost 100 HP or VP Intelligence upgrade cost 400 HP or VP Focus upgrade cost 300 HP or VP The letters swirled before my eyes, not making much sense, but my mind clutched onto the word 'strength'. I needed strength to get this alley cat off of me. My mind focused on it and an alert appeared.

You have insufficient points to raise strength to the next level. Darkness was caving in, starting from the outer edges of my vision and collapsing forward onto Catgirl's face. Only the system window remained, but an alarm was ringing through my mind. Death was almost here. I thrashed on the ground left and right. Both hands pulled at the taloned grip around my neck, broken fingers lancing with pain. With a hard twist, one of her clawed fingers slipped.

The most delicious thing I ever tasted was that small burst of oxygen, bar none. My lungs filled halfway before she leaned down again, her nails squeezing harder, puncturing the skin until a warm wetness dripped down my neck. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. The options menu came back into focus. Strength was a no go, so it had to be constitution then. Mentally, I clicked on it. Are you sure you would like to upgrade constitution to the next level?

This will cost 50 points. Yes/No Could we skip the bureaucracy, please? Yes! Would you like to receive a marginal enhancement to your entire body or a significant enhancement to one part? Whole Body/ One Part As if from a distance, I could hear the choking noises squeaking from my mouth and the sound of her manic laughter. My hands pulled at her engorged fingers again, but it only made her claws clutch tighter around my throat. I looked beyond the system window to see her face.

Rabid eyes glaring from the black holes of her smudged mascara, blood spreading out from her nostrils, purple smeared around her lips like a clown's mouth. If this was the last painting I ever saw, it needed more Edvard Munch. My good hand shot up, hitting my palm against her already broken nose. Loose cartilage moved under my palm like tiny pieces of Legos, hot liquid trickling down my arm. The claws on my neck loosened as she screamed and I sucked in a shot of air.

Then her nails clenched harder and she bit down on my fingers. Her nails weren't the only thing that had sharpened; her teeth felt like fangs as they dug into my thumb. I tried to scream, but it turns out that's impossible when you're being choked, so instead I just gurgled louder. I swung my only free hand, the one with two broken fingers, into the side of her head. The pain rocketed through my bones but her jaw slackened enough to pull my thumb out of her vicious maw.

The system window still filled my vision, deaf to my life or death struggle. Just waiting for a response. Whole Body/ One Part One part! Please select the area that you would like to enhance. A model of my nude body appeared in the system window slowly rotating. No air was coming through my lungs and they were going to be pushed through the pavement at any second. I quickly selected the neck. Are you sure you would like to enhance the durability and recovery of your neck? This change once made can not be undone.

Yes/No But as my finger hovered over the yes button, I paused. All I wanted to do was breathe, but the second she wasn't able to squeeze my neck anymore, her claws would just slash my stomach open instead.. My finger shifted from yes to no. Please select the area that you would like to enhance. My rotating naked body had returned. No more defense, offense was the only way to get out of this. Darkness bloomed until it took over everything, dropping like a black curtain to end the show.

Only the system remained in sight, and even then, it was flickering off and on. My brain pulses pounded, lungs about to burst, and neck feeling already decapitated. I focused on my hands and the system zoomed in until they filled my vision. I selected confirm. Are you sure you would like to enhance the durability and recovery of your hands? This change once made can not be undone. Yes/No YES! The system window disappeared and I was left in the dark.

The world was a swirling black mass but there was peace in the stillness. Loud cracks sounded from somewhere and my fingers began to vibrate as they clutched along her arm. Her hand loosened enough for me to suck in some air and scream but nothing came out, my mouth hanging open and my back arching off the ground. Every bone in my hand was splintering, then grinding together to dissolve itself. My skin burned like it was on fire, blood boiling at four hundred degrees. Cat Grim Reaper swam back into focus.

She watched my hands with wide eyes, her lips pulled back in disgust. The woman liked to snack on other people's blood, so it had to be bad if she got weirded out by it. I glanced down to see the skin on my hands looking charred and the source of the cracking sound became clear. Bent in the wrong direction and in the wrong places, each one of my fingers looked like it had been broken in ten different spots.

They twisted and rotated like something out of The Exorcist, straightening out only to contort and crack somewhere else. I was ready for death. It was the far kinder option if it put an end to the torture chamber that existed in all ten of my fingers now. Then it stopped. There was a final shudder as the burnt skin flaked off to reveal newborn pink below and a final pop as each finger straightened out. The cut on my thumb from where she bit me was gone.

I flexed my two broken fingers and straightened them out, working in perfect order. There was something to them now as I waved them in front of me- like a Pinto that had gone in for repairs, but instead got upgraded to a Ferrari. Power thrummed through them like it hadn't before. Cat Girl looked from my hands to me, her mouth hanging open. She snarled and leapt down on my throat again.

"What the-" She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence. My hand shot up clenched in a fist, heading straight for her. Her head turned to try to avoid it, but my knuckles hit the side of her face like they were made of granite. Another cracking noise resounded in the alley, but it was her cheekbone, not my hand, breaking this time. The blow knocked her off me and I swallowed down my first totally unobstructed shot of air, neck throbbing with every pull.

She grunted and smacked against the ground as she struggled to get up. I flung an arm over my side and shifted to a kneeling position. With only one working arm, she was still pushing herself up by the time I was standing. My feet ran forward and kicked her legs out from under her. She fell flat on her face and screeched in pain. She tried to rise again, but I went for her stomach this time and she flattened back down.

"You tried to kill me!" My voice was little more than gasps, it was so hoarse. She rolled over, chest heaving as her eyes burned up at me. Her arm shot out to push herself up, but I jumped on top of her, landing with one knee on her chest and the other on her arm. Her hand just barely reached my leg and five sharp talons dug into my skin. My yell was half sound, half air as my voice went in and out. My open palm chopped down, iron fingers slamming against her claws and the bones in her index finger snapped.

She screamed and pulled her hand back. Her head thrashed back and forth, bloodied teeth grinding against each other. I could see her exposed neck. If I could break her cheek by striking with my fingers, what would happen if I slammed them into her throat? I could kill her easily. Before all this, I wanted to be like Mr. Cheng; disabling opponents without causing any true harm unless they brought it on themselves. He only defended; he wouldn't strike to hurt or maim and he certainly wouldn't get revenge.

But kneeling there with the skin of my arms shredded to ribbons, blood oozing warm down my neck from the puncture wounds along it, breath still wheezing from an airway that had been crushed for the last ten minutes- killing her seemed like the only medicine I needed. She wouldn't stop. If she didn't murder me today, it would be someone else tomorrow. The world would be a better place without a psychopath like her in it. Beneath her neck, the skin underneath her collarbone was freely visible and wide open.

Take her life or disable her? My eyes closed, trying to breathe deeply, but my broken lungs wouldn't allow it. I pointed my hand towards the target and saw nothing but where I would strike. Calmness had already pervaded my brain as there would only be peace after this– the peace of perfect righteous morality or the letting go of any such pretense. Catgirl's eyes blazed as she dug her four remaining claws into my leg again. Pain pulsed throughout my body– from every place she had cut and choked. Only I could end it.

Two roads diverged in a wood and I- I would be forced to take one no matter what. Picking my target, my fingers dove down until they hit flesh.