Ikem looked around the room pensively.
Unlike in the situation of the other captives, he could see perfectly well in the unflinching darkness.
He was surprised.
There was no sign of blood or of scuffles from a fight anywhere, the only thing that seemed off about the room was it's inherent vastness, and the lack of any furniture except for an ornate wooden chair.
'They may have cleared it up', he cautioned himself.
"Sit down boy. On the chair under the spotlight", the voice commanded.
Ikemefuna went straight for the only chair he saw, though he couldn't see any spotlight, he could somehow sense a concentrated point of photons on the chairs location.
'Photons', he reminded himself, another word in which the meaning he had of it was only of a standardized dictionary knowledge.
He sat on the chair before turning to look around warily, "What next?", he asked the voice.
There was no reply, Ikem decided to sit quietly and wait.
No sooner than he he did, he felt a foreboding sense of danger.
And his body, as if on instinct moved to the left; tumbling out of the chair and unto the metal ground.
In turn a dark object passed by his previous position, shattering the wooden chair to pieces and sending splinters of wood flying.
'What was that?', he asked himself as he began getting up from the floor. He looked about, searching carefully for more incoming attacks.
He did.
He spotted the black object reversing, and straining the muscles in his arms he pushed himself off the ground and into the air, narrowly dodging the second attack.
'BAM!'
It hit the floor with a great thud, causing a huge dent in the powerful metallic ground.
He landed on his feet, unharmed.
"Nimble, just like a cat. I see", the voice complemented. "However most of the others also survived this unharmed, and I'm also growing bored and tired of small games, let's see how well you fare against... this round ".
One by one, hundreds of black, slender spikes flickered into reality, all of them tangible, floating eerily as they surrounded Ikem from all sides.
"Why are you doing this, isn't this supposed to be a test, I have not done any wrong to you!?", he asked, his body involuntarily shivering at the sight of the spikes, he mustered as much courage as he could gather in preparation for the upcoming attack.
There was once again no reply. Ikemefuna closed his eyes, and on instinct, changed his breathing, his breath became deep, powerful and grounded.
Like a calm before the storm.
His right leg leaned out, as he crouched, his back arched as the muscles in his body turned tense.
When he opened his eyes, it turned completely purple, like the unbridled, unrestrained rage of a lightning deity. The handcuffs exploded, as if unable to withstand the constraining pressure.
A large, gleaming, purple war machete appeared in the air in front of him.
And, almost as if he had done it a thousand times, he grasped it's handle, and with a single hand pulled it to himself.
"Come", he whispered, not to the machete but in declaration to his opponent.
There were sounds of the beating of unseen drums echoing throughout the room.
"What little trick is this", the voice asked, his tone unable to hide his surprise.
Ikem stood silent, Like he was possessed.
Offering no questions nor did he reply; at this moment, there was only three things that seemed to matter: him, the fight, and the unseen opponent. No, that was wrong, Ikem could 'see' his opponent.
He had long since sensed an confluence of electric charges; the kind produced by a person's brain waves and channeled through his nervous system as it functioned.
"Come", he whispered once again, this time more violently.
And alas, the spikes did come. All two hundred and fifty six of them.
Ikem slashed them down with his machete, as he zipped through with a speed of zoom. His movements were grounded, sharp and imperceptibly nimble.
Swerving to his right, he dodged an attacking spike, and, gathering the momentum agitated into his right arm, he swung downwards, shattering ten spikes at once.
He kicked into the air as he dodged more, appearing to be untouched by the laws of physics. And that was it; attack as he dodged. This was his instinctive motion; and there was partially no recklessness involved.
But, the spikes seemed to home-on to him, and as soon as a single spike was cut down, more would emerge from it's broken shadowy parts, multiplying the total number of spikes.
It was starting to be troublesome.
"Wow, you are good", the dark praised sincerely, "Abnormally good in fact, considering your age, but where is your Divine veneration, your Arcana, I have tested all the others, they have no lightning, so, I am positive the one I am looking for is you, you're the only one left; it has to be you".
The owner of the voice, sensed charges and sparks in the atmosphere as Ikem fought. But for some reason, or maybe just to sure, he wanted Ikem to used his ability, or what he so called the Arcana.
Ikem fought gracefully.
And as he did, it was inevitable for him to get hurt. It wasn't long before the first spikes struck; dealing damage to his body, hurting him.
His movements were purely instinctive and he didn't seem to have any concurrent memory on any art or style of fighting or particular method of movement.
The slender spikes drew blood as they struck him; golden blood, one that happened to fade into mist easily each time Ikem was hit.
The owner of the dark voice; sitting at a corner in the room, obstructed from sight by his shadows whist he controlled his teleguided spikes suddenly shot up.
"Ichor!!", he screamed. "goodness gracious!, fuck!!, that's Ichor, the evil runt is a demigod".
"Ikemefuna", the chi spoke up after its long period of dormancy, it's sudden appearance startled Ikem, causing him to loose his footing, and with it an opportunity to dodge. This resulted in Ikemefuna being struck by dozens of the slender spikes at the same time.
"Crap!!", he grunted in pain. "What now?!!".
"He has seen you", the chi whispered, "He is close to knowing you for what you are, therefore.... he cannot live!!".
As he fought, Ikem suddenly felt two things at once, he felt confusion and a surge of dumbfoundedness.
'Kill?', he asked mentally, 'What the heck is this, wasn't he seeing me before?, and for what I am?, what sheer crap, and why is that even a reason to kill him.
He tried dodging and parrying the attacks as he queried, he knew it wouldn't work. With him at his current brain's capacity, and not the urge from his subconscious instinct, he was soon on his knees, with about twelve slender spikes embedded onto his back.
Yet the spikes were unrelenting, and kept on attacking.
The Chi continued.
"He has seen you for what you are, therefore he has known you", the Chi whispered; it's voice slow and unhurried, taking its time, which made Ikemefuna grit his teeth in annoyance.
The strangest thing, was that the substantial amount of pain Ikem felt was not nearly half of what a normal person in his position would feel.
It just felt the same as him pricking his finger on a single sewing needle. Or maybe twelve at once.
'You must Kill him... Kill him... Kill him', The chi began urging, not giving him any chance for thoughts.
Ikem, sweating in perspiration, was forced into a corner. He couldn't link any thought. His machete had long since disappeared without his knowing.
His body, with numerous spikes attached to it, now bore an uncanny resemblance to a porcupine's, drawing out the soon-disappearing golden blood.
"I have all the confirmation I need, so I can't let you live now, this is no more your test ground, it has become your execution chamber". The voice bellowed coldly,
"You are lucky no one is here to witness your death, though Commander Pixler tried protecting you by silencing most of us clanarians, you will still die, he let you live because he doesn't know what you are, 'rogue demigod', Abomination, Evil. Even after reaping the lives of a cities population; one with a count of 62,576 lives, you were still allowed to live, and that is without counting those before".
'Kill him, Kill him, or he will kill you instead',the chi's whispers became stronger inside Ikem's head, who, in his confusion failed to hear a single word of his attacker's brief monologue.
Ikem succumbed to the voice and alas.... he let loose.
A lightning storm. Dry, rageful lightning bolts raining down and across from the sky, wreaking havoc. Sowing and harvesting seeds of absolute destruction.
Well, that was Ikem's release, but at least two times stronger.
Ikemefuna roared as he let loose.
The atmosphere immediately turned tense. The air in the room was soon filled with a choking smell of ozone.
And then came the lightning bolts.
Each malicious blade of forked lightning bolts were formed through the pores of Ikem's skin, scattering wildly across the metallic room.
The air itself was soon charged, a testament to his growing primal wrath.
'I knew it!!',
Ikem's attacker exclaimed at the first instance of lightning. But as the barges continued; turning rabidly wild, he turned sombre, he was learning the feralty of a cornered cat firsthand,.
He tried defending himself at first instance after regaining clarity; showcasing his experience as a Clanarian, building a thick wall made of tendrils of tangible shadows.
But a wrathful lightning bolt had pierced through. Striking him without his notice.
He fell.
An instructor of Camp Perudaux died that day; both by electrocution and a result of his carelessness.
Ikem didn't notice his attacker's death in his moments of fury, but he did notice the stop in the attacks by the spikes, which appeared to be fading out of reality.
Yet he kept on his release, till the ceiling of the test room collapsed on top of him.
Ikem's lightning release stopped Ten minutes just as he lost consciousness.