Without any form of mercy, Nat threw Dom across the ring to the iron wall, slamming him with great force. She smiled as he hit the wall, knowing that the uniform would take most of the damage.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!!" Dom screamed. He tried to get up, only to stumble back down.
"Come on, the uniform helped you with the damage," her smile turned mischievous.
"Say, why don't we practice till the others get here?"
Feeling a chill go down his spine, Dom's face immediately darkened with horror. 'Why didn't anyone warn me about being friends with her? I know she's fierce, but not this fierce!' Without even bothering to focus on his self-proclaimed opponent, he began praying for a savior. Luckily for him, his prayers were answered.
"Nat, you can't just keep torturing Dom like that!" Aurelia declared while walking into the ring like a knight in shining armor, making Dom's eyes widen and fill with gratitude.
"Argh! You always do this. What's wrong with having fun with Dom? Why must you find a way to stop me from having fun with my toy?"
Dom's eyes, which were wide with gratitude, immediately became painted with disbelief. How could Nat utter such words and still pout to act cute? She even called him a toy!
'Unbelievable.'
The other two reactions weren't even that far from Dom's, with both of them having mouths wide open. Seeing the reaction of her friends, Nat burst out laughing, her solo laughter diluting the silence.
"I was just joking, guys. I see Dom as more than a toy," she chuckled and began walking towards him. "He's more like a friend, a brother—my junior brother, of course—and family."
With that, she stretched her hand to pick up Dom from the floor. Dom simply looked at the hand and the owner of the hand, refusing to accept the offer. Seeing that Dom might be refusing her offer, she immediately threatened him with her eyes, causing him to accept her offer while swallowing hard.
Aurelia sighed at the seemingly usual scene. "Okay, okay, let's begin our spar. Atlas will be helping Dom to figure out his ability, so it'll be Atlas vs. Dom and Nat vs. me. Any complaints?"
The moment Dom heard he wouldn't be sparring with that bloody demon, he immediately accepted the offer and ran to Atlas' side. Nat smiled at Dom, her smile devilish, before turning to Aurelia and asking, "It has been long since we sparred, yes?"
"Yes," Aurelia smiled back.
Both sparring teams took their positions, with enough space between them to not interfere or disrupt anyone. The ring was huge enough to fit three teams of two before becoming too tight for anyone to fight properly. To be able to fight properly while wearing the uniform, Aurelia advised turning on the sports function on the uniform—a function that none of them even knew about. This function turned the uniform into shorts and short-sleeved sportswear, making it more convenient.
'You don't see this in the orphanage.'
"Are you ready for your one-man beatdown?" Atlas smiled devilishly, causing Dom to shiver, and he couldn't help but see some similarities between Atlas and Nat's devilish expression.
"Please be gentle." Atlas' expression turned aggressive upon hearing Dom's reply that sounded a bit... zesty.
"What a zesty thing to say. Well, from what I know, all gays deserve to die." Without waiting for Dom to reply, he pushed himself forward, his speed slower than Nat's.
'He knows I was joking, right?'
Not even bothering to wait for a confirmation, he shifted his head to the side, just in time for his partner's fist to pass through. Even though Dom was obviously slower than Atlas right now, he was still able to dodge the punch by predicting Atlas' movements, something he had been training for since he turned 10. Keer, as a planet, was a brutal place.
Due to the dust torus affecting the children from the day they were born, they were unable to control their strength, resulting in some kids killing other kids due to them being stronger than those that the dust torus didn't enhance as much as it enhanced them. Of course, the best course of action was to simply keep the kids away from each other, then slowly teach them how to control their strength, and that was what they did until the black hole gates, simply called the black gates or BG (NOT BJ), emerged.
Beasts from different planets invaded, and the parents were needed to stop the beasts, with so many dying. What about their kids that were kept in seclusion? Well, they went on a rampage due to their parents' death, with some even putting the blame on the government for forcefully drafting their parents. Those who went on rampage were put down but not killed, and their focus was directed towards the BG (ONCE AGAIN BG NOT BJ!!!). A new system was passed where the kids were put in orphanage homes and were taught to control their strength from age 1-4, from 5-9 they were taught survival skills, and from 10-18 they hunted.
Due to the speed difference, Dom was eventually unable to keep up and began lagging behind. He was continuously hit on his face, arm, and stomach area. He had turned off the uniform's defense system to see how he'd fare against Atlas, and that seemed to be a huge mistake. He was continuously hit left and right, not even having a chance to turn the defense system back on. He was getting desperate, and rather than thinking logically, he gave in to the desperation.
Atlas knew what he was doing; he was consciously driving Dom to the brink of death just to allow for his ability to be released. He would have preferred to stop the 'spar,' but he knew Dom wouldn't want that, so he continued even with the risk involved. Remembering Aurelia's warning about what Dom's ability could be, he immediately created an illusionary version of himself that also attacked Dom alongside him. Seeing the second assailant, Dom was finally pushed to the brink of desperation.
"ARGHH!!" With a yell, he held Atlas' hand mid-air, stopping it in motion. While holding the hand, he raised Atlas' whole body up before slamming him back down. Not even expecting his arm to be held easily, Atlas could only panic as he was raised and slammed back down. Feeling the wind knocked out of him, he opened his mouth, with his eyes rolled back.
On the other side of the ring, the other group of two were engaged in heated combat. Aurelia ducked underneath the high kick sent her way before retaliating with a swift and precise blow to the underside of Nat's kneecap. Nat flinched as the sharp pain assaulted her, but rather than creating some distance, she used the momentum to flip midair, using her other leg to kick Aurelia's head. She used her hands to hold her falling body before pushing herself away from Aurelia.
"Fucking bitch. That stung." Aurelia pressed her thumb on one of her nostrils and blew out blood from the other. Nat simply smiled while limping. Both of them looked rough, with both having several bruises on the displayed parts of their bodies and some underneath their clothing.
Without delaying any further, Aurelia pushed herself forward, but before she could close the gap between them, a loud yell tore through the ring. She had been paying little attention to the fight happening beside her, so she was quick to react and immediately changed her direction, allowing her to witness Atlas being slammed against the floor.
"Holy shit," she heard Nat exclaim behind her, but she ignored it and kept her focus on Dom. As if sensing her presence, Dom let go of Atlas' wrist and turned to face her. Without panicking, she simply increased her speed, outpacing Dom and, with a swift movement, shot her hand forward like a bullet towards his neck. The attack connected, making Dom fall unconscious. Aurelia caught him before he could hit the floor and gently laid him down.
"That was fast." Nat gently placed Atlas' head on her lap, stroking his hair.
"It was only easy because I was faster than him," Aurelia stated, also placing Dom's head on her lap.
"Yeah, I guess." After a moment of silence, Nat asked, "So, what do you think his ability is?"
"Well, it's quite obvious. He has super strength," she sighed.
"He won't be happy about that." Nat smiled, her expression worried.
One would think, what makes super strength so bad? Shouldn't it be among the top-tier abilities? Well, it would be the consequences of the ability that make it bad, duh. There are different kinds of abilities out there, with different methods of development and conditions to be met. The cons of having super strength lay in the user's talent and their physical training. For any unlucky person given that ability, they'd need to train their bodies to the extreme—and by extreme, I mean extreme. They are required to train in extreme conditions, like the hottest places—next to or even inside a volcano—to increase their prowess. If their talents (what their body can handle) are unable to keep up with such places, they'd simply die. So many people with this ability have met an untimely end. Only a handful have survived, and among those is the current Head/Leader of the Extremists—a faction—who is currently training on the sun.
"Arghh!" Dom raised his head so fast that he almost hit Aurelia's face.
"Whoa, dude. Slow down." He turned his head and saw Atlas moving his arm in a circular motion.
"You should have gone easy on me. You almost broke my arm in two."
"Well, you did deserve it," Dom replied with an angry expression. Atlas simply chuckled.
"So, what's my ability?!" he excitedly asked, facing Nat and Aurelia, who had already stood up from the floor.
Aurelia sighed. "It's super strength," Nat replied.
"You must be joking," he said, breaking the silence.
"She's not," Aurelia replied, her eyes avoiding his current expression.
'No, no. This can't be. Just what are the chances that I'll have this fucking ability?!' He could already feel his suppressed rage threatening to be released. The disappointment he felt when he thought he hadn't awakened, when he felt useless in his dream after spending 10 years training to be a warrior, and now the anger he felt in this moment all coalesced. The rage kept building before it suddenly dissipated, leaving his mind filled with clarity.
"And here I thought the training would only get easier, but now I have to be ready to die while training," he sighed.
He rested his arm on the floor and lay down, a smile finding its way to his face. "I might as well die right now."
"Well on the good side, you'll be able to overpower in strength" Nat said, trying to cheer him up, but was ignored