Underneath of the schools compound, inside of a sewer system tunnel. A small bald headed boy stands upon a mangled pile of flesh and blood. The sound of moist flesh tearing apart and smacking inside of his mouth echoes through the tunnels of the sewer.

The darkness of the sewer would enshroud him if not for the spirals giving off a deadly glow from his eyes. After swallowing a final mouthful, the spirals slowly start to dim and the darkness in his eyes recede. The moment his eyes return to normal, his entire body collapses like a puppet getting it's strings cut.

He falls face first into the pile making a disgusting squish. A few minutes pass before the boys eyes regain their natural clarity. He snaps his head up while still laying down. After a few panicked glances to find out where he is, looks down at what he is laying on.

He is shocked to find the flesh and blood clinging to him. What perplexes him even more though is that his senses had not caused him to start devouring it instantly. This was a common occurrence whenever a bloody scene appears before him. The young boy is Alistair returning to his natural self.

"What the hell is going on?! How did I get here and why am I covered in blood?" Many questions flash through his mind. He tries to remember what happened to him last. He felt a serious pain deep in his stomach after the black hand print burned off of his skin.

After that, he remembered his vision going red and then black. The next thing he remembers is waking up here. After taking a quick analysis of his body he realizes that he is completely fine. The only exception is that he is not enticed by the food in front of him.

"It would appear that whatever that hand print was, my body did everything in it's power to eliminate it. Causing it to burn up more and more energy. I seemed to have blacked out and my body acted on it's own accord..."

He suddenly freezes up at the realization that if he acted against a person while he was in that states, he could be in serious trouble. Not to mention that people could have seen him while he was going around killing and eating things like a zombie.

He looks over to his right and sees a pile of torn and bloody giant rat pelts. He lets out a breath of relief that it would seem that he was able to fill up on rat meat. Although he does find it odd that pile of rat meat could be so big he decides it is best to hurry back and prepare for class. He has no idea how long he has been unconscious.

"But coming to the sewers for hunting is a great strategy for when I need food. I'll need to remember the route to here for later in case something goes wrong with the slaughterhouse."

Thinking this, he begins to wonder why his unconscious self didn't just go to the slaughterhouse and raise hell. He tosses it to the back of his mind as a strange miracle and tries stepping down off of the pile of meat.

He slips and barely manages to catch himself before running off, following the signs to the surface. As he is leaving, the pile of meat shifts from the impact Alistair slipping down the side. A few pieces of meat fall to the side at the bottom of the pile, revealing a human hand resting lifelessly against the sewer floor.

...

Making his way back to the surface, Alistair recognizes where he is at. It is at the basement level of the dormitories that Professor Washington showed him on his first day. As he reaches his hand to open the door leading to the exit of the basement, he notices blood stains littering the area around the door.

Getting closer to the door as quietly as he can, he peeks around to see if anyone is outside that could see him. After noticing that the coast was clear, he quickly runs past the entrance of the basement to the staircase. On the way, the blood stains get more and more concentrated.

When he finally reaches the staircase, he notices a giant bloodstain on the steps and that is where it cuts off. Feeling completely unsettled by this scene, Alistair runs faster and faster to his floor and finally to his room.

Looking out of his open window, he sees it's still dawn. Meaning that the classes have not started yet. He throws off the clothes and jumps into the shower as fast as he can to wash off all of the traces of him being in the sewer or anywhere near those blood stains.

After getting out of the shower and his clothes going through the self cleaning process, he prepares for the day as he would normally. The only difference this time is that since he still has time before his first class, he should focus on improving his body as fast as possible.

The whole cause of this situation was because he was not fast or strong enough and allowed that black mark to appear on his arm.

"Maybe I should make use of the fact that they were tougher to deal with and try to get some speed based martial techniques from her. With someone who has as deep of pockets as she does, it should not be too much to expect from her."

He takes a piece of the shell from the pile he has stored away and is just about to take it before he stops himself.

"This is only going to make my body tougher... It won't do anything to increase my actual power."

He then puts down the shell piece and reaches in the desks drawer for a technique he nearly forgot about due to all of the recent events.

[Knuckle Burst]

Due to habit he opens it and tries to commit it to memory like the other books in the library. Just like [Living Iron] though, he is unable to truly understand it even if he can remember it.

Unless he knows how to break the infinite loop his mind held him in before, he can not use the method he used for [Living Iron].

"Looks like I will have to do things the old fashioned way."

He cracks open the book again and turns to page one before following the basic movements listed out for him to follow. Unsure if he is doing it right or wrong, he decides to keep practicing until it is time for class.

"The technique is supposed to be used for medium range fighting styles. The force behind the burst of my muscles snapping onto the bones of my fist is supposed to send out a small shock wave in multiple directions. This technique is a double edged sword for those who have not mastered it.

The shock wave could end up hitting the user before it even hits the target. Luckily it's not that big of a deal for me since I can't feel pain, but if my body gets damaged too obviously I can't just fake it in front of others."

After a couple of hours, a soft popping sound is heard just outside of Alistair's door. Inside his room, Alistair is standing in the pose of his fist clenched and arm half extended. Smiling at himself for the small achievement he just achieved.

"I did it!"