Chapter 26. Please...

“Please…” Pebble’s tears streamed down his eyes and onto the floor. Cobble still couldn’t grasp what was going on as he panted heavily.

“BOSS HELP!” Arthur shouted, he hoped that Boss could show up and solve all this. However, Boss was nowhere to be found.

“Shelly! What do we do? Where’s Boss!?” Arthur panicked the situation before him was out of control.

Shelly thought for a moment before she walked over and slowly reached her hand towards Gran. “NO! DON’T TOUCH HIM!” Pebble shouted; however, his voice fell onto deaf ears as Shelly placed her hand onto Gran.

“Shelly!” Arthur ran straight at her too, his mind was in a mess as he saw her collapse before him, his hands immediately reached for her. There was no difference in the situation, he immediately collapsed and laid limp beside her.

“No…” Pebble gritted his teeth. The internal energy that was ravaging his mother and baby brother or sister expelled outwards into any living body. He expects that anyone without any proper training in energy would immediately die if they were hit by it.

The energy that he and Cobble had was completely drained. Their eyes was bloodshot with tears of hopelessness. With one last weak pull on their father they both collapsed onto the ground, losing consciousness.

“Well, that took them awhile.” Boss’ figure walked into the room, his face nonchalant as he looked at the only two awake things left. “Oh? You didn’t follow your master and touched them?” He asked the pets.

Animals had an instinctive sense to danger; they wouldn’t easily run towards it.

“That is for the best I suppose, you two might have died.” Boss patted both of their heads before walking over to the two kids. He placed his hand on their back and then did the same for the remaining people in the room.

“Freaking, Shelly if I didn’t tell her to touch them, she would’ve just stayed still.” Boss grumbled. Shelly’s perception to danger was as keen as those two pets.

Standing next to the bedside he looked down at the peaceful looking mother lying on the bed her finger was still interlocked with the unconscious Gran.

“Sorry… I made you two struggled for so long.” He then placed his hand on her forehead and stomach and walked back towards Arthur and Shelly. “Shh.” He said to the pets as he placed his hand on Arthur.

“I’m gonna take a nap.”

The pets were dumbfounded at what he just did. They looked at each other and the time for competition was not right now. They walked over to their respective owner and also placed a paw on them.

Their eyes closed as they too, decided to take a nap.

…

“Boss! Boss! Wake up!” A defeating voice could be heard rattling his ears. “Huh? What?” Boss smacked his lips as he looked around the room. “Boss!” Arthur hugged the little boy before him. “You’re awake!”

“Of course, I am, why wouldn’t I?” Boss replied. What’s wrong with this kid?

“Thank goodness you’re awake.” Arthur held boss in a tight embrace. “Thank you for spending all your effort into saving us.” Arthur whispered in Boss’ ear so that no one could hear him.

A knowing look could be seen on Boss’ face when he saw the cheerful smile on Arthur. “Yeah, I’m extremely tired now.” Boss replied causing Arthur to shove Boss’ head back down onto the pillow. “You need to rest!” Arthur stated as he ran out of the room.

It was early morning the next day by the time he had woken up. Everyone else in the room woke up around the same time in the evening yesterday, except for him. The first thing everyone did was run over to check on Roselyn.

Gran’s hands were still interlocked with her by the time he woke up. The doctor wearily motioned over to her beside unwilling to touch her again. However, Gran ensured him it was okay to check.

After checking her pulse and sensing that her internal energy was stabilized the doctor told everyone within the room. A huge sigh of relief could be heard coming from everyone as Pebble and Cobble ran over to her beside and cried tears of joy.

Roselyn however, never opened her eyes that night, her body was still unconscious. The doctor surmised that the energy within her was too much for her to handle causing it wreak havoc within the body.

He continued to state that thanks to Gran, the volatile energy found an outlet using the people within this room. With everyone managing to take on some responsibility of absorbing some of the excess energy that could have killed her and the baby, managed to stabilize.

He then stated that since Boss was a little normal boy, he had the weakest resistance to the energy and required more time to rest. He believed that even though he was also a normal person, as an adult he was more capable of handling the volatile energy than a little boy.

The group who knows of Boss had their own interpretation as to why Boss still hadn’t woken up. No one corrected the doctor and decided to let Boss stay asleep. They suspect that Boss most likely took away all the volatile energy within all of their body which is why they all woke up at the same time while he was still asleep.

Only the two pets who were with their respective owners knows the true answer. However, as animals who couldn’t speak, they decided it was better to not do anything and keep it a secret between them and Boss.

Boss who wasn’t actually tired got up out of bed and walked out of the room. He glanced over at the other room where servants were continually rushing back and forth from yesterday.

It was peaceful this time with only a single doctor remaining in the room watching over the sleeping mother. The once pale face on Roselyn recovered to a warm blush as she slept peacefully.

Boss looked away and headed downstairs, he almost instinctively made his way towards their kitchen before he heard the sound of someone laughing.

“Ahaha! You kids have nothing over me the impenetrable Cobble!” Cobble shouted as Boss entered. His arrival sparked no notice as everyone’s attention was completely focused on the training at hand.

Currently it was Arthur’s turn to fight with Cobble. However, fight wouldn’t really be the right word here, it was more like a one-sided assault coming from the kid.

Arthur who was huffing and puffing a few meters away already had sweat trickling down his forehead as his training attire was covered in dirt.

“Ahh!” Arthur shouted as he ran towards Cobble. He threw a straightforward punch to the gut of the towering green haired figure. Arthur’s fist made contact with the stomach creating a popping noise before Arthur could be seen recoiling back and rolling on the ground.

“Ahaha! Too weak!” Cobble laughed at the kid lying on the ground. “C’mon get up! This ain’t all you got is it?” Cobble taunted Arthur who remained panting heavily on the ground.

“No more, no more.” Arthur gasped he’s only been at it with Cobble for less than five minutes but every punch he at Cobble exhausted him greatly.

“Ahaha, alright since it’s your first day I’ll go easy on ya. Who’s next?” Cobble eyes scanned the people sitting and watching and pointed at a brown-haired figure. “You.”

Michael got up stretching his arms and legs as he stood a few meters before Cobble. “Alright Michael, show me what you can do.” Cobble stated as he stood there. He continued “Don’t worry about hurting me, because you won’t, just do your best.”

Michael nodded his head and got into stance. He rushed forward throwing a left-handed punch directly to the right of Cobble’s face. However, the fist paused right before it hit the face.

Cobble’s eye glanced at the fist beside him towards him and looked his opposite. A raised leg was going straight for his left shoulder.

A feint!

Michael’s leg raised and hammered directly to the shoulder of Cobble. A stronger popping noise could be heard than before as the shoulder and the leg made contact.

Michael’s body flung backwards further than Arthur as he skidded on the grass. “Nice kick” Cobble praised completely unharmed from the kick. “Nice try, can you still stand up?” Cobble asked the man who was blown back from his own kick.

Michael got up and dusted off the dirt on his clothes. “Again.” He postured again before running up to Cobble and sending a direct punch to the side of his face. A weaker noise of contact could be heard as Michael was shoved back a meter, his body was still standing.

A look of understanding appeared before his eyes as he walked over to Cobble. This time he didn’t aim to feint or go for an attack directly, instead he threw a soft punch at Cobble’s chest.

An energy force twice as much as the punch he sent pushed back upon his arm. “I get it now; you can block and repel my attack with twice the force.” Michael stated as his arm still felt the tingle from the force.

“So, what if you know? What’re you going to do about it?” Cobble taunted. Knowing how Cobble’s defensive energy worked was one thing, having an answer for it was another.

Cobble’s comment was right, Michael tried different ways to attack him, from the front, from the back with the supplied weapons. Nothing worked he kept getting repelled back with twice the force every time.

Before long Michael was lying on the ground panting and exhausted, his figure was no less different Arthur before him. Julie’s turn was next as she got up and attempted to have a go with Cobble.

Julie rushed straight for Cobble throwing a punch squarely at Cobble’s face, but the blowback from her own attack caused her to stumble backwards with her feet still squared on the ground.

“Not bad, at least you didn’t fall to the ground with your first punch.” Cobble complimented, it was an improvement over both Arthur and Michael. Giving them time to study Cobble made Julie more prepared for the fight.

Julie picked up a weapon off to the side, it was a dagger. The dagger felt heavy in her hand as if she was worried about actually hurting Cobble. “Don’t worry about it, if you guys actually managed to hurt me then you don’t need to train with me anymore.” Cobble eased Julie’s worry.

“Just do your best I’ll defend myself properly if I have to.” Hearing Cobble’s comment Julie exhale to calm her unsteady breath. Exhaling for a final time Julie sprinted towards Cobble and threw the weapon straight at his chest.

Seeing the weapon flying at him Cobble increased his defensive energy as he stared at the projectile. The weapon and the girl were upon him, he knew what the weapon was going to do but what about her?

There wasn’t a moment of hesitation Julie focused her eye and released her own powers. Cobble froze momentarily enough time for the weapon to collide with his chest.

A shocked look of surprise as the weapon managed to tear away a piece of clothes on Cobble’s chest before being flung off into the distance.

“Phew, almost had me there Julie.” Cobble poked his finger through the hole in his chest “Those who knows how to use their power is something else.” Cobble praised. Julie was far weaker than him in terms of energy manipulation, but she did manage to stop Cobble for a microsecond to pull that stunt off.

“What’s that power? I felt like my entire body couldn’t move for a moment.” Cobble asked. Julie smiled and said, “You’ll have to find out yourself.”

Cobble nodded his head in response and said “Alright, bring it.” His body remained stationary as he waited for Julie to attack.

Julie didn’t hesitate to sprint forward again tossing multiple weapons at Cobble this time. Is she looking to stop me and see if there’s a flaw in my defense? Naïve.

Julie shot out her power the same as last time, Cobble froze in place as all the weapons flew directly at his body.

The sound of metal on dirt hit the ground as everyone’s eye glued at the outcome. Did Julie manage to hurt Cobble?

“There we go, safe~.” Cobble large frame spoke as every weapon fell to the ground with a thud. Cobble beamed a smile as he stared at Julie. “Not bad, you used even more energy that time.”

Julie was panting as she stood before him her mind was exhausted after trying to stop Cobble. “I’m too tired.” She walked back and sat down her breathing was heavy as she tried to calm down.

“Alright, it’s your turn Shelly.” .Cobble pointed at little white-haired girl with sapphire eyes who stood up in response.

“Come.”