HUFF! HUFF!

Releasing steam with each breath, Robin felt like he was suffocating from the heat burning his body. When the situation had seemed like it was being resolved, suddenly a new salvo of enemies suddenly rushed out of nowhere and they almost seemed like they were taking information from the androids and were targeting weaker people and he was among them.

Each massive beast android was at least as strong as a strong man and Robin couldn’t even make them flinch, he had tried but they were completely unscatched even when he made his arm spin as fast as possible.

Instead he took several big hits and each one of them generated almost flame level heat and his body was like a furnace now and he could only run away while his body literally released steam and heatwaves that were no longer contained by his suit.

“So… hot!” He said wanting nothing more than to take off his clothing but he couldn’t because right now he has several beasts, all of them at least three to five times bigger than normal ones.

He pulled himself and unlike before, danger had made him quickly adapt to swinging. When he approached the next one he swung his legs forward and stepped on it just long enough for his right leg to catapult him with hardened springs to keep up his speed or he would not be able to get away.

BANG!

An explosion came as one robot shot something towards Robin and sent him reeling before he quickly fixed himself up and shot away towards a side road on an intersection.

“Help… someone.” He groaned as he felt his head start to go light from the heat. He was already having trouble maintaining focus to control his own limbs and only his survival instincts were keeping him away but his speed dropped and at that time a huge ape came off the walls and climbed with a massive metallic fist he smashed the fleeing boy right into the ground.

“Gah!” his entire back suddenly burned with a new increase of heat some he had been injected with lava.

After that a large rhino beast came rushing and suddenly reared up and stomped on him.

He knew he had to have a limit but his body was barely responding.

BANG!

Robin lost consciousness with the impact and his body was reaching nearly 450 degrees just from the generation of heat from the blunt force.

Before they could finish though, a figure jumped down and crashed on the rhino’s head and grabbed the horns.

“Get away from him!” he shouted.

The figure’s muscles flexed incredibly as a visible coat of energy formed and he suddenly swung the massive body as big as an elephant and tossed it towards another android before quickly grabbing Robin with an energy clad hand to protect it from the heat and without looking back he turned and ran.

“How is he so hot?” the man said but didn’t care as he rushed. Robin felt the shaking but could barely wake up totally but he felt he was being held by the clothes around his neck and the speed was extremely fast. Almost twice as fast as him and the beast androids couldn’t keep up and eventually lost them.

“Great, they lost us.” the voice said as he looked and quickly burst into one of the houses that wasn’t destroyed and quickly went into a house and into the bathroom.

He turned on all the water valves to maximum and quickly removed Robin’s clothing leaving only the underpants and just shoved him under the water.

Even the hot water was cold at this point and anything hitting his body instantly started to boil and within moments, like a piece of hot metal being quenched slowly, Robin released an intense cloud of steam and started to wake up after about a minute.

When he could finally look around, he saw who had saved him.

“Mr… atlas.” He groaned.

“You’re okay, good. What happened to you?” he asked.

“My body… heats up when hit.” Robin said through his foggy mind and started to lip his wet lips.

Mr Atlas noticed this and turned and soon returned with a gallon of freshwater and helped Robin drink a bit and it was like water hitting a fire. He started to burp because the water was evaporating inside his stomach and he would keep breathing out the steam through coughs but he still drank over 10 liters just for his stomach to calm down.

“This has to be addressed.” Mr Atlas said.

“I need… to prepare coolant.” he said as he got up on shaking legs and let his body release the heat for another minute until the heat returned to a more acceptable level.

“That feels so much better.” He said walking out but the remaining water slowly evaporated but his temperature had dropped below 100. He took another gallon of water to fill what he lost and then put on his suit back on. “How did you find me?” He asked.

“Not hard when you had 5 of those things chasing you. Those things are aiming for the intern students.” He said.

“Wait… someone is aiming specifically for students?” Robin asked, frowning.

“Yes, we noticed this quickly and rapidly sent a few reinforcement Bravemen to guard safe zones where civilians and students were gathering. I heard that you had started helping draw androids into traps but after two times the reinforcement beast androids followed you.” Mr Atlas said.

“Yeah… I couldn’t draw such things to the safe zones. All of the local military are mostly vigilantes with higher grade armor and weapons at best. They didn’t have any heavy weapons to match strongmen and up.” He said.

“That is good but you should have at least tried to hide.” he said.

“I couldn’t.” Robin said clenching his fist, “I was too slow, they were able to match my speed because I tried to punch them away and took some attacks which slowed me down because of the heat.” He said.

Mr Atlas sighed, “Take it as a lesson. Let’s go, we need to get to the evacuation space.” He said.

Robin nodded and carefully they left the safety of the building and they quickly started running and swinging away. Robin had to work hard to keep up with Mr Atlas even with those 5 heavy stones on his back.

“Are those really several tons?” Robin asked.

“Yep but don’t forget they levitate.” he shouted.

ROAR!

Suddenly a large number of roars came and several creatures burst from the buildings, instantly closing all sides.

“So they were preparing an ambush… there are 10.” Mr Atlas said.

“What do we do?” Robin asked.

“You run.” He said.

“What about you?” Robin said.

“I can fight them, when the emergency was called, I had finished my latest atlas stone and my body didn’t produce anymore. I think I might have reached my limit but in return, the stones suddenly all began to produce twice the world power and now my body is constantly growing. I’ve taken down five of these already. I can handle them at least until reinforcements arrive. I can also run away.” he said.

“I will have to decline your offer to leave though.” A voice said suddenly.

They both looked at the source and found him on the back of a fully mechanical flying machine. He wore a mask completely covering his face but it was definitely giving him live information of everything going on because this was the mastermind of everything.

“So you’re behind all this.” Mr Atlas said.

“Yes and you’ve caused me quite some inconvenience, Mr Atlas. I’ve heard your name because of how powerful World power is and how fast you’ve grown. It seems you’ve broken another platform and I honestly can’t let such a thing happen. World power is too powerful and if you are left alone, it means another fucking hero on our asses. So you and that brat should just die.” He said.

At once four creatures rushed at once while the man grinned under his helmet.

Mr Atlas instantly shined as the five stones released and filled him with power and he punched at the incoming fist of the first creature while Robin jumped.

“Let’s get rid of you first.” The villain said and swung his finger to the left and suddenly a massive shockwave of wind slammed into Robin and sent him away from Mr Atlas.

“Kill him.” He said.

Several others rushed at Robin as he was smashed into the ground forming a hole in the asphalt. Blunt damage didn’t work but that impact was so massive that it instantly dazed him.

Several jumped at him and before he could get out a massive fist smashed into him punching the wind out of him and began to rain down attacks before jumping as several of them released beam blasts towards the hole that formed.

Robin could only shout.

“Robin!” Mr Atlas shouted and suddenly his body erupted with even more power and punched one of the androids and sent them flying into the ones attacking Robin.

“Hm, it seems he is still pretty strong.” the villain said and swung down.

The next second a thin shockwave of wind suddenly smashed into Mr Atlas and pierced him like a bullet.

It pierced through his shoulder.

“Ahahaha! Do you like acting like heroes so much, I hope you do because this is the price for it.” He said and swung his finger around piercing several spots on Mr Atlas before putting his hands behind his back.

The androids rushed and he groaned as blood came out of the holes and he tried to fight but like Robin he couldn’t do much as it slammed down on him from beams that he could barely bear with the cloak of energy.

Furthermore his rocks were grabbed and threw away half way through.

He lost control of them after almost a hundred meters and couldn’t pull them back.

The man grinned behind his mask, “This bastard caused me several big money making jobs over the last three years so this is payback.” He laughed but as the androids moved back and began to charge their beams, he felt something was off.

He looked at the boy, his body was burning up which his androids had transmitted as the result of his body dispersing blunt damage and blocking energy. That said he was scarred heavily because he had fainted half way through.

That said, Mr Atlas looked broken but the energy around him seemed to be getting stronger.

Finally when they shot the energy beams, shockingly the energy orb burst out forming a dome while Mr Atlas’s body seemed to levitate in that energy.

“What is this?” He said and looked around.

That said, when he did his mask suddenly began to release alarms,

“Warning, powerful energy signature detected approaching location at Mach 3.”

He had time to look only to find hundreds of cones of wind rocketing down like meteors and instantly jumped and used his power which actually allowed him to manipulate wind shockwaves.

He released them from his hands and rushed almost 100 meters but had time to watch them crash and suddenly there was a massive explosion of world power itself.

All the androids were thrown back but the things that were coming didn’t stop because of the first ones, they veered and instantly began to smash into the androids. The villain felt his lips turn dry because they were instantly minced after several smashed them. Each orb wasn’t even half a meter in diameter but their weight was enough to mince androids with the endurance of a strong man.

The only undisturbed part was the hole where Robin was and in fact he was also bathed in world power but it wasn’t adversely affecting him because he was not an enemy.

He quickly sped away as the massive orb of world power grew more and finally got out of range as the final one entered the space and the growth of the space ended.

“What the hell is this?!” He shouted as he looked down.

He was looking and his vision zoomed at the two fallen enemies and was shocked to find both of them getting levitated out of their holes but Robin was put down safely and heat was literally transforming into world power as it was pulled from his body. The scanners were picking it up and showing it while Mr Atlas was literally bathed in the densest World power readings he had ever seen. It should be said that world power is an incredibly internal energy. It enhances the body and they can produce super human power and speed. The world cores he purchased were items that produced world power and was what powered his giant androids. However it has never been witnessed outside the body on such massive levels because world power is the energy of a planet. It is the energy that gives life to the world and makes the natural laws run correctly.

Slowly the countless stones were gathering around Mr Atlas as he started to raise up but he also seemed to be fighting something.

At that moment, Robin was waking up and the first thing he saw was Mr Atlas and all the dead beast droids.

“Mr Atlas!” he said quickly getting up.

“Ro-bin!” He groaned.

“What is going on?! What are these stones? Are they all Atlas stones?!” Robin shouted.

Mr Atlas smiled weakly as he resisted the pull. “Yes… 1,024… the number… that I… used to… make level… 10 stones… but I just… finished making… the 1.24th… level 10 stone.” He said.

“Wait… did you know something was going to happen?!” Robin shouted.

“Yes but… not what… I know… now.” He said.

“What is going on then?” He shouted.

“Remember to… get away… because my stones… will become… my prison and… the future way… for growth…” he said.

The next second he couldn’t resist as his body suddenly got covered in white light and world power rushed in and it swelled while the stones rushed into that light and as it did the stones began to combine in a roughly done manner while the glowing body seemed to become some form of adhesive force with filled with immense amounts of world power until the last stone attached and the entire thing shined and turned perfectly round and was a massive ten meter wide stone with each stone’s spot drawn out.

“Mr Atlas!” Robin shouted and ran forward and tried to punch the stone but all it did was shake it and filled him with intense heat but not the same as before. He jumped away but it followed him and surrounded him.

“Robin… run or… you will be bonded!” Mr Atlas’s voice said seemingly from the stone in his mind but Robin couldn’t run as the entire stone released a massive wave of green energy which surrounded Robin and he roared in pain as he felt like his body was going to explode but at the same time his body felt like it was being rebuilt.

“Robin, you can’t faint or your fate will be worse than mine!” Mr Atlas shouted.

Robin grit his teeth and fist.

“I can’t let this continue.” The villain said and pointed his finger at Robin but at that exact moment a fist appeared in his peripheral vision and he instinctively ducked only to feel wind akin his strongest wind.

He blew a shockwave from his body and scowled as he looked at and found a de facto Hero standing in front of him.

“It seems the show is coming to an end. At least I’ve gotten rid of the bigger threats.” He said.

“You think you can escape?” The hero said.

“Why wouldn’t I?” he said and raised his hand.

The next second countless pellets fell from his sleeves and a sharp wind smashed each of them with amazing precision causing an immense cloud of paralyzing gas to suddenly spread while his mask had a filter for this.

The hero couldn’t react fast enough and scowled. “Slimy beast.” He growled and looked at the closest disturbance and rushed over and into the bubble of world power and instantly groaned as he felt a reverse gravity coming off that massive stone keeping him away from the massive bundle of power around Robin.

Robin was almost faint until he closed his fist and shouted as he swung his fist with his body behind it to the ground.

Instantly everything within 200 meters of him exploded and partially caved in but it almost felt like a valve as the barrier of world power broke down to fill his body.

The hero was released and instantly knew what he had to do and rushed at the boy.

“Kid, punch at me with whatever you have!” He said.

“You’re…” Robin groaned but after only a moment he stopped thinking as he turned and punched.

A thick coat of green covered his body and the hero returned the punch and instantly felt the immense weight behind it but quickly pulled his punch to the exact force and instantly dispersed the force.

The next punch came and he matched it exactly and it continued like a slugfest until the energy finally ended and all that was left was a thin light which matched the size of what Mr Atlas had constantly gained from his stones. It was clear that all these stones were storing power for a while and it exploded but after wasting it all the power went back under control and Robin fell to his knees and fainted.

With a sigh the hero looked at the stone, “What is this?” he muttered and walked over and tried to push it but his expression instantly changed as he added more force and then finally fixed his posture to lift it and shockingly couldn’t. “What the hell is this?” He said confused and looked at the boy. “I’ll have to check with him later.” He said and instantly called reinforcements to pick up Robin and close off the area.

When someone finally arrived he didn’t even look back as he rushed out and began to decimate the largest robot's showing the power of a hero.

***

Robin groaned as he opened his eyes and saw a white ceiling. He blinked several times as he looked around and saw the needle in his arm along with other equipment to follow his vitals.

“Is this… a hospital?” He muttered and after turning his head, he saw a red button with the words ‘Press for nurse’.

He used the hand that wasn’t stuck with needles and pressed it.

It took about a minute for a doctor and some nurse to arrive, “It is good you are awake, you’ve been out for almost 12 hours and your body has been quite feverish going in and out of consciousness several times.” The doctor said.

“I remember… someone telling me to punch…” He said.

“That would be Chasm Might, you should know him as the strongest enhancement hero in america. He contains all the base abilities for body enhancement, Enhanced bone, muscle, heart, even his brain is enhanced and he possesses some level of psychic capacity though only of the enhancement category to keep up with his body. Everything stemming from his discovery of a unique method of growth through True Qi which stems from his original power of pure Chi control.” the doctor said.

“Did he catch the villain behind everything? He was wearing a full head mask.” Robin asked.

The doctor said, “No, he escaped as soon as he appeared, the villain using Toxic gas to make Chasm Might have to focus on defending himself and he couldn’t see as well.” He said.

Robin grit his teeth before suddenly remembering, “What happened to Mr Atlas! He is my teacher and had been with him when we were attacked by the villain who wanted to kill us. He said Mr Atlas was a threat for the future!” Robin said.

“Sorry, there was only you and besides the android corpse, there was no one.” He said.

“That…” Robin said but suddenly froze.

After that the door opened and standing there was the same figure that he had punched at his command, the hero Chasm Might himself.

“You’re finally awake.” he said.

“Y-you’re…”

“Chasm Might, can I have some time with him.” He said.

The doctors nodded and the massive 2 meter tall wall of muscle let them out and then sat next to the bed.

“So kid, want to narrate what the hell happened in the city? You had contact with the villain directly.” He said.

“I don’t know, the attack was sudden. The smallest androids hunted anyone and when they found ‘dangerous’ individuals, particularly young vigilantes, they would self-destruct to kill them. The villain said that he wanted to get rid of thorns that were sprouting and he said… Mr Atlas, my teacher, was a big danger and even had the potential to be a hero in the future… how did we survive?” He asked.

“We aren’t sure but the little we caught on camera footage from a high rise building aimed at your area, it seems a collection of dense stones came flying and destroyed everything before gathering into one ball.” He said.

Robin’s face instantly scowled because he remembered the memory he felt of his teacher breaking down into a rock.

“So you remember.” He said.

Robin vaguely nodded and told him what little he remembered.

“I see… it is likely an ability blossoming but in a strange ability. You were covered in a green heavy energy which was so dense that I needed half my power to deflect. After it was exhausted there was only a thin connection to you. Can you tell me the specifics of his power.” He said.

Robin nodded and explained his background with Mr Atlas and explained the effect of the ability that he knew the details and matching it with the rest of what had been seen the hero nodded. “It seems it is fine then.” He said.

“How is it fine!” Robin shouted.

“Because your teacher isn’t dead, what you encountered is an infinitely rare ability that is 1 in a billion. It is universally referred to as an Inheritance ability, there are only three known cases and only one of them the ability is symbiotic while the other two are true inheritance and the original owner loses their power. That said, the symbiotic power consumed the body of the original owner and attaches to a host and both of them grow together until the limit of the ability. At the end, the original power holder was reborn as powerful as the host and they both shared the power but the original power owner had evolved and anything from the old power was shed and left for the host. You should know this person, it is the Hero, Dracon, the Guardian Dragon of China.” he said.

“What!” Robin shouted.

“Yes, the ability required that Dracon remain inside a powerless host and his body acted as a power source for the normally regular person and together they had to develop the power until it reached its apex and he would rebirth as the great dragon we know. His host, in return, was left with the Great Dragon’s Flame as his power source becoming the Chinese Hero, Amaterasu.” He explained.

“So… it might be something similar?” Robin asked.

“Possibly, however, to prove that you need to go to the site with the rock. It is firmly planted and unmoving.” He said.

“Unmoving? Even with a hero pushing?” He asked.

“Indeed.” He said.

Robin felt his face stiffen but nodded.

Of course he couldn’t leave at once and he still had to be checked up on. His body had taken a lot of damage from the immense heat his body produced and had begun to reach the temperatures that his body began to break proteins which is over 1,100 degrees.

He was saved because the heat was pulled out by the world power before it began to affect him but he still took sufficient damage that his body needed medical treatment with several rare healing abilities.

Thankfully his family weren’t near enough to get news of this and rushed over but it still reached Captain Stretch’s office which had taken a lot of damage in the fights.

When they saw he had no lasting damage, he was allowed to leave under the protection of Chasm Might.

He took him on his back. True Qi is truly mysterious as he could fly with the force of the energy alone and it was extremely fast. A large quarantine area was closed off around the massive stone and carnage around it but a hero had authority only dwarfed by the president himself but was infinitely stronger than them. No one can honestly say he can’t enter and be able to keep him out so no one moved to stop him as he stopped near the orb which had gained a slightly stronger green glow.

Robin instantly felt the connection and frowned, “I can feel a connection with it now.” He said.

“I assume so. Go on.” Chasm Might sighed.

Robin nodded and walked up and within 20 meters the energy flowed towards him and he felt the warmth but this time it wasn’t so overflowing and slowly it filled his body until most of the visible energy was gone.

He looked confused at how this power worked but he could feel it in his own veins and he could instinctively move it. It went through every muscle fiber freely but he had a frown and focused that energy towards his lower belly but found a barrier. He knew there was something similar to Chi here and moved it to his hand and felt pressure all over but there were many small aching points and just picked one of the center ones and forced some energy in and it got hotter and painful and after a bit the energy finally entered and began to spread.

It was a totally erratic flow and it instantly shouted in pain as he held his hand.

He was shocked as he suddenly saw his arm harden as the World power began to enter his meridian system and painfully run through his body.

Chasm Might frowned as he walked over and sent some True qi into his body and instantly found out what he did.

“You idiot, you don’t start in your hand!” he said but could only watch as the power forced it’s way to the dantian and began to build pressure as it spread improperly until it filled all the meridians with it’s much more abundant energy compared to Chi of a normal person.

When it did, the pressure finally pushed and all the energy began to invade the dantian.

He painfully shouted as it filled it through all channels but it finally calmed down when half of them stopped and pushed instead and began to form a proper flow and spread completely through the body.

The hero calmed down when he saw there was no serious damage and slowly the energy formed a proper flow and calmed down but spread through his body more naturally.

Robin breathed, “urg, I didn’t think it would be that painful.” He said.

“Where did you learn that?” The hero asked.

Robin vaguely explained what he did for the Chi user in his club and he understood where this stupid method came from. The barrier protecting the dantian was very powerful but it is weakest inside the meridians.

After a bit Robin got up and looked at the stone before walking up and touching it. As soon as he did, suddenly every crack of the stone lit up before strange markings formed on the rocks themselves and the light gathered at his hand and a strange symbol appeared on it before the same formed on his other hand.

When it was done the rock went back to normal but Robin knew he had completed some kind of condition. He pushed the rock and it rocked a bit back and forth.

The hero looked and put his hand and pushed but it didn’t even budge. “Truly, this thing only moves to it’s chosen host.” he said.

Robin looked but didn’t say anything but a voice was talking in his head.

“I’m sorry that you were caught in my problem… truly.” Mr Atlas said.

“It’s our problem… at least you aren’t dead and you might have a chance to come out.” Robin said and quickly narrated what he learned. The thought is faster then the mind so it took barely a few seconds before he took his hand off and felt the strengthened connection and he tried to will the rock to move and he felt the internal flow of power work against gravity but it didn’t fly so Robin put his hand under it and put force and it began to move but when it did, his internal world power gathered mainly at his hand and then on his arm and back.

It should be said, each rock making it up is 8 tons while there are 1024 making it up. The total weight was nearly 7.5 million kilos but the power of the stone negated the weight no different from how Mr Atlas worked the stone making it effortless to move for Robin.

Of course, he still felt actual weight but his body was being affected by world power as well making it unnaturally strong.

Chasm Might nodded, “Let’s go, we can move it somewhere safe.” He said.

They walked but as they did, Chasm Might just looked back at where Robin was walking and saw the faint imprints of the boy’s foot print showing just how much the weight of the stone was pushing down and how much power was being used to enhance his body to move it.

Robin naturally couldn’t move fast either and Chasm Might wasn’t able to lift him to take the stone and him attached. He first moved it to Captain Stretch’s office where he was allowed to rest while the stone would be safe outside since not even a hero could take it.

As for Chasm Might, he went to talk with Stretch but what was said only the two of them knew.

After that the internships in Richmond and the surrounding cities were cancelled due to the danger as the students were directly targeted and there was actual death count caused by the villain while 4 actual heroes were in the city, including Admin Server, were patrolling and all exits were being monitored. A large number of brave men and strongmen were backed by the military as border patrol around the entirety of the city.

For Robin, he couldn’t get a ride, he had to walk back to his school because of the stone but he had Chasm Might as a bodyguard so that he wasn’t targeted just like Mr Atlas had been.

Robin put the stone at the center of his school’s track and field before getting taken home where his parents and siblings hugged him and thanked the Hero for escorting their son personally.

“Don’t worry, I’m interested in your son’s future so it is in my interest to help protect him. Don’t worry because we will make sure the city is safe. The whole of next week will have most things closed off so school will be out. You should rest and recover from this.” he said.

“I understand sir.” Robin said.

They smiled and he shot off back towards the central region of the city.

Robin watched only until he was out of sight and turned, “I’m tired and I want to be alone.” He said as his smile got smaller and he went upstairs.

His parents looked worried and wanted to say something but felt like it might make things worse and decided to sit down for a talk the next day when he had let out the stress.

In his room, he finally couldn’t hold it as he started to cry with his face buried in his pillow.

“Because of me… it was because of me!” he constantly said in his head, blaming himself for his teacher and friend’s misfortune and almost his death. Even if it was likely to happen if he was in the same situation but it happened when he tried to protect him. If he had been in a safe area and he had been smarter when dealing with them he would have gotten away and he wouldn’t have been caught in the open like that.

He had been totally useless and his own body had been the only thing to protect him but also the biggest liability with it’s new weakness from overheating. Even if his body could handle the heat over 1,000 degrees, it was just a few strong punches that were needed for him to be out. He screamed and cried like this for the better part of an hour until he grew extremely tired despite having rested and the world power filling him with energy but his mind was extremely fatigued and he fell asleep in the safety of his home.