I bolted through the crowd, knocking over more than one person along my path. Faye and the guy were just a few metres apart. He lunged his sword towards Faye’s eyes with a clear killing intent.

I appeared from nowhere in front of the two, my forearm raised, with the volar part facing the approaching weapon. The youth’s eyes grew wide in surprise as the tip of the blade dug into my skin and cut my flesh apart.

The sword passed through the opening between my radius and ulna, quickly bolting for my face. When it was inches from my eyes, I violently rotated my forearm internally. The two bones pressed against the blade, applying a forceful torque. The sword snapped in half and the broken bit was extracted from my flesh and sent flying by the sudden centrifugal acceleration.

The aggressor looked wide-eyed at his broken longsword and remained agape. I addressed him with a polite smile, showing more teeth than necessary.

“Hi! I’m John Doe! What the f**k do you think you are doing?”

The guy remained motionless, looking at me like he was seeing a ghost. It was clear he couldn’t believe what had just happened. He emitted a small cough, trying to regain a semblance of control.

“Mr Doe, I’m Caleb Grant of the Aleph Class. I know it will be hard to believe, but I can explain everything. You see, this person in actuality is…”

I sighed loudly, interrupting his words. He seemed taken aback by my reaction.

“I thought I had gotten over my anger management issues”

I was wrong.

The mark of my knuckles was imprinted on his face. His nose was smashed, his skull was fractured and half of his teeth were sent flying. He flew through the air and rolled on the ground like a ragdoll before coming to a stop metres away from where he was before. He even let go of his greatsword. Isaac, with whom for some reason he shared his surname, would have never let go of his weapon.

Now that I could better control my body, I could call into action many more muscle fibres than before. The tribulations I had incurred had made me grow stronger than before. Moreover, my new aura was far thicker and heavier and my control capability was also higher.

Aura was life force, life force was strength, strength was power and power was energy. And as everybody knows, energy is mass. I wasn’t actually sure this tentative chain of thoughts held true, but it helped clarify things. I could use my aura to manipulate my body, including varying its inertia.

This was the reason why my blow had been that devastating even against an opponent strong enough to overpower Lily and Isaac. I had thrown my punch and before making contact I had significantly raised its inertia. It was quite tricky to pull off, but the result was more than satisfying. In the absence of my mace, I had become my own mace.

I raised my forearm in front of my eyes. There was a big hole, blood gushing out of it. It was the first time I saw my new blood and I remained fascinated by it. It was an incredibly viscous substance, darker than anything I had ever seen, even more so than the absolutely lightless pillars of the Perimeters, with deep violet tints scattered here and there. Thinking that something like that was flowing through my body felt strange, as the substance seemed incredibly toxic; but it wasn’t actually harmful, so I could bear with it.

The worst thing of all was the remnants of aura the blade had left inside my flesh. It was like nothing I had ever seen. All the auras I had seen to this day, even the faintest ones, had some kind of hue. No two hues were identical, even if they could be similar, due to the fact that an aura’s hue was connected to the mentality of a person. Nevertheless, Caleb’s aura had proven capable of changing its hue and at this moment it was completely transparent.

I had never conceived anything like this, but it wasn’t the colour, or absence thereof, that I found disturbing. It was the smell it concealed. Although it was an incredibly different scent, it oddly resembled another one I knew quite well. It was the same smell as that of my blood.

I turned my gaze towards the fallen Caleb. His face was recovering his previous shape, but his teeth didn’t show any signs of reappearing. Regenerative capabilities of regular archs were incredibly efficient with regards to putting the body back together after sustained damages, while reforming lost parts out of sheer space required far longer. After all, they were enhanced humans, not enhanced lizards. I was also quite sure this didn’t exactly apply to me.

With a swift motion, Caleb stood up and put himself into a fighting stance, with his fists raised and his feet wide apart. I was standing up straight as a pole, like I had not just crushed someone's face.

His face was red and he spat a mouthful of blood on the ground. The next instant he rushed at me. He raised his leg high, and fast as an arrow he hit the side of my head with his shin. My skull cracked and his nasty aura ailed my fractured bones.

I responded by punching him in the side, breaking a couple of ribs and puncturing his lung. He gasped for air but continued the short fight.

He kicked my knee, causing my leg to turn in the wrong direction, and I stomped his foot, pulverising its bones.

He elbowed me in the throat, causing my trachea to collapse, and I did the same to him, breaking his vertebrae.

He fell to the ground without any strength left in his body. He would temporarily be paralyzed, but he should be able to eventually recover. I kept my distance and watched him trying to get back to his feet, while I undid the damages suffered. The crowd was frozen in shock. I had subdued the winner of the tournament in four moves and I had done so while letting him hit me freely.

I crouched to get a better view of his face. Our eyes met and I could see the dread inside. It bothered me. I hoped he had a higher level of mental resistance. I wanted him to stand up and continue struggling, as I was enjoying our little play.

The moment he had shown hostility to Faye, a person who was part of my plans, he was identified by me as a valid target against which I could let off steam. I wanted to take full advantage of this opportunity and take my time before disposing of him.

At that very moment it became clear to me that the rise of my violent tendencies was not due to the after-effects of the surgery. After all, even with my new body, my belligerence was still here. Most likely, the more I grew, the more my true tendencies surfaced.

Nevertheless, I knew I couldn’t waste time. People were already beginning to move. If I wanted to kill him, I had to do it now. Moreover, I had this hunch I had to kill him now.

I begrudgingly raised my hand, ready to strike him down and put an end to his life. His eyes showed pure terror, but it didn’t faze me.

“John! Don’t!” Faye’s shouts reached me.

I groaned loudly.

“Fine,” I replied testily, lowering my hand.

I stood up and dusted off my pants. I turned towards Faye. She was standing behind me. Her face was red and her eyes were watery. I was glad to see a friendly face after all this time.

I opened my mouth, but before I could utter even a single word, a white flash filled the sky and a sudden explosion sent me flying along with numerous debris.