Chapter 15: Chapter 14 – Rest Day

The bodies flew everywhere as the airplane dropped bombs and used it’s cannon to destroy the rocks where the resistance had been riding, their hiding place being found the troops charged out, their weapons spewing lasers as they made a last stand against the betrayer, the airplane made another pass but the red was faster, his laser weapon hit the plane’s wing and blew it right out of the sky, the troops cheered.

 

“Too late my friend, victory is mine!” Lord Shadow came out of a abandoned bus, mounted on his terrible war beast a terrible creature it walked strangely on only two legs and had a terrible sharp beak it used to eat its prey Red wondered how Lord shadow had tamed such terrible being, even worse than it was the monster at his side prepared to attack them “Never, we will never surrender!”

 

As Lord Shadow pointed his monster charged and the resistance attacked, their laser weapons shoot like crazy but the monster was invincible, finally Red managed to kill the creature with his bare hands but his allies fell, it was only he, lord Shadow and his terrible mount, when it seemed like all was lost…

 

“Honey lunch is ready!” Getting up the boy froze on his tracks, Lord Shadow was a terrible villain and needed to be stopped but his mom had made French fries today, deciding that fries won over evil lord he got up and kicked the penguin plush sending it flying with the action figure on top, a poor end for Lord Shadow and his terrible mount but it would have to do, nearly stepping on the fallen airplane/ Lago brick he ran out of the room and into the bathroom.

 

Although he was too small to reach the sink properly he managed to drag a stool in front of it and wash his hand, as he quickly ran down the stairs his mother screamed for him to take care but he just jumped on a chair and looked over the top of the table watching his mon put the plates on it.

 

“Ok honey what do you want to eat?” “French fries!” “Of course you do, ok but only if you eat your salad” stuffing his cheeks he actually stopped to think about it but French fries were just too alluring “Fine.”

 

Devouring his food like a small void he ate his fries with his bare hands despite his mother warning, it tasted better this way, his meat also meet a similar fate down his throat, he only stopped when he reached the dreadful salad, poking at it with his fork he eventually picked a leaf of lettuce and ate it with a sour face then returned to poking it “Eat your salad honey” “Yes mom” he picked another leaf.

 

The doorbell rang loudly and he jumped out of the chair “I will get it!” “Get back here this instant you little!” acting like he hadn’t heard her he reached the door and asked “Who is it?” “The mooonster, I come to eat little boys that don’t listen to their mothers!”

 

Breaking out in a huge smile the boy opened the door and jumped at the man’s arms “Daddy you’re here!” catching the boy and lifting him in his arms the man laughed “Hello champion what did you do to your mother now?”

 

At the kitchen door the woman had a radiant smile as she told on him “He didn’t eat his salad” “Oh, Is that right?” putting the six years old boy bellow his right arm the man closed the door with his left and started to walk back to the table “Well we can’t have that can we?” “Stop it ahahaha nooooo” with his arms and legs flailing in the air the boy laughed and laughed.

 

Sitting the boy back in his chair the man turned towards his wife hugging her and kissing her deeply “How come you’re back?” “What, you don’t want me back?” slapping his chest the woman laughed “Of course I want you, how long are you staying this time?” “Forever” “What?” “I got promoted out of field work, they want me training new recruits for a while.”

 

Incapable of words the woman just gave a exited scream and flooded him with kisses, while his parents were being silly the boy looked away “Ewww, gross” poking at his salad once more he saw there were still a dozen fries left uneaten, looking back at his parents he saw that they were certainly not watching him.

 

Frowning his face in concentration he felt a cool sensation traveling from his head right behind his eyes and down his neck towards his right hand, pointing at the fries a thin and fragile string left his finger and clumsily wrapped around a fry, he managed to pull it a whole two centimeters before it escaped the string, he tried again.

 

When the man finally stopped kissing his wife they both turned to see their son happily eating half a dozen fries on his plate, the woman was less than pleased “Aaron Ross!” Stuffing the fry he had been eating into his mouth the boy turned, his guilty face was incredibly cute.

 

Over lunch Adam explained to his son that he would now be living with him, the boy was absolutely out of his mind with happiness, trying to tell him all about a lord shadow and the war that had been going on in his bedroom, suddenly the boy remembered something “Daddy are you no longer a hero then?” “what?” “Mommy always said you have to be away and has all those shinning medals because you are a hero and have to help people” “Aaron, dad has already saved enough people, now I will just teach other people and be your hero.”

 

Over the months their life was blissful, his father had three moths of paid leave he spent playing with him or enjoying time with his mother, when his dead finally had to return to work his hard times started, tired of playing alone he went to play in the streets with the neighbors kids, being the second youngest and also the most strange with his overactive imagination and lack of friends the older boys started to bully him.

 

He started to leave the house less and less once again but his mother was always busy and he only meet his dad at mornings and at night, he spent close to a year as the excluded kid making sure to avoid the worst bullies but one day Roger, a nine years old fat tall child and his two friends cornered him on the way home pushing him down so he hit his head on a rock and started bleeding.

 

Aaron tried to stop himself but he couldn’t and started crying, it only made the boys laugh as they mocked him on the ground, picking up a glass bottle Roger approached him “Please don’t, I want my mother” “You baby, here I have something for you” laughing harder at his crying face Roger opened the bottle and dumped its contents on his chest, it was full of spiders.

 

Screaming in fear he tried to take off his shirt but got stuck, as the spiders crawled all over his body the sick boy laughed and laughed, he rolled on the floor screaming and crying, trying to bat the spiders away with little success, finally as one of them crawled into his face he lost it to fear and anger.

 

Burning hot power flooded his head and, like a dam breaking, it burned its way down his neck and out of his arms materializing into 10 strong strings moving wildly, each one nearly as strong as an adult human they swung around him uncontrollably, Aaron was beyond sanity, having always been afraid of spiders he was not even conscious, one of his strings lashed out and hit one of the boys in the chest nearly sending him flying while another wrapped around Roger’s arm and slammed him into a three he screamed “Get it off, get it off!”

 

You are reading story Welcome to the System at novel35.com

With very little control his strings tried to obey his order the only way they could, by destroying the spiders, they lashed at the creatures hitting his own body with enough strength to break the skin and shred his clothes, they wouldn’t stop until every last spider was crushed.

 

His father had been home for the weekend and came running out of the door desperate to help but having no clue about what was happening, in a last ditch effort he threw himself over his son’s body receiving several lashes on his back, one of the string wrapped around his throat and squeezed cutting off his air, he struggled but the string was too thin and hard to catch, finally Aaron passed out from pain, terror and blood loss and the attack stopped.

 

 

 

The boy opened his eyes in a hospital, his body wrapped in bandages, to the side of his bed he could hear his parents discussing “No, absolutely not” “Isabella he needs help and I can’t give it to him!” “He is just a child Adam!” “He nearly killed two boys, three if you count himself as well, it is better this way” “Better for who?” “Everyone!”

 

Pulling the curtains around his bed open a kind looking old man came closer, his father, a doctor and two soldiers accompanied him “Hi champion, it’s good to see you awake” “Daddy what happened” “My little hero you lost control and hurt some people” “I didn’t want to… I just wanted it to stop” using a hand to push the hair out of the boy’s face his father smiled “I know champion, that’s why those man are gonna help you, you just have to go with them for a while.”

 

“His mother came closer as well and kissed his forehead “Honey, you don’t need to do this” “Isabella” “He doesn’t! I won’t let you do this!” putting an arm around his wife’s shoulders his father lead her away where they started talking in angry whispers, the kind old man approached.

 

“Hello Aaron, my name is Horace Loren and, in a way, I am your father’s boss” “Are you a hero too?” “No Aaron, I am not a hero I just make them, do you want to be a hero?” and the old man gave a kind welcoming smile “Do you want to help people like your father did?”

 

 

Jumping out of his bed, cold sweat dripping down his head like a waterfall, Aaron had to take a full minute to calm himself enough so he could get to the refrigerator and pull a bottle of cold water, drinking half the bottle in a single motion he poured the rest on the top of his head, deciding it was not enough he decided to take a cold shower before he was finally back on track.

 

Putting on his tight spandex suit, well it was not really spandex but sure looked like it, he left the room still feeling a little embarrassed by the dress code, unfortunately they had to be as ready as possible at any one time, at 4 in the morning there were very few people working on the Einherjar’s building, not wanting to go back to sleep he decided to go to the academy.

 

He spent the first 45 minutes running at 9 km/h just to get in the mood before picking up the weights for an entire hour, as he lifted a huge weight alternating between each hand in 4 sequences of 50 a new message appeared

[Congratulations, due to your constant effort your strength has increased by 1]

Finishing his series with a satisfied smile he dropped the weight and looked in the mirror, thankfully his body did not change abruptly, it didn’t change at all and he couldn’t even feel the difference, then again he didn’t feel the difference with intelligence as well, deciding to finish his exercise by hitting a sand bag he followed the sequence his Sifu had taught him long ago remembering the fluid motions of punching and kicking he was so found of.

[Congratulations, you have learned <Martial Arts>]                 

By the time he finished the academy was already full with Einherjar on break, men and women who had just returned from missions, all of them wearing the same form fitting full body suit like a second skin.

 

Entering the bathroom to take a second shower he regretted his decision nearly immediately, like in most military training places the showers were open with no walls between men and women, trying to hide his embarrassment he showered quickly not looking anywhere, although he had gotten naked in front of his father that was just to annoy the man and, being naked in front of his father and two men was completely different from being naked in front of a bunch of women, he was still a virgin for god’s sake.

 

When he finally left he was fairly sure he had failed at hiding his discomfort but at the very least he didn’t get hard, boy was that a relief, perhaps it was the fact that everyone was so nonchalant about it or perhaps it was the black man with a third lag that took a shower besides him, nothing keeps you soft better than the feeling of inadequacy.

 

Taking a cup of cappuccino he sat down on a table in open air and started to read the reports from other Einherjar and Ragnarok members on his tablet, if nothing else the sheer diversity of the monsters they faced was interesting, from disgusting slime monsters to flying magical hogs and everything else in between.

 

Reading about the strengths and weaknesses of other creatures he was actually quite bored, outside of the big bosses that spawned at places with gathered military power in the beginning the rest of those lesser creatures didn’t pose any threat to him, he could kill them all either with his blades or by keeping his distance and snipping them even if there were many more of them his mobility would allow him to run.

 

Before he turned off the device he made sure to read every information they had about England’s situation, painfully little as it turned out since the dragon had taken over and nobody dared coming closer with a plane and aggravate the guy.

 

Erick joined him at his table soon after with his own cup of coffee “Hi” he just nodded “I read your report by the way” releasing his cappuccino he lifted an eyebrow “You did the right thing man, I am glad you were there cuz I don’t know if I could have done it and then we would all be fucked” taking another sip he looked around, his chest a little lighter “Where is your shadow?” “Lily is still sleeping, they haven’t managed to find her parents yet poor thing, you think they still have a chance?” thinking about his own missing mother he turned his face “There is always a chance” both their wrist communicators rang out at once, turning his head he read

[New mission, transport helicopter 7]

“Damn don’t they give us a break!” complained Erick but he just laughed “They just did, a whole 8 hours break even, I don’t know what you’re complaining about” “Very funny I barely had enough time to sleep damn it” “You are aware we will probably be on missions near constantly for at least the next month or so right?” “Fuck I had a lot of trouble making myself forget that why did you remind me!”