[REND] 13.2 - How to Train Your Monster

Finally! I had been looking forward to this the entire day. I barely listened in class, instead imagining myself mowing down a bunch of super-powered enemies—main character material. And whatever Myra would teach us in fighting Adumbrae would also be useful against these artificial, Core-bearing hero wannabes. Superstrength and speed, a very durable body, and fast regeneration—all those traits we shared, even if to varying degrees.

Myra held up three fingers. “The three most important things you should learn are: pushing the limits of your strength, evading, and attacking from afar.”

“The limits of our strength?” I wondered.

“Our superhuman bodies and powers develop as our Core-melding progresses. But it’s not a drastic change. Eh, I guess your change is drastic, Erind. You’re getting stronger way faster compared to the rest of us. But that’s not what I meant by pushing the limits of your strength. What you’ll push are your limits now.”

I tilted my head. “Like exercising to get stronger?”

“My dumbbells at home can’t help build muscles anymore,” Deen said. “I think I’ll need to curl fifty-pounders, or more. But we can’t work out in the gym because we’d look suspicious.”

“Not working out to get stronger,” Myra said, shaking her head. “I’ll explain later—I probably should’ve mentioned it last. Anyway—evading and long-ranged attacks. Keep in mind that you can’t be certain how physically strong the enemy is. This isn’t like fighting regular humans. You see a jacked guy—he must be pretty strong. You see, uh, Erind here—you’d judge her weak. Right? It turns out, she’s physically stronger than Reo. Can probably knock Reo’s head clean off if she winds up her punch.”

“We can’t rely on appearance alone,” said Deen. “Got it.”

“Better not to get hit by the enemy, be they Adumbrae or augmented dudes. You get knocked out? That’s it, for you. There are no do-overs in battle. Powers or abilities are a whole different issue.”

“Evade all enemies,” Deen said, nodding. “Got it.”

“Got it,” I echoed. Then I winked at Deen. Enemies. Including Dario and the hero wannabes. Maybe. I should take out Dario in one hit before his powers incapacitate me.

“Don’t underestimate normal humans either,” Myra firmly said, pointing a finger at us for emphasis. “That advice goes for me, as well,” she added, snorting. “We don’t know if a guy’s packing a weapon that could incapacitate or kill us. Even a normal gun firing a well-aimed headshot could be our end.”

Not if I’m transformed, I thought. In my sexy monster state—I really need to think of a name for my transformation—I wasn’t bothered by Purple Mohawk shooting a gun right at my head. The bullets even bounced off my fangs. I wouldn’t risk that while in my original body, though. I could very much suffer from bullet wounds, even if I’d quickly heal them.

How would my transformed body fare against Dario’s knockout powers? If I could endure for a second, I could get close enough to bite his head off. I could do the same to the other hero wannabes. But I wouldn’t be able to handle all of them at the same time.

Myra tapped the side of her head. “Take care of our brains, okay? To a lesser extent, our spines, too. We can regenerate most fatal injuries so long as our brain is intact.”

Hang on. Didn’t that also apply to Adumbrae? Was this proof that the artificial Core wasn’t actually from a Mother Fragment but made from Adumbrae parts or something? I had no idea how Cores of Corebrings worked.

“It’s easy to overestimate yourselves… ourselves,” Myra continued. “The changes to our bodies can give us this sense of invincibility—I’ve felt that, and I know you two do too. Don’t be reckless—another advice I also keep reminding myself. So, that’s evading. This is more for Erind than you, Amber, given your powers.”

“I’ll also train to evade the enemy,” Deen said. “The warnings of my Guardian Angel are useless if I can’t follow them fast enough.”

Not true, I thought. Deen was misdirecting Myra. If Deen would react too slowly to a certain danger, her Guardian Angel would just warn her several minutes prior, like what happened when her drunk sister came. Deen’s fight with Dario wasn’t serious, so that didn’t apply. If it were a real fight, her Guardian Angel would tell her to run away as fast as possible.

“I can get close to the enemy because of my powers,” Myra said. “I’m the frontliner protecting our squishier teammates like Reo. The powers of Everett and Reo can work from afar. Dario’s power, not so much. But he can shoot guns and throw stuff, and that’s what you two should also learn to do.”

“Throwing what kind of stuff?” I asked.

“Anything you can get your hands on. They say a baseball pitcher can kill a person with a good fastball. By ‘they’, I mean Reo. He told me someone died in a World Series game from getting hit with a baseball. Dunno if that idiot was pulling my leg or not. Even if his story isn’t true, someone throwing a rock with super strength can kill people… assuming you have good aim. You can knock out even Adumbrae. Weaker ones.”

“I’ve tried softball before, but I sucked at it,” Deen said.

“I don’t think I have good aim either,” I said. “Some practice would help a lot. I’m confident in my hand-eye coordination.” After all, I used to be a cheerleader. I was quite good with timing and stuff. Being physically stronger than the rest of the group meant my ranged attacks were more deadly. Freaking awesome.

“Let’s circle back to pushing the limits of strength. A warning: you’ll get hurt while doing this. Eh, hurt is too mild a word. Big time pain. Are you guys up for it?”

“We are.” Deen reached for my arm and squeezed it. Was it to motivate me or what?

“Yup,” I said.

Myra motioned for us to follow her to a pillar. Patting its surface, she said, “Punching… I’ve said to keep your distance from your enemy, but this is the best way to understand the concept. Once you know how to go past your limits, you can use that in throwing things, too. There’ll be times we can’t avoid fighting in close combat, so it’s good to learn how to punch. Who wants to go first?”

“I’m first.” Deen stepped forward. “I don’t want to be after Erind because she’s much stronger than me.”

I grinned at Deen. “You don’t want to look pathetic?”

“Definitely not,” Deen said, raising a clenched fist.

“Don’t hesitate, Deen,” Myra said, pointing at the middle of the pillar. “Punch here as hard as you can.”

“Not hesitating… Yahhh!” Deen had a clumsy posture and flung her fist at the wall. Cracks radiated where she punched it. She hopped away, shaking her hand. “Ow, ow, ow!” She blew on her bleeding knuckles as if they were hot.

What a baby, I thought. I had gotten my stomach skewered when I was still human.

Myra smiled. “Is this the first time you’ve been hurt this much?”

“Physically,” Deen said with a trembling smile. “But I’m good. The pain’s already fading.”

“You’ll experience a lot more pain,” Myra said. “You’re next, Erind.” She pointed me to another face of the pillar.

“Um, here goes…” I balled my right hand into a tight fist, feeling the crystal on my palm. I imitated a boxer’s stance as best as I could from a video I had watched, then swung my fist forward with all my might, twisting my body along with it. That was what the guy on the video said.

I decided not to hold back my strength. It’d interfere with training if I did. And I was also interested to see how strong I was. 

BAM!

The surface of the pillar cracked as my fist buried a couple of inches into the concrete. Chunks of the layer of cement finish fell off, along with clouds of dust. The pillar itself trembled, and the floor shook. Deen let out a yelp of surprise.

“Aw!” I backed away, pulling my fist out of the hole. I cradled my elbow. “It be-bent the wrong way…urgh…” My elbow did get dislocated, but I could’ve endured the pain in silence if I wanted to. I acted like this so Deen would be worried about me. She massaged my elbow as it slowly healed—damn physical contact. A small price to pay for making Deen care more about me.  

“I expected you to get hurt,” Myra said. “But I didn’t think it to be this way. Are your fingers and knuckles fine?”

“My fingers are fine. It’s just my elbow,” I hissed as my elbow popped back into place. Very satisfying.

“You could’ve done a whole lot more damage if you had punched properly. I guess we’ll have to cover the basics.” Myra explained the importance of punching straight to avoid injuries and also to add power and speed to the strike.

Deen and I slowly punched the air while Myra observed our forms. She gave us tips on how to improve our punches. 

“Don’t flare out my elbow. Got it.” I could scarcely contain my excitement. I was in a training montage!

“Yes, keep your elbows close,” Myra said. “Don’t punch like you’re doing a pushup with your arm.” She moved my body to the correct stance. “Punch with your whole body. Exert force on the ground with your legs, rotate your body, and then punch.”

“You’re very good at this,” Deen said. 

Myra shrugged, bouncing her blue hair that rested on her shoulders. “I’m just repeating what Dario taught me.” I noticed she had a slightly contemptuous tone when she spoke. She gestured at another pillar. “Try again.”

BAM!

“Wow, that improved so much,” Deen said, stepping away from the pillar while massaging her knuckles. “And it also hurt less this time.”

“I’ll try too!” I said, a bit too excitedly.

BAM!!!

Fuck yeah! My fist sank into the pillar past my wrist. Way more cracks appeared than last time. I beamed while observing them branch upwards. A slab of concrete got dislodged from the pillar above me. I walked backwards to avoid it as it fell.

“That’s amazing, Erind,” Deen said, patting my back.

“Yeah…” I was genuinely happy with how it turned out that I wasn’t bothered by Deen’s touch. I covered my nose and mouth from the dust, and also to hide a huge grin on my face. What if that was a person’s head? I’d blast it into a bloody mist. And if I caught the hero wannabes off guard, I’d win. Our situation wasn’t as bad as I thought. Strength solves a lot of problems.

“Terrifying you’re already this goddamn strong.” Myra peered into the hole that I made. “Maybe you’re right that your unique ability had something to do with strengthening your body.”

“It’s a huge difference punching correctly,” I said. “Is this what you meant by pushing the limits? Because I had bad form earlier, I injured my elbow and wasted a lot of my strength.”

Myra held my hand. I controlled myself not to slap her jaw off her fucking face. She checked my fingers and knuckles. I turned over my hand to hide the crystal, covering it with my thumb.

Myra didn’t mind when I gradually pulled my hand away. She said, “No, you haven’t gone past your limit yet. Both you and Deen.”

“But I thought…” I frowned. “Okay, we’ll try again.”

“I may not be as strong as Erind,” Deen said, “but I’ll give it my best.”

Bam! Bam! Bam! Deen and I went about demolishing the building, smashing the columns and pillars. None of our punches were what Myra was looking for. We moved to the third floor for fear that we’d collapse the building if we continued to destroy its support.

This is so much fun! I cheered in my head. I had gotten more confident with attacking, and I could say this punch was my best yet. My fist had reached the rebars reinforcing the pillar.

However, Myra shook her head.  

“What do I do?” I watched her feel my fingers again. I kept my fist balled. The skin on my knuckles was bruised, and so was my arm, but the wounds were healing. Streaks of my blood streaked the hole I made. “I can feel each punch get stronger, so I guess I wasn’t pushing myself before that.”

Deen also observed my hand. “Myra, are you checking if we punched hard enough to break our fingers?”

“Yep,” Myra replied. “I was waiting for that to happen. Then, I’ll urge you to push more.”

“You weren’t joking when you said we’ll be injured.” I finally understood what Myra meant by pushing our limits. She could’ve just started with that explanation. Sucky teacher. “Let me try again.”

As weird as it sounded, given how much I had damaged the thick concrete column, I was still holding back—I simply wasn’t aware of it. Obviously, I didn’t want to break my fingers, so I unconsciously controlled my force. But I had the strength to punch hard enough to wreck my fist.

“Erind… I was going to say be careful,” Deen said. “But that’s not the assignment. Um, endure the pain well. I’ll be here for you.”

Here for me to do what? I sarcastically answered in my brain. I took a deep breath. I reminded myself that I’d heal afterwards. I had experienced getting disemboweled. I had bitten my finger. Breaking the bones of my hand should be nothing. Give this punch everything I got!

“HAAA!” I yelled as I punched.

WHAAAM!!!

There was a small explosion. Chunks of concrete flew everywhere, some even smacking my face. The whole building shook. Loud cracks, sounding like gunshots, echoed everywhere. It wasn’t just the column cracking.

“Ouch!” I exclaimed. “That really hurts! Oh my god!” Overreacting for Myra’s benefit, but my trembling hand was busted. My fingers became crooked, bent in ways they shouldn’t be. Some looked like fried sausages that had burst open. “I-I…um, a bo-bone…a bone went through my finger.

“Oh my god, Erind!” Deen massaged my hand as if it’d do anything. She only added to the pain.

I yanked my hand away before she could feel the crystal. “Don’t touch! Ju-just wait for it… to heal…”

“I’m so, so sorry!”

“That’s a good start,” Myra said.

“Start? That was the start?” Deen asked incredulously.

“Yep. You’re going to learn about hysterical strength—it’s when people display extreme physical strength, far beyond what we’re capable of. Think of an adrenaline rush, but on steroids.”