Reverie

"We went too far." he heard someone say. "the boy can't handle it, stop the experiment and try something less taxing."

"What?! But he is the wonder boy, the boy who could handle anything!" the angry man he heard earlier yelled back again, "we should've just used his parents more when we had them."

"They would never have allowed that. They were not ours, to begin with." the worried man said, "cyborgs are still too dangerous and were taking it too far, Vin."

"Ben, why do you have to be such a worrywart. If we make him as our plans direct it, we will be the leaders people wish for, the models people need, and the stars kids look up to, isn't that what you said?"

"Yes, but it was before you kidnapped someone and did this stuff illegally…"

And he was snapped back to reality. He thought to himself, 'wait, that wasn't useful to my situation at all! My memories usually help me out in tough spots. Actually, maybe that was just my luck acting up and helping out.'

He touched his hips in the midst of the battle and felt nothing but his slimes and his usual warm skin. 'Hah, what did I want? Teleporters in my skin? At least I learned a bunch. I wonder who my real parents were. Were they tested just like I was? Did they go through the same stuff?'

But his thoughts were interrupted by the man with the shield yelling at him, "hellooo?? What is this man doing? You're on a battlefield, you really want to daze out like that? Hey, are you not human? Why are you fighting with the Dwarves? Come on over, we'll accept you into the army if you are good enough. I am a well-respected man here."

"Because of that shield? I doubt it's because of your skill, hiding like a coward behind a stolen artifact." Zeeth sneered.

"That's it, you guys are dead!" he said angrily, guarding himself closely with the shield again and waving his hands for his people to attack.

'Black, you got anything?'

'Mmmm, Yeah, I do. But I'm not sure if you're ready for this.'

'Just throw it at them.'

'Alright. Point your finger at someone-not the one with the magic shield, someone else near him- right. Aim right at their face with your finger...and RELEASE!' when black shouted release in his head, a stream of black liquid shot out from the tip of his finger. Flying through the air in a nearly perfect line, it landed on someone's face like a cup of ink was splashed onto their face. It didn't cut through them or melt them to their bones, but it was instantly clear why Black wanted to do it.

It was an area attack, the stench from the black liquid was so strong it instantly reached even Zeeth, the smell was far worse than anything he had ever even imagined, and he was standing quite a distance away. Those around him quickly fell over and threw up while the man with the liquid had already fainted, falling sideways and onto the man holding the blue shield. He tried dodging, but men were blocking him from all around and the only clear space was forward, where Zeeth stood waiting with an attack.

He hesitated in moving forward. Even though it was a shield he stole, it was still an amazing shield that helped him become distinguished on the battlefield and made him feel superior. Scared that Zeeth might break his shield, he accidentally allowed the man to fall onto him. The black liquid smeared from his face and onto his clothing.

The smell quickly got to him and he threw up as well, limply holding the shield as he fell to the floor.

'What attack was that?' Zeeth asked.

'I merely weaponized the immense amount of impurities in your body. I have to say, I've never gotten such a successful result before.'

'That was such a backhanded compliment. You just insulted me by saying how dirty my body was.'

'Well, this attack is very limited, and we can't always use it, in fact, I just emptied all our reserves with that attack, I will have to build up some more. But once we clear out all your impurities, this won't be an option anymore.'

Heaving once more, the man with the shield tried to stand again as the conversation went on in Zeeths head.

'If only I could use my slimes, this guy would be a piece of cake.'

'Yes, but revealing such an amazing power for someone as weak as this is hardly worth it. This will be a good time to train as well, I always find limiting myself in battles to be extremely exciting.'

'Really? You like it?'

'Yes, I love the challenge. I thought you did as well.'

'Not really. I think I enjoy the slow life.'

'I see. Well, you should get back to your battle and I will stay silent, I still need to purify your body. A lot.'

And Zeeth went back to concentrating on his battle, feeling like that last part was unwarranted. He still needed to take the shield without breaking it and he was sure the man would rather break the shield than let someone else have it. Watching him stumble around like a deer, an idea came to his head and he was quickly trying to make it.

First, he started off by conjuring it a bit of black magic and made sure to increase its longevity even if he had to sacrifice some aim. Next, he surrounded his little tornado of black magic with a ball of water, an element he was very comfortable handling since he had months to play with it, and froze it. It created a piece of thick, ovular ice as big as his fist with a small, spinning purple thing in the center. He took aim and threw it at the floor near the man with the shield. It landed right behind his feet and was already cracking from the force of hitting the floor and the spinning black magic inside.

He suddenly stumbled a bit, stepped on the little ovoid ice, and cracked it open. The black magic rushed out from the ice and tore up his led, spinning its way around and bruising him. Seeing how successful it was, Page and Zeeth both made a few more and chucked it at him. Adding his own spin to it, Page snapped his fingers and created a small hole in all the ice shells, directing them at the back of the man and sent the black magic directly at him.

While he was being distracted, Page rushed forward to grab the shield. Seeing what they were doing, his soldiers tried to do the same, but the smell around them was stopping most of the men. A few brave souls rushed in any way, trying to ignore the smell, and either fell over, gasping or was blown away by Zeeth or any of the dwarves using ranged weapons.

No dwarves were affected by the smell since they were already avoiding the shield, where the smell was the strongest and so they were mostly all still fine.

Creating a small ball of water around his head to prevent the smell from getting in, Page grabbed the shield and rushed back out, triumphantly holding it above his head.

Seeing him run back somehow triggered another memory and he was a young child again, younger than he was in his last memory. His fingers didn't feel like they were metal, and he realized he was just another child again. His older self forced himself to realize that this was just another session of hypnosis, but he couldn't remove the feeling from his younger self that this was all real. Perhaps the hypnosis was that strong, or perhaps he had simply really wanted to believe this was teal and stay like this forever.

This time, he sat in someone's living room in front of a few things, something that looked like an electronic helmet and a single circular remote with buttons all over it and a place to put his hand. His mom came in, a woman totally different from the last one and she brought him a small plate of food.

"Zeeth," she said sweetly, "are you still playing video games? Which one is it this time?"

"Oh, thanks, mom. Yeah, it's called Reverie. Do you want to try?"

"Oh, no, hahaha. I think your old mom will just stick to her usual 2D games, you have fun with that immersive stuff. My head spins just trying to play it. Isn't that one of the biggest games right now? Mrs.Fletcher's son next door plays it and he says he's already level a hundred something, one of the highest in the neighborhood, apparently! All the other boys really respect him for it. What level are you at? Can I brag about it?"