Flying into a Back

Then why don't we just stop calling him that?"

"What do you suppose we call him then? Nothing? The name is hardly the matter. His actions are what made him Draod."

"What did he do?"

A girl in the crowd opened a book and read to those around him, "Draod, aka Thief, stole strength from 3,005,608 living things, 400,059 of which were elves, crippled 250,560 of them and killed 100,056. He stole millions from animals, bugs, plants, humans, and hundreds others. I knew that was him. We can't face him. He's killed 4 kings already and absorbed their power."

The girl he was fighting kicked him in the chest, breaking his ribs, but he slammed her face and healed it all, taking chunks of her thread with him.

A god up on the skies clapped his hundreds of hands and laughed.

Another goddess asked, "Why do you always choose the worst people, Tife?"

"I didn't choose him this time. I was just hanging about my usual prisons and camps and I heard him begging for help. I ignored it for a few years 'cause, y'know, beggars are losers. But his unending bugging got annoying so I went over to shut him up and I realized how much I liked the kid. I granted him my best abilities and the rest was up to him.

Did you know, on the first day he got my abilities, he tried to fight the guards but they just beat him senseless. He then tried to fight his mate but was knocked out again so he killed and absorbed a bird he caught and that night he went and killed his mate in his sleep. He frantically called the guards over claiming it was a medical emergency and his mate had stopped breathing but he knew the guards wouldn't give a crap so he spilled some of the guys blood onto the floor so that they would send someone to clean it up. As he hoped, they only sent in one guy to take the body out and he killed that guard and stole all his stuff and left.

I mean, what the hell, right? Hahaha, he sounds like us when we were younger."

"Brutal. You think he'll be a god some day?"

"Nah, I'll kill him before he does. But it's fun to watch for now, right?"

Draod tossed the girl aside and yelled, "come on! All at once, see how it'll go!"

"Dude, the god behind you is building something! Discuss this later!"

Back on the Belluma, Black wiped the blood off his face, only smearing more on. White watched in horror as Black absorbed the Belluma she worked so hard to tame. Through her eyes, she saw an aura of energy drain from the monster and the concentration in Black increased substantially and realized, 'he isn't normal. Not anymore, maybe not ever. But now, I can't stop him.'

She ran to Hetio and explained, "we need to stop him!"

"Don't worry about Draod, Dande's got this."

"No, I mean Black! He's out of control, he absorbed that beast and nothing's stopping him!"

"Oh, him? Don't worry, Zeeth will go back once the talent is done developing."

"He won't be able to stop him now. The beast he absorbed was the descendant of a dragon and he just absorbed all of it, he can't be stopped if he gains too much momentum. And without the need to build up a bomb against me, he won't sit idly in the back seat anymore, he'll take him over completely!"

"Like I said. Don't worry. Zeeth will control him."

"You don't understand a thing!" She stormed off, flying at Black.

Hetio turned back to Detro as he moved a red dot in a board game. "So, how are you?"

"Oh, y'know. The usual. Risen from the dead to kill someone and broke from the spell to kill my controller who was defended by the person he revived me to kill so I tried to kill him anyways."

"Yup, yup. Even your life after death is interesting."

Detro's finger crumbled into a pile of dust onto the board.

"Oh, come on, my board."

"My bad, my bad."

"You don't have long left."

"The crystal threads are dying."

And in the blink of an eye, his ashy body disintegrated, leaving only his skeleton and a few pink threads.

"Goodbye again, old friend."

White landed in front of Black and said, "Black, do not take this personally. This time, it really isn't because I hate you. You must realize that you are a danger to everyone around you and you have to be stopped before more dies."

She closed her hands, pushing her webspace together. Black felt something soft and wet touch every part of him all at once like a balloon growing around him and in front of his eyes, the world changed.

He saw an expansive white space full of red, barren trees just dense enough that he couldn't see far ahead.

"Come on, White. We've known each other for ages, you really have to do me like this?"

"For your own good." She replied, echoing throughout the space. "Not forever. Just until everyone catches up to you. Balance is important."

"You know that wouldn't happen within a single lifetime."

This time, it was just silence.

"Fine. I don't need to get out. I can perfect my skills here and come out to beat you up later."

Silence.

Black ran through the trees, kicking off their thin branches and breaking a few along the way. Gradually, the trees became blurs then simple colors and then vanished as he sped up. He was a flash among the trees, blowing entire paths through the barren forest and digging up the white ground, leaving a massive wake of dead trees behind. He ran so fast that the white vanished and he returned to Zeeth's body.

He opened his eyes and blinked, grinning at White. She didn't say anything for a moment but stammered, "you- how? But you've never-"

"Right. I've never been able to escape before. We're both legends in mental abilities but you're the master of prisons. You just forget, I'm a master of taking experiences for myself. Zeeth has been through numerous mental battles in this short duration and it's just enough to escape."

"That kid? Mental battles?"

"Yeah, you see how I glow a bit yellow right now?"

"Yeah…"

"I'll let you in on a little secret. Talents are a mental battle just as much as a physical one."

"I knew that. During a talent manifestation, the person goes through mental changes and has to endure intense hallucinations. That's how you're controlling his body. But no one can escape them or learn anything from it."

"Until you get outside help. He's off in another place so I'm controlling his body for now."

"For now? Don't kid, you're going to control this body until it withers."

"White, you should really upgrade your vocab. People say 'joke around' nowadays. What a loser."

"Shut up. Leave the body or face my wrath. We both know I have hundreds of beasts ready to hunt you down."

"Bring them. I'll gladly eat them all. And I'm serious, I've grown accustomed to sitting back. My whole life I've been fighting, but for what? Power? Knowledge? 'Cause I can get them by just relaxing. It's nice."

"Seriously?"

"Yup. But, I can tell you don't believe a word I said. You've been gathering your army for a while now and I've been hatching a plan of my own."

"Oh really?" She smirked.

"Yup. One that trumps everything you just brought. NOW!"

Linda erupted from the ground and created a box around the three of them. "I normally don't use the same trick twice but the last time only failed because you replaced yourself with a memory mosaic. This time, I made sure it was you."

"This box can't contain me!"

Linda suddenly collapsed on the ground and began breathing short rapid breaths. "Something, many things are attacking the box! Hurry up!"

Black threw five vials of black muck at White, shouting "Holy Excrement!"

She slashed them as they came at her. She twisted around, barely dodging all the liquid and smugly glaring at Black.

His lips curled upwards, worrying her, and he twisted his hand, causing all the black liquid to pause and whirl onto her.

"What was that?! Hurgh…!"

"Leftovers from when I cleaned out his impurities and created the bomb. Smells, doesn't it? And I made a crazy discovery when I accidentally touched a little when I tried to make a potion out of it. They can do the same thing as the bomb just on a smaller scale. But when there are enough, well you know the rest."

As he spoke, White began feeling the effects. Her vision blurred and she felt weak. Her hold on her creatures attacking the box weakened and the barrage slowed. Linda stood back up again just as White fell.

She saw doubles of everything and then simply saw darkness.

Black held her hand and felt no pulse. But the hand shook furiously, and then her whole body floated up. A white mist lifted itself from her body and raged around the box, slamming into its sides and trying to escape until it shot into Black. The white mist vibrated within him for a moment and then erupted again, this time directly into Linda.

The black box fell apart, but came back smaller and grey.

A young child stood on a chunk of ice to look at Draod at his eye level and demanded, "stop this now! You are being mean. If these people don't fight, they could die. You are doing unnecessary things for no reason!"

Draod snatched the neck of a young child and dangled him in mid air, punching him repeatedly in the face. The child slowly thinned and greyed with each accelerating punch as Draod said, "I have a reason. Money! Loyal servants!"

The kid's blood splattered onto his smiling face which twisted into anger as he bellowed, "IF ONE MORE PERSON DEFIES ME, I WILL KILL YOU AND FEED YOU TO YOUR PARENTS!! STOP! TALKING! BACK!" all while punching the life out of the child. He dropped the kid on the ground and stomped on his head, placing an arm on his knee while leaning forward. "Decide!"

An old man reached into his coat and pulled out a neatly folded square of cloth, he carefully unfolded it, counting small gold coins and placing them in his other hand, whispering, "one, two, three…"

Peop;le around him saw what he was doing and took out their own wallets, counting out money. A young girl whispered, "stop! Don't give him money! If you cave in here, he will never stop."

"My other option is death!" the old man whispered back, "I need to go back and see my grandchildren. I don't care how much he takes from me, I just need to leave alive."

"That's right! Listen to the old man! Your other option is death, this and a lifetime of servitude is a much better choice. Come on, now. Hurry up."

The old man handed him the cloth and mumbled, "that's 500."

Draod stepped off the kid to take the money and replied, "Actually, it just went up to 600. But you're okay for now, dust, you can get it to me tomorrow."

"I have to attend my grandsons-"

"I don't give a shit. You're staying here."

"Oh."

Another man handed him a little bag of coins, knelt and pulled the withered boy up from the ground. "Are you okay?"

"He's fine. Get off my platform."

Draod pulled the kid back as the other two stepped off, allowing others to approach him. As he tried to position the kid back, his hand shot up and plunged into Draod's mouth. "Urhg?! Kergh!"

Draod furiously bit the fingers off and spit them out. "What the f-"

The bloody stumps, still pointed at Draod's face, erupted with a bulbous, shiny object directly connected to the kid. The blade cut through Draod, swallowing his entire head in a balloon and tentacles wrapped around the kid's arm, keeping the two connected. "Never hurt the Octopus King. ever heard of the phrase?"

The purple and squishy looking sword began pumping from Draod to the boy, who grew taller and larger with each pump. "Your ability shocked me. It's uncannily like the Parasitic Blade of the Octopus King so I needed to see its limits. See if you stole from us or how despicable you are. But you gladly brutalize people for power. I hesitated to use my blade on you but you deserve much worse. You really earned the title of Draod." By the time he finished talking, he was a shiny, aerodynamic merman with tiny tentacles around his waist and a sharp nose. "What a piece of sh-. Hey, what are you doing?"

The sword stopped pumping and shrunk instead.

"Hey!" He pulled the sword away from Draod, who opened his mouth and revealed himself chewing blood and bits of the sword.

"Never knew I could ingest power, didja? What a moron, connectin' your weapon to your own body."

"You're much more proficient in eating power, I'll give you that. But so am I." He lifted his arm and dropped the sword into it leaving a hand of tentacles.

He lunged forward, whipping around and wrapping Draod in a tentacle behind him but he was suplexed into the ground.

Linda lifted herself from the ground, along with the box and Black. The box shaped into a cannon, filling up with air and pointing at the air. She separated the price of the box that she was standing on to fly away and as Black scrambled to leave, the air sucked in and held him down. The cannon fired him into the air and she watched him fly away like a ragdoll, yelling along the way. She grinned but suddenly held her head and said, "don't fight back now! If you take it back we're going to fall!"

Black tried to use the wings to fly and managed to flap a few times but one wing was stronger than the other and only pushed him forward while he felt himself spinning and pointing at the ground at an angle.

Draod held a tentacle in his hand and prepared to take a bite but Black spiked into his back like a spinning torpedo.

"Guh!" Black yelled, feeling his head hit something.

Draod folded forward like paper, feeling a tremendous force digging into his spine.

Blacks horns stapled themselves into his back and spun like a blender, ripping skin and blood out.

Black felt a few broken bones and pains but he activated the ring he swallowed from back when he first met Zeeth in Melanis and healed himself.

"Oh, I'm sorry dude. Hang on, I can heal you."