The Hero stands up for himself IV

A boy with a large skeletal structure sat on the carpet in the middle of his bedroom. He was bald, which only made his weird skull pop out even more.

His arms and legs were disproportionately long, and he was skinny from malnutrition. This made his bones visible against his skin. All the kids at school would steer away from him because he was scary.

They called him ugly. A freak of nature.

It wasn't until he took advantage of his size and strength that people respected him out of fear. He had locked out his father's terror behind the chained-up door.

Now, unfastened were the chains from their bolts and nails. They fell to the floor with a clang.

The door slowly creaked open and the dreaded memories poured out of the gap. Red light spilled out from the opening and from it, his father's shadow grew across the ground. Getting closer to him.

"No… You are… not coming back. You can't…" The boy whimpered.

***

"You can't… come BACK!"

Hachirou got up and grabbed onto a broken glass on the windowpane of his truck. He pulled it out and stabbed Elijah's left shoulder with it.

Elijah screamed in agony.

-21 HP

Elijah grabbed Hachirou's arm and pushed but Hachirou twisted the glass shard, sending bolts of pain through his shoulder.

"Argh!"

The pain drained his strength.

Hachirou would have laughed gleefully, but he wasn't in the mood.

He could feel his world breaking down. He had to kill Elijah quickly who was the source of his mental torment.

He pulled out the glass knife to get another stab in. Blood jumped out of Elijah's wound when the glass shard left his shoulder.

[You are bleeding]

-1 HP

In emergency cases, it was protocol not to remove a knife from a stab wound until the person is on the surgical table ready for operation. Taking the knife out will remove the external pressure that was staunching the blood flow and the patient will bleed heavier.

Now that the glass was out, Elijah was bleeding faster.

Elijah caught Hachirou's downward swing with both hands. The sharp pointy end of the glass stopped close to his fearful face.

Hachirou held his left hand over his right hand and pushed. He leaned all of his upper body weight into the glass, but the knife stopped a couple of centimeters to Elijah's right eye.

*Alyssa*

Determination washed over Elijah's eyes, turning them green.

Those eyes… Hachirou hated those eyes. It felt like he couldn't win against them.

In his subconscious, Elijah's eyes appeared on top of the chained door. As long as those eyes were still staring at him resolutely, his father's encroaching shadow could not be stopped.

"No! Die! You must DIE!" Hachirou cursed.

Adrenaline flooded Elijah's body, numbing the pain. He brought the glass knife down in an arc, stabbing it into Hachirou's chest.

"!"

Hachirou's eyes bulged out, but Elijah didn't stop. His arm strength was stronger than Hachirou.

He pushed on, forcing the pointy end deeper. Hachirou's face twisted in pain and exertion as he futilely pushed back.

Elijah's strength was reminiscent of Hachirou's father. It was like his late father had taken possession of Elijah's body.

Elijah pulled out his right hand and struck Hachirou's grip over the glass. He struck repetitively, hammering the glass deeper into Hachirou's chest.

Intense heart-breaking pain pulsed in his chest and spread through his body with every pound of Elijah's slamming. White froth bubbled forth from his mouth.

He then used all his strength to give an almighty push which caused Elijah to stagger back.

However, Elijah stopped resisting the momentum and took several steps back.

'For Alyssa!'

Elijah did a running jump and smashed into Hachirou's chest with a flying kick.

The glass shard pierced his heart.

Hachirou smashed into his truck with his back, breaking the window of the passenger side, and slid down against the truck to his butt. His head bobbed a bit in a daze before he hunched over unconscious.

[Quest completed!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

'A double level up?'

"Ahhhh!"

Elijah turned around and saw that a woman was screaming at her doorstep. It was the same house that the older brother came out of. She then ran back inside.

Elijah opened the status screen, but he could still see Hachirou in the background.

He slowly walked over, worried that Hachirou might surprise him but nothing happened.

He placed his two fingers onto Hachirou's neck to feel a pulse.

There was none.

He heard what he presumed to be the wife's cries exiting the house and running over.

Elijah felt dread wash over him…

[New quest is available]

Elijah would normally be happy to receive this notification, but the atmosphere was too disheartening.

'Not now…'

He dismissed the text box.

He moved his fingers around to find a pulse and checked the other side, but the result was, unfortunately, the same.

Although it was self-defense, he didn't intend to kill the man. Hachirou was so strong that Elijah couldn't go easy on him, but Elijah felt like this terrible fate could have been avoided.

He suspected the husband had abused the wife, but he wasn't a fool to think the wife would assuredly be happy that her husband had died, even if he was toxic and violent.

Elijah could hear her hurried footsteps. He slowly turned around with a glum face, prepared to tell her of her husband's unfortunate death.

*Thwump!*

To his surprise, she bumped into him and cried.

The woman was a couple of inches shorter than him which was strange considering the difference in height between her and the man.

She was crying so hard that Elijah felt sorry for her and held her in his arms. It was like hugging his mum.

Elijah thought she must have suffered for so long under her husband's abuse.

-1 HP

Elijah felt a dull pain becoming sharper in his stomach. He looked down to see what was wrong.

There was a knife sticking out of his stomach.

And the crying woman was holding the wooden handle…