Chapter Sixteen

Carson cursed for what felt like the thousandth time as he flew through the air backward.

Dammit, just how far am I going to be sent anyways.

The thought of Sarah facing that creature alone made Carson's skin crawl.

He knew that every second wasted flying through the air gave him less time to save Sarah from the Death Stalker. His mind went into overdrive as he scanned behind him.

In less time than it would take to blink, he formulated a plan from the surrounding area.

His foot kicked out, hitting a stable looking tree, which changed his trajectory. The tree made a cracking sound and broke in half from Carson's foot, leaving a considerable deep footprint behind in its bark.

He spun himself midair before crashing into a cliff side. His feet had a blue aura coming out of them before hitting against the cliff side embankment. The cliff side crumbled from the impact leaving a massive crater where he landed. Carson hadn't just stayed idle, though as soon as his feet hit the rock cliff , he launched himself off, sending even more rocks to fall and clatter against the ground around him. His body shot through the air like a cannonball heading back in the direction towards Sarah.

Sarah, just hold on. I'm coming for you, Carson thought as his body shot through the air. He groaned when he felt his legs ache and throb from the landing. If he hadn't put soul energy into his legs before impact, Carson would have broken every one of his bones in his legs to pieces. The downside to using soul energy was that the person wouldn't move anymore when all of it was exhausted.

Carson had a tremendous amount of soul energy at his disposal. Still, even he had used nearly half of his with that landing.

Damn, I'm not going fast enough, Carson fretted. He knew Sarah had tossed him far faster than he was currently going.

His foot raced across the ground as he started to descend from his flight, not losing speed as he continued to push himself forward.

"I need to go faster, " he snarled to himself as the scenery around him blurred by him.

He slowly poured soul energy into his legs, making him gradually speed up as he did so.

The only problem with using soul energy in this way was that even though you could make yourself stronger and faster, it wouldn't reduce the stress it puts on the body.

Researchers had discovered two ways of using soul energy. The first was what Carson had done to soften the blow with his landing, which involved covering his legs in power like a barrier. The second method was to increase an individual's power output of their limbs that they usually couldn't achieve independently.

Carson felt his muscles tear as he put more soul energy into his legs.

He winced in pain but just gritted his teeth and kept up his perseverance.

Sarah, I will not lose you, so you better not die, Carson thought through his pain.

His thoughts went to Sarah facing against the Death Stalker alone again, and he decided he couldn't afford to hold back any longer.

He started to push the soul energy into his legs as fast as he could. He put on a massive burst of speed, and he flew across the ground, looking like a blue blur.

He felt the bones in his legs start to crack, and he could feel liquid rolling down his legs.

He knew his legs were bleeding from the overuse of his soul energy, but he couldn't care less about his body at the moment.

H took out one of the white pills he kept in his pocket and swallowed it.

There was no way he could allow his legs to give out on him before he managed to save Sarah. He felt his legs heal almost instantly just to be ripped apart all over again. His leg kept recovering and getting damaged repeatedly as he sprinted towards the girl he thought of as his daughter.

He cursed when he mentally calculated how long it would take to get back to Sarah at the speed he was moving.

Dammit, at this rate, it'll take me a little over two minutes to reach her, Carson thought in dismay. He understood better than most that two minutes in a fight felt like an eternity, and she had already been fighting the Death Stalker for a while after he got shoved away.

A memory of a conversation he had with his comrade back in the early days right after the Nova Wave surfaced in his mind.

"William, someday you too can be as strong as I, " said a masculine voice.

"Desmond, you know I don't like that name, and we're supposed to use our hero names out on the field."

"And here you are calling me, Desmond, " Desmond replied coolly.

"Yes, but you know how silly it sounds, calling you that?" Carson retorted.

"I don't know what you mean; my hero name is perfectly suited to me, " Desmond said, snapping his finger. A small explosion appeared between him and Carson no larger than a firecracker.

"Yes, but why Bang Snap? why not Finger Snap, or Explode Your Ass? anything would have been better than what you chose, " Carson argued.

"And what about you? do I start calling you The Reaper or continue calling you Death Blade?" Desmond inquired in his deep voice.

"You know I've grown a liking to the name the media gave me. The Reaper has a good ring to it, " Carson said, displaying the demonic smile that had allotted him the name in the first place.

"We've gone off-topic. I was about to tell you how to become powerful like me, " Desmond said while combing his fingers through his hair.

"Not this again, " Carson grumbled.

" You're going to spew that bullshit about finding that, certain someone that you'd protect, even with your own life, aren't you? That's never going to happen; my life will always come first in my book, " Carson said, rolling his eyes at his comrade.

" I find that interesting you'd say that, considering you're getting married soon, " Desmond replied, frowning.

" You know who I'm getting married to, right? The last thing she needs from me is protection, " Carson responded with a chuckle.

A small smile appeared on Desmond's face at the thought of someone stirring up trouble for Carson's fiancee.

"Maybe your right on that one, " Desmond chortled.

"But someday you will find that somebody that you will want to protect, more than anything else in this world, and when that day comes, you will experience true power, " Desmond said in a serious tone that brook no arguments.

Carson thought about what Desmond said all those years ago.

Would I sacrifice my life for Sarah? Isn't that what I'm doing? Going up against a Death Stalker is suicide even for the most powerful of heroes, and here I am racing off to my inevitable demise, Carson reflected.

"Well Desmond, you were right. I have found that someone; I just hope I'm not too late, " Carson mumbled to himself.

Carson didn't feel any changes to his body though he still felt the same power flowing through him like always.

He knew his friend was just messing with him; Desmond had always been powerful from day one. Nothing could slow the man down. He was an unstoppable force that sent waves through the hero society even to this day, and he died over a decade ago now.

Carson was about halfway back when he heard a gut-wrenching scream echo across the terrain. He knew right away that it was Sarah who had just screamed. Several emotions hit Carson at once, relief, hope, dread, anger, and then blinding rage, and his blood started to boil from his hatred of the creature who would cause his! Sarah pain.

There's one last technique Carson knew he could use to save Sarah's life, but it required him to use his life energy.

He never used his life energy before because of the strain it put on the body. He found the idea of self-sacrifice meaningless.

Until today that was, now, he was willing to do anything to protect Sarah.

So what am I hesitating for then? Carson thought to himself angrily. He heard another howl of pain and decided he couldn't take it anymore. Carson concentrated on his heart, his pulse, and the blood running through his veins. He willed his heart to stop. The heart continued beating for a while before slowing until finally, it stopped beating with one last thump. He put a hand to his chest and poured soul energy into his heart. He didn't stop until he had almost completely emptied his reserves.

Carson could feel his speed diminish drastically as he poured his energy into his heart. Now concentrate, Carson thought to himself, knowing that his heart could explode if he made a mistake on this next part.

He willed his heart to begin pulsing again but slowly at first. His heart started beating again, but instead of pumping blood through the veins, it pumped liquid yellow energy, also known as life energy. Carson felt power flow through his body like never before. His eyes changed colors from a dark blue to a light yellow color as life energy flowed throughout his body. Only a few seconds had passed since he began condensing his soul energy into life energy, and he was worried about Sarah's well-being. Sarah, I'll be right over, Carson thought right before putting on a burst of speed.

His body shot across the ground, and instead of looking like a blue blur, he looked like a yellow bolt of lightning shooting across the earth. In less than a second, Carson was already in the plain Sarah, and the Death Stalker was currently fighting. The plain looked like a meteor shower rained down upon the landscape, but that wasn't what Carson was focusing on at the moment, for his eyes were locked on the Death Stalker that currently had Sarah's broken arm in it's, torturing her. Carson gritted his teeth in anger at what he witnessed. He had never heard of a Death Stalker torturing their victims before. They usually just killed them without mercy.

Carson's sword flashed in front of him, and the next moment he was right before the Death Stalker. His body moved across the distance as time seemed to come to a standstill. Everything was moving so slow to Carson that it appeared that time stopped. "Get your fucking hands off her!" Carson roared as he rammed his sword into the creature's chest, using his forward momentum to add to the thrust. The blade sank an inch into the chest of the beast before making a resounding thud and launching it through the air at high speeds.