Death.
Not only from the countless monsters attacking the ship—which does fill me with joy, since they are better off dead—but also from the various passengers on the ship.
This isn't a touristic ship—it's a ship made to transport supplies—so most of the people aboard are workers and not people who went on a vacation.
I expected to see some corpses from those employees whose job didn't require them to fight off any monsters or intruders. But... even those who're supposed to be here to defend the ship are lying dead on the ground as I run to the lower storage room.
Body Strengthening technique: Sharp Claws.
With a quick swipe of my functioning arm, I slashed through a monster that got in my way without stopping my advance toward my objective.
"There are fewer monsters the more I approach the lower storage," I muttered cautiously.
The sounds above me haven't stopped. In fact, they've only gotten worse. Monsters are still swarming the ship by the thousands.
Either the lower storage is truly a safe place, or it's the place I'll call my tomb.
"!!!" With a quick groan escaping my mouth, I stopped running and fell to my knees.
Suddenly, I was attacked with a nauseating feeling. My throat dried up as if I hadn't had a drink in months. My lungs felt as if they had turned into dried fruit with how small I felt them; the amount of air I could breathe in suddenly felt insufficient.
The Lung Expansion technique!
I've been using the technique nonstop for three hours now. I'm overexerting myself.
"Ack! Guh!" I felt like throwing up, even if I couldn't vomit anything right now.
After a straight minute of feeling like I could pass out at any second thanks to the weakened state I found myself in, I finally sensed how my lungs returned to normal.
"I won't be able to use the Lung Expansion technique for now. Maybe I could use it for a single second, but nothing more than that."
I know my limits. I know how much I can do and at what point I can push myself. Any more than what I can predict, and I'll end up in an even more vulnerable state.
"I've got to keep on going. I can't fail Trudeia. That dumb crown will be mine," I commented to myself as I finally felt well enough to continue going.
As I kept going lower on the floors of the ship, the monster encounters got rarer and rarer. What were maybe four or five monsters turned into two or three on a floor. Then into only two. Then a single monster per floor. Until there were no monsters on the last floor.
"The door's... open?"
The huge metallic door that was supposed to block any intruder from accessing the important items was half opened.
The dead corpses of two heavily protected soldiers lay on the cold floor, their blood pooling on the iron as it exited their bodies.
"These two were killed recently, and not by a monster." I crouched down and inspected the bodies. If they died by monsters, they'd be only bones. But no—the corpses were left here to rot.
"Ah... what do I have here? A little rascal that evaded death up until now? You must be strong if you could make it here despite the many monsters in your path."
A vile and crazed voice echoed from inside the once heavily guarded room.
"Why stand out there all alone with the little friends I made a while ago? Am I not someone you want to spend your time with? Come inside, Amagra'ran!"
"You all intruders have an unhealthy obsession with a country," I commented while making my way into the room.
So many weapons. Bows, swords, guns. Artifacts blessed by mages, witches, and sorcerers. And a robust safe with what I think is the crown inside.
"Obsession? YES! How could I not be obsessed with bringing your pitiful, filthy, nightmarish kingdom down!? Why would I not be happy to make your country lose another nation's MOST important item? If my life is all it takes, then I'll give ten, a hundred of them to make your people pay for what you did!" The man, a Taurus with two big horns and an equally strong build, spat out.
"Twenty thousand five hundred! That's how many people your disgusting country has killed this year alone. All my fellow Korailians... killed, tortured, and massacred by your people!"The man pointed a finger at me—a finger that shook with anger and rage.
"You're a Korailian? I'm right to assume that the horse kid was also from Koralia?"
"He was a brave kid... he didn't stand our tests, but showed much more hatred and anger than anyone else. This is what you caused! Kids like him being poisoned by the hatred of a pointless war you caused!"
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I had no involvement in that war. In fact, I was born two years after the Korailian–Amagra'ran war started."
"No involvement... so you're innocent..."
After muttering that, the crazed man rushed toward me, pointing the horns of his head at me.
Body Strengthening technique: Hardened Skin.
I grabbed both horns with my bare hands. But the Taurus' rush didn't stop there—and I couldn't stop it—he kept advancing, pushing me more and more against the wall as my feet slipped on the metallic floor not mattering how much strength I put into stopping him.
"Like hell you're innocent! You live in a kingdom of murderers and you don't care about the people that die because of your comrades, your compatriots! You even work in supplying another kingdom with weapons to kill more innocent people in their own war! You're even worse! You live your life with a clean conscience when you do nothing to stop the ev—"
Body Strengthening technique: Weight Increase.
Before he could push me fully against the wall, I jumped, lifting both my feet while holding onto his horns. I wrapped my legs around his neck and threw myself backward with all my strength as I felt my body become slow with the added weight of the technique.
"Gah!!" The Korailian man gasped as his head fell low to the ground. The horns on his head pierced the floor and caused an abrupt stop to his advance.
His whole body flipped with his horns as the anchor points until his back hit the cold floor. Once his body slammed hard, I could hear the air leave his lungs.
"Just shut up!" I breathed out in annoyance as my body ended up on top of his. With my added weight, it was unlikely that he could stand up. "All your nationalist talk is getting annoying."
I grabbed both of his arms and rested my knee on his chest, pushing and putting strength so he could not escape. He thrashed and tried to get free, but failed.
"Of course a dirty Amagra'ran pig wouldn't care about war! You all live so nicely in your country that constantly ki—"
"I won't say the country I currently live in is any good. I also hate the war these two countries found themselves in. But Amagra'ra isn't the only country fighting. What about the settlement of Pi'chuvia that was gassed by Korailian troops? Or the attack on the city of Grivina? Korailians also killed innocent civilians that hated the war just as much as the average Korailian."
"I have no pity toward your people. You all deserve to be slaughtered for all the pain your country causes to the world! Your people and that Rat Queen that rules your land! She deserves a special treatment to burn at the stake for her crimes!"
"It's truly impossible to talk with any of you," I sighed in disappointment at what being hypnotized and mind-controlled by the high commands of a country can do.
Dying for your country? Happy to offer ten of your lives if it were possible?The people who made you like this probably don't see you as anything more than a mindless pawn to use in their war.
Disgusting! A mission that would serve the greater purpose? Wars in which humans die by the thousands, wars in which men drop their humanity and become a statistic, a number on a paper. Big, grandiose purposes in life. To someone like me, that doesn't matter. Because I'm not someone big.
All these big wars, plans that serve a greater purpose—those are only things people in high positions care about. The average man like me just wants to survive and see the next day, sit down at a table with one or more familiar faces. Deaths in which we have no way to intervene...
I truly hate this world...
I opened my mouth and inhaled deeply, taking in as much air as I could.
Body Strengthening technique: Lung Expansion.
Only if it's just for a second, it's still useful.
---
"Ria, you need any help with that?" I asked a crouched Miw girl, the only friend I have in this orphanage and the only one who's not mean to me.
"Huh, Grey? Mrs. Clothi asked me to start the fireplace's fire. But it's hard for me," the girl with brownish hair tied up in two ponytails commented, her two cat ears twitching when she saw me.
Around us, other kids were also hanging out with each other. Because of the cold climate, not many wanted to be outside.
"Can you help me, Grey?" the girl asked while handing me a rolled piece of paper with a blackened, burnt tip.
"Yeah! But I don't need that, I can do it easier."
"Easier? How?" she asked, stepping to the side and giving me space to start the fire.
I took a deep breath, inhaling as much air as I could.
My chest began to get hotter; I felt the air inside me become different. I could even see a faint glow coming from where my chest was.
Once I felt ready, I opened my mouth and exhaled, pointing toward the wood in the fireplace.
Fire came out of my mouth. It didn't hurt me, but I could clearly feel the temperature increasing and the sparks flying as I sprayed a hot breath onto the wood.
As my breath slowly depleted, I breathed out the last amount I had accumulated in such a short time, causing me to cough up some smoke—a clear sign that I still needed to train it. But the fire started! The wood burned with that characteristic bright yellow-red-orange that fire has.
However...
"Ria?" I asked when I heard the sound of someone falling on their butt. I thought it was one of the other kids, since no one knows I can breathe fire. But the one who fell was Ria."What happened?" I asked while giggling and reaching out my hand to help her stand up.
"Get away from me!" The cat girl yelled out in desperation while slapping away my hand.
"Huh? Wh-what happened, Ria? S-sorry if I scared you, I forgot you also didn't know about i—"
"I was willing to be your friend despite you being a freak Reptilian with horns, but you also breathe fire!? Get away from me! You burned me!" Ria—my frie… no, who was once my friend—yelled and looked at me with a fearful expression.
Suddenly, she started crying, and other boys and girls came to her rescue. They surrounded her and got between us.
"We saw what you did, you horned monster!"
"You burned her hand!"
"Ria, we told you he was not a good guy!"
That and many more were the things I heard being commented.
---
A memory from the past? Right now?
What was I? Eight? Nine? I don't exactly remember. The only thing I remember was that I left the orphanage not long after.
"Hack, hack!" I coughed up black smoke onto the burned, melted corpse of the Taurus man under me.