Testing Capabilities

“Is that really all you’ve got? I seriously expected more, kid. Didn’t you just kill an entire squad of trained soldiers?”

I was already seriously wounded, even though the fight started less than a minute ago.

I immediately took multiple sharp needles made of stone in my lower body. They pierced right through my kneecaps. There I was, kneeling before her, coughing up blood.

I imagined a more orthodox training method than whatever she’s doing right now. We just drove off and she kicked me out of the car in the middle of the road. During the entire drive, she quoted verses from some holy scripture I’ve never heard of. And now this.

“If you can’t even survive this, how will you manage against actually aggressive spirits? Pretty soon, hell on earth will descend from that hole in the sky, and all of us will be forced to fight. No matter if you want it or not, this is now your responsibility. You’re the first line of defense against the spirit realm, welcome to the job.”

She reached out her hand, only to pierce mine with a spike of earth coming from the ground.

“Did you really believe I’d touch you in that state? I’m not stupid, you know? Come on now. Fight back already, I haven’t exercised yet today.”

I felt the same surge of old memories as the first time it happened, and my vision slowly blurred once again.

No. Not this time. This only proves her point, no matter how brutal she is in her methods. I’ll show them all. Wait… Why am I even doing this? Don’t I need this to finally end? All this constant fighting seems to have broken something. I can’t help but want to kill her.

Tear her guts through that white dress of hers, painting it red. What’s even happening? She has to die. Really? Wasn’t there enough blood already? No? There’s nothing I can do then.

I felt my body’s temperature rapidly falling below zero. Yet I still managed to move just fine. Was this it? Had I finally gained control?

White. Snow everywhere. I can feel them right around here. If only I could go looking, I can save them. But I can’t move.

I instinctively raised my right hand and slowly stood back up. My wounds weren’t quite healed, but I could still somehow move. There was no sensation in my limbs at all. Something else moved them by itself. Above me, a large sphere of ice slowly formed.

Matsumoto was nowhere to be found, though. My vision flashed between snow and the actual road I stood on. I barely held on to control. I clung to it as hard as I could, but still it wasn’t enough.

Suddenly, the ground below me gave in. I began falling down a seemingly endless pit. That must have been her handiwork, too.

Spikes decorated the inner walls of the hole, making it impossible to just climb out. As I landed, I felt multiple of my bones crack. Usually, it would hurt like hell. Right now, however, I felt nothing but the urge to spill blood, no matter whose it was.

So I did.

My view finally stabilized, and I could see that wild beast standing on the edge of the hole.

“What will you do now? Really? Is that the path you’ve chosen? I’m sorry, but you’ll die on my terms, and on mine alone.”

An immense pressure pushed me to the ground, as the sky came closer again. She had lifted up the cavity she caused to teach me a lesson.

The blade I formed out of ice barely managed to penetrate the outer layer of my skin before the ground itself began consuming me. I was fixed to the floor once more.

“I brought some friends with me, just for you. I’m sure you’ll manage just fine, but if not, at least I’ll have proven that I’m right to your father.”

The restraining layer of earth around me slowly became brittle from my struggling and the sudden drop in temperature. All I could hear were surreal noises from above. Before I fully managed to free myself, however, something else struck first.

I could feel my restraints disintegrating from two claws burrowing into the ground. As I rose from the ground, a giant centipede was crawling toward me.

“What will you do now? Fight? Otherwise, a fate much worse than death will await you, that much I can promise. This one’s bite won’t immediately kill you, not based on my experience at least. Now do your job.” Matsumoto was yelling at me, floating above the ground on a slab of earth slowly disintegrating.

The centipede dashed towards me, readying its fangs to bite at me one more time.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Matsumoto yelled, now standing on the roof of the nearest building. “Don’t try to run.”

I mustered up all the strength I could gather at once, but nothing happened. I barely dodged the centipede’s first attack, and its legs strafed my stomach while still charging in the same direction.

My blood began flowing again, and my temperature normalized.

I immediately knelt down from the piercing pain in my legs. The centipede readied itself for another charge. This time, I couldn’t possibly dodge.

My vision began blurring again, shifting between a snowscape and a large pile of rubble. My arm reached out towards the centipede as I felt its massive legs crawling at me.

An unimaginable pain filled my right hand, as the centipede began gnawing on it, twisting and turning around it until it would inevitably rip it off. An intense burning sensation shot through my nerves, and I let out a scream of pure terror.

What did I get myself into? This isn’t what I wanted. This thing won’t give me the sweet release I yearn for.

The feelings throughout my whole body began fading again, as I felt the freezing cold crawling out of my heart, strangling the centipede in a horrid scene.

It slowly gave in to the cold, yet without releasing my arm from its hold. The creature slowed its movement by the second, until its exoskeleton eventually cracked under the cold.

I tore out my arm from within its mouth cavity, and miraculously it was still intact.

“See? I knew you could do it.” Matsumoto jumped down from her observing stance on the roof. “The massive amount of energy remaining dormant from your bond to the spirit realm managed to protect you this time, but that thing was also on the smaller side. They occasionally come wandering from nearby mountainous regions to destroy civilian infrastructure, so you just saved the government a lot of maintenance fees.”

Sure, it couldn’t compare to that dragon, but this was on the smaller side?

“Come on now, newbie. We have a lot left to do today. And don’t you dare pull anything like before again. I’ll tear your limbs off one by one and let you live the rest of your days being fed by a tube if you ever try that again.”