The Real You

49. A Glimpse of the Past

We did our thing. Victor told me which of those monsters were the most scared and I augmented their emotions by solely concentrating on those creatures. I started imagining the worst-case scenarios in my head. And they quickly seemed to catch on to those emotions. The Bull I was hell-bent on destroying started to avoid Lucifer because I started thinking of how he would trap it in a ball of fire and combust it from within. In its attempts to escape Lucifer, it came directly into the grip of Igor and he broke its horns into two pieces. The shock that registered on its face before the life left its body was invigorating to me. The more they die because of the fear I augment, the more powerful I will get.

"You more or less work like them" The Goddess told me, "They feed off on the power of the people they kill. And you? Skylar, you will get stronger with every death you augment"

"The bugs are a disturbance" Rochelle pointed out, "They are too fast. They are not scared either"

"They are excited" Victor stated.

"We can still use that against them" I told my team. I concentrated on the group of bugs moving toward Dylan. They seemed to be walking in a line as ants do. I added more excitement to their short life. I was showing them a scenario of how fruitful Alex's death would be. How they can have every piece of him, every ounce of blood, and feed on the delicious flesh. Their greed was my point of manipulation. As expected, they started moving too fast toward the trial of blood and did not notice the shadows in the vicinity. The fact that I am able to see the shadows means that I am growing stronger.  

Stomp. Stomp. Stomp

Game Over. 

"What is that?" Carter said carefully.

We looked at the opening of the volcano hole. 

"Are those crabs or spiders?" Victor gulped, "I hate spiders"

"They are crabs with legs like a spider" 

"They can electrocute!" Carter said and too late, they sent Evelyn down.

"Oh my God!" I leaned over the railing to see if she was okay.

"Mom is fine" Rochelle said, "They are not too strong"

The shadows pulled the legs of the spiders and snapped them in half. One of our heroes banged on their heads to rupture their brains. The spider crabs started to go down too. But the monsters increased in number. And it has been hours since we started.

"They will need blood very soon." Victor stated the fact, "They need energy. This is too much for them"

Victor kept detecting the emotions and I kept augmenting. But there is only so much we could do from the confines of a bunk.

"I seriously don't know where this is heading" Carter muttered and I cannot agree less.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Alex

"Six hours" I sighed, "They have been fighting for six hours. I can already see the fatigue"

"They can handle it" Morana said but those big, bold eyes betrayed her. She was wondering what we'd do if they succumb to exhaustion.

"Do you think I should join them?" I asked, slowly and carefully.

"No, Alex. For the hundreth time, No! You wont make things better."

I glared at her, "At least, I can do something to kill those monsters"

"And get killed if you fail?" She turned to me and looked me in the eye, "This is not personal. I cannot let those monsters kill you because if they do, even I won't be able to stop the disaster"