31: Magnetism
"Get out of my way!" Erik roared, and the metal trembled.
With a wave of his hand, a rain of bullets heading in his direction was easily deflected; the projectiles made a 180-degree turn in the air, returning directly to where they came from.
"Argh!" There were choked screams followed by several bodies collapsing lifelessly to the ground.
Without sparing them a second glance, the former prisoner hurriedly stepped over them, focusing on that sixth sense that allowed him to feel all the metal within several meters around him to cover his back as he advanced toward his objective, toward his mother.
'Just a little more, I'm almost there.' Erik felt confidence growing inside him as he advanced further. After all, no matter how many German soldiers stood in his way, it was exceedingly easy for him to dispose of them. Even without the invasion the camp was suffering, Erik felt he could have destroyed this entire place by himself.
Such growing arrogance came to a halt when a blue light projectile was fired in his direction. Erik had never seen anything like it before, and it was only by pure instinct that he managed to drag several nearby metal-laden debris to form an improvised wall in front of him.
A wall that was pierced in an instant.
'What?!' He barely managed to throw himself out of the way to avoid being pulverized.
Clumsily rolling on the ground, Erik crawled until he could get a clear view of his new enemy, a sight that made his confidence return once more.
The Hydra soldier aiming in his direction suddenly met his death when the metal in his weapon twisted, causing the energy shot about to be released to explode point-blank against him.
This time, Erik did give a second glance to the remains of the man. Where had he come from? And what was that strange blue light? His curiosity was piqued, but only for a moment, as a tremor caused by another nearby explosion quickly brought him back to his senses, making him keep running.
He could find the answers to his questions later; right now, he needed to focus.
It didn't take him long to see the thick, tall wall separating the men's prison from the women's, a wall that was now almost completely collapsed due to one of the explosions that had been happening.
Passing through the rubble, Erik sharpened his gaze, giving the area a quick scan. The chaos was very similar to what had ravaged his side of the camp, except here, there seemed to be a much greater presence of his "benefactors." Erik didn't know who they were or why they had begun attacking the camp. The only thing he knew was that as long as they bore the colors of the Polish flag somewhere on their bodies, it meant they were on "his side"—in other words, they were against the Germans.
Therefore, the boy helped them as much as he could while making his way through. After all, the fewer Germans left alive, the easier it would be for him to escape with his mother when the time came.
A time that was fast approaching, he could feel it. He just had to find her, just had to take her hand, and everything would be alright. He would protect her, as he had promised his father. He would save her.
With such thoughts filling his mind, Erik ran across the battlefield, carefully observing every woman who crossed his path, searching for a familiar face, a familiar voice. But with every minute that passed without finding her, his anxiety began to grow more and more.
"MOM!" He finally reached the point where he started yelling at the top of his lungs. Perhaps if she heard his voice, she would come to him—that was his thought.
"MOM!!" His shout, even amidst the jumble of other sounds filling the area, echoed through the place along with the screech of metal.
Of course, the nearby German soldiers noticed this and, without hesitation, aimed at him—a foolish decision that blew up in their faces along with their weapons.
'Annoyances.' Erik clenched his teeth in anger as he dispatched all the enemies that stood in his way.
There was a crash followed by a bestial roar that reverberated everywhere, causing the ground to tremble. At another time, Erik would have paid more attention to such turmoil, but right now, he didn't care—even if the devil himself decided to emerge from the jaws of hell to destroy the world.
No, right now, all that mattered to him was finding his mother.
"Erik!" And as if God had decided to answer his prayers, her voice reached his ears. With bloodshot eyes, Erik spun around sharply in the direction where he had heard her scream.
Despite all the dust and smoke filling the air, Erik was still able to see her, to recognize her. She looked thinner, more fragile, but without a doubt, it was her—it was his mother.
"Mom!" he cried out excitedly, starting to run toward her, nearly stumbling in his haste.
"Erik!" His mother screamed his name once more upon recognizing him, and though shaky, she too began running toward him with excitement. Both were just a few meters away from embracing, from being together again.
But Erik had forgotten one thing, something that should have never left his mind, something he learned when his father died in his arms while their home burned due to the war.
God did not exist in this world.
One moment, his mother was running toward him, smiling, tears beginning to fall from her eyes.
The next, her figure vanished abruptly as something faster than bullets swept past her like a blur.
"Ma?" Erik almost stumbled. Not understanding what had just happened, his feet slowed as he saw the blood-red stain left in the spot where his mother had stood just a second before.
"Grrrrr." The low, guttural growl made Erik look to the side. Under any other circumstances, he would have taken a step back upon seeing what was before him. There, standing on all fours on the ground, was what could only be described as a humanoid deformity—a monster slowly chewing chunks of flesh between its long, yellowed teeth, with unfocused eyes filled with red veins and a blue light pulsing through its irises.
A terrifying sight that could inspire deep fear with just a glance—or at least, it would have if Erik wasn't so numb at this moment, so detached from his own reality that any sense of danger or fear he might have felt had completely shut off.
His emotionless gaze fixated on the beast until he noticed something, until he saw the broken, battered body it was holding in one of its hands.
The body of his mother.
Then everything turned red.
"AHHHHGGRR!!"
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A few moments earlier.
"Damn it!" James growled, and with a swift motion, he pulled his claws out of the deformed skull of one of his enemies—enemies that were now nothing more than corpses at his feet. All around him, the place had been torn apart, left in ruins due to the fight he had been waging against three of the monstrosities Hydra had sent to Auschwitz.
John and his team had learned of their presence in the Auschwitz camp thanks to Charles, and the task of dealing with them had been assigned to the second-strongest member of the team. Meanwhile, the others focused on Shaw. It should have been a simple task for James, if not for the fact that one of the monsters had managed to slip away while he concentrated on the other two, who had turned out to be stronger than anticipated.
"Shit!" Gritting his teeth and furrowing his brow, he began running at full speed, following the scent trail of the beast, the ground beneath his feet sinking with every step he took.
He had been careless, too confident, and now who knew how many people had died because of his mistake.
"AHHHHGGRR!!"
"What!?" James stumbled, not from the gut-wrenching scream but from the screeching sound of metal that accompanied it.
He saw, all at once, hundreds of metal-laden debris begin flying through the air in a specific direction—the very direction he had been running toward.
"Great, now what?" Of course things had to get even more complicated, right? Why not? With a grunt, he took a stronger step than the previous ones, launching himself into the air, crossing the distance between him and his target in record time, giving him a much clearer view of what was happening.
"Huh?" What greeted him, of course, was not what he expected. Sure, there was blood and some bodies, but the most surprising sight was seeing his target being struck by hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of metal debris from all directions at high speed.
Had Charles's sister arrived? No. James dismissed that thought as he looked at the mess around him. Although it hadn't been long since Cassandra joined the battlefield, she had learned and adapted quickly, managing to master her powers well enough that she wouldn't make unnecessary moves like the one James was witnessing now.
After all, it didn't matter how much debris you hurled at one of Hydra's monsters; their bulletproof skin would treat them as mere nuisances that would only serve to delay, not defeat.
Cassandra knew this, and therefore she wouldn't waste her energy like this unless she had no other option, and James doubted that such a weak monster would corner her to that point.
So, he focused his gaze along with his superior senses and soon found the culprit, causing him to raise an eyebrow upon seeing him.
One of the prisoners? And a young one at that, one who seemed blinded by rage. James, who was still in the air thanks to his previous great jump, looked attentively at the concentration camp. If the boy kept using his powers so recklessly, he would end up demolishing the entire place before he could even scratch the monster.
He needed to calm him down, so without thinking any further, he used one of the debris flying through the air to propel himself towards the ground at great speed.
"Kid, you have to—" He reached Erik's side, but before he could finish speaking, a rain of metal interrupted him, sending his body flying dozens of meters into the distance.
"Get lost!"
Erik didn't even register the person he had just sent flying; all his attention was on the enemy in front of him, the monster that killed his mother, that took the only thing he had left in life.
With pure boiling rage, he clenched his teeth and stretched both hands in its direction. The metal under his command followed his movements and began attacking the beast, but no matter how many pieces of debris struck it, the monster seemed to ignore them completely, with not a single visible wound on its body.
"DIE!"
"Grrrawww!"
Tired of being relentlessly struck, the monster roared, and with a movement of its hand, the metal shattered and tore apart easily. Then, like a cannonball, it propelled itself forward, breaking the sound barrier in an instant, plowing through everything in its path without encountering any resistance.
Erik couldn't even react to such a high-speed movement.
Just when the monster was less than a centimeter away from reaching him, a blurry figure arrived at his side, pulling him out of the way just in time.
"Damned impulsive brats!" Erik didn't understand the words since they spoke different languages, but he recognized the voice, having just heard it a few seconds ago before sending its owner flying.
How was he still alive?
James was a bit annoyed; sure, the hit hadn't really hurt him, nor had he been injured by it, but no one liked getting struck when they were just trying to help.
Leaving the boy behind him, James looked at the monster, ready to rush in and quickly kill it, but before he could take a step forward, dozens of metal rods surrounded his body, coiling around him like snakes in an attempt to immobilize him.
"He's mine!" Although the metahuman couldn't understand the boy's words, he could grasp the hatred and resentment conveyed by his eyes and tone of voice—emotions he had seen many times over his immortal life, causing him to hesitate for a moment.
Meanwhile, Erik looked at his enemy, who was also watching him, or more precisely, James standing beside him. The immortal metahuman triggered the beastly instincts in the monster, causing it to hesitate in attacking recklessly.
Noticing its hesitation, Erik didn't rush either. Although he still felt the boiling rage inside him, nearly dying a few seconds ago brought clarity back to his mind. After all, how pathetic would it be if he died without at least avenging his mother? He had already failed to protect her as he had promised his father; he had no intention of failing to kill her murderer.
That's why he took a deep breath and regained control of his powers. He had already realized that charging in with blind fury was pointless. His enemy was too strong to be beaten by something like that; he needed something different.
'This is-?' He hadn't noticed before due to the shock, but now that he focused, he could feel it—inside the monster's body, there was metal, small amounts but metal nonetheless.
Quickly, he tried to use it, to pull it out of its body, but the monster wasn't just tough on the outside; its interior was just as resistant, and Erik's attempt only served to irritate it rather than hurt it.
'That's why it didn't fly out of him during my earlier rage.' Even if the metal was inside it, it was still restricted by the monster's own body. So, how could he hurt it?
Erik couldn't find an answer to that question, as the monster, irritated by his attempt to pull the metal inside it, stopped hesitating and lunged forward.
Only this time, Erik wasn't caught by surprise. Even if his eyes and other senses were unable to follow the inhuman speed of the monster, his sixth sense, which allowed him to even stop bullets mid-flight, was perfectly capable of sensing the movement of the metal inside the creature. This allowed Erik to react to its movement, intercepting its charge and sending dozens of pieces of debris crashing into it, forcing it to be violently thrown back.
"Let's see if you can withstand this!" With superhuman effort, Erik controlled all the metal he could, gathering it into several pieces that he sent flying with everything he had, feeding his power with his rage and pushing past his limits once again.
From behind, James watched the battle closely, ready to intervene if necessary. The boy was strong, but his weakness was clear to the immortal: he could only control metal. If he were like Cassandra, capable of exerting her power over all kinds of objects, the boy would have already won. Without a doubt, the amount of force he could exert with his ability was astonishing, but being limited to only metal significantly restricted his forms of attack.
The fight reached a stalemate for a few moments, with the monster unable to reach Erik and Erik unable to hurt it. It was a deadlock that would eventually break, as one of the two would give in due to lack of endurance, and James knew who that person would be.
'Sorry, kid, but I'll have to step in.' James didn't like interfering in others' affairs when they clearly didn't want him to, but he knew Erik wouldn't be able to kill the creature on his own, not as things stood. If he let the fight continue, the risk of the monster getting lucky and either killing or severely injuring Erik would be too great.
'Even if you end up hating me, it doesn't matter.' Flexing his muscles, he prepared to break the metal rods that had him "captured," but before he could, a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
James sensed a familiar presence, and soon a face he recognized appeared in his vision.
"Leave it to me." John, who had come from who knows where, gave James a confident smile before stepping forward and speaking in perfect German.
"Hey, boy! How about using this?" Hearing words he could understand and sensing something flying towards him, Erik turned his head only to find a round shield, adorned with a white star in the center, flying toward him.
'What's this?' Confused, he caught the shield with his powers, making it levitate around him with curiosity. It was metal, no doubt about that, but at the same time, it felt different from any other metal he had encountered before, something he could tell since his powers allowed him to easily distinguish between different types of metallic materials he came across.
After a moment of admiring the shield, Erik turned toward the person who had thrown it to him. He didn't know who John was, where he had come from, or why he had decided to give him the shield. Still, he nodded toward him and returned his gaze to the monster, which was still being bombarded by the metal debris under his control. Despite his efforts, the creature still hadn't suffered a single scratch on its body.
Could he really do something with this shield? His doubt was understandable, but he also knew that he didn't really have any other options. He wasn't foolish and had realized that he wouldn't win if things continued as they were. His stamina was starting to run out, and soon he wouldn't be able to keep applying the same pressure that prevented the monster from approaching him.
'It's this or nothing.' Clenching his teeth, he looked at the shield and let his powers flow through it with all the strength he had left, a thin stream of blood trickling from his nose.
Then, his bloodshot eyes turned toward the monster, and without waiting any longer, he sent the shield flying toward it. The air split apart, and much faster than the speed of sound, the shield—made from the most powerful metal on the planet—flew unhindered toward its target, leaving a trail of blue and red behind.
"Shhhhing!"
The monster saw it coming but was unable to dodge it, as the metal around it coiled around its body like chains, preventing it from moving.
In an instant, the edge of the shield reached the creature, and like a sharp blade, it struck its neck. Without encountering any resistance, it cut through its skin in a clean motion, sending its head flying through the air.
As the monster's body stopped struggling and went limp, Erik smiled. He felt his consciousness begin to fade, and before passing out completely, he sent the shield back, throwing it toward John with a grateful look.
He then collapsed to his knees, completely unconscious, but before he could fall completely, John stepped forward and caught him.
"It's not exactly what I had planned, but I guess it'll work," John thought as he surveyed the destruction around him. His original idea had been to rescue Erik along with his mother, but it seemed that even the best-laid plans encountered unexpected difficulties.
Or rather, no plan, no matter how perfect, could go off without a hitch?
'I'll have to refine that quote before adding it to my diary.'
Shrugging, he looked at James, who had already escaped from his "imprisonment" and had approached.
"Tell me everything that happened."
He needed to know what had gone wrong.
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Note:
Long wait, right? thank you for your patience and understanding.
I debated for a while over the fate of Erik's mother before making a decision, which wasn't easy, but I believe it's the right one. I know it's not what many expected, but I hope you can understand.
Finally remember that You can already find the next chapter (and several more chapters) of this story on Patreon ( patreon.com/EmmaCruzader ) All the support received is appreciated ;D