Chapter 1 - Death of a Prodigy

Being at the wrong place at the wrong time. That's all this was. It was just my terrible luck that had led to this.

I ran and ran, my heart felt like it would burst out my chest. As I ran, I turned around to see that two people were chasing after me. This however, was a mistake on my part as it stopped me from noticing that the direction I was running in led to nothing but a dead end.

'For goodness sake... how unlucky can I get?'

"I'll take care of this one, you get rid the corpse. Meet me here when you're done."

Nodding, one of the men ran back while the other made his way towards me. Once he was close enough, he threw a punch at me. Knocking the wind right out of me, my body collapsed onto the floor as I began to vomit.

'The hell? Why does it hurt so bad??'

I crawled back, using the wall prop myself up. My mind had gone blank, I was at stage where I couldn't think straight. My only goal was survival. But unfortunately, I had never been in a fight.

I had never been taught how to fight. In fact, watching these two men murder that other person was the first time I had really seen anyone fight. But for some reason, the fear that had gripped my heart not too long ago was almost non existent.

I raised my guard, it was awful, but it was probably better than nothing.

'I'm gonna die. But, I'm taking this guy out, even if it kills me.'

I had never seen a real punch up until today, so I mimicked the only punch I had ever really seen. I reeled my fist back, but not too far back so as to not leave my body open to attack. I took a step forward, and rotated my fist and drove it into my assailants gut.

The man wheezed a little, clearly feeling the impact. But, somehow he recovered near instantaneously. I didn't let that stop me though, instead, I took a moment to analyse what he had just done.

'The hell? His stomach, he tensed all his muscles the moment before impact. Did that lessen the impact? Or just lessen the pain?'

"Wow, you're better than I thought, but what's with that shitty strength? Your technique wasn't bad at all, but that shitty body of yours is holding you back."

Despite what he said, the man raised his guard this time, clearly more wary of me.

Then, he threw another punch with his right arm, this one was much faster. But, it seemed like it lacked the power of the initial blow. If anything, it didn't seem like it was even trying to deal any significant amount of damage.

Shifting my body to the left, I tried dodging but his fist grazed my cheek, scaring the shit out of me.

As if knowing exactly how I'd react, the man sent his left arm into my right side, hitting the top left of my abdomen. I flexed my obliques, attempting to mitigate the damage.

But, immediately after the blow my entire froze. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe.

Somehow, it hurt more than the first blow he had landed. Clutching my side, I sank to my knees, quite honestly trying to relearn how to breathe.

The man grabbed onto my hair, and made me look at him.

"Hey. You can do better, I know you can. That punch you threw, it was good, especially considering that body. You gotta be an ex-boxer far out of their prime with a kick ass teacher at that."

I looked at the man, meeting his eyes.

"Teacher? I just mimicked what I saw you do."

The man's widened, both in horror and excitement.

"You can copy. You can copy. You can copy. You can copy. You can copy. You. Can. Copy."

The man let go of my hair, and my face fell to the ground.

He pulled a cigarette out as rain began to fall, lighting it, he took a puff before exhaling.

"Didn't think I'd meet someone like you out here."

Catching my breath, I got up, leaning against a wall, trying to buy time to recover.

"Someone like me?"

"A prodigy with the copy ability. The ability to copy, in the history of our group, I only know one person who's had that ability."

Then, he kneeled, and pulled out a knife.

"I almost feel bad."

He spoke with an almost pitying tone, he had let his guard down.

Then, I moved quickly, my legs wrapping around his shoulder joint and my calves pressing on his throat as his arm was forced between my legs

My hands wrapped around his right wrist and forearm, then the grip I had made using my legs tightened around his torso further as I pulled his arm towards me.

"You aren't the only person I saw fight today."

"Crazy fucker, to think you'd try an arm bar. What's your name?"

But, to my genuine confusion, the man was still in the same position as before. Despite having an entire human latching onto his arm, he didn't even feel the weight.

"It's Azrael, you monstrous fuck."

The man stood, but I could feel it, his joints couldn't handle this.

"You're great, you know that? Of all the moves you've seen today, you used the one that requires the least amount of power to pull off after realising your body was no match for mine."

With one last tug, his shoulder was dislocated.

I detached myself from his body, and mimicked the blow he had done to me before.

'I didn't go for his right arm for no reason.'

I slammed my fist into his upper right abdomen after pulling my arm all the way back to generate more power.

Normally, I wouldn't do this but it was impossible for him to properly guard for now, so it was okay to reel my fist further back than before.

The man clutched his side, he was hurt but he wasn't that hurt.

Before I could plan my next attack, another man ran towards me, the man grabbed my arm and pulled me, rendering me unbalanced. His gripped my wrist, and slipped an arm under my armpit.

Before I knew what was happening, I found myself on the floor with a knee pressing against my throat.

"Get your knee off him, I'm taking him out quickly. Even if I wasn't trying, he did well."

Within moments, my throat was slit. The pain was horrible, but all I could do was reach for the man closest to me.

It was a pathetic and desperate attempt at expressing my hate.