Ch.12: <Balance>.

"<Balance>.

<Balance> is the unique way in which someone manipulates their Chi Energy. For example..."

She lunged off his back and in front of a zombie which striked at her. She blocked it with her staff and using momentum to her advantage, had jumped up and kicked its head off with her left foot.

When she came back down onto the ground, she grasped the staff with both of her hands and brought it over her right shoulder. The staff extended several meters as she swung again like some sort of professional baseball player, hitting a hoard of zombies from the side and slicing their body in two.

"My <Balance> Ability allows me to shrink and grow The Chi Energy found in Yttrium which is what my staff is made up of.."

Clay heard this and immediately thought, 'In school, she was very good at bojutsu, a martial art style that incorporates the use of staffs in fighting.

It's sorta nice to see that she didn't give that up. Then again, she was someone to try anything back then, wasn't she?'

He dodged a face directed punch from a zombie, and came with an uppercut. Its head exploded and the body flew backwards into a hoard of zombies, halting their movements for a bit.

"Clay, you need to find your <Balance>. I can see in your eyes that you like power. That's good because if you unlock this power, you'll grow even stronger than you are now. You want that, right?"

By now, he knew she wasn't actually teaching him but telling him. He was given the information, but had to make use of it however he interpreted it.

'She said it's unique, so it could literally be anything. I can manipulate rocks, generate Electricity from my nose hairs. The possibilities are literally endless..'

He grabbed the chair behind him and broke it across the head of a zombie. Taking the leg piece of the chair, he inserted it into another zombie's stomach then kicked the end of the stick.

It went through its chest then through another zombies chest, 'killing' two at once. 'Let's approach it like this, Clay. What are you good at again? You're semi-athletic, smart on the low, and love history.

History, you usually think of a word that everything resolves around.

Violence.

Man vs. Man.

Man vs. Creature

War and Death.

Weapons...'

Like plot was in play, a zombie in construction gear approached him. He pulled out a wrench and hammer, cackling as he did. 'Weapons are what made man fear.

Without them, how far would we have advanced? You could say not at all, couldn't you?'

They ran at each other, this Zombie acting human-like as well. It swung their right hand which held the wrench. Clay ducked and moved to the left of the swung arm, grabbing the crusty wrist of the zombie from beneath and yanking it off.

The zombie had stumbled, but wasted no time in pivoting on his left foot, the hammer going towards his cranium. Clay was struck, and the hammer lodged itself into the side of his head.

Like nothing happened, he swing with a right hook and knocked the head off the zombie's neck.

Pulling the hammer out his head, the wound then started regenerating.

'If I could learn how to use weapons and such, I'd be some sort of God on the battlefield. Like deadpool. Yeah, I could be exactly like him..'

Deadpool was Clay's favorite 'hero' and actually inspired Clay to dwell into immortality.

When looking at the hammer, he felt a connection.

Like it was second nature, he knew what to do with it.

Dribbling small amounts of Chi Energy into the hammer caused it to transform. The face and claw of the hammer straightened out while becoming slightly longer. The handle, shrinking in length, but remaining the same width.

A beam of light emerged from the top of the hammer, forming into a rectangular light with a triangle-like end.

'A sword...'

Clay's first thoughts when looking at the 2 foot sword in the palm of his hand. It's apperance was that of a sword from medieval times, but with glowing, silver Energy as a blade.

'With a weapon in hand, I feel...<Balance>.

He grasped it with both hands and held it out in front of himself. 'I can...I can...'

Unknown information started popping into his head.

'I can infuse objects, beings, or powers with Chi Energy, empowering and energizing them to allow me to manipulate their qualities and efficiencies..'

His body rotated to the left instinctively as a zombie jumped passed, Clay slashing diagonally at its back which cut it in half.

He felt as though hes used a sword a million times before. It really was like second nature to him or so it seemed.

"Is that it, Clay? Your <Balance>? You can Infuse Chi Energy into things?" Jasmine yelled across the room.

"Yeah, it is.." She then smirked and looked up at the board members. They didn't plan on it going this far.

They allowed an a ability user to harness their power for a brief moment all while developing their Balance.

'The bastard's child has grown too much is so little time. His rate of growth should be impossible with so little information about Chi Energy and what it truly is!'

The man stood up and stretched his arms out to the side. "My fellow comrades...!" The other board members, distraught by the onslaught a single man could do to zombies, looked towards him but never took their eyes off Clay.

"Are we really just going to sit back and watch as all our efforts go to waste?! No, we won't! We may not be at our full power, but we can still come together and rise against forces like him!"

He placed his hand over his heart and bowed. "We plan to take over Silver City, don't we? Let's not stop here then. Let's go even further and prove that even if he gets the power of God, destruction will make him quake like all others."

This gave the board members some hope and so, they stood up on two feet and then, looked towards the dark, and dingy corner of the room.

"Lady Death. Would you please help us one last time?"

Emerging from the shadows was a woman. Tall, beautiful, white curly hair and pale white eyes that was in perfect harmony with her pale white skin.

She wore a black bikini, black garters and black sleeves that stopped just at her forearm, a black cloak and black heels as well.

"Help you fools again~...?"

Her voice echoed throughout the room. Upon hearing it, Jasmine froze and Clay turned around. 'Woah...' He thought, starring at the woman who stared back at him.

Her red, juicy lips, those black nails,...

Everything about her was alluring and sexy.

"Why should I~...? The boys clearly won, hasn't he?"

She placed her hand over her mouth while licking her lips. The Scythe on her back that reflected Clay's face made him snap out of it as he saw how horny-looking he was.

"But..but you must-..!"

His head plopped off his body, a fountain of blood coming out from his neck.

The board members screeched and backed away as Lady Death licked the blood from her scythe.

"Oh, did you guys hear something? Sounded like something other than a Yes or No answer, didn't it?" She giggled then said,

"Raising your voice? Demanding I MUST do something? These are all sinful acts that can't be forgiven. You've involved yourself with Death. Something like this is expected, isn't it?"

She put her hand out and a black aura coated it. "That boy,...I can tell he'll be somewhat powerful in the future. So for now, I'll continue testing him and seeing just what he can actually do.."

One by one, she pointed at the board members. They collapsed onto the floor, unaware that this moment was their last.

Now with 27 dead bodies lying around her, she started moving her hands out in front of herself like she was caressing a ball. The black souls in the dead bodies would shine and she would see this.

The black tennis ball shaped orbs then came out the mouths of the death bodied and flew into the now physically manifested basketball shaped black orb she had in front of her.

That caused it to enlarge, grow bigger and bigger until the entire room became completely dark.

'What the hell is all of this..?' He saw red orbs appear in the air, then fly in the direction of where he previously saw that woman.

They'd fly into darkness, disappearing from his sight, but then, seeing something completely different made him frown.

Swirls of red and black, mixing together and floating up into the pitch black. 'I'm not a psychic, but that thing radiates evil. Much more than that woman too. Crazy..'

He then heard footsteps come up to him which prompted him to look towards his side. "Thankfully your sword acts like a lightsaber. Even with my enhanced senses, I can't make my way through this darkness.."

She grabbed onto the corner of his shirt, her staff shrinking as well. "Lady Death... We don't know much about her, but what we do know is that she can manipulate the Dark Chi Energy of things Evil or Negative. Since she feeds off negativity, she'll never be without power as.."

Jasmine was implying that everyone has hatred which is true, but... "What about...oh, I don't know, making her fall in love? What if she finds something she loves or even likes just a little bit? Would her powers dwindle or..?"

"Oh, uhm...I'm...not sure actually. It might work, but one person may not do it, y'know?"

"Yeah.."

Even Jasmine could understand that Lady Death was beautiful. That's why she wasn't that surprised with his question. "Do you know what she's doing now?" He asked, shaking because he felt death tickling him.

It was like he was human again. The fear of death, the rush and adrenaline going through his head. 'I've felt death before, but this...this is worse..'

"No. She usually never displays the same powers twice unless it's the zombies. It's a smart tactic honestly."

He nodded and said nothing more. The ball of black and red then started illuminating red rays of light, lighting up the room at times and revealing that all the zombies were gone.

From the mixture of colors, two red balls had shown. They were so close together that one could figure out that they were a pair of eyes.

"When you combine the souls of people filled with nothing but greed, you get a monster that stops at nothing to get what it want.."

Her seductive voice filled the room which had then been followed by a deep chuckle.

A loud *THUMP* was made and the ground shook. Clay was able to hear the sound of heavy breathing and low growls. 'Whatever it is, it's huge and probably deadly..' Jasmine then tucked on his shirt to catch his attention.

"I only have enough Energy left for me to stay conscious. And since you have a better chance at surviving whatever it is she's produced, I'm not gonna take anymore of yours.

Clay, you seem ready, but we both know you aren't. That's why it's hard for these words to leave my mouth, but..."

He waved his sword around and a 8 meter tall circular brown ball had flashed for a split second, making him take a step back.

"But....but you'll have to defend us both. I'm sorry, but you have to. You can infuse your energy into me, yeah, but you probably can't control it properly which could lead to me dying if not done properly..."

Light began showing in the room once more and what they saw was something bear like. A giant brown bear with robotic arms.

No, it wasn't even that tall. It was about the same size as a regular grizzly bear.

'It's just that the difference in ability... It's way too large..'

Him feeling like an ant in a lion's den wasn't an exaggeration.

"I...have to fight THAT on my own..?"

He questioned.

"Sorry~... You get the experience though, right..?"

That wasn't enough to make him stay and fight it.

She saw that in his eyes and sighed.

"Fine~... I can't do much, but.... One thing. I'll let you do any one thing to me. That's fair, isn't it?"

His sword beamed brighter and he nodded. "It's a deal. Now go on. If you can't fight, atleast don't get in my way.."

Such confidence intrigued Lady Death. So much in fact that she sat down in a chair made up of bone.

Crossing her legs must have been illegal or so Clay thought.

"Okay, thank you. I...know this isn't the ideal way to rope you into a society you've never knew existed, but...things happened and here we are. In the end, I hope that you'll forgive me..."

"You sound like we're about to die or something.." He got into a <Guarding Stance> and said, "I can assure you, we won't. Protecting those that can't protect themself..." He thought about how defenseless people are and could be.

How defenseless he felt whenever he was hit by that truck.

No one deserves to feel that way.

No One.

"Protecting Those awho Can't Protect Themself.

That's What I'll Do."

Jasmine stared upside his head, processing what he had said, and then smiling.

With a tap on the shoulder, she said, "Good luck. I know you can do it." He smirked and nodded, concentrating on the bear that was as stiff as a board. Like it was waiting on a command to even blink or something.

Lady Death heard this conversation go down and couldn't help but become even more intrigued by Clay.

'Very familiar words there. Interesting...' She stood up, put her hands behind her back, secretly opening her palm and revealing a dead fly.

The fly started to shake and soon, had flew out of her hand. 'I think I'll keep an eye on him for a while..' She licked her lips starring him up and down and then, turned around to only dissapeared into the shadows.

A light shown in the bears eyes and then, a bellowing roar erupting from its mouth. The force of the roar was enough to push him back a few inches and scrape the surface of his skin.

'I won't die, but if I back down or give up..' The bear would rampage and most likely go after people he knew and loved. 'You can't let that happen, Clay! You can't!'

His strength was slowly seeping away and he could tell.

This...is his first and could potentially be...his last stand.

....