Chapter 31: Princess
A few hours zipped by. Nox was already getting the hang of that mana stuff. He wasn’t just letting his regeneration skill do its slow thing anymore; he was actively trying to push mana into his aching body parts.
It kind of worked. His leg didn’t throb as much, and overall, he felt a bit more solid, less like he’d fall apart. He even tried to push some of it into his muscles while he ran. ’Maybe this will make me stronger, faster, or something,’ he figured.
He was running through the city, or what was left of it, the map blinking away, supposedly leading him to this princess. The sun was up now, which was something. But as he ran, his brain wouldn’t shut up.
’Why am I even doing all this?’ he thought. ’Yeah, getting strong is cool, no more getting my ass kicked. But is that it? Just so I’m not weak anymore?’
Then he remembered what Ava yelled at him back in the gym. Stuff about him being a pathetic loser, just scared. ’If I’m only getting strong to not be scared, or to get back at people, then she was right, wasn’t she? I’m still that same weak kid inside.’ He hated that thought. Hated it a lot.
It made his stomach churn more than the bad candy bar he’d eaten earlier. He tried to shake it off, but Ava’s words just kept bouncing around in his head, mixing with memories of Mark and the classroom.
’Damn it.’
He was so caught up in his own head, he didn’t even see it coming. One second he was jogging down a busted-up street, the next, a massive car was flying right at him, like someone had yeeted it with a giant slingshot.
’Oh, shit!’
He reacted on pure instinct, diving sideways. The car smashed into a building right where he’d been standing a second before, making a hell of a noise. He scrambled up, heart hammering. ’That was way too close.’
He looked to where the car had come from. Not far off, there was some kind of monster. It was big, ugly, and definitely not one of those gobdogs. This thing was new. And it was fighting someone. A woman, it looked like.