Chapter 54: Not a thing.
A sudden chill enveloped Flare the moment she saw the man’s smile and the dangerous glint in his eyes. Her intuition screamed danger, forcing her to make quick decisions without giving the consequences a single thought. Kicking the floor, she crossed the distance between them and pulled her fist back. The man’s eyes widened and he tried to jump away, but it was too late. The hero’s fist dove deep into his stomach, sending a violent tremor through his body. His cheeks bulged, the air almost knocked out of him, but he held it in even as he went flying into one of the walls.
Watching him drop to the floor, Flare couldn’t help but grimace. She tried to hold back a little, afraid to kill him by accident, but she still had to make him vomit that capsule one way or another.
The tattooed man didn’t make a single sound as he struggled to get up. He kept his mouth closed, ensuring the contents of his stomach didn’t spill out. Though it irked her to hit an opponent who could barely stand, Flare suppressed her emotions and dashed toward him, raised her right foot, and swung it before she could have second thoughts.
TANGGG
An odd metallic sound blasted through the hexagonal room, like a gong had been struck by a blunt object. Flare watched as her foot bounced back, then a sharp pain climbed up her shin like a snake ripping through her flesh and bone. Her eyes spreading wide open, she put strength into her healthy foot and jumped back, quickly inspecting it and confirming that nothing was broken.
"Daaaaaaamn that HURTS !"
Slamming the floor once, the man chuckled, then broke into a coughing fit. Flare turned a stern glare in his direction, but what she saw wiped it off of her face. A brown spot appeared on the man’s right flank, right around the area she had just kicked. It spread out gradually, reaching his back and then his shoulder. In less than a minute, his entire upper half was covered in it, the pale color of his skin now replaced by a lustrous bronze.
Raising his arm, the man slammed the floor again. His strike didn’t cause a faint thud this time. Instead, a loud clang echoed in the hexagonal room, as if an iron bar fell from a great height.
"Damn, bitch!" The man slowly rose to his feet, chuckling all the while. "You really pack a mean punch!" He patted his stomach and his side then turned to face her, a wide, maniacal grin splitting his face. "You tried to kill me with that kick, didn’t you? Since when do heroes kill unarmed people like that?"
Flare didn’t respond, continuing to stare at the man with wide eyes. It was exactly what she had been searching for, yet now that it was in front of her, she found it almost impossible to accept it.
The process to become a Genome was beyond her understanding, but one thing she knew was that it required ample time. It’s not something that starts and ends in less than a minute.