Repping two-hundred pounds, Riley Woods re-racked the weight and sat up on the bench.
Pulling out his phone and looking at a picture of his beautifully stunning girlfriend, he used that as motivation for his next set. And the set after that. And pretty much all of his workouts.
I think she said she liked my forearms a week ago… so, I'll train my forearms extra hard today.
—
"...Your taste in men is very strange," one of Nina's friends said. Inside the packed cafeteria, it was just her and her friends, whilst Riley was at the gym.
"Huh? No, it's not," Nina defended herself, resting her elbow on the table. One of her friends, Jenny, rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, but when we say it's not, you get jealous. Make up your mind; is your boyfriend hot and we can agree, or is he not and we call you strange for liking him?"
Nina turned her eyes away, scoffing. "Well… I guess I'd rather you call me strange for liking him."
"Then that's what we'll do."
Getting onto her phone, Nina requested a bicep picture, which Riley happily, incredibly happily, obliged. There, in just two week's time, Riley had made significant progress, not just in strength, but in hypertrophy.
Even if his training style wasn't suited to hypertrophy, he still managed to build up a lot of thickness, particularly in his forearms and back, which received a lot of work.
—
As the day ended, Riley left the school. Taking his coat off as he walked with Nina, his newfound size and definition showed itself.
His neck was fairly thick; not disproportionate, but thick enough to compliment his jaw. And, in his tight, button-down shirt with rolled up sleeves, his forearms were the treasure he showed off brazenly to Nina, much to her pleasure.
As well, he had become quite adept as a fighter—nowhere near the level of the veterans in his gym, but certainly more than the average rookie.
Though, this wasn't exactly based on talent—Riley simply needed it more. Rather than taking up martial arts as a hobby, it was very literally life-and-death to him, meaning he studied and practiced even outside of classes.
On patrol as the Red Mist, he would find the occasional criminal and practice his grappling on them. Never actually snapping their arms in half, he always aimed for locks to break bones, rather than chokeholds.
Regardless——
"Wanna get dinner? At, well, the diner? I've got work tonight anyways; I'll just come in wearing my work clothes, walk you home, go back and clock in."
"Sure, fine with me. It's your first step towards paying me back for all the times I've spotted you," Nina reminded him, and Riley crossed his arms with a humble head-nod.
"Right, right."
The drive home was filled with songs, as the two thoroughly dived into their honeymoon phase by playing their favorite love songs. Riley chose girlypop, Nina chose calmer songs.
…
"Nina, welcome home!! It's like I never see you, since you're always off with Riley!" Nina's mom excitedly exclaimed, hugging her daughter. Nina reciprocated before letting go, looking at her mother's curious expression.
"Sooo? What's he like? Anything change since you two started dating? Is he treating you right? I know his mom—I can give her a call if he's doing anything funny, and she'll set him straight! Well?"
"Woah, woah, calm down. Honestly, it really doesn't feel like anything's changed. I mean, our hang-outs are just renamed to dates, and we talk about a bit more than we did before. But he treats me well. I can tell that he's been getting disciplined by his job, though—he's starting to remind me of Layce a bit; he does the same 'customer service' smile she does. Though, apparently they keep him back in the kitchen because he's awkward with people."
Her mother burst with laughter, patting her daughter on the shoulder and sitting down at the table. "That's to be expected—and it's good news! Honestly, I'm so proud of that boy. He's seemed a lot happier as of late, no? And my goodness, the muscles!"
"Woah-okay, I don't need to hear that."
"I'm not saying it out of jealousy! I'm saying it as a compliment; I'm sure you're at least somewhat the reason why he trains so hard anyways."
Indeed, it was about a sixty-forty split. The more pressing matter was that Riley was going to fight against dozens of mass-murderers resolved to rip him to shreds, but wanting to show off in front of his girlfriend was a big motivation as well.
"Just, promise me you're using protection—"
"—We're done speaking!"
Nina got up and stormed off to her bedroom, placing her backpack down and laying down in bed.
…
Taking his opponent's back, Riley put his heels around his opponent's knees, spreading their legs and keeping them from moving too much. His arms wrapped around them like a seatbelt, Riley's exhausted figure breathed heavily.
Though, with his overwhelming VO2 max, he was not gassed.
His partner tucked in their chin, making the rear-naked-choke difficult to perform. Thus, Riley put his arm over their mouth and chin, cranking their head. It wasn't enough to put his opponent to sleep, but it was extremely painful, forcing the tap anyways.
After which, he quickly apologized, and his partner let him know it was alright before getting back to it.
The two continued for several rounds before swapping out and ending the class. After class was over, Riley went to the weightroom and followed his routine.
—
Looking up to the moon, a vampire licked his teeth.
"This is going to be a lot of fun, right Ghira?"
"No doubt."
Before him, there was a skyscraper. Having rushed across the state, Scott Tobey had entered a large city. And, as any good servant of Ghira, he obeyed his master. Within this skyscraper, there were thousands of people staying in the hotel.
A sadistic grin on his face, he enacted on his violence. Rushing around, furiously breaking down the very support of the skyscraper, it happened in less than a minute.
Fervently, explosively, he brought down the foundation—causing total collapse.
The skyscraper came toppling down upon itself, all the while he roared with laughter through the night. The glass, the steel, the concrete slabs and the very skyscraper itself had collapsed. There was no way for any of the people inside to survive.
Clouds of dust shrouded the city, the violent screaming of civilians was drowned by the destruction. And, to which, there was only one survivor.
Utilizing his overwhelming regeneration, Scott climbed up from the rubble, his shrill laughter tearing apart his throat.
Over six-thousand people died in less than three minutes.
And, as he emerged from the dust, he saw the plentiful crowds of people in the city. His nails sharpened like knives, he did not hold back. Unrelenting, he kicked off the ground. With swipes, he beheaded many. With rips, he broke down the fragile human body. With bites, he devoured the very lifeblood essential to existence.
This mass of power was overflowing through him. Crowned as the favorite of the Forgotten King, Scott thoroughly enjoyed his overwhelming strength.
Leaping to a rooftop, Scott put his finger on his chin.
"Hmmmm… whatever shall I do for fun??? Ooh, I know!"
In an instant, Bloodlust was unleashed upon the world. For hundreds of yards outwards, people were struck by the Bloodlust of the vampire. Their minds spiraled, even brief exposure caused them to instantly vomit. Their knees buckled, giving out and sending them sprawling to the floor.
Overwhelmed. It was too much to bear. Visions of death and blood and violence and dismemberment, crushed corpses and the sounds of screaming—seizures were a natural result of the overwhelming darkness.
Some vomited, some cracked their heads against concrete—repeatedly, again and again, to be rid of the torment. Induced suicide.
And Scott enjoyed it.
…
Sitting down at the homely diner, Riley felt a shiver go down his spine. Seeing his apparent discomfort, Nina tilted her head slightly.
"Hm? Is everything alright?" She asked, to which Riley blinked twice, clearing his throat.
"Yeah, it's all good. I'm just getting bad vibes. Last time I was eating here… some people got hurt."
His Adam's Apple visibly moving as he swallowed, Nina's eyes widened.
"Wait, what? My goodness, it's like you still have so many secrets—just how much stuff happened that I don't know about? It was only like, a week or two, wasn't it?"
"I think so. But, basically… I fought a vampire. He was a nasty guy. Talked about how the world was worthless, and that all that really mattered was your own, individual joy. This was before I knew how to properly use my abilities—and it's actually why I took some time off school and went to the police station. He took me out to this diner, we ate, and talked a bit."
"...Wow. Huh. So, if you were to get a rematch with him, would you lose?"
"I would win."
"Well, I'd be cheering you on, so you'd better win. Someone with such a selfish worldview—yeah, I hope you'd beat him. You think you're ever going to get a rematch?"
Saying this, Nina caused Riley to choke on his water. She stared at him, as he used [Drowning] to fix his coughing before looking at her with a dumb smile.
"...About that, there's something going on."
"...Huh?"
"Yeah, so in about two weeks—"
"—Goodness, sorry, I was busy with other customers. You two, please don't get all lovey-dovey in front of me—it'll make my loneliness sting worse. That aside, what would you like to drink, and are you ready to eat? Yeah, you're ready to drink. You two are both getting waters—trust me, I've seen you order enough to know that. Now, Riley, you want a cheeseburger and fries, since it's all you ever bring home, and Nina, you want the chocolate pancakes—am I wrong?"
Layce, not allowing them to speak, used her pattern-recognition and experience to guess what the two wanted to eat. And, she was correct.
"Yeah, that's… wow, that's scary, but yes," Riley clamored, nodding his head and handing over his menu. Nina was in agreement, giving her menu to her older sister.
"Alright, be right back with you. Riley, you working today?"
"Yep. Right as I'm done with this."
"Good—we're getting our asses handed to us back here. You're the best pancake maker we have."
Layce turned around and walked away, leaving the two to resume their conversation.
"Wait, what were you saying? Something about two weeks?"
"Ah… well, not to alarm you, but I'm gonna be fighting in about two weeks."
"Fighting? Who?"
"...Everyone."
"——"
Staring dumbfounded at Riley's answer, which was hardly even an answer to begin with, her brows furrowed. "What? What do you mean?"
"Like, everyone. Every other servant—we call people cursed like me 'servants,' but I'm different because I really, really don't want to serve that douchebag. There's around thirty of them."
"Th-thirty!? What?! What do you mean? You're fighting all of them? Where? All at once?"
Riley shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, good question. How about it, you piece of shit. C'mon, answer her questions."
Talking to Ghira, Riley looked up at the ceiling. Nina didn't hear anything, before Riley sighed.
"Yeesh. I'm fighting them all at once, it seems. But it'll be alright."
"Huh? How can you say that?!" Nina shouted, causing some glances, to which she lowered her voice. "That's thirty people, all at once. Do you really think you can do that? I'm glad you've become a lot more confident—I love that, it makes me so happy to see you smile more—but confidence isn't the same as being an idiot."
Riley leaned back in his booth, drinking a lot of water as a habit.
"Well, I get that. But at the same time, I know what I can do. You saw me on Halloween, didn't you? I killed those guys with ease. The only problem was that the civilians got hurt. He declared me a monster, after all."
"...I guess so, even if that did cause a lot of drama from him dropping your name like that—no. Even still, there's thirty people, not just three. That's still incredibly dangerous."
"But do I really have a choice? To put it all into three words, it's just, 'I can't lose.' I can't lose because I have you waiting for me. Not to mention, I've put in so much work that I can't imagine them being able to defeat me. Please, keep in mind that I know the average servant better than you do. They're all cowards who kill people who can't fight back—it's part of why I'm so angry with them."
"But… still."
"I don't have a choice, either. I'll be forced to do it, whether I want to or not. So all I can do is have confidence in the good, and trust that it will prevail in the end."
"Fine. I… I'll try not to worry about it. Wait, couldn't you also call the police? If the SWAT team comes in, armed with all sorts of guns, that would be super useful support, right?"
Riley was reminded of why Nina was smarter than him.
"Well—yeah. Buut, there's some caveats. Firstly, the servants get stronger from killing normal people. If there's heaps of SWAT officers, they could kill them for strength, which would be troublesome. Of course, I don't expect them to drop like flies, but all it takes is for one person's ability to be related to bombs—and boom, dozens of people die."
"Abilities? Like your own?"
"Yeah. Ghira used my suicidal thoughts and reflected them into my ability. There's a lot of people with violent thoughts in this world—those people are a favorite of Ghira's. So if any of them love to play with fire or bombs, that becomes a massive burden to deal with, having to try and protect the people who would end up shooting at me."
Layce came over with their food, serving it to them. Riley began eating, and he chuckled.
"Plus, let's say we have kids—or, goodness forbid, it's not us, but I have a kid eventually. Would I rather tell him 'daddy took on thirty men with the help of a whole SWAT team,' or 'daddy beat the shit out of thirty men solo?' Yeah, the answer's obvious."
Simply put, it was for as much "aura" as possible. Riley would simply feel cooler if he did it on his own.
"That's not a good reason," Nina sternly criticized, "doing it for your own ego."
Riley stopped eating, and swallowed. He seemed lost in thought before ultimately nodding his head. "That's true. Then, when I need help, I'll ask for it. Plus, if it's a big fight, the SWAT team's definitely gonna come into play eventually. Actually… hm. Why don't you help me?"
"Huh? Well, if there's thirty people, I'm not sure how good my handgun is going to be against them…"
"Pfft!" Riley laughed, waving his hand. "No, no. I mean, in tactics. Let's stop by the library some time, we can read up on military tactics. You're smarter than I am, and you've got heart—probably more heart than I do. If you can take the things I don't understand, and turn them into things I can, we can minimize the risk of me not coming home."
"...Well, I guess that's not a bad idea. It'll at least let me rest easier, I suppose."
"Then it's a date."
The two finished their food. Once that was done, Riley flew Nina home before clocking in to work.