Elias's eyes snapped open on a lush bed, his shoulders, chest, and body relaxed, as if a weight had been lifted from them.
He rolled down and sat; his good mood spoiled by the recollection of his condition. His left hand clung to his body in bandages, his fingers twitched but with no good response.
'I'm improving!'
His stump pushed him and he stood; he staggered toward the bathroom. This is where the true struggle began.
Two hours later, Elias sat in a foul mood. That's how long it took to finish something that usually took him a few minutes.
But now it took two frustrating hours to appear presentable. The worst part was cleaning himself properly. He still felt his skin wasn't scrubbed well.
The only good thing was the shower was strong enough to do all the heavy lifting.
Elias shook his head and walked toward a mirror, and he froze. "Who is this?"
He stepped back and came back; he jumped and shifted—it was him in the mirror. "Shit!"
Elias's whole face had changed: his head was a bit larger, his jaw and chin thinned in, his eyes bulged out, and they were also dark ash.
His hair red, his skin red, and his neck was slender and a long, lean, thin body.
As he observed more, his whole body had really changed from what it really was.
'My body morphology has been reshaped. How and why?' Elias was confused. 'Or am I in a new body?'
He shook his head; he knew this was his body—some of his scars were still there.
"What is done is done. I'm calling home!" Elias made up his mind. He stepped out, and a tantalizing aroma slammed at him; his stomach churned with hunger. As he came down the stairs, he saw Sasha watching a video clip, and he stiffened.
Memories from yesterday were fresh when she had arrested him with her dangerous gun, thinking he was going to hijack their home.
It turned out this whole house was a sophisticated relic stone found by her grandparents in the ruins. They utilized some ancient gems to power it, and the whole house flew until they settled here.
What Elias did yesterday had spiked his Talent Energy, and the Gravel Stone that made up the house reignited and almost bound to Elias.
Relic Gravel Stone was a special stone capable of absorbing Talent Energy to function; that's why her lightning opened and closed doors, that's why she could manipulate that dog.
However, it wasn't energy efficient, and whenever a spike of energy appeared, the house reacted.
But later, she calmed down and said even a Rank 3 couldn't take their house away from their control because it was imprinted with their Thunderspark signature.
But he must not repeat that.
"Your food's on the table," Sasha said without looking at him. As he passed her sitting on the couch, he noticed the clip she was watching.
It was of him, at the International Tournament.
He stood tall, expressionless, carrying multiple weapons with him in the middle of a half constructed building.
'I still feel like I overdid it. That's too many weapons. If not for mama forcing this ridiculous design, I wouldn't have!'
Elias recalled that tense, slightly awkward and embarrassing moment. He shook his head; her reasoning was that since I trained hard with them, I must use them.
Elias almost scoffed at it. His coach tried to change his mind, but he just couldn't disobey her.
Elias in the clip was in tight leather armor; on his back was a depiction of a purple Six Leaf Clover. His weapons were two Katanas at his left hip, twin Daggers at either of his thighs, fastened well. His back carried a Scimitar and shortened Spear, and his hand held a Polearm.
And lastly, under his sleeves were short Daggers hidden. What others didn't know was he also had tight String for strangling prey.
'Most people go with a single weapon they have mastered, but I went with 10. Argh.'
"He is great, isn't he?" Sasha said, amazed at Elias's confident weaponry. "They don't even bog him down?"
'Of course they don't; they are light, and also I have trained with them all like this!'
An arrow was shot from an elevated location; Elias twirled the polearm, sweeping it away. More came, and then a bunch of fighters with swords, having covered faces like ninjas, came at him.
With great footwork, Elias danced around them, his polearm leveraging its length and sharp edge as he kept them at bay while also dodging unexpected arrows coming from the sky.
"Amazing. This is amazing. Can you see how he moves?" Sasha paused the clip and looked at Elias. "Wait, don't tell me you are one of them."
"One of what?" Elias snapped at her.
"You are. Your face is filled with jealousy and envy."
Elias's eyes widened. "I'm not!"
"Then why are you frowning? You just snapped at me. Ha! You people can't just appreciate talent that isn't yours. Tsk!"
She turned back to her clip.
Elias used only the polearm in that round, then went to the next and used the twin daggers.
"He is a master of close range and mid range. Who could say they are good at all this? Look how his steps became light, and movement subtle. He just transformed into an assassin." She praised, now squirting on her leg to watch it properly.
'Now that I see this, I'm kinda cool!'
Elias had refused to review the clip of this tournament even after nagging from his coach who wanted him to learn about his shortcomings. Elias only made the coach tell him what he wanted him to improve.
All for the reason of not being confident that he was that cool as others were saying.
"He is going for the scimitar!"
Yep, Elias didn't repeat weapons, and with each one he held, he moved with its tempo and footwork.
'Damn. I'm good!' Elias wanted to run his hand through his red hair but ended up pushing the stump, and that made him sigh.
The last challenge of that round, he used both katanas. He dominated the group of people in just 16 seconds.
"How can someone master too many weapons and even excel at them all? He defeated them in just 16 seconds." Sasha replayed it. "Look how fast he moved; it was like he could predict their movements. Look, these arrows are faster, but he dodged them all. He was pincered now, no way out, and four arrows coming toward him from the back."