Ability Wielders

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"d.a.m.n! That"s pretty good," Hayden exclaimed happily, forgetting the events of last night already. "Well, I guess there"s still time for me to at least exercise."

Exercising for an hour, Hayden went to take a bath, cook a simple meal, ate for 10 minutes, brushed his teeth, changed into his uniform, and went to school at 6:50 AM.

…..

"I think many more wielders will appear in the future," Hayden was planning on how to deal with the future. "Asw.a.n.g will only be the start. If there really is an organization that planned to terrorize my life, it would be terrifying… If it"s merely one person, that would be for the better… But Asw.a.n.g explicitly stated the name "Kamay ng Lagim""

Hayden only knows that there was something out to get him. He can only wish that his parents would be safe and not be involved in this quagmire of his.

Arriving at his school, he was thinking of a way to increase his combat abilities. Fighting was one thing, but adapting a fighting style would be for the best. Also, Hayden wasn"t too keen on relying on Indestructible Devil"s physical augmentation. After all, Indestructible Devil was his secret weapon and last resort.

Hayden used the Indestructible Devil last night for the reason that he thought he wouldn"t win. He didn"t expect to actually win without that much of a fight from Asw.a.n.g. Needless to say, Indestructible Devil played a huge role on his win.

"Let"s see…" Hayden sat down on his chair, and opened his phone to research martial arts. "Taekwondo, Karate, Boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Kung Fu, Capoeira, Krav Maga, …"

Hayden read out the names of various martial arts that he can learn. He also read out the various weaknesses and disadvantages of the martial arts.

Doing some research, Hayden now knew that all martial arts were originally created to kill during the ancient times. With this in mind, Hayden had three interests in mind, the Capoeira because of its unpredictable moves, the Muay Thai due to its efficiency and usage of the entire body, or the Krav Maga that uses the environment to its fullest while targeting the weak points of an attacker, like the eyes and throat.

After a few seconds of pondering, Hayden picked Muay Thai for the efficiency alone. Krav Maga was more suitable during times where he would kill in Hayden"s opinion. On top of that, he could use Divine Perception and already mimic the effects of Krav Maga. Meanwhile, Capoeira places more emphasis on kicks and continuous movement.

Hayden valued the Muay Thai"s style more as it would put him at an advantage while he used Divine Perception. Muay Thai, also called the Art of 8 Limbs, was a perfect suit for him.

With that, Hayden tried to look for training centers for Muay Thai that will allow him to learn this art. He was delighted to see that there was not far from his school.

"That"s convenient!" Hayden exclaimed as he closed the search engine and returned to reading. He pa.s.sed the day using Divine Perception while listening to teachers again.

Lunch. Hayden was preparing to go to cla.s.s 1-5 when Daniel went inside the door of cla.s.s 1-8. Looking around for a few seconds, Daniel finally spotted Hayden.

Hayden obliged by going to the cafeteria with Daniel. Buying their food, they sat down in front of each other. Finishing their meals, they talked to each other.

"My name is Daniel Luntiang-Dahon, nice to meet you." Daniel spoke with unbridled enthusiasm, making Hayden roll his eyes within his mind. It was not that he disliked people with this kind of att.i.tude, it"s just that people who usually had this type of personality tended to be an eyesore for him.

"I"m Hayden, Hayden Emperador. Daniel, what"s your Ability?" Hayden got straight to the point in a hushed voice. "Have you used it yet?"

"My Ability is called G.o.d Eyes." Hayden was observing Daniel as he was speaking to see if he would lie. "I haven"t used this Ability on anyone, only tested it."

"G.o.d Eyes, pretty domineering name…" Hayden bemused to himself. "Clearly, you weren"t baffled when I said Ability. You heeded my advice yesterday to touch your Origin Crystal?

"I did…" Daniel thought to himself. "I didn"t know that there would be that much information coming from this little object. Who would have thought, huh? I got…"

Daniel recounted everything to Hayden with a smile on his face. Hayden nodded while eating, getting bored as he did know everything already. "So, did I miss anything?"

"Yep," Hayden nodded as he took a sip from his water bottle. "It will give you details of your Ability."

"Wait, really?" Daniel was startled when he heard this, slapping his forehead. "I have been experimenting all this while, and it"s that simple? What"s your Ability?"

"It"s called Divine Perception." Hayden didn"t give away that much details. He still didn"t know whether Daniel was trustworthy or not. "Have you encountered other wielders?"

"No, you"re the first," Daniel shook his head. "It was a good thing I didn"t hide my Origin Crystal that day, or else, I thought I would never find anybody else with it… I was so excited, you know? Possessing such a power. I knew that it would be bad if I told anyone though, hence, I have no one to talk to! That was until I met you, another wielder!"

At this moment, Hayden had a peculiar expression. He wished he had that level of optimism in his life. "Well, I did just kill a person last night… It"s already a miracle I haven"t gone crazy or puked endlessly… Thank goodness for Divine Perception!"

"You want to give details of your Ability?" Hayden asked uncertainly. He didn"t want to trust Daniel that easily, but if Daniel was going to give the details of his Ability, he would oblige by also divulging his own.

"Yes!" Daniel nodded with twinkling eyes. "My Ability is about the eyes, obviously. G.o.d Eyes allows me to-"

Before Daniel could finish his sentence, Hayden stopped him, holding out his hand. "How can you trust me so easily, you idiot! You cannot trust people so easily. You"re too optimistic, jeez. What if someday I was actually a spy for Triple A, or a person that would later on become your enemy? You should think about these things!"

Daniel gulped. He was carried away by his exhilaration of being able to meet another wielder at last that he forgot about this matter. Daniel awkwardly smiled at Hayden, scratching his head from embarra.s.sment. "Yeah, okay, I get you… You wouldn"t really rat me out or anything, right?"

"Why would I?" Hayden rolled his eyes, this time, in real life. "Since you"re so optimistic about this, I"ll go first. Remember this, however, you are not to tell anyone about this conversation of ours. Plus, you should really be more careful, I mean, sure, you trust people and you"re an optimist in life. But it wouldn"t hurt to add a little pessimism into the mix time and again, right? Or, in the least, be cautious about people, eh?"

"Yeah, you"re right…" Daniel nodded his head with awkwardness. He didn"t expect Hayden to give him a lecture. "I promise to not tell anyone this conversation…."

"Okay," Hayden nodded, satisfied. "My Ability, Divine Perception, allows me to process everything around me like a computer. In conjunction, my five senses are enhanced to absolute levels and makes the transmission speed of information between neurons incredibly fast. With that, my coordination, reflexes, and basically everything that has to do with mental tasks, come easily to me. Additionally, Divine Perception granted me a remarkably powerful memory, eidetic memory per se. Consequently, using this eidetic memory of mine along with other powers, I could learn almost anything just by seeing it once, and, if it was described aptly, perhaps create a visualization of it, learning it.

Daniel was shocked to hear of Hayden"s Ability. "That"s way too overpowered, don"t you think? Being able to do all that? Wouldn"t that mean you can also predict people"s attacks?"

"That"s right." Hayden confirmed the entirety of the limits of his Ability. "It will probably be the main component of my fighting style in the future."

Hayden kept Indestructible Devil a secret. This was also the reason why he could confidently reveal his Divine Perception. He still had a secret weapon up his sleeve that he can pull at times of calamities! Other than that, even if you were to be cautious about Divine Perception, what can you do against it? Unless you find someone to block all of his five senses, Hayden could fight even with his eyes closed!

"That"s cool…" Daniel was in awe. Recovering, he explained about his G.o.d Eyes. "G.o.d Eyes allows me to alter the color of my irises. a.s.sociated with different colors are different powers. For now, I have currently discovered nine powers, all related to elemental. Furthermore, I can use two powers at once, allowing me to manipulate two elements."

"You say mine is overpowered, but yours is even more." Hayden"s face twitched. "Goodness, what kind of power even is that? Allowing you to manipulate two elements at once. Tsk tsk tsk."

"Heh…" Daniel was delighted towards Hayden"s reaction. "When we fight, who do you think will win?"

"Well, granted that if you are creative enough, you will win." Hayden relented. He knew that there plenty of ways to kill Hayden with any element unless he activated Indestructible Devil. "If I"m able to read you accurately, and provided that you can"t restrict my movements, I have a chance. Do you need to use actions to use your Ability?"

���Yep," Daniel answered Hayden"s question. "For example, I can summon flames from my hands, but I cannot set anything ablaze except for when I make contact with it, or shoot flames towards it."

"I think I have a way to defeat you." Hayden smirked, simulating a battle between him and Daniel in his mind. "I basically only need to figure out the trajectories of your attacks, and when at close range, I only need to hit a weak spot, like your solar plexus, or your chin, or your liver, or gouge your eyes out with my fingers. Unless you have a way to restrict my movement, or is strong enough to take my attacks, you"re doomed."

Hayden deliberately left out the part of him being restrained by earthen elements as he wouldn"t allow Daniel to touch him using "earthbending," no matter what. After all, if Daniel needed action, that was the weakness, Hayden would definitely exploit that, otherwise, he"d be stupid to think he"ll win against Daniel without using Indestructible Devil.

Daniel shivered at the thought of everything that Hayden said. "You won"t do that to me, right? You"re kind of vicious, you know that?"

"Well, no. I wouldn"t." Hayden spoke to Daniel, rea.s.suring him. "I"m only saying that I have a chance to win if we ever fought, and that if you turn against me, I have a way to beat you. Well, we should be allies for now anyways. You have no one to trust, I have no one to trust, it"s a simple thing."

"True." Daniel chugged from his water bottle. Hayden"s evaluation of Daniel was a person that was more easygoing than him, and an overly optimistic stereotypical trusting idiot that would rush to their friend"s side without a care for their lives, like those commonly seen in anime.

Hayden almost chuckled when he thought of that. Regardless, he forced it down as to not create an awkward situation for himself, facing the question "Why are you laughing?" Also, he still didn"t want to put down his guard. It"s not bad to be too careful, right?

"Lunch is over. Establish a communication link with me…" Hayden asked. In modern times, contact numbers weren"t restricted to sim cards like the old times. With the rapid advancement of technology, as long as one had a phone, they can be contacted using a communication link (3).

The two of them established a communication link and bade farewell. Hayden went back to his cla.s.sroom while Daniel went to the comfort room.

Hayden continued the day, constantly listening to lessons with Divine Perception. When the cla.s.ses ended, Hayden immediately walked home, to which he accidentally b.u.mped into Daniel. They walked home together, with Daniel bugging Hayden over trivial matters, greatly annoying him.

Arriving at his house, Hayden saw that Daniel was his neighbor. With a strange expression, he went into his house.

"How come I"ve never seen him?" Hayden asked himself. Their family has always been close with their neighbors, hence, it was indeed odd that he wouldn"t know Daniel. "What a coincidence… Well, not that I actually care…"

Dropping this matter, he learned another few sets ch.o.r.eographies as he didn"t have the chance to earlier. Afterwards, Hayden took out his keyboard to practice playing it.

Playing the keyboard without turning Divine Perception on, Hayden can still do it. "My speculations are correct. Any memory I make during Divine Perception is permanently stuck in my brain."

Hayden was testing out this theory of his ever since he got Divine Perception. With him trying to recall every lesson, he was able to do so perfectly every single time he attempts to, the exact words of their teacher, along with the lesson taught.

Suddenly, his phone beeped. Checking it, it was from Daniel. Hayden groaned as Daniel said that he touched the Origin Crystal again.

"Idiot, don"t talk about that here." Hayden texted back. "What if your phone is being spied upon? Talk to me tomorrow instead, I have a.s.signments!"

"Oh, yeah, okay, lol." Daniel sent a text with a sorry emoji. Hayden"s face twitched. He felt a huge headache coming in the future. Nevertheless, Daniel will be an invaluable ally in the future, especially with his awfully powerful Ability, G.o.d Eyes. Hayden had high prospects over that Ability. On his line of thinking, he formed a conjecture that when G.o.d Eyes somehow evolve, it will have added powers.

…..

In the underground base of Kamay ng Lagim, six people, one being Black Devil, was seated around a table. Five of them, including Black Devil, emitted an invisible pressure, each powerful enough to suppress the common human.

The last one was a man wearing a black business suit, with slicked back hair and wearing gla.s.ses. He had an enigmatic smile on his face.

"The idiot failed us." Black Devil laughed. "I didn"t have high expectations from him. However, being killed by that kid without putting up a fierce fight is so pitiful!"

"That kid has a clearly powerful Ability," a man in his forties with a rugged gray beard and an eyepatch talked with a deep voice. This man is called Graybeard. "If he was left alone, he would become trouble in the future."

"Right," A black woman in her twenties agreed with the man. The woman wore a s.e.xy red dress, emitting a mature charm. Her curvaceous body was accentuated because of this dress. On top of that, her pretty black face was attractive to the extreme. This woman is called Crimson Enchantress. "We have three choices. Keep surveillance on him like the other two b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Kill him right under their noses. Or recruit him."

"Recruiting him wouldn"t work," a bald, brown-skinned man said. This bald man wore an intimidating face. Along with his extremely muscular build, n.o.body would dare mess with him. This guy was Earthquake. "We have to kill him! He"s clearly a dangerous threat for us in the future. Especially if he gets recruited by any of those two…"

"I think otherwise!" A young man shook his head, disagreeing with the muscular man"s opinion. This young man was pretty tall and handsome. He was a thin person wearing a simple black t-shirt and jeans with a laidback-looking face. This man was Blood King. "His strength leaves people to desire him. Imagine the gains if we are able to recruit him. I suggest we put him under our watch for now, see if the other two organizations would make a move to recruit him."

The five who were discussing was the Limang Daliri (2) of the Kamay ng Lagim. In Kamay ng Lagim, the Limang Daliri were the upper echelon, the strongest wielders. On the other hand, the one with a slick-backed hair was one of the creators of Kamay ng Lagim and financial backer. This guy was treated as the King of the Underworld in the Philippines, dealing drugs, trafficking humans, and many more illegal activities without ever being caught.

He was listening quietly as he couldn"t care less on their decision as long as he made money. He was their financial backer. Any request he had was fulfilled by someone of the Limang Daliri, in exchange to freedom of their own decisions. He stayed away from the topic as this Hayden seemed important to the Limang Daliri.

Of course, as one of the creators of Kamay ng Lagim, he still had to know what their decision would be. They would then list what they needed, in exchange for a single favor from him.

"I will be sending people to look out for him for now." Black Devil suddenly stood up. He was the brains of the Limang Daliri, he didn"t take any action or decision that he thought was unnecessary. Asw.a.n.g was merely cannon fodder for him, sending him to probe Hayden"s power, who was worth to be observed by the Puting Araw and that special group of people. "He is being observed by those two. Because this kid unknowingly showed them his power, they would definitely not allow anything to happen to him. It was my mistake to let this happen. This kid awakened earlier than any of us, giving him more time to master his Ability. If he evolved, it would be disastrous for us. I"ll find the perfect opportunity to strike."

"Oh, come on!" Blood King protested, acting childishly. "Recruit him, I"m the youngest here, all of you are old people. I"m getting seriously bored without anyone to relate to."

"Getting bored?" The bald man smirked. "Want me to beat you up? I"ve been wanting to do that for quite some time."

"Hold your horses!" Black Devil shouted. "You want to kill each other? We are a group, you idiots! We help each other! If you two fought each other, Kamay ng Lagim will suffer great losses. If Puting Araw gets to know of this, they will definitely make a move! We can"t risk losing any of the five of our Limang Daliri… We are barely holding on against the eight Walong Sinag ng Araw (3) of the Puting Araw for f.u.c.k"s sake."

Hearing this, the two backed down, albeit, shooting each other furious glares. "It"s decided then. I"m personally going to send "him" to observe Hayden. Anybody has any qualms about this?"

"No." Everybody agreed with Black Devil"s plan. Black Devil turned to the creator of Kamay ng Lagim. "How about you, oh, Maestro of Death?"

"Don"t call me that." The man said in a joking manner. "You do you, I"m just one of your backers. As long as your interests doesn"t get in the way of our interests, I wouldn"t interfere with you guys."

"Okay!" Black Devil said, relieved. He feared their three backers the most. To be precise, losing their financial and influential power. As for the Maestro of Death"s Ability? Anything he touches dies, a power that is incredibly powerful. If not for the Maestro of Death staying as a Level 3 wielder for all these years, Kamay ng Lagim would have been unnecessary and weeded out long ago.

Meanwhile, orchestrating the death of other people was his hobby, as a result, people called him Maestro of Death. The moniker says it all. Needless to say, it was not only because of this that they called him Maestro of Death, this Maestro of Death was also the most ruthless amongst their three sponsors, and the most powerful in terms of financial power and influence.

"Dismissed." The Maestro of Death said as he stood up. Going out of the portal created by Black Devil. The atmosphere instantly eased up.

"Can"t you just teleport him to the Pacific Ocean?" The black woman mused.

"Idiot, we can"t lose his financial power." Black Devil shook his head. "On top of that, you really think I"m scared of that guy? I"m being careful of the other two sponsors! He"s their leader. Also, his rallying power is really helping Kamay ng Lagim grow, otherwise, why do you think I"d keep them?"

…..

1 Luntiang-Dahon – Green-Leaf

2 Limang Daliri – Can be translated to English as "Five Fingers."

3 World Lore Time: The 7G communications, as said, has been invented. With this, anybody around the world had access to internet as long as they paid for it, and free communication, all secured by the Cyber Guards. As long as one establishes a communication link with a certain person, they would be available to call or be messaged with a press of a b.u.t.ton.

On top of free communication, going off the grid is technically impossible in the modern day as there are signal anywhere. In the forest? Yep. In the mountain? Yep. Under the ground? Definitely. h.e.l.l, there were even underground cities due to humanity soon going out of s.p.a.ce to live in, who actually fares better than normal as they were basically calamity proof. These cities would be discussed in another World Lore Time.

In essence, the Ident.i.ty Number is the basis of every single communication of the modern world. The app called Connector was spread by the World Government and is a must for all people. Why? Because Connector is where people mainly establish communication links that uses fingerprints instead of actual Ident.i.ty Numbers. Of course, you can establish a communication link with people without Connector, but to do so, one must give people their Ident.i.ty Number, which is basically the Social Security Number of modern times. To do so was risky, even when there were a number of laws that protected people from the spread of their own Ident.i.ty Number. In fact, the PDS was also in place in messaging apps, scanning messages for possible Ident.i.ty Numbers and reporting it to the Cyber Guards, greatly reducing that risk. Of course, n.o.body was stupid enough to actually put Ident.i.ty Numbers in messaging apps.

From Connector, there came the Courier, allowing international communications as long as there were communication links between two Ident.i.ty Numbers. The convenient thing for this kind of communication is that even when people switch phones, as long as they linked the Ident.i.ty Number to the phone, the communication link would stay as it was registered in the Ident.i.ty Number Database. Again, to protect people, there were a number of laws in place, in absolutely all legitimate and legal companies, to fend off Ident.i.ty Number links. Thankfully, the society was generally more accepting, open-minded, and kinder than the previous era, and that the crime rate has already lowered to such an extent that it was almost nonexistent, with only a single person in ten million people will have Ident.i.ty Number leaks, and most of those people were big names, celebrities and such. The bad side is that the petty crimes were the mains ones that were purged. A large number of crimes were still being committed in the shadows, unable to be tracked down, or slippery enough to escape even the best investigators, i.e., larceny, robbery of precious objects, Ident.i.ty Number leaks using complex codes that the PDS doesn"t recognize, hacking of major sites with the exclusion of government websites, black market, human trafficking, and as such.