Another day had passed, and Tom had to force himself to spend time in his real body. It was often a struggle to watch what was happening without reacting. He was both lucky and cursed by the fact that Kang was in the picture. The larger boy seemed to have a preternatural sense of timing. Most of the time, he was normal and then only occasionally would he slip in lies to confuse Briana; but when he acted the barbs dug deep.


    They were standing around the dodge pits. “Who do you think will do the best in this round. Tom?” Kang laughed like that suggestion was the funniest one out there. “Me, or you, or maybe Briana with her fancy water step?”


    “I don’t have a water step.”


    “But I have a Quick Step, so I must be a reincarnator. Which means I’ll be killed like Ba. Because of you, Briana, you asked, you questioned.”


    “I didn’t… it wasn’t.”


    “I’m not a reincarnator, but the assassins are going to think I am. I don’t want to die.”


    “Kang!” he yelled at the other boy. “That’s going too far.”


    Tears filled her eyes as she struggled to respond. In the end, the fight instinct lost to the flight one. She ran away from Kang straight into her pit, and then froze, uncertain about what to do. She was looking past Kang to the door out of the gym. The combat dummy activated, and she didn’t notice.


    “Briana, watch out,” he yelled.


    To his horror she looked up at him instead of the mass of wood and leather coming at her from the side. It swung hard and delivered a big strike to her midsection. Magic acted to spread the blow in order to limit damage, but she was still knocked out of the ring, tumbling like a rag doll until she came to rest.


    It was not right. Tom felt the rising anger.


    Kang had caused this maliciously.


    He stared at the larger boy with hatred.


    It was his fault!


    The logic centres in Tom’s mind fired. He recognised the signs and the situation and attempted to step into his system room to escape.


    Nothing happened.


    Part of him, the bit that was staring at Kang like he was an affront to reality, didn’t want to go, so the effort failed.


    His fault, he had to pay; the thought reverberated in his brain.


    “Kang, protect yourself,” he growled, doing the best he could to help while dealing with the out-of-control emotions. It was better if Tom lost, because he didn’t know if the unhinged part of him would stop after it gained the advantage. With the enhanced attributes that came with the crazy anger, he knew that he could break bone. There was a real risk of going too far. The stolen words made the pit in his stomach burn brighter. This man, and Kang was a man, despite his body, had been picking on a little kid, using his intellect to hurt her. Yes, he had not physically struck her, but it didn’t make it right.


    It was wrong, unjust.


    The bigger boy had turned to face him, and his posture was wary.


    “Tom,” he raised a hand like one would do to try to calm the situation down.


    A bully who was very free with his damaging words but now wanted to be a coward and avoid a fight. Tom wished he had a spear. A real one. They were useful for situations like this.


    Plus, he had electricity, and he had his fists. It would be much more satisfying to bash the arrogance out of him than to rely on magic. If the physical approach failed, then he would electrocute him into submission.


    “Tom,” Kang warned him again, this time with a more stressed edge.


    That bastard had been negging her all day, and he had caused her to freeze up in the pit. He was responsible for her injuries. There was no time for words. The world demanded action.


    He charged, and was acutely aware of how Kang was standing. The idiot hadn’t even shifted into a proper fighting stance. Tom calculated the angles, and he knew all the specifications of Quick Step. There was only one direction he could go. Tom could predict his ending location to within a few centimetres. Within him, the ball of anger purred.


    He feinted a strike at his opponent’s head and Quick Step made his opponent vanish from in front of him exactly as predicted.


    There was no hesitation from Tom. Everything had been calculated beforehand, and he was already kicking at where he was forecasting his enemy to appear. His kick struck Kang on the thigh with the full weight behind him. Power coursed through Tom, and the bigger boy was lifted off the ground. Clinically, Tom noted that this time his strength must have been boosted by at least a factor of three.


    Tom pounced, moving faster than Kang could recover. The other boy landed on his back and tried to spring acrobatically to his feet, but it was too late. Tom’s fist slammed into his face. Red sprayed. It was immeasurably satisfying.


    He threw another blow, and there was a pleasant cracking sound. He was winning, and would crush his enemy into submission. There was no need to taint the victory by cheating with magic.


    A heavy force struck him from behind and sent him tumbling away from his target. Furious indignation welled up from within him. Tom didn’t understand what had hit him. They had been alone in the room, and Briana hadn’t looked capable of reaching him and even if she did, she lacked the strength to have sent him sprawling away like that.


    The muscles along his back protested the need for movement, but he rose from where he had landed and spun to deal with whatever had made itself his enemy. He immediately saw the problem. There was a combat dummy active in the pit and it had almost thrown him clear; it was like what had happened to Briana. If that had happened, it would have reset the fight. Tom was glad its sucker blow had partially failed. He had payback to deliver.


    Red filled his vision. His logical mind recognised that Kang had activated the duel before he had attacked. Kang had been knocked into the ring by the kick, and then Tom had followed. The dummy wasn’t interfering as such and just doing what it was supposed to, but the red haze was in full control.


    The original object of his ire was forgotten, and he charged the dummy. He screamed in fury and swung his fists and legs. The combat dummy, Tom knew, was designed to be dodged not fought with. It was high-tier and nigh-on indestructible, even for someone twenty ranks higher than him. He didn’t care, he just tried to hit hard, and then he ignored the retaliatory strikes it launched. The magic of the pit was protecting him, but that could only go so far, and it only had juice to limit the impact of the first few strikes.


    He felt ribs crack as it repeatedly struck his open, undefended torso.


    He didn’t mind.


    He needed to crush it, and was happy to exchange blows to do so.


    Another hit staggered him, but he got to his feet. The fight was not over.


    When it came for him, he kicked it hard. It felt like his shin broke against its magically reinforced wooden body. Then it grabbed him and launched him. He tumbled and crashed into the wall.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Tom tried to rise, and failed.


    He needed to kill what had hurt him, but knew it was futile. The combat dummy was an order of magnitude stronger than him. He couldn’t defeat it. The hot ball of anger seeped away into nothing.


    The fight went out of him, and sanity returned.


    Vividly he recalled his hand smashing into Kang’s face, and he hoped he had not killed the boy, and he wanted to check, but the complaints of his body were too real and prevented the attempt before it even started.


    He assessed the damage.


    He had mid to high levels of shock, three broken ribs, a cracked tibia, two shattered knuckles, significant bruising. Nothing that was life threatening, though. He fixed his wonky blood pressure and negated the cocktail of chemicals his battered body had released to let itself function.


    Painfully, he got to his feet and prayed he had not hurt Kang too badly.


    The bastard had deserved it, but Tom also knew he shouldn’t have lost control like that. He should have recognised the emerging issue sooner.


    His rush to reach the other boy, Tom discovered, was unnecessary.


    Kang was standing once more. “Good pretend-fight,” the other boy said and then spat a wad of red saliva onto the wooden floor. A little more of the viscous liquid dribbled down his chin.


    Briana was looking wide eyed at him, and Tom wondered how much of their effort over the last week had just evaporated due to his moment of madness.


    “Lucky hit.” Kang said with forced cheerfulness. He wiped the blood from his chin. “Your skinny arms can certainly pack a wallop. But trust me, I can hardly feel it. It looks worse than it is.” Then, while clearly trying not to limp Kang shuffled to the healing crystal. The expression on his face when the magical energy started flowing told Tom just how much damage his four seconds of madness had caused.


    Tom shut his eyes and slumped back against the wall. Internally, his mana went to fixing himself up.


    Briana left.


    Kang hesitated before doing the same. It was clear he wanted to come over and talk, but obviously realised how suspicious that would look to any observers. They had fought, so the sensible thing was to go their separate ways.


    There was not much to do until his mana regenerated, and that took time. While he waited, he left for the champion’s trial and was relieved that Corrine, as was often the case, was waiting for him.


    She immediately picked up on his mood. And the happy greeting switched to a look of concern. “Tom? Tom, what happened?”


    “I screwed up.” He kicked the ground hard enough that his leg hurt. He remembered Kang’s bloody face. “Fucked up big time.”


    “I’m sure it’s not that bad. Tell me everything?”


    Trying to be concise, he recounted the entire interaction.


    She patted him on the shoulder. “I see. Rage boy strikes again.”


    “Don’t joke. It’s not funny.”


    “Why? I know it’s a curse of something, but it’s still funny. You’re so controlled, and then you go off and blow a gasket over something small. Provided there’s no long-term issues, it’s funny.”


    “Yeah, I suppose it is.” Tom agreed readily enough. They sat in silence, and his mind kept replaying the entire interaction over and over again. The same thought kept getting to him. If he hadn’t been knocked into the pit, if that hadn’t occurred, he didn’t think he would have stopped. His fists had been cracking bone. With a few more punches, they would have gone through the skull. Kang would have been dead. It was a sobering thought, and it was shocking how completely the rage had consumed him. But for the intervention of a dumb machine, the other boy would have died. It was horrifying.


    But for dumb luck, he shuddered at his imagination and not for the first time since he sat down next to Corrine.


    But for dumb luck… well, it was probably more than that, since community fate was in play.


    But, if not for that, Kang would have died. It didn’t bear thinking about.


    “I need to blow off some steam.” He declared abruptly.


    Corrine sprang to her feet. “Here? Do you want help?”


    Tom shook his head. “I think my mana’s probably recharged and the dodge pit gymnasium is empty.”


    “You go train. Let the anger out – and, Tom, if you can, try to enjoy yourself.”


    With the room emptied, and, after the healing was finished, Tom completed a couple more pit runs to improve his Danger Sense. The curse that had somehow hitched a ride into this new life was causing problems. It had objected to Kang’s behaviour and caught him off guard. He was at fault. This was something that Tom should definitely have predicted.


    There was a solution. Going forward, he was going to need to treat his system room as a strategic resource. If he felt even a glimmer of anger or thought the situation might devolve into something ugly, he would need to retreat immediately. It would suck, but he had to do it. When it was time for dinner, he finished up his training and met up with them just as they were lining up.


    Kang said nothing about the earlier incident, but he kept going with his gaslighting. The whole time they were in the line and as they started eating, he continued to harass her.


    Tom saw Briana’s lips move and a moment later he was on the blue grass again. He couldn’t afford to have a breakdown at dinner.


    Corrine was instantly next to him to give him a hug to support him. She was spending almost more time than he was in the divine champion trial, and not because she had to. It was purely so she could be there when needed.


    “Hang in there.” She told him.


    “It’s hard.”


    “What did he do this time?”


    Tom sighed and decided to recount the latest issue he had run from.


    “Briana started it, this time. I think, because of the earlier fight, she was back to focusing on me being a reincarnator. She asked how I knew to talk about physics. Before I could work out a response, Kang interrupted. ‘Briana, even I knew that. It was raised in a lecture two weeks ago.’ She just looked blankly at him. ‘You probably weren’t paying attention because it was boring, but it was the one on how farmers get our food and water magic is one of their skills. He did a little speech about using water for movement purposes. If you were awake, you would have known.’” Tom stopped talking, remembering how Briana had reacted. He did not want to focus too deeply on the systemic way Kang was making her doubt her own memories. “She reacted, unsurprisingly, in her confused, helpless, angry way.” he said. “What Kang does is depraved or brilliant, depending on how you want to view it.” Tom rested his head on his hand and covered his eyes. For a moment, he was back in that moment. “It’s horrible.”


    “I don’t know what to say.” Corrine rubbed his shoulder awkwardly.


    “I think I want to stop him.”


    “Tom, I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s your life on the line. It sucks, but you have to do it. Because of her age, I’m not sure the honesty option even exists. This, unfortunately, is for the best. Can you imagine the impact it would have on her if you went down that path, and it failed?”


    “I know.” He said with his eyes watering. “I know that. But it didn’t end there. She argued with him, told him he was wrong, and Kang was like. ‘There’s no shame in falling asleep. I do it too.’ And she’s like. ‘But I don’t fall asleep’ and his response was ‘You definitely shut your eyes and you don’t remember the conversation, so what would you call it?’ Then she turned to me and I had to back Kang up.”


    Corrine hugged him tightly. “I know. It’s hard, but you have to do it. Do you want to try to kill me to get your mind off things?”


    Tom snorted. “No, you’ll just crush me like always.”


    “I won’t use magic.”


    “Like that helps me.”


    “I won’t even use my magic shield.” She grinned at him. “Come on, I know you want to.”


    He imagined clipping her with Spark; her paralysed form falling helplessly to the ground, and then him plunging his spear into her chest, yanking it out, and seeing the spurt of red that would come with it. Corrine dying beneath him as her hands fruitlessly tried to stem that wound.


    “No, I definitely don’t desire that. With a GOD’s shield active, I think it’s probably a lot easier to die than to kill.”


    “True.” After a long silence, she nudged him. “Then what do you want to do?”


    He was holding a club that he was busily optimising the internal composition to make it stronger. The feedback he had been getting from everyone was positive, so he didn’t want to stop. He looked at her:


    “Um, can we just… um… I don’t know. Chat?”


    “I can do that.”


    For the next hour, she kept his mind off things, talking once more about her plans for her graduation. It included a trip to some wasp fields.


    She rolled her eyes at him. “Yes, yes. It’s where the heroes of humanity started. Do you feel special now?”


    “No, just happy you’re making the effort.”


    “Yeah,” she tapped her head knowingly. “Lots of normal kids do it as a rite of passage. To be just like the mighty Tom.”


    He was pleased to hear that. A lot of other people were apparently using the same method he had accidentally discovered to get the vitality font title. They couldn’t know why they were doing it, of course, but the orphanage had clearly discovered a way to guide them to attempting it, which didn’t disable the reward.  It was the attention to detail, every step of the way, that amazed him. The advantage the orphanage was giving its graduates was not small.


    In the real world, dinner was over. He rejoined his body and went through the motions. If he was being honest with himself, he would have preferred to be chatting with Corrine, as currently being around either Kang or Briana made his skin crawl, but he kept it up for appearance’s sake. His attempts at earning a fate generating skill continued, but instead of using a full forty mana each day to seed progress, he had reduced his expenditure to only five or six. He even felt guilty about dedicating that tiny amount to a task other than staying alive. It was worth it, however. Now, when he moved suddenly, or fell, or was about to be hurt, he could feel a familiar flex that excited him.


    He went to bed equal parts excited about and dreading the future.


    The next day, straight after the morning reading lessons, the entire class milled around excitedly. There was another special instructor to teach them. This one was teaching basics of aerial combat. Tom couldn’t understand why they were doing it. None of the kids were going to acquire flying skills for years, and it was not like gear was a ready replacement for abilities. Even for this special class, there were only four sets to practice with, and they were cheap versions - too slow to be used in an actual battle.


    But Dimitri had told them to do it and it would be fun, so they all lined up excitedly.