As his awareness gradually returned, Dario realized that he was lying face down in the dirt with a throbbing pain permeating his whole body.
There was a high-pitched ringing in his ears as his sense of hearing seemed to wane back and forth like a wave on a beach. He tasted the familiar tang of blood in his mouth before hacking and coughing to clear out his airways.
With a grunt of effort, the young man attempted to heave himself off the ground, only to fall onto his back facing the noonday sky. He looked down to see why he couldn’t stand up and noticed his right leg covered in burns and his left foot completely missing from the ankle down.
“Well… fuck.” Dario sighed and laid his head back down to look at the clouds covering most of the sky. He blankly stared at nothing before softly chuckling under his breath, the dull aches leaving his mind hazy and dazed.
While it wasn’t the first time he’d been heavily injured, Dario had never before lost an entire appendage, so it was quite a shock to his system. Over the years, he’d found ways to deal with annoying injuries, but he wasn’t sure if it would be enough for his current condition. His coping mechanism for pain usually involved fantasizing and imagining being somewhere else entirely — where peaceful thoughts outweighed everything else.
Dario grunted and tried to weather the agony, but as the seconds passed by, the idea of escape seemed more and more appealing, especially with the pain of losing his foot slowly entering his awareness. Having nothing else to do, Dario closed his eyes and drifted away.
In the present circumstance, Dario imagined being just like the clouds, floating along without a care in the world, simply basking in the sun’s warm rays. Formless and weightless, he coasted along the blue horizon, feeling nothing but the cool breeze against his face. For a while, the peaceful image overlapped his body, and all of his aches and pains faded into the background. He could almost imagine being in that state of bliss for the rest of his days, and Dario smiled at the thought.
The sound of a nearby explosion broke his reverie and he opened his eyes, wildly scanning his surroundings.
Dario groaned when he finally remembered where he was and recalled how he got there in the first place. He’d love to lay idle all day, but it would probably be a bad idea since he was still in an active battlefield. If there was anything he’d learned from his street fighting days, it was that he should never leave himself vulnerable out in the open.
“Hey! Can I get a little HELP here!?” he yelled. “I could really use a hand or, heh, I’ll even take a foot!”
Dario chuckled at his own morbid joke — humor being the other coping method he loved utilizing. Or perhaps it was the delirium and shock setting in, which would explain why he just stupidly gave away his position to possible enemies.
He smacked his face with both hands to try and get his head in the game. He had to stay sharp if he wanted to make it out alive, especially with his ailment.
He snuck a quick peek down to see if his foot truly was missing, and doing so reconfirmed his fears. His foot was really gone, but it fortunately cauterized so he still held hope. All he had to do was be patient since his power would heal him up eventually.
In the meantime, his main focus was to stay out of any more life-threatening situations. That was fairly hard to do considering how there was still an ongoing fight between Superiors. Looking skyward, he was nearly blinded by a collision between two flying figures, one glowing and the other covered in flames. Dario could feel the vibrations from their clash reaching his bones.
It was both terrifying and awe-inspiring.
As the ringing in his ears somewhat abated, he could hear the sounds of other battles occurring around him. He flinched as a large piece of rock landed a couple meters away from where he lay on the ground.
“This is way out of my league,” he muttered. “Why the hell did I think this was a good idea?”
Dario looked around the open clearing to see if there was anyone nearby who could help him and quickly came to the conclusion that nobody would be coming to his rescue. He guessed that it would probably be a bit rude to bother anyone in the middle of a life and death fight by asking to be carried away.
“Serves me right,” he mumbled, nearly inaudible amidst the sounds of battle. “Ah well. If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.”
With a groan of exertion, Dario began dragging himself towards a dense group of trees in the nearby forest that seemed to have suffered the least amount of damage. Halfway to his destination, he changed his mind and headed towards an area with a more open canopy. He would need as much sunlight as possible If he wanted to recover faster.
Upon reaching what he considered a good enough safe spot, Dario laid down on the grass and sighed in relief. He looked upwards and scrunched his brows at the clouds covering most of the sky.
“Go away damn clouds, I don’t need your shit blocking out the light. Nobody likes your lazy free-floating ways,” he murmured while looking for any signs of sunlight. Dario could feel his numbed senses returning and he really didn’t want to deal with the pain. “Sun, Sun, come to play, go ahead and make my day,” he sang as he tried his best to ignore the slowly increasing agony in his lower limbs.
Thankfully, a few clouds parted and revealed the Sun in all its blazing glory. As the rays of sunlight washed over him, he sighed in contentment as his headache and a portion of his bodily pains faded away. It wouldn’t completely heal him, but it was enough to give him a second wind, and as long as the sun kept its rays on him, he could keep going indefinitely.
Unless he lost another body part.
Dario chuckled humorlessly as he waited for his healing ability to kick in. There wasn’t much he could do but except his time, but maybe afterwards he could rejoin the fight and help out. He’d never reach his full potential as a Superior if he lay on his back all day.
Speaking of Superiors...
“Why the hell are there so many of them here?” he cursed. “Isn’t this just a supply caravan for some random village?” He knew that the larger cities sent supplies to outer villages and smaller cities, but he never suspected there to be so much firepower used as protection. Wasn’t it a bit overkill to use so many Superiors for an escort mission? Then again, it turned out to be the right thing in the end.
His musings were interrupted by the sound of rustling branches.
Dario looked up and saw the familiar, hateful form of a watermelon-sized green slime. It seemed to be glaring at him despite having no eyes. As injured as he was, he had no time to react when the slime suddenly rushed towards him, leaping directly onto his face.
"Fuc-"
He instantly began choking as the green blob slowly suffocated him. He tried to grab a hold of it in order to throw it away, but his efforts were futile as his hands simply went through its body. Its core was near impossible to find with how obscured his vision was. He wanted to blast it away with his light beams, but with how tightly it latched onto his head, he feared that he would only end up hurting himself. He was tempted to do so anyways as the burning sensation of the slime’s digestion started to really hurt.
Was this how he was going to go? Death by slime?
Silently roaring, Dario renewed his struggles with focused rage and decided to utilize a technique he’d been working on. He encased his hands with a small coating of glowing light and began using it against the slime’s liquid exterior. It worked to a certain extent, the glowing appendage burning away all it touched. However, the slime was able to maneuver around his head and keep the majority of its body intact.
Their silent battle dragged on for nearly half a minute before Dario grew desperate. The slime would eventually outlast his swipes and either fully digest him or drown him. It was only a matter of time before it would prove itself the victor of their three-day-long game of hide-and-kill.
He had to do something fast.
“GET THE HELL OFF ME!” With a furious roar, Dario’s entire head and eyes briefly glowed bright white before shooting out a wide area blast. The slime instantly evaporated having been so close to the blinding source of light. Not a single drop of green ectoplasm remained on his face, leaving him lying on the ground gasping for breath.
There was a shocked silence as the purple-eyed young man tried to digest what happened.
“Damn, that was… something. Guess I’m not limited to just my hands, huh?” In the aftermath of the explosion, Dario began laughing uproariously into the air. “I win slime, I WIN! Took me a few days but I eventually got you!”
His laughing eventually subsided and Dario remained still, simply basking under the sun’s warmth. He reached up to touch his head in order to inspect the damages. His skin felt tender, but he could already feel the flesh mending so he wasn’t too worried. What bothered him the most was actually the loss of quite a few strands of hair. He probably looked mostly like himself, but closer inspection would reveal the truth.
Dario sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. He felt a bit drained with his powers working overtime to heal him. No one would blame him if he took a short nap, right? The battle could sort itself without him for now.
He closed his eyes and took a short rest to try and recover. There were times when one had to fight and other times where a little R&R was the better option.
This was one of those times.
With some of his strength recovered, he sat up to take stock of the situation.
His foot was still gone, but it wasn’t getting any worse, so that was good. Looking at the scene of the battle, he realized that some time must have passed as it seemed to be winding down with the good guys winning. There were only three rogue Superiors left while all five of the ones protecting the carriage were still up and about.
They apparently came to the same realization as well.
Almost as one, all three of the rogues glanced at each other before backing off with each of them picking up one of their injured. As they ran away, one of them kept shooting small bolts of blue energy while another left behind a wall of flame to cover their retreat. The defending Superiors looked too tired and injured to give chase, but they at least had a small victory in the form of a rogue Superior’s dead body.
Dario was startled when he took a closer look at the Superiors protecting the carriage. He was amazed to find out that he actually knew of, or at least recognized, a few of them.
Next to the dead rogue’s body, inspecting it, stood a tall woman with shoulder length blonde hair and bright blue eyes set on a strikingly attractive face. The scar that ran along her right cheek and down through the right side of her lips further confirmed to him that she was the Superior known as Bright Star. The all white ensemble also helped.
A little bit behind her, a stout middle-aged man sporting a thick beard and a bald head kept staring at the sky with bright red eyes, loudly exhaling. Each consecutive breath the man took released a small cloud of smoke that wafted around his crimson, heavily armed body. Dario looked at the large black pipe with red markings dangling on the man’s right hip and recognized the familiar hero who had put out the burning building during his first rescue — it was Soldier Smolder.
Leaning against the carriage in a relaxed and carefree manner was a man with dark red hair and a handsome face. He wore all-black clothing with red trimmings, along with a multitude of weapons such as daggers, throwing knives, and what seemed to be a machete. He was definitely the Superior known as Augur.
Sitting on the ground in a relaxed lotus position was the woman he had pushed out of the way and saved. She was wearing a tight blue outfit that clung to her body like a second skin. Her blonde hair was tied into a high ponytail which reached just below her shoulders where her dark red cape connected with the rest of her costume. He didn’t know it when he first saw her, but now that the battle was over, he realized that she was the famous Nightingale.
He couldn’t tell who the other black and yellow costumed Superior sitting on the ground was, but judging from the prestige of the ones he did recognize, she was probably top-tier as well.
“Well, at least it’s all over now,” Dario muttered before taking a deep breath. ”HEY! OVER HERE! I COULD REALLY USE SOME ASSISTANCE!”
All at once, the vaunted Superiors turned in his direction. Nightingale — the one he'd saved — recognized him and said something to Bright Star who then approached him. She had a stern look on her face as she headed his way.
“Ah shit, they’re probably mad at me, aren't they? She definitely looks annoyed at least.” Dario sighed as he looked upwards. He inwardly reiterated his desire to be like the clouds. No one ever really berated them. They were carefree and went wherever they pleased without a care in the world.
The sky’s the limit for them. Literally.
“Young man, what the hell are you doing out here of all places?” Bright Star demanded, standing a couple meters away from him. “This isn’t a place to play around! I don’t even know why you look so happy for someone who just lost his foot. How’re you even awake with all the pain you should be feeling right now?”
“I manifested a week or two ago.” He shrugged languidly. “Regen’s one of my abilities apparently. Takes away some of the pain.”
“Ah, figures.” Bright Star placed a palm over her face. “Typical newbie. Figured that since you got powers now, you’d go out and be a hero, huh? You thought it would be easy?”
“Yeah.” He grinned sheepishly.
Bright Star sighed before bending over to pick him up. She headed back towards her companions with Dario's limp body over her shoulder.
“At least you saved Dahlia, so I guess you’re not a complete fuckup, but that doesn’t mean you can just go around doing whatever you want. You’ll be branded as a vigilante or a rogue, and you don’t want that.”
“I’ll be branded as a what now?” Dario asked, somewhat distracted as he surreptitiously admired the view of her backside.
“Didn’t the guild tell you anything?” she asked incredulously.
“Uhh, I haven’t officially signed a contract with the guild or anything, so I’m technically not a member yet,” he admitted sheepishly.
The blonde woman shook her head and sighed. “Nevermind then. Just don’t go doing things without at least giving the guild a heads up, alright?”
“I got it, no more vigilantisizing for me.”
“That’s not even a word.” She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Just tell me your name newbie,” Bright Star inquired as they approached the others.
“Dario,” he stated with conviction in his bright purple eyes. “The name’s Dario, and I’m gonna be the best supe to have ever lived.”
He’d never had that ambition before, but something about the recent events made it seem like the right thing to say. It was a strange and sudden epiphany, but it made sense. After all, being the best meant that you never had to worry about anything, right?
Bright Star chuckled at his declaration. “Interesting goal, but the delivery could use some work.”
“Yeah... I know. I’ll work on it.”
