Chapter 99: How conceited was I?

I took deep breaths. 

Marg was just in front of me, looking at the small space for her fight, waiting for her opponent. She was this close and yet, I couldn't even go on and say hi. Something was wrong with me: my chest felt tight. Why was I suddenly being a wuss?

There were five minutes before the match, I couldn't dwindle. 'It's now or never, get it together!' With a bit of a pep talk, I shoved past the small crowd and went closer to Marg. 

She noticed me sooner than I thought. 

"Hey."

"Hi, did you need something?" Marg was indifferent. There was no smile, no emotion. She just spoke like the first time I met her. 

"I mean-"

"Shouldn't you be somewhere else? Or are you giving up before trying?"

I went closer to her and spoke softly enough that people couldn't hear me. "I want to take responsibility for this."

"Why would you be conceited enough to think that just because we spent one night together, I'd be yours: that, I'd belong to you?" There was no emotion behind her words. She was just stating a fact. 

I didn't know why but that hit a lot harder than I thought. But deep down I knew she was right. I was basically just laying my whims on her, without even thinking of her own wishes. She was right, I was being awfully conceited. 

"No, it's not because of that, I mean-" My chest got a lot tighter. All morning I thought of nothing but taking responsibility but in the end, I never really tried to understand what Marg wanted. 

"Sorry, but I have no need for your pity. We don't love each other, and we don't know each other. What happened in the past, should stay buried. Besides," Her voice was barely audible. "I've already decided what to do." I could feel bloodlust coming from her. "Go," She ordered. 

It was almost as though the ground was shaking. But I was standstill. What was this?

Why?

I didn't know.

Someone pulled on my arm and got me out of the crowd. 

"What's wrong with you? What happened?" Apparently, it was Merin. 

I chuckled. "Well, I got rejected." If I felt like I could take on the world this morning, then now I felt like crawling into a hole and staying there. 

Merin chuckled. "Be sure to etch this to your soul. Never underestimate a woman. The moment you think they're powerless and need your protection, that's the moment you lose. Women aren't as weak as you'd think. " I didn't know why but these words hit home hard. "Anyway, where are you fighting?"

"I don't know. Probably in some corner, since my powers are too dangerous." My chest tightened and my vision became a bit narrow. I didn't know why but all the sounds coming from all around, the people, the fights, everything felt pointless. 

"Let's see." Merin stopped. I didn't look around. I just looked towards my feet while Merin did all the carrying. "Yeah, that place looks abandoned and there are three people there."

***

"What's wrong with him?" Judging by the voice, it was Mike. 

"He just got dumped."

"Can't even keep a secret." I sighed and finally picked myself up. I'd done enough grieving. But I couldn't grieve forever. 

I did a bit of stretching. 

"Well, if you got that upset just from being dumped, were you really ready for a serious relationship?" My opponent was a girl and her words weren't really comforting. 

"But if he wasn't upset, would it really have been better?" Merin spoke out loud. "After all, when you break up, that's just sad."

It was sad, but it wasn't like we were together in the first place. So what was Merin even getting at? I didn't have the energy to have a debate over this anymore. 

The girl clicked her tongue and readied her saber. "All men are wusses: if she meant that much, then he should have just went for her."

Just moments ago I got rejected, and for the last five minutes I built up a lot of negative feelings. And this girl just had the galls to say stuff to my face. 

So without a doubt, I readied my scythe and weirdly enough, the energy was violently surging through the plasma. I guess my emotions had a lot to play on this. 

"Mike?"

"Yeah?" He looked at me with a bit of shock. I guess he didn't think I'd ask anything of him.

"I don't think I'll be able to hold back. So you might want to protect her and everyone else." I had to give a fair warning, after all, I wasn't stupid enough to accidentally kill anyone. 

And with my mental state, using radiation was definitely a no-no. But there were always chances, something could have gone wrong. 

Mike's sigh was rather audible. "Fine." He had someone with him, the guy who could make barriers. Well, technically I could too, at this point. 

A three-layer barrier appeared before our heads. 

"Go!"

"How courteous. But aren't you underestimating me too much?" The girl hissed. 

"I'm sorry to say, but I might be overestimating you." The girl launched herself forward while enshrouding herself with wind blades but before she could even come a meter close to me, she was stopped midair. "See, told you, I was overestimating you." I lifted the scythe up and shoved her straight for the barrier. She was unhurt but she was now completely stuck. The wind blades vanished. 

The reason?

I'd created a barrier in front of her. Now that I thought about it, this was probably the most useful ability I could ever have hoped for. 

And this was also my first time using it here, meaning no one really knew about it. 

"What the hell?" The girl looked at me with terror and despair. "You could do that with radiation!?" sweats covered her whole face as she looked at me with utter fear. 

I guess she didn't see my invisible barriers. Honestly, I didn't either. I just knew they were there because I could use alpha particles.