REND

The display screen lingered on Xaz’s face partially hidden behind a black mask, showing only her mouth with an even darker shade of lipstick. She adjusted her ponytail and her gloves, pulling them tighter. She wasn’t taking them off? Interesting. Her hands had aug-weapons if I recalled correctly.

I waved at Bianca until she noticed me, pointed to Xaz on the screen, then to my hand. I tilted my head questioningly.

“Oh, I’m allowed to talk now?” Bianca said sardonically. “What big eyes you have to notice that, just like the big bad wolf in—” Deen subtly elbowed her to stop her from irritating me. Bianca smirked. “Anyway, yes, Xaz has bioaugmentronic hands. Not just her hands. I had most of her body modified, reinforced skeleton, synthetic muscle fibers.” She grinned impishly. “I ran up the bill quickly, both her and Zachary. But that’s with dad’s money. He gave me a small gift to start on my own and make it in the real world. Other girls might pick a nice little island with a modest vacation house for their getaway, but not me. I made a nice investment with both of them, I must say.”

I nearly rolled my eyes. Yes, other girls would've gotten an island. I’ve always thought that I wasn’t like other girls for quite unusual reasons. But these two, Deen and Bianca, were pretty insane themselves. Makes me think I might be closer to the norm than them.

Xaz reached the edge of the enclosure. She jumped over the fence around it and landed on the outer portion of the pit. The mutant was nowhere in sight. I didn't even have an idea what it was other than it killed its batch of people swiftly.

Bianca rattled off the features of Xazary. “The usual cycloengines, but more compact. I didn’t want Xaz to get bulky,” she said like talking about dressing up a doll. “And a custom-built Greaves reactor for her plasma weapon. I had to have one custom-built just so it won’t reach the threshold restricted to the military. The permits people are very lenient if you know…and pay…the right ones, but there’s only so much even they can overlook.”

“Xaz would have no problem then,” Deen said.

Bianca huffed. “Obviously. I even told her not to use any weapon.”

“Will she be okay?”

“There’s no way all the garbage here can take on my precious Xaz. My purpose here is to show off so it’s better this way.”

I see…I finally understood. Bianca considered Xazary and Zachary her possessions, not actual people. That made so much sense!

Having bodyguards who not only had enhanced bodies but were also augmented with state-of-the-art technology allowed outside of the military was awesome. If I had the money, I'd make my private army. However, Bianca’s hatred against such “unnatural” methods of modifying the body made me wonder why she picked such bodyguards. Her disdain for such was apparently one of her Rules.

But the answer was so painfully obvious and logical it made me want to smack my head for being so stupid.

It wasn’t an insult or anything that Bianca thought of her bodyguards as possession. Quite high praise. Relatively speaking.

The ranking of how I valued people and objects went something like this: At the top were people I actually cared for—I didn’t have any, but I was sure, even if exceedingly rare, others similar to me did. Below that were valued possessions, including people counted as objects—I also didn’t have anyone or anything in this category. Next were the people I pretended to care about—this encompassed most people in my social interactions. And last was everybody and everything else—all of them on the same level of worthlessness.

If Bianca and I were the same kind of people, then we'd have a similar valuation system of sorts. Modifying Xazary would just be the same as decking out a car or something.

The mutant Xaz was supposed to fight still stubbornly remained hidden. Only the dead bodies from previous rounds could be seen, strewn all over the pit.

She carefully walked to the middle of the pit, observing her surroundings.

Movement behind her. The cameras followed it.

It was the headless, half-mashed body of the previous mutant. It stood up and ambled awkwardly towards her with its broken limbs. With a clean downward kick, she knocked it to the ground.

She suddenly turned around to kick another attacker. Then she evaded another one trying to grab her while delivering a punch to knock it away.

Something was also crawling on the ground trying to get to her—the upper body of a person. A dead one, obviously. It attempted to grab her ankles. She easily shook it off. But the headless mutant rose again and tried to grab her as well. She kicked it for real this time, its left shoulder was blown off from the impact.

The cameras zoomed out to reveal several of the corpses in the arena, those with somewhat intact bodies, had stood up and were making their way to Xaz. There was a spattering of applause. The novelty of the situation made the customers who had grown callous to the violence they regularly witnessed mildly interested.

I was also mildly interested.

My usual view of an Adumbrae—I supposed these mutants could be considered failed ones—was a bloodthirsty monster tearing up everything in its path. Not something with more unconventional powers other than just brute strength. But then again, anything was possible with otherworldly energies in play.

“Oh wow, very entertaining.” Bianca clapped especially loudly. “That’s more like it.”

“Where's the mutant?” Deen said.

“Hiding somewhere. It’s not a threat.”

“How are they moving?” Deen squinted at the screen. “Those bodies are being controlled like puppets.”

Xaz swooped gracefully across the arena, dismantling the reanimated corpses with surgical precision. She jumped in front of one holding a spear and, with two quick jabs to both shoulders, smashed off its arms like it was hit full-force with a sledgehammer. The flesh and blood splattered outwards. She made two kicks to the knees, breaking the legs, permanently downing the dead body.

She moved on to the others, weaving through them. They were slow and shambling and could never hope to catch her. Every movement was calculated so she wouldn’t get dirty even as she tore apart the dead bodies.

“There’s a black cord or vine…I’m not sure,” Deen said. “It’s connecting to the bodies from underground.”

She was right. It was hard to spot with the dark earth and dirty rocks as a backdrop, but every time Xaz mangled a body so much that it could no longer move, wriggling black spaghetti detached from it and descended back to the ground.

Bianca placed her phone to her ear. “Xaz, drag it out a bit. I know it’s easy, but just put on a show for a few minutes.” Xazary looked directly at the camera and nodded. Bianca waved her phone. “Another feature, I have a special line of communication with Xazary and Zachary. I can even contact Zachary who’s somewhere outside the club with my crew.”

“That’s amazing,” Deen said, checking her phone. “I have no signal here this far underground.”

A woman dressed similarly to the person who greeted me by the elevator came to our table. She offered to refill the wine glasses of Deen and Bianca. And while she did, I noticed she stole glances at us. Our eyes met.

Was the jig up? Did she know everyone here?

Since she already noticed me, I signaled to her that I wanted something to drink. She raised the wine bottle she was holding. I shook my head and shaped a bottled water in the air to indicate what I wanted. She bowed and left.

“The trash is stepping up its game,” Bianca said.

In addition to the zombie thingies, which honestly weren’t doing much to Xazary, the mutant switched up its tactics and started attacking her directly with those black vines shooting up from the ground. Xaz avoided them without looking down with such elegance it was as if she was swimming in between the bursting spikes while bringing down the walking dead. After making sure no corpse could move, she jumped on top of a large rock, out of reach of the spikes.

“End it now, Xaz,” Bianca said to her phone.

Xaz sprinted the length of the pit to a small rock outcropping on the opposite end and smashed into it.

A dark blur scurried away, avoiding the debris. Xaz was hot on its heels if it had any. It attempted to hide again, but Xaz was unrelenting, breaking any rocks or crags before it could sink into it. That thing didn’t even try to impale her, focusing instead on its survival.

With a fat splat, Xaz landed on it with her heels, cracking the ground. Moderate cheering was the response of the crowd. Bianca, however, was ecstatic, standing and waving at Xaz. It was as near to genuine happiness as far as I could tell. Xaz, being her prized possession, was nearly categorized as part of Bianca. Which was why she was so happy—it was as if she won herself. I wasn’t sure if Bianca and I were capable of being happy for the success of others like normal people.

Deen gasped. “Is…is that a…a child?”

“Maybe?” answered Bianca. “You’re always fretting about these small things. It’s dead. It’s gone. It’s not our problem.”

“But it looks like one.”

The mutant was tiny for sure. It was dark and sort of gelatinous. She picked up the head of the mutant she killed; its only part that remained solid. Judging by its size, it did appear to be a child. Like with the Aloha Crab Man, a drone came to pick up the head.

Bianca did a little wiggly dance in her seat. “Yehey, I won!”

“Are they continuing with this?” Deen said.

“What are you saying? It’s still too early. I thought you knew how long this went on for?”

“I told you, I normally don’t attend these things.” The screens went up into the ceiling once again and a few people were going back to the sides of the pit. “They're continuing,” Deen said tensely. “Just how many people die here every time they do this?”

“Who cares?” Bianca said. “Xaz is coming back. And who’s that with her?”

A short, balding man with a funny mustache accompanied Xaz back to our table. The waitress who took my order trailed after them. Xaz took her place by Bianca’s side.

“Good evening, ladies.” The man bowed with a flourish. “I came to inform you,” he said specifically to Bianca, “that we will process the brain into a more palatable and easily consumable form. However, since you haven't officially been inducted as a member, we will keep it in storage until after you successfully become one.”

I flexed the muscles of my jaws a couple of times. There was a high possibility that this guy, unlike the other employees and guards, knew who was supposed to be here...and who wasn't. He didn’t bring any guards with him though, so it was safe…for now.

“Of course,” said Bianca.

“Thank you for your kind understanding.” And he bowed once again before leaving. The waitress set the bottled water in front of me and followed the man.

“That was an explosive ending, Xaz,” Bianca said. “Very messy and disgusting, but I see why you had to do it. It was a very easy fight, so you had to end in a shocking manner. Don’t you agree, Deen?”

“Uh, yes. A bit excessive, but it did fulfill your intention of making an impression.”

“Right? Right?” Bianca giggled. “School, workplace, wherever, it’s the same. People always say first impressions matter, and that’s correct.”

I mentally smirked. People did say that, but I didn’t think this was the way they meant that advice to be applied. I agreed with her though. If I was in Bianca’s position, I'd do the same.

I opened the bottled water and emptied the liquid on the plates on the table. Bianca and Deen stared at me. I grinned at them, displaying the entire rows of my razor-sharp teeth. They hastily went back to chatting with each other, mostly Bianca bragging about the features of Xazary and Zachary like a kid talking about the various powers of his toy robot.

I stood up and beckoned for them to follow me to the pit below. Bianca was up for it. She smugly walked down the stairs as others stared at her, recognizing her as the woman who had the previous fighter in the ring in her employ. They probably guessed she was Bianca because of her signature hair color. Deen, on the other hand, was hesitant, mumbling she was grossed out with the dead bodies. I knew the real reason was she didn’t want to witness innocent people getting needlessly murdered for sport.

Understandable, but I needed her to be near me as insurance and for my plan to work. I reached out to take her hand.

She recoiled and said, “I’ll follow you.”

Thank you, Guardian Angel, if that was you counseling her. Cooperate with me on this one.

Deen’s ability wasn’t as simple as future sight. I wasn’t sure if she understood just how powerful it was.

It could give her information that she couldn’t have otherwise known. The primary example of this was the elevator incident when we were looking for Ramello’s room in the hospital. If it was simple precognition, Deen could sit down at the hospital lobby, gaze into the future to try and find where to go, and get absolutely nothing.

She'd just see herself in the future still sitting for the simple reason that she didn’t know where to go in the first place. Her future, thusly, would still end up not knowing where Ramello’s room was.

However, her Guardian Angel worked differently. It scanned various possible futures of Deen doing all sorts of things. A choose-your-own-adventure book would be the closest example, with the caveat that she could add her own pages and choices to see if it fit.

And this was just the start of it. Emcee said that their powers would eventually grow. Who knew, maybe Deen would become a fucking omniscient, all-seeing being in the future? That was if I didn’t eat her beforehand. And I should before her abilities grew too powerful. Or even more powerful, rather, because it was plenty powerful now.

But that was in the future. For the situation at hand, I needed her.

Now, let’s see what the next monster was.