Ability Wielders

Kamay ng Lagim (1)

Saturday, 4:00 AM, Hayden woke up, learned a few more choreographies, exercised intensively for an hour, took a bath, ate, and started recording War of Honor.

Until 12:00 PM, Hayden didn’t leave his room at all, recording five hours straight. Now, in his possession were seven ranked games of War of Honor. He was already reaching the peak of 1-star C-Rank due to these seven ranked games.

Editing the seven games took four hours, adding in fanciful and funny edits without the footage being cut so as to produce a video that had proof of him playing. He also added in the camera’s take on his hands, and his commentary recordings of the games.

As this was his first time editing, it took pretty long to get used to the interface of Video Director. However, if any veteran editor didn’t know that Hayden was a complete beginner prior to this, they would have thought that he already had years of experience.

Of course, all throughout the editing process, Hayden was using Divine Perception to add certain quips in the video. His commentary was also entertaining as Hayden often talked to himself while in games, complaining about things, noticing certain things, and more.

Uploading a single video took approximately 32 minutes with Hayden’s internet connection speed, which is relatively fast considering that the videos were in 16k resolution. Hence, the first seven videos would take about four hours to upload as he uploaded them all together.

Within that timeframe, Hayden cooked another meal, learned Japanese for two hours, took another hour to do another set of one-hand push-ups for each arm, one-hand pull-ups, pistol squats, and cross crunches. Finishing that, five minutes later, he already didn’t feel tired at all, thinking that Devil’s Persistence took care of it. Thereon, he took a shower.

When he got out of the shower, walking to his computer, he saw that the videos were already finished uploading. He clicked the option to upload two videos every day at exactly 10:00 AM. With that, he didn’t need to make a video for the next few days.

…..

Aswang was walking around on the clothes he bought from the money he got from those he killed, looking like a regular fat man (2). Aswang was pretty tall for a Filipino, about 174 centimeters tall.

He went inside a hotel and booked a room for five days. Luckily, the hotel wasn’t busy at the time as it was June, the month where guests were almost non-existent. Walking inside room 404, Aswang was satisfied.

When he was going downstairs to eat his dinner, he saw an amazingly stunning woman going out the door beside his hotel room.

Seeing this, the woman was creeped out, ignoring Aswang. Aswang licked his lips at the sight of the butt of the woman, having lewd thoughts. “It seems that tonight will be a sumptuous feast!”

He laughed quietly, smiling shrewdly afterwards. Going down using the elevator, he went to the dining area to eat his fill of the hotel’s buffet. Needless to say, he had to pay for the food.

While eating, he was eyeing all the people around him, trying to find the woman next-door. He wanted to behold her beauty before doing ‘it’ with her later.

Spotting the gorgeous woman, he saw that she was alone. It seems that he would be able to proceed with her plan. Smiling at the naughty thoughts in his mind, Aswang continued to eat.

After eating, he returned to his room to watch television with beer in tow. He also ordered wings. He had no qualms in spending money as it wasn’t his anyways.

He did this for three hours. When it was 12:00 midnight, he turned on his Ability, opened the door to his hotel room and destroyed the cameras in the hallway prior to prying open the door of the room that the beautiful woman resided in.

The woman, at this moment, was sleeping, her face distorted, as if she was embroiled in a nightmare. Observing beside her bed was the invisible Aswang.

He did this for half an hour, admiring her beauty and being excited of the thought of ravaging her. Turning off the invisibility, he jumped to the bed of the woman.

The woman was startled when a violent shake disturbed her bed, only to see Aswang’s face. She couldn’t move, paralyzed with fear, adding on the fact that she was below a man that weighed roughly 200 pounds.

“Sir…” Afraid, she spoke. “What are you doing? Sir?”

“You’ll want me after what I do…” With that, Aswang continued to force his lips on her neck. Subsequently, Aswang kissed her lips while moving his hands to fondle the woman’s breast.

The woman couldn’t scream for help because her mouth was being kissed by Aswang, and the fact that she was being choked. She was already crying at this point, regretting that she ran away from her parent’s house.

Due to this, feeling helpless, she didn’t resist anymore and just let everything happened. The man was too strong, there was no point in struggling. With that, the man touched her in her private area and everything else happened to fast that the woman couldn’t process it anymore, her brain blanking out.

The next thing she knew, tremendous pain originated from her chest, with Aswang’s two claws perforating it. Aswang ripped her apart without remorse. On the contrary, he had a sadistic smile plastered on his face, obviously enjoying the grisly scene that he was making. Blood dispersed everywhere. It was as if an animal was butchered on the bed without draining its blood first.

Then, Aswang tried to find a rope. As there was nothing in his surroundings that remotely resembled a rope, he took the curtain off of the windows and hanged the woman similar to a butchered pig right beside the window, using the metal that hanged the curtains. He did all this whilst invisible so as to not leave any traces of his DNA.

Fast forward to next morning, a hotel staff found the body, and the police investigated. As there were no screams whatsoever, nor was there anyone who lingered on the halls when the murder happened, with the cameras suddenly being mysteriously cut off, they had no suspect at all.

This was especially because there were no fingerprints in the crime scene, not even a single speck of trace was left by the murderer. This was Aswang’s Ability, the Invisible Hunter, to which whenever he was invisible, no fingerprints or sound could be heard coming from him.

On top of that, he can also grow claws and possesses incredible strength, which he used to choke or sometimes cover the woman’s mouth so as to not create a sound. With this, he already committed twelve murders, three of which was not yet found by the police because of his utter ‘cleanliness.’ How did the police even find the bodies if he was clean with his kills? That’s because he wanted for them to find his traces, deliberately being high-profile.

Anyhow, the police questioned him. Needless to say, he acted as if he didn’t know anything. Acting was not hard for him as he was too confident that he wouldn’t exposed. There was not a single clue at all in the crime scene pointing to anyone, much less him, which allowed Aswang to get off scot-free.

Noiselessly chuckling while relaxing on his bed, appearing psychotic, Aswang thought he got away from the police again. He knew that with nothing to relate him to this murder at all, the police wouldn’t discover him, much less arrest him.

Abruptly, as he was still laughing his ass off, a ‘black hole’ appeared on his bedside. Looking at it, he became alert, activating Invisible Hunter in an instant.

“Don’t be so alert, Aswang… Or should I say Gabriel Nacional.” A deep voice from within the black hole said.

“Who are you?” Aswang asked, distrusting the person. “You’re also like me? A man with a power?”

“I’m not just a man with a power.” A man in a black oni gas mask (3) stepped out of the portal. This man was wearing a tight fitting black and white business suit that accentuated his muscular build. “I’m much more powerful than you. I know where you are even when you’re invisible, you know.”

Without a warning, the masked man pointed to a direction that Gabriel was standing on. When the black portal appeared, he already went out of his bed so that anyone who gets out of the hole would not know where he would be, yet, unexpectedly, the man knew his precise location.

“How can you see me?” Gabriel asked with fear. For days, he used his Invisible Hunter to get away from people, now someone came who knows where he was. Even if he was a psycho, he turned off Invisible Hunter as he knew it was useless. “What do you want? I know you will not meet me if you do not want something?”

“Getting straight to the point, eh?” The masked man asked in amusement. He liked people who were straightforward. “Join me. I have been observing you for days, Aswang, murdering people here and there. If you do not join me, you do know that you’re not the only one who has powers, right?”

Gabriel was shocked. He expected that he wouldn’t be the sole person that had powers, but from the man’s words, he knew there were more. So much more than he initially thought. “What do you mean?”

“In the world of us, wielders,” the masked man sat on a chair as he explained. “There is a righteous organization. They are the ones that enforces the rules amongst us wielders and is responsible for guiding neonate wielders and ensuring that our existence remains a secret.”

“And you’re one of the members of this organization?” Gabriel deduced from the man’s words. He was surprised to hear that in the world of wielders, there was already a constructed organization that keeps wielders in line.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” the masked man laughed. “I’m a person backed by a type of corporation that instead wants to use the power of wielders for their own gain.”

“You, a man with the power of teleportation, is doing this? Why?” Gabriel was confused. The man was clearly more powerful than him, so why was he siding with humans when he can destroy them with, possibly, a single flick of his fingers?

“Oh, my power is more than just teleportation.” The masked man chortled once more. “You don’t have to know these. Do not question anything else. Join us and do missions, or die in my hands, your choice.”

Hearing this, Gabriel felt cold sweat trickling down his once arrogant face. The man emitted an unknown pressure that made Gabriel feel weak, as if he was powerless. He was like a kitten in front of a huge tiger. He knew he had no chance of escape, as a result, he had to relent.

“I’ll join,” Gabriel bit his lips as he reluctantly said. “I’ll join you as long as I’m not restricted of my actions.”

“Don’t worry, with your Ability, you’re the perfect guy for infiltration, espionage, and assassination. During your free time, we will give you the freedom to do anything you want, you simply have to do missions every now and then.” The man said. “For now, welcome to Kamay ng Lagim.”

The man stood up and motioned for Gabriel to follow him. Gabriel wavered for a moment before going into the portal.

…..

Exiting, Gabriel found himself at another place not in the hotel. Looking around, it looked as if it was a secret base, and seeing the ventilation systems, it was an underground base.

“Where are we?” Gabriel asked the man before him. “And who are you anyways?”

“Oh,” the man with the oni mask exclaimed. “I’m sorry I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Black Devil, nice to meet you. This here, my friend, is the Makati City branch of Kamay ng Lagim. In Mindanao at Metro Davao is where our headquarters located. For your first mission…”

Black Devil took out a picture. “This guy has been seen being observed by two people from our enemy organizations the past few days. I’ll give you his location, you do anything you want. He has a pretty good-looking mother, I must say. The prerequisite to this mission is to cause damage to this kid, in any way shape or form. Kill him, or any of his family members, up to you!”

With that, Black Devil gave him a phone. “Contact me through this. The address, picture of this kid’s family members, are all there. You go back to your hotel. Oh, there’s also 100,000 credits inside that phone, you just have to scan yourself. You are free to use it as it is advance payment for the mission. After all, you’re risking your life facing those two observers of this kid. With your Ability though, I’m sure you’ll face no problem.”

“100,000 credits?” Gabriel was dumbfounded. He has never seen so much money in his life, and just a simple job of harassing a kid, this association gave him 100,000 credits? “Are you sure this is not a scam?”

“Don’t worry, it’s Kamay ng Lagim’s show of sincerity to its new recruits.” Black Devil laughed. “Go, that portal behind you will teleport you back into the hotel.”

Gabriel nodded as he went through the portal. He felt like he was in a dream, one that he would not rather wake up from. He is given freedom, yet part of a group that doesn’t restrict him to do anything he wants. Who would want anything else?

Turning on the phone and looking at the picture, he saw an average-looking kid in a high school uniform from Makati City. This kid was precisely Hayden. Seeing the next picture, Gabriel saw an even more beautiful woman than the one he ravaged last night.

“I think I’ll have fun doing this mission…” Gabriel licked his lips, his lower body was getting heated due to the excitement he was feeling.

…..

Going to the address given, which was not that far, Gabriel activated Invisible Hunter, waiting for an opportunity.

At that moment, he saw the woman from the picture going out of the house. The woman was even more stunning in real life! As it was currently Sunday, Hayden’s mother was currently wearing a regular t-shirt and shorts.

With Hayden’s mother’s mature look, she was indeed an astounding beauty, in spite of her age of 37 years old, pretty old. Lusting for Hayden’s mom, Gabriel controlled himself. He knew he can’t take action in broad daylight as there were too many people in the neighborhood.

Instead, he walked around to observe the state of the neighborhood to see if there was going to be any problems later. It was only 6:00 PM, and Gabriel planned to take action at 9:00 PM, the time when lights would’ve dimmed.

Finishing his walk, he waited, squatting around the yard of Hayden’s house using the strength augmentation from his Ability to endure the squat. He found out through this that the augment was not limited to his arms. It similarly enhanced his legs.

…..

Sunday, when Hayden woke up, he immediately did his routine of learning choreographies, albeit, only for 30 minutes, and exercised for an hour. Next, Hayden looked at his Streamlink to see that he already had 100 supporters, and his two videos, which was titled “Rank Climbing with Supremacy Episode 1- Downpour Outplays” already had over a thousand views.

That was a delightful surprise to a nobody like Hayden. Given that there was a large user base on Streamlink and that the position of the most popular and such were already cemented, for an extreme nobody, gaining a thousand views was already pretty good.

More so since War of Honor was such a popular game and that there were thousands of aspiring Streamlink users that wanted to make it big with the game. Closing his computer, he wondered what to do, to which he remembered that he had assignments. Doing that first for an hour, it unwittingly became 3:00 PM.

The next few hours, Hayden spent on solidifying the foundation of his Korean further. He decided that he should do so weekly, which will be a great help once he meet CHORUS. When he finished that, he recorded more videos for the week.

6:00 PM, Hayden felt a bad premonition in his heart, a sense of impending doom per se. He activated Divine Perception and felt another presence. Looking outside, he saw no one, but he clearly heard a heartbeat. Aswang was unaware that sound was still released from him, his Ability merely gave him the power to lower these sounds to inaudible levels. Consequently, Hayden was able to perceive Aswang’s heartbeat.

“Could it be?” Hayden’s hair stood up as he thought of the worst-case scenario. He was getting creeped out. He was not a religious person, yet at that moment, he said the words, “Please, God, don’t let it be.”

That goes to show how terrified Hayden was. Abruptly, Hayden felt the air currents on the lawn move, and he noticed the grass of their front lawn rustling. “Well, s**t…”

He was certain that a wielder with the Ability of invisibility had come!

…..

1 Kamay ng Lagim – Can be directly translated as Hand of Darkness, or Hand of Desolation, or Hand of Gloom, any one you prefer really.

2 If you wonder where Gabriel got his money, he wondered how to get money one time. This was where he broke into a house, and, before killing his victim, forced open the man’s phone using the fingerprint sensor, threatened the man to transfer money to his bank account, and voila. Gabriel now had a phone with a bank account containing 50,000 credits as he broke into a wealthy business man’s apartment. Yes, in the modern world, even the people in the lowest rung of society possessed phones, heck, even hobos. Why? Because the cheapest phone only costed 50 credits! And how did he get away with this, you ask? The World Government has anonymous, unlisted transactions that only the World Government can see, much like incognito tabs on browsers. This was established in line with the Privacy Law, which will be tackled on much later. Aswang was smart enough to know this feature.

3 Black Oni Gas Mask – It looks like this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=black+oni+mask&sxsrf=ALeKk0103eVANptAbja-mMAJrX8T6YRPbw:1588017677164&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiOh63ssonpAhWixYsBHYwOBiMQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&biw=1366&bih=657#imgrc=GKOPCKngcWdOLM