Ability Wielders

Aswang

Until 4 PM, Hayden learned various piano pieces, specifically, two anime openings which he thought was beautiful. He reminisced of the time he watched those two shows and almost teared up. However, if any pianist saw Hayden’s memorizing speed and that he could play a song perfectly without even looking after watching a single video and doing it once with concentration, they would’ve questioned their own talent and effort.

“Such sadness…” Hayden sighed as he remembered the two scenes from the anime. “Well, it’s already 4:00, let’s try to learn some Korean!”

Going to his computer and turning it on, he went to a site called Language Archives. The Language Archives was a site established by the World Government that has the aim of granting free access to lessons of all the languages of every nation.

Hayden was thankful to the World Government at this moment as he didn’t need to pay a single credit for knowledge. He clicked on ‘Korean’ and clicked the first video.

He used Divine Perception making him focused, allowing him to clear his own mind. With this, he tried to learn Korean until 7:00 PM.

…..

Finishing the seventh video lesson, Hayden had a sudden headache. On that note, he turned off Divine Perception and his computer. He laid down on his bed, closed his eyes, and sorted out the knowledge he acquired.

As he was having streams of data being infused with his brain, he was too active to be able to sleep even though he was mentally fatigued.

“I guess there is a limit to how much knowledge I can actually absorb…” Hayden mumbled, continuing to digest everything. “It’s a good thing I discovered that early.”

He thought it was a fortunate matter that he discovered a limit so that he knew when he would stop in the future. Abruptly, his stomach grumbled, asking for food.

“All that learning made me hungry. Let’s cook.” Hayden knew that there was no cooked food inside the house right now as his mom left early. As for his dad, he was only home during weekends due to his work being far from home. Because of this arrangement, Hayden thought he needed to learn how to cook simple meals in the least.

Ever since 7th grade, Hayden was learning how to cook. With four years of training, he can cook a numerous amount of dishes, including common Asian cuisine, a few delicious Japanese dishes, and some western dishes.

This night, he cooked rice and a viand called Chicken Adobo. He spent the next hour eating while browsing news. Even though he was an introvert, he still tried to keep up with the latest news as it was kind of interesting to see the world develop around him.

“Aswang? (1)” Clicking on a viral article, he saw a graphic murder scene of a man in Taguig City, with the organs hanging out from its corps. The murderer set up the corpse so that it was hanging akin to that of a butchered pig. At least that’s what it stated on the article. “That’s gruesome… That’s why they call the murderer Aswang, huh?”

Aswang were creatures in multiple bodies of Filipino myths that brewed since the Spanish era. Aswang were said to transform into people during the day, and become human predators at night, killing and eating people. This particular killer was called Aswang because of the organs hanging on its corpse. You know, media writers should be creative and all hat.

Despite reading and imaging such a bloody matter in his mind, Hayden kept on eating his meal. He was numb to gory stuff on a screen, much less a paltry description. He has watched way too many horror and thriller movies with uncensored gore and serial killings.

Closing the article, he scrolled past more. Seeing there was nothing else that was remotely interesting, he opened Streamlink to watch some movies.

When he finished eating, he washed the dishes and took a shower. While in the shower, he attempted to rearrange the knowledge in his mind once more.

“Wait, I can already speak some?” Hayden uttered in semi-perfect Korean. He was surprised that he knew the exact translation of the sentence he said, and that he can speak Korean already. “What the hell? I merely watched eight thirty-minute videos!”

He was far from mastering the Korean language as those seven videos were merely conversational basics. Nevertheless, it was good that he can speak some Korean already.

Switching off his ‘Korean state,’ Hayden spoke regular Filipino again. “That’s amazing! I learned to speak basic Korean within four hours?”

Needless to say, he needed to practice if he wants to retain this ability to speak the language, otherwise, he would definitely lose it in a few days. Knowledge that isn’t used are considered as unnecessary memories, thus, the brain forgets it if it isn’t practiced often; similar to how a gamer’s skills rust when he or she doesn’t game for a few months.

“Wait, I have eidetic memory, who am I kidding?” Hayden face slapped himself before returning to shower. Regardless of him remembering that he had an eidetic memory, he still chose to practice by having imaginary conversations with himself, just in case.

…..

Putting on his clothes, he sat down in front of his computer. He then started up the computer. Because of the two people arguing earlier, he was itching to play War of Honor, this time, he wanted to become an Apex Rank player, which was the highest rank in the game.

“Wait, wouldn’t I have godlike mechanics if I used Divine Perception?” Hayden asked himself. “No, that would be too much of a cheat now. Divine Perception already gave me a passive boost, and I still want to use it for this? Jeez…”

He got rid of the mindset of using Divine Perception on every aspect of his life. He wanted to rely on it mainly to learn things, not cheat on games. Don’t get him wrong, he still considered using his Ability for daily life as cheating, but it would be stupid to not use Divine Perception. Nonetheless, it was equally stupid to use it on a simple game.

Well, only in an actual game. Hayden did plan to use Divine Perception to ingrain the combos of each superhuman in his body prior to gaining experience on games.

Launching War of Honor, Hayden readied himself to play on his old account. He played for an entire two hours, losing the first match as he hasn’t adjusted yet, and winning the next match by an absolute land slide.

“I can’t believe I carried that game.” Hayden still had some leftover adrenaline, his hand shaking a little. “I did so well on Downpour, killing enemies here and there, sidestepping* every skill thrown at me with godlike reflexes, goddamn…”

*Sidestepping is a term in MOBA games that means to dodge a targeted attack by moving laterally.

Downpour was Hayden’s main superhuman whenever he played War of Honor. He also dabbled on playing many other superhumans, it was simply that he felt Downpour’s skillset was too suitable for him.

“That’s enough for now, I’ll play ranked matches tomorrow.” Hayden said. He needed to sleep in order to cement what he learnt today. Plus, he overexerted himself too much when he spent seven hours straight keeping his Divine Perception active, learning all those things.

After applying some skin care products, he went to sleep. The second his head hit the pillow, he drifted off to dreamland.

…..

Waking up, he found himself feeling refreshed. Scanning his body using Divine Perception, he saw that his brain and his cognitive functions was back to normal.

“Did the increase healing factor also affect my mental state?” Hayden was confused. Especially when he looked at the time. It was only 3:00 AM! He slept at 9 PM. Usually, he needed at least eight hours of sleep, sometimes even needing ten hours if he spent a few busy nights doing schoolwork!

Yet now, he was feeling absolutely refreshed and new with a measly six hours of sleep? It was all too illogical! This made him draw the conclusion that the increased healing factor from Devil’s Persistence fixed or created new brain cells for him.

“Well, what am I supposed to do at three in the morning?” Hayden wrinkled his nose, wondering what he would want to do. “Playing the keyboard would not be the best option as it’s literally three in the morning. There were people sleeping. Playing a game would not be an option as there were too many people asleep, also, I’m in no mood. Exercise? Wait…”

He stopped in his tracks as he noticed that his body was brimming with energy. “I did some pretty intense exercises yesterday. More so, those three sets of exercises with just a five-minute break in between… No delayed onset muscle soreness at all?”

Moving around, he found out that there was indeed no DOMS. On the contrary, he felt stronger, as if his body has some kind of newfound power. “Exercises damaged the muscles, and the body repairs them… Through this repeated cycle of destruction and rebirth, new power is born… It makes sense that I would feel stronger… The increased healing factor’s effect is really noticeable!”

Hayden couldn’t help but praise the increased healing factor stemming from Indestructible Devil. “So that’s why after five minutes, I still had the power to do more exercises!”

Only now did he make sense of the strange events that he thought was normal yesterday. He thought that adrenaline was coursing through his veins at that time. He realized how sorely mistaken he was. Yes, pun intended.

“So I will be able to increase my strength faster with this! I can run farther with only a little rest, and I can sprint longer!” Hayden still had the feeling that everything was surreal. “Overnight, I already changed from a regular human into a person with superpower… A superhuman… I wonder, what are those who gained an Ability like me doing…? If they did exist…”

Saying that, Hayden exited his house while muttering Korean phrases. While doing so, he put on two wireless earphones and listened in to calming piano music, his concentration music whether it be workouts, or doing work.

…..

In a small apartment room at an apartment building in a remote and quiet part of Taguig City. There was a man snoring away. This man’s face had a terrifying ugly face in modern day standards, a fat build, and messy, unkempt hair. His face contorted as if he was in extreme pain. Abruptly, the man woke up.

“What in the f**k was that? Why did I suddenly drown?” He hurriedly craved for air, confused of what happened in that dream. As he didn’t know what a lucid dream was, he believed that that dream was some kind of alternate reality. “How did I get there? I only remember sleeping here? And what was that? I turned invisible and experienced so much power in my arms during that dream…”

Calming down, the man rubbed his chest. He touched an odd bump underneath his shirt. When he looked, he saw a crystalline prism embedded on his chest.

“What the f**k is this thing? Get it off!” The man shouted as he panicked. When he tried to remove it, information rushed into his head.

When the information was done transferring into his brain, he finally understood what happened. “So that was actually true? I do have that power? And what Ability Wielder? What bullshit nonsense is that? What kind of name even is ‘Invisible Hunter?’”

He tried to make himself invisible while laughing. Consequently, he looked at his arms and saw it was gone. With this, he ceased his chortling and knew that everything was true.

“Holy s**t! I can steal belongings with this! I can go into many places where men shouldn’t be…” With various thoughts streaming into his mind, he formed a disgusting face that resembled that of a pig. Not like anyone will notice as he was invisible. “I’m going to be the most powerful person in the world!”

His laugh was a normal laugh. Be that as it may, if anyone were in the room with him, they would sense the pure malevolence contained in this laugh. In addition, he was invisible, adding to the factor of horror.

“With this power, I will finally not need to hide from those f**k-ass losers!” Turning Invisible Hunter off, he grinned, revealing his yellowish teeth. “I will be coming for you people!”

Going out of his run-of-the-mill apartment room, he went to another apartment while using his newly found power. As he created no sound, he was discreet without putting in any effort whatsoever.

There was only a single person in the room. Seeing this, the man grinned. For the second time, tot that anyone could see it as he was invisible. The person inside the apartment he broke in was a hooligan that bullied him for years, made fun of him.

At that instance, he felt his nails growing out. It became claws! The man laughed loudly, startling the hooligan inside the house,

“Who’s there!?” The hooligan shouted. Looking around, there was no one there. “f**k you! Come out, now! Don’t be such a p***y!”

“I’m here.” The fat man grinned while standing in front of the hooligan who turned his neck away from him. When the hooligan heard this voice, he turned in front of him.

He almost fainted because of the huge scare the fatty gave him. “You f*****g pig! how did you snuck in!?”

When the hooligan came into contact with ‘fatty,’ he was startled. Those were the eyes of a person who wanted to kill! And that smile… It was so eerie that it gave him, a man who loved bullying people, goosebumps.

“Get out of here, now!” The hooligan steeled himself.

When the fatty heard this, he laughed. “You don’t have the power to make me get out!”

Immediately afterwards, he grabbed the hooligan’s neck and lifted him up in this manner. It was an incredibly grim scene, given the lighting and all that.

“I do indeed have powerful strength!” The fatty laughed maniacally, like a psycho.

Meanwhile, the hooligan was struggling to say something. “L-l-let m-me go… y-y-you fucker!”

He was wondering as to how the fatty suddenly gained such strength. It terrified him of what might come next.

“You! You bullied me ever since I got here! Called me a psycho! A f*****g pig!” The fatty shouted angrily. “You son of a b***h! You’re in this situation and you still have the guts to not f*****g beg and even have the backbone to act arrogant in front of me!?”

“L-l-look man,” the man said. “I-I’m sorry, o-okay? We-we were only having fun… right? You ha-had fun, r-r-right?”

“Oh, yes, I had fun!” the fatty laughed cynically. A few seconds of laughing later, the fatty stopped and looked at the hooligan dead-straight in the eyes with a crazed expression. “I had so much fun that I want to kill you!”

Raising his left hand, the fatty dug his claws into the man’s chest. Because of this, the hooligan shouted as he experienced pain that he never experienced before. On top of that, he can’t breathe, which made everything worse.

The fatty laughed again. “Farewell! see you in hell!”

When he finished his sentence, the fatty ripped apart the hooligan, killing him in an instant. The fatty slashed open the hooligan before finding an electric cord to hang him, making it look like a pig that was butchered.

“Oh, look at you, I pity you.” The man formed a sad, mocking face towards the hanging corpse. “Look at what they did to you. You were butchered like a pig!”

The fatty laughed vehemtnly succeeding this. This fatty was precisely the viral Aswang. Aswang was always made fun of ever since his parents died, leading him into depression. Living 24 years of his life in a sedentary manner, his body turned to this, and his head was a little screwed because of all the abuse that the people of the slums did to him.

In fact, nobody, not a single soul, ever pitied him. They all laughed at him, badmouthed him, and gossiped behind his back!

“I will get my revenge.” The fatty laughed, resembling a crazy man. “Oh, I love the feeling of digging my claws into flesh! And the experience of ripping that guy apart… It suits him well! A pig, truly a pig!”

Satisfied at his ‘artwork,’ he went out of the house using his Invisible Hunter again. Because no one saw him, nobody would suspect that it was him. He had motive, yet he was ‘powerless.’ Nobody, not even the police, would suspect that he, a ‘fatty’ was the one who killed the hooligan!

Aswang went back to his own home, licking the blood off of the claws he used before retracting it. “The pig’s blood tastes quite nice!”

“Who should be my next target?” Aswang said with a shrewd smile, which turned into a cackle. “Perhaps I should do something a little ‘indecent’ to my next victim first, hehe… I have never experienced s*x in my entire 24 years of life, I guess I’m getting it now, hehe.”

Such is the ugly truth of this society, even with the countless government aid of today’s society, there will still be people who will fail. It is inevitable.

…..

Finishing running around the park, he spent the last hour of his time doing push-ups, lifting weights, pull-ups, crunches, and tiptoe squats. Hayden was exhausted when he finished all these.

He rested for about fifteen minutes, browsing social media, before he sensed that his body was already okay. “Wow, I just did intense exercise for an hour and resting for only fifteen minutes, I can already move? This power’s too much!”

Additionally, he didn’t feel any pain whatsoever! A few minutes ago, he was aching all over his body, with standing up being a pain in the ass, now, it was healed!

“Okay, time for another run!” Hayden felt energetic. He wanted to exercise more because of the effects of his own healing factor. Standing back up

He re-warmed himself by jogging. ‘Philippines was a safe country with a low crime-rate, however, it doesn’t hurt to be careful, right? I mean, there’s literally a murder right within Taguig City. A horrifying one at that.’

While thinking, his body shivered a little as he felt somebody staring at him. Turning his head into the direction of one of the roofs of a coffee house near the park, the direction he felt the gaze from, he didn’t perceive anything. Not even with Divine Perception.

“Strange.” Hayden squinted his eyes as he continued to jog. “I really should be careful.”

…..

1 Aswang – A mythical being, considered as a monster by many, in Filipino folklore. Aswang can be either an umbrella term for a group of monsters or a term that identifies a specific creature, mainly, the latter. For the general term, in Filipino folklore, Aswang can refer to various beings, the Tiktik, a birdlike creature that eats fetuses, Wakwak, a similar creature, except that the Wakwak is a vampiric bird that eats humans, the Viscera Sucker, or Manananggal, who splits with their lower portion while the upper portion hunts for human prey, and many more. Meanwhile, for the term that identifies for a specific creature, Aswang can mean a monster in general, a man-eating monster, that sucks blood from their prey with their proboscis-like tongue during the night, and blend with people during the day. Unlike vampires, Aswang do not get hurt by the sun. Some versions, however, puts vampires as being categorized under the umbrella term of Aswang.