Chapter 6: Abilities
556 Words
The terrifying scene outside made Zhou Lan grateful for this refuge. Even empowered by the Blood Moon, he could never handle so many mutants at once.
"Zhou Lan, have you noticed? The world really has changed," Yan Xin said softly, her spirits low.
"Isn't that obvious? Does any of this look normal?" Zhou Lan waved a hand, missing the emotion behind her words.
"I don't know what happened to everyone else. Or my parents... What if they're..." Tears streamed down Yan Xin's face before she could say dead. Her throat closed around the word.
"No one knows anything in a world like this..." Zhou Lan tried to comfort her, but thoughts of his own family stirred a storm inside him. Pride kept him from crying in front of Yan Xin, and he forced the grief down.
After eighteen years of being single, Zhou Lan had no idea how to console the sobbing girl. He could only change the subject.
"By the way, did you feel anything change when the apocalypse began? Like awakening an ability?"
Though still grieving, Yan Xin considered the question seriously.
"I think I did awaken one, just like in a novel." As she focused inward, knowledge of how to use it appeared in her mind as naturally as memory. Her body had also grown much stronger and faster, something she had noticed during their escape.
"I knew I couldn't be the only one." His guess confirmed, Zhou Lan silently cursed the unfairness of being the only one forced to become a girl.
"So, Yan Xin, what's your ability?"
"I can slow time around me and restrict other people's speed. It doesn't seem very useful, though."
"How could it not be?" Zhou Lan laughed. "You don't know how lucky you are. That's the law of time."
"If abilities can evolve, yours might eventually control time itself—even decide how long someone lives."
Yan Xin remained skeptical. At its current level, the ability felt painfully underwhelming.
"What about yours?"
"Mine...?" As soon as Zhou Lan considered it, the answer flooded his mind as if he had always known.
"It's a little complicated. First, my body can become that of a vampire, greatly increasing my strength, speed, and everything else. You already saw the physical change."
"I can also control blood, and I have a soulbound weapon. I can drink someone's blood and turn them into my blood t****l. And..." Zhou Lan stopped, startled by the next piece of information.
"If I drain every drop of someone's blood, I can take their ability—though I can only do that twice a year." Even Zhou Lan was stunned. "That's absurdly powerful."
"Wow. That's practically cheating. You didn't save me because you wanted my ability, did you?" Yan Xin narrowed her eyes.
"Of course not! What kind of person do you think I am?" Zhou Lan covered his mouth with both hands and tried to look harmless.
"I'm kidding." Yan Xin knew he would never have risked himself or revealed everything if that had been his purpose. His innocent, adorable appearance simply made him irresistible to tease.
"What a nasty sense of humor..." Zhou Lan complained, privately relieved that the girl he liked did not hate him.
Yan Xin suddenly remembered something and nudged him. "By the way, did anything else appear in your mind...?"
- Writer
