They All Carried Ghosts

Chapter Nine- My Own Strength

One of the executioner's hit me across the head with a large club but I felt no pain as I was knocked down to the floor. When I hit the floor my eyes closed and when I opened them I saw black dust lying on the floor of the cage. It rose off of the ground and entered into my skin again.

I reached up to where my head had been struck and there felt a hard crystalized material there.

The executioner that hit me looked at me shocked for a second. then swung at me again and the other followed suit hitting me with all they had. 

I still felt nothing but my weight landing on and off the cage floor.

I could hear Miss laughing with delight at my apparent mauling.

After a minute or two of this ordeal the executioners began to tire. My whole body, except my eyes, was covered in this black  by now but no one could see that except the executioners who stood in the cage with me. Miss as well as the spectators couldnt see what I had become. 

Was this my strength? It made me smile thinking about the fact that I had finally discovered it but the rage that had awakened it took back over. "That all?" I managed to say.

The executioners knelt down wearily trying to catch their breath

"He's still alive!?!?" Miss screamed and the crowd booed. "Finish him off!!!!!"

The executioners rose and were handed large battle axes from some men who were running up to the cage. They quickly handed the men the axes. Then they saw me laying on the floor of the cage. I smiled at them through and they took off running.

The executioners took the axes, raised them above their heads and swung them down at me at the same time, one axe falling on my neck and the other at my stomach but, neither even scratched my armor

"What is taking so long?!?!" Miss whined at the top of her lungs. 

The two looked at her, fear permeating their expression.

Miss attempted to stand up to see me on the cage floor but she didn't have the strength. "What... what is going on!?!?"

I stood up and cracked my neck. My black as night armor was thin and moved with me but still was harder than anything I could imagine. 

The crowd stood in shocked some running shouting that I was a night monster. I assumed they had come in contact with some of Matthew's creations. Miss stared in fear at me still sitting on her pedestal.

The two men in the cage with me ran for the door and locked it after running out. 

I laughed at them under my breath and tried to take a quick step towards the door but I underestimated my strength and ran into the bars of the cage breaking and bending them outwards. I tore them out of my way and felt them part as if they were made of wires rather than steel. 

"Someone kill him!!!" Miss screamed from the pedestal trying to climb down but she fell and hit the ground.

Should I repay her for killing that innocent girl? How many other people have died by her hand in the same way? Is vengeance necessary here?

Something had to be done. The least I could do was remove Miss from this people and give them a chance to escape their blind slavery. 

I walked over to her laying on the ground screaming as I stood over her. She screamed for someone to save her. I raised my hand to punch her but at the last second I heard her laugh.

I paused and looked around and saw the rest of the people laughing along with her. 

"Finally!!" came a familiar masculine voice from the woman laying on the ground. She shimmered and squirmed into the form of a man with black hair wearing a lab coat. The surrounding people turned into creatures almost as large as Max. All sixty of them laughing. All sixty deformed black monsters each in their own distinct form.