MIST: AFTER THE APOCALYPSE

Chapter Seventeen * Dom *

* Dom *

A baby on a mountain was not a common sight. However, that wasn't what the old man wrote to the local orphanage. He claimed that he found the baby on the streets, crying for his mother, and that he was too poor to care for a child.

The young boy grew up alongside children of similar origins, but found himself alienated from them. His strength was abnormal for a three-year-old, so much so that his friends started calling him "Dom" after a fabled hero.

Dom struggled in school because of his racing thoughts. No one liked the child who would blurt out the silliest things in the middle of class, teachers included, so his grades suffered.

One night saw a thief attempt to kidnap one of the children at the orphanage. By the time everyone awakened, the thief had the child in a chokehold with a knife against his throat. He threatened to draw blood unless the warden brought him everything he possessed.

While the warden ran to his office, a seven-year-old boy stepped forward.

"Get back here, child!"

Dom had a rough wooden ball in his hand with which the kids used to play. "Let him go or I'll hurt your head!"

"And what's a squirt like you gonna do, huh?" the thief laughed. Dom threw the ball at his head, the impact sending him flying through the wall.

Since that night, Dom had become popular in the orphanage. The children talked about him at school, in the park, until even the Count of the island had heard of the young boy with unfathomable strength. He offered Dom to join the defence forces when he was twelve years old.

Vicinity Ten was ridden with trouble, as Dom had come to know. He fought sea guardians by the hundreds and petty criminals by the thousands by the time he turned fourteen. His first day on the job was his most memorable. A sea guardian was reported off the shore of the island, where a band of soldiers were dispatched.

"Forty archers left and right!" the squad leader yelled. "Spears and ropes up front! Aim for the eyes, it's their weakest point. Go!"

"What about me?" Dom asked, eyes bright with excitement.

"Fall back for now, kid. Watch and learn."

As the archers got into position, Dom assessed the creature. It was his first time going head-to-head with a sea guardian, but in little time he could gauge its strength and its limits.

Arrows were fired after the spears failed to pierce the guardian's scales. Meanwhile, the squad leader eyed the child next to him. "Stay put, squirt!"

Dom had had enough. He zipped through the air, headed for the guardian's eyes. With a war cry, the child brought his spear down in a horizontal swipe, slashing both eyes with little effort.

Everyone was left speechless as Dom dropped to the ground in a swift landing.

"Y-you...!" Dom heard the leader stutter in astonishment.

"I did it!" Dom grinned at the shell-shocked men then took off with a salute.

Since then, Dom had been labeled the "little miracle." By the time Captain Aradag Spectro, registered as Captain Black, became a well-known name in the defence forces' wanted list, Dom had grown into his twenties. He was once offered to chase down the rogue man, but he declined in favor of chasing away the otherworldly beasts that ventured into the Vicinity.

One pivotal day in his life was when the private army's spokespeople stopped coming to offer him Captain Black's bounty job, because the next day...

Emergency alarms blared throughout the Vicinity. Dom rushed towards the scene and was appalled to find his colleagues dead or dismembered. This could only be the work of a beast. He found it lurking by, oblivious to his presence.