Cursed

Chapter 2

"Huh?! You got an invitation too?!" The scrambled egg from Max's mouth almost fell out.

"Yeah, and this cool eyepatch!" Lucian exclaimed, grinning.

"No way!" Max smiled, "The contest is today, isn't it?"

"It is...?"

"Ye."

"Oh."

"Why?"

"I don't have any abilities and I don't have time to train."

"..."

"..."

"Welp. It's over."

When it had reached nighttime, Lucian and Max had pressed the sensor at the same time, sending them both into a large white facility. Many people were there already. Some had animal heads, some had extra limbs, and others were flexing their supernatural abilities.

"Wow, this place is bizarre," Lucian said, observing his surroundings.

"No doubt." Max agreed.

Suddenly, the lights went off and a stage showed in the middle. Everyone began chattering and mumbling about what to do when a woman's voice suddenly spoke:

"Silence." (This is a technique that I will explain later, they will always be bolded)

Suddenly, a spotlight cast its light down upon a woman with blondish-white hair, lightning glasses, and mechanical limbs. Melodie?!

"Hello! Hola! 你好! Welcome to the competition where your lifetime dreams can come true!" Melodie waved at the crowd, holding her iconic gold microphone. "Today, all of you darlings will be participating in a few tests to see which one of you guys is the most outstanding! With that said, let us not waste any more time and begin the competition!!"

Suddenly, Lucian found himself in an isolated white room. He was standing in the middle of the room, facing the wall. Then, a small humanoid robot strolled in through the wall and presented a screen to him, scanning his face.

"State your name please." A happy face was shown on the screen.

"Uh, Lucian Steelheart."

"Please scan your fingerprint." The screen displayed a thumb size panel

Lucian pressed his fingerprint on the panel. He was getting fed up with all the scanning and identification tests. The robot then displayed a green checkmark, indicating that the identification tests were complete. The robot then quickly phased back through the wall, leaving Lucian alone. However, this was short-lived.

A large beast with hundreds of glowing red eyes then teleported into the room, roaring at him. Lucian panicked and attempted an escape. As expected, the only thing that happened in this futile attempt was Lucian hitting his head on the wall and falling over. He then turned around to attempt to face the monster.

He kicked at it to only stun it temporarily. What was he going to do against such a ferocious beast? Suddenly, through his three eyes, he saw past the eyepatch and to something he had never happened to notice before.

At the top of the facility, there were many windows. At one of them, a woman wearing a blindfold took notes on the people at the bottom. Beside her sat a man wearing a business vest and had four eyes, two below his original ones.

"I don't get what you see in him." He grumbled in a bored tone.

"I'm going to need to monitor him if he truly is one of the cursed people." The blindfolded woman spoke.

"Okay..." The man sighed, "Whatever you say, darling."

"Thank you." The woman smiled.

Behind them, another woman wearing lightning shades casually walked up to them.

"I got everyone into the rooms, 'Goddess"!" The woman said, her metallic boots clinking on the floor.

"Thank you, but for the last time, stop calling me that!"

"Heh! But you are!" The woman chuckled.

"Can't argue with the facts." The man beside the blindfolded woman whistled.

"Haa..." The woman sighed, "Oh yeah, Melodie, did you happen to take a look at that boy?"

"I did, he's cute!" Melodie chuckled and blushed.

"Not that. I mean, does he have cursed energy?"

"Only a little, but it's similar to yours." Melodie smiled.

"That's- Huh?" The blindfolded woman noticed Lucian doing something unusual.

Back in Lucian's little room, he slid under the monster and stomped on its large fleshy tail, making it scream in agony. For once, his three eyes had been useful! They had somehow told him that the tail of the monster was its weakness. The monster quickly fell to the ground as soon as he had stomped on it. He did it! He had triumphed against the monster!

But when he had just begun to celebrate, another monster appeared in front of him. This one was a humanoid spider. It screeched at him and immediately shot webs around the room, making Lucian quickly dodge the attacks.

However, this time Lucian did not panic. He knew what to do now; he could win this!

End of Chapter 2

Bonus:

"I wonder how Lucian's doing without any powers." Max huffed as he continued running circles around the beast, trying to make it dizzy.