When Swords Turn Black

Black curly hair, dark skin and blood-red eyes, Omari was not your average fifteen-year-old boy. It didn't help that he was thin as a stick, so his school uniform hung off him like a hanger. He was playing with his butterfly knife on his way to school while thinking when he felt chills go down his spine. The sky had become cloudy and the town was silent. Waking up to the world around him, he looked around to see there were no people in the once bustling town. There weren't even cars on the road. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't immediately scared, and understanding the situation only intensified his fear. It was a monster attack.

A boom came from above. He looked up to see huge chunks of debris falling from stories high. He ran and dived before they came crashing into the ground. Looking at where the debris came, he saw a monster. It had the head of a tiger, the torso of an ape, the legs of an eagle and arms of razored tentacles. The only thing giving Omari hope of surviving it was a blond-haired, bearded man, dressed in black plated tactical armour wielding a grey, cross shaped sword and drawing electricity from the town to himself. The monster whipped its tentacles at the slayer, but with lightning speed he deflected the blow, sending the tentacles slashing through buildings.

Omari ran for his life, but could not outrun the fight. The slayer released a discharge of electricity from himself, stunning the monster for a bit. Raising his sword, he dropped it on the monster's head, but the fur on its head had turned into black, skeletal armor. Once unfrozen, its leg became that of a mantis and kicked the slayer, sending him flying into the ground beside Omari. The road exploded with electricity where the slayer landed to soften the landing. He looked up to see Omari. "What are you doing here?" Omari turned around and tried running that way, but instantly, the monster had grown giant bat wings and, with its talons, reached for Omari's head.

He could see it coming but was too slow to do anything… A few moments ago, Omari sat upside down on the living room couch, playing with his butterfly knife. He especially liked sitting in the living room whenever his dad was cooking in the kitchen nearby the living room. Even if he did not like eating, he liked the smell of food and at that moment, his dad was in the kitchen. Another reason he sat in the living room while his dad cooked was to use his control to help out in the kitchen from the living room because, see, Omari had the power to control slashes.

From the living room, Omari could swing about his butterfly knife and cut up the vegetable in the kitchen. It took him a while to learn to do it since he could not see what was happening in the kitchen, but with some effort and good coordination, it became easy. "Onion rings." His dad said, laying down an onion in the centre of a cutting board. Omari spun the knife between his fingers, sending off slashes that found their way to the kitchen and split the onion into perfect rings. His dad couldn't help but grin after seeing it happen. Matter how many times he saw it, it was always impressive. Omari was his mother's son. "He even had his mother's eyes."

"I wish I had her everything else, too. Then my face wouldn't have a horse face."

His dad was first shocked by this statement but soon chuckled, "I said that out loud, didn't I?" Cuts appeared on the cutting board, saying yes. "Mari, what did I say about using cuts to communicate?" His dad tried to say sternly, but that sternness quickly broke into more laughter as more cuts appeared, saying sorry. Once the laughter died, his dad seemingly randomly asked, "Mari, do you have any dreams?"

"Mhmm," Omari thought, "I've recntly been having these weird dreams where I got straight, white hair."

"Not those types of dreams," His dad snickered. "I swear I have a clown for a son. But I'll take your answer as a no."

His dad continued, "You know it's a good thing."

"Being a clown?"

"Not having dreams. Dreams won't make you happy."

"That's an odd thing to say. I'm sure if Samson became a slayer, he would be happy forever."

"You might be right there, but not for the reasons you think. He would be happy because when one day he dies, he wouldn't regret having lived his life killing monsters and saving others. Knowing you would have no regrets when you die is the source of happiness while you live" He clanged utensils together to tell Omari he was done cooking. He got off the chair and made his way to the dining room. He found his dad already sat having dished a bistro steak with buttermilk onion rings.

"So what will make you happy before you die?"... Then with all his lightning, the slayer then shot back the monster. "Stand behind me." He told Omari. Once back to back with Omari, the slayer rose his sword and closed his eyes. The monster flying back, turned all its limbs into snakes that stretched and bit into buildings to slow it down. When it came to a halt, its main body balled up before its stretched limbs sent it sonic booming back to the slayer, flasher than the eye could see. He sighed and called, "Thunderclap," before lightning from the clouds above struck his sword and sent it swinging down.

The thunder from the slash split the ground and the sky. As for the monster, perfectly divided by the slash, its halves sped past the slayer and exploded with enough force to level the city that laid in front of Omari. "God." Omari thought only He would have such power, but you would not hear a god fall. Omari turned around to see the slayer on one knee. "Are you ok?" Omari tried to get him up on his feet.

"Don't worry about me," He stood up. Drop of blood fell from his ear. "Can you still hear me?" Omari nodded, and the slayer chuckled. "First, you aren't summoned away like everyone else during a monster fight and then your ears survive the sound of a thunderclap. You sure you're a human?"

Omari was about to answer that but the slayer continued, "My son is just like you., your whole generation is full of special people, more special than I could ever be."

"Don't say that. You killed the thing that did that," Omari pointed to the flattened city just to see it being reconstructed, no, rewinded to its previous state.

"It's one type of power to kill a monster, but it takes a new world of power to make it as if they never existed to begin with. And that's just the power of one special guy with time control. I wonder what you guys will do with your controls."

Cooking was the most Omari had done with his control, but a question entered his mind. "Do you think -" The clouds drizzled for less than a moment and the slayer disappeared. In his place, all the cars and people that had once been in the town reappeared as if nothing had happened. Omari looked to the sky and saw the clouds had formed a σ shape. Then a car started hooting at him so he got off the road.