Dead

At first, Axel was expressionless. His position, with his hands and feet tied, looked like a criminal about to be publicly executed. More like publicly humiliated. 

Axel’s indifferent eyes twitched. This water… something is wrong with it.

“Hahahahahah, did you notice?” the boy asked with a smirk. He turned to the instructor.

“I was able to learn a new method to control my ability. Earlier, that waterfall was at -2°C. I haven’t learned the technique to lower the water’s temperature, but I can control how hot the water can be. Currently, the water is at 40°C.”

The boy proudly showed off the temperature reading on his holographic screen. Within a few seconds, it had reached 50°C. Then 60°C.

As the temperature kept rising, Axel thrashed around. His throat was almost ripped as he screamed. The other students looked at him with uncomfortable gazes.

The instructor patted the boy’s shoulder, “That’s enough, you will burn his skin.”

The boy ignored the instructor’s words and stalled.

“AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!” Axel struggled, thrashed around, and let out a guttural scream. Everyone knew something was wrong. Axel’s whole body writhed until his scream was drowned out. The metal fence he was tied to shook violently, mirroring Axel’s actions of writhing in extreme pain.

“Hey, stop it.”

“This will kill him.” The students murmured their opinions.

“I told you that’s enough!” The instructor used his abilities and dismissed the boy’s water.

“Tsk,” the boy clicked his tongue. “It’s not that much. Why are you all so worked up?” he asked nonchalantly. Then he sneered. “Surely, that much will not kill him. What kind of loser is he?”

“Untie him,” the instructor ordered the others, but nobody moved.

“Didn’t you all hear what I just said?!” the instructor shouted at the top of his voice. These teenagers were so full of themselves they did not listen to their teachers. Some of them even had the guts to threaten their teachers.

But none of them could act against the instructor.

Because he was a Challenger who had reached the tenth floor.

The boy and his friends moved forward and untied Axel from his bonds. Axel stopped squirming or screaming. His head just lifelessly hung. The instructor frowned. He did not hesitate to move forward and hold Axel’s shoulder.

“Hey, boy, you alright?” He shook his shoulder, but Axel was unresponsive.

When Axel was completely untied, his whole body weight crashed to the ground with a loud thud. All the students were stunned. The instructor was stiff.

He wasn’t able to catch the boy’s body in time because a heavy feeling weighed on his heart when his hand made contact with the boy’s shoulder.

It was the touch of a lifeless body.

Axel crashed head down. His body no longer moved.

The instructor got out of his trance and immediately flipped Axel’s body. Axel’s face was red as blood. His skin was full of blisters, and a strange smell emitted from Axel’s body.

The students didn’t know what it was, but the instructor was familiar with it.

It was the smell of human flesh being boiled and burned alive.

At once, the instructor shouted at the students to contact an ambulance. His hand touched Axel’s shoulder, but it was so hot he immediately removed his hand.

The skin under Axel’s clothes was full of blisters from the blood bursting into the skin. A clear sign that Axel’s insides were as good as damaged.

He was boiled alive. The instructor frantically tried to remove Axel’s clothes. But his skin was now stuck to his clothes as if it had become a part of his skin.

His whole body was swelling, and a lot of faintly bubbling blood leaked through his clothes. His skin had now become well-burnt flesh.

The instructor’s face darkened. His hands were shaking as he put his finger on Axel’s nose.

“He’s not breathing,” he solemnly said.

“What?!” The boy responsible for killing Axel stepped forward. “Instructor, what are you talking about? My water-controlling ability is not capable of killing anyone. Can’t this guy just be pretending to be dead?” he snarled.

He was angry that this instructor was dumb. Couldn’t he see this useless guy was just pretending to be dead? He and his friends had used Axel multiple times to test their abilities. No matter how many bruises they saw, this guy didn’t die!

“Hey, Axel, wake up!” The boy kicked Axel on his shoulder. The force was enough to shake Axel. But the dead lifeless body was much heavier than the living.

Axel’s eyes were wide open. His white cornea had reddened lines. But they never blinked. Axel’s body had been lying on the ground for more than five minutes, but he never blinked. Not even once.

The instructor knew it was futile to do anything. This boy was dead. His face showed a look of fragility for a split second before he resolutely took a deep breath.

He dialed the principal’s phone number.

“What’s wrong, Mr. Inid?”

Mr. Inid groaned before he spoke. “Sir, you can fire me, suspend me, or request a restraining order so that no other school will employ a lousy instructor with a criminal record like me.”

“W–what are you talking about?” The principal’s voice was shaking on the other line. It’s not every day he hears these solemn words from a retired Challenger.

“A student with no awakened abilities died in front of the whole class after he was used as a testing subject for an awakened student to test his powers. I wasn’t able to prevent it in time. I failed as an instructor.”

His words were heard by the students. The boy, who was responsible for killing Axel, was so angered he delivered another kick at Axel.

“Hey!” The boy was venting his frustrated emotions at Axel’s dead body.

“Useless, powerless imp!” Another kick in the stomach.

“Get up!” His foot stomped on Axel’s face.

“My water-controlling ability is not fatal! Are you so weak you can’t stand just a small simulation? Are you that flimsy?!”