As he slowly regained consciousness, Josh felt the cold touch of a metallic item. Right next to him was a scalpel that was sinking into the metallic chair he was on. How weird! 

Nearby, a man in a bloodied once white coat was slowly walking over, and further away, a lizardman was paralyzed on the ground. The Gene Corp guy's eyes were swimming as it was the only part he could move. 

Josh quickly freed himself from his restraints with the scalpel cutting through them like butter. He was akin to a bird that had gotten its wings back. He could feel blood and mana circulate all over his body, filling it with power.

As he rose up, both individuals opened their eyes wide in shock. Never had someone escaped the nightmare from their knowledge. Their entire common sense was flipped over its head at this very moment. 

"Y-you! How are you awake?!" The bloodied man uttered. 

"The trick is not to be asleep," Josh replied. 

For now, he hurried to the lizard's side. Scalpel in hand, he slowly approached it toward the man's neck. His eyes showed shock, but then he showed a small grin as his scales somehow began glowing. 

"Ah fuck! That's his armored state. This is extremely perverse, and we'll need a strong attack skill to break that!" The bystander cried out. 

"Strong skill, is it?" Josh mused before the scalpel in his hand began glowing with purple energy. Then, he made it sink deep into the opponent, beheading him somehow with a single strike. 

"What the fuck?! What skill was that?!" 

Josh looked at his own hand in stupefaction. Holy shit, he had just meant to barely cut the enemy to scare him into talking! He felt like a man that had mistaken his chainsaw for a butter knife! 

"Doesn't matter. We have to leave," Josh replied. 

"Alright, let's do—" He was interrupted by the sound of a door. 

CLANG! 

"Haha! Your savior is here! No more babysitting for you!" A man happily walked into the room. 

He seemed both lean and fat, and he looked squishy somehow. As he saw the scene, he jumped, realizing that his friend was not in a state ever to babysit any prisoner ever again. 

"YOU!" There was nothing else. 

The fight began with that single word. The man activated some kind of ability, and the room was instantly filled with green fog. It was akin to releasing a green smoke bomb in a small closet.

Escaping it was impossible as the man was blocking the only exit. They all began coughing. The mist had an insufferable smell of rotting mushrooms. Josh could quickly hear a THUD, the armless guy falling to the ground. 

Was this sleeping gas?! He circulated his mana inside his body and somehow felt his bloodline activating as it devoured the very air that was entering his mouth. He felt like vomiting as he dropped to the ground, immobile. 

Meanwhile, the enemy was slowly approaching while mumbling to himself. 

"Kill them or bring them alive?"

"We need the rat, but he killed brother scaly."

"I guess I can start by tearing all his limbs off." 

"That should wor—" He probably had more to say, but Josh had struck him with a fatal blow. Opening his chest and destroying his heart. 

Incomprehension filled his beady eyes as he breathed his last. Josh couldn't help but feel that this was too easy. How had he not felt any danger?! Then the other had been defeated by the third party that was now sleeping on the ground. 

There was one thing that was very weird about that guy. Josh usually felt confident about reading people, but that one was plain weird. He had shown dissatisfaction when Josh had freed himself but hadn't shown any killing intent ever since he had woken up. 

He felt like he was missing part of the picture to figure it out. That's when he saw something out of the corner of his eyes. This was the only other item noteworthy in the room. He slowly picked up the small intricate gray box. 

From it came the sound of a beating heart. Inside, there was some kind of implant?! What was up with that? Just as he was about to try and figure it out happened another disruption. 

CLANG! 

Two men that he knew well appeared in his sigh. They were his kidnappers. 

"I'm telling you! It's the motherfucking Doctor! We have to stop him before he c—Wtf!" The slime guy cried out. 

"Seems The Doctor isn't the main issue here. Two of us are dead. The Doctor is out of commission. That one is about to fall down too. Let's finish him first." Growled the ugly guy. 

"Can't we discuss instead of fight?" Josh asked with a labored breath. 

They didn't bother replying as they charged straight at him! He could only brace himself and try his best to read their movements. That's when he realized something. These guys were complete amateurs! 

They were strong, they were fast, and they were definitely insanely resistant. But, there was something very wrong with their movements. They showed clear intent of everywhere they would attack! 

He had the feeling of playing an extremely hard Guitarist Hero song. Sure everything was going very fast, but he could see every single upcoming note. He simply needed to press the right keys at the right time. 

In this case, he had to move slightly in order to dodge the deadly attacks. But there was an issue. Dodging was really the best he could do. He quickly found himself overwhelmed by their intensity. 

They showed no sign of slowing down. That's when he decided to use the same tactic The Doctor had evidently just used. He would sacrifice his body to win the fight. That's how he took a punch directly to his shoulder, shattering it. 

The ugly guy showed a victorious smile, disregarding the claw Josh had managed to stick into his chest. He didn't even bother taking it out as he smiled brightly. 

"Did you forget my abilities? You lost your shoulder absolutely for no reason. Now, you only have one arm to fight us. How about you cripple yourself now, and we might just keep you alive?" He laughed. 

Meanwhile, the slime guy could be seen making a call. "Boss, we need you with the rat prisoner. He's tried to escape. Two of us are dead." 

"You know, asking me to cripple myself is such a cliche villain move. But there is one thing I want to know." Josh slowly asked. 

"Oh?"

"Why did you guys even bring me here? This rat I possess is quite useless. All it does is breathe and stand in place, nothing else." Josh remarked. 

"Hahaha, how small-minded you are! It will be the first step to us ruling the world. We haven't managed to get the sloth bloodline, but this will be a great first step!" He sounded like a fanatic. 

"I can't wait until our defense is as strong at it. I can already picture it! We could be standing immobile with the whole world trying to kill us, and it wouldn't matter." The slime said excitedly. 

Then began a monologue on how Gene Corp would soon rule the world and lots of bullshit that didn't seem to make practical sense. Well, brainwashing was common in any well-established evil organization. 

In fact, they talked just enough for the ghoul poison to kick in. The one that was stronger the higher the enemy's vitality was. That perverse one was definitely weak in all situations but this one. 

THUD! 

As the big guy fell, the slime one realized he had fucked up. Still, he didn't seem that worried as he began moving backward. Josh chased, not giving him the opportunity to retreat. 

"I don't know what trick you used, but you won't ever find my weakness! I'll kill you myself, I swear!" 

"By weakness, you mean that very small core that keeps bouncing all over the place in your body, right?" Josh slashed it as the slime showed pure terror. 

"How?!" He asked with his last breath. 

"You have too much anger in your heart." He replied, smiling. 

The enemy kicked the bucket outraged by such a patronizing, self-righteous, bullshit philosophy statement. His face was a mask of regret. Well, Josh had been truthful. How the guy had killing intent in his core was beyond him! 

CLANG! 

"Motherfucker!" 

There the Nightmare was, evidently angry seeing all his commanders lying on the floor dead. To be fair, they had made it so easy! He would have never stood a chance had they actually polished their fighting skills. 

"Sup!" Josh calmly greeted the man. 

Surprisingly, even with his taunts, he regained his calm. He now still looked as gentle and scholarly as before, albeit with a hint of savagery in his eyes. This one would be trouble. 

He didn't reply and charged at him. A few seconds later, he had already managed to trade hits with Josh. He touched him, activating his nightmare ability while Josh managed to cut a long cut in his chest. 

Sadly, the wound was too shallow. The man had been extremely careful for he had guessed that his skill would be useless. He showed a calculative smile as he began buying time instead of trying to beat him. 

That was bad for Josh! Really bad! 

"Aren't you angry that I killed your men? Aren't you going to avenge them?" Josh tried angering him again. 

"Of course, but I'll wait for my troops to get here. It won't be too late to take revenge then. We will have plenty of fun together later." 

Josh could only grind his teeth in anger at this sigh. He would have to force the fight against an enemy that was stronger than him and actually smart. 

How the heck was he supposed to win this?!

Creator's Thought

A wise man once said: "Everything in life has its counter". Another wise man once said: "If you're acting like an overconfident idiot then your counter is anyone actually using his brain."

In their defense, these Gene Corp guys possibly suffered from gene therapy side effects.