Chapter 10: Once Bitten?

We stowed the Boobot back in its corner. I would later contact the school to inform them that it was broken. I had scanned it under my name, and the last thing I needed was the school to come after me. Fortunately, Boobots were so durable that should a student somehow break one, the school would cover for it. Still, I heard there was a limit to how many Boobots we could break, but it was not like I would be going around breaking them all over the place.

We made our way to the basement, searching for a vacant private practice room. As we rounded the corner, we spotted two familiar figures disappear into one of them.

“Wait, was that Kazen and Daxston?” Kaede asked.

It certainly looked like it. “Seems like they’re not just relaxing as well,” I noted.

We finally found a room that was empty and entered it, putting the unexpected sighting out of our minds.

“Alright, you ready?” Scarlette shot.

“Wait, the others haven’t got into the safe room yet.” I was referring to the small room at the side of the arena, a similar one to the room where Kaede watched the fight between me and Daxston from.

“Um, Scarlette,” a meek voice said. It was Mira. She had barely said anything the whole time she was with us.

“Hmm? What’s up?” Scarlette enquired, puzzled at the sudden interruption.

“Your— your arms. Are they okay?” Mira asked.

I looked at Scarlette; her arms were slightly bruised from where the Boobot had kicked her.

“Huh—? Oh, it’s uh, fine. Honestly, I cou—wait a minute,” Scarlette paused. “Wanna give it a try?” she grinned, offering her arm.

Mira beamed, holding her hands out above Scarlette’s. A gentle green glow appeared. Slowly, the bruises faded. The rest of us watched in awe.

“Woah…,” Scarlette gasped, flexing her arm. “It felt really good! Like just a rush of warmth.”

Mira blushed. “You’re welcome,” she whispered, looking pleased with herself.

“Thank you, now I can really focus on our fight,” Scarlette growled.

As Kaede, Jonah and Mira headed over to the safe room, Scarlette and I walked to opposite sides of the arena. I felt a sense of déjà vu, except this time I was facing off against a 5-Star, instead of a 4-Star.

“Ready?” she called.

“Come at me,” I said.

With a roar, fire burst from her palms, propelling her forward.

I already won. More like, I couldn’t possibly imagine her winning. I could simply absorb all her kinetic and heat energy, instantly locking her in place. However, I thought that doing so would go against the spirit of the competition. With a snap of my fingers, I extinguished her flames, but let her momentum carry her onwards.

Scarlette’s eyes flickered for a second, before she reignited her flames. She swept her arm in a wide arc, sending a wave of fire barreling towards me. When I extinguished those as well, it revealed something akin to a meteor coming straight at me. It seemed that she had taken a page out of the Boobot’s book, using her own flames as a sort of smokescreen.

Now brimming with energy, I exerted an immense air current in her direction. Her flames sputtered, but remained lit. I realised that she was the meteor itself. The gale-force wind had slowed her down, but it wasn’t enough.

I held my hand up. Scarlette’s fist slammed into my palm. Instantly, I absorbed all the energy she had on her. Of course, I didn’t take away anything which would’ve injured or maybe possibly killed her, like her own body heat, blood flow, or ability to breathe. She was now frozen in place, mid-air, eyes wide in shock. It was like she was frozen in time, but her conscience was still active.

“Looks like I win,” I said. She could see and hear me perfectly, but she couldn’t move her mouth. She repeatedly made efforts to light herself up, but I just kept taking away her flames.

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I waggled my finger in front of her face as if I were scolding a naughty child, knowing it would piss her off. I then directed my hand to the ceiling and let loose an enormous surge of energy, in the form of flames this time. What goes around comes around, as they say. A waterfall of fire cascaded towards the ceiling. Now that the show was over, I released my hold on her.

She collapsed to her knees, coughing heavily. My other friends came rushing over. To Scarlette, not me.

“Are you okay?!” Jonah asked her worriedly. Mira was back in heal mode, though I had made sure not to injure Scarlette at all. Kaede was standing a bit off to the side, but she was looking at me weird. It was very subtle but I sensed what I think was a shadow of fear in her eyes.

Judging from their reactions, I immediately knew I had somehow messed it up. It seemed like my display had scared my friends more than I intended. I held my hands up in an apologetic gesture.

“Sorry, I tried to hold back. I made sure not to injure her,” I said. As those words left my mouth, I realised it may come off as patronisingly arrogant. I hoped my friends didn’t take it the wrong way.

Scarlett stood up, pointing a finger at me. “You… There’s no way you’re just a 4-Star,” she panted. “I’ve had easier fights against other 5-Stars than this.”

Kaede, possibly sensing that Scarlette was unharmed from her behaviour, looked a little relieved. “That was scary, the way you just held her still,” she admitted to me. I considered reminding her that I had done the exact same thing to Daxston on the first day of school, and she had even seen me in combat with him, but I figured that wouldn’t exactly help the situation right now.

Mira looked relieved as well. “You’re right, she’s perfectly fine,” she said, standing up.

Jonah turned to me, looking embarrassed. “Sorry man, I panicked for a second there. I didn’t know what was going on, all of a sudden she was completely still and then she was on the floor coughing,” he rambled.

I was still a little bit shaken with their behaviour, but I was glad that they had sort of recovered. I helped Scarlette to her feet. “I’m sorry about that,” I apologised again.

She grimaced. “You’re such an ass you know that? Taunting me when I couldn’t move…” She softened up. “I’ll just assume you’re a 5-Star, okay? Whatever the case, I’m just glad you’re on our side.”

I was secretly grateful to Scarlette for not escalating the situation. Perhaps she did have some leadership qualities.

“Alright, I don’t know about you all, but I’m feeling kinda tired now,” Jonah yawned. He was right, it was a long day, and it was getting late.

Scarlette dusted herself off. “That settles it then, that’ll be all for today. Thanks for joining, guys.”

We made our way back to the dormitory, engaging in light chatter as we walked. Soon, we arrived, separating for our rooms.

After a brief shower, I crafted an email to the school support, informing them of the broken Boobot. Right as I hit submit, my phone buzzed. I expected it to be Colleen checking in, for we hadn’t talked much recently. It was from Kaede.

“Hi Cadel, I’m sorry about just now. I got a little bit startled when you completely dominated Scarlette earlier. I felt I acted a bit strangely after the fight so it might have felt a bit awkward. I hope that didn’t bother you too much.”

A grim smile formed on my lips. “Don’t worry about it, I probably shouldn’t have fought the way I did.”

I paused before continuing. “Actually, if you don’t mind, I was wondering why you still felt that way even after you’ve seen me use my powers a few times before. I thought you would’ve been used to it.”

Kaede’s status alternated between “Typing…” and “Online”. She was probably having trouble thinking of a reason. Finally, she replied.

“I think it might be because you used your Ability on a friend. It’s kinda chilling to see one of our friends being frozen and helpless like that.”

I thought for a moment. I guess it made sense, seeing someone close to us in such a state. Especially since the one who put her in that state was me, someone she trusted. Even though it was just a friendly fight, it must have been a terrifying experience for her.

“I see, I understand now. Thanks for clearing it up.” This was a useful learning experience. I made a mental note to never use any offensive Abilities on my friends again.

“Oh, another thing.” She continued.

There was a pause. “The other day at the mall… You looked like you were interested in the action movie at the cinema. ‘The Agent’s Shadow’, was it? Would you like to watch it together?”

Once again, I was surprised by her perception abilities. I had in fact been considering giving it a watch.

“Sure. The gang had decided that we were eating dinner at the mall tomorrow, right? Say we all go watch it together after dinner?” I asked.

There was another pause.

“That’s… uh… I was actually planning to do my homework after dinner tomorrow so I have the weekend free. Maybe we could watch it on Saturday? You could train me as well after that,” she replied.

That worked as well. Tomorrow was Friday, so there was probably going to be some extra homework for the weekend.

“Yup, sounds good. I’ll free up some time for Saturday then,” I texted.

“Really? Great!”

We continued texting about random stuff until I decided to call it a night.

“It’s getting late. It’s about time I hit the sack,” I texted.

“Oh. Well okay then, good night!” she sent, along with a sticker of a cat sleeping.

With that, I switched off my phone and turned in for the night.

As I entered the classroom the next morning, there was a commotion over at Scarlette’s table. A crowd of my classmates had gathered around there, with an unexpected figure standing in the middle.

“You heard what I said,” spat Kazen. “I’m challenging you to a fight. 5-Star to 5-Star.”

“She already asked you to wait, man!” Jonah shouted.

“Please calm down guys. Kazen, this is way too sudden. At least give her some time to think,” pleaded Kaede.

Scarlette was looking rather distressed in her seat. She was fidgeting uncomfortably, refusing to look Kazen in the eye. “I—I’ll let you know later,” she mumbled.

I found the situation quite odd. Scarlette had proudly proclaimed that she would never back down from a challenge, so why was she hesitating now?