Chapter 16: Show Me What You Got

(Kazen’s POV)

The time was now exactly 11 PM. I sauntered up the steps to the Colosso Dome’s main entrance, only to see Cadel already waiting there. He was wearing a hoodie, looking down at me from the top of the steps. The stadium lights illuminated his silhouette.

I spat on the ground. Who does he think he is, calling me out near midnight? He was a mere 2-Star who dared to challenge a 5-Star. I sincerely hoped that he would not disappoint me.

I thought back to the thunderstorm. I was sure that my eyes were not playing tricks on me when it started raining upwards. I had missed the class self-introduction session on the first day due to personal reasons, but I had heard that he was only a 2-Star who could manipulate gravity, though only to a small extent, from my classmates. There was no way reversing the gravity of a thunderstorm, even if it was only the area surrounding our dormitory, would classify as a “small extent”. I was sure that Cadel must have more power than he let on. This curiosity had led me to accepting his challenge for tonight.

We walked in silence to one of the private arenas at the Dome’s basement. It was not like I was unfamiliar with this place—I had previous sparring sessions with Daxston here. He was a bit too weak for my liking, but he was still an acceptable training partner. The bigger problems lay with Raven and Spencer, my two other teammates. Spencer was clearly useless, but Raven was still a wild card. I had a gut feeling that she was hiding something, similar to what Cadel was doing now. I had asked the two of them to train with us, but they had both declined. One day, I might have to force them. I was certain our team was the strongest in the class, but there was no harm in being cautious.

We entered the first vacant room, turned on the lights and got to our corners of the arena.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to fight you,” Cadel said.

“Show me what you got then,” I replied, cracking my knuckles. Why was he so desperate to fight me? Whatever the case, I wanted to get down to it quickly.

I thrust out both my hands, energy crackling, and shot two solid bolts of pure black plasma straight at Cadel. If he could talk the talk, surely he could walk the walk, right?

To my surprise, my plasma completely disappeared about a meter before it hit him. I immediately fired another beam, which also got absorbed. How interesting.

I conjured a black wall of plasma spanning the width of the room, hiding me from his sight. I then thrust my hands forward, moving the entire wall in his direction. The plan was to pin him to the arena wall with my plasma wall. There was no way for him to avoid it, but I somehow knew he would have a counter.

Sure enough, what seemed like an invisible dome had appeared around Cadel. The plasma wall had a semicircle cut right through the middle of it. As I was trying to make sense of what happened, I suddenly felt an immense pressure coming from above. I collapsed to my knees, feeling as if the weight of the world was on my shoulders.

Gravity. Was this how strong his gravitational manipulation was? That can’t be right, his earlier defenses didn’t incorporate gravity into them. It looked like he had just absorbed my plasma.

I tried to get up, only to realise I couldn’t move at all. This was not because I was being crushed to the floor, but I literally couldn’t even move a muscle. A brief moment of panic set in before I immediately squelched it.

“Think. What can you still do without moving?” I put up a protective plasma dome of my own, and shot missiles out of it at Cadel. I could barely see out of my black barrier, but I sensed that he had once again absorbed my attack.

Ping! My plasma dome disappeared. I tried to see out of my peripheral vision and noticed Cadel walking over. I continued firing shots of plasma at him, but they all continued being absorbed. Suddenly, a thick, solid beam of plasma the size of a tree trunk came blasting at me from above, searing the ground right beside my head. I found myself panting heavily.

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“Looks like I win,” Cadel stated calmly. He released his grip on me, allowing me to move again.

I sat up. “That was something,” I said after a while. “You’ve proven your point, now what?”

Cadel towered over me. “Nothing, I just like fighting against other people. The stronger the better. You’re not bad yourself.”

I stared at him. “Do you take me for a fool?” I asked. He must have had an ulterior motive.

“We can talk on the way back. I have a few things I want to ask you as well. Let’s go,” he turned and left the room.

I followed him into the night. “You’re hiding your powers, why?”

“I don’t like standing out. Where were you on the first day of school?” he asked, changing the topic.

“What a stupid reason. Not standing out? If anything, you’re more sociable than me,” I retorted, ignoring his question.

“And yet you stand out more by being a loner,” Cadel countered.

I fell silent. What he said was indeed true. Our classmates took more notice of me than him purely because I kept to my own circle, while he blended in with the rest of them. It didn’t help that almost the whole cohort knew that I had lost to Zoey in our duel the other day.

I didn’t have any problems standing out though. As long as they didn’t bother me, I was fine with it. And yet this guy still sought after me and beat my ass. What a fascinating individual.

We continued walking. “You haven’t answered my question. Where were you on the first day of school?” Cadel repeated.

I deliberated on what to say. Finally, I answered. “I was trying to transfer out of District 4.”

Cadel rubbed his chin. “And why were you in District 4 in the first place?”

“Because I wanted to go there.” I was sure what I was saying did not make sense to Cadel. I only enrolled in District 4 because I wanted to avoid a certain someone: my brother.

Soren Rain. He was my older brother—born just within 12 months of me—yet I wanted to get as far away from him as possible. He had applied for District 1, and I knew for certain that he would enter, as he was more powerful than me. Way more powerful. With an insane Ability. He could probably even beat Cadel in a fight.

However, due to unforeseen circumstances, the enrollment didn’t go through. Since then, Soren had cut off all contact with me, which was fine by me. All I knew was that he wasn’t in District 1, which meant I had no reason to stay in District 4. I pleaded with the school administration at Waning Crescent to immediately transfer me to District 1, but they had rejected my request since it wasn’t an emergency.

Which left me stuck here with all these peasants, way below my skill level. Or so I thought. I had been in two fights so far and lost in both of them. Zoey Leomane was a 5-Star, but Cadel Ren had claimed to be a 2-Star, which was obviously not the case.

I waited for Cadel to push further, but he had stopped.

“Looks like you have your reasons,” Cadel said. “We don’t have to explain to each other why we’re both in District 4 when we both clearly do not belong here.”

I looked at him. “You still haven’t explained why you wanted to fight me.”

Cadel gave a dry laugh. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“I’ll decide that.”

Cadel’s smile vanished. “I want to beat every 5-Star in this school—no, this island, win the inter-school and inter-district tournaments and get the money I need to get to District 1. For that, I want to gauge the general level of the 5-Stars here first. Oh, and I absolutely love fighting.”

A manic gleam flickered in his eyes with his final words. Yep, this guy was crazy. Despite my second loss in a row, I found myself not regretting meeting up with Cadel tonight.

“You’re short on cash huh? That’s your motivation?” I smirked.

“Okay, let’s not push it. Oh, and one more thing, please don’t speak of our fight to anyone,” he replied.

I shrugged, intending to keep my loss a secret anyway. “Fine by me.”

We reached the dormitory blocks, separating without so much as a goodbye. I would have to reevaluate my perception of Cadel. He had always seemed so ordinary, yet he had such an extraordinary Ability. I realised I had forgotten to ask him how his powers worked, but I had roughly got the gist of it. From what I had gathered, he was able to absorb all incoming attacks while launching attacks of his own. This would make him a huge threat to anyone he was after.

I thought of his teammates: Jonah, Scarlette, Kaede and Mira. Other than Scarlette who was a 5-Star, the rest of them seemed normal. The thought that the others could also be hiding their powers nagged at the back of my mind, but they lacked the cool confidence that Cadel possessed, so I doubted that was the case.

Speaking of Scarlette, she had still not accepted my challenge. Whatever the reason, I would not force her to battle me if she didn’t want to. I would just assume that she was just intimidated by me.

Suddenly, I heard the rustling of bushes. I perked up, instantly on high alert.

“Who’s there?” I called. My dormitory block was slightly further up the road compared to Cadel’s, and he had already entered his. I approached an area of greenery within our estate where the sound came from cautiously.

“Come out slowly with your hands up,” I warned. “If I sense any hostility I will shoot.” As I said that, I summoned 2 large balls of black plasma in the air, perfectly camouflaged against the darkness of the night.

The bushes rustled, and a lone figure stepped out with deliberate calm, his hands raised but steady. His eyes locked onto mine, unwavering.

“Look, man, I mean you no harm,” Jonah said, his voice firm. There was no fear in his tone—only the quiet strength of a man who knew exactly what he was up against.