Chapter 19: Dead of the Night

A strange feeling welled within me as I heard my friends rolling and gasping in pain. What was this rush of feelings? Was it anger? Excitement? Perhaps just pure adrenaline?

Once again, my passive energy absorption had partially reduced the attack. If that’s how they want to play…

While still partially blinded, I instantly absorbed all kinetic energy from everything within a hundred-meter radius. Anything that currently existed or entered this domain would have its movement stripped.

The forest around me appeared to be frozen in time. The trees stood motionless, their leaves hanging soundlessly in the still air. Silence suddenly surrounded us. I had promised not to freeze my friends, but this was an emergency. They were probably still in pain, but I had no choice if I wanted to prevent further ambushes.

I swiftly cleared my vision and found Lumia, who stood motionless, her gaze fixed on us. While it may have looked deceiving to an outsider, I had not stopped time, but merely absorbed all movement from my surroundings. This meant everyone was still fully conscious. I remembered Lumia was able to activate her Ability while frozen and braced myself with an energy cancellation barrier.

Sure enough, I felt a sudden surge of light and sound energy launched in my direction. This time, I was ready to absorb all of it, which I did. In turn, I induced pressure via air compression around Lumia’s neck, essentially attempting to choke her out. However, I wasn’t intending to actually kill her.

I walked up to her. “If you do that again, I will inflict pain far worse than you can imagine,” I threatened, releasing my temporary freeze over the forest. Lumia collapsed to the floor, coughing, her eyes watering from the stress, her face red.

My friends were released from their spell as well. I hoped they would forgive me for freezing them. Holding a sustained period of energy absorption took its toll on me—I was much better at absorbing a large amount of energy at once rather than over a period of time.

I looked around. Where was our main man, Ignar? Was he even here? Or was he—

“Look out!” I heard Scarlette yell. A huge, solid burst of flames blasted from her hand, aimed right above me.

I looked up, just in time to see lava being deflected by Scarlette’s fire. I instantly cooled off the remainder. At the same time, four figures landed in front of me. One of them was Ignar.

“Tsk. And here I thought we could catch you off guard. You’re a naughty boy, disobeying instructions,” he spat.

I quickly put two and two together. So Lumia was just a decoy—they tried to jump me by teleporting above me. I considered just paralyzing them again, but if there was a lesson to be learned from our last encounter, it was that one of his friends behind him—the teleporter—would just teleport them out again.

“Did you get frozen by my Ability just now?” I asked.

“Does it matter? Torin here could just teleport us out of your range.”

On cue, a tall, lanky boy stepped forward, his face twisting into a wicked grin. “Hope you enjoyed our little trick!” he smirked.

I needed to incapacitate this pesky teleporter, fast. Fortunately, it should be pretty easy.

Before anyone could react, I absorbed the heat from the lingering lava and dashed forward. All the energy I had absorbed over the past few minutes was converted into speed, and I rocketed towards the boy known as Torin. I then smashed a devastating uppercut into his chin. He was launched backward, instantly knocked out. I think I may have broken his jaw.

“You—!” Ignar roared. Rage took over his smug features, and he let loose a torrent of lava in my direction. I instantly cooled it, and once again used this energy to propel myself into him. I intended to sock him in the face as well, but Ignar barely managed to sidestep it. I noticed Lumia squatting at the side, timidly glancing in my direction. Ignar’s two remaining friends, cloaked in dark hoodies, tried to rush me, but Scarlette held them off.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” she called, spraying flames at them. They didn’t seem to be that powerful, for they were skedaddling from the flames.

Flame and lava illuminated the forest.

I had said that I would make this quick, but admittedly, this was getting kind of fun. I relished in the heat of the battle, no pun intended, knowing I could put an end to this whenever I wanted. Ignar wasn’t exactly a pushover either, though I could easily make him one.

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If I were here alone, I would’ve toyed with him a little longer, but I didn’t want to jeopardise the safety of my friends any longer purely because of my own selfish whims.

Just like Lumia, I froze Ignar into position, leaving only his head free. I started controlling his breathing, leaving enough oxygen intake to make him feel light-headed.

“You’re really… quite something…” he wheezed.

“And you’re quite outmatched. Leave us alone from now on,” I ordered.

At first glance, Ignar didn’t seem stupid enough to ignore my warning.

“Fine, just let us go. At the very least, these suckers here are just acting on my command. They aren’t a part of this.” He gestured over at Lumia and the others.

“How honorable,” I scoffed. “Whatever, I’ll let you guys go once you answer some questions.”

Ignar nodded meekly, eager to get this over with.

Suddenly, thin strips of lava ejected from his fingertips, shooting in my direction. They made contact with my anti-energy barrier, which instantly dissolved the lava, transferring its latent energy to me.

I motioned at Ignar, manipulating the motion of his arm. “CRACK!” I snapped his elbow in the wrong direction.

“OWW!” he yelled. Everyone around us looked over, their faces contorting in surprise.

“Stop playing and answer me. How did you guys find out about our private information?” I asked.

Ignar whimpered. “Fine! It’s Miko and Eiko! Those two over there!”

The two hooded figures who were catching Scarlette’s ire shuffled forward, pulling their hood down. They both looked similar—two girls with short, auburn hair. I assumed they were twins.

“Explain your Abilities,” I ordered.

The one on the left looked warily at me. “I’m Miko Mihara. I know the basic profile information of anyone who makes eye contact with me,” she mumbled.

“I’m Eiko Mihara. I know the location of the last person who makes eye contact with me,” the other girl muttered.

That answered my questions. I didn’t recall it at first, but they must have both made eye contact with me and Kaede during our previous meeting. Miko probably used that moment to retrieve my 'basic information'—which I guess included my full name and phone number, probably among other stuff.

Eiko must have also tracked my location, which was how they managed to ambush me. I quickly summarized the five Horizon High students in my head:

* Ignar, with the Ability to control lava.

* Lumia, with the Ability to stun.

* Torin, with the Ability to teleport.

* Miko, with the Ability to retrieve profile information from her target.

* Eiko, with the Ability to track the location of her target.

It was a solid group lineup. I noted that Ignar was the only one who possessed pure firepower, but he had probably decided that he himself would be enough to satisfy that department. This was a dangerous team if I continued letting them harass us.

I looked at Ignar, who was still groaning in pain. I released my hold on him, and he crashed to the floor like a sack of bricks, still clutching his arm.

“You know what will happen if you ever come after us again,” I said, standing over him. My voice was soft and calm but radiated authority.

Ignar nodded gingerly. “We won’t forget this.” I mused that this would be the perfect time for Torin, their teleporter, to do his job and get them out of here. But unfortunately, the man in question was still out cold.

Meanwhile, our objective was complete. My friends were still standing quietly to the side, watching it all unfold.

“Let’s go,” I said, turning on my heels. They followed me, albeit hesitantly.

“Um, are you sure that’s fine?” whispered Kaede as she pulled up beside me.

I glanced back. The twins were assisting Ignar to his feet as they sought after Torin, who lay motionless against a tree.

“It’ll be fine,” I assured her. “I just gave them a taste of what would happen if they threatened us again.”

Upon hearing that, Kaede gripped my arm. Her touch was cold and trembling. “Thank you…” she breathed.

I put a hand on the small of her back, gently coaxing her along. “I’m glad none of us got wounded,” I said, addressing the group.

Scarlette glanced at us before looking away awkwardly. “Yeah, well, let’s not get too comfortable yet. We should first make it back to the dormitory safely.”

“I could really go for an ice cream right now,” muttered Jonah.

Mira was trudging along silently, but I could sense the relief emanating from her as well.

After a brief period, we arrived back at our destination.

“I guess this is where we split, huh?” murmured Scarlette.

“Well, see you all tomorrow. If anything crops up, just call me. I’ll have my phone beside my bed,” I said.

“You know… it’s a little embarrassing but… I kinda don’t wanna sleep alone tonight…” Kaede blushed. “Could I perhaps stay over in one of your rooms?”

Mira unexpectedly agreed. “I don’t think I can sleep alone tonight either…” she said, twiddling her fingers.

Scarlette looked rather amused. She smirked before proceeding to poke Kaede in the ribs.

Kaede jolted. “Ow! Quit doing that!” she protested, rubbing her side.

“Sorry, after your reaction the last time I poked you, I’ve been wanting to do it again~” gushed Scarlette, leaning in with a mischievous grin. “If you wanna sleep with Cadel, just say it!”

Kaede’s face got even redder. “W-well, I—didn’t say, uh, anything ab-about—” she blabbered.

Scarlette laughed. “Relax, I was kidding. Going over to the boys’ dorm is already one thing, but sleeping there is a big no-no. If the school finds out, we are totally fu—”

“Exactly! So I’ll sleep over at your place tonight, okay Scarlette?” Kaede interjected.

Scarlette sighed. “Fine… you and Mira can stay over at my place. Just don’t complain if it’s a little messy.”

“That settles it then,” I said, appreciating the humour. “See you guys tomorrow.”

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Administration Notes:

School: Horizon High

Name: Torin Teller

Gender: Male

Year: First-year

Rank: 3-Star

Division: Combat

Ability: Torin bears the qualities of a textbook teleporter. He is able to teleport himself and up to a maximum of five people at once, over a distance of a kilometer at a time. Repeated uses make him nauseous and puts him out of commission for a short period of time.

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