Chapter 44: Here I come

As I kept channelling energy into the raging tornado, a sudden burst of golden light erupted from above. In a flash, everything around me halted. But this wasn’t like my usual ability, where I could drain kinetic energy and trap someone mid-motion. No, this was different. The entire world around me stood still, including the swirling tornado. It was like being trapped inside a photograph.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a quick flicker of movement heading my way. Since I was still fully conscious, it was clear this wasn’t a full-on time stop. However, I couldn’t move either—or cause anything else to move. In that case, two can play at that game.

The girl Zara had referred to as Belle came to a stop right beside me, her hand just a meter from my sash. Confusion on her countenance morphed into consternation, then into concern when things started to shift again. It seemed her Ability only lasted a few seconds. As the wind roared back to life, I yanked her collar and ripped off her sash, flinging her straight into the vortex’s swirling walls.

A sharp whizzing sound grabbed my attention. I glanced up just in time to spot a dark figure pierce through the wind currents, spinning towards me. It was Zara, hurtling like a missile, her foot aimed squarely at my chest.

I steadied myself, raising my hand in her direction. That attack was never going to land. From afar, I absorbed the energy of her attack, redirecting it into the ground, and sent her crashing into the sand. Before she could recover, I darted after her, slamming my foot onto her back. Shockwaves rippled through the ground, and she let out a painful gasp.

Kerri made a last-ditch attempt to strike, but she fared no better. Like Zara, I turned her own momentum against her, forcing her into the sand as well. With three of them down, only Claris remained, standing nervously at a distance. I couldn’t tell what her ability was, but given how little she had engaged so far, I assumed it was more supportive than offensive.

I placed a hand lightly on Zara’s shoulder as she struggled to push herself up.

“There’s nothing your team can do to stop me,” I told her plainly.

She spat a mouthful of sand to the side. “Oh yeah?”

The wind suddenly picked up again, but I simply dispersed it, scattering it back into the air. “Yeah.”

Zara exhaled deeply, her shoulders loosening. “Seems like we underestimated you. We weren’t as prepared as we thought. Very well—I know when to admit defeat.”

I took a step back, watching her expectantly.

“What else do—oh, our sashes?” She handed me hers, along with those from the rest of her group as they gathered around us. My friends, having dusted themselves off, joined in as well. “Unfortunately, we don’t have all the sashes with us right now. Since we collected so many, the teachers gave us special permission to keep the extras with them. In exchange, since we lost them, we’ll have to follow you to hand them over.”

This meant that they would be wasting valuable time accompanying us, but it was a fair price to pay.

“Alright, let’s go,” I said.

The mood was awkward, but we started making our way back to the campsite. Zara’s team had 43 sashes, and in addition to the 14 we already had, our team now had a whopping total of 57 sashes.

Zara and I were up in front, the two of us leading our combined group. There was muffled chatter behind us as our teammates made small talk with one another.

“So you’re just gonna keep maintaining a low profile?” she asked, breaking the silence between us.

“I don’t think it’s possible anymore,” I replied truthfully.

“What’s your real Rank?” she asked bluntly. There it was, the question that I had been asked countless times. There wasn’t any point in maintaining the facade anymore, so again I answered honestly.

“They gave me a 4-Star Rank.”

“Are you serious?”

“Long story.”

“I won’t ask questions then. But I’m a 5-Star, so you shouldn’t be anything less than that.”

As we started nearing the campsite, a couple of other teams caught glimpses of us. None of them made any attempts to approach us though.

Soon after, we reached the teachers’ shed. Sure enough, the man I wanted to see the least—Dr Connor—was having some sort of discussion with the teachers.

“Erm, excuse me…” Zara awkwardly tried to get their attention. I couldn’t imagine how embarrassing it was for her to announce that their team, who was probably the favourite to collect the most sashes, had just lost.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Mrs Toney, Class 1A’s homeroom teacher, excused herself. Dr Connor and Ms Reina briefly glanced at us—at me—before almost immediately turning their attention back to the discussion.

“What is it?” Mrs Toney asked us with a smile. It was obvious that she had a clear liking for Zara. I guess it was expected, since she was the ace of their class. I also figured that the reason we were here should be obvious, but judging by Mrs Toney’s expression, the idea that anyone could have outmatched Zara seemed almost unthinkable to her.

“We’re going to have to hand over our sashes to Cadel’s group,” Zara said, a slight tremble to her voice. I couldn’t help but notice that she’d used my name, despite Scarlette technically being the leader of our group.

Mrs Toney blinked, momentarily taken aback. “Oh… well, alright then.” She shifted her attention toward me. “Given the large number of sashes, would you like to leave them here?”

“Yes, that’d be great, thanks.” While doable, lugging around 53 sashes would be rather inconvenient.

“Alright, I’ll take note of it.”

We still had some time before lunch, so Zara’s group quickly set off to offset their loss. Meanwhile, we decided to take it easy, since it was unlikely another group had more sashes than us.

“Say, don’t you think it’s unfair how the losing team has to surrender all their sashes to the winning team?” Scarlette asked.

I took a chug of water before replying. “Yeah. It would make more sense to just surrender a sash per team member. With this system, weaker teams could potentially end up with more sashes than stronger teams.” For example, Kazen’s team had more than Zara’s currently, despite the former having lost in their battle. I wondered what the reasoning behind that was. Perhaps I would have to check with Ms Reina later.

The session concluded without us having engaged in another battle. The few teams we came across didn’t have any sashes, and none of them risked fighting us for ours.

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After lunch, we headed—surprise, surprise—back to the beach for our water activities. A certain portion of the beach still looked like a warzone, which drew excited murmurs from the crowd. We were assessed on our swimming Abilities, as well as if our Abilities allowed us to traverse small bodies of water.

Of my friends, only Scarlette lacked the Ability to swim. In fact, she had refused to dip her toes into the water at all. Fortunately, for the next portion of the assessment, she breezed through it by flying over the surface on her flame surfboard—a sight that reminded me of my first day at school.

“As members of the Combat Division, it’s crucial that you develop basic swimming skills, even if your Abilities let you move across or above water. Those of you who can’t swim will need to take extra lessons back at school after the camp,” one of the teachers announced while we sat on the sand. “Priority will go to students who struggle the most with water-based obstacles.”

“Ugh, this is so cringe…” Scarlette complained.

“Swimming is a good skill to have,” I explained.

“Shutting up is a good skill to have,” she muttered, a faint smile giving her away. “I suppose I’ll just have to work on that too.”

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For better or for worse, this activity ate up most of our afternoon, so we were left with the final activity of the day. Dinner was an acceptable meal of rice, meat and potatoes. As the sun slid below the horizon, our next set of instructions were given to us.

“This will be similar to the hide-and-seek game you had the other night,” Ms Reina announced as we gathered around the campfire. “Except this time, we’ll reverse the roles. You lot are now the hunted. You have 1 hour to evade our clutches.”

Excitement welled up within me. This was an opportunity for our teachers to go on the offensive. I wondered how many of us could last the full hour without being caught.

As if on cue, the giant holographic board appeared once again, illuminating the night sky.

Role

Remaining

Students

198/198

Time

1:00:00

“The scoring system will be slightly different this time. If even one member of your team avoids capture, your team earns 200 credits. Each additional person who escapes will net an extra 50 credits.” Wasn’t that pretty lenient? Seemed the teachers were confident in their abilities.

“As before, the five of us teachers and the same ten instructors will be participating. You’ll have a 15-minute head start. The activity will begin shortly, so take these next few minutes to plan your strategy.”

My friends and I gathered around our tent. “So what’s the game plan?” Scarlette asked.

“You’re the leader, it’s up to you,” I said.

She punched my arm. “Quit joking around. We all know you’re the real leader here.”

On the surface, her statement seemed to make sense. However, I didn’t have the leadership skills Scarlette had. I excelled in physical and mental battles, but lacked in communication and people skills, which were important traits of being a leader. But I figured this wasn’t the best time for such a discussion.

“We’ve got two options here,” I began. “We can either stick to the rules and genuinely try to avoid getting caught, or we can deliberately get noticed and then see if we can outmanoeuvre them. What do you guys think?”

Kaede giggled. “Only you would think of that second approach.”

Scarlette appeared lost in thought for a moment. “I think we should start by staying out of sight. I’ve got a feeling we’ll get spotted no matter what we do.”

“Or,” Jonah chimed in, “we could just chill on the beach. Every time one of the seekers comes after us, Cadel can freeze them, and we make a run for it. There’s barely any cover out there, so we’d spot them before they got too close.”

It was a surprisingly solid idea coming from Jonah, but one issue nagged at me: Ms Reina. She had some kind of lightning-based Ability, and if she was as fast as she seemed, I doubted I’d have enough time to react. I could create an anti-energy zone around us, but I wouldn’t be able to keep it up for the full hour. Then again, if we were attacked in the forest, I wouldn’t have time to respond either.

I voiced my concerns to the team. Then, another thought came to mind.

“The reward for having just one person avoid capture is huge. What if we split up like the other night?” I asked.

Scarlette scratched her head. “I guess it makes sense. It’s easier for you to hide as well,” she said, looking at me.

“Let’s hide at the edge of the forest, on the opposite ends of the coastline. We can still monitor a wide area if we need to and avoid us all being captured at once if we happened to get jumped.”

As we continued mulling over our plan, a sudden gust of wind swept through the trees, causing the branches to sway and creak ominously, a few leaves fluttering to the ground. Somehow, the air felt heavier than normal. Why did I feel so uneasy?

Before I could dwell on it any longer, the whistle to commence the activity sounded, sharp and sudden, cutting through the tense air. I stood up, shaking off the unsettling sensation I felt as we once again made our way into the dark of the woods.