Waiting for everything to fall into place was probably the most anxiety inducing thing I had ever felt, students rushing through the halls while I ran into my mark, bumping his shoulder, and making him turn around, his eyes focused on the immediate future.
“What the hell is wrong with you first years? Bumping into someone? At least apologize, before we solve this in a duel.” He was a hulk of a person, and the strongest temparum wizard I stood a chance again.
“What, your ego not enough to handle a shoulder bump?” I ask, knowing that this interacting is probably going exactly as he wants it to, a fight very welcome to both of us.
“If you want to fight, we can go behind the school and solve this properly, we can restrict it to fists only, if you think you stand a chance that way.” He threatens, and with a nod on my part, we are on the move.
Swiftly, I make sure to dodge everyone that could see us, the fact he does the same implying we both are out for serious blood.
“You know, you have something I wanted for a long time.” I say as we reach the place, a teacher probably appearing in around five minutes.
“And what is that, Idiot?” He asked, already seeing my answer and dashing towards me.
“You see, I want your soul. And the best way to get it is by making sure you are dead as a door nail.” His fists break my shoulder, as they impact at impossible speed, but my body regenerates it almost as fast. Slowly, I remember the way my power is channeled, my body a conduit for elemental power, and nothing less than that.
Hit after hit, he turns my body into mush, only for the damage to revert itself. He is a better fighter than me, and while he finds more and more ways to break my defense, he makes a single mistake.
The problem with foresight is that one only sees the most immediate future, a single strand in an endless web of possibilities. When your opponent only takes and doesn’t hit, it becomes increasingly likely that it will go on like that, and as the opening presented itself, I tried to get a headbutt in.
His arms were around my neck immediately, breaking it again and again as it reformed.
Finally, my body began to dissolve into space, making him think I was about to run away. His hits were increasingly unhelpful, passing through as I suddenly cast black hole, distorting time enough for me to spit into his eye. Foresight is great, but this action was stupid at best, even as his eye began to dissolve, he continued to fight me, my embrace barely holding him back as my tongue slithered into the freshly created hole, touching his brains I began to drink.
A sudden burst of heat told me I took too long, the pyro professor behind me, and a drained corpse in my hand.
“This did not go as planned.” I comment, as she created a miniature sun, the black hole I had created to distort the time based powers now fed on her ball of fire, growing outside her notice, as she got ready to destroy me.
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“Please, I did not mean to do this, what do I have to do to apologize for this? It was a mistake.” I promise, her eyes blazing with fury, and the heat beginning to blister my skin. She wanted to slowly execute me, the corpse in my hand perfectly cooked, and the splinter of my soul that landed inside was returned to me. The fireball continued to grow, and my black hole grew even more, and when the teacher finally noticed it, I pushed the body inside, turning it into a tier three spell, and making it counter the ball of fire completely. It was fun to watch the teachers gaze turn to horror when I used spatium to pull the oxygen away from her, her own power becoming all to feed the flame and the orb of destruction.
We were both dying, until I jumped right into the flame, my skin turning to ash, and my soul becoming scarred like nothing before it.
My tongue didn’t exist anymore when my skeleton collided with the professor, a single bite into her leg was everything I managed, but a single bite was enough to repair some of my body, giving me the state of mind to continue biting, eating away at her leg, my every bit of power focused on surviving. Then, my tongue returned, and my saliva mixed with her blood stream.
I collapsed with knowledge of the pyro realm, my body holding a gate to each Arcana.
For a while after that, While I was unconscious, people rushed around, someone dispelled the black hole, probably the spatium teacher.
Someone else fed me, making me regenerate.
When I returned, a person sized necros core stood before me, supplying me with strength for my own regeneration.
The teacher was dead, and I remembered that pyro was the weakest of Arcana, and it almost cost me my life.
Killing a teacher with my pitiful strength was sad, but in the end, it was their fault they continued to feed the black hole and gave me the opportunity for that dash, had she taken me seriously, I would not have stood a chance.
Slowly, I fell asleep that night, not heading to give another speech as my flesh was still busy restitching itself.
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Nemo had refined her Voice and mind. Every night, she would sneak out and fight other cats, she would hunt larger beasts, and she would sneak into places that no one expected her to be. She even learned the language comprehension skill, so she would never misunderstand her friends words again.
She was a great strategist at this point, and when she met with twenty of the Ragnar followers to train, she knew they would be ready to die for their lord.
Luce was too soft, when he originally killed the man who she convinced to sacrifice the weakest of their kind, it almost hurt her a bit to know they had such a different understanding of justice.
Sometimes, she wished she was a bit like Hannibal, connected to the boss, drawing more and more cultivation techniques from him to refine his body at every opportunity. Both did their best to support him, and he became more and more absorbed in his plans. Maybe, when this was over, he would finally have time for them again.
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“Noel, you can not do this, you will die or something if you try to tell the professors. Don’t be a hero or something, we simply have to trust in the strength of the academy to kill the madman before he becomes too dangerous!” A shadowy figure aggressively whispered, trying to drag his friend back to their rooms.
“You know that, as the crown prince, my country is more important than my life, and we have a monster here that is willing to kill kings for his goal. We need the headmaster to delay his speech, I don’t even want to know what will happen if everything goes according to that madman’s plan. Skulk, please trust me on this.” The bigger of the two continued to walk, his stride determined.
“He killed a teacher and a student, and he is still walking free, how did he do it?” Skulk asked, scared and uncomfortable to be this out in the open.
“It is no problem, you know that everyone here can be reanimated, it's not that hard for them to do that.” Noel answered, knowing well how the academy worked.
“Ok, I will leave you now, just don’t wonder if your soul is destroyed permanently. From what I have seen, he might have told the truth.” Skulk turned around, scared to be seen with his friend.
The moment he turned away, shadows were ripped apart, and fingers covered the crown princes mouth, while his neck was cut with another. Almost immediately after, the corpse was turned to ash by crimson flames, as the murderers turned and walked away.
“I knew someone would talk, he is just too trusting. Thanks for spotting them, I would have had to incinerate the whole hallway without you.” Ember said, grinning as he strode away.
“Can’t have them stop whatever grand plan your brother has, you said he was some form of chosen, right? Do you think Sine will be a problem when they realize what is going on? I heard some elves are really strict with the whole justice thing.” Shade asked, worry visible across her face.
“Don’t worry, they have nobody but us to trust, so Sine will not betray us, at least not until the very end. We should keep them away during the grand finale of this plan, El has a way that forces him to be in the center of chaos, like a stage of some sort.”