“Is that…?”
Arson and Khalif walked through the portal that led directly into the climbing challenge of Adroit Academy, followed by Ego, who began to bark merrily at other students, running about with the same curiosity of any puppy, sniffing everything in sight, and the entire environment was immediately different. The glances they received put both young men on high alert.
Yet the more whispers they heard from the surrounding students, the more both young men knew why they were being pointed out. Arson feeling absolutely ridiculous for not having this as an expectation on his return.
“Seems they know that you are Carter Gestalt, Mr. Shopkeep,” Khalif said with a laugh. Arson groaned.
Then he felt a rumble from his Cerebral realm, and he allowed Thinker and Temper to exit his shadow as the two had their own personal interest in the area. Which the two actively spoke about as they tried to speak and push one another aside while exiting Arson’s shadow.
“I guarantee my students are farther along in their Cultivation than yours you one track minded fool!” Thinker continued to bash the blocking Temper with a tome while he climbed out.
“Yeah right, when we left your students were getting bullied by my students, they were so far ahead of yours,” roared Temper, landing a punch to Thinker’s gut before he used his sibling as a trampoline to exit Arson’s shadow fully and rush off.
“For this, I will make you bleed!” Thinker rolled onto the ground, slowly rose to his feet dusting himself off, bowed to Arson as if he just realized he was there, and then headed off in a different direction.
The students around Arson and Khalif gave them both strange looks, to which Arson merely shrugged as if he had no clue what had just occurred, and moved on.
“So those guys are what, pieces of you that you can control?”
“Yes, and no…, pieces of me, yes, can entirely control, no.”
“Doesn’t that make them dangerous?”
“Absolutely, but that would make you and the rest of the builders just as dangerous don’t you think,” offered Arson in an attempt to make his bodyguard feel better about matters that Arson didn’t entirely enjoy himself. Yes, he could mentally communicate with his other Gestalt forms, and yes they were built from pieces of himself. Yet the fact that Reaper and even Thinker knew things about Cultivation through books he’d collected, were able to intuit through unknown aspects of his bloodline, and or able to pull from the databases held within his RunicLibrary aka Anastasia, made them more dangerous than his friends would ever be in his mind.
“No, but I’ll take your word for it, as I’m starting to believe that none of the Builders are normal,” Khalif said with a pause that made Arson’s own brow raise.
“Anything you want to talk about?” Arson felt he knew what his friend was worried about, as he’d watched the raid on Alister Industries, and his friend's power had obviously grown considerably in rather short time. As well as the giant shadow that appeared to follow Khalif consistently, only visible in the momentary blinks that Arson’s closed eye dominion was active.
“Have you noticed anything different about me lately?” Arson laughed and nodded, the nervous question directed at him enough for Arson to feel confident that the changes in his bodyguard’s shadow was what the young man was indicating.
“And…?”
Arson fired a conductive water orb toward Khalif in a flash. The orb held little to no mana, wouldn’t hurt a mana filled fly let alone his friend. Yet still the massive shadow lifted its hand from Khalif’s own shadow, gripping the orb and snuffing it out like crushed water balloon. A soft pop heard when the conductive water orb disappeared and Khalif was shocked by Arson’s action.
“Not going to lie I want one my sparking self, but I doubt I could manage it, seems complicated to pull off, even though it's powerful, I bet it's a bloodline ability for sure,” surmised Arson. The looks and whispers grew even more numerous as the pair continued on.
“I got a strange notification when I first got it, didn’t know what the pop up was talking about until I let my guard down for a second too long, and I’ve been in the space between shadows many times, but the place that person was pulled into felt more like the space between planets or realms maybe, I don’t know. Not sure that even I would survive traveling there myself yet, or ever for that matter.” Arson nodded at his friends admission, quick to ask more questions.
“Could you feel the difference that easily? Must be a powerful distinction between shadow, and maybe Dark, or Void space,” suggested Arson.
“Micro can transition through Dark space, and she says the only difference for her shifts through that elemental plain, and my own shadow plain, is the amount of energy used, available light and how quickly she can move, so it almost makes me wonder if it is Void. Each time, it drew an enemy in, felt incredibly cold, and as if my life force was being drained, until the Cultivators the Avatar killed made my enemies disappear within itself,” explained Khalif.
“Then what?”
“Then I felt like I drank like ten of Rob’s new energy potions and could run for miles without end,” finished Khalif with a sigh. Arson wanted to ask what was wrong, but remembered Khalif’s purely non fatal tactics while in Mr. Kim’s domain and slowly shook his head.
“It's a new power. Don’t focus too much on the bad. You're going to figure out how to control it one day and be able to protect far more lives than you claimed during that raid. Trust me when I say this, that is the only way to think of this, or you will lose the solidarity of your mind over it.” Khalif’s eyes narrowed, and he nodded, shifting the conversation away from himself.
“When are the others going to arrive,” Khalif asked.
“Rob, and Xani shouldn’t be too far behind us, and Jasmine and Lane are already here,” said Arson stepping onto a hover tram and sitting down.
“Is Oscar coming?”
“Nope, he said he was going to stay back in Maelstrom and help the twins with something, they all seem pretty excited about whatever it is, so I figured I’d let him be.” Khalif nodded and sat down, the tram quickly lifting into the air and taking all aboard to the next tier. Arson looked around, and felt off, seeing that every person on the train was looking either at them, or at their flatscreens and then in their direction.
“This feel off to you?” Khalif nodded in agreement before Anastasia spoke up, while Arson whistled for Ego to come toward him instead of growling at their onlookers.
“They're looking at the school's bounty system. Apparently you can gain school medallions for turning in bounties into the administration now,” explained Anastasia. Arson looked down at his watch, with a questioning gaze, and his AI laughed.
“Yes, it's new. And yes, I’ve hacked back into their information grids, it's far easier now that Xani left our group a backdoor into their system wide open and accessible to anyone who has our app downloaded.”
“So what, we have bounties on our heads,” Khalif asked, leaning into view of Anastasia with an unwelcome invasion of Arson’s space. The young man gave his bodyguard a look and Khalif cleared his throat and straightened.
“My bad, I’ve always wanted an AI, but the ones I checked out weren’t nearly as advanced as yours,” said Khalif.
“That is for sure, and if I told you why I’m so great Arson would have to kill you,” said Anastasia laughing. Khalif joined, until he realized Arson was not laughing.
“Wait, is she serious?” Khalif asked eyes widening. Arson lifted his hand to cover his mouth and cleared his throat.
“So Anastasia, how high are our bounties?” Arson said moving on. Khalif looked at the watch differently, so Arson sent him a private message through his Overlay to try and comfort his friend for the second time that day.
Arson: Certain things I keep from you all is for your own safety, as I value you all more than the secrets I protect you from…
Khalif gave him a nod, sitting back comfortably in his seat, returning to his continued perusal of their surroundings as Anastasia shared what she’d gathered. Arson left to hope that his words were enough to ground his friend’s mind, and keep their still reforming bond strong.
“Bear with me, 'cause half this bloody embers of a system doesn’t make sense to me,” started Anastasia. Arson nodding as confirmation for her to continue.
“Firstly, most of the students who have bounties on their heads are only worth 1 to 3 medallions, which is fine, and fully reasonable, then you have the students that are worth upwards of 7 to 11, which is also sensible because you need that many medallions to become an active member of the climbing challenge portion, I mean a student of Adroit Academy,” Anastasia explained either doing her best to fix her mistake, or doing her best to stir up trouble per normal. Then she continued.
“Then there are you and the Builders, everyone below you their leader,, is worth 13 medallions, and then there is you, who is worth an absurd 121 medallions… which makes no sense as the highest rank of student is worth 11 medallions—“ Anastasia was going to continue further but was cut off by a bark from Ego. Khalif nudged Arson as he nodded toward a group of students who all began to stand up. THe group was at the opposing side of the tram numbering almost 2 dozen, and a few girls at the front of their [party started to stride directly toward Arson, staring him down as they approached.
“Yo, you're that guy, aren’t—“ The young woman was cut off by Khalif who once more nudged Arson, before he pointed behind them. Arson glanced out the window before he was forced to double take. A young man seen running up the side of an adjacent building could be seen moving at impressive speeds up the completely vertical surface, defying gravity before he back flipped artfully, screaming something Arson couldn’t quite make out.
“Hey, don’t you hear me talking to you?” Arson looked back toward the young woman who was trying to get his attention, before everything naturally slowed around Arson. His perception only did this when a true threat was near, and in that moment, Arson couldn’t help but feel excitement begin to rumble in his veins.
“LeeRoar Dashawn!” The young man Arson had just watched sprinting up the side of one of Adroit Academy’s many towers came directly through the side window of the Tram. The young woman who’d just been yelling to Arson, kicked in the side of the head. A burst of glass the only thing the young woman would remember the following day, her unconscious body sent soaring out the window of the opposing tide of the tram.
“Sup sweet lips,” said a dread-headed young man; a silver energy pulsing through his hair. His wild tangle of locks still moving, as he slowly reached his hand out toward the startled student in front of himself.
“What are you—“ The question went unfinished, as the dread-head’s fist suddenly blurred, wrapped around his target's neck. The unsuspecting young man slammed into the ground with a heavy hand, dropped as simply as a fumbled object in the hand of a drunken beggar.
The kick the dread-head sent into the stomach of his slammed victim, set him two clean out of the same window the first young woman had been sent flying out of.
“Dashawn LeeRoar!” Arson was forced to close his eyes to keep up with the movements of the Cultivator before him. His eyes and perception were powerful, but both had their limits, and even though his ability to discern what was happening, things were still missed.
Arson assumed the young man named Dashawn had what Chozen suggested was a refined body, as without that he wondered if any cultivator their age could truly move that fast. Even as Arson watched, he quickly realized he was the only one watching. Dashawn used a vivacious kicking style that was even unfamiliar to Arson, each move of the Cultivator’s foot, slight or drastic, ended with his opponents paying serious repercussions.
Arson witnessed a single maneuver start with the young man’s foot above the head of one person, slide diagonally through the air, make contact with the chin of the nearest student, the gut of the girl next to the original target, and conclude with the audible snap of another’s ankle. Even before he was able to wince Arson watched all three who’d just been attacked, experience defenestration in a single kick that acted like a hook. All three scooped up into the air and out of the tram with a single bone breaking strike.
Arson was nearly unbelieving of what he was seeing, realizing that some considered his actions with a scythe to be nearly as severe to encounter. Whatever style the dread-head was using, Arson felt the kicks he was analyzing were as devastating as a sword master's swings, equally eloquent and definitely as deadly.
The 23 students that Arson had once worried over having to face on the tram were broken down in moments. All attacks resulting in pain; students flung from the safety of their seats, or an unconsciousness far too comparable to death itself.
“Move,” said Arson. Khalif, pushed slightly toward the side, all while Arson felt an immense pressure push him aside in the same moment. A boulder sized hand made of shadow pushed toward his side, brushing him just far enough that both young men avoided the kick that broke near mach 2.
The young man that’d been next to him was already amidst trying to engage with the new foe. Khalif tried to stop a victim from being sent through another window, grabbing their ankle from just beyond the limit of their own shadow. The young man wasn’t sent flying from the first kick, as Khalif had served as an anchor from the targets own shadow, doing his best to keep his grasp on the struggling student. Yet the dread-head’s second more powerful kick was enough to break his grapple; the fully cocked back kick ball bunt easily shattering the window causing another explosive burst of glass fragments as the wide eyed young man flew far, limbs windmilling, reaching for anything to save themselves from the fall, with nothing in sight but open air, and jagged rooftops below.
Arson continue to watch. He hadn’t been successfully attacked and noticed that the young man he examined, drinking in every aspect of the kicking art he used, seemed to only be after the medallions worn by the students.
Though he barely punched or grappled any opponents, each kick was prefaced with a snatched medallion. The young man holding fists full of chains in his hands.
“Who’s next,” asked Dashawn, with a point finger in the direction of the remainder of the students left shocked and standing defenselessly. Each student his finger aimed at quick to shake their heads. Khalif rose from the darkness in front of the group, arms spread wide, as his shadow avatar manifested itself from his back, it too raising its massive arms to defend the students behind Khalif.
“Bring it on, little boy!”