Panting from the exertion on his legs already, it was clear to Jin that whatever Max did was not a shortcut to returning his stamina. Nevertheless, he decided to push past the strain and use what dwindling energy he had left.
Shooting forward, his feet stomping rapidly, Jin reached the doors at the main entrance to the faculty, cutting the assailant off from his escape route and forcing him to come to a standstill in the empty foyer.
The man was wearing a hoodie that covered his eyes and forehead, but upon seeing Jin appear before the door, he stopped in his tracks and lowered his hood to reveal his identifiable features. He had a nasty smile on his face, and short black hair. He was scrawny and short, and looked to be in his late thirties to mid-forties. Jin didn’t recognise him, but the way the assailant assessed him made it seem as if he recognised Jin.
“You’re not the one I expected, but I think you’ll do just fine,” he said in a familiar voice.
Hitomi came limping in behind the assailant, followed by Shida and Mashima. Seeing the young, vulnerable Hitomi behind him, the attacker hastily pounced on her. He was quite fast – faster than Jin could react, and faster than Hitomi could defend.
In a breath he was behind her, grabbing hold of her arms and pressing them into her back while he held his hand up to her face. Shida made to leap forward, but the assailant’s hand lit up to a bright flame.
“Get back, or I’ll scorch her face off!” the assailant cried out.
“Let go of me, you coward!” Hitomi resisted.
“Be quiet, gaijin bitch!” the attacker retorted, backing up and turning so that all who were present were in his sights. It was upon the word ‘gaijin’ that Jin recognised who they were dealing with.
“Who are you?” Mashima asked cautiously. “What do you want?”
“He’s here for revenge,” Jin said, inciting a glare from the robber of the convenience store, who moved with Hitomi to the right side of the entrance, making sure no one made any sudden moves.
“Right?”
“I’m just here to send a message,” the assailant said. “Get out of my way,” he commanded Jin, who followed the instruction and moved towards Mashima and Shida, further from the entrance.
“What message?” Jin held up his hands in surrender to pacify the man.
“You’re hurting my arm, you creep!” Hitomi kept resisting.
“Where is that other gaijin friend of yours?” the assailant asked Jin, with another ugly smile.
“Max? What do you want from Max?” Jin asked calmly.
“What is this about, Mr Akira?” Mashima asked, her tone grim and stern.
“Max and I… may have prevented this gentleman from robbing a convenience store,” Jin answered, keeping a wary eye on the assailant’s hands and where they held Hitomi. “It seems he wants some payback.”
“I needed that money!” the assailant said angrily. Then a snickering smile spread across his face. “But I don’t need payback. I’m so much stronger now. Payback would be meaningless. Not even you can stop me this time.”
Shida watched the man closely, assessing the situation for openings. He stepped forward slightly, and there was a loud shattering of glass. The entire wall that made up the entrance of the faculty shattered. Bricks and concrete tumbled down into a messy spill inside and outside of the building, crumbling and spilling over the pieces of shattered glass that made up the grand entryway, which now lay crushed under the rubble.
“I SAID FUCKING STAY BACK!” the assailant screamed, confirming that it was his magic that caused the damage.
“Shida, listen to him!” Jin yelled. Shida looked up at the now missing wall, and stepped back slowly, annoyed at himself for being so transparent to the enemy.
“Now please, tell me, what do you want from Max?” Jin asked, still trying to remain calm. He already knew how unpredictable this particular criminal was.
“Yeah, what do you want from that alien?” Hitomi asked defiantly.
“No one was talking to you, bitch!” The assailant tightened his grip fiercely. Hitomi winced from the pain.
“I am really tired of all the absolute bastards calling me that today,” Hitomi flared in annoyance.
“Bring me your friend,” the assailant ignored her.
“I’m afraid I cannot let that happen,” Mashima chimed in, trying to take control of the situation as an educator. She wondered where the other lecturers were. It was still too early for any of them to leave, and they should have been in their offices, where they’d have heard the commotion. She decided that she couldn’t rely on them, but that she would need to see to it that each of them were dealt with when the situation at hand was taken care of.
“I can’t let you hurt any of my students,” Mashima said sternly.
“You don’t have a choice,” the assailant’s anger was rising. “It's either him or her.”
“Just take me, dammit,” Hitomi cut in. “Leave that cretin alone. He’s seriously not worth all this trouble.”
Jin was quite taken aback. It surprised him that she was willing to sacrifice herself for Max after all the trouble he had given her.
“Just take me and leave everyone else alone,” she added.
“Oh, isn’t that adorable? You want to be brave, but I’m afraid that’s not enough,” the assailant taunted. “My message is for your friend. Bring him to me.”
“Mr Hiromitsu,” Mashima said gravely, putting an arm on Shida’s shoulder. “Go get Mr Tenebri.”
Shida nodded his head and started moving towards the courtyard entrance, before an orb of fire narrowly missed as it shot past him. He stood dead still, turning his head very slowly to look at the assailant.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” the man asked menacingly.
“Mr Hiromitsu will have to bring you the young man that you’re looking for. Mr Tenebri is injured and needs help being carried here,” Mashima responded. “This is the only way you’re getting what you want.”
The assailant looked at the group for a while without saying anything, clearly thinking about whether this new obstacle would fit whatever plan he had in mind.
“Fine,” he decided. “You have two minutes.”
***
In the courtyard, Natsuno opened her eyes to feel herself being embraced by the deceitful outsider. She was angry – extremely angry – because he threw himself at her to protect her, when she could very well have protected herself. He threw himself even though she had wanted to harm him, and worse. He threw himself at her, despite the fact that she was the reason he should already have been dead.
Yet, there he was, lying above her, holding her tightly.
Instead of throwing him off, she let him lie there, and felt painful, angry tears well up in her eyes. She didn’t know why. Perhaps from emotional exhaustion. She felt such fury at this young man and his friend that it practically tapped her of all the anger she had left. All that remained beneath Max’s weight was sadness and regret. It was unlike her to get so worked up, but it had been a long time since someone could lie to her without her knowing. It was, after all, an anomaly; meeting a student her age whose mind she could not penetrate with her magic.
From the first day she saw Max standing on the stairs of the main staff building, she tried reading him like she read everyone else. All that came back was silence; a dense, almost purposeful, silence. It was heavy and numbing, as if the more one focused on it, the more it seemed to drown out everything else. She thought perhaps it was her mana that was at fault, but she could still read everyone else. She could even read her lecturers, which, thanks to the glasses, was an easy feat.
She kept trying, and kept coming up blank. She tried moving in closer to him when she saw him sleeping in class. She tried forcing her way in by amping up her mana output. She even kept trying when he confronted her, and behaved like a barbarian. But nothing came of any of it. This, coupled with the lies he was spreading, and his pretending to be a Scion, angered her more than anything had angered her in a long time. It made her feel vulnerable, and brought to mind fears that she hadn’t felt, nor wanted to remember, in a very long time. Memories that she thought she could escape. She absolutely hated the notion that anyone could still make her feel that way.
Max groaned. He opened his eyes, blinking a few times before realising what was happening. He loosened his grip around Natsuno and slowly pushed himself off of her, lying next to her.
“Are you okay?” He turned to face her, stern and unafraid. “You’re not hurt, are you?”
She wiped the tears from her face.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“What the hell was that?” Max asked the students who had approached and were surrounding them. They looked at each other aimlessly.
|“There was some kind of attack…”|
|“I didn’t see who it was.”|
|“I’d totally be out there if I were at… you know… full power and all that…”|
|“My queen Hitomi will save us!”|
Shida came running from the faculty building with what seemed like answers.
“Hey, new guy,” he was panting.
“What’s going on, Loke?” Max asked, straining to get up to his feet.
“We’ve got some trouble,” Shida said, looking down curiously at Natsuno, who was raising herself up to sit on the grass.
“Someone’s looking for you.”
***
“Are you okay, Hitomi?” Jin asked, still keeping a wary eye on the attacker.
“Why did this have to happen during the tournament? Max is gonna be so sorry when I get out of this,” she spoke casually, trying to ignore the tight grip on her arms.
“Your time is up,” the assailant started shoving his hand into Hitomi’s face, the flame he held burning brighter.
“Wait!” came a voice from behind the staircase.
Shida stepped out confidently.
“You again? Where is the gaijin!?” The assailant pulled his hand only slightly further away from his hostage’s face.
“Well,” Shida started chuckling, “he said you could go to hell.” He presented a boyish smile and scratched at his cheek awkwardly.
“I will burn this bitch to dust,” the assailant threatened.
“Dammit, Max,” Jin sighed.
“I’m gonna kill that damned rat!” Hitomi was now furious too.
Jin, came a voice that only he could hear. You think you can grab Hitomi in time?
Max? Where are you? Jin asked wordlessly.
Just answer the question. You got enough juice in you to grab her in time?
In time for what?
Just make sure you’re ready to grab hold of her.
“I’m not fucking around here!” the assailant screamed.
“Let go of my friend, you ugly prick,” Max appeared behind the man, grabbing at his arms and forcing them off of Hitomi.
Jin, in a speed unlike he thought he could muster in his weakened state, grabbed Hitomi from the attacker’s clutches and sped her behind the staircase. Mashima, wasting no time, thrusted her hands up and conjured a circle of light, transparent green shards, sending them speeding at the assailant.
Max’s distraction was not enough, however, and the stranger had enough time to thrust him back with enough power to send Max flying, and to conjure up a powerful shield which took on Mashima’s attack quite easily. Max flew onto the walkway leading up to the faculty, skidding and tearing his already torn and blood-stained blazer on the stone paving.
Mashima raised her outstretched arms slowly, moulding the earth beneath the assailant's feet to surround him in a tight grasp that he didn’t see until it was too late. The ground came up in the shape of large, spiked pillars, rising and grabbing the attacker from multiple directions, keeping him trapped in place.
“Quickly, Shida!” Mashima commanded. “Subdue him!”
Shida sprinted in to strike, but the aggressor easily broke free from Mashima’s earthen hold. Shida’s assault was met with a harsh strike from one of the pillars that the assailant broke off from the ground.
Before Mashima could intervene, the man threw a significantly large flaming orb that she instinctively captured before it could hit the floor. Her struggle to keep it in the air clued her in to just how powerful it was, and that letting it drop could bring down the entire building. She held on with all her strength and tried to diminish the energy that made up the large orb.
Rushing in from behind Mashima, Natsuno put her hands to the floor, trying to create another prison, this time made of Ice. Before she could even push out the mana, the man was standing before her. His speed was incredible, far greater than he looked to be capable of.
He brought up a wave of flames from beneath her while she was distracted by his advance. It was only due to the fact that she held her hands to the floor where she could feel the rising heat that afforded the opportunity to leap into the air, which he was apparently prepared for. He met her in her ascent and threw a brutal kick towards her gut. The force knocked the air out of her, but he wasn’t done. He grabbed her neck mid-air and produced a torrent of flames from his hands.
Before the flames could consume her, she disappeared from under his hold. She landed outside on the grass behind Max, who had quickly grabbed her with the nifty teleportation ability he had used the night before on Jin.
In the exposed and sun-drenched foyer, Shida stood up and wobbled from the dizziness he felt after that slam to the head. He rubbed his hands together as the man landed on the floor and looked up to see who was still standing before him.
You’ve got this, Shida, he convinced himself.
“You look scared, pinhead,” the assailant mocked him.
“I’ll admit,” Shida said with a nervous grin. “I’ve only ever done this once.” He stretched his hands out to his sides and looked into the sky outside the building.
“Rain in from the sky, O’ holy light, To scourge the shadows that taint the earth,” he recited. His irises lit up with a bright orange glow. “Divine Blaze!”
From the large space left where the wall and entrance to the Scion faculty had been, an unbearably bright, white light filled all the space there was. It slowly crept closer into the building, scorching the floor that it touched like acid. Smoke formed from the melting ground and left a nasty smell like burning rubber in the air.
“I don’t think so.”
The assailant ran up and, with flaming hands, shoved and held Shida to the floor before the light could approach any further. Shida screamed in pain at the burns as the assailant lifted him up and threw him at the distracted Mashima. He slammed into her, forcing her to let go of the explosive. The force of Shida hitting her made her knock her head fast and hard enough into the floor to render her unconscious.
The destructive flaming orb continued its descent, but, luckily enough, Jin made it in time to stop it. He came slowly edging closer and concentrating his Psychokinesis to dispel the mana.
From outside, Max attentively watched the fight taking place in the building. Breaking his attention away, he absentmindedly offered to help Natsuno to her feet. She rejected his offer and got up herself. Her uniform was scorched and torn in multiple places, and it felt like she could barely breathe with the pain in her neck.
“I was fine!” she said defiantly, getting up and wiping off her skirt which was dotted with bits of dirt and grass. “I don’t need you to save me every fifteen minutes.”
“Get over it,” Max cut her off. He turned to look back at the faculty building.
“I couldn’t pull Shida away from that asshole in time. I wouldn’t suppose Jin is in great shape either. We need to get them out of the building before he tears the whole place down.”
“And how do you suppose we do that?” Natsuno asked bitterly.
“Hey, asshat!” Max called out, apparently answering her question, revealing his very short-sighted strategy.
The assailant, who seemed quite invested in attacking Jin, turned to look outside upon hearing Max’s taunt.
“I’m the one you wanted, right?”
The man walked to the large vacant spot that was the wall of the building entrance and, holding out his hands to the ground beneath him, began to hover in the air. He made his way down to the walkway, and brought his feet, covered by a pair of shabby and dirty sneakers, back down to the floor.
“I have a message for you, gaijin,” the man smiled, reaching into his pocket and taking out a light brown leather strap, etched with writing on the inside.
Max’s eyes widened in panic, and anger.
“Where did you get that?” he asked coldly.
“From someone who was very interested in making sure you see this before you die,” the assailant smiled maliciously.
“WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GET THAT!?” Max repeated his question angrily.
Natsuno looked at the strap and at Max’s furious expression. It was strange, he hadn’t looked that angry once during the tournament. Not even during their fight, or at the time when she’d severely wounded Jin. She wondered what the strap meant. Its importance to Max had her very curious.
“Now, now,” the assailant laughed mockingly as he put the strap back into his pocket. “No need to look so pained. You know, it's best to die with a smile.”
“Max,” Jin came out of the building, having finally dealt with the explosive orb. “He’s the guy that tried to rob the konbini.”
“I know who this fucker is,” Max responded, glaring hatefully at the would-be robber. “I knew as soon as he opened his shit-eating mouth.”
“A good thing I caught you at such a convenient time,” the assailant smiled confidently. “From what I can see, most of you don’t have much left in the tank.”
He took out an amulet and held it up for all to see.
“Me? I’ve still got a lot left to go around.”
“What is that?” Max eyed the trinket curiously.
“It's an amulet. Even pre-schoolers know that,” Natsuno responded scathingly. “It seems like he’s drawing on its power to strengthen his magic.”
“That explains why he’s so much stronger.” Max addressed the man. “Last I saw you, you couldn’t so much as shit out half of what you’re capable of now.”
“As I said,” the assailant’s confidence shielded his ego quite well from the shame of what he had been only a few nights ago. He held out his hand where a bright and wildly flowing flame emanated from his open palm. “Someone was very interested in making sure you die. They were even generous enough to provide me with a tremendous amount of power to make sure the deed was done.”
“And then what? You gonna knock off another konbini?” Max asked. “More petty theft? Come on man, you can actually do something decent with this power of yours.”
“Like I said before, I needed that money. But at least now, with this power, I can do a lot more than robbing those pathetic ma-deki.”
“Still as bigoted as ever,” Jin added from behind the assailant. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“The weak deserve no respect from me!” the assailant growled. “And thanks to my benefactor, there is not a single one of you that cannot be considered weak to me.”
“I’ll remember to tear the name of that ‘benefactor’ out of your head when I’m done with you,” Max said bitterly, circling around his enemy so that he, Jin and Natsuno could effectively surround him. Jin walked up closer, and Natsuno took a position of her own.
“I’m quite exhausted,” Natsuno admitted. “I’m not sure I’ll be much help.”
“If you can conjure up your Frost Tower, I think we might have a chance,” Max said, as the assailant stood in place, waiting for their attack.
“My… my what?” Natsuno asked confusedly.
“That spell you do with the big-ass ice pillars,” Max answered impatiently.
“You know the spell? In the common language? How is that possible?” Natsuno’s eyes widened in bewilderment.
“You kept screaming out the name. How was I not supposed to hear it?”
“I didn’t yell out any name, you fool,” Natsuno retorted curtly, closing her eyes in fierce annoyance at Max’s tone. “I was reciting the incantation.”
“Yeah, and then you yell the name, right?” Max asked confusedly.
“No!” Natsuno cried. “I didn’t yell any damn name.”
“You… you understood her incantation, didn’t you?” Jin cut in from behind the assailant, a smile on his face. “You heard it translated? You’re seriously something else sometimes.”
“What are you guys talking about? She said the spell in plain English… or well, Japanese… didn’t you?” Max was thrown off focus in his confusion. Weren’t the spells said in Japanese on the show? Or were they just translated by the subtitles?
Natsuno eyed him closely. It was impossible. The language of spells could not be translated by magic. That was something everyone learned quite early on in their lives.
“Who are you?” Natsuno asked, her tone a mix of annoyance and dumbfoundment.
“Enough of this!” the assailant cut into their discussion. “Even with your fancy magic, you don’t stand a chance against me now.”
“You know almost every dude who has ever said something like that has gotten his ass kicked, right?” Max mocked the man.
“Then why don’t you take your shot?” the assailant smiled.
A shared glance among the trio of academy defenders indicated some kind of plan was forming, though this went by unnoticed, or at least, unacknowledged, by the overconfident terrorist.
Nodding his head, Jin sped in, throwing his arms around the man and digging in to hold him in place. Natsuno put her hands to the ground and, to her surprise, Max copied her movement. Together they yelled:
“Ascend from your darkened tomb, Free from the fire that binds you! Frost Tower!”
Their eyes glowed brightly, and from both their hands came an icy, white smoke. From beneath the ground that made up the walkway, a torrent of ice pillars broke through in a wave, each pillar tilting forward more and more, all aimed at the attacker.
The assailant strengthened his body and broke free from Jin’s hold with relative ease. Jin’s arms felt numb from the force, and this provided the man with ample opportunity to grab Jin and put him in the path of the ice pillars, which were approaching rapidly. They were far too close for Jin to move away fast enough.
He braced himself for the attack and closed his eyes.
Without realising what was happening, Jin was shoved to the side. In his descent, he witnessed Natsuno using the pillars, which stopped in their tracks and stood frozen in place, as steps, rushing in head-on for the attacker.
The man met her in the air as she leapt in for an attack, her hands still producing an icy steam. She held them out, about to cast a spell. The man, however, was faster, and his fist to her gut emptied her of any air she had left.
The strength of his attack propelled her back, sending her crashing through the ice. If she had been thrown at any other angle, the pillars would likely have skewered and killed her instantly.
Max dashed in for an attack of his own. He searched his memory for the feeling he had when he had enhanced his body during his fight with Natsuno. He closed his eyes momentarily, and opened them to see the world exactly as he had expected it – all things moving moderately slower than he was. He smiled at his newfound level of control over his seemingly natural talent.
With this confidence, he sped in to tackle the assailant, who was smiling and watching Natsuno rolling to a stop on the floor. He was quite slow, until he turned to look at Max, and suddenly wasn’t.
In fact, one would be hard pressed to deny that he was moderately faster.
His speed and his approach right up to Max’s face caused the young man to stop hurriedly and come up uncomfortably close to the ugly, megalomaniacal smile of the assailant.
“So slow,” the man said softly, shaking his head with feigned disappointment. His fist rose to meet Max’s face, sending him in a violent twist through the air in Natsuno’s direction.
Max, not having enhanced his defence in the slightest, could have sworn his head should have come clean off. In his turbulent flight, he couldn’t be certain that he wasn’t just some ugly mug flying off into the distance, whose headless body was lying lifelessly on the ground near the faculty.
He landed on the curb that separated the walkway from the grass, quite certain that he would have accepted decapitation in contrast to the pain his body felt upon landing.
“I’m almost disappointed,” the assailant shook off his grey hoodie and held out an open palm. “This is no fun at all.” He conjured a series of floating fire orbs. They circled his hand in a slow orbit.
“Don’t make it too easy for me now.”
Max sat up on the walkway, rubbing the side of his face that had been so brutally struck. He turned back to see Natsuno on her hands and knees, coughing profusely.
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“I have to say, I’m absolutely hating the Class Rep position already,” he said through heaving breaths.
“Then give it up and drop out,” Natsuno looked up in annoyance.
“Do we really have to be butting heads at a time like this?” Jin came stumbling towards them, the assailant clearly not seeing him as a viable threat in the slightest. He fell into a seated position next to Max.
“You should drop out with him,” she added flatly. “Neither of you belong here in the first place.”
She got up to her feet and nearly fell back down again. Her body was in more agony than it had ever been before.
“We can’t keep flailing around like this,” Jin said sternly.
“If there’s a plan, I’d like to hear it soon.” Natsuno brought their attention to the assailant, whose orbs were significantly larger than they had been a moment before. His malicious smile broke into a mindlessly hysterical laugh.
“He’s probably about to throw those at us, huh?” Max asked feebly.
“That does seem to be his plan,” Jin responded glumly.
“DIE!” the assailant screamed.
The orbs came rushing at them separately as Max rose up and dove off to dodge while Natsuno and Jin stood their ground, taking on the numerous orbs with hastily conjured shields. Jin dispelled his shield, and an orb went right through him.
That is, right through what he left behind.
Where Jin had stood, an intangible mimic of his body remained, tattered uniform and all, matching his appearance exactly. The assailant realised too late that he had attacked a decoy, as Jin came speeding next to him and slamming his fist into the man’s face.
The assailant toppled to the floor, and Jin followed his descent. Before he could capitalise, however, the man sent out a large flaming wave, which flew up as if the ground were spitting out the fire itself. Jin was forced to jump back with great effort.
While the attacker was scurrying to his feet, Natsuno was conjuring an orbiting ring of ice orbs of her own. She sent them flying at the man, who responded with another flaming wave which melted most of her projectiles, save for one, which connected solidly with his face. This didn’t discourage the assailant for even a moment.
He pointed an open palm to the floor and conjured a fiery wall to rise in front of her, approaching her like a blazing whale about to swallow her whole.
Her reflexes were still good, despite the immense pain in every part of her body. She forced back the flame with a conjured gust of wind, flowing from behind her with a stormlike frenzy. The counter took more out of her than she anticipated.
While she was occupied, the assailant raised his hand to his side, creating a funnel of wind that spiralled up into a small twisting tornado of fire. It sucked in bits of dirt and sand in its small funnel, burning each speck that entered its radius to less than dust. He thrust his hand forward fiercely and the raging gust of wind and flame went rushing at Natsuno. She knew what spell would stop it, but wasn’t sure if she had the stamina left to perform it. Her ice was starting to melt very easily in the heat of the attacker’s flames.
Before she could test her remaining strength, Max jumped in front of her, holding up his arms in defence. He didn’t know how hot magic fire was, but he imagined it couldn’t be any worse than the pulverising strike he had felt a few moments ago.
To his surprise, and to that of the assailant’s, the raging flames dissipated instantly within close proximity to Max. The assailant was visibly shocked by this turn of events. He’d put a lot of mana into that attack, yet it so meagrely died, fading to nothing less than embers floating past what should have been crisp corpses.
Max was equally perplexed, looking at his hands and his ring. He didn’t dwell on it for too long, however. He turned his attention to the girl who he just couldn’t help from saving ‘every fifteen minutes’.
“Will you be careful, dammit?” he chided Natsuno, who looked at the floor in shame and annoyance. Her expression showed clear anger, and her cheeks were blushing aggressively.
“I could have stopped that myself!” she cried. She in no way appreciated this new habit he had formed of jumping in and playing hero.
“Damn it all, you won’t beat me again!” the assailant screamed, creating another, larger and more volatile flaming tornado, throwing it at the two that stood before him.
Max watched the twisting, blazing gust edge closer, scorching the ground in a trail, leaving behind a charred path on the walkway. The tornado was quite fast in its approach, but he was prepared for it. Closing his eyes, Max concentrated on causing the fire to fade, and it did just that. He opened his eyes to watch sparks of embers float past him once more.
“That’s perfect, Max!” Jin called out from the side. A wave of flames nearly engulfed him in his distraction, as he brought the assailant’s attention back to himself.
Luckily, before him, a large wall was formed from the pristine concrete bricks that made up the paved walkway. The flames shot past the sides and above the wall, but Jin was protected. He looked at Natsuno to see her straining to hold up her two arms in his direction.
The bricks that made up the wall dropped back into place on the walkway, each one of them severely scorched and smoking. Jin sped behind Max before the assailant could attack once more.
“Will you idiots stop playing with your fucking lives?” Max yelled out.
“Sorry about that.” Jin turned to face Natsuno. “Thank you.”
“Save it,” Natsuno cut him off. “I didn’t save your life for your sake. We need to pull our strength together to deal with this foe.”
“Guys, as much as I like the flirting, can we deal with the issue at hand first?” Max interjected hurriedly.
Jin shut his eyes in annoyance, as Natsuno’s face flared to red in anger. They both decided it was better to say nothing in protest, and to deal with Max later.
“Max, you think you can shield us?” Jin asked.
“Are you asking me if you can use me as a fucking bullet monkey?”
“I just need you to buy some time,” Jin looked at Natsuno once more. “Is there a spell that can bind his hands from afar?”
Another flame came, which once again faded out with no harm done upon reaching their position.
“I don’t know how I’m doing this, but you guys better think fast before we stop getting lucky,” Max hurried them along.
“You’ve noticed, right?” Jin asked Natsuno.
She nodded her head.
“Beyond enhancing his physical abilities, he only uses Fire,” she said quietly.
“I can’t get in close long enough to grab his hands,” Jin said. “You got anything?”
“I know of something, but I need you to knock him down first,” Natsuno affirmed. “We’ve tried to restrain him before, but he broke free too easily. We may need to actually hold him down and take him out as soon as he’s trapped.”
“That’s the pla–” Jin was cut off, and ducked his head as another wave dissipated quite close to them. The assailant had began moving closer.
“Max, can you keep her covered?” Jin asked.
“Just do what you gotta do already.”
Jin popped out his head from behind Max, where Natsuno was now taking cover. He leapt high, jumping in front of the assailant and waiting for an attack. It came in the form of a projectile flame orb that went right through another after-image in the shape of Jin. The real Jin sped in a curved trajectory on the ground to sweep the enemy off his legs.
His kick connected, sending the assailant falling headlong onto the floor.
“Now!” Max screamed.
Natsuno rushed out of cover, pointing her open palms at the man. She cocooned him up to his neck in a dense layer of ice. Jin wasted no time moving in on the man and holding down his neck.
“It’s over,” he said gravely. He let out a current of electricity, causing the man to squirm in pain.
Max ran over to their side. Natsuno was limping, barely able to stand on her feet. Exhaustion was beginning to decay at her ability to maintain and manipulate mana. Jin wasn’t in much better shape, though he still had considerably more left in the tank.
“You’re done for, asshole,” Max lauded over the man confidently.
The assailant began to laugh, his forced-down face twisting and struggling.
“Is that so?” he chuckled nastily.
Beneath the ice, a rumble came, as the dense layer that made up the trap began to crack and melt away. The cocoon shattered, sending pieces of ice flying all over the place.
A piece scraped past, cutting Max’s shoulder and piercing through Natsuno’s arm. The force of the shatter sent Jin flying back some distance away.
The assailant got to his feet, with a small spark of electricity dancing around his hand. He clenched a fist and the electricity enveloped his entire body, zapping around his arms and legs in vibrant, odd-timed pulses.
“You Yōsaishima students are so arrogant. You really think us common folk are clueless?” the assailant laughed. “I may not be good, but I am capable of all forms of Elemancy. With this amulet, my control only grows stronger.”
He laughed once more, sending a bolt of lightning at Max, which coursed through his body and practically boiled the blood beneath his skin. He screamed in pain, dropping to his hands and knees.
Natsuno, clutching her wounded arm, raised a barrier with one hand. The assailant, without touching them, pulled out loose bricks from the walkway and threw them at her. He threw each one slowly and deliberately.
Each brick that struck broke that much more of her shield, eventually breaking right through altogether. Upon seeing her defenceless, he threw one last brick at the arm that had been pierced. She toppled onto the floor, the pain becoming far too much to bear. The agony that consumed her body had taken its toll, and she passed out.
Jin looked down at her in panic.
“NATSUNO!”
He watched on as the assailant took his time walking up to Max, who was still on his knees. In his gut, Max felt something churning. More than that, he felt himself starting to lose all sensation.
Break free! a voice came ringing through his ears. He recognised the numbness. He recognised this feeling bleeding its way from his stomach, seeping its way down to his arms and legs. He resisted fiercely, holding back as much as he could, finding something to hold onto. He dug his fingers into the little spaces between the bricks in the walkway. He focused on every sensation that he could still feel.
AWAKEN! the voice rang out again.
Max coughed. His body was still reeling from the literal shock he had just taken. He focused on the pain. He focused on the ground, the dirt, the sting of his fingers digging into the concrete. Slowly, sensation began to seep back into his body. The screaming voice started to fade.
“I told you, gaijin,” the assailant’s voice was brimming with triumph. “Someone is very interested in making sure you die. I cannot fail to deliver.”
He stood over Max, and conjured a small blade from Ice.
“Not only will I fulfil my end of the bargain, but you will also serve as the first in my new line of successes.” He knelt down to grab Max’s hair, and pulled back his head to expose his bony neck, poised to stab and finally kill the prey he was tasked to hunt.
His arm rose high enough for the sleeve of his hoodie to lower, exposing some of his wrist. Jin gasped quietly as he noticed luminous yellow lines that ran down the attacker’s arms from his hands like veins that were tearing themselves out of his skin.
“I will end your life and finally take back my own. This time, no one will get in my way.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Max said softly, relinquishing control to his fate. “Kill me, and then just fuck off. Please.”
“What was that?”
“I said fuck off!”
The man brought down his blade with a deadly speed. Where it should have met flesh, it met nothing but thin air.
“What the hell?” the assailant looked around to see Jin holding onto Max a little distance down the walkway leading to the other faculties.
“I grow tired of this fucking game!”
Screaming in fury, the assailant’s left hand produced a buzzing mass of electricity, while his right hand formed a large flame.
“Can you stand?” Jin asked Max frantically. “He’s about to attack again.”
“Oh, cool.” Max looked up, his vision somewhat hazy and distorted. He spoke deliriously, as if he were drunk or dreaming. “Dual wielding magic.” He gave a silly chuckle.
“I will just end you both!” The assailant put his hands together, his fingers interlocking, before stretching out his arms and exposing his palms to the two before him. From them, lightning and fire shot out and blended in a messy and bizarre mix, the lightning circling its way to the front of the blazing stream of fire like a snake.
“Max, I need you to get a grip!” Jin yelled.
The beam of Fire and Lighting was coming in fast, and for a moment, Jin was sure they were both done for. Luckily, Max weakly held up his hand and took the stream head on. As with the previous attacks, it faded, though at a much shorter distance. Max could, in fact, feel the heat quite clearly on his palm, but he maintained his pose, just as the assailant maintained the stream of mana he was pushing in their direction.
When it became clear that holding it off was becoming too much for Max, Jin took advantage of the narrow opportunity. He held on to Max and desperately dove out of the way. The blaze of Fire and Lightning shot past them, decimating the ground that made up the walkway and leaving a veritable road-sized crater quite close to the faculty building.
“Dammit,” the assailant clenched a fist in fury. It wasn’t a tight clench, but it hurt immensely for some reason. He looked down at his palm, and only just took note of the glowing veins that patterned around his hand and now trailed all the way up to his shoulder.
“What is this? Poison?” The assailant assessed his other palm and noted the veins were covering his arm and wrist, but not his hand. He still had time to stop whatever it was from spreading. One of these magic snot-heads must have spiked him with something while he was trapped.
“Max, wake up,” Jin pulled him to his feet.
“Five more minutes, Mrs Watson,” Max mumbled cluelessly.
Jin looked at the assailant, who seemed distracted by what was happening to his body, and took the chance. Raising his hand, he smacked Max as hard as he could.
“OW! GEEZUS!”
Max held the side of his face which may or may not have had an imprint of Jin’s hand on it.
“Are you awake now?” Jin asked frantically.
“Do I really wanna shove my foot up your ass right now?” Max responded with a lot more energy.
“What?”
“Yes, I’m awake!”
“Good,” Jin turned back to the assailant, who was eyeing them with a horrifying glare. “We don’t have much time. Listen, I think he’s using too much power.”
“What the hell did you do to me!?” the assailant called out.
“What do you mean?” Max turned to look at the man and saw the bright yellow lines covering the man’s arms. “What is that?”
“I don’t think his body can handle all the mana that he’s using,” Jin responded. “I think if we can defend for just a little while longer, he might shut down all on his own.”
“We wouldn’t need to if you just used your damn Kyoukai Kossetsu,” Max cut in, annoyedly.
“Or, you could use yours,” Jin said, a knowing smile crossing his face.
There was only one notion that came to mind when Max recalled what happened to him in the ring with Natsuno.
Freedom. Endless freedom.
The kind of freedom that made you walk into a prison yard and punch the biggest guy in there right in the dick. The kind of freedom that made any action feel possible, and all the consequences feel meaningless. It was a mindless kind of freedom, and, Max imagined, it was the kind freedom only the immortals must have felt. He was in no way in control of his actions, he was barely conscious at all for that matter.
But beyond that freedom, hidden deeper beneath the power, was a cold, dark and bitter fury. Something he was uncomfortably familiar with. It was the kind of anger that he had first encountered over a decade ago, when he first felt this unnatural burning fury that lay dormant within him. The anger that led to his causing that unfortunate hole in the wall in Jin’s guest room. The very same anger that he felt when he first dropped the very same robber they were now forced to deal with.
Max wasn’t sure what it meant about the state he was in when he’d faced Natsuno, but he was certain that he would not give in to that ‘freedom’ again. It was time to stop breaking his promise to himself, and the Sisters.
When he fought back and regained consciousness, he could vaguely recall the actions his body had performed and the limitless power that lay in his hands. Not only limitless magical power, but somehow, limitless arcane knowledge. Yet, as soon as he had properly regained consciousness, it all simply slipped away. It was like a dream, where some kind of knowledge is glaringly clear within its confines, but then immediately evades your memories when you awaken.
His ability to fight back arose when the anger he felt was replaced by a thought.
Find Jane.
This is why he absolutely could not be Class Representative. His need to find her burned with more passion than it ever did before, and all other things became unimportant. Something reminded him of why he was at the academy. It didn’t matter what it was, or who it was. It gave him back the control he needed. And it was helping him maintain that control in the face of the imminent death that stood before him now.
“You didn’t like it very much, did you?” Jin continued. “It felt unnatural? Like you could destroy all that exists as easily as you could crush an ant?”
“I get it. You don’t wanna kill the guy,” Max responded impatiently, avoiding the thoughts that had momentarily flooded his head. Jin had been able to control his abilities for who knows how long, and even he was afraid of letting out his real power. Max could no longer hold that fear against him.
“You could probably end up levelling the entire campus.”
“Now you know just how dangerous it can be,” Jin reiterated.
“Do not ignore me!” the assailant demanded their attention. “Tell me what you did!”
“If what you’re saying is right, it looks like he doesn’t seem to know what’s happening to him,” Max noted.
“Most average mages don’t actually know about it. Hardly anyone ever takes it quite this far. The amulet is helping him draw on more than he can control.”
“Tell me!” The man, in his practised fashion, sent a stream of only fire this time in their direction. It looked like it held considerable force, but it faded away before it reached them. It seemed the radius of Max’s protection had grown once again.
Max and Jin got up to their feet and got back onto what was left of the walkway near the faculty.
“So we just gotta wear him out?” Max asked.
“He’ll be doing all the work for us,” Jin nodded.
The assailant had a glint of maddening fury in his eye, but instead of lashing out with another wave, he started to chuckle to himself.
“I don’t imagine that him laughing means he’s about to give up, does it?” Max asked sullenly.
“No, I don’t think it does.”
“You sure can defend a lot,” the assailant snickered. “You’re both also proving to be quite hard to kill. But I think it's time I brought this to a close.”
“Then,” he looked at Natsuno, “this lovely young lady can help me fix whatever you’ve done to me.”
The man raised both his hands to the sky and formed a rapidly growing orb of fire.
“Let's see if you can defend this one.”
Max and Jin watched in horror as the orb went from the size of a baseball, to the size of a football, growing more rapidly, eventually becoming the size of a small car. It didn’t stop growing larger and larger.
“I… I don’t think I can stop that. I mean… that’s a fucking Spirit Bomb...” Max turned to look at Jin with a panicked expression.
“I’d like to say I disagree, but I’m pretty sure you’re right this time,” Jin conceded. “Wait, a what?”
“A fucking Spirit Bomb, Jin! What the hell do we do?” Max asked.
The flaming orb was reaching the size of a monster truck.
“Uh… Do you remember the Light spell I used? The one for defence?” Jin asked hurriedly.
“The one you used against Natsuno? Uh… I think I do, yeah.”
“If we do it together, and feed it enough mana, we just might create a sphere large enough to take on that mammoth-sized orb.”
The man’s smile faded, and slowly, as if straining, he brought down his hands, pushing the large orb forward.
“No choice now,” Max stared wide-eyed as the enormous sphere slowly flowed down towards them.
The two pushed their palms forward, facing the oncoming orb. The heat was already starting to feel unbearable. Closing their eyes, they both cried out the incantation, though something about what Max yelled didn’t sound quite right. Either way, when they opened their eyes, the shield they had formed covered practically the entire walkway around them, and almost matched the size of the incoming attack.
“Hold on!” Jin commanded.
The explosive ball hit, and it pushed back at their shield, slowly feeding into it, like extremely large bubbles forming into one. The force of the explosive was terrifying, and all Max could think about was pushing it away.
“We need the shield to swallow the explosive!” Jin yelled over the sound of the deafening blaze forcing its way through and melding into the shield. The forces clashed, and it felt as if the orb was attempting to corrupt the shield. Jin pushed with all his might, but knew that he was reaching the last legs of the mana he had willful control of.
Max closed his eyes tighter as he felt the force pushing him back. He started to panic, wanting to open his eyes and watch their doom swallow them. He tried to push his fear aside, instead focusing on picturing the two spheres joining to create one shape. The melding of the two orbs started to progress faster, and, with their combined effort, the explosive was rapidly forming part of their shield.
The assailant’s eyes widened in rage as the orb was all but sucked into the shield they had conjured up. Eventually, once it had been completely consumed, the two dropped their hands and panted in exertion.
“Max, I’m uncertain… but I’m pretty sure you said the incorrect spell. What exactly did you say?” Jin asked Max between panting breaths.
“Divine Boob, why? What did you say?” Max was puzzled.
“Divine Boob!? What? That’s definitely not the spell!”
Jin stared at Max for a moment, stupefied at the mistake he must have made.
“Well, that’s definitely what I heard the first time,” Max insisted.
“Why would I say ‘Divine Boob’?”
“The shield is shaped like a big boob, isn’t it? It makes sense. Divine Boob.”
“That absolutely cannot be the spell! But if that's what you yelled, how did that even work?” Jin asked, bewildered at their luck.
“How would you know? Apparently you don’t even know what you’re saying when you recite these incantations.”
“I refuse to believe I’ve been yelling about breasts this entire time, Max!”
A scream from the assailant drew their attention. He was looking at both of his hands, each of which was now covered in a brighter yellow than what it had been before.
“What is happening to me?” the man asked desperately. “What did you do?”
“We did nothing,” Jin corrected him. “This is what happens when you don’t train your body to truly harness the amount of mana that you were using.”
“How is this possible? I have the amulet!”
“The amulet let you use the power,” Max chipped in. “But that doesn’t mean you’re automatically capable of controlling it.”
“One would think you’d have learned your lesson about cutting corners,” Jin shook his head in disapproval. For some reason, Max found this statement to be very amusing and burst out laughing.
“Hey, what’s so funny?” Jin enquired.
“That was such a ‘protag’ line, dude,” Max couldn’t contain his laughter. He imagined being as tired as he was made him susceptible to laughing at just about anything.
“They promised me power,” the assailant was starting to lose his grip on the reality of the situation. “I WAS PROMISED POWER!”
Max’s laughing subsided, and his eyes narrowed on the man, who was now frantic.
“Who are you working for?” he asked bitterly.
“I was promised. I won’t lose again. I can’t!” The man seemed to be going into a frenzy.
“Answer the question,” Jin chimed in.
“No! I won’t fail her again!” the man was salivating in his anger. He hunched over, and Jin could see what was coming.
“He’s not giving up,” he informed Max.
“You think you can still take him?” Max asked.
“If you’ll help me out, we can put an end to this once and for all,” Jin nodded.
“You know I got your ba–”
Before Max could finish, the man was suddenly standing between them. He stretched out his hands towards their faces, and let out geysers of flames from each hand.
Max and Jin both ducked, and Jin took the chance to strike the man in the stomach. The man was about to lurch, but held it back. His mental state seemed to make him numb to the pain.
He shot out more flames in Jin’s direction, and Max quickly teleported Jin out of harm’s way. The man was quick to notice, and changed the direction of his attack speedily.
Max dissipated the flame with a new sense of confidence, and Jin jumped out to strike the man in the stomach once more. When the man seemed to take the pain easily, and lifted his head to face the two in fury, Max loosened up his own fingers with a little shake of the hand, and struck the man square in the face.
“NO!” the assailant screamed defiantly as he toppled back.
He quickly recovered, attempting to grab the two. The yellow glow on his skin was shining brighter than ever. Max put up his own hands to meet the assailant’s.
Just as fast as the assailant shot out his torrents of fire, so too did they evaporate.
The man was about to draw back when Max took hold of his outstretched limbs, and mimicked what he’d seen Jin do in the convenience store. He held a tight grip and concentrated on creating a cold sensation in his hands. When the man began to scream, he knew he had done something right.
White smoke emanated from Max’s hands, and crackles of white frost began to run from the man’s hands up to his arms. The yellow veins shone through the ice, and the man fell to his knees while Max tightened his grip.
“Max!” Jin yelled.
Max let go, and from behind him, a swift kick from Jin went straight at the assailant’s face, connecting with a powerful thud. The man toppled back with a painful grimace and squirmed in pain at the agony he felt in his head.
“Nice!” Max raised a fist for Jin to bump with his own, but Jin looked at it with a smile, confused about what it meant. So he instead put his hand around the offered fist and shook it awkwardly.
Max returned Jin’s sentiment with a horrified expression.
“That was fucking horrible,” Max shook his head. “We’ll need to work on that for sure.”
The assailant, on all fours, clenched his teeth. Jin could hear a groan from the man and adopted an alert expression that tipped Max off.
The aggressor made another lunge at Max, screaming mindlessly. Max drew back his hand, and focused his strength into a strike that would finally put the man down.
As he brought his fist in to strike, Jin made a sweep of the man’s legs from behind. The force shot the assailant into a violent backflip, sending him crashing into the ground and knocking his head with a harsh slam.
He finally lay still, and it seemed the yellow cracks in his skin had reached his neck. However, the light they gave off had somewhat dimmed.
The two looked down at the man and waited to see if he would move once more. For once, it seemed all struggle and movement had ceased.
“Finally! God damn, this dude is persistent!” Max dusted off his uniform, which was not only untidy, but was practically tattered and torn beyond repair in most places.
“We need to make sure the others are okay,” Jin looked at the faculty building.
“I’ll go check on them, you go deal with Natsuno,” Max nodded, still looking down at the assailant. “Someone needs to take her up to the infirmary, and someone needs to drag this piece of shit back inside.”
Jin nodded and made for where Natsuno was lying. Max turned to follow him and looked up to see if anyone had even been watching from the inside. They were a rather useless bunch, considering only he, Jin and Natsuno were left to fight to the end. Did anyone even try to heal or help Mashima, Shida or Hitomi? At the same time, he realised this was a bit of an unfair assessment, given how wounded many of the others probably still were.
In addition to that, he knew he was extraordinarily lucky to be alive himself. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he seemed to be able to nullify the magic of others, his fate would probably have been quite grim.
He heard something like the crunching of sand behind him, and stopped. He turned to look back slowly, with clear panic in his eyes.
The assailant was swaying on his feet and looking down at the ground miserably.
“Jin…” Max said, causing Jin to stop.
“What’s wrong?” Jin turned to look and recoiled.
The yellow vein-like cracks had made it all the way up to the man’s face, and the glow was now pulsating from bright to dim in a strange and uneven rhythm.
“If I can’t kill you, I’ll take this whole shithole with me instead,” the man smiled, revealing his blood-covered teeth. The speed of the pulse in the glowing veins was increasing rapidly.
“Max, get back!” Jin yelled.
“He’s gonna level the fucking school!” Max cried out, running in as the man produced a death cry, extending out his arms and exposing his chest to reveal the core of the yellow fissures that stretched out all over his body. It was a large, burning circle emanating from the middle of his chest, burning bright and getting brighter by the second.
At the gaping hole in the faculty entrance behind the two, Hitomi, accompanied by Shida, who was leaning on Mashima, made their way out to see what was happening outside. Behind them, the rest of the students were standing and watching as well.
|“What is that bright light?”|
|“What’s going on over there?”|
|“Sensei, something’s going on!”|
“Oh my god,” Mashima whispered. “Everyone, get back!”
“Max, we need to go!” Jin ran in to pull Max back.
Panic was beginning to streak through the students in the faculty building as they saw the blinding glow from the man’s body burn even brighter.
“NOW, YOU ALL DIE!” the assailant screamed.
Max threw himself around the man’s body. The heat from the core was unbearable, but he focused on dissipating it with all of his might. Instead of it fading away, however, the core and all of its yellow veins seemed to seep into Max, who screamed in pain as his eyes turned into their sordid shade of violet. He held on as tight as he could, and fought back the pull of mana that seemed to be ripping itself from his chest in an agonizingly slow, fierce tug.
Eventually, he had absorbed all there was of the excess mana that corrupted the assailant’s body, and the veins now covered Max’s skin instead. He let go of the man, who fell to the floor and seemed to be unconscious again. The pulsating in the yellow veins returned, and Max could feel himself losing hold of whatever was about to happen.
From the faculty, students were screaming in fear and some rushed back into the building. Hitomi was on the verge of screaming herself, seeing what was happening on Max’s skin.
“No, Max, please no…” she whispered fearfully.
“Let’s go!” Shida yelled. “There’s nothing we can do now!”
The heat felt like it was starting to burn through Max’s skin like corrosive acid. He was completely consumed, and decided it was fine if he died. Jin would no doubt finish his job now that the truth of his situation had been made clear by the assailant.
He closed his eyes, attempting to teleport into the air, where he could explode without hurting anyone else.
Suddenly, someone gripped his shoulders, and slowly, painfully, he felt the corrupted mana being drained from his body. The yellow lines faded from his skin, almost tearing at his flesh as if holding on for dear life, like a parasite being torn from its host.
Finally, Max felt like he could breathe again, and frantically turned around to see Jin’s crimson eyes. The crimson aura that surrounded his body was practically engulfing most of the area around the faculty.
Jin was panting heavily, and clenched his fists tightly. The aura that surrounded him started to slip away, and the crimson shade of his eyes faded back to gentle black.
Like Max, he exhaled loudly and seemed to be gasping for air as if he had been underwater for hours. Max looked up at him aghast.
“Are you okay?” Jin choked out as he struggled for breath.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Max got up to his feet. He turned to look at the assailant, who was now clear of all signs that he was just about to go nuclear. “Are you okay? What the hell was that?”
“You just took in corrupted mana. You’re extremely lucky to not be dead,” Jin hunched over.
“What about you? Didn’t you just do the same?”
“No. I managed to suppress it,” Jin nodded at the assailant. “Though, if I’m being honest, had you not stalled the blast the way you did, I don’t think I would have been able to suppress it in time.”
“Christ Al-fucking-mighty…”
He really was lucky. Jane would be pissed if she knew he nearly intentionally got himself killed. He admittedly had no idea what he was thinking, but he was glad he did it. A bunch of uni kids dying because of some asshole that was there to kill Max? No one deserved that kind of shitty luck, as far as he was concerned.
The two turned to look at the faculty entrance to see the students all watching them. Mashima had a distinct look of relief on her face. With a hand clutched to her heart, she collapsed to her knees in exasperation. It was also quite hard for both Max and Jin to ignore the awestruck faces assessing them warily.
“Let’s get this guy closer to the faculty,” Jin suggested. “But for the sake of safety, let's keep him outside.”