Ano dashed forward, surprising Sylvester with his speed. Ano hooked a furious blow aimed directly at the man's face, clearly reliant upon his overwhelming strength to finish the job in one foul swoop. What Ano could not have accounted for, however, was that for every bit Ano was powerful, Sylvester possessed technique of equal might. Three of the floating hands that orbited Sylvester slipped under the boy's wrist as he swung, surrounding it in a triangular formation and redirecting the blow to sail clear over Sylvester's head, who responded with a smug grin. In a flash of red light, Ano fell to the floor as his feet were taken out from beneath him by a quick leg sweep. Sylvester stood over Ano, mockingly keeping his two hands behind his back as some kind of twisted challenge.

Emanuel withdrew a sheet of paper from his left pocket. As he began to unfold it, Ken placed his hand on Emanuel's wrist, and gave him a concerned look. Even if Sylvester was potentially responsible for numerous deaths, it would be at the very least disadvantageous for them to cause the man to bleed, let alone the fact that none of them were actually prepared to take a life. Ken withdrew his hand, and joined Ano at the front lines, feinting a punch into a kick aimed directly at the man's core. The feint worked- but unfortunately, Sylvester simply possessed too many hands to block attacks. As one of the hands moved up to catch Ken's fist and missed, two of them caught Ken's foot, nullifying the blow entirely. The four hands grabbed his leg, and threw him to the ground alongside Ano, who was now standing up.

Dory stepped back, fearing to be involved in the situation. She realized she had an option here, and darted out of the classroom. Sylvester sent two hands after her, but in a burst of blue light she outran both of them.

Maria and Emanuel both stepped forward. Maria swung out with the rope, attempting to wrap it around any part of his body, only for it to be caught by yet another of Sylvester's hands. Emanuel wasted no time in charging forward with a one-two punch, ignoring any semblance of strategy in an attempt to overwhelm his opponent while he was occupied with deflecting Maria's attacks. Sylvester's hands grabbed both of his wrists as he attempted in vain to get a hit to land, but Emanuel was prepared for this. He jumped up, using the phantom hands that held his arms as a way to hold himself in place- surprising himself in the process with exactly how sturdy their grip was- and swung into a full divekick at Sylvester. His feet made contact with the man's torso, thanks to the overwhelming speed and close distance, but any damage he could have done fell short as he collided with what felt like solid rock. The blue light that collected around Sylvester's torso had blocked the attack, without even needing a hand to help.

Ano saw his chance, with three of the hands occupied, and attempted to kick Sylvester's feet out from under him while he lay on the ground. A hand caught his leg, but following Emanuel's example Ano used that hand as a pivot to try and kick with the other leg, but was blocked by another hand. The two hands then pulled Ano up, holding him in the air upside-down. Ken, not being a particularly honorable person, rolled off the ground into a squat, and attempted a full-power squat-jump uppercut aimed directly at Sylvester's balls. With a speed not seen in any of his other attempts to block, two hands caught the attempt, blocking the blow but allowing Ken to regain his footing. Maria tried to throw out one punch, just because seven of the man's hands were now occupied, but naturally another hand came to block hers as well.

In a flash of red sparks, Emanuel flew backwards a full meter, and then another flash of red sparks sent Ano flying in another direction. Sylvester kissed his knuckles, gloating in his victory over teenagers as all League players do. With another two sparks of red, Maria had fallen onto her back next to Ano, dropping her rope and watching it flicker into blue energy, and Ken joined Emanuel on the ground a meter away. The four students stood up, recovering from their assaults, and tried to take stock of the situation.

Sylvester's eight additional hands posed an obvious threat to the four of them- he could safely dedicate two hands to blocking each of their attacks, while keeping his own two arms and legs reserved for offense. His position in the corner of the room gave him an extreme advantage, as he could easily direct their attacks into one ninety-degree cone that gave him the ability to see where all attacks were coming at once. The narrow construction of the faculty office did them no favors, leaving them in a tight and confined space where they had little room to dodge any of his attacks. They were forced to use martial arts to defeat him, risking a Feeder otherwise, but at the very least he was obligated to do the same.

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Ken glanced up at Emanuel, and whispered to him, "you know, we can just leave, right? We know the big secret now."

"Yeah," Emanuel whispered back, "but we gotta know who he's working for, so let's kick his ass and find out."

"And how exactly are we gonna get this info out of him?"

"Well... we could knock him out and rummage through his wallet and phone?"

Ken's face dropped into a look of disbelief. "Sure man," he groaned. "Whatever you say. Maybe let's try and run him out of this room, get him into the hallway where the space is a little more open?"

"Sounds like a plan," Emanuel nodded back.

"Why are you doing this?!" Maria cried. Ano held her by her shoulder, while she struggled against him, threatening to charge forward at Sylvester. Clearly, their sidebar had gone very differently.

"Why?" Sylvester retorted mockingly. "And just why should I be explaining myself to a corpse?"

Sylvester's eight hands turned from blue to red, and a chill went up the students' spines. With a resounding series of cracks and a burst of red light, the students collapsed onto the floor again. Blow after blow fell upon the four of them- and on every object in the room as well. Dents and holes formed in each of the desks and chairs that filled the room, office supplies were sent flying, and the walls and ceilings trembled under repeated impacts; to say nothing of the bodies of the four teenagers, bruising and cracking under countless strikes. At last, after what felt like hours, the strikes came to a stop, the students wheezing and whimpering from under the weight of a hundred fists. Sylvester smirked as his eight Organion hands reassembled around him.

Emanuel gagged and wheezed and fought back tears. The last time he felt pain like this, he was enduring training with his instructor on a particularly bad week. He trembled as he attempted to stand up, and as he rose to one knee, but collapsed back onto the ground. He oriented himself, doing his best to check for injuries in the unknown amount of time he had left before the next assault. He felt his broken ribs, and his cracked arms and legs, and the blood trickling from his mouth, and the bruises around his eyes swelling up and blocking his vision. This was, without a doubt, the first time he'd ever been hurt this badly.

Emanuel sat up again. Something in him yearned, burned even, as if he was offered a challenge he had no choice but to accept. Whenever he was beaten down during practice, he would always roll over and wait for his instructor to let up on his attacks, finally letting him rest for the day. But now was different. There would be no water break, there would be no rest, there would be no quick visit to a healer. Blue sparks crackled around Emanuel as he rose to his feet, a well of Organion he did not know he possess pouring out over his entire body. He felt in his bones, that counter-clockwise spiral, the essence of Organion itself, flow from his morneum to his fingertips, to his toes, to his eyes and mouth and the top of his head. Maybe it was the head trauma, but right now it truly felt like the world was spinning counter-clockwise around himself.

Emanuel locked eyes with Sylvester, smiling to himself as a look of shock crossed the failure of a teacher's face. Sylvester stepped back, entering a fighting stance for the first time since the fight had began. Emanuel felt the swelling in his eyes subside, the blood stop trickling from his mouth, his arms and legs settle back in place and regain their strength, and his ribs crack back into their original forms. The world continued to spin around Emanuel, spiraling faster and faster until he couldn't make sense of left from right.

The world stopped spinning. It all snapped into place. Emanuel found himself standing in the corner of the room, his arm outstretched and balled into a fist. His ears stung from the sound of a violent crash. The flittering red light in the air clouded his vision. His legs wobbled from beneath him, unsure of their haphazard footing and forcing Emanuel to correct the placement of his feet that had moved without his understanding. At last, Emanuel's senses returned to him, and he gazed in silent awe at the hole in the wall that stared back at him, at the classroom on the other side that matched the design of his own familiar homeroom, and at the twitching body of Sylvester Malzone, whose hands flickered as they tried their hardest to retain their form. A wide smile formed on Emanuel's face, brought to a frown as Sylvester hobbled up to his feet.

Ken, Ano, and Maria limped behind Emanuel. All of them were similarly wounded to Emanuel's previous condition, and were trying their best to heal with the Organion they had left. Ken clapped his hand on Emanuel's shoulder, and the two of them looked at each other. The two exchanged no words, but Ken's eyes held an unmistakable light of pride, and Emanuel nodded back in acknowledgement. Maria slumped down onto the floor, and Ken followed her. The two covered themselves in blue light. Ano cracked his neck as he finished healing.

Maria gave the two of them a weak smile. "You guys got this?"

Ano and Emanuel looked at each other, smiled, and nodded. Together, they stepped through the hole into the classroom on the other side.