“Yo, look who is here.” A lanky teen said when Miles and others left the premises to take a look around. Although Milosh told Miles and Eddie to take care of others, the duo didn’t think locking all the members inside of the building was the best course of action. It would even be counterproductive.
But just as 30 students left the building, they saw tens of teens standing in groups around their compound. The one who spoke was one of the closest ones, and his lecherous eyes were scrutinizing Demi Orril from top to bottom.
“Silvio, still scumbag I see.” Eddie said as he locked his arm on his chest.
“I am not talking to you, an eyesore.” Silvio shooed him away with his hand as he looked at Demi, “Let me enjoy this eye candy.”
“You bastard!” Matthew walked from behind and he was about to jump on Silvio when a hand clasped his shoulder like a vice. Matt turned to look and saw Miles was shaking his head.
“Ignore these vile things. Their words are as valuable as the dirt under our shoes.” Eddie said with an authoritative voice.
“Fuck you!” Another teen walked out from a bit afar as he looked Eddie in the eye. “The tournament was postponed because of you. You must feel so important.”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Eddie answered earnestly as he nodded toward the newcomer. “The whole thing was delayed because of me. What does this tell you?”
“What do you mean?” Asked the same teen as he took a step back.
“Without me, the rest of you don’t mean anything to the committee. They only want to see me. They would rather wait for a while for me to heal to watch you lowlives jump like monkeys.” Eddie answered with a smirk. Miles shook his head behind him. This Eddie had a sharp tongue.
“You are asking for it,” Silvio said and was about to grab Eddie’s collar when a cough stopped him.
“What is going on here?” Asked the newcomer as he looked at Eddie with his penetrating blue eyes.
“N—Nothing, sorry Sir,” Silvio answered in trepidation as he took a step back.
“Didn’t seem like nothing to me.” Said the newcomer. He was wearing the military uniform of Unity and the epaulets on his shoulder indicated his rank, Major.
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“Major Cross, I am sorry. I got caught up.” Silvio said while shivering in his boots.
“Don’t repeat it again,” Merlin said with a smile.
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.” Silvio nodded hastily and ran away.
“How about the rest of you?” Merlin looked at others who had gathered around. “Why are you in front of this building? Haven’t you been briefed about boundaries? Beat it.”
With it, all the spectators from other schools left as quickly as they could. After everyone left, Merlin turned to look at the Twentynine teens who were looking at him in awe. One looked at him with a smirk.
“Thank you, Major, Sir.” Eddie gave a military salute as he thanked him.
“Don’t mention it, soldier.” Merlin shook his hand lazily as he looked at Miles. “How are the arms?”
“Wanna test?” Miles smiled. Merlin copied and shook his head.
“No. Let’s go.” With it, he turned to leave.
“You guys go ahead, I will catch up with you later,” Miles told others and followed behind Merlin.
“Lucky bastard,” Matt said behind Miles. “I wish I had a cool brother like him.”
“Merlin, freaking, Cross. He is so damn cool!” A girl yelped when they were far away.
“I didn’t know the Vice-Captain was related to Merlin.” Another said.
“Why didn’t he go to Cross Academy then?” A girl asked.
“The same reason why I didn’t go to Holy Light Academy.” Demi Orril answered as he smiled at her fellow students. “The Beast Breeding Academy is the best.”
“Damn right it is!”
————
“What are you doing here?” Miles asked when they were away from the rest of the students.
“My team was assigned to this place to protect the students.” Merlin shook his head as he looked at Miles. He then patted his shoulder. “You look stronger.”
“I am stronger.” Miles grinned. “Wanna test my strength?”
“Bro, if it was a few weeks ago, I would love to, but now? You don’t stand a chance.” Merlin smirked as his energy left his body and surrounded his body. When it was two meters around him it stopped.
“Zone?” Miles asked in disbelief.
“I broke through dumbass.” Merlin shook his head as he explained.
“Oh, that explains it. Still, having a zone as soon as you advance is rare.” Miles praised. He and Alex were the best of their class when it came to Zone. But even when Miles managed to form his ultimate, he still couldn’t create a zone bigger than 30 centimeters. Alex was a tad better and could create a zone of 40 centimeters in diameter.
“I had it before I broke through, of course,” Merlin said with disdain. “It is not your academy that only teaches these stuff. But you can see if a person is Form-Rank or Extol-Rank from their zones.”
“How?” Miles asked.
“Look at my Zone, what do you see?” Merlin pointed at the area around him. Miles looked closely but didn’t notice anything.
“Use True Sight, dummy.” Merlin face-palmed. Miles wanted to hit his head on the ground as he forgot something so important. Soon his vision changed and the zone seemed even clearer. There was solidness to the zone unlike his and Alex’s.
“Solidness?” Miles questioned, uncertainly.
“Yes.” Merlin smiled. “One of the things you unlock when you reach Extol-Rank is freely changing your element to subs. Even a person with regular Fire Ability can learn other versions of the Element, like Healing Fire or Explosion. But the ultimate form of all elements is a solid barrier state. Extol-Rank allows you to do just that, so each Zone is also a strong barrier.