The bell to fourth period class rang as all of the students filed into their classrooms as to not be marked tardy. Leon, however, took his time as he leisurely strolled into class, his backpack slung over his shoulder as he found his seat and plopped down, resting his head against his hand.

“The goal is to be in the class before the bell sounds and not after, Mr. Leon,” scolded Leon’s math teacher.

“Ugh, c’mon! I’m here, aren’t I?” Leon scoffed.

“It’s that attitude that is the problem, young man. You think you can do whatever you want, whenever you want to. You know what the problem is with children like you? Their parents don’t discipline them at home!” berated the teacher.

Leon scowled at him with disdain, “you don’t know anything about my parents.”

“I don’t, do I? Ha, you’re a living example!”

“Take that back!” Leon stood up from his desk, placing both hands on the surface of it and glared daringly at his teacher.

“Sit back down and show some respect or you can leave my classroom.”

“Deal,” Leon said, as he picked his knapsack off the ground and slung it back around his shoulder.

“Don’t be a smartass, Leon. Sit down, right now!” his teacher narrowed his eyes at the young man.

“Kick rocks,” Leon muttered as he made his way to the door. All of the other students stared in silent awe as they watched their peer mouth off to the teacher. This wasn’t completely out of character for the boy, as he had a reputation at school for being a bully and often disobeying those in authority over him.

“What did you just say?” the teacher turned completely around to face Leon and took a step forward.

“You heard me!” Leon shouted back, losing what little bit of self-control that he had left. “Just leave me alone!”

“Maybe it’s best if you do leave, because you are really pushing my buttons.”

Leon stopped dead in his tracks and turned around, “did you just threaten me?”

The teacher placed his hands on his hips and chuckled, “what are you going to do about it, Mr. Tough Guy? I see you bullying these poor other kids in the hallway and do you think you can do the same to me now?”

Leon squinted at his teacher with deep anger in his eyes as he dropped his backpack to the ground and balled his fists.

“Ha, you actually want to do this?” his teacher snarked and then came forward so that he was standing right in front of Leon. “Go ahead, kid- I’ll make it easy for you. You want to hit me? I won’t stop you.”

Leon’s breath sped up as he felt his heart rate increase, his eyes locked with his teacher's who stood in front of him daringly.

“You must be scared to face someone who isn’t smaller than you, huh, Tough Guy?”

“SHUT UP!” Leon shouted at the top of his lungs as he slugged the teacher directly in his solar plexus, causing him to grip his midsection and drop to the ground.

The rest of the class all seemed to gasp at once in horror as they watched their fellow student bring their teacher to the ground with a single punch.

“Hmph! I didn’t wanna be in this stupid class anyway,” Leon sneered as he picked his bag up off the ground once more and headed out the door.

The young delinquent made his way to the edge of school campus when the principal saw him leaving and tried to catch up with him, “Leon, wait! Where are you going?”

“I hate this stupid school! I’m leaving and not coming back!” Leon shouted over his shoulder and continued walking.

“Hold on now, son! Just wait a minute!” the principal shouted as he caught up to him.

“I’m not your son!” Leon turned around swiftly, glaring at him. “Don’t call me that.”

“Alright, Leon. I’m sorry…” the old man frowned genuinely, “I just want to know why you are running away from school?”

“Ha, ask my math teacher,” Leon spat with contempt.

“Did he give you a hard time today?”

“You could say that. Maybe I gave him a hard time too.”

Leon’s principal nodded somberly and folded his hands in front of him. “Why don’t you come back to school and we’ll talk about it?”

“I don’t think I’ll be allowed to come back after what I did.”

“What did you do?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I hit him,” Leon swallowed and looked down.

“Oh, Leon…” the principal sighed. “What are we going to do with you?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m going home.”

“I understand,” the principal nodded once more. “If you ever need to talk, you know where my office is. Whether you’re a student or not, you can come talk to me anytime.”

Leon tightened his lips and nodded, “thank you.”

“Take care of yourself, young man,” the principal turned and headed back towards his office.

Poor old sap Leon thought to himself as he continued on walking off campus towards a small convenience store down the street, maybe I can score a pack of smokes before I get back to Aunt Tia’s house.

As Leon approached the store, a young man who looked to be only a couple years older than him was staring at his cell phone and not paying attention, which caused his to run directly into Leon.

“Hey, watch where you’re going, ya jerk!” Leon shouted angrily and pushed the older boy.

“Jerk?” the older boy raised an eyebrow at Leon and pocketed his phone. “I didn’t mean to bump into you. My bad.”

“Yeah, it is your bad!” Leon retorted. “You should be paying attention instead of staring at your stupid phone.”

“Easy, pal. There’s no need to be so harsh. I said I was sorry.”

“I’m not your pal, loser!” Leon grunted as he shoved the older boy once more.

The older boy stumbled off balance a bit, but caught himself. His eyes filled with frustration as he stared at this younger kid who was attempting to bully him. “Do not touch me again.”

“Or what?” a smirk played across Leon’s face.

The older boy grabbed the strap of his backpack and glared at the impudent kid. He took in a deep breath, closed his eyes and then sighed. “You’re not worth it,” he said and then turned and began walking away.

“Hey, dumbass, I’m not done with you!” Leon shouted after him as he began to follow and shoved him hard from behind as he continued to try and walk away.

“Hey, what are you-!” the older boy exclaimed as he stumbled forward into oncoming traffic. A large pickup truck was headed straight for the boy as he stood helplessly in the middle of the road.

Before the vehicle could collide with him, a figure like a white shadow appeared within the blink of an eye and placed the boy safely onto the sidewalk.

What the hell? Leon asked himself as he stared in disbelief at the figure who had rescued the boy that he shoved.

The figure was dressed peculiarly, wearing strange white, form-fitting robes with a hood that covered the upper half of his face. He seemed to have some sort of white leather shoulder pads and matching boots, like a wizard or angel.

“You should be ashamed of yourself! You could have killed him!” the figure chastised Leon.

“Uh, sorry!” Leon blinked, almost entirely at a loss for words until he spoke up and asked, “are you an angel?”

“Hmph!” the figure shook his head and turned his attention to the older boy. “You are Seth, correct?”

The young man swallowed and nodded, “yes, sir.”

“Good. You need to come with me- we don’t have much time,” the figure said and held out his hand to the boy named Seth.

Seth, who was unsure of what was going on thought it wise to comply with the powerful being as he slowly extended his hand.

“Wait!” Leon called after them. “What are you?”

At that moment, four portal gates opened all around the hooded figure and from them emerged similarly dressed figures, except rather than white, they were dressed in green.

“Darn it!” the original figure said and then looked to Seth, “just hang tight. I’ll deal with them and then we have to get out of here!”

“Elijah! It’s been a while since our last little encounter!” one of the green hooded figures grinned maliciously.

“Yes, what has it been… 50 years at least, no?” another chuckled.

“I’ll just have to make sure that you this is the last time that you ever see me,” Elijah, the white hooded figure spoke and slowly removed his hood, revealing a young, handsome face appearing to be in his late twenties.

“You’re right, because this time we’re going to take your miserable life from you!” one shouted as he began to charge up his Spirit Essence, a forest green aura radiating around he and the other three that accompanied him.

“We’ll see about that,” Elijah said under his breath as a faint white aura began to shine from him as he then took a single step back into a martial arts formation unknown to both Leon and Seth.

“You make this too easy!” the one who appeared to be leading the green hooded figures chuckled as he and the other three faced their palms towards Elijah. Lime green Spirit Fetters appeared around each of Elijah’s wrists and ankles.

Elijah looked down at his arms and legs and struggled, but could not move, due to the enormous weight he felt from the Spirit Fetters, almost as if they were holding him down.

The four green hooded figures prepared to attack Elijah, but Leon intervened, running forward and hitting one of the green hooded figures in the back of the head as hard as he could.

“I’m not done talking to him yet!” Leon shouted fiercely.

The one that Leon punched in the back of the head fell to the ground, totally unconscious, catching the other three completely off guard.

“Deal with this stupid kid!”

One of them turned and appeared in front of Leon within an instant and sent a roundhouse kick into the boy’s chest, sending him flying into the convenience store, creating a large crater in the side of the building. The young man felt his spine snap in the center as he immediately lost consciousness.

With one of them being knocked out and the other distracted by Leon, Elijah took advantage of them, powering up even more as the white aura around him became more prominent and the Spirit Fetters snapped off of him. He then charged a burst of Spirit Essence and blasted it towards his three remaining assailants.

Seth, meanwhile, stood frozen in fear. His legs felt like Jell-O, as they shook, yet were unable to move.

After sending the wave of Spirit Essence at his enemies, Elijah charged up and launched himself at them, sending a barrage of punches and kicks at all three of them in succession. He moved like a bolt of lightning, striking so fast that any mere mortal would have trouble following his movements. Within seconds, all of his enemies were defeated and he allowed his aura to fade as he brought his Spirit Essence level down and approached the scared-stiff Seth.

“Hurry, we must leave now. More will come,” Elijah urged.

Seth swallowed and looked over towards the crater in the side of the building where Leon was kicked into. “What about him?”

“What about him? We don’t have time for this, Seth!” Elijah looked over his shoulder as he spoke.

“I-I’m not leaving unless you help him. He’s just a kid!” Seth’s whole body shook in fear as he defied the powerful being.

Elijah heaved a great sigh as he remembered Elder Eilmar’s last words to him about restoring the Exalted Guardian Society. He recalled how the most important qualification for joining the sect was that one must be pure of heart. “Fine!”

Elijah quickly flew over to Leon and pulled him from the large crater and carried him in his arms. “Let’s go,” he instructed Seth who quickly jogged towards them. Elijah then waved one of his hands and a portal gate opened before their eyes and he directed Seth to step through, following behind him with Leon in his arms and the gate closed behind them