Waking up the next day, Atlas felt as fresh as one could possibly feel. Lying in a comfortable double bed with an enormous number of pillows, it was quite a challenge to actually get up. Yet bearing the gravity of the bed, Atlas got up, washed up and put on his school uniform.
“Guess, I am ready to return.” He borrowed Bond’s backpack, since it was torn and left somewhere on the planet zero.
“I am leaving, Bond!” he said as he closed the front door and left the house. “Was he even in the house to begin with?” He questioned himself since he did not see any trace of Bond being in the house. Bond, as Atlas understood, was quite vocal and pretty sure would have shown his presence anyhow. Already outside, he looked around to happily see no one. Smiling he grabbed straps of his backpack, took a running stance and closed his eyes. Channeling the energy into his legs, he opened his eyes and sprinted forward. The speed reached was quite impressive for someone his age and was rather inhuman. He was obviously slower than most of the advanced hunters, but he was happy as he was. He was sure he would not be late. Although he was moving fast, he had to choose routes with the least possible amount of people there. And in about 20 minutes he was at school already. Walking it would take him about an hour.
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Looking at his school, Atlas was not really thinking of any good memories. He was mostly alone, and had no one to talk to. However Atlas was not really concerned about any of the school problems. He changed. All the time he spent on the other side of the tunnel changed the way he looked at stuff. Everything that has been boring for him was now starting to have new colors and in a way exciting.
He walked through the main gate thinking how he did not need to jump over the wall this time. Around Atlas were dozens of students walking towards the school. They were chatting, laughing and all the teenager stuff they could be doing, just to make their short trip from home to the entrance of the school more bearable, especially in this scorching time of the year. Thinking about his own stuff, Atlas did not notice how some people were calling him out, calling him all the different words. And now entering the school, he felt a feeling of nostalgia, even though he was at the school about a week ago. However for Atlas this was a very long week.
He quickly found his class, and upon entering everyone who was there silenced and looked at Atlas. They quickly started gossiping and talking about the recent event where Atlas was beat up so hard, he was sent to the hospital. It would be wrong to say that everyone hated or disliked him, just a few who were under Corey's rule. The rest were the crowd who did not want to interfere. Just bystanders who could just point fingers at most.
A week ago or it would have bothered Atlas, and he would have probably said something clever and rude back. Yet now he had a better understanding of the place, and it was probably time to set up something like a temporary base and mapping territories. He was very serious in his attempts to explore the unknown world. In his notebook, there were lots of different scribbles and writings:
Better gear.
Better weapon, knife/sword maybe?
Paper for mapping stuff
Stonemoles
Deer like horror…
Ancient civilization? Well, statue…
“Atlas!”
He was suddenly called by his teacher.
“Do you have anything to add to this topic? Maybe your mind came up with something?”
“No, not really. Sorry if I missed something” Atlas answered in a most calm and steady voice and attitude. It would be understatement to say that people were shocked by how calm and unexpectedly mature was the response. The rest of the class went quiet, with nothing really happening. At the lunch break, Atlas bought a sandwich at the cafeteria and went outside to lie down on the grass and rest for a bit. However his rest was not long since it was interrupted by a quite annoying yet familiar voice.
“Long time no see, princess. I see you are doing well with all the crap you said to the officials, didn’t you?”
“Indeed a long time” Atlas replied without opening his eyes. He remained lying, trying to enjoy as much of peace and quiet as he could.
“Get the hell up, moron” Corey said in an orderly tone “You need some explanation to give.”
“Have something in mind, just speak. No use in being a shy little puppy and trying to take things to places.” Atlas remained calm.
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“You think it is funny? People think I sent you to hospital, even my father was taken to the police. Your stupid ass is going to be beaten to the point of becoming beyond repair if you don't apologize now…”
“I am sorry.” Atlas said, interrupting Corey. He was still lying on the ground “I didn't mean to cause any trouble to you or your family.”
Corey and his friends were shocked to say the least. Atlas d’Prince, a boy who would always say something in return to then run away over and over, was just apologizing without breaking any sweat.
That was not the reaction Corey was expecting, and he was becoming more and more annoyed and angry. After staying silently for a while, he said:
“Get up, Atlas. You are a dead bird now” with a deep menacing tone. His hands started to glow red. Corey had activated his ability which was a branch of the fire ability group. He could cover his fists in an aura of fast moving energy which resulted in high temperatures. On the outside it looked as if his fists were covered in lava.
People around started to gather and watch. Some started to record it, since they knew a beating was about to occur. Some were excited to see Corey in action, since he was pretty strong in the school. Some did not like it, but preferred to turn a blind eye to this.
This was when Atlas finally opened his eyes. Looking around, he saw Corey who was ready to fight along with his friends with mixed up facial expressions.
“Corey, we should not really do this. C’mon the man apologized, what else do you want to…” before one of Corey’s friends could finish the sentence, was sent flying into the crowd.
“Anyone else want to say something stupid before I send this shrimp to the hospital again?” Corey shouted while looking around. When he looked at any one, they moved their eyes just not to meet eyes with Corey. He knew exactly what was going on. He was feared. This put a smile onto his face. Like everything was finally how it should have been in the first place. While enjoying this moment, Corey did not see how Atlas stood up, cleaning his pants from grass and leaves. He looked at Atlas to see him not even flinching at the situation.
Atlas was thinking of how he should address this situation. He did not want to cause a fuss, but it looked like Corey had already made up his mind of beating him. Yet it would take only one word to express how Atlas was feeling at the moment - bored. He was not scared. All the fear he felt for Corey was gone. Like there was never one in the first place. And along with the fear, he had no hatred. He had nothing to feel about him. In a way, Atlas thought that Corey was a distorted image of his own past self. A past self, which had no friends and was just covering all the pain and sadness behind the mask of a guy who constantly rebelled. This even made him smile.
“What in the world of hell are you smiling at, freaking shrimp?” Corey asked, becoming more and more angry.
“Nothing really, just your silly face probably” replied Atlas.
“Beg for mercy now” Corey said before instantly charging at Atlas.
For Atlas, this was actually quite slow, even without his ability on, he easily dodged Corey’s offense. Corey was no scarier than those stonemoles, Atlas was hunting down. Maybe quite stronger but no fear was inflicted. Second punch was dodged easily as well. The more punches Atlas dodged, the angrier Corey got.
“Being so weak, you can only dodge and hide, you like feeling miserable Atlas?” Corey was taunting him, yet Atlas was just silently dodging all the incoming attacks. Corey was attacking Atlas faster and faster and on the side, it looked like he was cornering him, since Atlas was slowly moving backwards towards the tree. Now the tree was a few steps behind, and Atlas had no place to dodge towards. Corey knew that as he proceeded to use military technique, his father taught him. Taking a large step, he stepped onto Atlas' left foot, grabbed his left hand with his and now holding Atlas, he swung his hand towards Atlas face.
People around already prepared themselves to see a bloody mess. Yet nothing happened.
In front of their eyes was a boy with blue glowing eye holding Corey’s fist with his bare hand without even flinching.
It was not hard for Atlas to gather the energy in his hand and catch the scorching fist of Corey’s.
“You know, when I heard that there are going to be scouts from Espada academy. I thought that they might be after you, since nearly everyone in the school fears you. I was wrong. You are feared by the ones weaker than you, others simply don't give a damn…”
Atlas pushed Corey fist back with quite the force, that Corey lost his balance and just fell on the ground. Without further ado, Atlas turned around and started to leave.
“Running away are you! Scared to the point of shatting your pants!” Corey shouted back, standing up and wanting to run towards Atlas to continue the fight.
Yet when he was about to, Atlas stopped, turned his head towards Corey and with the most calm and emotionless face looked at Corey. But for Corey it was different. Never had he ever felt so pressured against someone. He often spared against his father and got used to the intimidation aura of his. But this time was different. There was no intimidating aura, no bloodthirst coming from Atlas. It felt as if the air itself just froze. He did not know what that meant, he did not know what to expect from this atmosphere. It felt like he was in another world, with no knowledge of the place. He was just lost. And that scared Corey. He did not move, he was just left standing there looking shocked.
Atlas however just turned around and left all the people watching in shock. The bully they feared was just being toyed around. Not even beaten, just left there.
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“I wonder, who are those scouts after?” Atlas thought while entering the school building. He wanted to see people qualified enough to join the academy. He needed to know the level required to reach in order to be able to join the academy. He never thought of that, but now it made sense. Corey was never strong to begin with, there were others. Other strong students who just hid in plain sight. Atlas suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway, with a scared and lost expression on his face.
“I forgot to call back Alice…She is gonna be mad”