Saramin was in the middle of returning some of the books Gaby had asked her to borrow to the library right when the glasses-wearing girl herself stormed inside the place and dragged her outside by the arm in order to fill her in the situation.

"Hugh did what...?"

"Kidnapped Leon to bait Kurt into another fight. I need your help to find him" Gaby explained. She was still taking care of Dorothy who was taking this chance to treat her curly purple hair as a sitting spot, much to Gaby's frustration.

Saramin's expression just remained unchanged, "Who the hell is Leon, and why should I care...?"

"What? You don't care if your brothers fight?"

"Not really, no... I told you, Kurt needs to gain some experience. The way I see it, he will get to practice with his new claw and Hugh will get a beating, which is always nice. I don't see the downside here."

"He doesn't want to fight anymore."

"This isn't about what he wants, it's about what he needs" Saramin explained while glancing at Dorothy, "I told you, he will need to prepare for a big fight in the future. Keeping his social life secured is really not a priority right now. His safety is."

Gaby didn't like what she was hearing. She knew Sara was only keeping the best intentions in mind but hearing her talk this way as if Kurt's own wishes did not matter made her feel like she was being unfair towards him.

"Can't you at least call for your two friends to help out a little?"

"Wesley and Ron? I can't... My mother assigned them to my brother's unit after she got pissed off at me for using the ability of the empress. She can be really childish sometimes..."

"Hey, Sara, don't you think- Gaargh!!" Gaby suddenly screamed as she felt her entire body getting completely wet out of nowhere.

She stared at her hands and clothes and proceeded to look upwards to spot an empty large bucket that was dripping on her forehead. Dorothy also ended up getting caught and began to shake on top of her head in an attempt to dry her feathers.

The bucket was being carried by a pair of girls who were staring maliciously at the purple-haired girl with big wide grins on their faces.

"Oops! Hihihi! Sooooryyy!!" the two lasses replied.

One had black hair tied up in a pair of long ponytails with bright earrings hanging from her ears, while the other had long blond hair that went past her shoulders.

Gaby recognized these two. They were the same girls that dropped water on her a couple of days ago and ruined all of her books, causing her to get kicked out from the library's list of users.

"Have you two lost your minds!!??" Gaby shouted as her entire face began to turn red and her palms closed into a pair of fists.

The girls just leaned their heads to the side and continued to smile at her, "Come on, it was just a harmless prank! No reason to be mad, right?"

"I'm gonna make you two eat this bucket... Let's see if you like MY harmless prank!"

Gaby started to charge at the two but they just remained completely still while observing her. However, the moment she began to raise her fist in order to smack their faces, her entire body began to glow like a lamp and started to dissolve.

"Gaby...?" Sara whispered trying to understand what she was seeing.

"What the hell is this!?" Gaby yelled while trying to get rid of the glow by slapping her clothes as if it was dust, "What is going-"

Her sentence was then cut by her body completely vanishing out of nowhere, leaving Sara alone in the middle of the hallway with the two students.

She began to wave her hand back and forth in the same spot Gaby was in, wondering if she had turned invisible the same way one of her father's butlers would often do, but it was clear that there was nothing there anymore.

"What have you two done to her?"

"Shhh!! Don't wanna ruin the surprise!"

"Surprise? What are you- Oh..."And before Saramin could even properly calm down, she began to look at her hand and noticed that her own body started to glow as well.

"Oh... Great..." she mumbled, moments before disappearing completely as well leaving no trace behind.

_____

_____

After parting ways with Gaby and Kurt, Trevor called for his sister, Nala, and requested her to help him search the school for the missing Leon by using their powers to move through the walls of the building.

The two of them acted like a pair of ghosts, simply dashing and phasing through the air at great speed using their ability to make their bodies intangible.

Eventually, they reunited again inside the gym after realizing that their search was going nowhere.

"Anything?" Trevor asked while catching his breath.

Nala was also looking a little tired from going around the entire school, "Nothing... You?"

"Same..."

"This is such a waste of time... Why are we looking for this kid? Our job is to guard the prince, not him!" Nala asked as sweat continued to fall from her face.

"But the kid needs our help. He's Kurt's friend."

Nala raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Friend? Didn't he try to ditch him once he found out he was the emperor's son?"

"He... He was just shocked. I'm sure if they just talk it out they will-"

Nala sighed, still acting like she couldn't understand why finding this boy was so important, "This is seriously so annoying... Why can't the prince just stay away from trouble for one day?"

"Hey, it's not like he wants to get into trouble..."

"Why do you keep defending him so much? Are you feeling guilty over lying to him or something? Just because we were hired to babysit him doesn't mean we have to suck up to everything he does! How many times have we had to clean up his messes by now? And all that for someone that keeps forgetting who we are all the time!"

"Nala! Enough!!" Trevor shouted, causing his sister to flinch.

She gazed at his expression and saw how much frustration he was trying to keep concealed.

"We talked about this before. I know you don't like the royal family, but Kurt and his mother are not like the others! How many times do I have to repeat that?"

Nala shivered for a second seeing her brother's anger but she also started to become infuriated herself, "If they're not like the others, then why does she still forces us to follow her son around like as if we were his pets? How long must we live like this??"

"If it weren't for her, neither of us would be living at all! And lower your tone! Do you want us to get found out??"

"Who's gonna find us out inside this empty gym??"

"I would!" a third voice abruptly joined the conversation.

Trevor and Nala jumped away at the same time once they realized a strange figure that had been watching the two of them in silence all this time. A young boy with chocolate skin, curly dark hair, sitting with his legs crossed on the ground and smiling at the two while holding his chin with his fist.

"Park!??" Trevor gasped, "How long have you been here?"

"How did you get in here?" Nala added, "The doors were locked!"

Park continued to smile at them and started to emit a strange glow all over his body before disappearing and reappearing right behind Trevor.

"You two are not the only ones able to go in and out of the school grounds without anyone noticing!" he commented while leaning forward with both hands behind his back.

"Teleportation..." Trevor mumbled as he realized what the boy's talent was.

"Pretty cool, right?" Park continued before vanishing again a showing up right in front of Nala in order to pull down her hood.

"Hey!!" she tried to push him away but he simply vanished again and appeared one more time behind Trevor in order to lean on his back with his arms crossed.

"I have to say, I almost believed that whole speech you made in front of the class..."

"Wha- What do you mean?" Trevor muttered.

"What was it again that you said? You're hanging out with the guest because you want to, not because you're being forced to? His mother being an empress changes nothing? Even if he wasn't a guest you would still be his friend?"

Park vanished again and showed up sitting on one of the benches, far away from the two.

"I mean... I just assumed you were putting an act so you could have some fun with his money and status... But man... What you did was way, WAY worse than I imagined..."

He teleported again and began to walk with slow steps around the two.

"So all this time, you were just a bodyguard hired by the empress to watch over her little baby... But instead of just coming clean with the truth, you made him believe you guys actually liked him? That's cold, my guy..."

"I'm not putting on an act! Kurt really is my friend!"

Next, Park appeared right in front of Trevor glaring at him with a wicked grin, "Is that so? Then what are you waiting for? Tell him the truth!"

"I'll tell him the truth when I'm ready! Now tell us where Hugh is hiding Leon!"

"Right, little Leon... That fake dragon sure is getting upset over his absence. You think he's sad because his only real friend went missing?"

"Shut up!" Nala shouted while trying to jump on him, but Park acted faster and moved away again after glowing and disappearing.

He then appeared on the edge of one of the arenas, "Why so mad? If you guys don't think I'm right, you can just go ahead and ignore me..."

"This has nothing to do with you, Park. Just mind your own business!"

"Oh! This has everything to do with me! You know how frustrating it is to watch that pretender going around acting like he belongs with us? Or watching you two acting like pair of pets following him around all the time? You all are an embarrassment to all dragons!"

Trevor rolled his eyes, "What you think or feel is not our problem. Just go be all sad and angsty away in a corner if you hate seeing us so much..."

Park smiled at them and raised his arm aiming at the center of the arena. Right after that, a new figure covered in a glowing light started to form in the center, blinding each of them with its bright light.

Once the glow finally faded, a large youngster with red hair and a relaxed smile revealed himself gazing at them.

"Sounds fun. But I have an even better idea! Since all of you seem so eager to just get things started, why don't we go ahead and get this show on the road?" Hugh commented, "What do you say, Parky buddy?"

"You're the boss."

Park then snapped his fingers and both Trevor and Nala started to glow, as well as Hugh and Park himself.

Trevor watched as his entire body engulfed itself in light and before he realized it, the entire scenery around him had been altered.

The glow was gone but now he was finding himself in some kind of dark dungeon surrounded by a group of kids inside a jail cell.

He looked at each of them and recognized their faces. Kurt, Gaby, Dorothy, Saramin, and Nala. All looking just as lost as he was.

"What is happening...?" Trevor asked.

"I'll tell you what is happening!!" Hugh shouted.

Trevor followed the sound of his voice and noticed him standing on top of a platform thirty feet above the ground surrounded by a group of students as well. A boy with a shaved head and muscular arms, a pair of girls, one blond and one with black hair, Park, who was smiling at them as usual, and finally, Leon, the root of all this commotion, carrying a pair of chains around his wrists and looking completely drained of energy.

Between the two groups, there was a large arena, much bigger than the ones from the academy, surrounded by a series of spikes, a bottomless pit, and with chained axes dangling from the ceiling.

"You are all about to take part in the greatest game on the planet!

Welcome to Hugh's amazing game of kill or be killed!"