Ver rose from her seat, and even she was shocked by the speed of Wu's movements. The Academy changes people, sometimes in subtle ways, and sometimes not. Boiling over from the pressure-cooker environment, Wu found his fist connecting with the face of Lily Watts, though from the moment he moved, her eyes had been locked onto him. As he flew closer and closer to her, his clothes flapping in the air, she smiled as she was blasted back and thrown into the side of the power. A surge of flames instantly shielded her body on impact, though no shield was conjured up when Wu landed his hit. A red light instantly penetrated the entirety of the tower, and lines of Casts with unfamiliar patterns suddenly formed all over the ground before white semi-transparent chains were shot towards Wu. He picked up the nearly unconscious Lera as she gripped her fingers around his collar, and he made a run for it. With his newfound physicality, Wu avoided the first set of the chains, leaping over them like a hurdler before blasting aside another one that slammed down from above. "Move out of the way!" Wu shouted, carrying Lera as the stunned crowd stumbled out of his way. As he kicked down the door to the outside, Lily Watts rolled up from her seat and wiped away the blood from the corner of her lips. "Sis!" Charlie said, tending to his older sister when she slapped him across the face, the fire of her palm burning his brother as he screamed. "It was because of you that I had to put on this stupid act." Lily said, spitting the blood onto the ground as she glared at Charlie, "You will get your load later." Charlie ground his teeth together and nodded in silence, "So...now what?" "Now, Wu faces the consequence of breaking the oldest law in the Academy. I have only heard about what will happen to those..." Lily said, cracking her neck and trying to ignore the fresh stings from Wu's hit. Even though she actively suppressed the protective instincts of her Fire Manifest, she still anticipated the attack and prepared her neck muscles for it. Despite all of that, Wu's attack still packed far more of a punch than she expected, and she could tell he's holding back greatly still. Glancing towards her useless little brother again, Lily finally understood why the hell he was pushed around like that. "...Wu..." Lera mumbled through her bruised face and puffed up lips as she dug her nails into her arm, "Did you see...did you see my strength..." "Lera..." Wu looked down for the briefest moment as a white chain hooked around his right ankle. He was instantly yanked back, and Wu curled his body around Lera, shielding her from the fall and taking the majority of the impact. He grunted in pain as Lera's eyes widened and tears started to well up, "I don't know what to say..." Then, a chain found its way around Wu's neck like a serpent, forcing him to reach towards his throat as Lera was dropped onto the ground. She screamed for his name as he was pulled away by the massive Cast array and hang in the air, but through the injuries that she has suffered, she couldn't move anymore. Wu became suspended into the air by the massive Cast away on the ground. "Oh ho ho!" The voice of Principal Khan came through the Casts all around the Academy as he watched Wu's face as he was lifted up into the air, "Looks like we got a rule-breaker here!" Ver had already fully activated her Manifestation while Ita stood next to her, her body refusing to move despite her mind screaming for her to save Wu, or at least do something. "What do you have to say for yourself about interfering the Law of Combat?" The principal asked, his face also projected next to Wu. He had a mysterious smile on his face, and the very thought of profits from what's going to happen next excited him to no end. "Nothing." Wu replied firmly, his gaze locked onto Lera as she finally realized the gravity of what she has done. She bit on her lips until her blood became mixed in with her tears, and she mumbled words of apologies as Ver hurried to her and wrapped her in a jacket, "Nothing but I am sorry." "Apologies won't do anything for you now." Principal Khan said, "In front of you are two-" "I wasn't talking to you." Wu cut him off, and Ver and Lera both looked at him. Lera's mouth dropped, and she started hitting herself in the head. What the hell was she thinking?! WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING?! As she continued punishing herself physically, Ver reached out and gripped onto her hand, stopping it in its track. "Please...save him..." Lera plead, her hands shaking as the strength started to escape her. "Hah! A fiery one! I like that!" Principal Khan said, "I was going to offer you the simple path of being expelled and have you end of the deal fulfilled without further punishment, but I changed my mind. Instead, your only future, is to walk through the Ring of Fire." Wu tilted his head and looked at the massive face of the Principal, "Is that a Harry Potter reference?" "What...No." Principal Khan scratched his forehead in confusion before continuing, "You are now going to have to win three paired battles in a row. Your opponents are determined by the one that you have affected through your interference. Your fighting partner may be the one you tried to help, though if you had to cheat to make her win, perhaps she isn't the best of choices." Lera lowered her head and let the words cut deeper into her. "You have three days to prepare yourself, rule-breaker Wu Hui." Principal Khan said, his voice stone-cold as he cut off the transmission Cast, "It is too late for regrets, won't you know it." The chains broke, and Wu landed firmly on the ground before hurrying to Lera's side. The crowd of students from Illiol college gathered around them but stayed at a distance, as he became public enemy number 1 in the entirety of the Academy through that singular action. Lera tried to look at Wu when he picked her up, but she couldn't. She shut her eyes and covered her face as Ver took the two of them back towards the Ville college alongside the rest of Ita's forces. After returning, Wu took Lera straight to his room and started tending to her injuries as she fell asleep in his arms, overwhelmed by her fatigue and injuries. "What the fuck was he thinking?!" Ita grunted loudly and lied down on the sofa in the common room at the bottom floor of the Ville college as Ver grabbed herself a drink, "Is he stupid?!" "You don't know what they went through together." Ver said slowly before finishing the drink, "Wu would die for Lera." In fact, he already has, by her hands. Ita was stunned for a moment, and as Ver turned and headed to Wu's room, Ita continued sulking in place. As Ver marched through the empty corridor, her footsteps started to match the rhythm of her heartbeat as she moved faster and faster. A part of her felt strange when she saw Wu moved so rapidly for Lera, and Ver had an idea of what that might be. However, all of the spare thoughts went away as she pushed the door open and Wu turned his head. He's sitting on a chair next to the bed, and he looked to be in worse shape than even Lera for some reason. "She...didn't know what happened." Wu said, holding onto Lera's hands as she was fast asleep after Wu cleaned her up briefly, "From her perspective...I..." "You think too much about all of this stuff." Ver sighed before taking a sit on the desk behind Wu, "Something else happened between you two, right? You two seemed to be more...intense than before." Wu's eyebrows jumped slightly, and he turned to watch Lera as she winced instinctively. "We had our promises..." Wu said at last, and Ver chuckled before shaking her head. "This is never going to be easy." Ver said, "All you can do is to take one step at a time. Live with your consequence, and live without regret." "Yeah, since that's literally my new name." Wu laughed and leaned back slightly. "So..." Ver said, taking off her eyepatch and revealing the sprawling patterns within her right eye, "Who else will you recruit to fight alongside you?" She is ready. And so is the Kraken. All Wu needed to do is to ask. "I...I don't know." Wu said slowly, "This time...I want to talk to Lera first." "Look. I know you two work great together, and probably a lot more so in the last six months or so...but..." Ver was going to continue when Wu slowly shook his head. "Ver." He said, looking at her with intensity in his gaze that made her held her breath, "I promise that we will talk about this later. All three of us." Ver nodded before she placed a hand on Wu's shoulders and forced a smile. Then, she turned around and left the two alone. "Damn. You were acting weird." The Kraken commented as Ver wrapped her eyepatch back up and the voice of the Kraken became quieter, "Am I sensing a love triangle going on here?" "Shut it." Ver said, marching across the corridor and declaring herself a temporary member of the Ville college in the common room. Now that Wu's story has taken such a turn, she knew that her time to reunite with the original crew had come at last. In the meanwhile, the news of Wu's prosecution through the Ring of Fire spread all throughout the Academy and that of the High Human society. The tickets to the livestreaming of his defense were the hottest commodity around, as the groups of people blessed by their talent in using the Wave gathered to watch the struggles of a Basic. Now swimming in money, Principal Khan then eagerly set up the stages within the arena and waited for Wu's arrival in three days.