The strong rule, and the weak serve. There are many variations to this phrase, but they are all, to some extent, true.

There are conditions for such a thing though.

The strong may rule over the weak, but only if they protect the weak.

The strong may live because they kill the weak aiming for their throats, such was the way it worked.

This was an extremely philosophical thought Tony had as he looked at the young student in front of him, pointing at him with a determined face.

One could hear the whispers going around the cafeteria from the second and third years at the audacity of the first year student, challenging Tony who was the lowest ranked of his class, the second year S-Class.

The person in front of him? The rank one of the first years, a boy named Russell Jackson.

There was still an extremely large gap between their strengths, and the boy was only the top ranked of the first years whereas Tony was in the top ten of the second years.

“Ha, that’s funny… kid, Tony’s in a different weight class than you.” Tony looked down as his stomach self-consciously, even though he knew he had about two per cent body fat.

He was a Sage, obviously he was fit.

“Hey Vince, careful with your comments, Tony got worried again.” Kazuya added without looking up from his waffles, defending them from Liza’s roaming fingers even as she sipped on a ridiculously frothy milkshake that had blended pieces of cake inside it.

On the menu it was listed as ‘liquid tooth decay’.

“Hey, take me seriously!” the boy shouted, his fellow classmates continuing to eat without being worried…

Tony felt that those five still seated needed a reality check.

“Oh…” Edward hummed out as Tony stood, walking calmly over to Russell, looking down on the shorter Sage.

Tony was tall, kind of thin, but tall, so he loomed over the first year who was beginning to question his choice in wanting to fight Tony.

“Fine.” That was all Tony would say, and he didn’t feel like saying anymore because then he might stutter, and that would be very embarrassing.

“Fine? So you accept my challenge! Great!” Tony had an awkward look as he looked down on Russell (literally) as the first year was way too hyper for this fight…

Especially seeing as Tony couldn’t feasibly lose.

“So, what about you five? Just going to let your strongest go out and lose?” Jade asked as she sipped on her tea, the five first years seated at the nearby table looking up to her for a moment.

“What he does isn’t really our business. Though we will watch… it might give us an advantage after all.” A boy sitting with, of all things, a violin case at his side answered, leaving Leah looking in interest and Kazuya wondering why was it that one ‘artist’ left and another appeared?

Yusuf was technically the ‘Maestro’ if one could recall.

“Ah, still competing within the class… guess that’s normal.” Edward added on as Tony and Russell moved towards a fighting stage nearby, many eating while watching.

Left unsaid in Edward’s statement was that their S-Class was abnormal, all of the S-Classes before them had infighting which only halted in the presence of other classes, but their class honestly didn’t care.

Battling between themselves was something that happened yes, but not in any serious manner, and losing was a lesson each time.

And no one was spared of a loss; even Liza when confronted with both Edward and Kazuya would lose most times.

Kazuya’s interest, on the other hand, was on the other students whispering and pointing while eating their lunches, leaving Kazuya nodding to himself.

Perhaps most fights happened in the cafeteria because it was a gathering spot, and then the fighting stage was placed there… it also lowered the chance of a challenge being issued because no one really wanted to fight while people were watching, let alone giving said people ‘dinner and a show’.

Thus, people who issued challenges inside the cafeteria really wanted to fight.

“Alright then, take advantage if you will… we will do the same.” Kazuya added as he focused his eyes upon the fight.

With both Tony and Russell in the ring, the fight was about to begin, with Russell wielding a spear and Tony going barehanded into this fight.

“No weapon? Alright… take this!” Russell shouted holding out his hand to the side as sparking flames appeared in his hand.

Lightning and Fire, Russell was a pure offensive type Sage, and both of his Elements were really good for that purpose…

Unfortunately for him, Tony had one of those Elements as well, Tony holding his hands to his side while crouching forward, lightning covering his legs and concentrating into his arms.

Russell swung his arm, sending a torrent of flames, somehow crackling with Lightning towards Tony, but Tony was one of the fastest members of the second years, the only person definitely faster was Liza, and she cheated when it came to speed.

Kazuya and Edward, strong they may be, but they weren’t actually as fast as Tony.

Tony zapped from one position to another, zigzagging from place to place much like an actual lightning bolt, surprising Russell as Tony appeared in front of him.

“That attack…” Tony mumbled, saying the words really slowly, opposite to his actions as he held out his hand much like Russell had moments ago, Lightning sparking on his hand.

It was seemingly much less than Russell’s own attack, and yet instantly one could tell it was probably stronger, and that was before the bolts of electricity started to be dyed black.

“Combine?” Tony seemed confused even as he mimicked the actions of the first year, swinging his arm at the boy and releasing the attack.

Russell barely managed to use his spear to block, but even then the sheer force of the attack blasted him back to the edge of the ring as he rolled to a stop, breathing heavily and twitching from the aftershock of the attack.

“Oh, he has a good point… Sages with two Elements should be able to combine their Elements in some way even if normally they wouldn’t be able to do such a thing alone.” Vince noted, whereas Jade literally took notes on what she had just seen, thinking about it herself.

All Elements, with the exception of Light and Darkness, could really be merged with each other. The aforementioned two could not be mixed with each other for some reason, but every other Element could be mixed, even Fire and Water to create steam or boiling water depending on the ratio.

It wasn’t something they focused on using though, as it was more like a crutch technique.

When two Elements combine like that, and it works properly, it could possibly quadruple the base power of such an attack… but this is under condition that the ‘mixture’ is correct and that the Sage’s base ability with the Element was great.

Tony’s ability with Lightning outstripped his own ability with Darkness, which was why Russell now twitched like someone suffering a continuous static shock.

If it had been an even mixture of Darkness and Lightning, Russell might have been knocked even further back, or remain in place depending on what effect the Darkness would have had.

Maybe even poisoned, but Tony wasn’t the kind of guy who would use that ability of Darkness.

“Damn that stings… and you totally just stole my move!” Russell complained as he shook his shoulders, before twirling his spear.

“Shame.” Kazuya added on, looking at Russell’s use of a spear with a sad glance… because while Russell did seem to know the stance and all that…

He just didn’t seem suited to it.

Russell concentrated, swinging his spear at Tony while allowing fire to burst from the point, creating a blinding wall of flames as he ran to the side, hoping to use the distraction to attack Tony again…

That was when Tony jumped to the side, surprising Russell when he found Tony in front of him, Russell instinctually stabbing at Tony with the spear…

Tony’s response was a well-known one to Kazuya, especially since he and Tony sparred a lot and Kazuya’s main weapon was a spear… even if he now used a bow.

As the spear came close, Tony moved backwards diagonally, his hands coming up to almost hold the spear before he suddenly moved forward, his hands twisting.

“What the hell?” Russell complained as Tony wrenched his own spear from his hands, twisting the spear while pulling, sending the spear behind him before Tony’s palm came up, hitting Russell just below his neck, knocking all breath from Russell’s throat and causing the younger student to drop to his knees in search of air.

“Done.” Tony stated, knowing that the fight could continue, but it was basically over, there was no way Tony would let Russell reach his spear, and Tony was arguably almost as good as Edward in hand-to-hand.

Russell stared at Tony’s extended hand, a hand which could strike, or be used to lift himself up.

Wisely, the younger student grabbed Tony’s hand, hoisting himself up and looking up at Tony, who patted Russell on the shoulder.

“Lose. Learn.” That was all Tony had to say, walking back to the S-Class area of the cafeteria while Russell moved to pick up his spear.

“Pathetic, he couldn’t even last a bit longer?” one of the first year S-Class students said, and the second years felt the urge to palm their faces…

That mind-set was really going to harm them when it came time to team up…

Kazuya on the other hand had stopped focusing on the fight the moment Tony wrenched that weapon out of Russell’s hands, instead focusing on the other students in the cafeteria, focusing his hearing.

“Excellent work from Tony there.” Kazuya muttered, Vince pausing from his extra-large meal to look at Kazuya, wiping his mouth with a smirk.

“Ah, noticed did you? Our competitors are now torn between those who fear our show of force, and those who believe they are capable of defeating what Tony showed…” Vince was extremely sharp on human relations, and he thumbed away from their table.

“And so they will kick at what they think is foam, only to find a steel plate.” Kazuya looked to Vince whose words were taunting, a small smirk playing on Kazuya’s face as he ordered a coffee.

“Conflict, spurs growth.” Liza added quietly, taking a spoon of her dessert, a mixture of ice cream and biscuits, and the second-years all smirked at that.

“That it does… you’re all off to a good start this year.” The joking mood quieted for a moment, recognizing that their space was being invaded by an ‘outsider’.

“Julian, long time… how does it feel at the top?” Edward asked, looking to the strongest student still at this school, Julian Benjamin, one of the finalists of last year’s school-wide tourney, and participant at the International Juniors.

“It feels scary. I have big shoes to fill after the Tyrant left last year. Metaphorically by the way, I don’t think I’ll ever be as tall as that guy.” Julian said with an awkward glance around.

“Don’t blame you, that generation of third years were apparently some of the best produced by Elem High in quite a while.” Jade added, looking to the Light-Earth Sage that was now the top student.

He really did have a lot to do if he was going to maintain that title of ‘strongest’ as he still had to compete amongst his classmates, who still weren’t all that big on working together outside of missions.

Tony sat down, wordlessly eating some food dropped in front of him by Vince with barely a nod to acknowledge Julian’s presence.

Tony looked to his food, deep in thought as to the fight he had just undergone, as well as thoughts of his teammates and their rival standing nearby.

Tony had long since stopped considering his classmates as simply that, they were more… not family, but more than just acquaintances…

Even if he rarely showed his care for his team, he had his own roles to play, one of which was defending their peace.

Another role, though a personally bestowed one, was that Tony observed things, anything really, and compiled information.

It was easy to forget someone was around if they said nothing, and Tony rarely spoke because of his speech impediment.

So he listened, picking apart information.

“Yeah… the Tyrant, the Prince of Wind, either of the two would be difficult to challenge but both in one year… not to mention their classmates were no slouches either.” Julian’s words were putting it lightly, if Tony recalled everything correctly.

Any of their three female classmates could have been a top student in some other year, from Kim Ellis, Vera Harvey and Su-Li, all three were powerful in their own right…

But they were overshadowed by their two classmates, Bobby being a freak of nature with Metal and Lightning as his Elements, and Yusuf being the greatest Wind Sage of their generation…

It was a case of the great being overshadowed by the extraordinary.

Tony could relate, sparing a glance at the top three students of his class, Liza, Edward and Kazuya were powerhouses as well…

Contrary to popular belief, Tony wasn’t shy or a holder of a low self-esteem… speech impediment aside, Tony was self-assured and would speak his mind when he needed to.

He didn’t mind people making misassumptions about his ‘shyness’ though.

So Tony was well aware that he could challenge those three, and he could win quite a few of those fights… and yet those three had something about them that made it seem unlikely that Tony would ever hold a top three position for long.

“We wish you luck, many will challenge you for your title of strongest…” Edward said, and Julian narrowed his eyes for a moment before shrugging and walking away.

“Thanks, I think.” Julian said as he walked away, leaving Edward to awkwardly scratch the back of his head.

“What was that?” Leah asked as she looked between the two confused, leaving Tony to look back at his food with no change in expression, even though he caught the accidental faux pas that Edward just did.

“I… might have implied that Julian is a bit weak and that he would need luck to survive?” Edward added hesitantly, and Tony held in his scoff at that statement.

Only because he was eating and ‘scoffing’ wasn’t something his character did.

“How would you… oh.” Everyone else was catching on apparently, though Liza simply sent Tony a glance and subtle nod.

Of course Liza caught it, and the fact that Tony noticed it before anyone else apparently… Liza was as observant as Tony, if not more so.

“Yeah… remember Bobby? He never got challenged once outside of examination times. Everyone was too scared to challenge him.” Kazuya reminded, leaving Vince to wipe his mouth with a napkin and clear his throat.

Rather than the fact he was about to speak, Tony was always amazed at how fast his best friend ate considering that extra-large meal was gone.

“So taking that fact, along with Edward saying that Julian would be challenged a lot, Edward was saying ‘hey, Bobby was so strong no one wanted to challenge him, you haven’t proven yourself yet, people still think they can beat you, good luck with that’.” Vince added, grabbing a plain vanilla milkshake to wash down his food.

Tony was one of the last people who should talk, but Vince ate a lot… Tony ate just a bit less than him, but Tony had a valid reason for why he did even if the rest of the class wasn’t privy to that information.

As far as Tony was concerned, he hoped none of them ever found out about his eating habits, or why.

Taking a sip of water, and finishing up his meal, Tony knew the bell for classes would ring soon enough, and he considered the current climate of the school.

It was still the first week, and everyone was settling into their new roles, their new grades and classes, there was a fluctuation of movement about as people found themselves moved and forced to adapt.

And in the midst of all this, there would be more than a few people thinking ‘hey, maybe I can use this chance to further my position’.

Russell clearly hadn’t fought Tony for Tony’s position, Russell was looking to his hands in thought as he sat, thinking about the match and likely how to improve himself, he fought to learn.

But others wouldn’t care about that, Russell would be the excuse used to begin battles once more in this school…

When the bell rang, Tony stood with the rest of his class, slowing down his movement speed until he walked in line with his teammates.

Tony guessed that the fighting would probably reach its maximum point in a month or two, dying down towards the end of the first semester, but never quite vanishing.

The first years would be shy, not all capable of rashly moving about to fight like Russell, and not all their challengers would leave out the ‘bets’ typically made with battles over position, food, money.

In that sense, Tony was kind enough to let Russell just experience a loss that would help him grow instead of demanding payment.

As for the third years, yes, some might challenge Julian aware that he was not as powerful as the last person to hold his position…

Tony knew that Julian wouldn’t lose though. Julian was strong, and despite losing in the end, he was someone who fought the Tyrant, as well as attended the International Juniors once before.

Being compared to Bobby wasn’t doing Julian any favours, but he’d stand on his own two feet the moment his challengers realized that Julian wasn’t actually weak.

“Talk?” Tony looked to Liza, who was speaking to him…

From Kazuya’s back. As usual, Tony didn’t know why he expected different.

“Later.” Tony rarely spoke, but Liza was one of the few he could talk to normally… because she’d actually be capable of understanding him when he spoke clearly.

Everyone else really needed to figure out a way to speed up their perception of the world.

Liza probably also knew, much like Tony, that the second-years would be the most volatile of the three years, even if Jonathan hadn’t said anything.

Their teammates didn’t seem to know it, but they felt the shift in the air, they’d ready themselves without knowing why they were preparing themselves.

The first years were new, they didn’t have stability, they didn’t have leeway to fight as they pleased yet.

The third years were old, by now they knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses, they’d be cautious about fighting as it might show new information with each fight.

The second years on the other hand… the second years weren’t old enough to have the caution of the third years, but not young enough to be scared to start a fight.

Sure, difference in a year, didn’t mean much, there were outliers like Russell, but by large?

The second-years probably wouldn’t catch a break.

And knowing he was first in line to fight out of himself and his classmates… Tony could do nothing but sigh as he sat down in class, watching his teammates settle into their roles.

Edward as the charismatic leader.

Kazuya as the helpful ‘big brother’.

Vince as the mood-maker.

Jade the authoritarian.

Leah as the ‘innocent’.

And Liza would be like the wind, never held and yet gently joining in on it all.

And as for Tony? He was used to being on the outside looking in. it was his place after all.

Meanwhile, in the Empire, two Kings walked through the night streets, slow, measured steps letting those around them know that these two were strolling, purposefully, without hurry.

“We got here way too early for the meeting I suppose.” Kai Lanakila complained, sparing the woman at his side a glance before focusing ahead of himself, ignoring the looks many sent him.

Kai was a herculean man wearing shorts and an open floral print shirt and sandals in the middle of the night, add in the tattoo’s and people were wise to step out of the way.

“Of course you did. As for me, well, free time for me just means more time to make money. What do you do with your free time?” Clara Salem responded, looking to Kai with a pointed look leaving Kai to chuckle, looking away from the King of Darkness.

While some around them might mistake Clara’s words to be a proposition, but they’d be very, very wrong.

“Swim, that’s all I do. I swim in the morning, I swim in the afternoon, I swim in the evening and I swim at night.” Kai reminded the King of Darkness that yes, he was the King of Water.

“Boring. Well, I suppose we’re here until the other Kings arrive… knowing Elior, he won’t arrive until a day before the meeting, too busy praying to that god of his.” Clara added, and Kai paused in front of a bar, Clara stopping as well and then shrugging.

“As for Donovan, Grigory, Yule and Hector, Goku, whatever his name is… they’re busy with their students, though I’m sure Hector could have been here by now, no one would notice his absence.” Kai added as he pushed open the doors to the bar that no one else seemed to notice.

“Ah customers, welcome.” The bartender calmly said, cleaning a glass and placing it next to an already cleaned one as Kai and Clara sat down, looking to the bartender with nods.

“Hello bartender. Some whiskey for me, rum for the giant.” Kai smiled nodding in agreement to Clara’s statement as the bartender turned to his bottles on the shelf behind him.

“So that’s seven of us, old man Fire actually lives here so we can ignore that, Earth is being a brat in that place, Australia? But she will be here… and then there’s Rabia.” Kai frowned as he looked at his rum, sipping at the sweet alcohol while Clara downed her glass of whiskey before asking for another.

“Yes, Rabia… she’d probably wait for that husband of hers to help her get here… such a shame.” Clara said, looking at her drink for a bit, just letting it sit there as the ice slowly melted.

“I hope she’s doing alright… I haven’t seen her in a while.” Kai complained, though he was working under the time of Kings, their ‘while’ could be a few years.

“I’m sure she’s alright, Jonathan looks out for her, and even if her son is a little shit he looks out for his mom too.” Clara added, making a disturbed face as she realized that she had to actually help someone out.

Clara hated being ‘nice’ without earning anything… then again, she was only ‘nice’ to those she respected. Other Kings and Hermits were those who she could respect.

“Sounds like you are all busy… oh how I love hearing stories like this.” The voice of the bartender rang out in the contemplative silence, leaving the two Kings to look at their server.

“Bartender, we don’t mind talking about secrets in front of you because you usually keep quiet, remember that.” Clara glared at the bartender who smirked, raising his gloved hands defensively.

“Hey relax miss Salem, you know I don’t share information… I’m not like you or the King of Crime.” Clara very carefully did not get pissed at the words of the bartender.

In true fashion, while many encountered this bartender, this bartender never shared information, merely listening.

But unfortunately, there was one existence that did get that information.

“No you aren’t, and the only reason you are considered neutral is that the one person you share secrets with is a hoarder of secrets.” Clara said, downing her glass of whiskey…

And then slamming the glass on the bar, driving the glass a few centimetres into the hard wood.

“Now that wasn’t very nice… fair enough, but luckily for all of us the Librarian doesn’t leave her library. I’ll leave you two with these bottles, on the house for the good story.” The bartender placed two bottles onto the bar, one rum, the other whiskey.

Grabbing the bottles, Kai followed Clara as she stormed out of the bar, sending an odd glance towards the bartender who had already smoothed out his bar once more before watching them leave.

After exiting the building, Kai turned and looked, sure enough, the bar was gone, leaving a dilapidated building in its place.

“Damn that bartender for pissing me off, I should steal all his money, see how he likes that…” Clara was muttering curses even as Kai handed her the whiskey, keeping the rum for himself as he sighed, following behind the angry King of Darkness.

“I get that he’s a Hermit and we can’t really afford to isolate them, but we did have the option of not talking in front of him…” Kai added, getting glared at before he gave up trying to convince Clara that all was alright with the world.

“Please, if we didn’t take the offer he’d probably snub us next time. Neutral he may be, the bartender has to help humanity and Sages in our time of need as he is lumped together with us.” Clara reminded, looking at her bottle of whiskey with contemplation before walking off, not even bothering to remind Kai to follow.

He’d follow even if she ignored him. Kai was in a foreign King’s territory and the only ones who moved freely among their number was Clara and Elior.

Moving with her was a sign of respect, to leave would disrespect the King of Fire, and to a lesser extent, Clara.

“…Clara, in all honesty… who are the strongest beings in existence?” Kai already knew quite a bit, as one of their number, but Clara was one of those ‘fingers in all the pies’ type people.

“Ignoring Elementals who are essentially forces of nature? The sixteen Fae Paragons, we the ten Kings, then there are the seven Hermits we know of… as for Mystic Beasts, ten Star Mystic Beasts are the largest grouping, and luckily for us they don’t work together. We know they have at minimum fifty to one hundred ten Star Mystic Beasts.” Kai looked to his hand, envisioning his weapon being used to fight these powerful beings…

“And quite frankly, the Kings are among the weakest of the groups, and the strongest would be the Hermits… if only because of their representative.” Kai didn’t know of who that was, but from what little hints he had gotten, the leader of the Hermits was someone to be respected.

“If that freak of nature was removed from the equation, the next strongest group would be the Fae. We don’t consider the Mystic Beasts to be of any major threat because it’s rare for even two Mystic Beasts to work together let alone all of their strongest.” Kai frowned, and then looked to Clara before looking to the night sky above the Empire.

“We’re the weakest group… we don’t really have enough experience to be a threat to the others huh. And of we Kings, it would only be… Elior, Hector, you, and myself that could fight the others equally. Donovan is almost at that point and the Old Man Fire is… well, old. Even for a Sage…” Kai halted in his words, looking to Clara with a questioning glance.

“Yeah… he was old.” Clara said solemnly as Kai sighed, opening his bottle of rum, toasting it to the sky before drinking… it felt necessary.

Meanwhile, in China-

“Now… tell me…” there was a crack, and a muffled scream followed by sobs as Yusuf Grant held his Armament, the Maestro’s Baton aloft, the point inside the mouth of the crying man.

“What gave you the idea that I could so easily be assassinated?” Yusuf asked, pushing forward slightly, blocking the man’s throat before removing the baton slowly, allowing the man to take halted, choking breaths.

He was unable to run, given his legs were broken, and on his back holding his arms was Kim Ellis, and lurking in the shadows was Su-Li…

His comrades were all being… erased, in those same shadows.

“I-I-It w-was an o-o-order! T-T-The Baqri…” the man hesitantly added that name at the end, getting a moment of wide eyed wonder from Yusuf before he gave a soft sigh.

“Really…” Yusuf said, standing from his crouch.

With a swing and a crack, the man’s head twisted until his neck snapped, a four Star Sage died just like this as Kim got off the man’s back, wiping her hands.

“Baqri? Isn’t that your mom’s side of the family?” Kim asked without beating around the bush as the dead body of the assassin moved towards the shadows, numerous crunches being heard before Su-Li walked out of the darkness, dabbing a napkin at her mouth.

“Yeah, the Baqri, a family of assassins, they tried to force my mom to be an assassin and take control of the family, but she refused…” Yusuf said looking to where the dead body was but a moment ago before looking to Su-Li and sighing.

“Su, stop acting like you ate them. I know you like freaking people out but there’s no one else around but us.” Yusuf reminded as Su-Li smiled and winked at her boyfriend.

“Practice makes perfect, and battles are fought in the mind before in the physical… if I make them give up mentally, the battle is half won, no?” Su-Li’s words had a point, so Yusuf just sighed, wondering whether he should just leave Hong Kong and head for Beijing…

“Alright, we’ve got a few months, we got to get to dangerous places… my family might hesitate to send assassin’s after me if I was in a place where we might die.” Yusuf said, dismissing his baton and walking out of the alley.

The Baqri were strange assassin’s, and Yusuf mentally cursed.

Their test for the next head of the family was surviving assassination attempts from people of the same strength after all.