Thursday [09/05/2019]

It felt strange for Skylar to arrive head to school alone.

Back when the trio attended school on the South Shore, they usually went together. That morning, however, CJ was going late due to his injury. As for Drake, neither Skylar nor CJ had heard from him since he left school before the first bell yesterday.

“He wouldn’t answer our calls either. Don’t even know if Drake's coming to school today. Ugh… I swear to God, he's the biggest drama queen, I know.”

“Now that’s not going to work. Heartland only needs one queen.”

Skylar whipped her head back. Several Warriors had approached her, a fashionable Latina with sunshine gleaming off her sunglasses at their lead. Skylar looked back ahead and saw the path before blocked as well. There were even Warriors waiting on the opposite side of the street.

She had been ambushed.

The fashionista lifted her sunglasses to her forehead. “You know who I am?”

“…You’re one of the Three Lords of Heartland – Juana "Queen Jane" Martinez.”

“‘Queen Jane’ is all you need to use, and I suggest you get started now. You’re already in deep shit as it is.”

“I’ve never fought or even met you until today.”

“But you did fight a few of my Warriors yesterday. Did them in pretty dirty too.”

“Drake and CJ fought, not me. Heartland didn’t have enough cream to its crop for them to need my help.”

“Ah. Seems you’ve got a little amnesia. Lemme fix that.”

Jane gestured for a girl behind her to show herself. She had a casted arm, and bandages around her face and leg. She was the one who Skylar flung through a window yesterday.

“So… what? You want me to apologize for tossing her through glass?” Skylar asked.

“No. We don’t repay debts at Heartland with ‘sorry’s’ and ‘never happen again’s’” Jane said while raising her sunglasses to her head. “We take payment the old-fashion way: eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Hammurabi’s favorite.”

Knowing what Jane was implying, Skylar immediately took a stance. She expected to be jumped from every angle, but the only one to approach was Jane herself.

“Don’t worry, this isn’t an ambush. All you have to do is beat me, and only me, and then you can go. No strings attached.”

“And if I don’t? What are you gonna do? Break my arm to make us even?”

“No. Well… yeah. Obviously. But that’s wouldn’t be enough. Cultivators can recover from a broken arm in around a week. It would teach a lesson, but it wouldn’t leave a statement. I wanna make sure the thought – Don’t fuck with Queen Jane – stays good and well in your noggin for the next few months.”

Jane then let her essence flow forth. Nearby birds scattered, debris on the sidewalk and road was blown away, and Skylar’s lengthy hair fluttered at her shoulders. It the greatest display of chi she had ever seen from a cultivator in her age group. Nothing she could do with her own essence could compare.

And Jane knew this. As the Lord started her stride, Skylar grit her teeth and braced herself.

There were two gymnasiums at Heartland High School. The first was both for typical Physical Education and PCT – practical cultivation training; things schools with actual funding would have separate facilities for. The second was a smaller gym commonly known as the fitness center. It was essentially a fitness gym any student was allowed to use before, in-between, or after classes.

At least, it was before it became the domain of the Bronson Faction. They hoarded the hours almost exclusively among themselves, which lent to them being beefier than most other students at Heartland. Bronson, in particular, went to the center every morning to get in a workout before Homeroom. Hence his surprise that day when he arrived to find all of his Warriors who usually awaited his arrival laid out around the building. Sat on a bench in the center of the center – a stubborn look in his eyes – was Anthony Drake.

While the Warriors that came with him braced for combat, Bronson gestured for them to hold.

“You really ain’t got any shame, man? You really gonna come running back for a rematch after catching an ass-beating like yesterday’s?” he asked. “Everyone at Heartland, teachers included, think you’re a joke, bro.”

“Appearances don’t matter to me. I just keep hammerin’ at a wall ‘till it cracks. That’s how I’ve already done things. Besides…” Drake said while standing. “This ain’t a rematch. We just traded blows yesterday, but the only one of you Lords that I fought was Hunt. You and that one chick who thinks she’s royalty or whatever; you’re both in my sights too.”

Again, Bronson’s followers tried to engage, but they stopped once their Lord started toward the freshman.

“Nah, stay back. This dude’s gonna be my morning workout,” he said while casting off his track jacket. “C’mon. Let’s see whatchu learned from last time. Gimme ya best shot!”

Drake was happy to comply. His essence plumed off of him like smoke from a bonfire. It gradually all amassed at his right arm. There the essence caught aflame as though a lit match was thrown into it. The temperature in the room even hiked up a few degrees. Bronson took note of that. Still, he waited with his arms held wide as though awaiting a hug.

“Let’s give that Iron Body a test…” Drake said before rushing after Bronson.

He swung his burning arm forth, delivering a strike to the Lord’s sternum. It was Drake's speciality - a Martial Technique he had spent all of junior high mastering - it was the Flame King's Right Hand.

The blow’s impact echoed throughout the center, making the equipment reverberate. Bronson was knocked back a few feet, with his shoes skidding across the floor and his shirt catching aflame. His Warriors were left speechless, and Drake was left with a broad and satisfied grin on his face. Bronson dismissed these reactions with a single flex. The flames were dispelled, raining from his in the form of sparks. Any injury to his person was completely superficial.

Now it was Drake who was speechless.

“Not gon lie: That one actually hurt,” Bronson said. “But my Iron Body art’s the best in the Mid-Island. If you were at least C Rank, I’d be worried, but I’m not getting laid out by a D Rank’s version of Flame King’s Right Hand.”

Drake backed away with his fists still raised and himself still raring.

“You really wanna keep goin’? Alright…,” the Lord said while cracking his knuckles. “Don’t cry ‘bout this later.”

When Drake regained consciousness, it didn’t take long for him to realize he was in the school’s infirmary.

He woke in a small white bed with a curtain drawn around it, like a patient in a hospital room. Unlike a hospital room, there was not an IV pole beside his bed. Instead, there was a caduceus staff – new-age medical equipment for delivering chi therapy to patients – with two serpents that slithered from it. They bit onto Drake’s forearm, but he felt no pain. They were harmless spirits after all.

The black serpent gave him a surplus of yin energy and the white serpent gave him yang. The harmony of the yin-yang chi boosted his body’s natural healing factors. It was especially beneficial for cultivators like himself. This was basic medical knowledge for anyone who had seen a doctor in their life.

“But who brought me here in the fir---“

A sudden pain that jolted throughout his body made him curl up into his sheets.

“Don’t move around so much. It’ll take you longer to recover,” a woman said as she peeled back the curtain around the bed. “I don’t want to keep you any longer than I have to.”

She looked Indian and not of the native sort. Her hair was tied in a single braid that fell longer than even Skylar’s hair did. What stuck out the most was the jaded expression that never seemed to leave her face.

“You the school nurse?”

“No. I just hang around the infirmary to pass the time. You can go whenever you feel you’re able by the way.”

“Uh… You have a problem with me or something?”

“You slept here through the entire school day. I run an infirmary, not a daycare. The sooner you can go the better.”

The nurse went back to her desk without sparing him a second glance. It was obvious she didn’t care for presence. Though, he had a feeling he wasn’t unique in that regard. Regardless, Drake was a bit surprised to hear he had been out for the entire school day. Bronson definitely didn’t pull his punches as Hunt did.

“Hey, excuse me, Nurse… um…”

“Singh.”

“Nurse Singh, y’know who brought me here? Was it Bronson?”

“No. He just beat you senseless and then threw you out of the fitness center. At least, that’s what the student who brought you here said. I didn’t get his name. Didn’t care to. He was Asian if that helps. Korean I think. He’s also the only student I’ve seen in years that actually wears their uniform.”

Immediately, Drake’s expression sagged. He knew it had to be the bespectacled student again. This made the second time in a row he had helped Drake without him asking for it. Just what was his angle? What was he after? Was he trying to put Drake in his debt?

While his mind was tumbling over the issue, the door to the infirmary slammed open. A familiar face stood in the frame, but it wasn’t looking cordial.

“CJ? What’s up, man?” Drake asked. “How’s that cast treating you? Gotta be hard to walk with a crutch.”

CJ displayed no problem with walking as he marched to Drake’s bedside. CJ then yanked him up by his collar, briefly causing him injuries to flare.

“O-ow! What’s your problem, man?”

“Have you contacted Sky today?”

“No? I was busy.”

“Getting your ass beat by another Lord again is ‘staying busy’ to you!?”

The nurse shot them an annoyed look. “Keep it down. I’m trying to get some work done. If you’re going to fight, take it outside.”

CJ let Drake roughly, causing his injuries to spasm once more.

“Damn, dude...! What’s your problem? This ain’t the first time I went after a big fish by myself.”

“Look, dumbass: these dudes ain’t like the guys we fought in middle school. These are high school cultivators; Warriors. And the Three Lords... they’re on some different shit. Their techniques are better. Their chi is more refined. They’re just stronger than we are. Way stronger.”

“So, what? You just want me to roll over and accept the Lords as my new masters?”

“I don’t want you to do shit. I’m just tellin’ you that these aren’t the type of guys that you can keep throwing yourself at and expecting them to eventually fall. Look at you now. Still got the bruises Hunt gave you while you’re lying in the infirmary over an ass beating Bronson gave you this morning.”

Drake’s eye hovered down to CJ’s leg. As cultivators, they healed from injuries far faster than normal. A cultivator with a broken arm could recover from it fully within a week. If their core was at a high enough Stage, they could do so in roughly half that time. That Drake and CJ that either had barely healed within twenty-four hours of receiving their injuries spoke volumes of the power Hunt and Bronson’s chi, as well as how Drake and CJ compared to them.

They were simply not on the same level as the Lords of Heartland. Even for someone as stubborn as Drake, it was indisputable, and it hurt more than any physical injury.

“Goddammit! This sucks…”

His mind was still in turmoil when CJ’s phone vibrated for a moment. CJ withdrew it and saw that he had received a message.

“Oh. It’s a text from Sky. Guess she finally answered back.”

“What she say?”

As soon as CJ opened the message, a shock hit his face. He showed Drake, and the same expression came across his own. It was a picture of Skylar, bloody, beaten and bald. The message beneath it read thus: The Queen’s had her fun. You can pick up your princess now. She’s in the school storage building.

Drake shot up from bed so swiftly, the serpents biting onto him dissolved into spiritual particles and returned to their caduceus.

“That bitch! She’s dead!” he howled.

“Think they’ll jump us when we get there?”

“Does it matter?”

CJ’s silence was all the response Drake needed. With no further words, the boys left the infirmary. They threw a fleeting glance to the school nurse as they went. She gave none in return.

They expected an ambush, but Drake and CJ only encountered one person when they reached the storage building – Skylar. They spotted her sitting in the corner, a cloth wrapped around her head.

“Sky! Are you okay?” Drake asked as they approached.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” she lied.

Her face was bruised, her lip was swollen, and it was obvious from how she held her arm that it had been broken. She was far from fine, but she also wasn’t a stranger to getting roughed up. It was a different type of wound that was causing her pain.

“You two already saw, didn’t you?” she asked.

Remorsefully, they nodded. Skylar then sighed, let the cloth fall revealing her bald head. Jane had shaved her down to the follicle. Skylar had prized her hair as much as her ability as a cultivator. She had treasured it before she even knew Drake or CJ. Whether Jane knew that or not the damage she afflicted was no less poignant.

Drake gnarled. “I swear, next time I see runway-bitch, I’m gonna---“

“Hey, don’t forget what we talked about in the infirmary,” CJ said.“

“Man, shut the hell up! You see Sky like this, and your first thought is to come up with an excuse for us not to fight?”

“CJ’s not wrong,” Skylar stated. “Jane’s just like Hunt and Bronson – a monster out of our league. Honestly, she might have killed me if it didn’t break Jungle Law. Challenging the Three Lords like we did the punks throughout the South Shore isn’t gonna work.”

Drake wanted to dispute Skylar’s words; his fists trembled with pressure to do so, but he knew, just like CJ, she was just spelling out reality. Before he could say anything more, he paused. All three of them did when they sensed a powerful chi approach. The freshmen looked toward the building’s entrance and spotted Jane accompanied by several of her Warriors.

“Looks like the knights found their princess. Don’t you love the new look I gave her?” Jane said. “I wanted to play with her a bit more, but after we took the pictures I felt like I got my point across. Might just share ‘em online later when I come up with a good caption. Who knows; maybe they’ll go viral.”

Drake could hear something snap within him. He only aw pure red when he shot after Jane. His friends called out for him to stop, but he was too far gone in his wrath. Surging chi coursed power through his hand as he threw a Furious Power Strike square at her face.

Casually, Jane put up her hand and caught it. Drake blinked. Furious Power Strike was by no means a spectacular technique, but his had still never been stopped so easily. The freshman had no words as his fist trembled in the Lord's grip.

“You’re the guy who got clapped by Hunt yesterday, right?” Jane asked. “Guess you’re the type that learns everything the hard way.”

Jane chi surged and blasted the freshman away. He barreled across the floor half a dozen times before crashing into a pile of miscellaneous school paraphernalia. Ignoring his spasming injuries, Drake pushed the equipment away and scrambled back to his feet for round two. He wasn’t finished. Skylar, however, was.

She stepped in front of him before he could take any of his own.

“Just stop, Drake. You won’t beat her.”

“You can’t know that! Not without me giving it all I---

Skylar gave him a look. It shut Drake up immediately. Not because it was steely, but rather that it was too soft. He looked past her shoulder and caught Jane giggling to herself. The Lord blew him a kiss before leaving with her entourage in tow. Drake watched them go while clenching his fists so hard, his palms went pure red. He couldn’t beat Queen Jane, just like he couldn’t defeat Iron Bronson, just like he stood no chance against the Wild Hunt.

“Hey, Drake. Look…”

Skylar tried to say something to ease his anguish, but CJ tapped her and shook his head. Drake didn’t need or want any ‘encouraging words’. Sighing, Skylar rewrapped her head and left the storage building.

“I… I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Skylar said as she went.

CJ gave Drake a pat to the shoulder before leaving as well. Left in solitude, Drake spent several minutes ruminating on nothing in particular. Eventually, he too headed off.

Drake was glad he barely encountered any other students on his way. He was not in the mood to deal with others. Of course, he was bound to run into somebody, and he did once he reached the school’s rear entrance; three in fact. And one was a familiar face roused a sigh out of the freshman.

“Not this guy again…”

Two Warriors facing down the bespectacled transfer student Drake had encountered twice before. As he was on the night they met, the transfer student was in distress.

“I already told you guys I don’t want any trouble,” he said, already looking a bit scuffed up.

“You go ‘round steppin’ on shoes and then act like you ain’t tryin’ to start shit?” one of the duo said, his face threateningly close to the transfer student’s. “I ain’t Hunt! I’ll put you in the dirt, bitch! So, you better be ready to pay up!”

His companion laughed at the transfer student’s tribulation. They were obviously trying to extort some cash out of an easy target. And just like on that night, the transfer student showed no signs of fighting back. How such a coward had managed to stand up to one of the Three Lords, Drake had no clue. Still, the freshman acknowledged was currently in said coward’s debt.

“So, what’s this about scuffing shoes?” Drake asked as he finally made his presence known. “From the looks of it, your kicks were pretty dusty to begin with.”

The duo was visibly shaken. Though everyone had seen Drake get beaten savagely by Hunt, it didn’t change the fact that he and CJ decimated every student they fought who wasn’t a Lord.

“C’mon, no need to stop just ‘cause I’m here.”

The duo disagreed. They headed off without a word.

The freshman shook his head. “These guys get real meek real quick when their Lords are around to put the little freshman in his place. Damn cowards.”

The transfer student laughed, earning him a sore look.

“Hey, you’re barely better than them. Start learnin’ to swing back for once, dammit.”

“Yeah, I hear you. Self-preservation hasn’t been strong suit lately,” he said. “Thanks for helping me out. Guess I owe you again.”

“Yea, right. I know you’re the one who hauled me to the infirmary this morning.”

“So, Nurse Singh told you? I was just passing by when I saw you laying in front of the fitness center. Other students were just stepping over you… or on you, so I decided to get you out of there.”

“But for what? What’s your angle? To get me in your debt?”

The student looked at Drake oddly.

“Dude… what’re you talking about? You see a guy who’s bruised up and laid out on the ground. Isn’t it normal to, y’know… help him?”

Drake blinked. The suspicions he had about the person before him were immediately squashed. There were no Machiavellian schemes in motion. He had only meant to lend Drake a hand.

“Well… Yeah, I guess so?” the freshman stammered. “Thanks then… Uh…”

“It’s Isaac. Isaac Moon.”

“Moon. Right. …Thanks.”

Isaac gave a nod in return and then headed off.

Drake continued on his own way. His thoughts continued to stir for the entirety of his walk. He was uncertain about a lot of things: his own strength, how he could overcome the Three Lords, just how far he really was from becoming Heartland High’s Guardian. The school’s Battle Royale was tomorrow, and he was uncertain if he should even participate.

But among his turbulent thoughts, there was one thing Drake was certain of.

“Man… That Moon dude is a damn weirdo.”