Chapter 71. Are you ready

“Are you ready?” Mason asked Poe who was standing a couple meters away from him. He continued to say. “I won’t go easy.”

Poe casually stood there and smirked back at Mason. “Are you?”

Fwish fwish fwish

Three rocks flew directly at Mason starting the fight between the two magenta eyed Telekinetic users.

Mason keenly sensed the three rocks flying towards him and calmly spoke out. “Good.”

The three rocks that were flying towards him abruptly stopped in place. They were struggling to move forward. Mason had completely stopped Poe’s first assault with his own powers. He then dashed towards Poe who was sending another three rocks directly at him.

Mason dodged the first rock and smashed the other two using rocks of his own. He continued his pace as he ran up to Poe. “I’m surprised you can actually control more than me, but how’re you with close combat?”

Mason swung downward at Poe who immediately ducked, sending out a straight jab at Mason’s stomach at the same time. Mason jumped off to the side avoiding the jab and sent a rock directly towards the fist.

Bam!

Poe blocked the rock with one of his own protecting his hands as the two continued their attacks. Neither side was giving up ground as they tried to interrupt the other with their Telekinetic powers. Rocks continued to smash upon the rocks of the other and stalling and interrupting the other person preventing either side of gaining momentum.

“You’re pretty good, kid.” Mason answered honestly as they continued to jump around dodging attacks coming from the other.

“You’re pretty good yourself.” Poe admitted. This was the first time he’s ever fought against another person with Telekinetic powers like this since he obtained his powers near the end of the school year. He knew himself, that he was better than all the normal kids within the same age group and Tier as him due to how easy school felt compared to the arduous training with Gran, but he hadn’t expected his first hurdle would show up so soon after obtaining his powers.

He was excited as he looked at the young man twice his age. The guy was more than head taller than him and was one third heavier than his weight in lean muscle, but was just as nimble as him, he couldn’t get a single hit on Mason. His only advantage was that he was able to control more objects with his powers than Mason.

Fwoosh! Fwoosh Fwoosh!

Multiple rocks of various sizes all flew up surrounding Poe who stood calmly at the center. He calmly stared at the young man who had disengaged and covered himself with rocks of his own.

Poe sent all the rocks in his possession directly at Mason who in return did the same.

Bam bam bam!

Two rocks of Poe’s were not blocked as they clashed and barreled straight towards Mason who knew this was going to happen.

Mason immediately reached his hands out and grabbing the rocks flying at him, the pain from the rocks were negligible as he leaped to the right tossing them at back at Poe. Poe tilted his head and stepped to the side to dodge the two rocks thrown at him.

Fwoosh!

Mason used his Telekinetic powers pulling one of the rocks he threw past Poe back, striking the boy from behind. Mason knew he had finally broken the stalemate and quickly aimed to gain control of the situation. He ran up and tossed out a few more rocks at Poe who could barely avoid them, being struck by a second one.

Clamor and gasp came from the audience after Poe got struck by a second attack. Mason paid it no mind as he knew people wouldn’t stay quiet while watching a fight. He was just surprised this was the first fight almost the entirety of the audience gasped at besides the first one between Boss and Mitchel.

Mason ran up and aimed to throw a punch at Poe’s gut ending this fight. However, Poe, out of sheer desperation fired two more rocks at Mason’s face. Mason easily dodged the attack and continued his unrelenting pressure as he closed the gap. His elbow tucked, he aimed at the stomach of Poe before squinting his eyes. The boy in front of him was smirking at him, he wanted him to be here.

Woosh~!

“Oh no!” Mason thought to himself and turned around. A tablecloth from one of the tables collided with him, enveloping his body completely. He immediately used his own telekinetic powers blasting the cloth away from him, however even though it was less than a second that he was enveloped, he looked at the boy who was standing there smiling at him and sighed.

“I lost.” Mason spoke up calmly stated. “You let yourself get hit to think I had the momentum and used a cloth from the table to blind and envelope me. Smart I didn’t think of that at all.”

Mason sighed again, he assumed this was just going be a fight between rocks from the surrounding areas against the boy, who would he have thought the boy would try to completely cover him with a tablecloth from the audience?

“Yeah, it was the only way I could think of to for you to let your guard down.” Poe answered honestly. He continued, it would’ve been over for me though, if you turned around when the audience made all that noise.” Poe walked up to Mason and looked up at the young man who smiled back at him. “Thank you for the fight.”

“Thank you.” They both shook hands to the uproarious applause of the audience. Those that gasped when Poe pulled the cloth from the table were embarrassed, they almost ruined Poe’s plan but they were more excited than embarrassed as they cheered.

Gran walked onstage and looked at Poe who was smiling brightly at him and shook his head and rolled his eyes. “The winner is Poe Ferrarius.” Gran said. How could he not know where Poe learned to use tablecloths to cover people? It was something Gran used often for their training with blankets back at the estate.

Mason congratulated Poe again and walked offstage back to his friends who was standing there teasing both him and Riley for losing to kids half their age. However, none of the three were willing to go up and fight against the kids. Seth took plate of food he carried earlier and handed it over to Mason who immediately noticed how he was famished after the fight and began to eat.

Sigh

“We really need to train our combat.” The five young adults agreed at once. With both Mason and Riley losing to kids half their age they felt that this was the case. They recalled Boss’ words that day and thought about it more.

“Let’s find a dangerous place to train.” Mason spoke up as he ate.

“How about we kill those animals for meat?” Riley asks after some time. His words caught the attention of the other four who were eating.

“Are we really going to the Tillowisk Empire?” Sampson asked, he felt quite nervous about it.

“If we can trade it for more of those condensed energy marbles from that kid, I feel like it’s a risk worth taking.” Gerald spoke up and reasoned.

“Seth, do you know if they’re going to Naturelle?” Mason asked.

“They are.” Seth replied.

“Let’s do it, kill animals and trade it for energy marbles with Boss.” Riley spoke up. He raised his cup of alcohol and shouted, “Let’s all become powerful together guys!”

“Yeah!” The other four exclaimed and clanked their drinks together drowning the entirety of the cup in one gulp.

Poe hopped offstage afterwards when the applause died down and walked over to Krystal and Carson who congratulated him. Boulder walked up to Poe and stared directly into the eyes of his rival.

“Fight me Poe.” Boulder muttered the moment they met.

Poe rolled his eyes, Boulder was too much, he had just finished fighting against Mason and tired himself, there was no way he would willingly agree to a fight with Boulder right now.

“You won’t fight me, huh?” Boulder asked. He continued “I knew it, you’re just scared I will beat you this time.” Boulder postured.

“Can’t you see Poe is tired? He can beat you again easily, just like back at the bridge!” A student from Naturelle spoke up for Poe. The student’s words caused a flurry of other kids to join in and berate Boulder for being so shameless.

“Fine, I’ll let him recover, how long will it be? 1 minute? 2 minutes?” Boulder turned and looked at Poe and asked.

Poe rolled his eyes at Boulder’s comment. The students got even more furious at how little time Boulder was giving Poe to relax and immediately shouted. “I challenge you Boulder!”

His words caused a storm of other kids to shout at Boulder, challenging him.

Boulder’s eyes went wide as he saw the angry kids all shouting their challenges at him. He gulped, he just wanted to fight Poe and thought this was the best time for him to finally beat Poe, what did he do wrong?

One of the kids immediately stormed on stage and shouted at Boulder to fight him. Boulder knew it was over, once challenged he couldn’t easily decline like what Poe had did with him, if they were weaker than him there was no way he was going to decline a fight he’ll win.

Boulder begrudgingly went up stage which made all the kids angrier that Boulder would agree to fight someone far weaker than him. However, no one paid this any mind as the fight start.

As quick as it started Boulder ended the fight with a soft punch at the kid causing him to crumple onto the ground. Gran easily declared Boulder the winner. Boulder was about to head back down to the glares of the kids when the same voice coming on stage shouted again. “I challenge you… Boulder!”

Boulder turned around to see that kid he just beat up earlier challenging him again. Sighing he got back up on stage and finished the kid with another soft punch. More and more students got angry at Boulder and all stormed the stage. Each kid continued to challenge Boulder who couldn’t refuse. For the next hour Boulder was stuck on that stage battling off the challenges of a bunch of normal kids.

“Stop challenging me! You weaklings! I want to fight Poe!”

“No!”

“I challenge you, Boulder!”

…

“What happened with Boulder, why is everyone challenging him?” Arthur turned to the girl beside him who was petting the kitten on her lap and ask.

“If I had to guess, he probably challenged Poe right after Poe had his fight with Mason which made those from Naturelle to be angry and challenged him to let Poe recover.” Shelly perfectly answered.

“Ohh! That makes sense!” Arthur exclaimed.

“By the way young master, how come you haven’t challenged someone yet?” Shelly asked. She continued to say, “You seem like you wanted to learn more about your eyes from fighting those from Naturelle.”

“I don’t know who to challenge, everyone else from Naturelle didn’t changed their eye colors yet, and there’s only Carson and Krystal left…I don’t know if I can beat them.” Arthur answered honestly.

“The stage is not for winning, it’s for demonstrating what you’ve learned, shouldn’t you take advantage of this time to learn from Carson and Krystal? I’m sure they’re willing to help you by demonstrating how they obtained their powers.” Shelly replied.

Her reply struck Arthur like a nail to the head, “You’re right! Thank you, Shelly! I’m going to ask them right now!” Arthur got up and ran off. Barkie hopped off his head and stood on the bench beside Shelly.

Shelly reached her hands out and petted the puppy on its head. “You two…why did Boss bring you here with him?” Shelly asked. Her questioned caused both Barkie and Silver to bark and meow in response.

“Bark bark!” It’s because we’re stronger than you two and have to protect our masters. Barkie responded.

“Mew”

“Hm…” Shelly calmly thought to herself as she scanned the surrounding. Her hand paused from petting both the kitten and puppy who instantly noticed they were not receiving their pets. They looked up at the girl and looked towards the direction the girl was looking at. Shelly’s eyes narrowed as she looked towards a certain direction.

Five hooded figures. Two green robes, three purples. Their face and body completely covered as they stood together away from the rest of the audience. No one seemed to have paid them any mind as they walked around, even she could barely notice their presence if I wasn’t for the fact that her perception was unordinary.

“Who are they…” Shelly thought to herself.

One of the robed figures felt someone’s gaze on him and immediately looked up.

Shelly instantly turned her head away and smiled at Arthur who was running back. She got up and placed the puppy on his head.

“How was it young master, did they agree to demonstrate it for you on stage?” Shelly asked.

Arthur shook his head. “Nope, but they said they can show it for me later, they were too embarrassed to go on stage.” Arthur stated. He quickly corrected himself “Or well that’s what Carson said.”

“I see young master.” Shelly leaned forward and whispered in Arthur’s ear. Her words caused Arthur to glance at where the five robed individuals and shook his head. He continued to nod his head as he listen until Shelly was done whispering. "I'll go find Boss." Arthur spoke up and ran away.

The puppy on Arthur’s head remained still on the boy’s head this time as it calmly scanned the surrounding people, it’s eyes lingered just slightly longer on those five robed individuals before looking away.

“Hmph, like hell I’d let anyone lay their hands on my master.” Barkie thought to itself and closed its eyes.

Shelly sat back down and calmly pat the kitten on her lap. She looked down and continued to pet Silver.

“I think I know why Boss brought you two along tonight, but what can you two do?” Shelly asked.

She had a feeling the two pets weren’t normal since the day they’ve got them, and it became more obvious during their time at Gran’s. However, besides from being able to command animals around them, did they have any powers of their own?

“Mew.” Silver replied.

Shelly smiled at her kitten’s response, there was no way she knew what it was saying but based on how the two pet were able to see the robed individuals no one else can apparently see, they definitely were not ordinary pets.

Shelly then and closed her eyes focusing her senses towards the five robed individuals “Are they all Exotics…?” Shelly quietly muttered to herself.

…

Bang!

“Boss!” Arthur shouted the moment he opened the room to the medical area.

“Boss…? Where’d you go?” Arthur asked as he looked in the empty room. Boss was nowhere to be seen.

Bang!

He quickly closed the door and ran out.

“Hehe, seems like Shelly can see them.” Boss reappeared on the bed alongside Samuel and Angel sitting beside him.

“Are you really going to do nothing?” Angel asked.

“That’s only if they don’t touch those four.

Sigh

“What if someone dies tonight?”

“Not my problem.” Boss answered. He continued, “You two can intervene if you’d like.”

Samuel and Angel didn’t respond.

With a flick of his wrist the portal appeared again as the three continued to watch in silence.