Noel: “*Hand Waves* It isn’t that big of a deal or anything. After the leader made a phone call, the beam of light fell. I quickly pulled up a spike that had fallen down, and while he tried stopping Rise from interfering with the revival process{Or whatever that was}, I ran up to him, stabbed his phone and the hand holding it, and then ran away into the forest, while Rise stayed behind to tackle the healed-to-perfection guy. He could have caught up to me easily, but I suppose he liked playing a game of cat and mouse to vent his frustrations. By the time he did something to Rise and was going to cut off his head, Mr. Abrams showed up. We all lived happily ever after, following that.”

…

Rise: “...(Why don’t I remember things going so smoothly back then? When the beam of light appeared, I don’t remember you pulling off anything that heroic at all!)”

Brennan: “So… wait… so, you…

...You broke his cell phone… before running away in the forest? How did he still not catch you??”

Noel: “*Shrugs* I dunno. Maybe he’s incompetent? He did finally get me, after I was shocked at seeing him teleport Rise beside himself out of nowhere. I didn’t know he had the same same exact type of ability as Mr. Abrams.”

Mr. Abrams: “...(He doesn’t.)”

Rise: “Pfft. Stop trying to hog all the spotlight already. By the time he teleported me and sliced away at my neck, you were already full of holes.”

Noel: “…”

Elijah: “But… I don’t get it. Rise, Noel… Why didn’t you two run away? Was it because they were faster than you?”

For a moment, the two were still, sharing a glance with one another, before looking away fiercely. Although they argued constantly and secretly heavily distrusted the other; at that time, they just had a tacit and mutual understanding – Anger at an acquaintance’s death, and blood lust in demand for vengeance.

But could they say this? Well…

parts of it – yes. Why not?

Rise: “We were angry. Anyone would be after having Leos’s bloody head thrown at them.”

…

Alyandrea couldn’t help but involuntarily shiver at the thought. It was only 3 days ago that she herself lost her own head, becoming a stump of a body! If she became a hero… wouldn’t that mean she had no choice but to face off against even WORSE enemies, and under even DEADLIER encounters?

…

But that feeling of weakness she had experienced...no. She recalled her own resolve in a vivid flash. She would never suffer such a humiliating encounter ever again!

…

And it wasn’t just her recoiling in traumatic terror.

The trio that fought fiercely in the boys dorm shuddered at the remembrance of their own unjust and agonizing demise. Even Ophelia, the powerful non-combatant and ‘hidden King’ that completely decimated their dormitory’s invaders herself, couldn’t help but hastily cast Noel a glance. She wasn’t all too worried about her own sufferings. Having her arms cut off hurt, so did feeling helpless as her ‘friends’ or ‘classmates’ died all around her, however, what pained Ophelia most of all was the horrible sight of Noel’s injuries. That hole in his leg, where she could make out torn and ripped flesh, as well as a thin layer of coagulated blood that nearly prevented her from catching sight of a thin, white bone…

Furthermore, there was a huge chunk of flesh missing from his shoulder in a thin ‘V’ shape – strikingly reminiscent to a knife cut straight into animal bone. If she didn’t know better, it almost looked as if the bone had been shattered directly, and maybe not cleanly.

Rather than worry about her measly arms, she cared far more about Aria’s unknown unconsciousness, and Noel’s possibly hidden trauma. This was a trait she wasn’t able to shake off. And her concerned gaze showed it clear for Noel to see.

He simply assured her warmly, feeling peaceful about this matter no longer bothering him.

Consequently, Rise was the one bothered by this statement.

And while he threw Noel a look of disgust, fully intent on exposing this emotionless freak, he instead, received a bow from Elijah. The boy’s eyes were reddened, clearly struggling to hold back tears. In this classroom, it was he, with the most ‘experience’ against villains. It was he who was the most capable in ‘combat’, due to the former Elite student being a top ranking Generational Leader, and it was he, that currently held the ‘strongest’ powers in the entirety of Class 3 – C.

At least, this was how Elijah viewed everything. And this was precisely the reason he regretted his actions so terribly. Flailing around...screaming? Wasn’t there anything else he could’ve done?

Not realizing that the others never blamed him, or perhaps he just didn’t care, not excusing himself of blame due to the kindness of others – Elijah felt awful over Noel’s predicament. And Rise too! It wasn’t that nobody cared about him, it’s just…

In the visiting Kings’ eyes, Noel was the leading figure who irresponsibly went ahead and angered the masses. He was bound to receive the most criticism after this, and rightfully so! To them, there was only two reasons to visit today: To rub salt in this pompous punk’s already healing wounds, or to genuinely check up on him, either because they’re putting aside their differences and giving him respect for standing up to such deadly opponents… or pretending to do all this for publicity. Most of the kings, unsurprisingly, performed the latter.

To the students that saw him or heard from the others that did(those three who helped Elijah, mainly), Noel had the most severe injuries out of the two. Visibly appalling, Noel received more worry when rumors spread. Eventually, all that was heard about Rise was that he was poisoned but didn’t exhibit external injuries. The tiny slit around his neck was mostly overlooked.

As for Class 3 – C, they learned ahead of time that Rise was secretly strong, just like Ophelia. Naturally, their worry leaned more towards their classmate lacking such traits entirely. One had the strength to both overcome adversity and repel it from ever returning. The other… was very smart for his age.

...But that was all.

Elijah was like his classmates, however he intended to bow to Rise first. Due to his ‘power’ issue, his ‘incompetence’, Rise, who had his own reasons no doubt for wanting to keep his powers hidden, ended up being forced to reveal them prematurely. He felt absolutely awful for this, and thought it proper to apologize. He swiftly turned and began bowing to Noel, but the younger boy put his hand up and shook his head.

Rise: “Why are you apologizing for? You can’t control that your powers went wonky on you. And besides, you ain’t no criminal. I don’t smell any blood from your hands… none that you were involved in killing, anyway.”

Noel: “Elijah, if you actually had your powers, could you have done anything? Maybe if you were around, but… WOULD you have been…? Heheh, no offense, but, you would most likely… be visiting us from our bedsides, for the same exact reason as the others…”

Elijah: “...None taken. Although I definitely would not criticize you, Noel. You either, Rise.(Smelling blood? What a weird power. But it sounds incredibly useful for sniffing out assassins. Hmm…)”

Rhys: “*Yawns* Nah, to be honest, he might’ve visited you guys when I did, after dad forced us. If things were normal, he’d be training right now.”

Elijah let out a nervous laughter. He was about to speak when the tv released a loud noise, followed quickly by an unfamiliar voice.

?: “WOW! Would you look at that punch! Did you see that? Please tell me you all SAW that!!”

Everybody quickly turned to the television. On it, Harvey had a count that said ‘28’ on it before that very same count became the number ‘29’. A man lay buried into the wall, while Harvey exhaled a breath and arrogantly shouted for a small towel to wipe away his excessive sweat. He was handed a complimentary water beverage in accordance to the rules of this gauntlet match.

...29!

Harvey… he beat twenty – nine opponents! And he barely received any serious injuries during it, no less!

Alyandrea: “...Damn. He may be an asshole, but he’s good.”

Ian: “...Ki-King… that’s why he’s called one of the Kings…”

Brennan: “Lo-Look at his shirt! Isn’t...isn’t that… blood?l Was he stained with the blood of his enemies?”

Li Shun: “N-No...No, he IS wearing blood, but look at the trail leading directly upwards. It seems that blood he’s wearing was only due to the times he took some hits to the face. There’s even a bit of dried blood around his chin! Ah – he just wiped it off.”

Noel: “Hmmm~”

Rhys: “…Harvey, huh…?”

?: “Oh WOW! Once again, this is Miles everybody, and today I’m replacing Eric Layman as your honorable announcer because… well, he’s sick. And TODAY Harvey is on a ROLL! He only has one more opponent to defeat, ONE LAST ONE! Everyone is fully anticipating how he’ll stack up against another freshman power – puncher, except HE actually holds TWO powers! With a grade B Super Strength and a grade C speed, give it up for Viperacer!”

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