In the expanse of a field covered in clean white-colored vegetation and pristine streams of water slept a knocked-out student. Unbothered by the gentle touch of the blowing wind, his chest rose and sank in repetitive motions, perhaps far too deep inside his slumber...

| Hover Hover |

Drawing the obvious parallels between a sleeping beauty and a prince in its rescue, Elgan wakes up to the 'furious' biting of a health drone, one of its pincers piercing his skin.

| Shake |

Contrary to his expectations, it seemed there wasn't any particular facility where injured students were led, though it appeared J.A.D's cousin had been kind enough to take care of his vitals during the time he had been out, or so it appeared to be. Elgan grasped his forehead, now covered in a thick line of bandages.

"Thank-"

...

Though once Elgan opened his lips to thank the lil' doctor, the floating scrap of metals shied away, leaving through a specific gate on the edges of the arena. its doors opened and closed smoothly, not leaving a trace behind.

' Was the drone blushing..? '

Elgan was clearly in a bad mental state. Deliriums? Quite possibly, who knew...

Apart from the weird interaction between man and tin can, the youth immediately noticed something weird... The lighting, no longer carried the lively tone of the day, in its stead... His head pointed upwards, staring at the above. The night sky, that was. It was late at the night... and though unable to recall exactly how much time he had been asleep, Elgan knew he had been knocked out for good.

The touch of cold sweat down the floor was enough to revive the diffuse shards of his memory. Running to the to vomiting his guts out, dying of fever... He did remember those things happening.

Was he sick?

Though he didn't remember having had any nightmares this time anymore. Elgan's index finger taps onto his holo-watch, not having received any notifications, his gaze immediately settles over the hour. He forgot the faint pain that remained from the encounter with the guardian as he mindlessly stared at the stars. It had been a while since he witnessed their beaut-

| Poke |

...

| Poke |

Feeling something mildly sharp poking his cheek, Elgan's eye cocked slightly in that direction.

...

A dark-wooden stick is attached to someone's hand, apparently unaware that it was bothering him, the student continued poking him with repetitive motions.

Her brown eyes turned around, gazing at the other student like a little kid about to ask his father an existential question.

" Hey Liam, you think he is still alive? "

With entirely different demeanors both the girl and Elgan faced the youth, who stood a little farther away, kneeling on the ground as he brushed his beard as if he had one. His lavender eyes locked onto the now fully awake sleeping b... person, his expression that of doubt, as if he was about to give an important diagnosis.

" Definitely, yes. He is alive. "

| Poke |

The stick impaled his jaw as the girl repeated the motions despite looking in the opposite direction, a net of veins popped in Elgan's forehead.

| Crack |

Not keen on being messed with at the moment, the student's hand reached for the bothersome piece of wood, snapping it under his grip. And yet instead of finding a response of fear in the two clowns, the only thing he witnessed was their cheeks puff up with air, on the verge of laughing as they stared at his hand... Then they laughed.

"Hahahaeea!!"

"BHwahahawahaaa!! He really did it, idiot !!"

The girl fell laughing to the floor, almost asphyxiating in her own tears. Liam leaned backward as he pointed his index finger at Elgan's hand.

"Splinters."

That was, what his hand had become. Sharp, black, splinters pierced his precious working hand, as if he had petted some kind of lethal porcupine. Yet despite his obvious suffering, the pair here found it fun... The grotesque mass of his face contracted as yet more noticeable veins popped up.

"Hwahahaaha- "

Their laughs came to a halt as they gazed at the youth's hand. An array of unnaturally thick veins traveled its surface as an enormous heat radiated from it. Their eyes could almost perceive as its shape started distorting around the needles, its flesh wrapping around the punctures in an attempt to heal them... Or eat them.

"Shit!"

Elgan said out loud, noting what would happen if that was allowed to continue. Would he lose his only hand? Become permanently disabled? Not good to find out. His jaw fiercely clenched around the splinters, attempting to get them out of him before they worsened.

| Hover |

As Elgan was far too occupied trying to not become a walking joke, he failed to hear the screaming beeping of the healing tin can as it administered yet more sleepy drugs onto its hand with one of its multiple instruments. The youth only noticed his body becoming slower and heavier for a few seconds before the splinters fell to the ground by themselves and his hand stopped morphing into something else.

Though part of the damage was done. Though not very noticeable, his hand had become stiffer, and less flexible in just a few seconds to the point he was now unable to form a fist.

...

Luckily for Elgan, no one laughed after seeing that shit. Not because the healing drone had electrocuted them either...

"Sorry, I didn't know your fac-, that was the reason."

The girl said in a slightly apologetic tone. Liam didn't say anything though, he limited himself to staring at his hand, which was rather uncomfortable. More uncomfortable than that was the piercing gaze that the girl had directed at Liam.

"Apologize, you dick, it was your idea!"

That seemed to do the trick to shake him off his trance. He lowered his head and didn't raise it for a while.

"Sorry."

...

"Doesn't matter."

Elgan commented as he continued exercising his hand and fingers, regaining small mobility.

"That's a fucked up inheritance..."

Liam muttered to himself, his blank stare still locked on Elgan's hand. Like if he had been reminded of something.

'Inheritance...'

That word sounded familiar, he could almost bet he heard it somewhere else before. Where though?

"What is that?"

Elgan stared back at the male student, whose neutral expression contorted into one of, doubt? disbelief? Although Elgan couldn't help if it was something he was supposed to know... After all, he had just awakened from a coma. Supposedly.

...

"Wait, you do not know?"

Both students' eyes opened wholly as they stared up and down at him, as if he was some kind of weird bug. Though the fact that Elgan was not joking made them recalculate their moves.

"Come on, Attributes... They should have at least told you that-"

He said in the tone a desperate teacher would use against his students.

"I don't know, explain."

Elgan interrupted bluntly, not keen on waiting for several ages for an explanation. Raising his shoulders and sighing heavily, Liam reluctantly gave up and talked his part.

"We are fragmented, among our most common facets, we possess so-called Inherited attributes."

The kid said as he rolled his eyes, not bothering to explain anything else. The girl was the one to develop the topic further seeing that Liam wouldn't talk anymore

"Manipulations, Senses, Regenerations. Those the most common, you for example should have some kind of... Messed up regeneration. I guess."

Seeing the still confused look hanging from the teen's face, she too rolled her eyes, as she signaled with her thumb at the kid standing beside them. A devilish smile formed on her thin pinky lips.

"See, for example, Liam has an attribute called [Muffled] that enables him to be stealth-"

| Clang |

Their gazes darted to the repressed sound of an unsheathing sword, no longer near as composed as he used to be, Liam's bloodshot eyes set on the charismatic devil.

"PAIGE, I'M NOT SHARING A FUCKING SECRET WITH YOU ANYMORE!!!!!"

The shout reached their ears and their eyes opened yet bigger as Liam sprinted towards them as if he had just lost his mind. A grey katana of sorts strongly gripped, his stance changed as he prepared to slice the girl down to juicy steaks.

Half expecting such a reaction from the male student, Paige's clean stance shifted as she readied herself for combat.

'Wait, are they really-'

Yes, yes they really were. In a split second, Liam's grip coiled around the single-edged sword, his feet took a foothold the moment they landed mere feet away from the unarmed girl, without intention to retract his attack, the retard samurai prepared to strike down.

| BANG |

Perhaps blind with rage, deceit or whatever he felt, the swordsman failed to see the obvious fact that his opponent was about to retaliate, not lightly either. With a perfect sideways kick, the girl inflicted an almost perfect side shot on the lateral of his abdomen.

Luckily for him, his body was agile enough to correct posture in time to not be sent flying away like a shit bag.

"Ugh! BITCH!"

Liam said for himself. His sword was imbued in the ground to increase friction, once he stopped moving, he roared at the top of his lungs and launched himself back to his opponent, performing the exact same downslide.

"See, that's your problem idiot."

She calmly uttered as she adopted an open stance, clearly preparing to deliver a beautiful roundabout kick to his poor skill. In seconds, the two approached closer and yet again, the swordsman's body reacted wrongly, not protecting his head which was about to get beaten to death, but instead guarding his torso.

| Crack |

A very ugly sound shook the fields as Liam's limp body rolled on the ground for a couple of yards. Unconscious, defeated. Dead?

"You are supposed to be stealthy, yet you won't shut up."

All of a sudden, Elgan couldn't help but feel like he had been standing at the scene of a murder.