Chapter 42 This Is Not A Normal Behaviour (1)
As Erik arrived in class, he found his fellow classmates already inside. They looked at Erik with weird looks; they had many questions for the young man, mostly regarding Amber. The others seemed to be very curious about him and what was happening between him and her.
"Erik," Lucas, one of his classmates, said. "Is it true you are dating Amber?" Erik was puzzled by the sudden question, especially considering that he and the other classmates never showed any curiosity toward him.
"Yeah, we saw you and her coming inside; rumors are spreading about you two," another one said.
Multiple questions regarding their relationship got thrown at him, with no regard as to whether or not he wanted them answered.
It would have been easy enough for him just to tell everyone off, but instead, he decided on a more passive approach. He turned back toward his desk, pretending like he got no questions.
"Stop ignoring us!" another student demanded.
"Weren't you the ones that kept ignoring me until a week ago? Why did you change your mind now?" Erik replied by looking at the student in question with an angry look.
"C'mon, don't be an asshole and tell us," Lucas said. Erik turned to Lucas, and he looked at him as if he had just murdered his mother.
The young man smashed his fist down on his desk and then said, "Look, little shits, I don't owe you anything. I can do whatever the hell I want, and you have no right to ask me anything. So shut the fuck up, and stop bothering me before I make you."
"Don't think that just because you awakened a new power, you are hot shit now, trash! I can beat you with my eyes closed," Lucas said.
"Wanna bet?!" Erik said while abruptly standing up. He had a serious dead look on his face. Everyone else watched him warily, waiting for some kind of reaction from the young man who suddenly stood up.
Suddenly another classmate approached Lucas, "He did beat Logan, Conal, and Orson alone, at the same time. You are only going to hurt yourself," he said to Lucas.
"I'm not like that trash. I can mop the floor with him..." Lucas instead replied.
Erik then walked forward to him, looking the prick in the eyes. The students started backing away from him subconsciously. Erik had to face a lot of problems during school, and they didn't know how he would take another bullying. After all, he slashed at Logan as if he wasn't even a person.
"What's wrong with you?! We just asked a question," A female student shouted.
"Yeah, aren't you exaggerating?"
"I will tell you this one last time. DON'T BOTHER ME, OR I WILL MAKE YOU PAY," Erik said, looking at the female student.
"All right, guys, I think this is enough. Leave him be..." another said.
Things calmed down soon when the teacher came to class. People kept looking at Erik as if he was a freak, but he didn't care about them.
Erik focused on the lesson for the following hours, and his attention remained sharp the whole time.
At the end of the lessons, he left his classroom and went out of the building; on the way, he met Gwen, Floyd, and Amber. They talked a little bit while going out, but then Erik told them he was going to work, so they went to the cafeteria to eat while the young man went outside.
Erik was unaware, though, that some people were looking at him from afar; Logan, Conal, and Orson.
The young man quickly left the building; he had to hurry up to the train station, or he would be late. The school was as beautiful outside as inside, there was a long driveway surrounded by stone walls, and the road itself was made of cobblestone.
Countless trees had been planted around the area, giving the place a picturesque atmosphere. There was also a large pond nearby, where ducks swam around.
Multiple people rushed out of the school as soon as the lessons ended. They streamed inside the driveway connecting the school to the main road, or some went inside the floating cars waiting for them outside of the building's premises. As Erik left the driveway, Logan, Conal, and Orson followed him as he headed to the train station.
The trio waited for the young man to be alone before finally making their presence known to the young man.
"Hey, asshole!" Logan shouted. It was loud enough for Erik to hear; when he finally stopped walking, he and the three men started staring down at each other.
Erik was surprised by the three men's approach; memories of their constant beating flashed inside his mind like a movie. But he managed to remain calm, which surprised even him.
<Yeah, that's it, I knew they wouldn't have left me alone...> the young man thought as he observed the weird grin on the face of the three students.
"Fuck off, you mother fuckers!" Erik replied.
"Hey, why are you saying such words? Aren't we all friends? This is not how you treat friends," Logan said while walking toward Erik.
"We never were, besides you're assholes," Erik replied; he was confident he could beat the three students again, but there was something in the current situation that alarmed the young man.
Orson laughed, "That's rich coming from you."
Logan sighed, "You really are an idiot. Take a look at your surroundings!"
Erik did as he said, and he noticed he was on a deserted street; there wasn't a single person nearby. Then, he understood, "I never understood why you are doing this..." Erik said.
"There was a need for a reason? You are trash, and trash deserves to get thrown away."
"So, what are you going to do now? Beat me up? Do you think you could do worse than you already did in the past?"
"This time, things will be different...." Logan said.
It was then that Conal and Orson unleashed their powers; Conal had a power that allowed him to transmute his body parts into that of animals. This time, he made his arms take the shape of a lion's claws.
Orson, instead, could manipulate his bones. Among the things he could do, he could protrude them out from the body, and if used well, they were dangerous weapons.
Logan, in the meantime, started conjuring his poisonous darts; he didn't want to kill Erik, so he put enough mana into his dart so that the young man only felt pain.
Unfortunately for Erik, he had nothing he could use as a tool to defend himself. The young man's thoughts went back and forth between running and fighting, he could actually use the bush hedgehog's power, but if he did so, he would risk other people finding out he had a third power, and he couldn't risk it.
He didn't actually know what to do, and it was that moment of hesitation that cost Erik. Logan threw his dart, and he hit Erik on the shoulder; mana immediately started spreading from the tip of the dart into the young man's body, making the young man yell because of pain. Erik had been caught off guard.
At that moment, Conal hit him with his transformed arm, leaving five gashes with his lion paws. Orson instead projected a bone out of his forearm, pointing it forward and piercing the young man on the left shoulder.
"Enough," Conal said. We don't want to kill him.
"Yeah, but I want to beat him up a little!" he said while dashing toward the young man. Erik was in a panic now, he couldn't move because of the venom injected by Logan's dart, and he was losing blood from the wounds that Conal and Orson did.
Then Logan reached the young man and started punching him hard in the face, leaving it bruised and bloodied. It only took him five minutes to make Erik's face unrecognizable.
"You were lucky we didn't use our powers in the cafeteria… Remember Erik, this is the difference between us."
These were the last words that Erik heard before losing consciousness.