The Great

Aurora Maple: Geon looked unfazed as he calmly got up and walked down the steps. By now all of the students had pretty much returned to their seats after flocking around Deven—who was taken to the hospital building. “Hey, good luck,” I heard Lila whisper to Geon and Evay gave him a thumbs up before he went to meet the Professor. I gave him a nod and he nodded right back.

Taran had been a true menace, a problem for anyone that stood in his way. But I knew that Geon wasn’t going to go down so easily. I hated to admit it but he really held back in our match. He didn’t even use a fraction of his power. I knew if he’d have tired I would have well…died.

His physical prowess, his control over his skill set, his battle IQ, and his diverse abilities pretty much made him invincible. I watched as the Professor flicked his hand and sent the two boys down to the arena. The liquor screen was cast over them and everyone held their breath. “Same rules, don’t die, begin,” the Professor sounded as blunt as ever.

Taran called his huge sword down into his hands and leapt forward—dawning his armor form from the very beginning. “Night’s Shadow—my armor—heightens defense and offense at the same time,” Taran spoke with a booming voice. “With this I can purely focus on offense with my almost impenetrable defense,” he swung his lightning clad sword down with the force of a demon.

“That’s a whole lot of yapping for a dude with a sword,” Geon smiled and looked unfazed at the oncoming attack.

Geon stuck his hands in his pockets as the blade came closer, and closer, and closer and I heard Evay whisper next to me, “Geon block, block, block,” I saw Lila grip her chair tightly and I felt my body tense.

Hey Geon, it’s now or never right?

Geon had a bored look on his face as he held up one hand and a huge gust of wind blasted Taran away. The wind picked up half of the giant stadium floor and sent giant marble debris flying towards an empty set of bleachers. The entire arena shook as mountains of marble came crashing down. I looked at the wreckage–Geon had destroyed half of the arena. The bleachers and the stadium wall had been blown away—leaving nothing but a huge hole in the side of the stadium. My jaw dropped in awe as I saw everyone look on with a mix of adoration and fear. Taran was swept away and he frantically tried to maneuver himself in the air. Geon promptly raised his hand and slowly moved it towards the sky. Everyone looked confused as to what he was doing. I looked at the surrounding rubble and a light bulb went off in my head. He’s weaponizing the floor.

Thousands of pieces of stone start to lift into the sky. The rubble ascended to the top of the stadium, and filled the sky like dark disfigured stars. Taran had finally dropped down to the ground in a heavy thud and was still regaining his composure. Geon eyed him with a calm look. “Don’t look up,” Geon’s voice sounded cold and sharp as he dropped his hands to his sides. The thousands of massive rubble pieces rocketed to the ground at impossibly high speeds. He’s not just letting them fall, he’s practically throwing them into the ground.

I saw Taran panic as he pulled up his sword and began to slash in every direction. His blade gracefully cut through the rubble like he was cutting through soft clay. He balanced on his feet while turning and spinning—slashing incoming projectiles. He was a whirlwind of blades as he slashed over his head, to his side, and across the front of his body in order to protect himself from Geon’s mini meteor shower. But the rubble just kept coming down.

Taran kept moving towards Geon but a rubble piece hit the corner of his blade—causing him to lose balance and fall forward. A huge marble stone hit Taran on the back of the head. He fell forward and dropped flat on the ground, and the rest of the rubble piled onto his body endlessly. Loud crashes spread through the arena as the stones had piled up upon Taran’s body to the point where a rubble mountain—about three stories high—had been created upon him.

“Well ...that's one way to deal with that”, I was in complete disbelief and everyone seemed to agree with my statement—seeing as Lila and Evay were looking like they had just seen their life flash before their eyes.

It’s not over, that’s for sure. I saw a flash of black lightning graze the top of the rubble, and a giant explosion resounded over the arena as the rubble pieces were scattered and shot out like high-speed bullets. Taran’s head was down and his sword was slung over his shoulder. He was panting loudly and blood was strewn across his face.

Taran managed to straighten himself, and got back up. Geon dashed towards him and jumped over Taran—causing him to look above himself. Geon flipped his body and moved his hand across the entirety of Taran’s head without touching him, and suddenly Taran fell to the ground. I saw him gasping for air on one knee and suddenly his armor disappeared and his sword dropped to the floor. He can’t breathe.

“You like that, it’s Hydrogen Sulfide. Colorless gas that’s poisonous to the human body. You can’t breathe right now or you’ll die—since this stuff even passes through liquor screens,” Geon talked in a psychotically calm voice. It was….scary. He was sort of a troublemaker but he was well….sweet. He was funny, and kind, and he cared for us when we needed him. He was nice to Lila and had spent a lot of time with her after we had gone to get ice cream—which was roughly 3 weeks before school had started. I couldn’t really catch her without him in those weeks, and he helped Evay out a lot too. Not to mention he would also train with me from time to time as well…..

He was a good person, but seeing him now…..he looked exactly like who he was perceived to be. Taran got up and swung his sword aiming to slice Geon’s neck from the side. Geon ducked it and turned over his shoulder—kicking straight back into Taran’s stomach. He was sent soaring across the ground.

Taran regained his stance in the air and aimed for a stab into Geon’s heart. Geon flew around the blade and landed a roundhouse to Taran’s face—launching him to the left. He flew towards Geon and he held out his hand—releasing a spiraling blast of blue flame and electricity which mixed to form an azure column of death.

Taran’s sword produced fans as its sides, which expanded to make the once sword turn into a circular shield. He took the blast which knocked the shield away and hit Taran square in the chest. He was launched backwards and burned as well as electrocuted. Geon didn’t waste any time as he followed up his hit with a blast that propelled himself towards Taran. He used his momentum to land a high speed flying sidekick into Taran’s solar plexus—which caused his mouth to open wide and his eyes to swell with pain

Taran hit the deck and fell into a sprawling position. He summoned his sword in a flash of lightning and tried to jab Geon's chest. Geon raised his hand and

a wall of metal was immediately erected in front of his body. Taran hadn’t imbued any lightning onto his sword in a panic so the blade harmlessly bounced off the huge wall. With a wave Geon took the wall down and walked towards the still sitting Taran.

He looked like a tiger stalking down its cornered prey. Taran was already beaten to a pulp and was sitting on the ground. Geon suddenly snapped his fingers and a misty white smoke came billowing out from under his feet. He slowly walked in a menacing stroll towards Taran who looked on with a defeated glare.

The wisps of white smoke began to crawl over Taran’s body as Geon reached Taran’s feet and squatted down to his eye level. “That stuff is liquid nitrogen. It took me a while to be able to draw out any element in different states of matter, but it wasn’t too hard to master,” Geon didn’t have a single hint of warmth in his eyes as he talked to the half-unconscious Taran. “You’ll begin to lose feeling in your fingers and your toes will turn blue. Unless you give up.”

I saw the liquid nitrogen start to cause frost bites and redness on the legs of Taran, and at this point it was over. Geon increased the output of the liquid nitrogen and small black spots began to form on Taran’s body. Finally after what felt like an eternity, Taran’s body glowed purple. Professor Vylen flicked his hand and sent Taran back up. He fed him another medical leaf and he was also shipped off to the hospital.

“Well he sure is something huh,”I heard the Professor mumble under his breath in a barely audible voice. “That concludes the second match—we’ll have a couple more. I’d like to see some more of you guys spar today and more will go tomorrow. Now let’s see, who wants to go next?”

Evay Maver: I looked on with an amazed face as Geon defeated his last opponent. He went six and zero in today's class…..which meant he could skip school today. Since this was a warrior school, sparring and combat class took up most of the day, but everyone except Geon still had some other classes left.

“Okay Mr.Leventen I will notify the school and you can go enjoy your day. Tomorrow I will see the other half of class spar. You have ten minutes to get to your next class—don’t be late”, Professor Vylen disappeared into thin air and everyone made their way to the gates. We all made our way to Geon and met up at the front exit.

“Well Mr.Undefeated you’re going to ditch us today for the student bars aren’t you?” Lila teased him as we all laughed and looked at Geon. He gave us a grin and walked with us down the street to our next class.

“Yeah you guys just aren’t cutting it for me, maybe I’ll just have to go find some stronger friends you know?” Geon mocked us in a sarcastic voice before Lila gave him a good shove. “I have nothing better to do so I may as well go to my other classes right? Besides, the bars don’t open this early,” we had reached another marble building. This one had strong and tall pillars supporting its flat rooftop.

This was supposed to be our history class—which I was interested in learning more about. It would get me up to speed and help me not be so clueless about everything happening in our world. We had several practical classes—as they called them—were subjects we would learn at normal school. Mathematics, sciences, and history were all they offered—which was pretty bare. I guess they are training to fight, not to study…..We all sat down and listened as Professor Yinsen gave us the rundown of our course guidelines, class rules, and overall curriculum. Nothing really surprised me and I saw Geon doze off a little until I tossed a crumpled paper at him to keep him awake.

Can we just get to the actual stuff already? I was getting impatient when he gave us our textbooks and told us to open it to the first page. The introductory information was basic but when we reached the later parts of the lesson it sped up a little.

“Our empire is very young, an infant in the vast sea of elderly powerhouses among our Earth. But we have begun to grow at unprecedented rates. Beginning this process was our emperor—Emperor Varun Batara,” so that’s his name. “He comes from a long line of powerful rulers and we will be examining the long history of this family today,” his is going to be interesting.

“The Imperial house, house Bataral, is the most powerful house in the entire empire. They were led by Emperor Shau from the beginning and he was at the forefront of the independent movement against Sugul. The Sugul empire was almost 3000 years old before the coup and their emperor—emperor Zoltan—was pretty much invincible. However, with a group of nationalist and his generational power he managed to successfully complete an uprising.” This sounds pretty…..romanticized. “But……it wasn’t all sunshine like your former teachers have taught you,” Professor Yinsen moved to the front of his desk and leaned back on it with a sudden serious glare. “You’ve all learned that our empire is the greatest, born of innocence, made with just law,” he looked around the room to students with looks of anticipation. “We’ll start to think more broadly if you ever want to pass this class,” he elegantly walked back behind his desk and talked in that same calm voice again.

“History is written by the winners. But if we want to learn anything from history it’s important to realize that the truth is pretty much a lost cause. If you want the truth there are a lot of those lying around everywhere. Two people can have two truths, so which one is the right one?” he held his hands up to the class. Well I don’t think anyone can answer that one…..Helooked straight at me right out of the blue. I felt my heart pound…..Did I not look right? Did I say something out loud without me knowing?

“Mr.Maver, correct?” I looked at him and gave him a frightened nod. “Will you perhaps tackle that question?” I saw everyone’s faces stare at me with a curious stare. I looked at the top of the billboard and tried not to make eye contact with anyone.

“Um…well”, how do I even answer this? “So if that’s the question I think that,” the Professor’s look didn’t change, “I think that whoever’s idea captivates the most people and is in the interest of the most people is the correct one,” there was radio silence.

Was that a good answer? I mean what isn’t a good answer? To my surprise the Professor gave me an approving nod. He didn’t smile but…..it could’ve been a lot worse. He looked at the class and gave them another look. “What Mr.Maver said was true. I mean that’s what “good intentions” are right? However I also pose this question. Wasn’t it in the interests of the people of Sugul to brutally murder the innocent villages and civilians of the Villow region—the region which would eventually form our empire? Wasn’t it in the best interests of the Taegan uprisers when they burned the capital of Sugul to the ground?” a couple of my classmates murmured in quiet shocked voices.

“But sir, I thought the capital was burned because of a stray cannon fire from the Sugul soldiers?” a boy from the back of the room looked troubled and had his eyes on the Professor.

“Yes Mr.Fetter, but have you realized that Sugul actually fought against enemy forces from the south who were of the Desmona empire. It was a war on two fronts and since we were just a small radical group almost all weapons were stationed in the south to fight Desmona. Cannons powerful enough to light an entire capital on fire were certainly not kept back at home,” the boy looked down at his feet but still had that troubled look on his face.

“You see, what we focus on here is not just learning dates, facts, and accomplishments and who did them……We learn about what consequences they had and what we can learn from them. What we can throw away and what we can keep. After all, what’s the point in looking at the past if it won’t do anything for us in the present or in the future,” he dropped his pen inside a pencil holder cup and clapped his hands. “It’s been 80 minutes so you are free to leave for lunch. Your assignments will be mailed to your dorms. Have a nice day and I’ll see you in two days,” the bells in the courtyard rang and everyone got up to leave. I packed my bags and met up with my friends. I gave Geon a look and we both knew that our looks meant, well that wasn’t what we expected. Lila and Aurora seemed to be a little shaken up but they were both talking about where to eat lunch. “Hey, you guys want lunch?” Lila asked us and pointed in the direction of the restaurants. “I heard there’s a great place here, come on.” Geon looked really hungry and so we found ourselves walking down the street amongst a mass of students.

We finally made it to the curb when we turned the corner and saw the sandwich shop. “Here I’ll get us the food, you guys wait,” Geon walked into the store and we sat on the bench waiting for us. I leaned back and saw three people heading our way. They didn’t look like…..model students. The two on the side had an absurd height difference. The tall one had long black hair that fell to his shoulders and a black leather jacket. The shorter one had a black vest and golden hair that was spiked up all over his head. Finally the one in the middle seemed to be the one in charge.

He wasn’t quite tall or short but he was slim and slightly scrawny. He had honey colored hair that laid flat on the top of his head that covered all of his ears and all of the back of his neck. His bangs were high on his head and looked like an eagle stretching its wings.

I felt a sense of fire surge from my chest. It was a weird feeling….I hadn’t ever met this guy before but suddenly…I hated him.

“Hey Lila, how’s your sister?” the middle boy smiled and laughed as he spoke to her. Lila stood up and glared so hatefully that I thought she was going to kill me if I moved a finger.

“I thought you wouldn't apply here,” Lila spoke in a deadly tone. “You promised that you would stay away from anyone I ever cared about so you have some guts showing up to this school you piece of sh-“

He whistled, “aggressive.” The boy smiled and raised his hands up in sarcastic defeat. “Yeah there was a change of plans. Just because you’re here that doesn’t legally mean I can’t be here,” Lila’s gaze burned through the air and me and Aurora both looked at each other with a worried stare. He smiled, “and plus, fuck the law, right?”

Ren grabbed a chair and spun it around so that the back of the chair was facing us. He sat down, putting his arms on the top of the chair’s back. “You have legal restraining orders against me that tell me to stay away from your father, mother, brother, and, of course, your dear old sister,” he gave Lila a smile laced with malice and lust, “But apparently there’s no requirement I stay away from you. So I can still go here and……do whatever I want”, he stood up and Lila did the same. They stared each other down, Ren smiling and Lila glaring daggers into his soul.

There was a long pause that seemed to last about an eternity.

“Yeah? And what’s stopping me from blowing your damn face off you filthy rapist,” the air was silent. Everyone looked to be on edge and no one even moved a muscle. My breathing quickened as I looked at Ren who slowly lost his smile. I felt my own blood boil and my heart race. A lot of the people in my village had suffered the same fate. The nobles didn’t treat us as people—we were simply products. Products that were dispensable, products that were only good for whatever wretched reality they wanted us to live in. I thought I had escaped that reality when I came here, but it turns out I had just stepped into a new form of it.

Then the memories came up……..

I couldn’t move. My head pounded, my heart raced, my eyes began to go dark, and my head began to split open. No not these, please not these, please, please, I have to help Lila. Not now, not….now.

“We both know what happens if you kill me, idiot. My family simply hunts down every last one of your family members and rips them limb for limb. Then the press will tell the people that Lila Fairheart attacked an esteemed member of house Nova out of revenge and anger. Of course the story about your sister will be turned into a story of how one of our guards, whom we will make up and say we officially terminated, wronged you by cheating you of money. Then we’ll be in the clear with little negative backlash, and you’ll just be even more….dead,” Ren spoke in a dead calm and emotionless voice. He was speaking like this fantasy was something that was actually possible—not just some sick fever dream. He didn’t care about what happened to Lila’s sister or her….He’s an absolute psychopath.

Lila kept her cool on the outside, but it looked like she wanted to rip every cell out of Ren’s body. Strange green markings started to appear on her arms as Ren walked forward and shoved his face into Lila’s—leaving a sliver of space in between their faces. “And kindly stay off of me if you don’t want another episode of what happened with your sister,” it seemed that Lila had had enough. She raised her hand and her killing intent could be felt in the room. Ren backed up and prepared to fight. Then, an even stronger force overpowered Lila’s. It was a force like no other. Killing intent wasn’t enough to describe it—it was like the same feeling I had felt with noble Wyren back at home. I felt the pressure in the air and it was enough to make my knees buckle. The air seemed to thicken and the very light shining in our eyes seemed to be blocked out. I couldn’t breath, sweat rolled down my face, and I was frozen in place. I felt the power drain out of my arms and suddenly, I was unable to do anything. I was just another bag of bones and flesh as I looked upon Geon—the source of all this power.

He looked like he was calm but I knew he didn’t feel like that on the inside. He set down his paper bag onto the table and marched towards Ren. Ren’s face wasn’t so confident anymore. I could see the sweat beads on his forehead and the look of anger, which he used to mask his fear. His eyes were so wide that they almost looked comical, and unwillingly, he had fallen onto his back and was now looking up at Geon. Geon didn’t say anything as he stared at Ren with an emotionless glare, “So you’re the emperor’s brat nephew?” Ren couldn’t say anything as he quietly looked up at Geon. He looked absolutely terrified and was doing his best to hide his trembling hands. “Man, if my father looked at you he’d almost be proud of me–which is saying a lot,” Geon knelt down to the ground and came face to face with the terrified Ren. He spoke in an emotionless tone, “If you think you can run around and start fights with people just because of your blood then you can go and jump off of a bridge. Warriors only win or lose based on how strong they are—no one gives a damn about your pops.” Geon grabbed onto Ren’s shirt collar and spoke again, “And even if you do tell your father—good luck, because I’ll face them, I’ll kill them all, and you probably shouldn't bet against me,” Geon shoved Ren back into his friend’s arms. They couldn’t move as each of them just stared at Geon with a look of fear, “Piss off, and don’t come back,” each of them walked in separate directions as Geon opened up the sandwich bag and gave us our food with a sad stare.

“I'm sorry that I got you into trouble Geon. Actually sorry to all of you guys too,” I could hear the strain and tears in Lila’s face as Geon turned around and gave her a hug. Geon finally lowered his guard and everything seemed to clear up. I could breath again and my hands stopped feeling cold and clammy. I looked on as Aurora was comforting Lila and Geon was sitting on our bench.

“Lila, I know that secrets like that are painful,and I hope you know that we’ll help you with anything you need,” she looked up at me with red eyes. I saw most of the students dawn the same look of relief as they all laughed and talked and headed back to class—not knowing exactly what had just happened. Looks like Geon’s aura reached quite far. Lila looked at me and spoke in a small voice, “The only way you’ll help me is if you can somehow change the past or kill that guy,” she looked at the ground while she spoke. I gave her a sad look and felt my heart struggle. I realized that Lila…..that was me. I had been running from nobles my whole life. I had been faced with so many things that I wish had never happened and I had no power to fix any of it. Then I got my golden ticket to that problem when I came here. An ultra rare blueprint, special classes, liquor, and safety. But at the same time I didn’t really want to fight for revenge anymore. I just wanted to get strong to go to the tournament. To spend time with my friends…..these friends.

I can help her. I….can….

I felt light headed. Did I hold my breath or something? My eyes began to close as my head seemed to stop working. What did I do now? My legs turned to water as I collapsed onto the ground. I heard Aurora, Geon, and Lila shout in surprise as my breathing grew even shallower and I blacked out once again.