The Great

Evay Maver: Savian and Akasa on the same team….I had expected our opponents to be good but not that good…

Taran had been great throughout our classes and sparring. He only faced two more losses after the loss to Geon and he performed pretty well in the team based drills. He got third place in the school tournament and was overall a force to be reckoned with—especially individually. So for Akasa to have dealt with him so easily made me worried. I looked up and saw some of my fellow classmates taking out their notebooks, and I snapped back to reality. Finals were over but the new semester had started instantly. Apparently this wasn’t normal–according to Lila–and every other school had breaks after semesters. I wouldn’t know but Eden had a weird holiday schedule so we just kept plugging along. Math class was absolute torture though–especailly in the morning.

I looked over and saw each of my friends in a zoned out state. They all looked like they were half asleep, but also very worried. What’s the point of trying to do math when the biggest tournament of our lives is coming up? Speaking of the tournament, it had come with some unwanted and wanted attention. Since we were first years no one really knew us, but after we cruised our way to the grand finals, almost everyone knew our names. People I had never met before came up to me and said hello, gave me compliments, and wished me luck for my next match. People were…..nice to me. It was weird.

It also kind of backfired in some ways. Our abilities were pretty much common knowledge now and we couldn’t even keep it a secret from class A-5 anymore—which was sad since they were purposely separated from us at all times. But at this point everyone kind of knew what everyone could do. As I daydreamed some more I heard the bell finally ring. I heard seats screech across the floor as the sound of excited voices and rapid steps filled the classroom. I met up with everyone and we started to walk to history.

“So did you guys get anything….like anything out of that class or no?” Lila asked curiously as we all shook our heads as a response.

“I barely even remember what topic we learned like ten minutes ago.” Aurora mumbled in a sleepy voice as her hair was still slightly tangled and her eyes were still half closed.

The cool morning air was the only thing that made it bearable to go outside, and it helped the morning feel slightly less tortuous. As we walked I looked up to see Geon suddenly change expression. Since he was so much taller than everyone else he could usually see things sooner than we could and he didn’t like whatever he had just seen.

He immediately tensed up and stopped walking. We did the same. As the crowd flowed around us we were soon left with an empty street. Only us four and Ren along with his friends had stopped walking. Lila immediately sharpened her gaze and an intense hatred came over her eyes. I felt the same thing that had happened when we first met Savian. Her eyes grew red, her muscles seemed to strengthen and grow, and she seemed like she was ready to absolutely murder somebody.

Geon and I exchanged worried looks as Aurora also met our gaze. We can’t fight here, not now, and if we let anything slip our shot of participating in the tournament is practically gone….

But at the same time…..it was Ren. I had a better chance at trying to stop a meteor than tryin to stop myself from punching him in the face…

He stopped and looked at us with an angry glare. He stared at us for a while before giving us a menacing grin. He tossed his water bottle over to one of his friends and marched towards us. Lila stepped forward and was prepared to grab him when he put his hands up.

“Do it.” Ren’s smile was unbearably wide as he was right up in Lila’s face.

My anger began to boil. He chose to face us now when we couldn’t do anything about it. He was so eager to run away when Geon was in front of him but now…….

I understood what type of person he was. He chooses his battles and unluckily for us, he chose a battle that we couldn’t win.

But that didn’t stop me from feeling pissed.

“Get away from Lila,” I tried to sound as calm as possible but my voice came out harsher than it was intended. Ren looked slightly surprised by my remark and he looked at me with curiosity. Then he let out a little laugh.

“And who are you? I don’t remember talking to you, do I?”

“You don’t need to know. Piss off with your friends then now. Don’t stand here with us.” Ren walked forward and faced me.

“I don’t really mess with completion that I don’t think I can handle. I’ll admit Geon is pretty strong and well this other girl you have here would probably stomp me.” He didn’t move a muscle and I didn’t move either. His voice started to get lower and colder, “My father told me to never pick a fight you can’t win. And I’ve kept that promise. But I don’t mind you. After all, you’re not much of a threat. Hundreds of geniuses at this school and it looks like you’re not one of them,” he leaned in to me and whispered softly in my ear, “I’ve actually come here for you, did you know that? I wanted to know something about you. So answer me,” I felt an intense shock pull me in towards Ren as he leapt far back–away from Geon, Lila, and Aurora. They all instantly dove towards me but it didn’t matter, Ren had me in his grasp.

“I wanted to know, if you’ve been enjoying your little fake life,” I wanted to scream. He smiled,

“Isn’t that right, Peasant boy.”

How? How did he know? I looked at him and he gave me a wide smile. “Come on, are you gonna pass out again? Let your little guardian angel save you?”. Stop Evay. Don’t get mad. Don’t overthink this. You can’t do anything right now.

“Do you think you can beat me? With what, your body guards are probably going to save you right? The only reason you’re here is because you’re special to some high ranking official—you’re not here because of you, understand?” He looked at me with a grin that resembled the smile of a demon. I looked back and Aurora had found us, her glowing blue hair zoomed across the sky as the ground rumbled at the feet of Geon–who was somewhere nearby.

“Maybe I’ll even give you your fucking mom and day back. You know, the ones we took.” He was still whispering in my ear, “so am I right? Did I guess right? You are a peasant aren’t you?”

My heart began to roar. My chest pounded and my body began to fill with a golden warm glow. It felt like my anger, fear, and hate was all being turned into something. Something great….

Something powerful.

Evay calm down. Keep your cool….

“Good because I remember you, did you know that? You looked awfully familiar, I guess I remembered right. Don’t you remember all the good times we had? I’ll throw in a good word for your special lady–the one you were always with back in the day. Her eyes were gorgeous by the way, and her voice was so beautiful. She was also really beautiful in another way you know,” he leaned in closer.

“Especially whenever she mentioned you.”

I grabbed him by the throat and I lifted him in the air. His eyes went wide with surprise as he struggled to resist. His hands clawed at my forearm but it didn’t feel like he was doing anything. He felt so weak…so crushable. He started to sputter and gasp for air, helplessly grabbing at my hands. I heard a massive explosion go off behind me as Aurora and Geon dove down towards me and Ren. I saw them start to run towards me with frantic looks on their faces.

I looked towards Ren and gazed upon his helpless body. I felt…….incredible. So alive, so…..powerful. As I gazed upon his weak existence I felt a sort of sick pleasure well up in my stomach.

I could kill him, he’s mine to toy with.

A faint golden glow started to emit from my body. Waves of soft golden light spread throughout the floor and reached the corners of the campus. I saw Geon and Lila suddenly stop and shield their eyes. I looked at my body which was coated in golden light, and I saw my eyes which burned bright yellow. The sky lit up with a miraculous glow as the clouds seemed to be made out of gold themselves. Ren’s terrified face was fully visible in the light as I smirked.

“This is for what you’ve done to Lila,” I pulled him closer to my body and jammed my fist into his solar plexus at the same time. His eyes went wide and his mouth opened and saliva came flying out of his throat. “And this is for Amie,” The sky and earth seemed to split as all of the golden energy spread around the campus gathered together into my fist. I lifted Ren up and slammed him into the ground with all my might. There was a flash of blinding light and I heard several screams as there was a loud explosion which followed suit. My eyes went dark as the debris and dust swallowed up the surrounding area.

I cast my barrier over the battlefield and it vaporized all the debris which was still falling to the ground. The dust cleared and I saw Ren unconscious but not dead. I looked at Lila who had her hand up while she was laying on the ground as a turquoise glow was faintly cast over Ren’s body.

“You healed him.” I looked at her and she couldn’t meet my gaze. “Why? Lila stop, stop helping him.”

She looked at me with painfully guilty and defeated eyes. “If you kill him we don’t get to play in the tournament. And I’m not letting my friend become a murderer.”

I looked at Geon and Aurora who walked around a wall of Titanium steel that Geon had cast—only the very bottom section was left.

“Let’s go, and let’s explain ourselves before this gets out of hand.” I saw the crowds of people that were approaching the scene. Flocks of students were pointing at us and all of them were talking amongst themselves.

What have I done……

I felt Geon lift me up and he started to fly up into the sky. I heard surprised shouts from the crowds of students below and Geon flew us higher and higher.

“Meet us there!” Geon shouted to Aurora and Lila, who tried their best to make it out of the crowd.

“Sorry,” Geon started to fly straight forward and I felt the speed rip away at my face.

“You knew you had to be careful Evay…” Geon sounded sad but he didn’t sound particularly angry with me.

“You aren’t going to yell at me,” I spoke in a monotone voice. I had nothing left to feel. After what I did…..I didn’t really know who I was anymore.

“Nah, actually I really want to tell you that you did a great job, but not this time.” Geon looked on with a blank expression, “I just wished you told us more about yourself, Evay. I mean, I just wish you would let us see who you really are. I heard some stuff towards the end, I heard what you said about Amie, I don’t know man, how does that fucker know more about you than we do?”

I returned his blank gaze.

“Sorry, I really am.”