Animosity

Soon after the gathering at the dome arena, all students were directed to their Homeroom Classes.

[]I believe they walk in groups of sixty, with four single file lines. It's called a, Platoon. There are four platoons to a Battery. Four Batteries to a Company. Basic American Military Knowledge. I'm sure they'll explain more to you later.[]

"General Greybrow must really hate you to create that much animosity for you." Some kid commented. Levi looked over to see a tall lanky boy smiling friendly like, at him.

"Where did you come from?" Levi asked in confusion.

"Haha, I'm Drake, I'm your bunkmate, I've been charged with giving you a tour. So you have an Angel brand?" Drake rambled as he hooked Levi's head in the crook of his arm and acted real familiar with Levi.

[]Very out going boy.[]

"We're going to have to get that hair cut." Drake let Levi go and motioned for Levi to follow him.

[]Good luck with that. After several hundred years of condensing, your hair is nigh upon uncuttable.[]

[]I'm not, but whatever.[]

"Well, lead the way I suppose." Levi conceded.

"Awesome, first, I need to make a stop at the dormitory." Drake smiled and began walking.

[]He seems nice.[]

[]I'm more interested in these dorms. I used to live in one during one of my many college days pre-evolution. Curious to see if its changed.[]

[]I mean, you come from a period of darkness, so I can understand. I've had four hundred years to get used to the gradual changes. Except for the twentieth century. That was annoying. The gradual change became drastically fast. Super annoying, but, then RPG's, MMO's, MMORPG's, video games, were created and these became my obsession.[]

[]Only slightly.[]

"Alright, wait here, I promise I'll be right out." Drake smiled as they stopped at a door and he went in. A few moments later, Drake and seven other kids wearing a variation of the two uniforms stepped back out. Drake was beaten and bloody.

"Wow, I can't believe it. Not only do we get to crush Drake, but even the newbie." One of the purple uniformed kids laughed as he shoved Drake down next to Levi.

[]Think they were waiting in ambush?[]

"I'm sorry Levi." Drake coughed. Levi looked down at him and at his watch. The Tier displayed was 2.6. Levi glanced at the other kids' watches. The lowest was at 2.7 whereas the highest read 3.3. Levi immediately activated his Lamia Scale skill. After doing various tests, Levi found that Lamia Scale was virtually undetectable.

"'I'm sorry Levi.' Pathetic. Trash is trash, I guess trash sticks together." A familiar female voice scoffed. The blondie from Levi's exams pushed through the group and stopped right before him. Her watch now read 3.9, a full .9 from what she was when he had met her.

[]I think she's their boss.[]

"Emilia! I should have guessed you were behind this." Drake groaned as he stood up shakily.

"Honestly, this was an ambush set for you, he's a bonus. And of course I'm behind this. I still have a lesson to teach you. Never, stand up against me." Emilia lifted her hand up and a bright light began to emanate from it until a large object appeared.

[]Ah, she's one of the modern weapon summoners. Looks like hand guns are her specialty.[]

[]Yeah, looks like an American Colt. 1911 model. Fires .45, if it were man made, but since its soul energy materialized, its definitely more powerful.[]

[]That appears to be the plan.[]

"Emilia? Interesting name. I remember you actually. Yeah, you did my evaluation. I remember you being a three point o tier, though." Levi stepped in. Her attention turned to him, anger and hatred filled her contemptful eyes.

"That's because there was an after break evaluation you cunt." Emilia scowled. A bang resounded and Levi felt an impact on his right shoulder that knocked him backwards a couple steps.

"...That... hurt?" Levi raised an eyebrow, taunting Emilia.

"What? That should have been a powerful enough shot to put a weak two tier pawn in the hospital." Emilia began to mutter.

"Perhaps you miscalculated the out put?" One of the white uniformed kids offered.

[]You're fucked if she ups the outage to her level, try to get away before then, because I doubt the rest are going to continue standing idly on the sidelines.[]

[]Tch... goody-goody.[]

"Perhaps you're right. It might be overboard, but, I'll just have to up the outage as if I'm fighting myself." Emilia had a malicious smile as she said so.

"Ah." Levi stated.

[]You were warned.[]

Emilia raised her gun back at Levi and he used spring step before the bang. The wall behind were he was standing, blew apart from the force.

[]Oh wow, she's pretty powerful. She's upped the power to the equivalency of a .50 cal.[]

[]Just imagine a really powerful bow shot. That hits you at unseen speeds and leaves a hole the size of a large rock.[]

"Oh yeah, I forgot, your little burst of immense speed." Emilia sighed. The object in her hand elongated and formed a faster firing weapon, as bursts of small soul energized projectiles peppered the surrounding area. Three hit Levi in a concentrated area on his chest. Shattering the Lamia Scale armor. Levi stumbled backwards and coughed blood, as one projectile pierced through him.

"Much better." Emilia lowered the weapons and motioned for the surrounding group to attack.

[]Oh, now this is a predicament. Too bad Lamia Scale has a ten minute cool down.[]

"What the hell is that weapon?" Levi groaned, the pain was sharp.

(-20% HP)

"An MP40. My favorite German submachine gun." Emilia gloated.

"I thought she was proficient in hand guns." Levi coughed.

"I don't know where you heard that, but, you would only be half correct. I'm proficient in weapons that take hand gun rounds." Emilia scoffed at Levi's ignorance.

[]Ah, a very rare and specific sub class.[]

[]Too many, you'll have to learn as you go.[]

[]Its a lot less confrontational nowadays.[]

Levi watched as the seven bystanders stirred into motion, two activated beast souls, three summoned bladed weapons, one began casting ice magic, and the last one became cloaked in shadows.

"I hope you have a free schedule for the next three months." Drake sat against a wall and quietly reserved himself to his fate.

[]No, I have my advice, you just seem to like being a hero. A new expression you will get used to, 'Nice guys always finish last.'.[]

[]You'll learn.[]

Levi pulled his daggers from his belt and wielded them readily.

"Amateur. Do you even know how to fight?" One of the purple uniforms sneered.

"No, but I know survival." Levi grinned. He didn't have enough energy to activate his Wendigo Form, so he sent the remaining bit of energy along his blades.

"Fool, a low tier like you couldn't hold a candle to us. Yet you still foolishly stand against me? You'll receive the same punishment as Drake." Emilia raised her weapon again and began firing. Levi attempted to block as many shots as he could, but failed miserably, only succeeding to prevent any from piercing his head or neck. Levi felt at least three pierce his torso, five in his arms combined, and three in his legs. Levi dropped to his knees, severely weakened.

(-37% HP)

"Now, will you buffoons quit standing around like clueless morons, and kill him?" Emilia sighed.

"Uh, kill? Metaphorically?" One of the white uniformed kids questioned.

"No, literally, rules state that we cannot get in trouble if we kill a student in combat." Emilia began to get agitated.

"Man, that's some fucked up rules." Levi muttered.

[]Well, the weak get culled in these schools.[]

Levi spat some blood that had accumulated, which according to the random knowledge downloaded to his brain, meant his lungs had been punctured and were filling with blood. Also explained his short and painful breaths.

"No, I won't. You told us we were teaching them a lesson. I'm all for that, but I refuse to kill." The same white uniformed student stopped casting his ice magic and walked towards Levi. His watch read 3.3. The strongest of the seven.

[]Condense. Cultivate. Results are more explosive in near death states.[]

Levi took her advice greedily and began to condense his seeping soul energy. It proved difficult, as the pain and discomfort became overwhelmingly distracting.

"David, to think you would be the one to finally desert me. After all we've been through?" Emilia raised her weapon again, only this time it resembled the hand gun from earlier in size, but major altercations were present in appearance.

[]Ah, an early version of the colt, only not a 1911, just the colt revolver.[]

[]Its been awhile since I could.[]

"You're a fool Emilia. Killing has never been our way." David knelt down next to Levi and sighed.

"Be careful David, if you go against me, I'll kill you too." Emilia growled.

"Something happened to you over break, and I don't like it." David began discreetly casting ice on Levi's wounds, giving his mind more clarity as he condensed. Levi suddenly felt major improvements.

(New Magic Learned.)

(Ice Magic, sub class of Magic.)

(3 New Skills Learned.)

(Ice Bullet Lvl 2: Cast a small round ice projectile that pierces your enemy. Deals 20% damage to health, strength and agility.)

(Ice Shield Lvl 1: Cast a Shield of impenetrable ice to defend against projectile objects. Impervious to all projectiles up to tier 4. Weak against physical and hand held weapons from tier 2+.)

(Ice Shackles Lvl 1: Bind enemies with cold, ruthless, shackles of ice. Completely disable enemies tiers 1-2.7 for 10 seconds. Tiers 2.8-3.3 for 5 seconds. 3.4-3.9 for 2 seconds. 4+ unaffected.)

[]Adapt Ability. Interesting how versatile this ability can be. Scary too.[]

"Thanks." Levi whispered to David.

"Shut up, I'm only helping because I need you when shit hits the fan. This changes nothing newbie." David snapped back.

"Not for healing me bud. You best keep quiet about this afterwards." Levi whispered as he stood.

"You certainly are tenacious... oh, I see. How sneaky David." Emilia fired the weapon, and Levi cast ice shield. The shield held up perfectly.

"Damn it David! When did you learn that?" Emilia continued firing to no avail, soon Levi heard other types of sounds ricocheting on the walls of the shield, which was more like a dome.

"Y-you have ice magic as well?" David stuttered.

"Only recently, like, extremely recently." Levi responded. Drake too was confused, somehow he ended up in the radius of the shield.

"What?" David blinked in confusion.

"You can copy, like me." Drake coughed.

"Yeah, exactly." Levi nodded. Perfect... wait, he can copy? Confusion became evident in Levi's face.

"We can talk more later." Drake dismissed Levi's obvious questions.

"Are you a part of the Big 28? More importantly, are you Drake's relative?" David began looking from Levi to Drake and back.

"Perhaps. I was abandoned for being a disgrace." Levi responded.

"Ah, well some disgrace you are. I can't even pull this off. What tier are you?" David had suddenly become nicer.

[]3.7 after that condensing. Explosive results in near death states, I knew it.[]

[]You would be correct.[]

"3.7. I haven't had a chance to re-test when you all did." Levi replied.

"3.7! That's a whole ass tier plus some from what your watch says! At tier 4, you're qualified to enter the Second Year Ranks at the end of the trimester without going through exams! Only a handful are that close!" David suddenly rambled.

[]Well we know what's been on his mind recently.[]

"Uh, right. The real question is, how do we get out of this?" Levi navigated the conversation to the situation at hand.

"I thought you knew!" David and Drake exclaimed at the same time.

"3.7..... 3.9." Levi pointed at himself, and then in the general direction Emilia was in.

"Its only .2 difference!" David stated with frustration.

"Ranged..... close combat." Levi pointed towards Emilia, and then back to himself.

"Okay, that's fair. He must be versed in copying close combat and magic abilities, rather than summoning abilities. Which puts him at a severe disadvantage." Drake replied knowingly.

[]No, magic is different, it's like transferring actual Soul Energy into power, whereas Summoning is a direct Soul Image manifested by usage of Soul Energy.[]

[]Yes, and Summoning is what would be considered Processed Soul Energy, filtered through the users adversities. For instance, Emilia is adept in modern weapons, or her soul is adverse in it, but only in hand gun velocity types.[]

As Levi was talking to Rachel, a darkness enveloped them.

"Edward. He's using Shadow Perception. In about 20 seconds, he'll know every weakness, buff, name, and caster on this shield of yours." David answered Levi's question before he had a chance to ask. Levi disabled the Shield and cast an ice bullet blindly through the darkness, a sudden yelp followed afterward. The darkness receded quickly, and Levi was unable to gain it as a skill, it seems he had to be in direct contact.

"All I got from that Emilia-San, was the name Ice Shield, and that its impervious to projectile attacks." Edward, the one shrouded in shadows, told Emilia in a familiar accent.

"I wanted weaknesses, not buffs." Emilia snapped. Levi could see ice formed on the upper thigh of her left leg, blood trickled, and a sense of excitement overcame him, similar to the beach incident.

[]What are you? A shark? Did all that time in the ocean evolve you weirdly?[]

[]Ah, we're back to that title then.[]

[]Battle Junkie.[]