Chapter Five

Inside Marroy Academy, in the pool area...

Principal McCarthy sat at the edge of the pool in a recliner seats, while occasionally dipping his feet into the pool. He was basking in the sunlight and enjoying the serenity. Being the principal of this institution was definitely an enviable position. People would kill be in his place, and he was completely aware of thatHe sipped the drink he was holding, and closed his eyes while enjoying its taste. It was lemonade, a very high class type for that matter. He was still lost in thoughts. Even though he had such an enviable position, the stress and workload on his shoulders were ginormous. It was stressful and hectic, but he needed to put up with it. He was obtaining lots and lots of benefits from the work and wasn't willing to give it up.

But it didn't change the fact that he was stressed, and since he had a few days to rest, he decided to make the most out of them. He dipped his feet into the pool and took another long sip of the lemonade. He was quite content with himself.

Then he shifted his gaze to the table beside him. On top of the table sat a laptop. He flicked it open and it returned to the website he was last on. It was ...

"Okay Riley, could you hold that left..."

He was in the middle of doing that sh*t when he got interrupted by a call. It was an important call, one that he definitely could not ignore. He accepted it and began to speak. The conversation lasted for a few minutes. After that, he hung up.

Then he returned to the laptop....

"Sorry about that Riley, now could you show me that...."

Principal McCarthy was a paypig.

Back in the forest....

Day had broken in the forest and I began to continue my journey. I realized the teachers weren't dumb. Or whoever made this training wasn't dumb. If not for the fact that we needed to gather orbs, I could have found a safe spot to hide for the remaining days. Not because I'm a coward, but because this is not how things are supposed to be.

I began to look for some dimension four beasts since I had only met dimensions one and two. But I had no luck finding them. Maybe that was good, because I was still level three while the blood beasts I needed to face were dimension four or above. It looked like a lose-lose situation, but I was willing to at least put up a fight. I was determined to live no matter what.

I was thinking these things when I saw something not so visible from the distance. It was getting bigger by each passing second and was accompanied by a scream- a very shrill scream. By the time I could see clearly, I saw a girl. it was a noble girl being chased by a blood beast. Somehow, she managed to outrun it, but it was catching up to her. Infact, she lost her footing and fell, and the beast was ready to devour her.

At first , I wanted to ignore the situation. I didn't give a damn about the nobles, they could all die for all I cared. Because I wasn't those guys who'd always play hero, especially in time like that. Plus, reality was different from fiction. In movies, so long as a damsel was in distress, no matter how powerful the foe or weaker the protagonist, SOMEHOW, the protagonist would defeat the foe and save the damsel.

But reality was a completely different story. If you tried playing hero hoping things will somehow work out, you're in for hard disappointment. Then again, if I was in the noble girl's position, the nobles would have ignored me. So I was indifferent. But then again, that girl in particular never gave us trouble, she just never bothered about us.

But that wasn't my reason. The real reason was that the beast behind her was dimension four, and this was my chance.

The blood beast had pounced on her about to devour her when suddenly, it felt something on its back. To my utmost shock, the monster just stood in it's place, unfazed. This was annoying because that was one of my best moves. From the way the monster was behaving, it was like an unimportant itch.

And that was even a surprise attack. Even though the attack did not hurt the beast at all, it made the beast realise my presence. It was a tiger.

It ignored the girl and jumped at me, with it's claws outstretched. I had to concentrate with every fiber in me, because a wrong move could be lethal.

The girl was quite relieved about the unexpected twist of events, but the shock was too much for her. She was stuck to her stupor, unable to move.

The monster looked at me and fear gripped me. It took every ounce of my strength to not collapse on the floor.

"How dare you human try to stand against me?", it roared.

I did my best not to flinch. From the way it spoke, it confirmed it's level- dimension four.

Since I already knew the might of the dimension four beasts, I decided not to slack.

"Wind break!", I said.

Suddenly, a beam of wind began to form around my fingers. Then it became completely gigantic and enormous. But I wasn't done. I began to shrink the giant ball of wind. It shrank and shrank until it was nothing but a small bubble. Then I released it. The moment it made contact with the tiger's skin, an oppressive beam shot out engulfing almost one-tenth of the forest. Everything around got caught in the attack. Even myself, I was pushed back.

I waited in anticipation. I wasn't dumb to think that attack was gonna kill the tiger beast. Yes, the attack did destroy the whole area. After all, that was my ultimate attack move. But, it wasn't enough to take down a dimension four beast. As I was, the smoke cleared and I saw the tiger lying on the floor.

The entire surrounding was destroyed, the ground was scattered and everywhere as far as I could see was in a mess. The tiger who was lying on the floor suddenly disappeared.

I began to wonder where the heck it was. That wasn't good for me because I don't like being the vulnerable one. Then I felt something weird. Per instincts, I jumped forward and narrowly missed a thrash from the tiger. The floor where I was immediately crumbled. This showed that the monster was really strong, and it's specialty was brute strength and speed.

Giving me no time to rest, it appeared before a breathless me and released a sharp blow which nearly hit my gut, had it not been my immediate reaction.

Nevertheless, I was still intensely injured. I fell on the floor, with blood gushing from the orifices of my body. And that was just one attack. I was dying from one attack.

I had already used my best move and knew it wouldn't work twice. Therefore, I decided to try things a little differently. The only problem was that, well I was out of ideas.

The tiger prepared another attack against me, and before I could act, I saw another punch coming speedily at me. I put a series of wind barriers. I kept jumping, trying to create some distance between us. I was also creating more wind barriers at the same time.

I put in lots of efforts, but the tiger destroyed them like it was nothing. I was trying to buy myself some time, but I couldn't. To make matters worse, my energy was rapidly dwindling. The girl had still not recovered, and I didn't expect much from her, either ways.

If I had known this, maybe I wouldn't have dived headfirst into the trouble I am in now. But then again, I had no choice. I fell on the floor, completely exhausted and worn out.

Just as the tiger almost pounced on me, I knew I was finished. I waited seconds and seconds for the pain to come, but it never came. I opened my eyes and received a shock....as a matter of fact, it was a pleasant surprise.