Forest[2]

Professor Thorn suddenly disappeared and reappeared in front of Orion and me, then grabbed him and choke-slammed him into the ground. I swiped at him with my sword, but he simply leaned back as if it were nothing and sent a quick but heavy thrust my way.

I raised my sword to block it, but the force still sent me reeling back a couple of feet. Kent cast a huge firebolt toward Thorn, but the next moment, Thorn wasn't there—Arina was. She was surprised and took the firebolt head-on. Orion and I tried to get another hit in, but the professor simply turned and fled with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Asshole," Arina groaned. She looked pretty hurt, but she seemed to be ignoring it well.

Kent ran to her, started apologizing, and tried to help her, but she slapped his hand away and said, "Don't touch me!"

She then abruptly stood up and started running in the direction the professor had gone.

I expected something like that to happen when Kent tried to help her. Arina's personality is complicated due to her heritage. She's mostly an outgoing, bubbly girl, but she is ice-cold toward men. This is only due to who her ancestor is; she is a descendant of Artemis—yes, the Artemis from mythology. In the novel, ancient gods from mythology exist, but they aren't gods; they are living, sentient mana constructs that have skills etched into their very being. Nobody knows who made them.

These 'gods' were only hailed as such because they were around before the Grand Awakening. If they were around today, they would be as strong as A-rank awakeners. The special thing about these beings is that their skills transfer to their children. The power weakened over generations until it didn't manifest anymore, but after the Grand Awakening, the descendants of these 'gods' started awakening those skills again and had a head start before everyone else.

Kent looked a little hurt and sighed, then moved toward Orion and said, "Let's go and follow them. I can feel many mana signatures coming here; it seems our classmates didn't miss our clash."

The three of us took off toward the direction Thorn and Arina went. While we were running—well, Orion and I were running while Kent was using some skill or spell to levitate—I spoke up with a grin, "I have a plan."

Edward was bored. Well, he was always bored, but this time he was bored inside a forest. He currently had his back against a tree, sitting down. He was simply waiting for this little activity to be over. It wasn't even a grade; why should he do it? It wasn't his fault his teacher was a battle-crazed maniac who wanted to fight the whole class on the first day. Edward was lost in thought when suddenly said battle-crazed maniac appeared in front of him with a frown on his face.

"What are you doing?" the professor asked as he looked down at the boy.

"Would you believe me if I said gathering mana?"

The professor wordlessly summoned his spear and swung it toward Edward, but his shadow morphed, and dark, shadowy tendrils came to block the spear. Edward stood up and grabbed his scythe from the shadow that expanded around him, his tendrils stretching out to grab the professor.

"Darkness? That's quite rare. Show me what you've got!"

Thorn simply sliced through the tendrils as if they were butter and moved toward Edward. He sent a barrage of thrusts and swipes, but Edward was reacting, even though he was clearly outmatched.

Edward was using his tendrils to block and his scythe to attack. He even tried headbutting Thorn, but the man simply leaned his head to the side, and it missed. Edward used a tendril to attack Thorn from behind, but the man parried it. However, he didn't notice the tendril that slowly approached his leg, which grabbed onto Thorn and set him off balance for a second. That was enough for Edward to land a solid slice on his arm. A ding sounded from his bracelet, but Edward didn't stop there; he spun into a roundhouse kick, which, while it didn't move Thorn at all, still counted as a hit for the bracelet.

[1# Edward Smith: 2 points]

[2# Kain Adams: 1 point]

[3# Orion Price: 1 point]

[4# Kent Windturner: 1 point]

"You're not bad at all for a first-year. Why did you want to just sit out when we're having so much fun?"

Edward replied, expressionless, "This isn't fun at all," and his tendrils rose, ready to attack or defend.

Thorn smiled creepily. "It seems I will have to teach you how fun battle is."

The battle maniac put his spear into a storage ring and summoned a pair of twin daggers, and his smile grew even larger.

"You want to what?!?!" Orion screamed.

"You heard me; I want to burn the whole forest down," I replied calmly.

"With us in it? Dude, you would kill the whole class with the smoke alone."

"I kind of see the logic behind it, as twisted as it may be," Kent spoke.

"No way you agree with this?!" Orion looked at us like he was talking to two madmen.

"Think about it. There's no way Thorn would let us actually do it. He would at least come to see what's happening. Kain's real plan is to ambush him, am I right?"

I forgot how smart Kent was in the novel; he wasn't a genius spellcaster for nothing. I didn't even have to explain my own plan. Out of nowhere, all of our bracelets dinged at once.

[20 minutes remaining]

"How many times can you cast Firebolt?" I asked Kent.

"Enough to start a fire big enough for our purposes and some more."

I smiled; this might actually work.