Forest [3]

Edward swung his scythe down, imbuing it with mana and his attribute of darkness, only to miss and receive a cut to his side. He was then kicked and sent flying into a tree. He hadn't been able to land a single hit since his first two lucky strikes, and the battle maniac wouldn't just leave him be.

"You'll probably rank within the top 100 after the ranking tournament, but there's something that's bothering me. How did you get so strong while being so lazy?" Thorn thought aloud.

Edward did not answer and tried attacking again and again, using his scythe and tendrils to strike.

"It's not talent; I can tell that much," Thorn mused.

For the first time during what he would not call a fight, Edward's expression changed to one of anger. Suddenly, he moved quicker, the aura of the darkness attribute growing in power, but there was also a hint of something else.

Mr. Thorn's eyes narrowed as he felt something familiar, something he hadn't sensed in so long. The last time he felt something like this was during—

WHAM-!

A massive stone fist crashed into the teacher's side, catching him off guard and sending him flying. It was a golem and not too far away a white-haired girl with blue eyes stood there, smiling. She took a glance at the holograph projecting from her bracelet.

[5# Emilla Whiteheart: 1 point]

Thorn prepared to take on the two versus one until an arrow flew at him. He moved his head to dodge, but it still left a blue line on his cheek.

[6# Arina Stirnweaver: 1 point]

Arina had arrived too. Thorn knew he couldn't take on so many stronger students at once with only E-rank capabilities, but who cares about that right now? These kids were going to give him a good battle. He was getting ready to fight until he saw something in the distance—something reddish-orange. Was that a fire?

******

Mr. Thorn walked right into the circle of flames, unbothered. He looked slightly annoyed as he made eye contact with me. He surveyed the area and spoke.

"Clever plan, drawing me here with the fire. I almost believed I should be worried for a second. You made me lose out on a fight that was entertaining me."

"I mean, you seem to run more than fight, so don't blame me for not believing that," I replied, trying to sound cool.

Thorn smiled as he readied himself. "You can tell your friends to come out, and just so you know, for trying to burn down the forest, I'm going to fight at D-rank now."

I'm cooked, aren't I?

Thorn waved his hand, and the flames burning around us died out suddenly. He disappeared and reappeared in front of me, but instead of using the daggers in his hands, he grabbed me and used me as a human shield against the incoming tri-elemental bolt coming my way.

Wind, fire, and earth slammed into me at once, and damn, did it hurt. I almost dropped my sword from the pain. Mr. Thorn didn't give me any time to rest and threw me into Orion.

We recovered, but when we turned to where Thorn was, he was gone. We didn't need to ask the obvious question when we felt the ground rumbling slightly and tracked it to Kent, who was trying to fend off Thorn using earth spells.

A spike rose out of the ground behind Thorn, trying to stab him, but he simply jumped out of the way and stepped on it, launching himself toward Kent and breaking the earth spike in the process. Kent quickly put up a blue barrier, but it shattered the moment Thorn connected with his daggers. He was going to knock Kent out until the blue-haired boy dropped his staff and put his hands up in surrender.

"What are you doing?" Thorn asked, looking irritated.

Kent smiled and said, "This!"

A massive firebolt shot from his hands into the air, acting as a huge signal for our classmates.

Thorn looked even angrier now, most likely more at himself for falling for such a dumb trick. He was ready to attack again, but Orion and I were there to help. Ten weapons flew out of my subspace and toward Thorn.

The teacher parried them, but they twisted back to attack again. While this was happening, I closed in on him and used the only move from the Musashi sword art I could currently execute: "First Movement: Division." No, I didn't need to say the move out loud, but it was cool, wasn't it? I used all my sonar to power my body and even activated the physical enhancement spell.

Thorn raised his daggers to block, but when our blades connected, the daggers sliced clean through. A blue line appeared down his chest. He looked at me in shock, then grabbed my head and slammed me into the ground, and everything went black.

Thorn continued to deflect more flying weapons, but his mind was drifting. 'How did that cheeky bastard do that?' The last time Kain used that attack, he hadn't been able to block it, and he was using E-rank combat power. The shocking thing was that Kain had blocked it and was using an amount of mana a low D-ranker would produce.

He pondered the possibilities as he blitzed toward Orion, summoning his spear again and engaging him. Orion called a sword back to his hand and attempted to fend off the battle maniac.

Although Orion was strong with the power of his skills, he did not focus on actual combat without them and was severely lacking compared to most in that aspect. Normally, it wouldn't matter because Orion would overwhelm them with his blades, but this was an opponent who could fend off his strikes.

An occasional spell was thrown by Kent, but Thorn was wary of him and didn't let a spell touch him. This wasn't enough to help Orion, who was already down after five moves.

Thorn was going to attack Kent, but then he felt one mana signature? Two? Four? Eight? The number increased to over thirty. The rest of the class was here and ready to fight.

[10 minutes remaining]

The first student from the influx to attack was a green-haired boy with a spear. If Thorn remembered correctly, his name was something like Sam. Sam immediately tried to stab the teacher, but the older man ducked to the side and retaliated with a spear slap to the face.

"Damn!" the plant head yelped

Thorn surveyed the area and saw almost his entire class surrounding him, trapping him in a circle. Thorn smiled, radiating his aura, and spoke, "Let's see how badly you guys want that prize."