The power of the graduating class (Part 2)

As she began her own battle, battles of similar intensities were also taking place in this area of the artificial forest.

It wasn't in any way an exageration when they were called the most talented batch of students to ever graduate.

Every single one of them was able to take on a tier 2 at least with a very high chance of winning.

The strongest of them even had the ability to take on and beat weaker tier threes as Maria had so gladly decided to do.

Speaking of Maria...

*Boom

*Boom

*Bang

What was going on couldn't even be called a fight in anyway as it was literally a one-sided beatdown.

Six of the leopard's tails had been severed already as it tried and failed again to inject its venom into her.

It had already done so several times as parts of her skimpy clothing had some holes on them already, but the petrifying poison this particular type of vestige was known for didn't seem to have any effect on her at all.

Instead, it seemed to make her even angrier as her battlepower and attack speed kept on increasing after each hit.

This was a technique she had developed with the negative emotions of rage and anger. 

Knowing that intense anger or rage emotional energy had the effect of increasing battlepower and attack potency at the cost of clarity of mind, she did what any person with the ability to manipulate said energy would do.

She took the good effects and amplified it while dulling the negative effects, thereby giving herself a power boost with little effect on her psyche.

She would still be affected by the emotions but as long as she kept it under a certain point, she would be mostly fine.

Granted, due to her ability flaw she would have a very difficult time differentiating between friends and enemies which is why she most times preferred to work alone.

After a few more minutes of bullying the creature for her own amusement, she finally decapitated it's head fully, killing the thing and letting out a sigh of disappointment.

'Haaa, this one was too weak. I need something else to kill before I calm down again. Something strong. Maybe I could go and take on one of the stronger students and see if they can satiate my thirst.', she thought to herself with a bloodthirsty smile on her face.

Her eyes which were normally green would turn red whenever she was under the effect of any rage type of techniques.

The same was true about the black tattoos that appeared all over her body whenever she used her superpower as they would also change colour depending on the eotion they were manipulating.

Right now, her eyed were a very deep and ominous red and they seemed to get even more ominous as the time went by.

'I'm sure they won't notice if one of them dissapeared. I can very well blame it on the vestiges and no one-'

[Sister? What are you thinking about?], a partially annoyed and partially worried voice resounded in her mind, putting a stop to that dangerous train of thought.

Maria hadn't been more glad about the fact that these telepathic links couldn't read minds. Otherwise, her intrusive thoughts would have been known to all.

[...Nothing at all. Why do you ask?], She she replied in her mind after a bit of hesitation.

Although they were few, there were certain people who could snap her back to reality whenever she was in danger of losing herself. 

At the very top of that list was her twin sister, Alia.

Maria would never, no matter what, do something that would make her sister sad or angry.

[Okay then. Could you also start helping the other guys with dealing with the tier twos? All the tier threes will soon be taken care of by the others.] Alia replied after.

'Already? That's too bad. I guess I'll have to make due with the weaker ones.' Maria thought in her head while replying through the telepathic link, [Alright, I'm on my way now.]

She then took one last glance at the corpse and kicked it away with a disgruntled expression before walking away and mumbling , "Why did the one I fought have to be so weak."

At their temporary headquarters which was a platform on the branch of an exeptionally tall tree, eight students could be seen standing while cordinating all other students who were in the middle of battle or just staying here because there was not a strong enough vestige for them to fight with.

"Ughhh. This is so boring. Why aren't any of them strong enough for me to fight? I totally blame Maria. I'm sure she did that on purpose.", Arthur, who was one of the students there, said.

"Hey! don't blame my sister for this. Judging by her reaction earlier I'm pretty sure that she didn't mean for this to happen.".

Alia, who's eyes were closed and had her hands outstretched while her hair and clothes were billowing about, seemingly focused on another task, said in response to his accusation.

"And besides, don't talk about my sister behind her back. If you have anything to say to her say it to her face.", She continued with a small pout.

"And risk having my head blown off because of her temper tantrums? do you really want me dead that badly? And I thought we were friends.", Arthur replied back with an exaggerated sigh and a fake hurt expression on his face.

"Why are you so surprised. If you as a friend could even bet on the design of your friend's armor then why can't I give you potentially lethal advice, emphasis on the 'potentially'? ", she said with a sour tone, clearly still not over the whole betting thing.

"Hey, in my defense, he didn't really disagree towards my plans and I still planned on givng him part of the money!", Arthur replied back while raising his hands and trying to hide the twitch in his eyes.

For once since this conversation started Alia actually turned her head to face his direction with a rased eyebrow, seemingly asking 'really?' with her gaze.

Even though her eyes were closed, Arthur couldn't muster up the courage to look at her face, even finding himself sweating a litle.

The aftermath of his little stunt was still clearly fresh in his memory so he activated his cheat skill to get out of this situation.

Beg Alexander.

"Xander, you agree wih me right?", he said while using his eyes to send a super secret bro code.

[Come on man! Help me out of this please!]

[Sorry but your on your own on this one. I want no part of this situation.]

[Not even if I promise you to take from my secret stash?]

[...]

[As tempting as that sounds...]

[Wait, bro! Don't do this to meeee!!!]

(Note that this conversation was took place in two seconds purely based on eye contact)

"I have no comment on this matter.", Alexander replied to him with his classic bored face.

"Ahh. Bro, how could you betray me like this!", Arthur replied with his classic over exaggerated reactions. 

[You know I can hear you right?], a voice resounded in all their heads at that moment.

[Well..., shit]

[We will continue this conversation after the battle]. 

Turns out, Maria had heard all that he said.

[Well, it seems this might be the last you all will hear from me. Keep me in your prayers.], Arthur said in a voice that made people even visualise him staring off into empty space like he'd given up on life.

Every person who heard this little drama couldn't help but chuckle to themselves as they felt the pressure on them ease up.

This didn't go unnoticed by the person who could feel negative emotions the best as Maria felt the amount of negaitve energy she felt from the students start reducing.

'That fool.', she thought while smiling to herself. 

This effect was something neither she nor any person in their class could emulate.

Alexander could inspire awe in students and make them want to achieve more.

Maria herself could raise their battle spirits as well by manipulating their fear.

But nobody could raise the entire classes mood like Arthur could.

With his natural outgoing and approachable personality and his goofy character, he would never leave a room feeling down for a second before trying to raise the mood.

It was because of this that he was by far the most popular person in their school.

It was also because of this that Maria herself...

'Get those thought out of your head! I think the negative emotions have started to affect me more. I should really kill more vestiges to exhaust all this excess energy.', She said while trying to distract herself from this feeling she had.

She used this as an excuse to begin massacring all the vestiges she saw, becoming their literal worst nightmare.

It didn't take long for these sudents to finish the vestiges off, mostly thanks to Maria actively taking part in ending their existences.

"Damn, does she really want me dead that badly?", Arthur couldn't help but mutter to himself when he witnessed this, thinking that she really wanted to beat the life out of him while completely oblivious to the real reason why.