Rising Steps

Viktor's POV

The sun wasn't up yet. Not fully. The sky was bruised purple and orange, the kind of half-light that made everything look like it was holding its breath.

My breath came in slow, steady puffs, fogging in the cold. Jogging at this hour was something I picked up recently. Empty roads. No eyes.

Just me and the rhythm of my shoes against the pavement.

I rounded the east path near the gym, tucked between two long rows of hedges. That's when I heard it.

Laughter.

Not the good kind.

Four figures stepped out from the shadows, blocking the path ahead. Familiar faces.

Lucas wasn't with them this time, but the others were—the same ones who'd cornered me weeks ago. Steel fists, speedster, a girl with a golden ring, and the lizards.

"Is this the guy that mopped the floor with you?" the girl said with a mocking laugh. The golden ring hovering above her head shimmered like a halo. Ironic, really. If that was an angel, I was the Pope!

"As if, he couldn't lay a finger on me even if I had two hands behind my back," another responded

"Hey, Sprinkler," one of them said, smirking. "Running laps to impress your new savior?"

I stopped, wiping my forehead with the sleeve of my hoodie. "Just staying sharp."

Another one cracked his knuckles. "Where's your saviour? Call for him while you still can."

I didn't flinch. "Why should I waste his time, if it's just the five of you even I could take you."

That earned a sneer. "You spent some time with someone strong and you deluded yourself into thinking you're strong, huh?"

"I'm not strong, you're just weak" I shot back.

"You know? This is what I hate about you," the tall one said. "Always so arrogant, never knowing your place."

The girl with the halo scoffed. "Someone as useless as you, dreaming to enter Aegis."

I blinked. "What do my hopes and dreams have to do with you?"

"Even we couldn't make it into Aegis academy. And then we see you—a nobody, weak as hell, talking like you're gonna just walk in and belong? Nails that stick out need to get hammered in," she snapped.

"So this is projection," I said quietly.

The lizards laughed. "Say that again after we mop the ground with you."

I dropped into a stance. No words. No excuses.

Let them come.

They hit me like a wave.

The first one came in swinging—steel fists. I ducked under his punch and hit him in the ribs with a pressurised burst of water from the drinking pouch I kept strapped under my sleeve. He stumbled, coughing.

The next tried to blindside me, but I spun, grabbing moisture from the air and condensing it into a shield. It broke under her golden ring, but it deflected it giving me space to counter to counter.

The third shifted mid-air, turning his arms into razors. I slipped backward, barely dodging. My left leg screamed in protest.

I was outnumbered.

But I wasn't out yet.

I kept moving. Kept bending water from anything I could find—air, sweat, even a busted garden line nearby. I fought smart, clean.

But it wasn't enough.

A solid hit from the brute sent me flying into the hedge. My shoulder cracked against the stone lining. My vision blurred.

They closed in.

I pushed myself up one more time. One last surge. A final wall of water arched between us.

But I knew it. My tank was empty.

They broke through.

And everything went white.

I came to with a sore jaw and a bleeding lip. The sky had brightened. The chill was fading.

They were gone.

I sat up slowly, tasting copper.

But I wasn't angry. Not this time.

Because I had lasted longer. Because they hadn't scared me. Because I had fought.

I could feel it.

I was stronger now. Just by a little, but I could feel the effects.

And next time, they wouldn't get the same fight.

They'd get something better.