the final bout (2)

After getting the biggest level boost that they had ever gotten, and after getting this boost and getting two potions to help him get his energy back and double it, Harkel was ready to go back in, fight, and get rid of the one known as Xander. But Harkel could see a change. The three wolves all got bigger, and the energy around them changed even more. Just then, that told them everything—they were holding back until this moment.

"What the heck are they?" Nico said, coming down to her knees from the immense pressure that the three were giving out.

The others also fell, including the students behind them and the one's who were in the battle trying to help out the teachers. The only ones that were up were Harkel—thanks to him awakening to the second level —and some of the teachers, but not all of them could. Some of them were still only at the first awakening.

"Dang, even with the armor set, I still can't get up," Riven said out loud. But he looked at Harkel, who was rushing in toward Xander.

Riven then got an idea. He pulled up the system, bought several Awakening Potions, and started to drink them

Riven knew he didn't have that many system points left after buying all the armor, but he had to try something. When he brought the potions, he just drank them on the spot.

Harkel rushed in toward Xander and threw lightning at Xander, who—instead of dodging like he did before—this time held his hand out, grabbed it, and smashed it in his hand. But when he did that, Harkel was already in his face and threw out a heavy punch, knocking Xander down. But he quickly recovered, and while hitting the ground, he kicked Harkel into a tree. Harkel then caught himself and launched himself off the branch.

Xander then ducked under the blow and punched him up. This was Harkel's first time taking a direct blow from Xander, and he thought one thing:

"It hurts. Like, it really hurts." But Harkel caught himself and then looked down at Xander. He waited for his body to fall down so he could try to catch himself using air—but his body never did fall down.

"So, are you gonna stay up there, or are you gonna come down here and fight?" Xander questioned.

"Ah, hold on, give me a second," Harkel yelled back. "What the heck is going on? Why am I not falling? Is it a trait of the armor?" Harkel thought. But when he checked the armor abilities, it didn't show such a thing—meaning this must be a trait of his true awakening. But while he was up here, he decided to take a look at the armor's passive and active abilities to get a good look at it. He didn't use the system to turn the flight ability off.

Harkel then began to free fall. When he did, Xander looked to be ready for anything. Harkel held his hands below and started to rotate them. When he did, a cyclone surrounded Xander's body and started to lift him up. Then lightning started to be seen crackling around, then all coming to strike Xander at the same time.

"Tempest Gale Cyclone!!!" Harkel yelled out.

As the cyclone seemed to disappear, Xander seemed to have scars on his body—but they quickly healed away.

"Damn it. Looks like when it comes down to these guys, I need to perform a quick blow. But then the other thing—am I ready to kill? I mean, sure it looks like a beast, sounds like a beast, and even acts like one…"

"But the fact it can talk in general shows that he has a soul." Harkel was conflicted by this revelation—at least that was until he looked behind Xander. Both Ashley and Milo were showing what looked to be no mercy, killing teachers and students alike—even the ones who couldn't defend themselves. This told Harkel all he needed to know. They have souls—but ones of vengeance—and would kill anyone who got in their way. He knew all this thanks to Riven telling everybody what happened to the wolves with the telepathic link.

"I feel bad for you, yes, but that gives you no excuse to kill others to accomplish your goal. Maybe if you would've just worked with us instead of killing us, we all could've convinced the Academy to go against the Broken Veil or the Ascension group," Harkel yelled to Xander. He then charged up his sword with lightning, ran up to Xander, and sliced him in the neck.

Xander lifted up his guard like the first time—but something was different. Harkel's sword was cutting through his arm and through his neck, cutting his head off. Harkel then looked at the black-eyed werewolf with not a look of victory, but one of somberness.

"What did the Broken Veil do to you? How did they do this to you?" These are the questions Harkel asked. But before he could say—

"Harkel, look out!" a boy yelled in his head—it was Jordan.

Harkel then turned around and saw the yellow-eyed wolf in his face, and he delivered a blow to Harkel's face, making his body fly toward one of the many trees. When he did, he couldn't move—the blow was heavy and hit a vital spot.

"Xander, you joked around too much. Maybe if you just took the boy a little bit more seriously, you wouldn't have died," Milo said, picking up Xander's body and doing something that nobody expected him to do—he started eating Xander's body. With the crunching sounds and how gross the scene looked, everyone looked away from what Milo was doing.

"See, something we learned while being in this place—we're the more we eat, the stronger we become," Milo said with a smile as he was walking up to Harkel. But before he did, he made sure Ashley was alright. When he did, it looked like she was in a stalemate with the other students and teachers, but some of them were already dead. So he thought she could handle herself. He then made his way to Harkel.

"I am now stronger than Xander—meaning, even if you had your full strength, you couldn't win against me. So your only use is just to be a meal and help me grow my strength," Milo said all this with a smile.

He then opened his mouth, ready to bite down on Harkel. But before he could, Harkel shot a blast of air into Milo's mouth, making him become a little dazed. When he looked where Harkel was at, he could see that the blue-haired boy was gone. He looked around but still didn't see him. He then looked up—where he saw Harkel. And he also saw something in the boy's hand—a lightning bolt. But instead of being yellow in color, it was now blue. Then Harkel, with the lightning bolt in hand, threw it down at Milo.

Milo was able to dodge it, but a boy with a greatsword and a brown-haired boy who looked similar to the black-haired boy with a sword—both were in the same set of armor—then slashed at Milo.

A few minutes earlier—

"We need to help Harkel," Leo said, now being worried.

"He's right, but I can tell our attacks will do nothing toward him—more like just shove him off and then he'll still go to Harkel," Jordan said, agreeing with Leo.

"Not if you both did more damage than you usually can. You won't be able to instantly kill him, but we won't be a love tap either," Riven replied back.

He then was able to auto-equip Jordan with the same armor he originally had, along with Leo, that made them do 4x their damage—but with only one attack. Then, waiting for the perfect moment, Riven teleported the two. When he did that, he quickly started drinking more of the white potions.

Back in the present—

Both boys sliced their weapons at Milo. When they did, it went deep into his skin, even almost going past the bone—but it stopped at a certain point. Milo looked enraged. And before he could do anything, Jordan, Leo, and Harkel all disappeared in the blink of an eye. Milo was getting angrier by the second—the fact that all these people kept hurting him and he couldn't deal a blow back. Then he looked where the three ended up—where the main group was. Harkel then fell to his knees—the punch that Milo delivered was devastating. And even though he still had energy left, his body still felt tired.

When Milo was about to run up toward the three, he was stopped by gravity. He had felt gravity before during this battle, but this one's pull was much more powerful. He was even thrown back but was able to catch himself before he went any farther. He then looked around and saw a boy. The boy had a purple glow swirling around him with his hair standing up—just like Harkel's. It was Riven—and he had awoken.

Back with Team C, they were still on their way to the portal.

"This is taking forever," the red-eyed wolf named Kael said

"I'm sorry, but the students can't keep up with us, and I don't want to lose them while we're running," Kelvin replied back. But truthfully, he didn't care what happened to the students. He just wanted to buy time for another team to come and they could try and gang up on the beast.

"Oh, that's the problem? Well, that's an easy fix." Kael then turned around and sliced out toward the air. When he did that, all of the students' bodies fell. They were all dead.

"Now we can go at full speed without anyone holding us back," Kael said with a wicked grin.