So basically, we are surrounded by martial arts experts (or martial artists, call it what you want), and they want to beat the hell out of me for angering their leader. Just wow. I guess I can't graduate from this school without having this kind of shitty cliché happen to me.
Then I said, "Um, please can we talk this out? I don't want to fight." I said that even though I knew it wouldn't work, but I still hoped they would stop. I looked at Kage; he was picking his ear, then looked at me and said, "Sorry, you said something?"
Uh, what did I expect? They are barbarians whose brains are only wired for fighting. Then Kage said, "What are you guys waiting for? Beat him until he begs for forgiveness!", It seems they don't know about my powers, basically saying they were not in the arena, and if they knew, according to Cosmo, they wouldn't try to mess with me, which means Cosmo doesn't want my powers to be known till a certain time, so I have to fight them without my powers, this is very annoying.
The martial arts experts (MAE) started sprinting toward me. I had to be careful to block the hits and protect the face-mask girl. One tried to kick my head, but I caught his leg. Another tried to hit me with a punch when I wasn't looking down, and I quickly caught his hand.
Then the others started surrounding me. Suddenly, all of them flew away as I used the two people I had caught as weapons, hitting the others with them. It seems I have gotten significantly stronger than before due to Cosmo's amateur training, and it appears the MAE can't beat me.
Although I am not sure about Kage. Damn, I am so furious. I still can't forget that day when Sir Cosmo told me to carry a boulder on my head, one on my leg, and then he sat on my back, drinking tea and reading a pile of books. I was so angry, but I can't express my anger, or I'm done for.
And now these bastards just come and add fuel to the fire. I will release my anger using you guys as beating bags!
Through the chaos, someone managed to breach my defenses—it was Kage. He turned and delivered a roundhouse kick to my stomach, causing me to release my grip on the MAE guys I was holding. They fell to the ground, and other MAEs quickly came to carry them away. Were they ninjas?
Kage then jumped on top of me and leaped into the air, transforming into a large boulder. As he fell towards me, I raised my hands to hold him back. The weight was pushing me down, but it paled in comparison to what I had experienced with Cosmo after I came back from the mission. Summoning my strength, I threw the boulder aside, and it morphed back into Kage, who landed safely on the ground.
He scratched his neck and said, "I guess I was arrogant. It seems I underestimated you too much." I replied, "Thank God you know. Now can we go?"
Instead of responding, he took a martial arts stance and declared, "You have proven yourself. I will get serious from now on." I sighed, realizing this dude was misinterpreting my words as he pleased. What a moron.
Turning to the face-mask girl, I told her to hide. She looked at me for a moment and said, "Be careful." I smirked and replied, "Don't worry; I'll be okay, probably." She then found a safe spot in the room to hide.
Facing my opponent again, I began to strategize when he suddenly moved at high speed and delivered a powerful punch. I managed to block it, but he followed up with a flurry of punches. Activating my P.E. skill, HARD SKIN, I caught his hands and retaliated with a serious headbutt which made him to be unbalanced. I then launched a series of punches to his stomach, confident that HARD SKIN would give me the upper hand—both offensively and defensively.
If that is true, why are my hands bleeding. I was hitting something harder than metal. Why was I the one injured?
I then looked at Kage, who smirked and said, "That was a good attack—hitting me with a skin as hard as rock. But what can it do against metal?" Confused, I replied, "Huh?" My eyes zeroed in on the gap in his karate clothing, revealing a stomach made entirely of metal. Damn, I thought he could only transform his entire body; I had no idea he could morph specific body parts, and his transformation time was incredibly fast.
With a sly grin, he declared, "It is shooting time." I watched in horror as his right hand morphed into a pistol. He began firing at me, and I managed to dodge some bullets, but a few grazed my skin, leaving painful reminders of his power. In a panic, I spotted a pile of boxes nearby and dove behind them, panting heavily as I tried to gather my thoughts.
I needed a strategy to defeat this guy, I thought while using my clothes to rub the blood out of my hands, shoot I have no healing abilities, this freaking hurts. Using my powers to kick his ass would have been ideal, but the nagging feeling that I shouldn't use them held me back. I had to rely on my wits instead, but I didn't consider myself particularly clever. Time was running out—I figured I had only a few seconds left before Kage would come for me.
Summarizing everything I'd observed, I deduced that his transformation cooldown was roughly five seconds. I needed to act quickly, and as I scanned my surroundings, I noticed a pile of bag of cement. What the hell was cement doing in a school? No time to question it—I had to make use of it.
I just thought of the perfect plan. If I could distract him, I might be able to catch him off guard during his transformation cooldown. I steeled myself for what was to come. Kage was powerful, but I had something he didn't—resourcefulness. If I could just execute my plan perfectly, I might stand a chance against this transformer.
As I smirked, I suddenly heard a loud BANG, and something whizzed past my face. I turned to my side and saw a hole in the place where my head has just been. My heart raced as Kage's voice came from behind the boxes: "I hope you're not dead."
"You are a freaking maniac! You almost killed me!" I shot back, trying to catch my breath.
"Oh, don't worry," he replied nonchalantly, "the bullets are made of rubber."
I couldn't believe it. Were they really that strong? , even if, how did that hurt me, it is rubber, and also I'm pretty sure my body could defend against it, is it Kage himself, did he use P.E energy on it, Damn, the power system is complex, Kage continued, "You can always give up and go to Master Wang to apologize, you know. But I know you're holding back. If you want to leave this place without serious injuries, you better use it."
As he spoke, I scanned my surroundings for anything useful. Then, I remembered—I had a pen in my pocket. I quickly pulled it out and threw it at him with all my strength. "Sorry, Mr. Pen, I will always remember you," I thought as it sailed through the air.
Kage focused on the pen, and in that split second, I seized the opportunity. I grabbed a bag of cement and hurled it at him. He shot at the pen first, but then, not realizing the next object was a bag of cement, he fired at the bag repeatedly. The bag burst open, and cement exploded into the air, transforming the space around us into a white, misty environment.
I knew I had to act fast. With two bags of cement still in my hands, I sprinted around Kage towards the switch for a large lighting setup. I positioned myself to be illuminated by the bright lights and flipped the switch on. Shadows danced around me, confusing Kage as he mistook them for my actual location.
He began shooting at the shadows, and I took advantage of the distraction. I tore open one of the bags of cement and poured it over myself, completely covering my body in a thick layer. I could feel it getting into my mouth—ugh! Then, I opened the second bag and released its contents, spreading cement everywhere to create a silky, misty landscape.
Finally, I offed the switch, and I laid down on the ground, praying to whatever deity might be listening that the cement wouldn't blind me.
Kage jumped high into the air, probably to see where I was hiding. Anticipating this, I stayed in a corner where he wouldn't see me, covered in cement and lying low in an area where the material had settled. When he fell back down, the only way he could find me would be to remove all the cement. His best option would be to use his transformation power to help in this situation.
Using my THIRD EYESIGHT, which allowed me to see through other people's eyes, I tapped into Kage's perspective. I focused on his hands, noticing that his right hand, which had morphed into a gun, transformed back into its normal form. I had only four seconds to act. I quickly deactivated THIRD EYESIGHT and activated GAMMA EYES, which enabled me to pick up gamma frequencies and see things that were otherwise invisible. The world around me glowed in shades of green and orange.
Then, I spotted a metal pipe nearby, likely discarded from the MAEs. I stretched out my hand and picked it up. Cosmo had told me that this skill was specific and had only been taught to the elementals, so I didn't have to worry about Kage using it against me.
Three seconds left. I quickly stood up and activated MUTE STEP, erasing all sounds I made as I moved toward him. Two seconds left. I sprinted as fast as I could, reaching behind him and jumping, metal pipe ready to swing. One second left. He turned around and saw me, but it was already too late.
"Time to sleep," I thought as I swung with all my force. But Kage smirked and said, "Got you." My swing was abruptly halted by something solid. Up close, I could see that my pipe had been stopped by his left arm, which had transformed into a large metal appendage.
He continued, "Blaze, you're clever for pulling this trick, but there's one thing you got wrong: my cooldown time isn't five seconds—it's four. I just like transforming one second later out of habit." Damn it, I had been tricked again.
"You were a good opponent, and you have overwhelming strength, but a weak weapon will always remain a weak weapon. This is game over." With that, he yanked the pipe from my grasp and tossed it aside before turning to attack me.
I realized I couldn't dodge since I was not on the ground. This was going to hurt—severely. I activated HARD SKIN just in time as he struck me squarely in the face with overwhelming force, smashing my head into the ground. The impact fractured the ground beneath me, and the wind pressure from his attack sent all the cement covering the area flying away, revealing my location.
Kage knelt down near my bashed-in face. Man, did this hurt. It felt like I had just been hit by a lot of training equipment all at once, all aimed at my face. Blood drizzled from the wound on my forehead to my nose, dripping onto the floor. It was taking a lot of energy not to black out. If it hadn't been for my HARD SKIN ability, I would have a fractured skull right now.
Kage looked at me and asked, "Do you want to know how I knew you were going to do this? It's obvious because you created a smokescreen."
"Wow, isn't it because you're a cheating maniac who tricked me twice? And a martial artist using a gun, just wonderful," I thought while glaring at him.
"Even with how bloodied your face is and how pathetic you look", Kage continued, "You still have a nice glare," he said, grinning. If I had any strength left in my arms, I would have loved to rip that smile off his face.
"But sorry, it's time to make you regret your actions," he said in a cold, stern voice. He stood up and walked away. As he did, five MAEs appeared out of nowhere. One of them asked, "Is it time?"
Kage nodded and replied, "Beat the hell out of him and show why people don't mess with the Crowned Blades Sect." He then walked away toward the entrance.
The MAEs looked my way and smiled as they approached me. I could already guess what was going to happen next. They were really going to beat me. I suppose in every school, there are bullies—especially in an abnormal school like this.
Shadows covered me, and I could hear their nasty snickering, which really annoyed me, but I couldn't move. I managed to look up, and they all seemed tall and imposing. Maybe I should just let them beat me up; they would eventually lose interest. I guess I would always be beaten by the bad guys. Wait, am I dumb or something? I'm sorry, Cosmo.
As Kage started to open one of the entrance doors, a body suddenly flew past him, crashing into the door and forcing it to slam shut again. The figure landed in front of him—a MAE he had sent to confront Blaze. The man was unconscious, his body marred with scars that suggested he had been burned. A faint scent of scorched flesh lingered in the air, and Kage noticed the singed fabric of the MAE's clothes, particularly on his stomach, as if he had been struck by fire.
Kage quickly turned back to the scene inside. The other four MAEs lay scattered around the room, all knocked out and badly beaten. In the center stood Blaze, blood dripping from his face, flames swirling around him like a crimson cloak. His ember eyes glowed fiercely, radiating power. In that moment, Kage was overcome with a profound sense of fear; he realized he angered a Flame Elemental.
"This is totally not my fault; they started it," I thought, but then I noticed Kage staring at me, his face a mixture of shock and disbelief. I continued, "Normally, I would have let them beat me up because I was scared of getting on their bad side. But now it's different. Do you know why? I have freaking powers! Why can't I use them to kick your ass? So, prepare yourself, Kage."
I waved my fingers at him and declared, "Time for Round 2!"