Chapter 48: Declaration For A-Rank [Slightly R18]
Tendrils of mana electrified the floor—washing over and through it in search of its victim.
No stranger to the sensation, Zack soared with all the strength he possessed, trying his best to escape the clutches of the force.
Barely, his feet outpaced three columns of energy, sectioned directly from the ground to claw for him. Quickly, he looked down, swiping his arm.
His own shockwave fought against the force, dispelling it in an instant with a great typhoon. "Damn, you’ve already gotten so proficient with it," he scoffed, looking directly at Logan.
Logan’s eyes were still, his heart calm. Something changed within him. "You will learn that my power doesn’t end with just this," he said, taking one large stomp in Zack’s direction.
Then, two beams came from his hands—racing to clash with Zack.
Zack—still airborne—raised his hands forth, skin glowing pink with vitality. With a nervous click of his tongue, he closed his eyes, then—
Thwoom!
Logan’s attack wasted no time combusting his defense. Veiled by the smoke formed by the clash, Zack was sent flying to the opposite barrier.
Like a gray streak shooting across the sky, he crashed into its translucent power. The barrier hummed, struggling to adjust to the force, but it held.
With a single stream of red dripping from his brow, Zack rubbed against the barrier for a slow descent. "To be able to learn mana projection so quickly," he coughed, eventually settling to the ground.
Then, he raised his hands. They were charred horribly, entire flays of skin rubbing off. He winced from the pain, then shook his head. "You’ve got to be cheating somehow," he said.
Logan didn’t care. No, something else took up his thoughts.
Sex...
He closed his eyes. There, he imagined Sabrina. The way her smooth, pale skin hugged every corner. The way her arms were so unnaturally lean. Even the way her waist dipped gave her shape some concavity.
Then, two well-rounded mounds came into view. The hot pink of her areolas, the perfectly round shape. The way her nipples stuck out aroused her at the sight of him.
"I’m going to kill you..." he muttered. Purple further bled into his mana, reacting to the incandescent sigil at his chest.
"You’re going to what? Oh, so you’re angry, is that what it is? Well, then, I welcome you to the challenge!" Zack proclaimed, arms straight in the air. Again, his mana surged, except it was more controlled.
No longer did it wave intensely in the air. Instead, it was like a balloon—expansive, yet shaped.
And yet, it felt far more dangerous than anything he’d done prior.
"Hey, Logan, do you want to know the real reason that I held back against you?"
Logan didn’t respond—his eyes too red with rage to care.
"It’s because I was going to use you as a means for my declaration, but I suppose I still can now." Zack looked up at the audience, hand gripped in front of him. "Hear me, Buford Academy! From this point forward, I declare myself as a contender for the sixth seat of A-rank! Watch as I use this ingrate as proof of my conviction!"
***
[What? He can’t be serious.]
[There’s no way, right? He must not know what that means.]
Elias teetered at the edge of his seat, brows knit into a framework of intrigue. "Oh, is that so? You’re more than welcome to try."
On the other hand, Selene faced Sabrina, tapping her arm. "Hey, why is everyone acting so surprised by what he said?"
Sabrina had also been caught off guard—quickly refocusing on Selene’s inquiry. "That’s a great question, Selene. Multiple things go into it. Firstly is the number of people who gun for the position of ’A-rank ’, you’d be setting yourself up for sabotage by leaving yourself open to such a dangerous group.
Second is the nature of A-rank itself. Right now, nobody in our year has entered its ranks since the very first year."
"Why?"
"To be honest, nobody really knows. Some get really close to obtaining the needed merit points for ascension, but then all of a sudden, they just vanish.
Some say it’s a spirit, others say that they get scared before the ascension. But for those who’re interlaced in the information network between students like myself, the truth is something else entirely.
One of the A-ranks—an individual who isn’t named—works in the background to preserve its prestige. They’ve been doing it since our first year, so nobody’s really bothered trying to attain the rank anymore."
Selene’s eyes fell upon the battle station, then herself. "You’re saying that such a person can control the school that much? That’s a little hard to believe, especially given my own experience with the Gift. Such absolute control is hard to come by. If they were really as proficient as you claimed, they’d already be in the Executioner ranks, not at a private school."
"A great point. I could never give you a proper answer, but what I say is the truth. I don’t know why they roam these halls, but the effects of his power show themselves in more ways than one."
"More ways than one?" Selene recited, raising her brow. Sabrina didn’t say anything, only looking down at the battlefield ahead.
Then, silence all throughout. Those who’d been chattering about Zack’s insanity quickly found themselves engrossed in three resounding spikes of power.
Randomly spotted in the B-rank section, there were three students, letting their mana cores thrum loose. As wispy pink erupted from their skin, the gravity of their mana caused some on the lower level to be choked of consciousness.
They were smiling. Something that Zack—and anyone else gunning for A-rank—would remember.
***
Pixel tugged at Logan’s hair, edging his ear. "Logan, this is bad news. His mana is condensed farther than you can defend, right now. You need to rethink your battle plan."
Logan didn’t listen, eyes alight with passionate images.
Again, he visualized Sabrina in all her naked glory. Something irked in his pants, climbing to the side.
’Sex... sex...! sex!’ his mind roared, falling victim to the flames of desire lighting his limbs to life.
"You..." he groaned, "I’m going to tear apart your esophagus, carve out your heart, then gut you until the only thing left is bone!"
"My, such aggressive words!" Zack jeered, crossing his arms. Then, his head fell—lips straightening. "Why don’t you come here and try it—"
Logan’s feet already lifted, flying like a beam of purple light to eradicate his foe.
Barely budging, Zack lifted one thing: just his index finger.
This time, mana didn’t gush free, nor did it even react. Instead, it lay close to his skin, tinting it with its pink.
Not interested in the specifics, Logan slammed his fist into Zack’s, crashing through the defense and sending him flying.
At least, that’s what he’d envisioned. Something else came to reality.
His knuckles sizzled against the mana, and then—without even coming into contact with Zack’s finger—it thrashed back, erupting like a volcano.
Logan could do nothing to stop it, hurtling back several dozen feet.