The moment Rakna finished speaking, everyone fell silent. The people who had stayed behind instead of leaving the school grounds were also shocked. It was known to all of them that since the day before, Herts had been gathering people to join his group and several of them had bought firearms from the System's shop.
"He's done for… who's that dude anyway?" One boy muttered whilst watching from one of the school building's windows.
"Rakna Xiorra," a voice answered him and the boy jumped in fright.
"B-boss! You know him?"
The one who had spoken was an eighteen-year-old looking guy with dirty blond hair and green eyes. He wore red and black clothes and his t-shirt exposed a large part of his upper chest which had the tattoo of a four-winged blazing bird on it.
"Never spoke to the guy," he shrugged. "But we kind of know each other."
"Um, h-how so?"
"He and I are roof-sleeping buddies."
'The heck's a roof-sleeping buddy?' The apparent subordinate sweatdropped. "Then… should we help him?"
"Why?" He retorted with an honestly confused tone.
"Y-yes, of course," the lackey replied nervously. "He's just a stranger after all. There's nothing to gain by saving him."
"Once again, what are you talking about?"
"Eh?"
"Anyway, let's join the rest. We'll leave now," the 'boss' said and turned around. "I wanted to deal with that teach personally but it seems like my job is cut out. Herts' a dumbass. He's taunting a beast too much for him to handle."
The subordinate was left utterly lost as he followed his leader. 'What does the boss mean by that?' He wondered.
Meanwhile, from another place near the school's wall, the black-haired woman Rakna had spotted earlier was also watching the altercation happening in the middle of the yard.
"You damn kid…" Herts fumed and before he could lash out at the brat who had insulted him, a student behind him suddenly pointed his rifle at Rakna.
"I'm done with this, teach. Let's just kill that guy and take Miss Flavia," he declared and grinned. "It's not like we need their consent, right?"
His grin was immediately shared by everyone else. Even Herts now sported a smirk, completely forgoing his polite attitude. He raised his hand and at least ten other rifles were pointed at Rakna.
"Now, kid, be smart and hand over Miss Jeina or I'll order to shoot."
Rakna's expression became even more vacant if it was possible. In a certain way, it almost looked like he was ready to sleep.
"Did you know?" He raised his voice. "The saliva of mosquitoes carries something alike to an anesthetic. That's why you don't feel anything when they sting you," he said something that perplexed everyone.
Herts frowned. "What does that have anything to do with the situation?"
"Well, can you imagine how deadly it would be if, let's say, a snake with camouflage abilities had that peculiar trait?"
Before the teacher could make head or tails of what he was saying, he heard several thuds behind him. His eyes widened to the maximum and he started sweating heavily. He didn't want to look back but he had to. From the corner of his eyes, he saw his lackeys lying on the ground with pulsing blue veins.
"Wha… huh?"
"Scary, isn't it?" Rakna commented. He had very quickly checked Pronos' status earlier and he found out the effect of the pill the little guy had bought.
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Anesthetic Secretion: Limited to creatures capable of injecting substances through an appendage. They become capable of producing anesthetic. The higher the level, the stronger the effect and the bigger the quantity.
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A creature with an already existent ability to make poison will be able to mix the two. The efficiency depends on the type of poison.
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Rakna started walking toward Herts and the latter tensed and urgently pulled out a handgun from his back. He was about to aim it when it was suddenly snatched away. He was then kicked so hard that he blacked out for a second. He fell on his knees and saw the legs of someone standing in front of him.
"I hate guns," Rakna said calmly and pulled the slide of the handgun, ejecting the bullet inside the chamber. "Do you know why?"
Herts looked up slowly and shivered when he saw the purple eyes staring at him with chilling indifference.
"They give an illusion of power to fools." Another bullet was ejected with a cling. "They kill too easily; both out of malice and goodness." Another. "They embody the biggest flaw of humans." Another. "Yet they still take pride in them." Another. "Worst of all, they allow trash like you to hurt others."
Rakna pulled the slide one last time and pointed it at the teacher's forehead. "And finally, they're annoyingly loud," he added impassively and pressed the trigger but what followed was just the mechanical sound of the hammer and nothing more.
Still, Herts fainted right away. Rakna blinked and pulled out the magazine before looking inside. "You're lucky. Seems like you've fired it a few times already," he remarked and threw the weapon away. "Good job, Pronos."
The little snake cried happily as he slithered up Rakna's shoulder again.
"That snake…" Flavia muttered then looked at the victims of the Eion poison. "Rakna, are they…?"
"Dead? No. At best, they're paralyzed. Pronos didn't inject a lethal dose. Though I am tempted to try and see if I can level up by killing fellow Hosts," he stated and looked at the many firearms on the ground. He waved his hand and all of them were sucked inside his spatial ring. 'Better this than to let them belong to someone else,' he thought.
He then looked at Flavia again to see her staring at him with a worried expression.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked and she lowered her head. Allan glanced at her and furtively hinted his friend who scowled before relenting.
"…stop with that face, Flavia. I'm not losing grasp of reality if that's what you're afraid of. And if it ever happens to cross your mind, this situation isn't your fault whatsoever," he said and she looked at him in the eyes.
"It's not like I'm going to start killing people on a whim," he continued and kicked the unconscious Herts. "Though this kind of guy definitely deserves it; he'll probably get what he deserves sooner or later," he said and Flavia slowly nodded.
Allan alternated between the two and sighed deeply. "All right, all right, stop being all gloomy. Well… except Rak. He's just like that."
Flavia cracked a smile and Rakna shook his head with a stoic face before pulling a cigarette and lighting it up. He closed Obsidian's Smoke with a snap and huffed a cloud of smoke.
"Let's move," the moment he said that, a scream spread throughout the entire area. Allan and Flavia looked toward the general direction of the source in surprise. It seemed to come from deep inside the forest.
In contract, Rakna appeared as if he hadn't heard the scream at all. He walked toward the dense and dark agglomerate of trees with his cigarette highlighting his position. Flavia and Allan looked at each other before following him as they started hearing gunshots.
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* * *
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After leaving the Tutorial Stage, the cybernetic clown stepped into a dark room only for it to suddenly light up. He then sat at a circular table, which had faded into existence right in front of his eyes, where several other people were waiting.
The odd thing about all of them was that their appearance wasn't clear and merely showed their silhouette covered in thick shadows.
"You're late, Gray," one of the individuals spoke up.
"Unfortunately, I was forced to wait for the last Host to arrive. I couldn't do anything about it," Gray's mouth displayed a flat line as he shrugged.
"Well, it's not that bad, is it? A lot of us are actually jealous, you know?" Another one said.
"Jealous?" Gray was puzzled. "How so?"
"Well, wasn't there an S+ Potential in the group you oversee? It's the first in a hundred years. The difference between a regular S and an S+ is more than big. How can we not be jealous?"
"…what?" He uttered dumbly. "I'm sorry, but I checked every single Host assigned to me and the highest I saw was S. What are you talking about?"
"The download logs showed it clearly though," a childish voice resounded, coming from a silhouette clearly belonging to a child.
"Then I am as confused as you are. I made sure to not miss any-!" Gray suddenly stopped talking as he remembered something. There was indeed one Host that he hadn't bothered to appraise. The same one that made him wait for hours. 'There's no way… right?'
"In any case," a booming voice echoed. This time it came from the figure that had been sitting at the very end of the table and it grabbed everyone's attention. "The Initiation is over and the results this year are very promising. I wanted to deliberate with you ladies and gentlemen… What will this time's trial be?"
"Why not just let them fight a boss like every other year?" A feminine voice asked.
"Come on, Lily, we need something new. We even have an S+ this time, let's make it interesting," a rough and casual voice retorted. The corresponding figure then snapped his fingers. "Ah! I know! Do you remember what they did thirty years ago? Why not try that out?"
One of the figures scowled. "Do you mean the Avian Trial?"
"Yeah, yeah, that one."
"Although the difficulty might reduce the numbers of admitted Hosts this year, their potential should be proportionally better as well. I don't see a problem with it," the one at the edge of the table spoke again. "All right. Do we all agree?" He asked and everyone nodded. "Then return to your groups and make the necessary preparations."
Following those words, the participants of this meeting immediately disappeared and Gray left to arrange the trial.