– The students from afar just saw the calm, neutral appearance of Angus as usual. Only Hudson knew how fearsome Angus was now.
***
After a period of training, the performance of all new students gradually became stable and started getting better - though very slowly. If on the first day, the swimming training ends at seven in the evening, now it ended at six-thirty.
With a little extra time, all freshmen felt a little more comfortable.
Some of them came to the library to read books ⬅ The typical good students.
Others liked to gather and play sports together ⬅ The typical muscular hyperactive ones.
Some fell asleep whenever they could ⬅ Did not know that they were really fatigued from the training or just lazy -_-
There were also some people who were so free and had nothing to do but came back to their old ways.
"Hi Cody... How's it going? Finished washing our socks?"
Neil was reading a book in the library. Hearing someone calling his roommate's name, he lifted his head from the book.
Those were the trio Hudson - Gilmar - Colley, from the Serene city of Highlands province, the neighbor of Talus province.
The breeding rate the Dragon races was quite low, the proportion of offspring surviving and successfully breaking eggshells was even worse. So it was really hard to find somewhere having three baby dragons born in the same year like Serene city.
In the situation where most of the freshmen were unfamiliar to each other, Hudson's grown-up-together trio became quite famous in the base. They went in a group, often arguing, snatching or collectively bullying some others.
Neil's roommate Cody were their recent bullied target.
Below-standard height, chubby body, slow moving, always belonged to the bottom group of the ranking, adding to all of those things was that Cody was a Heat - the race considered to be the weakest among all Fire races. What a suitable subject for bullying!
Facing the Hudson trio, the short fat Cody looked even shorter fatter. He stuttered: "Y... Yes."
"Ha ha! Why are you shaking like this? We're just talking a little bit... What a coward!" Colley laughed in scorn. "Oh yeah, I just remembered... you're in the same room with the blue-haired guy, right? What species is it?"
Cody's face turned pale: "Who, who blue-haired?"
Hudson said: "Angus. The First-ranked."
Speaking the fact, it had been two weeks since the first day that Angus steadily stood at the first rank of all categories, never fell to the second. Despite not speaking out, other freshmen all called Angus by the nickname "The First-ranked".
"The First-ranked" having good strength, great speed, pale hair color, and looking a bit silent ⬅ This was the impression of Base Five's freshmen about Angus.
Meanwhile, the daily ranking of Hudson trio ranging from seventh to ninth. Particularly Hudson had a few times rising to the fourth or fifth.
"I... I don't know." Cody answered hardly.
"You dumb..."
Colley's raising fist suddenly stopped by Hudson.
"Alright, maybe Angus has never talked to him either. Anyway, it's the library, control yourself."
Colley smirked at Cody, his face filled with scorn: "Yeah. Who wanna talk to such a dumb!"
Gilmar, who had been quiet all the time, suddenly patted Hudson's shoulder, then pointed to Neil who was sitting nearby.
Determining who the target was, all freshmen sitting in the same table with Neil quietly spread out.
Neil suddenly isolated by the crowd: "..."
Really want to swear!
Hudson's group ignored Cody, quickly approached Neil.
Colley asked indecently: "Coming from the same province with the blue-haired? What species is it?"
"I don't know." Being the child from a clan with three-generation served as logistic soldiers, the expression of Neil was especially calm.
It was a half true half fake answer.
Neil clearly knew Angus was a mixed-blood, but he didn't know Angus' parents. So he didn't know which races that Angus came from.
On the other hand, perhaps Neil was unaware, but the fact that a part of the righteous soldier blood flowing in his vessels did not want to cause trouble for others.
"Hah, are you kidding me? You both are in the same province!"
Neil firmly replied, "I'm in the city center, he's on the outskirts. We never talked."
The city center! Families living in the city center were not ordinary people that they could mess with. Therefore, the Hudson group skipped the idea of messing with Neil. However...
Colley raised an eyebrow: "The outskirts, Hudson?"
Hudson snickered: "Oh..."
Neil startled. What did he just slip?
Neil took a deep breath and asked, "What will you do?"
"Whatever we do has nothing to do with you. Mind your own business!"
Looking at Hudson's arrogant back leaving the library, Neil lowered his head. The book covered a part of his face, also covered his thought.
***
Angus was the first one to return the dorm after training as usual.
Lately he had got accustomed to the intensity of training, so now he could restart the meditation habit. He needed to return the dorm early to take a shower and then start meditating in his individual bedroom.
About the habit of reading books, instead of sitting reading in the library after training time, Angus borrowed books from the library and put them into a bag to carry along every day.
Being the first one to finish all categories, Angus always had to wait for the other thirty nine freshmen to come to the finish. He would spend that waiting time reading books.
By the time Angus finished the shower, Neil came back to the dorm.
Angus gave Neil a nod as greeting, then went to his room.
"Hey, Angus..."
Angus turned, facing Neil.
Neil hesitated for a moment: "You... Be careful with Hudson. Just now... they came to me to ask about you."
"... Ah." Angus nodded, asking Neil again: "Anything else?"
This time it was Neil's turn to be dumb.
Anything else? Hudson would come and mess with you! Was that not enough that you want anything else?
And - What was that attitude?
You were not worried? Or at least - Having any sense of urgency?
"You, do you need my help?" Nervously Neil asked .
Neil did not know why every time he faced Angus, he always felt a little nervous. After many times wondering, he reasoned that it was because he was the one wrongly causing trouble to Angus when they were children.
Though Angus seemed to remember nothing.
Angus smiled: "How you help? Gang up, find them, and pick a fight?"
Neil quickly explained: "I... No! I mean, I can go with you, if they come to you..."
"I also want to help."
Another voice interrupted Neil's words.
Iris suddenly appeared and walked over, not knowing how long he was there and how much he heard.
For a moment, the trio faced each other.
In fact, Neil and Iris' thoughts were very simple.
Both did not like the Hudson group, nor did they want to be in trouble with that trio. But there was nothing to guarantee that Hudson would not mess with them.
What happened to Neil this afternoon was an example.
He was going quite well with some students in this base, but when something happened, it was exactly like every man for himself.
Not to mention about Iris who was even more quiet than Angus.
After all, roommates were still more closed with each other than the others outside. Moreover, this roommate Angus... they did not know why but there was always some kind of temperament existing inside this blue-haired which made others feel safe and trustful.
Of course they would not go and pick a fight with the Hudson group, but at least, going together would make Hudson's group afraid and dare not fight.
Angus laughed. For the first time he felt that having some friends was also nice!
"Thank you two." Angus said, in a voice filled with joy. "Maybe I'll need some help from you in the future, but not now. This time... just let them come to me."
Angus did not notice that he unconsciously talked with the attitude of a superior, and neither Neil nor Iris felt uncomfortable.
***
It was nine thirty in the morning.
All freshman had just finished breakfast. They had thirty more minutes of free time before getting assembled at ten o'clock.
Not knowing that it was accidentally or intentionally, Angus recently felt that he met Neil and Iris more often. They were not so close, but not so far either, just always within his sight.
Was that because of the talk that day or it had been like that before but he did not notice?
Apart from standing close to him, they did not take any action, so Angus just let them be.
Angus finished washing his hands and put his bag on the shoulder, looking for a suitable place to read.
At this moment, there appeared a shadow jumping into him, and there seemed to be someone attacking from behind as well.
Angus quickly took a step to dodge away, at the same time seeing who attacked him.
It was Gilmar and Colley.
People all knew that the Fire races had great strength, Water races were flexible and resistant, and Lightning races got amazing speed.
Because Angus was always the first one to finish all categories, the Hudson group believed that Angus belonged to the Lightning races.
Well, most Lightning were fast, but they were weak at the same. What they needed to do was just trying to catch him at the first time, and then everything was done!
The Hudson group always divided the roles very clearly whenever bullying someone: the most muscular Gilmar, responsible for holding the subject, Colley was the one hit the subject, and Hudson – he stood nearby, watched, sneered, and pointed out the position on the subject that he wanted Colley to hit.
But this time...
To make sure that they could catch up with Angus' speed, Hudson changed the plan.
He asked Colley and Gilmar to rush catching Angus at the same time. And he, after Angus was caught, ha ha, he would give Angus some punches by himself.
However... Hudson only cared about Angus' speed records but forgot to consider the time he maintained that speed.
A person who was weak at physical, no matter how fast he could run, he would not be able to maintain that speed for a long time.
So, after a few misses in the air, Colley got a big punch into his stomach which made him immediately lie down, while Gilmar was thrown down to the ground.
All the freshmen at the scene were gaping.
Wh... what's going on?
Just some seconds that Hudson's pals all fell on the ground? How could he do it?
Hudson standing nearby was in a shock. Then his face suddenly twisted. He shouted to Colley and Gilmar, who were gradually getting up: "Get up! Go with me! Don't let him escape!"
Angus frowned. Wanna continue?
Angus glanced around and saw some rusted iron rods nearby on the ground, also saw Iris standing nearby. Without any word, he suddenly threw the bag on his shoulder towards Iris.
Did not need to know whether Iris could take the bag, Angus glided to reach the iron bars, lifted his foot kicking a rod up and quickly grabbed it.
Then... gave the each of the Hudson group some rods.
Angus hit without holding back. He hit straight to positions where would be most painful. During the time he was living in the Earth, because he was unable to use his power, Thanh Phong did teach him a lot of hand-to-hand fighting know-hows.
After five minutes, the Hudson group could not stand any more and shouted: "Stop! Please stop! We're wrong! We're not doing this any more..."
Angus stopped, looking at the Hudson, Colley, Gilmar trio each lying a place, painfully rolling.
He threw the iron rod to the place where he took it, then headed for Hudson who was still lying on the ground.
Everyone shuddered. Not knowing because of the sound of metal colliding with each other or because of the sound of Angus' footsteps.
Angus stood tall, looked at Hudson from above, his pale blue eyes looking straight at Hudson.
The students from afar just saw the calm, neutral appearance of Angus as usual. Only Hudson knew how fearsome Angus was.
The blue eyes were as pale as the blue sky, but now bringing a scorching feeling like fire from hell.
The deep inside Hudson's heart was covered with coldness.
Just when he thought he was done, Angus' voice came down from the top.
"Say sorry."
"I, I am sorry..." Hudson said hardly.
Angus said in a low voice: "If I were you, instead of doing these nonsense things every day, I would spend more time practicing to get better ranking."
He looked at a few freshmen standing nearby: "Take them to the infirmary." Then he coldly walked away.
But after taking a few steps, he suddenly turned his head: "Also, within today, come see Cody and take all your socks back. From now on, I don't want to see any of your socks in our room."
All freshmen at the scene swallowed the lump in their throat.
My God!
The First-ranked... So cool!!!
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