"Alright everyone, let's move on to the next round" Merlyn declared.
The 3rd match ended successfully but none of them seemed convinced by the match. Everybody had their own and different imagination about the match. Few of them said she could control everything like a telepath, some said she was a wind user, etc.
"It was gravity, you fools"
A voice came from the back, all the heads turned and saw a person sitting on the branch of a tree. It was Tyler Glenn, the gifted one. They call him so because he was truly gifted with immense power and the ability to control it, in a sense god's true creation.
"what are you saying?" asked one of his classmate.
"yea yea I know your puny little brains are unable to grasp the depths of maho (magic) so tie your mouths and open your ears wide. All the tricks you saw are purely gravitational magic" said Tyler.
"Fabulous..... but what made you reach to such conclusion" asked Merlyn.
"it's very simple, she flew in air with the help of zero gravity, same goes for the sudden stop in movement of the darts and the opposite was done on the opponent and when she released the darts above her she must have had increased the gravity by 10 fold or so." Tyler explained
"hahahah..... very clever, little boy" Merlyn commented
"heh, not a big deal for me... but there's still something that bothers me"
"and what's that?"
"the fact that the girl remained uninjured even after getting hit by 20x gravity wooden darts. How is that possible? No matter how you see, none of the both fighters had powers capable of doing that. "
"correct, little boy. The secret behind it lies in the barrier."
"it was made by that yellow orb like thing. I thought it was to prevent anyone from coming out or vice versa"
"you are greatly mistaken if you think so, the barrier acts like a bullet proof vest for the commando's, it absorbs all the damage taken by the contestants present inside it."
"if all the damage have been absorbed, then why did she faint"
"I said it absorbs the physical damage and the point is that much it only takes the damage not the effects of an attack. Even If someone hits you, you won't get any bruises or spill blood but the pain will be no lesser than fighting outside the barrier."
"ah, I see"
"I guess all doubts have been cleared, now let's move on to the ne…"
Tring... tring... tring.....tring
"my my, it's time to end the class" said Mariko sensei
"I'm sure you all must have learned a lot through these matches and I hope you will use them to develop your techniques and use it in your upcoming competitions" said Kagami as he prepared for the last roll call of the day.
Everyone gathered near Kagami and started answering to their own roll calls. Rin saw Mariko sensei at a distance talking with old man Merlyn. After answering his call, he immediately rushes toward her.
"Sensei, I need to talk to you, do you have some time" asked Rin.
"Sure"
"How are the things going on with Tess, is he still not awake"
"Yeah, he is still not awake, He needs some time to recuperate"
"Sensei, what about Ethan, I haven't seen him since then, Where is he?"
"Ah, I forgot to tell you, Nobody should meet him until Tess wakes up."
"But why?"
"He's not in the state to meet anyone, he is already feeling guilty cause' of Tess. So he had sent his message through me not to meet anyone until Tess wakes up."
"Sen.... Sens...sensei"
Before he could say anything more mariko left to monitor the class during their return.
"Ufff, why does she never let me complete my sentence"
"Everyone, disperse back to your dorm rooms" Kagami said in his usual deep stern voice.
Without further ado, the students started moving back to their dorm rooms.
************
Rin was taking a stroll alone outside the academic space where the students enjoyed their leisure time.
Rin walked along the paved footpath staring at the starry night sky where the stars twinkled and the moon shone brightly with a silver tinge announcing its marvellous presence.
Suddenly, his feet stopped as he noticed someone at a subtle distance. It stood mild like a stone looking to the night sky, facing his back toward Rin. The figure seemed like it was Ethan.
He walked rather fast to get a good glance at him but still unable to see his face in the dark.
The figure moved forward in a calm manner with his hands in his pocket. Rin quickened his steps and reached very close to that figure.
Soon they both stopped, the figure slowly turned his face towards Rin and what he saw was the thing he expected the least to see.
It was his elder brother, Roy.
Rin stood at his place, frozen like an ice cube staring at his brother with a blunt expression on his face.
Roy held his hands and started walking deeper into the woods while Rin followed his brother, still speechless trying to analyse what he had just seen.
After walking some distance Roy stopped in front of a pond, the moon and the stars shined brightly above the unusually calm surface of the pond.
Startled by the sudden appearance of his dead brother Rin was standing expressionless. Roy snapped his fingers and broke hiss trance.
"Who are .... I ... I mean ho...how are you, .... Why you..."
Rin stuttered with words when suddenly Roy came closer to him and without any warning pushed him inside the water.
Rin didn't even get time to react to anything, he was very shocked due to the unusual occurring but which was even more shocking was that he was at an unknown place covered with darkness.
He stood up struggling to see something, but nothing was visible, his surrounding was pitch black.
Slowly, his eyes adjusted to the darkness and the visibility increased but not much as there was no moon or stars to emit light.
He slowly started to walk very carefully. After walking some distance his stumbled upon a piece of rock and fell down.
He stood up again and started walking aimlessly when he heard a sound, a weird sound, it said
"Welcome, to the nether world"
He tried to look at the source of the incoming voice and he saw faintly that a tall monster like figure almost the size of a mammoth stood on a boulder.
"Who are you" Rin shouted.
"piss off ,you filthy little scum. I'll crush you like an ant" the monster like figure replied
The figure jumped off the boulder and started approaching toward Rin. The ground started to shake as if a dinosaur has marched on the ground.
Rin was finding it hard to stand straight when the tall figure shoot out a green light from two antenna's like things which emerged out from his head, the impact was so powerful that it blasted of the ground and blew everything to smithereens.