Crash!
As the thundering echoes of the glass shattering reaches the lengths between the hotel and the children, they halt to a stop as their attention is placed elsewhere.
Freefalling through the air, I utilize the force from my jump to change orientation, beginning to spin as I diagonally shift on my axis.
Stretching my soul out towards my legs, I make a large thud as cracks spread out through the concrete, centered at my two feet as I make a solid landing.
'Nice!' I tell myself, feeling no effect from the several-story jump. This world is perfect.
"What..."
"Who are you?"
"How did you do that?"
The children all mutter to themselves at my sudden appearance, dumbfounded by both my acrobatics and my durability.
"What do you think you're doing! You're hurting him!" I exclaim, fury burning all that makes me rational, instead causing me to begin to channel a bit of my soul energy, rousing the concrete around me as bits of it begin to peel off.
"Beat it runt, we were only joking around!"
"Yeah, do you take us for bullies!"
Anger boiling even more, I stomp my foot as I completely shatter the ground, bits the size of centimeter-long pebbles flying off omni-directionally.
"Does it look like he's taking it as a joke!" I said, pointing at the boy who'd been looking at me, tears welling in his face as he suddenly recoiled from the sudden shift in attention.
"Hh..." he whispered, his words reaching nobody.
"Speak up!" one of the boys mused.
Even more enraged, I shot out a small pellet of soul energy. Nowhere near enough to injure him, but he'd definitely be hurting for days.
Flicking him in the head, he fell back as he held his forehead, groans escaping his breath.
"Ouch..." He said, gritting his teeth as he forced himself off the ground.
The boys all looked at him as they saw blood trickle down, almost flowing in a gush as it started a downpour.
"What, This kid's a monster! Get out of here!" One of them bellowed as they carried the kid I'd hit with my soul.
As they began to run, I looked down to see the kid getting bullied.
"You're strong..." he said in a whisper, shy in his attitude.
I hadn't even meant to injure him. Maybe I should restrict myself when meeting with kids my age.
"Yeah, well, strength is irrelevant when you decide not to resist those who bully you."
"irreven?"
Noting his confusion, I restructure my words, remembering that it's a kid I'm talking to.
"If you don't fight back, you'll always stay weak. Give those kids a taste of their own medicine!"
Seeing him look down in response to my words, I see that what I'm saying isn't being received well. Maybe they're used to this treatment?
"Hey, why do they bully you?" I question, curious as to why little kids would find fun in bullying another.
"You didn't notice?" He asked, musing my words as he seemed genuinely baffled as to my lack of knowledge on whatever it was they were talking about.
"No, enlighten me." I respond back, a smile forming on my face as he slowly came out of his shell.
"I'm an elf... you humans don't treat us well."
Scrutinizing these words, I check his features. He has silver hair, a different shade than me but still resemblant, with sharp facial structure. With an almost pointed chin, he had noticeably soft lips along with ears that almost pointed off endlessly. His attire was nothing short of cheap, ragged and dark, shielding its original color amidst all the mud splattered across its original tapestry of colors.
"Hm, so you say..."
"You didn't know, did you?" He aroused rhetorically, shock evident in his expression.
I'm rather sheltered, so of course I wouldn't know about elves. But from what I've seen, they certainly have a more charming, effeminate aesthetic than us humans. It almost makes me jealous.
"Well, from what I've seen, you do possess latent combat talent."
Searching their body through enhanced vision, I searched their menagerie of soul circuits to figure out just how capable he was. One thing I'd noticed was that in the case of the children beforehand and the great number of civilians walking by, they all had no soul flow whatsoever, even considering their constricted soul circuits. But in the case of this kid, not only was their great velocity in the flow of their soul, but they'd been blessed with an abundance of soul energy to match, struggling to contain itself as it moved throughout his body. Comparing his own to mine, I'd say I'm a fair bit more well-endowed when it comes to amount alone, but the speed at which their soul flowed was almost incalculable, barely visible to the naked eye had I not been improving my cognitive speed as well.
Although unsure of what this would imply in a combative scenario, I knew that it was surely an advantage more than a disadvantage.
"Really? How can you tell?" He asked, exciting burrowing through his suppressed feelings as he further came out of his shell, removing all semblance of shyness as he began to raise his fists to his chest, fingers pointed inward as he did a little up-down motion with his hands.
"That's a secret!" I playfully remarked, sticking my tongue out.
Just as fast as he came out of shell, he returned to his normal shyness as his face turned red all over, returning to an awkward position on the ground.
"That's mean. Why hide things..."
"Well, if you really want to learn about these things, how about you read a book?"
"A book...?"
"Yeah, one of those big blocks of pages with words written inside them. They're called books."
"Are you kidding? No normal person can get their hands on one of those!"
Taken aback by his words, I deconstructed the situation, gaining meaning from his words. Although, apparently, my family is really high up on the social ladder, we only had 3 books, so perhaps they really are just expensive.
"What do you mean?" I asked, searching for an explanation.
"There's only a limited amount of them in the world. Getting your hands on one of those is the equivalent to purchasing 10 cities... or so I heard."
WHAT!
My parents had three of those! They are so stacked, yet we lived out in the woods? Now I'm really mad.
Putting aside my feelings, I reconsider my stance on the topic. Perhaps, with my help, this kid could become independent and not be liable to future bullying. Imagine what could become of such an innocent, young man if left to the brutality of this bright blue ball we call 'earth'!
Invigorated by my newfound passion to help this kid, I raise my fist into the air, teeth clattering as I try to be as cool as possible.
"Hey, if you really want to become like me, how about you become my underling!" I yell out, my roar echoing throughout the entire city.
Onlookers turned towards us to find the commotion, then disconnected their prying eyes after giving a little smirk.
Hey, what's so funny!
"Your... underling?"
"Yeah, my student. You'll, of course, learn everything I know, whilst simultaneously serve me whenever I need you to do something."
"Well, if I can do what you do, then sure, I'll do anything..."
"Great, then it's decided! Come back here tomorrow sundown, and our first mission will begin!"
With a responsive nod, I motion for him to leave, walking back towards the hotel where I'd broken the window.
Looking up, I see my parents eyeing me from above, fury evident in their eyes.
"Nash Azrael, you're in big trouble!" My mother yells out, motioning me to come back up there.
"Well, I'll see you later then..." I state as I turn back, staring as I forgot that I'd never been provided a name.
"Tali. See you later... Nash, hehe."