"Surprise!"
Taylor flashed a bright smile at the four exhausted and scared Knight Squires.
His clothes were still burning as he walked down the wooden stairway from the second floor. He was as calm as a lake and his smile seemed innocent.
However, the four Knight Squires involuntarily shuddered at the sight of Taylor's smile. The events of the last 30 seconds had been engraved on their mind and they would never forget them.
They swallowed their saliva nearly at the same time when they saw that Taylor manifested a tiny, fingertip-sized flame in his left palm.
The flames all around his body gushed toward the flame to nourish it. Taylor nodded his head in satisfaction a moment later before his expression turned serious once again.
He compressed the nourished flame in his hand and threw it toward the Knight Squires, whose stare followed the ball of fire that had the size of a ping pong ball. The brown-haired Knight Squire with the red Knight aura stepped forward instinctively. He wanted to block the fireball that didn't seem to be too dangerous.
But before the fireball touched anyone, it burst open and obstructed the sight of all four students. A large screen of fire emerged in front of the young Knight Squires.
Simultaneously, a loud creak echoed from the wooden stairs' direction and Taylor shot through the screen of fire just a moment later.
His at-ease expression had changed drastically to that of anger and wrath. It was finally time for him to take revenge on the students, who had bullied him and many others just because they awoke Knight Auras while others didn't.
It was not fair, but so was life. Taylor understood this clearly and he had held back more than enough, way too long for his taste.
Now, this would change and as if he wanted to make sure that everyone understood his point, he punched the brown-haired student in his abdomen with his left fist before he used the momentum he had accumulated to deliver an uppercut to the young man, whose upper-body arched forward in pain.
The red Knight aura of the student writhed as if it was in pain and it dispersed when the young student smashed into the ground. Blood smeared the ground and his teeth got loose at the mighty blow Taylor had delivered with ease.
However, Taylor was not yet done. He had just gotten his opportunity to pay back everything he had to endure for two good years. It couldn't end just like that.
The wooden floor creaked when Taylor utilized his brute physical strength to push toward his next target, the thin student with a green Knight aura.
He was the weakest out of his bullies but his way of bullying was among the worst. Even though he possessed a Knight aura, a type of energy that was usually used to temper the body and to enhance attacks of one's melee weapon, some Knight auras could be used diversly.
The thin student was able to create small wind blades, which he could release in a straight line. They were not necessarily strong and it was not an attack that would frighten a monster. But against humans, normies, who didn't awaken any kind of Ancient power, this type of attack was life-threatening!
Taylor had often been the target of these wind blades and the thin Knight Squire created them once again after he realized that he was Taylor's next target. His gaze turned away from his semi-conscious accomplice and he began to take Taylor seriously.
Taylor's demeanor had changed completely: It was obvious that he would end like his friend the moment he underestimated Taylor.
Three wind blades formed in front of the thin Knight Squire, who stepped back to increase the distance with Taylor. Taylor, meanwhile, just smiled as he made a big twist before he jumped to his right the moment he saw the paper-thin wind blades.
He could barely perceive them but that was enough to know what would happen. The think Knight Squire was not able to stabilize the wind blades properly. Thus, he would have to release them the second he created them.
Knowing this, Taylor evaded the wind blades easily. They pierced in the floor, where he had been standing and a little bit in front. If Taylor would have jumped forward, the wind blades would have pierced inside him, but that didn't happen.
Taylor ended up in front of the strongest Knight squires in the entire Redwood academy, the student with the Black Knight Aura.
He was said to have once fought a monster outside the city. Yet, when Taylor looked deep in his dark eyes, he could barely contain his laughter.
'He was bluffing all the time…' Taylor thought when he saw the quivering dark eyes of the Knight Squire.
All the students in the Redwood Academy were fooled by the Black Knight Aura which was said to be extremely powerful and a sign that the wielder was without fear and ruthless.
Taylor felt unbending anger surging up from the deepest parts of his conscience. He had been harassed in various other ways almost every day. When his bullies went too far, trying to beat him to a pulp, Taylor always evaded them and got away.
Often enough, in situations like those, he had asked himself if he should just start fighting back with all his might, but then he would have been the one punished by the authorities for assault, harassment, and possibly a few more things, and not the others.
Sometimes he didn't care about the possible punishment but the thought of his parents, who had wanted him to live a peaceful life held him back.
"You fucker!" Taylor cursed out, releasing all the emotions he had accumulated within him all the time. There was no need to hold back anymore because he was not a student of the academy anymore, and nobody would believe that a normie would have beaten up four Knight Squires during the attack of Demons, either way!
His right hand was shrouded in blazing flames all of a sudden as he punched out. The Black Knight aura of the 'strongest' student surged forward. It shrouded Taylor's fist and put on resistance against his attack.
However, in the end, it didn't block his attack fully and Taylor could land a clean hit on the Knight Squire's face.
Teeth were flung through the surroundings and the cracking noise of a broken nose could clearly be heard all around the small battlefield. The Knight Squire screamed out in pain but Taylor was not done.
His left hand lunged out for the Knight Squire's student uniform to prevent him from falling to the ground. Taylor pulled the Knight Squire closer to him with monstrous strength just to headbutt him with all his might.
After that, Taylor didn't care about that student anymore. Whether he was unconscious or not didn't matter.
Blood trickled down his forehead, sweat poured down his temples and his head felt heavy, but Taylor forced himself to go on.
'So exhausting…'
Manifesting flames out of nowhere was easy but it was also draining. At first, Taylor didn't really feel anything but after manifesting flames out of nowhere and controlling them, and the flames around, he started to feel worn out.
He may feel exhausted and as if he could sleep for an entire week, but Taylor was also sure that he changed in different ways as well.
'I got stronger, didn't I?' Taylor thought in satisfaction, licking his lips in anticipation as he looked at the two remaining Knight Squires.
"It won't take long, kids….come here to daddy!" He shouted out with a crazed smile on his face.
'Finally, this shit is over!'
[Author Note: Please comment how you like/dislike the novel! I accept every type of criticism]