Chapter 14: Damion vs Jacob
Few days ago,
"Have a... sniff... Have a great academy life, young master Damion," the butler's tears fell.
"Sob...sob, make sure to have a lot of friends, young master," the maids waved.
"Make sure no one bullies you," the mom said.
"If anyone makes you unhappy, you can call Dad." The father added.
Damion ignored the sobbing servant, bid a quick goodbye to his parents, who were spouting something and got in the private jet that flew straight to Erou's academy island.
The entrance ceremony was a boring speech made by the vice headmaster, and they spent hours listening to absolute mind-numbing nonsense.
They were going to live three years in the academy, and according to academy rules, they were to spend a period with a roommate.
Damion felt it was beneath him to have to share his dorm room with someone else, not even for a day.
His parents had already spoken with the headmaster of the academy, so he got his room from the start.
Walking through the academy halls, Damion smirked those low-lived glances at him, filled with recognition and reverence. Even that guy with black hair that stood out paled in comparison.
However, Damion could not keep smiling; everything changed overnight when a stuttering student came into the class with the same hard-to-come-by blond hair.
"Another blond hair! OMG, I'm in heaven," a girl said excitedly in a hushed whisper.
"He's still not even half as good-looking as young master Damion," someone said indignantly.
'That's right.' Overhearing the girls in the class chatter amongst themselves in suppressed, excited voices, Damion thought.
"OMG, kya, look at his eyes; they're golden; I've never seen golden eyes before."
"Oh my god, they shine like the sun."
'The sun doesn't shine brighter than my hair.' Damion smiled in ridicule.
"An Ah Ah... Young Master Damion smiled." The girl pointing at Damion blankly fainted shortly after.
"I don't want to be burned by the sun; I want to drown in the sea." All the girls' attention shifted back to Damion.
"He looks like a fairytale prince." A girl looked fascinated by him.
"Damion-Sama."
'That's right; look at me. Worship me.'
However, the very next day...
"But he's still handsome."
"I think so too."
"I mean, a stuttering boyfriend sounds cute."
"It's not like stuttering is uncurable."
"I wonder who's stronger..."
"What are you talking about? We are FDFC, the Forever Damion Fan Club, remember?"
"Yeah!" The girls cheered, although one of them seemed unenthusiastic, and most of them lacked passion in Damion's ears.
"1, 2, 3... RFCF... Ryan's Fan Club Forever." The girls cheered.
"Look what I got— a picture of Ryan-Sama."
"Where did you get that?"
"From Jacob. I told him I wanted it for group activities, and he gave it to me."
"Damn, how did he get a picture this fast?"
"He looks so cute; he looks so sleepy."
Damion felt his blood boil, gnashing his teeth. He growled inwardly, 'How dare a mere peasant try to steal his limelight? How dare a stutterer who can't even speak properly?'
'I need to make an example out of that guy.' Damion clenched his fist and thought, as he glanced at the departing Ryan, was he seriously losing to a useless disabled?
Damion came to the stage and said, "I want Ryan Cassier to be my opponent."
"I... refuse," Ryan responded and left the stage.
'Coward.' Damion sneered in his heart.
He thought that he at least had something special, but he only used body enhancement.
One of the most useless powers to have out there.
"I want Jacob Duncan to be my opponent." Damion's eyes shifted, and he said.
'If he couldn't humiliate Ryan on the stage and turn him into a laughingstock, he just had to do that to his friend, to make sure that anyone who became Ryan's friend would be met with the same fate.'
Damion thought inwardly.
Oblivious, Jacob stepped on the stage excitedly.
Professor Mia said, in absolute boredom, "Fight."
Damion launched an ice spear at Jacob; however, he dodged nimbly as he chanted, "Agility."
He started moving faster as he operated the mana flowing smoothly in his mana heart to increase his speed, "acceleration."
Damion launched multiple ice spears, encircling Jacob from all sides like an icy serpent.
"Heraclius strength!" Jacob shouted, giving both his right fist and left leg strength. He jumped up and punched the spears in front of his eyes, shattering them.
Bang!
The clash resonated through the air with a booming sound.
Then he accelerated his body, successfully dodging the ones behind him and appearing behind Damion in no time.
Jacob attempted a roundhouse kick, but his leg's strength was negligible, causing no damage.
Damion didn't flinch, grabbing his leg and smacking him to the floor. "How useless."
Thud-
"Argghh!" Jacob rolled onto the ground with an aching back, the cold beneath his body racing up his spine.
If he had been one second late in launching the spell of protection, his body would have been filled with holes as he saw the ice crush beneath his body.
Damion didn't stop. He raised his leg high up, and he brought it crashing down on the ground.
Boom!
Damion's hit left a crack in the ground.
Jacob dodged, gasping for breath. He rolled to his feet, his agility spell reactivated, and charged at him again.
Damion used body enhancement to punch him in the liver, sending shock waves through the air and delivering a huge blow as Jacob's body became immobilized.
Jacob still couldn't operate two spells at the same time. "Healing."
Struggling to breathe, Jacob pushed himself up from the ground in time to dodge Damion's activated ice spear.
"Fireball," Jacob responded on cue and raised his arm.
The fire and ice met in the air, yet the ice was overwhelmingly stronger and thicker.
Jacob arched his body backward, evading the ice that flew over him. He charged forward and said,
"Heraclius strength," attempting to kick Damion again in the gut.
Damion tapped on the ground, lightly freezing the floor, and Jacob slipped his body, crashing sideways.
Seeing the incoming attacking ice getting closer, Jacob's mind went blank, staring at it with wide-open eyes. Suddenly, the ice melted before it made contact with his raised arms, and everyone's eyes were on Ryan.
"He was... in... no... condition... to... respond... to that... attack." Ryan stuttered, his hand doused with sweat.
People finally realized that if Ryan hadn't stopped that attack, Jacob's life would have been in danger.
Their gaze shifted back to stare at Damion questioningly.
"I lost control." Damion uttered those words expressionlessly before leaving the stage.
Some people thought his explanation was valid.
Most of them came to the academy not knowing how to control their powers. However, most didn't like his attitude.
"Next." Mia wrote Jacob and Damion's performance in this fight as predictable, matching exactly with their profiles as an F+ ranker and a C ranker, though she estimated that Damion would soon break through as well.
Everyone's eyes turned toward the professor, who spoke just in time. 'Why didn't she stop the fight? It was her job to protect them in such a case.'
Mia just shrugged off the students' stares and yawned.
The reason she didn't stop the fight was simple: she didn't care enough. Even if someone died in her class, she would simply be fired at most, and that's what she wanted.
Jacob went down the stage, dejected. He wanted to cry, but his face felt weirdly warm.
Ryan approached Jacob and asked, "Why... are you crying?"
'Is crying a necessary point to advance the plot in such a setting?' He thought inwardly but said nothing as his gaze quietly brushed passed the dejected Jacob toward the disappearing Damion.
"I'm not." Jacob shook his head. He was grateful. If not for Ryan, he would have used his elemental magic, which would only invite trouble.
Tracy said disapprovingly, "Look at Ryan's burning hand; it's faint, but it's there. If not for him drying your tears with fire, everyone would have seen your ugly crying face."
Stunned but grateful, Jacob let out a small "thanks."
Tracy felt uncomfortable with Jacob's downcast attitude and sneered, "What are you sulking about? You should have known earlier that you would be at a disadvantage against ability users without using your elemental magic."
"With... only basic magic. Y-you... Di- did... good." Ryan said, spelling one word at a time, shaking his head at Tracy's foul mouth.
Jacob slapped both cheeks with his hand. 'Wake up! How are you going to defeat or save anyone if such a small loss can pull you down?'
'Damion isn't your average character. He's a C ranker after all; he must have used his ability [imitation] to imitate someone's body enhancements and Kevin's water control ability.'
Jacob scratched his hair, feeling a lot better after reminding himself that it would have been impossible to fight back if Damion was even half serious.
He should kiss his luck; Damion looked down on him too much.
"By the way, Ryan," Jacob asked in a voice only the two could hear, his shoulders tense, "the power you used just now..."
"Grandpa gave me... an ability.... card. to control... my. ability to not hurt anyone," Ryan said cluelessly.
"Ah, it's that so," Jacob nodded. There wasn't any detailed mention of Hiro's life in the academy in the novel, only that he couldn't use his power for some reason, causing him to be the constant target of bullying.
'He must have forced himself to help me,' firmly believing so, Jacob felt touched, and a smile crept up on his lips. 'As expected from my idol, he's the only good person in this world.'
Ryan stood to the side, uncaring of Jacob's thoughts. His whole body felt feverish due to the consumption of radiation, and he forced himself to stay standing, albeit barely.
After that, a few other students followed, and some of them became nervous after Damion and Jacob's fight and truly messed up, almost seriously injuring their opponents.
'I'm seriously considering running out of the academy." Mia felt pissed off and said, not masking her anger, "That's it for today; class is dismissed."
In the cafeteria...
"But that was cool! It was expected for Ryan to win, but the fact that you managed to hang on a bit against Damion was surprising." Eddie, who had somehow become part of the group, said so in admiration.
"Yes," Ryan nodded and asked, "But... who... are. you?"
Eddie scratched his head and said, "My name is Eddie. Your classmate, Haha."
Tracy took the opportunity and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Since Ryan beat the younger twin, Kevin, they will, for sure, let out their anger on me. They will not let this slide, so I decided to join you guys. An enemy of an enemy is my friend." Eddie was embarrassed but decided to tell the truth regardless and winked awkwardly.
Ryan and Jacob nodded in understanding.
Tracy sighed and stuffed her mouth with food, annoyed.
Eddies was another obstacle that had joined the table. She wanted to be alone with Ryan, but she couldn't push him away since he had decided to be honest and tell the truth. She couldn't be cruel, not in front of Ryan.
"But the amazing thing is how Ryan responded quickly and burned your ugly tears," Tracy said, deciding to let it out on Jacob instead.
"Shut up, you ugly shapeshifter! I bet you're ugly without that much makeup on." Jacob retorted.
"What did you just call me, you fucking nerd?" Tracy crushed the spoon in her hand.
"Why are you fighting?" Eddie said, glancing at the two.
"Ignore." Ryan ate in peace; he didn't feel like dealing with these elementary schoolers who fought on the same day they met, and whenever he got the chance, he was tired of them already, fighting even in the chat room they created.
Eddie continued eating while asking, "But what's your ability? Are you a fire person like me? Everybody there thought you used an enhancement-type ability."
"Um, my body is. naturally strong, and Kevin is weak." Ryan responded.
Eddie looked at Ryan with admiring eyes and said, "I wish I could be as strong as you, then I..."
Jacob interrupted and said, "You can't! My Ryan would be the strongest man on earth, and I would be the strongest mage that ever existed."
"Dream on, and when did my Ryan become yours?" Tracy interjected, looking at him with ridicule.
The group ate in a not-so-silent atmosphere and went back to class.
After all the classes had ended, Ryan separated from the group.
He turned around and went to his dorm.
'My body moved faster then I could think.' Ryan laid on the bed and stared at his hand, more specifically at the radiation moving in and out, thinking back to what happened with Jacob today.
Aware of both Damion and Mia's personality, it was out of the question Jacob would have left intact, he planned to jump on the stage of pull him out if anything, never thought he would resort to using a fire ability he made on the spot.
He had the thought of replicating Eddie's fire ability the moment he saw it, and had started acting on that desire the moment he saw Eddie drying Kevin's clothes, however, he didn't think he would be able to use it so skillfully and in such a delicate manner from his first try; not to mention that it was so sudden. A full scaled explosion would have made more sense.
It was as though his body acted on reflex- It was strange, it felt familiar yet at the same time a sort of familiarity that didn't belong to himself.
He shook his head, checking the time, he entered the bathroom, took a quick shower, put on his pajamas, rolled himself in a blanket, and closed his eyes. That was his strategy to avoid his roommate.
When Astin returned, he found that his roommate was already asleep.
Astin glanced at the hour clock, then back at his roommate, and turned off the lights.
*****
-Crash
In a luxuriously decorated dorm room with only one bed, Damion smashed everything on his table.
-Bang!
"How dare they? How dare they look at me questioningly? How dare he fight back? How dare he interrupt the fight? I'm going to..." he shouted, enraged.
-Knock! -Knock!
A knock was heard on the door as Kevin and his twin brother, Steve, entered.
Chapter 15: Hero Killer
Professor Mia's eyes had been twitching for quite a while now.
There was currently another set of students having friendly, unsupervised matches in the center of the training hall but her attention was completely fixed on the videos of her students fighting during the day replaying themselves on the large monitoring screen.
She sat in a higher position, her figure hidden behind the cold walls of the hall's monitoring area.
She had been observing them from the start of their battles till the end, and only a few stood out to her, but her heart was settled on two people as she studied their profiles.
Ryan Cassier and Astin Buer.
Ryan had appeared out of nowhere, and there was little to no information about him, making her intrigued.
She merely held a simple profile, but nothing hinted at the fact he should be holding an ability card with him for whatever reason, and she couldn't help but feel there was something in him— something more than what meets the eye.
On the other hand, there was Astin; he possessed an air of strength and casualness, and the way he handled the fight made her intrigued as well.
Not even once did his heart fluctuate.
Even as he almost pierced his opponent's head, even as he caused his opponent to shake up in fear, never once did his heart skip a beat.
"Could it be?" She mumbled, her eyes falling on his profile, and a distasteful expression emerged.
Astin Buer was an orphan with nothing to his name.
"How could that young man be him?" She snarled, but something in her couldn't shake off that idea, as the taste of that man's mana left her thirsting for more.
Her eyes begrudgingly looked down at his elemental magic, and an expectant smile appeared on her lips.
[Elemental magic: Darkness.]
And as for the person of interest, Astin was currently feeling like he was being avoided by his roommate.
"Why would he sleep this early?" He looked again at the hour, then at the snoozing guy, and thought him to be strange, as Astin felt he was being avoided.
He was 100% sure that his hunch was accurate, though he didn't know why he was being avoided.
However, he soon forgot about the matter, decided it was too boring to stay still, and vanished from the room.
—-
Professor Mia's black hair bounced springingly as she stomped her way through the halls of the academy.
She could fly if she wanted to, but that would be breaking one of the rules they have set up in the academy: Using powers was not allowed in the hallway except otherwise permitted to.
Of course, the professors were exempted from that rule.
But because of her stupid punishment, she wasn't allowed to; otherwise, the time period she would have to stay in this stupid academy would only increase.
It was nighttime, and just as she was about to use her power sneakily when no one was looking, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Eke."
She couldn't help but let out a shriek, causing the other student to take a step forward and stare at her in confusion.
She almost used her powers as soon as she saw the young man behind her, but as soon as she realized who it was, she forcefully tried to calm herself down.
"You're student Astin? Right? Astin Buer? What are you doing here?"
'What is he doing here, indeed?' Mia looked at her phone; it was after sunset, and even with some of the students still roaming around, no one would casually come to the professors' building.
She would have understood if he was roaming outside, but he was literally treating the office building as his home.
But since the student in front of her was a special case, the main suspect to being the young man from the other night, she did not really react violently.
"I came looking for you."
"Looking for… me? Did you need something from me?" Mia could not help but take in a gulp as her back was soon blocked by a wall.
Her demeanor softened greatly for an unknown reason she couldn't comprehend.
She tried her hardest to try and read the beating of Astin's heart but found that it was rather calm, dousing cold water on her expectation— 'Wait a minute? What expectations??.'
She didn't know what she was expecting, but nonetheless, she still felt disappointed.
'Is he the young man form last night or not?' She hadn't been able to brush aside that encounter from her mind, and her head was now spiraling out of control.
She wanted so badly to meet that man again; however, his voice and face were things she couldn't remember no matter how hard she tried.
"What are you looking for me for?" She pushed him back, and Astin obediently backed away.
"I'm quite bored, and since the last superhero I killed wasn't up to par, I was wondering how strong an Erou professor is, even though you're just an A ranker, but it would do." Astin calmly said as his hand gently touched Mia's neck.
Mia's eyes darkened, and she was about to push him away when she felt her body grow faint and her surroundings grow dark.
"Arrggh!"
Astin smiled as Mia looked at him with obsessed eyes.
When he was still running around as 'Hero Killer', he encountered a lot of superheroes cursing him.
Begging for forgiveness as he crushed their bones, crawling under his feet as he slowly ripped out their heads, cursing him as he gouged out their eyeballs, and as his mana impaled itself into their bodies, corroding their souls ever so slightly, none had ever encountered someone who even enjoyed the feeling of their soul being defiled.
It was one of the things that made their otherwise beautiful screams.
Astin then suddenly closed his eyes as the memories of the people he had killed resurfaced in his mind.
His breath felt like a breeze in the pure excitement.
He looked down at Mia's miserable body and decided to keep her alive; she would be a fun toy to make his otherwise boring life in the academy more exciting.
—-
"Ryan, are you okay? Did your roommate bully you?" Jacob scanned Ryan's body from head to toe for the nth time in the middle of the self-study classroom as Astin lazily raised an eyebrow.
He had finally understood why his roommate was avoiding him— that Jacob guy was implanting his head with weird thoughts about becoming everyone's target of bullying, leaving everyone inside the classroom at a loss for words.
"You should be careful; everyone here is super bad, especially that Tracy; she wants to break your head; I mean to break your heart, or probably both."
As if to confirm Astin's line of thought, Jacob spoke in a low but clear voice for anyone to hear.
"And beware of your roommate; don't let Astin bully you."