Peter stared at me, his eyes wide with surprise. He was the only one who had noticed the quick recovery of my wrist, thanks to Taiho's little spectacle. Without wasting time, he pulled a bandage from his pocket and began wrapping it around my now-healed wrist. I had no idea why he was doing that, but I didn't protest.
Meanwhile, in the background, Viktor stood up, furious, his hair changing to a bright red hue, a harbinger of his flames. But before he could do anything, the girl who was always by his side intervened, placing herself between us.
"Enough, Viktor," she said, with a voice that mixed plea and command. Viktor, consumed by anger, took that as a challenge. "Are you giving me orders?" he thought, incredulous. But before he could continue his act, a cold blade touched his throat. At that moment, Peter froze, and I could see the fear in his eyes. "Wait… Don't tell me they're going to start killing each other just on the first day of school?" he murmured, more to himself than to any of us.
Watching from a distance, next to Peter, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Viktor, with the cold blade pressed against his throat, seemed to have lost all his usual arrogance. Say, with her blonde hair and blue streaks, stared at him with cold, piercing blue eyes.
"What happened? Where is that arrogance now?" Say challenged, clearly provoking. "Why did you stop releasing your superpower?"
Viktor, usually so full of himself, was visibly shaken. The murderous intent in Say was palpable, and even without saying a word, she conveyed a clear message: she was ready to kill. And that was enough to make Viktor hesitate.
Suddenly, the tension was cut by Jade's voice, commanding with authority: "Stop them." And as if they were shadows obeying her call, soldiers emerged from the ground, their swords pointed at the throats of Say, Neo, and Viktor. They were immobilized, with no time to process what was happening.
"If you don't line up, you will lose your heads," Jade declared, and at that moment, the reality of the situation became clear. We were all in danger, and any false step could be the last.
The tension in the air was palpable, and I could feel the weight of every student's gaze, all caught in the web of power and fear that was unfolding before us. It was the battle academy, a jungle where the rules were dictated by the strongest, and survival depended as much on cunning as on strength.
Peter, by my side, let out a sigh of relief when Jade began to take control of the situation. "Return to the lines," he ordered, with a voice that brooked no argument. "And know that what happened here will be communicated to the director."
Say, with the dagger still in her hand, slowly withdrew it from Viktor's throat, feeling the cold blade of the shadow soldiers on her own neck. "What the hell is this?" she murmured, her eyes sweeping over the soldiers who seemed to have emerged from nowhere. "They appeared out of thin air, without transmitting any presence. It's as if they weren't even here."
Viktor, with his hands raised in a sign of surrender, said clearly: "Okay, you won." And Neo, with an icy look at the blade pointed at his throat, recognized that he had been caught in a game he did not expect to lose. "Alright," he said, accepting defeat with his hands raised, while Jade's order echoed in our minds: line up or lose your heads. It was a grim reminder that, in this academy, the line between order and chaos was as thin as the blade of a dagger.
The shadow soldiers receded, and Jade's order reverberated down the corridor. "Line up," she said, with a calmness that contrasted with the previous chaos. The students, one by one, began to organize themselves into a line more orderly than before.
Neo scratched his head, clearly frustrated with the turn of events, while Say, with a click of her tongue, accepted the situation and joined the line. Viktor, followed by the girl with a frustrated expression who always accompanied him, also got in line. In a short time, everyone was aligned, leaving only me and Peter.
"Listen, kid," Peter began, keeping his voice low. "Your regeneration is something very rare. And it's not something that was described in the database. So, avoid getting hurt and showing that."
I nodded, understanding the gravity of what he was saying. "Professor," I whispered back, "do you know what my superpower is?" Curiosity was consuming me. Peter looked at me, confused, and then replied with a raised eyebrow.
"You don't have a superpower."
Those words echoed in my mind. Not having a superpower? Was that even possible here? I was surrounded by people with incredible abilities, and I...