Zen eventually seperated from Zaria and was on his way back to his dorm when he suddenly noticed a strange absence of students in the halls. He understood that it was a weekend but there should still be...
"Come out" Zen said seemingly to the air.
Out of nowhere, Zen was suddenly surrounded by second year students who he recognized to be Keith's goons.
"Well it looks like someone's smart, doesn't it?" Said the second year that Zen had noticed Keith's scent on.
Zen took a cursory glance at each of them, checking their stats
"Sorry, I don't have any honey"
Zen said to the senior who had spoken as he attempted to walk away before things got ugly.
Another senior with a baseball bat in his hand, blocked his path
"Where do you think you're going, hotshot? The boss has big plans for you"
He suddenly swung the metal bat towards Zen's head.
"Night ni...."
Zen suddenly stopped the bat in mid-air with his palm while looking the senior dead in the eye.
Zen slowly released the bat as the group slowly started moving closer to him, and reducing his room to move.
Zen looked around, shrugged,and didn't bother trying to escape.
"Let's get this over with already"
***********
Maximilian looked at the large group of first years that had been gathered in the auditorium and was confused.
He asked multiple times if anyone knew what was going on, but apparently no one knew.
"Hey,Max!" He suddenly heard his name being called. Looking back,he saw it was Xavier and Neo who were walking towards him.
"What's going on? Why are we here?" Neo asked
Maximilian replied that he didn't know when he suddenly realized that Zen wasn't with them, and an eerie feeling crept up on him.
Maximilian voiced his concern to the others who tried to calm him down.
Neo guessed that Zen was just being regular introverted Zen and had ignored the summon entirely, and gone back to bed,or maybe had just found a secluded corner.
Maximilian felt like this was possible, but still felt like something was wrong about the whole situation. That feeling was only amplified when Keith came out from behind the curtain on stage.
"Now that everyone's here , let's begin"
The curtain behind him suddenly opened up, revealing a badly beaten up and bleeding Zen who was being restrained by ropes, and two transformation ability users holding him down.
The entire auditorium suddenly burst into murmurs as they realized that this gathering might in fact be one giant trap.
"SILENCE!" Keith yelled.
He slowly walked towards Zen and forcefully brought up his hand, showing his watch.
"I'm guessing you all already know what this is about... after all, this has become something of a tradition here. I honestly thought it might be unnecessary this time, but it seems some of you still need to be reminded. Isn't that right, Zen?"
"Suck a dick"
Zen said, keeping eye contact with Keith.
Keith smiled and even started laughing for a few seconds before he suddenly frowned and threw a punch at Zen's face, making him spit even more blood.
"It has come to my attention that some of the first years seem determined to mess with our way of life here, and I'm here to make sure that those people suffer,so unless you would like to join in his punishment,stay put and behave"
Keith seemed to already have a reputation as no one dared speak up to oppose him.
A look of madness appeared on his face as Keith suddenly pulled off one of Zen's gloves, revealing his bare hand.
Looking at his expression, Keith snarled when he noticed Zen still looked like he couldn't be bothered.
"Still won't come out,ay?
Somewhere in the crowd, Zaria was panicking. Keith had taken off the left glove which luckily didn't have the symbol, but who could say that he would stop? What if he planned on exposing Zen?
Meanwhile, Zen and Freya were already thinking of a way out.
"This is bad. I'm pretty sure Keith will only beat you up and break a few bones, but we can't be sure of anything when it comes to his minions"
Zen nodded. He was already planning his escape. He turned to face the senior to his right who had a bear transformation ability and a devious smile appeared on his face. Something about Zen smiling just didn't look right. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes still looked as cold and dead as usual.
"You really need to use your ability just to resist a no level junior like me? That's interesting"
Zen spoke in a strangely savvy voice
"Hmph, don't get ahead of yourself,kid. You really think you can mess with me with just that?"
Zen's smile disappeared as he looked away, seemingly giving up. That was the opening he needed. Of course he suspected that wouldn't be enough, he had already begun influencing the senior's mind with soul link. All he had to do now was wait.
From behind the stage, another one of Keith's minions came out with a large metal rod,or baton and walked towards Zen with a sadistic smile.
Meanwhile, Maximilian and Neo could already feel their grip slipping.
"Wait"
Maximilian whispered as he and Neo held down the hot-headed Xavier.
Xavier suddenly stopped struggling as he noticed Zen looking at him.
Zen stared at Xavier for a few seconds before gesturing towards one of the seniors with his eyes.
Xavier felt like he understood what he meant and calmed down a bit, waiting for some sort of opening.
The senior with the baton had already reached Zen, and after a brief charge, swung it directly at Zen's stomach with as much strength as he could muster.
Keith smiled as he spoke to the crowd
"Now. Who else would like to t..."
Zen suddenly noticed that the huge transfomed hand, holding his left arm was rapidly reverting back to normal, and realized that this was his chance.
At the last moment, Keith suddenly noticed what was happening
"Nooooo....!"
But it was too late
*CRACK!!!*
Before anyone could react, Zen had somehow freed himself and placed his hand on the seniors shoulder. What followed was a horrendous cracking sound that no one could mistake for anything other than bones shattering.
Not even a second later Zen grabbed the same hand and in one swift fluid motion, flipped the second year onto his back, denting the ground in the process
Barely a second had passed when Zen sent a downward kick with as much strength as he could, towards the second senior's knee,and....
*CRACK!!!*
"AAAAARRRGGGHH!!!!"
What followed the unmistakable sound of broken bones was a gruesome scream of pain as the senior fell to the ground.
All hell suddenly broke loose as some of the quick first years noticed an opportunity, and wanting nothing to do with this, started running to the exits to leave, before being blocked by the second years.
"Stop them all! And don't be afraid to break a few bones"
Keith commanded as the senior with the baton stretched his hand towards Zen who didn't make any efforts to dodge.
"DIE!!!!"
"..."
"...."
"..."
The senior started feeling silly as he stretched his hand towards Zen and nothing happened.
Before he could find out what was happening, he suddenly felt an overwhelming force strike the back of his head, knocking him out instantly.
As soon as he fell, Zen saw Xavier standing with his fist outstretched.
Like a bowstring under maximum tension, Xavier had immediately bolted into action the moment Zen had freed himself, and nullified the senior's ability.
"What's the next part of the plan?"
Xavier asked urgently as they would soon be under attack.
"Five seconds, that's all i need"
Xavier nodded. He understood what Zen meant. He wanted him nullify any of Zen's opponents abilities for five seconds.
Xavier looked at the seniors who they had to fight and prepared to fight. He might not be very good at using his ability, but he felt like he could at least take care of two ability users at once.
"Max is staying hidden in the crowd in case things go even more south, and Neo's gone to find help.
Zen nodded and immediately dashed towards the closest second year with Xavier running alongside him.
The senior quickly made a swiping motion with his hand, but panicked when he realized his ability didn't work.
Zen immediately took the opportunity and threw a punch straight for the chest, feeling all the ribs breaking against his fist.
Zen immediately moved on and didn't bother knocking him out, he could already tell that this one would need to be carried out of this place.
"Looks like I'll be leveling up today" Zen said before directing his attention to his next target.
Looking to his side, he noticed that Xavier had knocked out one himself, with just as much ease as Zen.
Meanwhile
Zaria looked at all the chaos and shook her head.
"Man.... I guess I should have expected this"
She suddenly sidestepped and dodged a water blade at the last second.
She cast a look at who cast it and sighed while cracking her knuckles and slowly walking towards them.
"Let's get this over with. I won't need to transform for this"
At another side of the room, Sable had unsheathed her sword was going with all she had at the second years, however after a while she started getting bored.
She suddenly caught a glimpse of, Zen fighting as well and got a bit upset.
"Man.... that's supposed to be me. I wonder if he'll fight me once this is all over"
Her opponent noticed her being distracted and decided to act on it.
"Just because you're a high level, don't think you can ignore your own fight "
Before they could even take another step forward, the tip of her katana made it's way to their neck.
"Boring"
She stated coldly as she stared at them with her.....red glowing eyes?
Zen looked at all the chaos and felt like it was time to take things up a notch.
He activated his storage ring and equipped his throwing star , immediately throwing it at someone at a fair distance.
An eighth sided die suddenly appeared in the corner of his vision, spinning and rolling before landing on the image of a fireball.
[Skill selected: flame strike]
While in mid-air, the star suddenly got engulfed in flames before slamming straight into an unsuspecting senior knocking them out instantly.
"Well this is new" Zen said a bit surprised.
"So that's what that thing does. I myself prefer getting in close and personal"
Xavier said before summoning a pair of rough edged metal gauntlets from his ring directly onto his fists, and immediately putting them to use by bashing in the skull of the closest person to him.
Zen focused on his weapon that was returning after striking, and reached out to catch it when he suddenly felt his back tingling.
He suddenly turned back and saw a sharp pointed object aimed at him. With less than a second to think,he could only do one thing.
[Soul blade]
Zen suddenly striked with his bare fist against the object which turned out to be a spearhead.
*Clank!*
The sound of metal crashing against metal rang out loudly,and even more surprisingly, Zen had managed to deflect the attack long enough to take a few steps back, getting away completely unharmed
"Fuck me" Freya cursed wryly, knowing what Zen had just done would have consequences.
Keith looked at the spearhead of his spear and noticed it had been chipped.
"Not bad" he muttered as he threw it away
"Let's see if you can hit harder than that"
At that moment, the doors to the auditorium burst open as Aurora leisurely walked in, followed by Neo.
"Hey,kid" She said to Neo.
"You may wanna take a few steps back..... you know what? Maybe just leave"
Neo nodded hurriedly and left the auditorium, waiting behind the doors.
Aurora looked at the chaos and chuckled slightly. They still hadn't noticed that she was here.
In a quick motion,from her ring,she suddenly pulled colossal blade that was around her size in both height and width.
With practiced ease, she raised the sword up high and slammed the back into the ground.