An ice shard swiped past his face, leaving behind a small cut that healed up immediately.
"First hit." Jesse smiled.
"Claw." He called out and his finger nails hardened, stretching out three times as long as they usually were. However, he sighed and ordered them to retract, clenching his fists afterwards.
"Come at me now."
"Who in the world are you?" The student who had watched his cut heal up and his fingers grow stepped back.
"It doesn't matter, get it over with!" The orange head who failed to notice these things due to the darkness yelled and step forward.
"I don't know." Jesse moved his right leg backward and leaped up, knocking out the first student in one punch.
His lips twitched as he watched the boy fall the the ground. Hopefully, he wasn't dead.
"What are you doing? Attack him all at once!"
Ice shards and wind blades fell onto Jesse as soon as the orange head gave an order.
The boys poured more attacks and only stopped when the orange head ordered.
With shallow breaths, they had their eyes fixated on where Jesse once stood, patiently waiting for the fog to clear out, however, when the fog had completely cleared out, there was no one on that spot; not even a body or a drop of blood.
"Dammit! Where is he?!"
"I-I don't know." One of the boys quivered. The forest that was once their domain now felt like a beast's den.
"Attack anything that moves." The orange head ran to the center, he grabbed Aland by the hair and yelled out, "Come out, or he dies!"
"Is he a senior?"
"I saw the number three on his wristband with another digit."
"L-like number thirty?"
"B-boss, should we just leave the boy and run away?"
"What? Run away from someone ranking below three hundred?"
"You know this is not an official duel, right? Nobody knows about it and it won't affect our rank in any way."
"Shut up!" The orange head snapped, "Jonah, go find that uncultured muppet!" He turned to the wind user, however, where he once stood was now empty.
"Ried!" He turned to the ice user and he also was nowhere to be found.
"No, no." Now finally getting wind of the situation he was in, the orange head let go of Aland and slowly backed away.
"Hello." Jesse appeared behind him, scaring the young boy out of his wits.
"Please, please, please." The orange head knelt, "I beg you, please let me go. I-I will give you anything you want, please."
Jesse squatted before him and glanced at the time, more than twenty minutes had gone by.
"What's your ability?" Cutting to the chase, Jesse asked.
"F-fire. I-I am from the Redhart family, fourth branch."
"What's the Redhart family?" Jesse furrowed his eyebrows, "No, forget it." He stood up and yanked the orange head up.
"You and your team got into a fight, okay?"
"What?"
"..."
"Y-yes. He used his ice ability on him, he used wind blades on him, the other guy used his mind ability on all of you, and then you burned him with your fire ability." Jesse explained with a calm smile, pointing behind the orange head.
"What?"
With a sigh, Jesse turned him to face the other side where three of the boys laid unconsciousness. One that Jesse had knocked out himself and the two others, one's body was riddled in ice shards and the other had gashes all over his body.
"H-how did this happen?" The orange head shuddered, slowly backing away.
Jesse caught him by the shoulder and pointed at the knocked out kid, "There, just a slight burn on his head and neck. The hospital would parch him up nicely."
"Would you let me go if I do it?"
"...sure."
A peculiar string of flame wrapped itself around the unconscious kid, slowly burning out and leaving in its wake, harsh burns.
Jesse breathed out. Maybe he had hoped that the orange head would refuse to harm his friend, but yet again, humans remained humans.
"H-how did you do that?" With wide eyes, Aland scampered away and hid behind a tree.
How did he do that? Silently taking the boys away to a darker part of the forest and letting them attack themselves in fear; that was all he did.
"Do what?" Jesse turned away from him and then back to the orange head, however, a string of fire engulfed him, wrapping around his neck and face.
"Get out of here, Aland!" Jesse yelled at the blonde kid before falling to his knees.
"Ah! I can't believe I wasted my time on someone like you." The orange head chuckled, slowly standing to his feet.
"I said get out of here!" Jesse yelled one last time and only closed his eyes when he heard the loud footsteps receding further away from his position.
[HP - 298/300]
The fire burned out and Jesse stood to his feet. His scalded neck and face healed up.
"Y-you don't come close." The orange head backed away and stumbled against a tree root.
"You promised to let me go!" He yelled.
"..."
Jesse caressed his healed neck, his stern eyes remained on the shuddering orange head.
"My family will not let you off if you harm me." As if coming to a comforting realization, his breathing stabilized and he leaned comfortably on the tree.
He could not see Jesse's face properly because of the darkness and the overwhelming fear that stole away his senses, but he was sure that Jesse could see him clearly.
"You mean the fourth branch?" Jesse squatted to his height again.
"You...!"
"I don't know a lot of things but I do know that the fourth branch of a family is quite the powerless bunch."
"T-they-"
Jesse raised his wrist off and smiled, "Who would believe that someone of my level did this?"
The orange head stared at the glowing figures on Jesse's wristband. He could only make out the first two figures due to his foggy sight.
"I know your fa-"
"Shh." Jesse jabbed him, causing the orange head to lose consciousness.
A smile adorned his lips as he stood up. The exhilarating feeling of dealing with this kind of people made Jesse happy.
He glanced at the time again, before staking the boys on top each other.
**
It was a long and tiring journey, however he reached the hospital building in no time.
"Hey, what are you doing out here? It's almost time for curfew!" A security personnel popped out of nowhere but stopped when he saw the wounded boys that Jesse was carrying on his shoulders.
"There's two more at the back."
"Oh." The security personnel nodded and ran to the others.
Jesse walked into the hospital with shallow breathing, feigning tiredness with wisps of fear and worry in his eyes.
"Oh my. How did this happen?" A woman in a white lab coat rushed towards him with a stretcher.
"A...fight." In between deep breaths, Jesse replied and placed the orange head on the stretcher.