My attention was totally on the guy in front of me and I just glared, waiting for him to strike.

“You know, I feel bad to do this to you.” The guy started. “You’re just a newbie and here I am going to crush you. Ah! I really feel bad. What do you say you just give up? I mean that way you won’t get hurt and-” He went on ranting a little about how much it would better for me if I just happened to give up in front of all of these peoples. His slanted eyes looked a bit too condescending.

I knew this guy had a few screws loose, but maybe he had more screws loose than I thought. And did he seriously think I was going to give up now of all time?

“Yo, Selene, the barrier?” I kept my eyes on the slanted moron.

“It’s invisible.”

The barrier was already in place. Meaning I could rest easy.

“Hey. Hey. What is this talk about barriers? You can rest easy; I don’t plan on hurting you.” He was being awfully generous too.

He switched on his sword. A purple stream of light, long and thin, appeared through the sword’s hilt. This sword was expensive no doubt.

He swung the sword fast and pointed it at me. “I’ll make this quick.”

Unfortunately for him, this was what I was waiting for. “Gotcha.” I lifted my hands up and focused.

A second later the guy’s sword glowed fiercely in brighter indigo before exploding in a not so great a way. I made sure to hit it with enough radiation to ensure that it’d explode but also less enough that it won’t end up injuring the guy with any serious injuries.

A cloud of smoke covered all our surroundings for a second and I rushed in.

There were a lot of complicated things at play here but long story short; I made some of the plasma go crazy in his sword that made a lot of reactions possible and then boom!

“Wha-” it was a short explosion but enough to shock the guy. And it was also enough for me to get in his point-blank range.

Without a doubt I held both of my swords at his neck, barely touching. “You lose.”

“What just happened?” He looked at me sweat pouring. “How did you get here so fast? And my SWORD!!!?”

A lot had happened. “You became so conceited that you let your brain fool you into thinking I was powerless if I couldn’t blast you directly with gamma. Did you seriously think that was my only power? To set things on fire or to create cancer?” Of course, he had no way of knowing since I never showed off this power anywhere. And last night things didn’t work out with Eve, so people didn’t know.

“He won in less than a minute!” Selene screamed.

Thanks for the unwanted commentary.

We pretty much talked more than a minute so Selene was just spitting BS. I didn’t stop her though.

WOAH! Cheers erupted.

A little late, isn’t it?

“Winner, this guy,” The Dickville guy pointed at me. The cheers were still going on.

I could swear I saw Eve smirk and leave.

“Yo, Dick shouldn’t you at least memorize the names of the people you’re judging?”

The cheers came to an abrupt stop.

His eyes twitched. “You just won, so don’t get cocky.”

“What, your name isn’t dick?” I hid my animosity without letting a drop slip but I did pronounce his name in a very misleading way. Why? Cause he was being awfully condescending from the moment he looked at me. It was like he had a lot of hatred for me without actually having any.

“I’d appreciate if you called me Slak instead.” He really wanted to punish me and that was apparent on his red face. But he couldn’t because I actually hadn’t done anything wrong yet… technically.

“Then you can call me Jintel, Slak.” But I didn’t have much contempt for him anyway. And I was cool as long as he called me by my name.

He rolled his eyes. “Winner’s Jintel.” He glared at me for a moment and then just left. I guess I pissed him off more than necessary.

“Well done, Heli- I mean Jintel.” Selene came close and proceeded to attempt a hug.

Of course, I dodged her. “Don’t forget we needed to talk after this.”

She averted eye contact. “Sorry.” She was not sorry at all.

The crowd disappeared as quickly as they came. This school was weird; there was no doubt about it.

Most of the members of the club stayed behind.

“Care to explain?” I glared at the captain.

“Well, when Eve praised a guy out of nowhere, I kind of got a little interested and-“

“And you guys put on a show?” I couldn’t help but be a little blunt.

“The fight and everything else was totally real, I assure you. The only two people who didn’t know were you and Monty, so the fight wasn’t compromised.” The captain waved his hands around to make himself sound plausible. “Besides, I had loads of suggestions I tell you.” He was eyeballing some disguised teachers who were in the midst of leaving.

I guess the snort prince’s name was Monty. But this new revelation of everyone knowing apart from the two fighting, didn’t help ease my mind either.

“So how come you guys knew this would happen?” If Monty didn’t know, then that meant, all of this was a gamble.

“Well, Monty has issues.” The captain looked at the guy sniffing by the boundary.

Speaking of Monty, the guy was literally on the verge of tears. “It’s over…My life is over….” He took losing very seriously. “Oh, my sword…. my BExcalibur!” Apparently, he was weeping for his sword instead.

“Yeah, he sure does.” I agreed. I almost wanted to take back my pity.

“Anyway, welcome to the club. We’ll be holding a party for you newbies in the next week.” The captain was very proud and his smirk was the proof of that.

“After what you just pulled, I think I’ll have to reevaluate my decision of joining you guys.”

“Yeh-uyeah, I see.” I didn’t know what he saw but he was surely leaking a lot of sweat.

“Where’s the gori- I mean Selene?” I almost slipped.

Selene was nowhere to be found.

“I don’t think you’ll find her anytime soon.” He looked in the distance. “Sometimes-” He paused. “She just disappears.” He was being too dramatic about it.

But unfortunately, I wasn’t that dumb. “Anyway, now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve to go get my lunch.”

It was a little past five and I was starving. Maybe drinking just one can of juice for the whole day was a bad idea. A very bad idea.

Maybe I should consider investing a little more in food?

“Lunch?” He looked at me with pity. “You can always join us for lunch. Though it’d be more like dinner.” He chuckled.

“Yeah sure. As long as it’s free.” If something was free, I was all for it! No doubt.

“Man.” The captain smirked. “I don’t know what ticks you but, welcome.”

And so, though reluctantly, I ended up in the clubroom again.