It was my fault. If I hadn’t meddled in their relationship then this wouldn’t have happened. Merin would have forgotten his friend and things would have calmed down. But I knew the pain of letting a friend go and I didn’t want Merin to suffer the same. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was right. I didn’t know.

I didn’t know what was right or wrong but I knew one thing, and that was, I had to finish what I started.

“Outta the way!” I shoved past the crowd. I didn’t care if they got hurt. Who cared about these spectators?

“… tearing through your meat.” There was a shirtless guy in the middle of the crowd and he had a black saber. Not the best of combinations.

Merin was about to get skewered and I was late.

“Stop it!” A girl screamed and I was glad for it.

The scream bought me two precious seconds. Enough to get my saber out and block Blaze’s sword.

Merin was glad but he was hurt pretty badly. And to think all this happened because of me.

“You-” Blaze glared.

“Hi. How’s it going?” I took a pose with my saber. Monty was yet to arrive with that sword, so for the time being, I had to work with just a normal saber.

“Being beaten once wasn’t enough for you?” Blaze’s face was pretty black. He was angry, there was no doubt about it.

“Well, I’m kind of a sore loser.” I was just buying time. I knew I couldn’t beat him. Not while there was a crowd here like this.

He pointed his sword at me. “I don’t have time for you. He did something unforgivable.” Weirdly the guy was actually acting a lot saner than I thought. “And I’d advise you to stay out of it,” he hissed.

“Technically, I was the one who told him to get his friend, so this is my fault. Feel free to come at me.” I smiled and realized I just said something rather stupid. “Oops, wasn’t supposed to say that.”

“You basta*d!” He screamed rather loudly before running towards me in full swing. So much for being sane.

Merin was behind me and I couldn’t run to the sides. I had to take him seriously.

Now that I was calm and he was not so calm, I could see his movements clearly. Yes, he was fast, but not fast enough to disappear.

CLANG!

Our swords connected and I had to take a step back, barely touching Merin. This guy was strong and my saber was buzzing a bit too much. It was close to its limit.

Things weren’t looking that good.

“First I’ll get rid of you and then him. I’ll rip your arms out!” He was being awfully descriptive too.

“Yeah, no thanks.”

Another clang!

This was bad, this was very bad. The saber twinkled a little. One more clash and it was done for. More like I was done for.

Beads of sweat poured down my face as a vertical swing came my way. My saber died just when the two swords connected and my uniform got scratched: more like torn. I did bleed a little over my right shoulder but it wasn’t a matter of concern.

Blaze grinned hard. “Well, it was nice knowing you.”

“Catch!” Monty threw a sheathed sword straight at me.

I never knew I’d be this glad to see the snot prince’s face.

“What are you, an idiot? Who throws a literal sword?” I caught the sword and unsheathed it, blocking Blaze’s advance in the process. It was eve’s sword, the same traditional sword. And it worked like a charm, not even flinching a little when faced against a lightsaber. Something was definitely different about this sword than other traditional swords.

Blaze took a step back, checked me out again, and grinned. “What good is it to you if you don’t have her powers?”

The sword was good and I really liked the weight on it. I was used to these kinds of swords after all. I was more accustomed to double-edged swords though.

“Well,” I smirked. “Anyone who wants to keep their potency please get out of my fifty-meter radius, that includes you too Merin.” It might have sounded a little comical but I was serious.

I focused on the sword and it glowed in blue. I knew it. There was something mixed in with the iron. Maybe it was done this way so Eve could use her powers freely, but it also gave me leeway.

“Oh, man…” Merin crawled and a girl helped him: ‘I guess those two were really meant to be together.’

The crowd was definitely a lot further now too.

I guess they took me a bit too seriously. It was fine as long as they weren’t in my ten-meter radius but I sure wasn’t going to say anything to them.

Without a warning Blaze sped up and my body became heavy. It was just like yesterday. But one thing was different. I wasn’t furious this time.

“Too bad.” I grinned and blocked his saber from behind. Did this guy only have one pattern?

Sparks flew and I released a flurry of attacks. I really liked this sword.

He dodged and blocked. I guess he really wasn’t all talk. He attacked me quite hard too. My uniform suffered a little and I bled in three places but I could say the same about him. He wasn’t wearing anything so, he bled from his left shoulder and his wound might have been a bit deeper than mine: droplets of blood dripped through his abs to the ground.

But then again I had three and he had only one. Meaning, he was still in a better position.

‘Not for long.’

“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! I’LL KILL YOU!!” he was screaming a lot.

His speed increased a lot and my body got a lot heavier. It was harder and harder to track him. And just like that night, he disappeared right before my eyes.

‘Teleportation… no… this is something else.’

Unlike last time, I didn’t just look around. I focused on my surroundings instead. The crowd was at a faraway distance. So I fired out some particles. Alpha particles couldn’t really go through all that much. Meaning, I knew his location the moment the particles hit him.

Left, gotcha!

With the full force of my powers on the sword, I swung it with most of my strength. As expected, Blaze swung his, but he never expected my sword. The black aura of him was worrying but this sword should have held. And I had this nagging feeling that he was about to lose an arm.

Well, it wasn’t my problem.

“Enough!” And yet, just before the two swords connected we were stopped by a voice from above. But this time, both of us froze. I couldn’t move my body, even a little. It was like invisible strings were chaining me down.

‘Not this pattern again.’

I looked up and there she was, the girl with wings. She descended and glared straight at me. “Just this morning I warned you and now-“

“Unfortunately, he started it.” I didn’t look at her. I was pretty sure she knew whom I was talking about.

“Yes, I admit he is a troublemaker, but it doesn’t mean you, a freshman can do whatever.”

The strings loosened and I felt rage surge within.

“So, all I need is to advance to second year and I could do all the stuff he’s doing and get away free?” I pointed at Merin. “So you’re saying I can beat up my classmates like that without any consequences and if someone comes to their rescue and then that someone would be faulted instead of me?” I grinned sarcastically. “How cool.”

“You-” The girl really wanted to say something but glared at Blaze instead. “Fighting is prohibited. Detention for you.”

Blaze didn’t bother with the girl. “I demand a duel.” His eyes were on me.

“And I don’t have any reason to accept.” I really didn’t. I only came here today because this was my fault. But now that I saved Merin, I didn’t really want to get more involved in this.

“Then how about I wager her?” He was talking about the Natasha girl.

Frankly, we both were completely ignoring Rose at this point.

“I don’t have anything to bet, so I’ll pass.” Now I really wanted to get out of here.

“Oh, you don’t need anything.” He grinned. “I’ll just break your arms and legs. That’s enough for me.”

Was this guy serious? “I like my limbs so no thanks.” I chuckled and looked around. Everyone- even Merin and Natasha were looking at me with expectations.

‘Come on guys, it’s not like I’m a hero from a movie or something.’

I turned to leave. My business here was done. And I needed to leave before the Rose girl dragged me down to detention.

Blaze snorted. “No wonder your father left you. Who would want to stay in a house full of cowards?” he taunted.

I never really liked cheap taunts but his one, this one ticked me off. “Father? What do you mean?” I chuckled. “I have no father.” But more importantly, how did he know about the leaving part?

He chuckled too. “You don’t have to be so afraid, I’ll only break your arms.” His glare intensified. “And who knows you might even learn more about your father if you beat me.” He was acting more and more like typical video game villains.

“Well, my arms are kind of precious, so how about you release all the girls and never get near them without their permission?” I didn’t want to fight him. But the situation turned into something else. And as much as I hated to admit it, I did want to know why we were abandoned. It wasn’t anything as simple as revenge anymore. It was war.

His grin widened. “OF course.”

“Well, I guess you were making good use of my sword so I’ll forgive you this time, playboy.” Eve was right behind me, and with her came the captain and some other members of the club.

When the hell did they get here? Couldn’t they have helped me if they were already here?

“I got them back.” Amie panted. I guess she went searching for them.

“Oh, yeah, sorry about using this without your permission.” I gave her the sword back.

She just gave a luscious smile and winked. I did not want to get involved with her even in the slightest, and yet, I was still indebted to Eve. What an irony!

“Though there will be a duel.” Rose started. “Both of you will be in detention.”

“Unfortunately, he’ll be in a hospital.” Blaze laughed sarcastically and left. “I’ll leave the time and place to you, Captain.”

“That’ll act as a good advertisement for us I guess.” The captain scratched his head and he didn’t look that enthusiastic.

“I don’t know about him, but as I said, I didn’t start this, hence I won’t take detention. Feel free to complain to the headmaster.” I laughed sarcastically as well and just started walking.

I was acting all high and mighty but honestly, I was scared stiff. I’d heard so much about this school’s detention that I really didn’t want to be near the detention room, let alone in it. I walked straight like a badly oiled machine. I didn’t look at anyone and just walked.

‘Just smile and walk…’