Blyke got out of his dorm room, today was going to be a busy day. Arlo had given him an order. To shadow the two guys living in the dorm next to his. Each dorm in Wellston could fit two people, Blyke, and his friend Isen, were two lucky students who had gotten the privilege to have their own dorm with no other people. Right next door were the two new trouble-maker transfer students.
Blyke heard that one of them beat up Remi. It took Arlo an hour of explanation to give Blyke a reason not to go there himself to beat them up. He stopped and waited outside their dorm looking at his phone. Isen sent him a few messages about upcoming news. The school news club was writing an article on both of them, but Arlo was shooting them down.
The brothers got out of their dorm, or Vritra did anyway. He looked annoyed at something, with both hands in his pockets as he stomped away. Azazel stayed inside. His eyes darted sideways to meet Blyke's. He noticed him quickly. That was insane dynamic vision. Since Azazel was going to stay inside, Blyke went ahead and shadowed Vritra instead.
Vritra was so tall, Blyke wondered if he wasn't an adult disguised. He was also very muscular. Well, in Blyke's case that was actually a good thing. His ability was based on energy projection, and the bigger the target, the easier it would be to hit them. He looked at his knees and his shoulders, they stretched the uniform's cloth… he was so tall it reached beyond the dress-code limit. Blyke followed him several steps behind to not be noticed.
Vritra looked down at a low-tier. So here it began, he was going to beat him up, ask for homework. The common tactics of lower tiers. Blyke stopped and watched to see what happened next. Vritra stretched his hand.
"Despicable," Blyke whispered to himself, checking his phone. Had anyone else used their phone inside school, it would have been confiscated. Blyke wasn't just anyone, he was a Royal. He kept the corner of his eyes focused on Vritra.
The low tier produced a small tupper box. Well, calling it small would be incorrect, it was a regular tupperbox, but in Vritra's massive hands it looked tiny. Like how even lions look small when placed next to elephants. Blyke had to get a little closer to hear what they were saying. He made sure to be smooth, walking a few steps in front of him, leaning against the wall, then just staring at his phone.
"Roland, you absolute saint. You didn't have to clean it up, you know? Is anyone giving you trouble nowadays?" Vritra's other hand found its way on the Low-Tier's shoulder. A small smile found its way to his features..
Blyke kept his eyes narrowed, was he pretending to be nice? He couldn't imagine it, the other low-tiers were so open with him, it just didn't seem possible to be fake. No low-tiers acted this way toward him, when Blyke was involved they had a gaze of admiration, but he could always feel they were slightly frightened by him. Vritra seemed to just be adored, and there was a sense of jealousy that filled Blyke.
"Whatever," Blyke whispered to himself. Standing there felt uncomfortable. He adjusted his position, and that feeling of uncomfortableness, unease, didn't leave him.
"Hey! Are you looking through dating sites?" That obnoxious voice could only come from one person in the entire school. With orange hair and eyes, a smug expression coupled with an extremely punchable face. Isen, the school's resident news and gossip rat.
"What are you doing here? I thought Arlo told you to look into something." Isen wasn't even supposed to be here. Now that he was, he was going to blow his cover.
"There was nothing to look into." Isen shrugged and looked incredibly bored. Blyke grabbed him and pulled him, telling him to shush. He was being too loud, the last thing he needed was for Vritra to spot him while he was being tailed. "Oh, you're tailing Vritra. Why?"
"Arlo asked me to."
"He's telling the Jack of the school to tail some low-tier nobody?" Isen's eyebrows knit, "this is weird. Why is he so worried about them? I get that there's a rumor that Remi was beaten by the skinny and short one, but still."
"Short?" Compared to Vritra everyone was short… but could you call Azazel short? He was taller than both of them. Whatever the case, Blyke looked Vritra's way again. The entire scene had changed. Vritra now stood in front of another student, with the low tier, Roland behind him.
Green hair parted mid-way, and pale blue eyes, the picture of what a douchebag would look like stood in front of Vritra. He looked arrogant, as if he was beyond repercussions… well, if Arlo sent him to do this then he would get away with it scot free. What did Vritra even do to anger Arlot so much? Probably something pretty bad.
"Who is that guy?" Blyke whispered to the rat.
"Kalum, he's a level 2.8." The rat knew, because he always knows. "His ability is pretty underwhelming, but I guess it could be a little surprising. It shoots hand projectiles." The rat's knowledge was unmatched. "He should be in trouble here… but his friend beat Remi, and well… pretty much anything goes right now."
"Arlo sends his regards, dipshit." Kalum's confidence was unmatched. He would have to know that Azazel beat up Remi, and Abel… something people overlook. Vritra also beat Howard yesterday. Blyke just didn't know where all of this confidence came from.
"You can take that regard and shove it up Arlo's ass, after you take your head out of your own." Vritra growled, his eyes beginning to glow a sickly red, and the effects were quickly apparent. His size increased, and his build somehow became even bigger.
Blyke had been briefed on Vritra's ability; it made him get bigger and stronger over time. That's what Arlo reported. In other words, the longer he took to beat him, the stronger he would get, and the harder the fight would become.
"Take this asshole!" Kalum began the fight, putting both hands in front of him and shooting a pale blue translucent hand made of energy Vritra's way.
Vritra's eyes narrowed, his body lightly bulking up. Crossing his arms, Vritra prepared to tank the hit.
The hand struck Vritra and sent him back, crashing into the wall with enough force to crumble it behind him. Roland – the low tier –had barely enough time to jump out of the way before he got squished between the wall and Vritra.
"Here's another one!" He thrusted his arm and sent another Vritra's way. It hit him again, to Blyke it almost seemed like Vritra was letting himself get hit. The crumbled debris formed dust as Vritra's feet were dragged across the ground, kicking up dust hiding his full figure.
A low growl resonated through the hallway, two red orbs stared at Kalum through the smoke. Vritra's eyes began to go up before the smoke finally cleared up. The teen now stood in a hunched position, a scaly tail swaying lightly behind him, his eyes gaining a reptilian edge to them along with scales growing all across his body. Opening his jaw, steam erupted from it and showed his now fanged maw.
"Wait, I thought he powered up with time." Blyke's eyes widened, he became a lizard-person thing. It didn't take too long either. Isen, the rat, looked worried.
"Threat." Isen commented, "it doesn't respond with time, it adapts to threat. He's getting stronger because Kalum is stronger." Isen narrowed his eyes, "now it makes sense, how he's able to compete with mid-tiers despite being a low-tier."
Well, it still didn't explain how someone like Azazel was able to keep up, but still. This was an unfair ability, it allowed him to contend with higher levels given enough. time? How wasn't he a high-tier?
"What the fuck?" Kalum, took a step back and threw another hand at Vritra. That was the only thing he could do, and to make things worse, the more he did, the stronger Vritra got. The only way to actually defeat him would be to pile on damage, or beat him in one fell swoop.
"He's healing." Isen narrowed his eyes, "it's a composite ability like Zeke's."
"Bullshit." Blyke looked closer. The bruises on his chest began to slowly heal themselves. It wasn't a regeneration ability's level of healing, but the fact it was visibly noticeable meant it was happening at a rapid pace, and if he gained levels the longer he was in combat, then that meant that once enough time had passed, Vritra was effectively unbeatable. "How is he not a high-tier?"
"Low mastery, low aura reserves, a lack of passive… I mean, three weeks ago both Azazel, and this guy were cripples" Blyke's blood ran cold.
"What did you say?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, they were born cripples. Both of them were born to parents without any abilities and became late-bloomers." Was that even possible? Awakening an ability this late in your life? Could it happen? If it could, it would explain why they went against the system so much, and why they tried helping other low-tiers.
"Wait, they aren't brothers?"
"Dude, they're not even related."
A crash took both their attention.
"CMON! FIGHT BACK!" Vritra had Kalum pinned to the lockers, raining down punch after punch at the Mid-Tier. "YOU WANTED THIS RIGHT!? FIGHT BACK! I WILL SEND YOU BACK TO YOUR FUCKING KING IN A CASKET!" The Lizard man's hand was holding Kalum by the chest and pinning him down. The latter's face looked as though you put it through a blender, with cuts and open wounds maring his face, and his lip busted up.
"Shut the fuck up you ugly overgrown lizard!" Kalum shot another phantom hand at his chin. Kalum's strategy changed from charging stronger hands, to using more frequent, but weaker hands. At this point, Blyke didn't know how strong Vritra had gotten, an ability that powers their user with escalation with no foreseen barrier. That kind of ability would become god-tier immediately… had he not been tested?
"What a scary ability… How do you even take down something like that?" Isen knit his eyebrows. Blyke could think of a few ways. That would be to immediately beat him with one hit, something he felt confident he could do by shooting him with a laser… or to pile up damage, something Arlo could easily do with his barrier ability. Shooting projectiles whose main power is to push things back like Kalum's was not going to do much.
Vritra's neck began glowing, even with all of the Phantom Hands attacking him, he forced his face to look into Kalum's eyes before opening his mouth. A stream of flames erupted directly towards Kalum face, with Vritra pushing the other mid-tier down to the floor. The air began to bend and twist. A Mirage was forming around the two.
"Not just a lizard then… this ability gets scarier by the second." Isen grabbed a camera from god knows where and took a photo. Blyke stared at Vritra and pointed his hand at him, if he shot him right now he could knock him out, and Blyke was certain of it… but should he? It was over for Kalum, he should have hit him with his hands and aimed at Vritra's head from the get go to knock him out, instead he showed off and now things had escalated.
"Fuck you!" Kalum's arm pointed directly at Vritra's head, then he changed his target to Roland – the low tier – who was watching from the side-lines. He shot several phantom hand shots at him. No one would go out of their way to protect Roland – the low tier – during a fight… Why would he? He'd lose all advantage, and they hadn't met each other for very long either.
And yet-
"NO!" What erupted from Vritra wasn't a scream, it was a snarl. Animal-like. Vritra launched off of Kalum, limbs coiling and propelling him. He tore through the hall on all fours, fast enough to blur and threw himself in front of the attack. It was as fast as a speed-based ability.
There was a sickening crack as the phantom hands hit him dead in the chest, the force of the strikes lifting him clean off of the ground. He didn't fall, he slammed onto the wall next to Roland, cracking it and indenting the Dragon in it.
When Vritra sat up, he was coughing. Thick, dark blood dribbled from his lips and soaked into the collar of his uniform. But his eyes? They promised nothing but pain.
Slowly, deliberately, Vritra rose. His back hunched unnaturally as the muscles along his spine rippled beneath his skin. His fingers flexed once– twice – and his nails extended, sharpening into curved black claws. He cracked his neck, rolled his shoulders, and looked down at Kalum like the mere act of him drawing breath offended him. With a deep breath, he charged forward.
Kalum had barely gotten to his feet when Vritra hit him like a landslide.
The first swipe split Kalum's uniform and carved four crimson lines across his chest, the second cracked a rib and sent him ragdolling backwards, gasping.
But Vritra did not give him time to breathe, he seized Kalum by the ankle, lifted him into the air as if he weighed nothing— and slammed him into the ground.
Once, and the floor cracked under the pressure.
Twice, and blood was smeared onto the floor.
Three times. Four, Five.
Each hit sent shockwaves through the floor, spraying shattered stone and dirt into the air. Kalum screamed on the fourth, or maybe the fifth, keeping count was difficult with the breaking sounds. He spun, dragging Kalum's half conscious body into an arc before flinging him like trash across the hall, where he landed in a crumpled heap. Vritra slowly stalked forward, blood painting his chin, slowly curling his claws again.
Blyke activated his ability and began charging up a shot. He had to step in now before he killed a student in front of him. A hand slapped his down, interrupting him entirely. Blyke turned around, Isen was gone, and the student that had revealed himself was neither Seraphina nor Arlo.
"When I saw flames come out of the window, I came rushing... I hate being right all the time, you know." A new voice entered the fray. Looking the exact same, but more disheveled, shorter and weaker, was Azazel, who had gotten out of the dorms.
"Pst pst pst. Here kitty kitty kitty." Blyke stared in disbelief. Was this person an idiot? "Bad kitty. Put it down. Put that trash-bag down. Pst pst pst. Don't kill him now, you'll get in trouble if you do. Oh wait, he's already down isn't he? I can't keep up with all these maggots writhing around." Azazel stopped and touched his chest. "Again?" it was only a whisper, but Blyke heard it, since he was still near him.
"Azazel, I am not in the fucking mood for your damn jokes."
"I'm not in the mood for a lawsuit."
"He is not going to die, so no Lawsuit."
"How about you deactivate your ability? These mongrels aren't worth it." Azazel put both his hands inside his pockets. "Or do you want me to keep calling you kitty until you leave your fursona? We both know you don't have the reserves to keep it up for too long."
The area around Vritra shook lightly at his growl. Before his body reverted back to its original form. "Roland, you still good buddy?"
"Uh… yeah. I never thought your ability would get so destructive."
They went back to talking as if nothing happened. Azazel went past Blyke and glared at him in passing.
"Next time, don't be stupid. If I hadn't stopped you, his escalation would have kept going." He didn't wait for a response and left, "Foolish Subjects to Puppet Kings."
Following him, Vritra raised an eyebrow at Blyke. "You really should put less cologne, I could smell you from when we left the dorms."
In the end, Blyke stood in that hall for a while. The gall to stand up to a higher tier… and to reprimand a Royal. Now Blyke understood why they were on Arlo's list. If he didn't do anything soon the entirety of Wellston might be turned on its head.
Blyke skipped most of his classes after that to think about things, when he got to his dorm he booted his favorite shooter game and began playing. As he did, a new player joined the opposing team.
"Kars?" It was an unusual name… mostly because it was a normal one. Typically people made up usernames and used fake ones online. The match began, and Blyke got killed in the first round by a sniper-rifle.
[You have been killed by Kars]
"Damn, he's good at sniping." He respawned and dashed through the battlefield, being killed. This time by an AR. Blyke's name had moved down from the leaderboard.
[You have been killed by Kars]
[PM (Kars): L+ Ratio + Skill Issue + You fell Off + Cope + Seeth, Bum.]
"... I'll show you!" Immediately, Blyke put on his best loadout and ran out. He took a few shots, but his footwork in the game was just too masterful. He ducked, jumped and slid to dodge most of the attacks, then got close enough to use a close range axe that killed Blyke immediately.
[You have been killed by Kars]
[PM(Kars): I'd say your aim is cancer, but cancer actually kills people.]
"T-This asshole!!!" Blyke cursed this Kars guy. If he met him, he would beat him up for sure! Besides, why was he hounding him this entire time? Why was he going only after him!? Blyke looked at the leaderboard, he already had over twenty kills. "Wait, what?" He spawned in and walked a few steps outside, then saw one of his teammates walk out before getting brutally assassinated by Kars. He looked at the message bar.
[Kars is on a Rampage! A twenty-one kill streak]
[PM(Kars): I know you're behind that crate. You are beneath my damn feet, in fact, you are not worth the ground I stand on. Through Heaven and Earth, I alone am the Honored one. You bums."]
Blyke took a step out and got shot in the head immediately. This no-lifer asshole had been practicing for hours.
[UNFRIGGINBELIEVABLE! Kars has achieved a seventy-two kill streak]
[PM(Lazerot): Sweat, no lifer, go touch grass.]
Blyke continued to get killed in the game, over and over and over again, and then an opportunity arose. He was alone, his team had gone AFK, and now was the perfect opportunity. He crawled and snuck up behind him while he was using a sniper, then assassinated him… however, just as the kill ended, Kars left the server.
[DM(Kars):The only one who can beat me, is me.]
[You have been blocked by Kars]
"Y-Y-YOU BASTARD! ASSHOLE! DIE IN A PIT!" Blyke kicked the furniture and slammed his fists on the desk. What a slimy bastard, a dick. If Blyke could choke him, he would. If he could enter the internet, and appear on the other side of the screen just to punch him once, he would.
"KEEP IT DOWN DUMBASS! IT'S 2 AM!" Isen's voice screeched from the room on the other side of his wall. He didn't understand what he had gone through.
"Fucking Kars…"