Chapter 5 - The New Officer

  Blood spewed out from the wound and splattered all over Riven. Axel didn’t scream, but Kaede screamed at the sight of the blood. Noah stood up from his seat and shouted words of protest to stop the match, but his efforts were in vain.

  The sight of the blood sent chills through my spine. Even from over here I could smell the foul metallic scent. But Aiden didn’t even bat an eye. Riven was unfazed, like he was already used to this.

  Instead of giving up, Axel attacked with his remaining arm. He lasted about five seconds before Riven sliced his left hand off. More crimson blood blotched the grounds. At this time Phoebe came back with the opponent's flag. She stared at Axel, then at the body parts and screamed.

  “Hurry up and put the flag on the pedestal,” Riven said.

  “How can you be so calm?!” Phoebe asked.

  “Just put the flag into the pedestal”

  Phoebe trudged to the pedestal and placed the flag onto it. Another loud buzzer rang. Now it's a tie game.

  “Roxanne, quickly help Axel go to the nurse’s office to get his arm and hand reattached before he suffers from blood loss,” Aiden said.

  “Alright, come on Axel,” Roxanne responded.

  “Alright, next group up!” Aiden shouted.

  “Hold on, we were going to have Axel go this round. Now that he is injured, can you give us some extra time to prepare?” Noah asked.

  “Alright.”

  The next round is going to be Kaede and Noah vs. Kane and I.

  “Hey Kane, just go all out okay?” I asked.

  “You don’t get to order me around.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  We lined up at our spots and waited for the signal. Bang. I dug my foot into the ground and exploded forwards. This time it was my turn to take the offense. I weaved through the trees until I saw the opponent's pedestal. As I got closer, I noticed that it wasn’t just one pedestal, there were multiple. When I stepped into the clearing, there were tens or hundreds of pedestals and on the opposite side stood Kaede.

  So this is their strategy.

  I stepped on one of the “pedestals” and it disappeared.

  So these are just illusions that disappear by touch, not much of a challenge.

  I readied myself and placed my hands on both of my sides. I started sprinting through the clearing and touching all of the fake pedestals. Kaede kept making more to prevent me from finding it, but it had failed. I felt something hard. I jerked around and faced the place where I had touched and pulled out the flag. I glanced at Kaede and saw her frozen in fear, but I couldn’t have cared less. I turned around and started sprinting back to my base.

  The scene I arrived upon was Kane with blood shot eyes, blood all over his hands. And in his hands was the collar of Noah’s shirt. Kane was in the process of smashing Noah’s face in the ground. Noah’s face had multiple bruises and a bloody nose. Kane was laughing hysterically, just like a psycho.

  With him preoccupied, I rushed to the pedestal and stuck the flag down. The buzzer rang. But Kane kept punching Noah’s face, relentlessly. It was as though he was lost in a trance of blood. Aiden had to come down and separate them. With this, our team has won the competition and received five points. Only twenty more to go until we are promoted to Class-D.

  “Good job Group 3. After lunch, both teams will meet up with their respective group director officer. Go back to your quarters and rest up before lunch time,” Aiden said.

  The time it took for the match took shorter than I expected. It was still morning, about ten o'clock.

  If I get back to the dorms in time, I could still take a shower before lunch time and get all this blood washed off before it dries.

  I turned around and started walking back towards the dorm rooms before I heard someone call out for me.

  “Katelina, please stay behind for a moment,” Aiden said.

  What does he need me for? Just let me go back and take a shower.

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  Slowly, everyone trickled back to their dorm rooms until it was just Aiden and I left

  I turned towards him and asked, “what?”

  “Katelina, I need you to listen to me closely and follow what I say,” Aiden said with a sense of urgency.

  Why does HE want to talk to me? After so many years of ignoring me, you FINALLY want to talk to me?

  “And why should I listen to you?”

  He stared at me with an intense gaze and cold eyes, his brows were also furrowed.

  Should I listen? He looks troubled, I guess I can hear him out.

  “Okay, now just tell me already.”

  “Don’t provoke the officials and whatever you're thinking, don’t.”

  “Why should I do that?”

  “Just listen and do it. If you don’t, you will certainly regret it.”

  “Fine, now buzz off.”

  I whipped my head in the opposite direction and walked towards my dorm room.

  What was that about? Did he think I was planning to escape? I’m not stupid enough to go against the Corps? Nevermind, just go take a shower and relax first.

  I got back to the dorm room and took a hot shower, and it felt extremely nice especially after the training match. I scrubbed off all the blood and dirt and got dressed into my clothes. I laid on the bed and stared at the wall until I heard Phoebe call for me.

  “Kat, it's time for lunch.”

  “All right, give me a second.”

  I got up and walked with Phoebe to the cafeteria.

  “Hey Kat, what did Mr. Aiden want to talk about?” Phoebe asked.

  “Nothing much, something about just following orders.”

  “Okay.”

  We walked in silence for the rest of the way. After we got lunch, we found the table where Riven and Kane were sitting. Kane looked agonized like he just listened to a long lecture. Riven was emotionless as usual.

  “Hey guys, we won the match and got five points. What's to be sad about?” Phoebe asked.

  Nobody responded. Phoebe stopped trying to lift up the mood and we all just sat in silence for the remainder of the time. It was about one o’clock in the afternoon. We made our way to the rendezvous point that we were given by Aiden to meet our group director. There was a young man, around twenty years old. He had short dark auburn colored hair and was wearing the Corps uniform. He was also wearing a purple tie like Aiden, meaning that he was also a Class-A officer. He turned around to say hi and I saw the color of his eyes. It was a shade of midnight purple with a tint of indigo.

  “You guys must be the group I am in charge of. Nice to meet you. You can call me Dante. I will be your instructor,” the officer said.

  “You’re...our instructor?” Phoebe asked.

  “Yup! Now introduce yourselves,” Dante responded.

  “Okay, I’m Phoebe, your trusty mana replenisher!” Phoebe said with pride.

  “I’m Kane.”

  “Mind telling me what your skill is,” Dante said.

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “NO,” Kane said.

  “Fine, but I will figure it out. Alright, next person,” Dante said, unfazed.

  “I’m Riven,” he said while extending his arm to activate his green blades.

  “Nice blades,” Dante said.

  “And I’m Kat,” I said.

  “Hey, aren’t you Aiden’s little sister? You know, I’m part of his group.” Dante speculated.

  Great, now one of his team members is my instructor.

  “Yeah, I am. So what?” I asked.

  “Just curious is all,” Dante said.

  “Hey, you haven’t told us your power yet,” Kane demanded.

  “You really wanna know? Then follow me on your first ever patrol. If you're lucky, we’ll find a rule-breaker. And you can experience it first hand,”

  “Fine,” Kane grumbled.

  We followed Dante into the city as he talked about what we need to pay attention to. All I noticed was the people around the city. There were a lot more homeless people and beggars than I thought. All I caught on from his lecture was that we would arrest any unregistered Spectrals or Spectrals that are causing havoc in the city. Maybe a burglar from time to time, but not often.

  After what seemed like a few hours of walking, nothing eventful happened, until Phoebe suddenly asked, “Hey, Mr. Dante? People aren’t supposed to be carrying a syringe with a blue liquid in it, right?”

  “Yeah, they aren't,” Dante said.

  Dante suddenly started sprinting towards the person with the syringe. We followed close behind. As soon as the syringe person saw us chasing him, he started running towards one of the dark alleys.

  “Follow me and watch,” Dante said as he rushed through the alley.

  “Stop right there!” Dante shouted. “In the name of the law, you are hereby arrested for carrying morphogen!”

  “Shit,” the law breaker muttered as he lifted the syringe.

  The man readied himself and stuck the syringe into his neck. He pushed the contents into his neck and spread throughout his body. He started convulsing for a moment, but was fine afterwards. On the place where he stuck the syringe, there were blue blood vessels popping out on his neck. His eyes were bloodshot and his muscles grew abnormally large.

  “YOU WILL NEVER STOP ME!!” he shouted while spitting out blood.

  So much for a strength boost, looks more like it's killing him.

  The man lunged forward and started to attack Dante, aiming for his face. But Dante didn’t move, he took the hit straight on. THUD. A punch straight to the face. But it didn’t leave as much as a scratch. He jumped over the man and turned around in the dark part of the alley covered in shadows.

  “You picked the wrong person to mess with, buddy,” Dante taunted.

  As he said this, his eyes glowed into a bright purple. He swished his hands up. Following this motion were four pitch-black masses that extended from the walls. It engulfed the man whole.

  “Because this is my domain.”