Chapter 13. A party of Four (3)

"Burn!"

His usually cold voice reverberated through the room with traces of anger.

It could just be because of the fact that he was facing monsters or because one of his comrades was hurt, but I got the feeling that there was something more between Mr. Willis and our class president. The rumours didn't seem to justify the half of it, as I observed their relation mystify by the second from the contrast in the actions and the hearsay.

At his command, the flames on his palms flickered faster than ever. His eyes slowly turned purple as a bright, shining ring formed around the pupil.

The flames turned darker and prettier as Mr. Haley attracted the attention of every being in the room. The flames slowly grew in size and with his arms on his side, the flames seemed to be rising up to engulf his arms seeming more like gauntlets that were alive, reacting to every command of their master.

As the abomination in front of him completely turned to ash, and the fire was now stronger than ever, the other two abominations turned towards him, completely ignoring me as they let out a growl to declare the start of their fight.

The two of them charged forwards towards Mr. Haley as he slowly extended his right arm to set one of the abominations ablaze.

<<Sizzle, Sizzle>>

The flames quickly spread throughout the body of the abomination as it writhed in pain, unable to fight the cause of its suffering.

The one-sided battle between its companion and the man covered in flames seemed to have sowed doubts into the head of the other as it suddenly stopped in its tracks, glancing at the fiery mess of a monster while taking a step back.

The cries of pain echoed through the art room spreading throughout the floor. Worried of attracting too many monsters, I immediately got ready to activate 'Lightning Steps' and charge forward but Mr. Haley didn't look like he agreed with me as he only increased the mana he poured into the flames as they grew brighter than before and the cries grew louder than before.

His eyes weren't as cold as before as they burned brighter at the misery experienced by the monster in front of me. That was when it dawned on me. He was taking his time to bring the abomination down. Giving it an experience of the highest form of pain that he could inflict without killing it.

I didn't understand why he was doing that. A man of his intellect and demeanour had to behave more rationally, right? What made him lose his cool and invite unwanted dangers?

"Stop!!" I shouted, but his eyes were completely focused on the monster in front of him, ignoring everything else. I couldn't believe that he blocked himself from the surrounding under such a situation. How much of a narcissist was this guy?

The situation wasn't so simple anymore. From a display of overwhelming strength, it was slowly turning into one of the fieriest displays of madness one could ever witness.

Seeing that he wasn't going to listen to me until he was done playing with the abomination and that the other one was getting farther from him, sensing the madness, I took it on myself to take care of them lest the fleeing one attacked the twins on its way out. With a healer and an injured warrior, I was sure it would be difficult for them to escape if they were to face such an attack.

Activating 'Lightning Steps', I charged towards the abomination as I grabbed it by the neck and continuing forward after shifting my direction to its blazing companion. The poor monster was still under the fear of the attack it just witnessed and was too confused to retaliate to my lightning speed attack.

After a few fights, I was starting to get the hang of the things I had to do to survive in this world. The tremendous potential possessed by my skill brought me a tag along expense of stamina, so I had to reduce the expense, and in turn the duration of the skill use time, and maximise on the momentum I was provided during the time of its use.

As soon as I reached the required speed, I immediately deactivated my skill as I moved closer to the monster on fire. Mr. Haley wasn't going to listen to me if I asked him to put out the flames, so I had to find a way to attack in their presence and my weapon to do so, was another of its kind.

Charging forward with an insanely high momentum, I aligned the heads of the monster as the one in my hold regained its senses and stretched its hands towards me and twisted its neck in an attempt to break free. It couldn't process what was going to happen with it being thrust towards its back but it could sense the consequences of its inability to escape my grasp.

Ignoring the frantic attempts, I thrust it forward into the flames, feeling the impact of the collision with my hands. I immediately retracted my hand as the both of them flew towards the wall, the fire engulfing both of them.

I tried to change my directions again as I slowed down so as to not crash onto the monsters, but ended up losing my footing as I crashed into an assembly of tripods, breaking a few.

I wasn't damaged as such by the crash, but it wasn't the case for the abominations who were still ablaze as they slowly lost the light in their eyes. The wall that took the brunt of the crash seemed so fragile with all those cracks that it felt like one touch could cause it to crumble.

I heard the notifications in my head which confirmed the end of our fight and so, I turned my head to focus on Mr. Haley to pick a fight with him about his actions just then, but as soon as I saw his face, I noticed that the purple in his eyes, what I assumed to be an effect of his newly acquired skill, was slowly fading, reverting to the usual blue eyes. His face turned pale as his body slightly trembled.

Having experienced a similar thing before, I instantly recognised what he was undergoing. Although what I experienced was far severe than this, I could identify it as a variation of the same thing.

A Mana Drain. Although, he didn't exactly drain his reserves, he is feeling the after effects of drawing such massive amounts of mana from his still immature body. Just like I did when I used 'Lightning Steps' for the first time.

It had been a good thing that I interfered when I did. If he was left free for a longer time, considering the possibility of a complete Mana Drain, I couldn't even imagine the consequences. Damaged mana reserves? Inability to use mana? Disability? Maybe, even death.

Fortunately, he would be fine after a short rest and didn't even need the use of HEAL spell to deal with the effects. 'The nagging would have to wait.' I said to myself.

Speaking of the HEAL spell, I looked towards the twins who were now seated comfortably on the floor, keeping their distance from the door, as Mr. Willis closed his eyes and breathed heavily with Ms. Willis gathering Mana to recast her spell to continue aiding in the recovery of her brother.

At least, that was what I assumed they would be doing.

At this moment, the four of us lived in a peaceful world of our own. One without the disturbances of monsters. One without the noises of the ignorant. One where we didn't have to fight to survive.

I took a look at the notifications that I received after killing the abominations.

Congratulations on killing an Abomination!

Congratulations on killing an Abomination!

You have levelled up!

You have levelled up!

I levelled up twice so I now had 4 free stat points. I opened my interface to allot my stat points.

LVL. 9

Daniel H Martinez

HP: 80%

MP: 100%

Stats

Strength (STR) – 23 (+2)

Agility (AGI) – 32 (+2)

Intelligence (INT) – 83

Mana – 4

Skills +

Equipment +

Inventory +

I placed my points equally into both strength and agility stats and I closed my interface.

I leaned back to rest and I closed my eyes to relax in this calm and peaceful time that we were subjected to. Things had been too noisy and fast paced today and I really appreciated the slow and tranquil place in time.

<<Smash>>

The sound of a window glass breaking broke the silence that prevailed in our lives just moments ago.

'Was it another one of those jinxes?'

The world didn't seem to like me lazing around in the art room as it immediately introduced another threat to our lives. Or was it the doing of Mr. Haley?

I didn't care anymore as I got up grumbling and glanced to my left and right to see that the rest were doing the same.

With me in the middle, the twins on my left and the president on my right, I turned to face the door, ready for whatever was coming our way!