The Bet that was cancelled before it began

Why was there a bet?

For everybody that became a student at the hunters academy, there was a standard uniform and armor look and durability for everyone.

As the students entered they could begin earning Academy Merit Points or MP and they could be used for virtually everything in the academy from meals to buying of rare materials to artifacts and even private tutoring from anybody. 

There was no limit to what a person could buy as long as they had enough to pay for it.

Now, at the end of an academic session, the students are graded by the amount of MP that they earned and not by what they buy and trade. 

The student that earned the highest amount of MP gets special privileges' and is a highly coveted position by all the students. This is even more so in their final year as the academy will personally create the best type of armor for the student to use.

The armor would be designed by the person and would have all the specifications of the student made to the best of the school crafters abilities.

Alexander, being as popular as he is, couldn't escape the curiosity of the masses as they all wondered how his personally designed armour would look like.

The man in question didn't know about all this and quite frankly wouldnt have cared or actually used this as an opporunity to make money, but he didn't need to. That's what this guy was here for.

[Name: Arthur Thermes]

[Ability name: Pyrokinesis]

[Flaw: Burn out]

"There are four options for the design. As per the rules I am not allowed to take part in the bet either personally or by proxy. So let them start rolling in!", he said like the failed crafty merchant he was.

Option 1 sported a full body suit model that looked exceptionally thin and lightweight, without any noticeable headgear but with four tubes coming out of his back. It also had two belts that went across his chest and one on his waist.

The second was like the first but with the full body suit thicker and had a helmet that covered his head with visor on his face, making him look like a power ranger.

The third one was more like a real lightweight armour that actually covered him up and had several pieces that hovered in the air. If he wore this you would actually pity the women that would look at him and the trail of broken hearts he would leave in his wake. It didn't have any noticeable head gear.

The fourth and final one looked lik a full on green and red suit that looked like it was designed by iron man for cyborg. This one actually had the highest odds as it was clear that no one actually thought he would get this one. It was just there to fulfil the required four choices.

One thing they all had in common though was that all of them had provisions for four extra limbs to protrude from the back.

"Now I want you to remember that I am running this bet behind their backs so I would appreciate it if they didn't know about this.", Arthur said with a shushing gesture and the same mischevious smile on his face. 

"I seriously doubt he would be mad at what you were doing now though.", a student in the room said. "And you would be correct", Arthur replied and continued immediately after,"In all honesty, I doubt he would even mind what I'm doing as long as I give him part of the profits. Who I'm worried about is actually-". 

He didn't get to finish his statement before suddenly him and everybody in that room froze in their place. The sound of footsteps could suddenly be heard echoing throughout the room with an eerie pace. 

Though frozen in body, their minds were still free to think and there was only one thought going through the man known as Arthur's head; 'Well, I am totally and royally screwed.'

If possible he would have started sweating and crying at the same time as he oh-so-desperately tried to think of a way to talk himself out of this situation he put himself in. 

As much as he wished for tiime to slow down to give him more time to think, both time and the footsteps seemed to ignore him as they both kept on moving forward. 

A second later he heard the sound of a door opening before the owner of the footsteps came in while speaking; "Oh my. A little bird tipped me off about your little gathering but I didn't beieve it until now.", a feminine voice said as Arthur felt a gaze practically bore through his head from behind.

Said woman walked into the room with her eyes closed and a smile that was not a smile on her face. She could be described as very pretty with her silver hair. brows and lashes and her well endowed figure.

Wearing the school uniform of a turtleneck sweater on a skirt that went down to her knees and knee high socks with a blazer to complete the look, she took rocking a uniform to a new level.

She walked to the front view of Arthur and faced him with the same smile but the man was by no means focused on the beauty of the woman at all.

How could he when this was the last person he wanted to find out about this operation. Meet the best student in the academy when it came to crowd control abilities who also happened to be best friends with Xander and to a lesser extent, Arthur himself.

[Name: Alia Demenion]

[Ability: Minor space-time shift]

[Flaw: Shortsightedness]

"I very clearly remember a conversation we had that I explicitly told you not to do this kind of thing. It seems like another one is clearly in order as you seem to have forgotten.", she said with a sweet tone of voice that would normally make a man's heart melt but instead made the one subjected to it shiver despite his frozen state.

He clearly remembered the last 'conversation' and wasn't in any way keen on having another. Realizing that staying frozen would do him a lot of harm, at least mentally, he quickly released his ability and burned the ability holding him away and took off running at full speed down the hallway and away from the crazy woman.

Albiet surprised, Alia didn't seem to lose her cool and instead chose to chase after him. 'You want to run? Awwnn, how cute you think you could get away from me.', she thought before her body seemed to blur and split into seven identical copies before they merged again and dissapeared to chase after Arthur. 

It took less than twenty seconds before a scream for help echoed throughout the entire floor.

--Present day--

Arthur could be seen in the front row of this ceremony with bags under his eyes and an occasional twitch running through his body. Whatever Alia did to him seemed to have left quite a few mental scars that weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Naturally the bet was cancelled after her "persuasion" on the matter but that didn't mean people were no longer curious.

Alia herself didn't seem to even notice where she was as her eyes were completely trained on the man on the stage. Anyone with half a brain could notice that the woman had a very heavy crush on Alexander with the way she seemed to look at him even with her eyes closed.

Arthur saw Alia and the way she looked at their mutual best friend and seemed to find his situation unfair. The difference in the treatment recieved from her towards both him and Alexander was so stark that he wanted to cry. What did he ever do to deserve that kind of treatment from her?

But even with those thoughts he didn't resent either her or his best friend in any way. 'Please agree to date this woman at the after party of this ceremony. I think rejecting her 599 times is more than enough.', he thought to himself.

It was not a secret that Alia was hoplessly in love with Alexander to the point it almost became an unhealthy obsession. It also wasn't a secret that he had rejected her advances more times than the amount of days it took five generations of corn to grow.

It got to the point that people lost count of the amount of rejections he had given her and frankly, no one wanted to keep counting. No body except Arthur of course.

'Though, the chances of him actually doing that is so low it's not even funny anymore.' he thought with a sigh. All he could do was hope that things would work out for the better for his two best friends.

Back to the stage, the chants were getting louder and Alexander decided to go along with their demands. He raised his hand to quell the noise a bit before he started speaking"Alri-"

Just then, a blaring siren echoed throughout the hall. everyone knew what it meant and the atmosphere of the room took a swift turn from it's celebratory and joyful air into one of solemnity and, to a lesser extent, fear. 

This alarming sound could only mean one thing. A madness wave was coming, and quite a large one at that.