Rise of the Strongest Soul Mage

Chapter 7 Hungry

"I can't do that." Sora's feet failed him and he fell into his seat and buried his face in his hands.

"I would love to do it for you but I won't always be here to help out. Remind me, why can't you do it yourself?"

"I would get expelled."

"Attacking another mage is against the rules. Defending yourself during an attack initiated by someone else isn't."

"I can't Ryo, I can't afford to get kicked out of the Academy." Sora raised his head "I have nowhere to go."

When people had worried about Sora's condition being contagious, his father had abandoned him the moment he was told Sora couldn't harness his powers. The son of a level three Hunter, with a useless energy. The smear wasn't something he had wanted to be associated with.

Besides being fascinated by the Masters, his father was one of the reasons he didn't want to be a Hunter but it didn't matter anyway, he would never get to be anything.

Ryo's tone became soft from seeing the fear in Sora's eyes. "He can't keep doing this to you."

"I'll be fine."

Sora gave a faint smile that Ryo reciprocated. "Alright."

"You still stink though. Go freshen up."

Sora stood up and picked his dirty shirt and threw it at Ryo who laughed it off.

...

Sora and Ryo made their way to the dining hall. The hall was massive. There were four columns with chairs lined up on very long tables all the way to the back. Leaving space for the serving stands.

They walked all the way to the back to get their meals and joined queues with Sora standing to Ryo's left on another line.

After a few minutes, Sora felt a pull on his forehead, his head hurt and his scar itched. He put his hand to his forehead to itch the scar and Ryo noticed his discomfort.

"What's wrong?" Ryo asked.

"My head hurts a little but I'm fine."

Ryo put his hand to Sora's forehead to check his temperature.

"You don't have a fe…" He barely finished his sentence when he drew his attention back to Sora's forehead.

Ryo moved closer to Sora, quickly separating the hair that covered his forehead to reveal the scar. Sora pushed his hand off his face immediately.

"What the heck is this?"

"Nothing"

"He did this." He wasn't asking, he was stating it.

Ryo's eyes burned with rage. He turned to face the room. The dining hall was filled but not to its full capacity. He started from the end close to them and scanned the room as though looking for someone.

Sora realized what he was doing and tried to stop him. "Ryo please, it's not worth it."

"You're worth it."

"He's not worth it, please. You could get into trouble with the Masters and even the Hunters too."

"I'll be fine." Ryo dismissed him.

"Ryo please don't. I don't want this."

"He won't want it too when I'm done."

It took a while but Ryo sighted who he was looking for. Konan was seated at the other end of the room with his group eating and laughing. Sora followed Ryo's line of sight and saw that he had found Konan.

Ryo smirked. "Good" and it scared Sora.

Ryo took a step forward but stopped abruptly as Sora moved and stood in his way.

"Please." Sora pleaded, not because he didn't want Konan to get what he deserved but because he didn't want to be seen as a weakling that had to be defended.

Ryo put his hand on his forehead, raising the hair to reveal his scar. He dropped his hand to Sora's neck to touch the mark from his cut. "It won't stop till someone does something about it."

Ryo gently stepped around Sora and marched over to where Konan sat. The closer he got, he could hear the sound of Konan's laughter and it annoyed him more.

Dai's eyes widened as he saw Ryo approach with Sora closely behind him. He saw Ryo's fist balled and raised but not in time to alert Konan who was caught completely unawares.

Ryo's fist made contact with Konan's face and it knocked him out of his seat.

Everyone around them stopped moving and the area became silent.

"You should be grateful there was no energy attached to that punch. You would have died." Ryo's voice was filled with rage.

Konan got up and dusted himself. He put his hand to his lips and cleaned the blood off them. Ryo had busted his lips.

He looked to see Sora was still standing behind Ryo to the left and then back to Ryo. Konan smiled

"One more time Konan. Touch him one more time."

He tilted his head to Sora "I see your bodyguard is back."

"Stay away from him." Ryo barked.

"It's quite cowardly to attack from behind, you know."

"I have no problem giving your busted lip a partner right now."

"I doubt you can land one hit successfully."

"We can test that theory right now."

Konan and Ryo stood face to face fuming and breathing heavily. Energy surged through them and stopped at their balled fists

"Someone's here." Marce gestured ahead to Masters walking into the dining halls. They knew they would get in trouble if caught but they didn't back down.

Sora moved to Ryo putting a hand to his shoulder "You can't get in trouble over him. He's not worth it."

Dai moved Konan "They're not worth getting into trouble for."

Konan and Ryo stood head to head still with with mage energy surging at their fists

"They are close." Marce alerted them

Ryo relaxed first and Konan followed suit.

"You're lucky they're around." Konan

"You're lucky I'm more hungry than angry. Stay the hell away from Sora." Ryo retorted.

Ryo turned and walked away from him with Sora beside him.