Earl was panting on the floor, pinned down by a butt load of straw, which doubled as the other end of Sidney's arm.Earl messed up. He'd let the curious side of him out too much, egging Sidney on to press on the offensive. This was what ultimately caused his failure. Earl hadn't even shown all the tricks he had up his sleeve. But to be fair, neither had Sidney, both men had simply fought, and one ended up being the winner.Earl didn't feel bad in the slightest though. The thrill of fighting Sidney for the first time left him with a smile on his face."That's the match!!!" Yelled Jake, "Sidney wins, and Earl loses!" He added. "You're amazing, Sid," said Earl, wide grin on his face as he remained pinned down. Sidney reverted back to normal, the straw dissipated.He walked over and held out his hand, "that was a lot harder than I expected," he smiled. Earl grabbed his hand, Sidney pulled him up."So you can like, transform into Gy now?" Asked Earl. "It's a new spell I got," said Sidney
Sidney was there, holding himself up using nothing but one of his hands, and with a crystal spike not too far away from his throat, he accepted whole heartedly that he lost the fight."I can win her in close quarters combat," said Crystal. "That's probably what you were thinking right?" She smiled. Sidney couldn't help but see the irony of the whole situation.He'd known that the Lloyd's were stronger than normal, but he'd put his hopes in his enhanced body holding out. And it was the right call at the end. He bet on himself and won.His enhanced body proved strong enough to withstand the 100% force of the Lloyd's, but what he'd misjudged was Crystal's battle iq.She waited for the instant his hand made contact with the floor and picked her moment to strike perfectly.As Sidney remained upside down, he dispersed the mana he'd gathered in his throat, allowing the tiny alchemy circle to show itself.A mouth came out from the alchemy circle, biting repeatedly like a pair of jittering tee
The explosion was large and huge, far bigger than what anyone was expecting. Not Jake, not Sidney, not Crystal, not Earl.However as the dust slowly settled, the aftermath came into view. The dome of crystals that Crystal had made to protect herself from Earl's attack was shattered to pieces, with only a few stems of crystals sticking out of the ground.Earl was standing there, with his hand held out, and with dust all over him. He began coughing as he waved his hand in front of his face, trying to clear away the dust.It didn't work very well. Earl opened one eye, looking at the place where Crystal was supposed to be. The dust hadn't cleared up, and as a result, he hadn't seen her to confirm she was down.'On second thought, maybe I used way too much firepower,' thought Earl, 'I hope she's okay,' he thought to himself.As he looked down into where she was once—the shattered dome of crystals, he saw a silhouette, one that closely resembled Crystal. It wasn't moving, and it was laid d
As the smoke cleared from the battle fought, on the floor was Jake and Sidney, both with satisfied looks on their faces.Earl and Crystal had their mouths held open in complete shock. They had a feeling the match would end quickly, but not in one attack.Both of them had their mouths held open in complete and utter shock and confusion. Crystal slowly turned to look and Earl, and Earl slowly turned to look at Crystal."That was..." Said Earl, "... So cool," said Crystal. Their shocked expressions slowly turned into huge smiles."Those guys are crazy," laughed Crystal. "I know right... They're even crazier than I am," said Earl with a huge smile on his face.Both of them hopped down from the training dummies and made their way over to the middle of the training grounds.Sidney and Jake were both huffing and puffing on the floor, breathing heavily. Blood ran down the side of both their faces."Wh-what... are we gonna... do now?" Said Jake. "What do you mean?" Said Sidney, "I won that fig
"Flaming lotus!" Said Earl. "Vortex!" Said Jake. "Whoa!" Said Sidney, "what the hell are those moves?" He asked. "I don't know... But this is getting fun," said Crystal.Both Crystal and Sidney knew that Earl was going to lose the contest no matter what. It didn't really matter what happened when it came to him, he'd already lost two matches, nothing could make up for that now.However the situation for Jake was different. If he won, he would 'officially' be the strongest soon to be second year student in the entire school.Earl wasn't fighting to win, or at least not to win the current mini tournament they were all having. He was fighting for his pride, he was fighting to win and prove himself.Jake was fighting for the same reason. For the longest time he'd been on top of Earl when it came to power and fighting prowess. Ever since Earl got his alchemy, he'd been growing extremely fast, but he still hadn't been able to beat Jake once.This fight wasn't just for the title of strongest
Jake laid down on his back, completely shocked silent. He watched Earl distinguished the attack he would've hit Jake with, before smiling and saying the words, "I win."It took a moment for Jake to realise it, but he'd lost the match. The final match in the mini tournament that they were holding, he'd lost that match. He'd lost to Earl.He was completely shocked by the whole thing. The moment he and Earl's fists collided, he felt the brunt of Earl's attack send him flying backwards, and he saw Earl fly off too.But it seemed Earl either recovered insanely quickly, or Jake was thrown a lot harder by Earl's attack than he would've liked to think he did.Before he knew it, Earl was standing over him with an attack ready to be launched straight at him.For some reason his mind went back to when they were kids, back when he'd bully Earl, call him names, and always boss his around because he was stronger than he was.He then remembered the fight that happened back in the entrance exams, the
With the pact made amongst one another, talks about the ORA continued, and eventually everyone started sharing their experiences specifically with them.One-way or the other, it eventually divulged into a topic of backstorues, making all the students share details of their transformations during the search for Sidney and Earl.They all were glad to hear that Williams lost his stutter. Hearing his back story and what happened to him only lit a fire in their hearts concerning the ORA.They'd hated them deeply already, but to think they'd take advantage of abandoned children like that... It reminded them that there was nothing the ORA weren't willing to do for their goal.Giving them all the more reason to train and become strong enough to fight them and take them down.Henry revealed the promise he made with his village elder, and everyone showed their support, especially Crystal and Ruby.Earl, Sidney, Annie, and Ruby never knew anything about this, and how could they? Henry was always
"Anytime now Earl" a student said, Laughter immediately filled the air as the students were mocking the boy that stood out at the front of the classroom, "seriously? he can't even transmute lead into steel?, isn't that like the basics of basics of alchemy?" one female student said, desperately trying to hold in her laughter, "I know right, even my younger brother could do it, and he's only like five years old" another said while laughing hysterically, Earl kept on trying and trying, he waved his hands up and down, left and right, he twiddled his fingers in the air, but each time nothing happened to the lead seated in front of him, "I've got a tip for ya" a male student said, this male student had purple hair, he kept his white shirt untucked and didn't have a tie on, Earl hated the way this student dressed, they were all meant to wear a white shirt and black pants, along with a tie, this was the way Earl and nearly every other student dressed, but this student in particular alwa