Annie sped through the woods as she racked her brain for a plan, she was glad that her first plan had worked, but if she wanted to get out of this alive, she couldn't rely on just her brute strength to get her out of this situation, chances are that whoever is chasing her down was leagues ahead of her, both in skill, experience, and overall battle ability, and engaging into battle with such a person with all those variables would be way too risky, there was the possibility that if she did engage in combat, she would lose her life in an instant, and she didn't know what type of alchemy the masked pursuer had either, if she went into the battle and her opponent had an alchemy that completely rendered her's useless, it would be game over, she needed a plan that would make her have minimal contact with her opponent, but still render him/her unable to continue, and the only thing she had with her right now were her fists and brains, "common think, think!!!!!" she yelled at herself as she r
Alice sped through the forest in a panicked state, she had a huge smile plastered on her face as she did though, despite her somewhat controlled demeanour, sweat ran down her forehead as thoughts ran through her head, she had responded to Annie on impulse and hadn't actually thought up a plan, all she did for the past four minutes was run, she didn't know what to do, she just wished that someone would come to her rescue, it was wishful thinking yes, but it would be the best outcome for her if Soki finished up his battle and helped her out of her predicament, however the chances of that happening was slim, so she racked her head trying to come up with a plan, while keeping the huge smile on her face, suddenly a purple liquid shot out from behind her, it came as a surprise, she was unprepared and unaware of the nature of the liquid, or how dangerous it was, but thanks to her catching a glimpse of it at the corner of her eye she was lucky enough to avoid it, she jumped just in time off r
Christopher stood in front of the masked man ready to fight, his opponent bearing a blade bloodied by his friends corpse, and him forming sand in his palms, of course he was scared, but his fear had just cost him the life of Earl, he didn't know him too well, in fact one could say the opposite, although it was their second day, everyone had a bad impression of Earl, except his teammates of course, but everyone had given him the cold shoulder, he was branded belligerent, and everyone avoided contact with him, but despite not knowing Christopher at all, and previously injured, he dived in and saved a cowering Christopher, and at the cost of his arm nonetheless, and now despite his harsh treatment to him without knowing much about him, Earl was dead, and his lifeless body rested up against a tree. Christopher was filled with both anger, fear, resentment, regret and disgust, he was ready to take on this masked man, he was willing to get revenge for Earl, he already managed to stab the m
Earl kept on speeding towards Soki and Dia while Annie gave chase, although Earl moved rather quickly, at least quicker than any normal human eyes would be able to perceive, Annie had enhanced her eyesight and speed interchangeably, she wasn't yet able to enhance both attributes at the same time, so she had to result to careful switching amongst attributes to get as close to a simultaneous experience as possible. She didn't know where he headed to, but she had a feeling that he was still in there somewhere, she thought it strange that he had left them alone, while killing the masked man, although there were many possibilities, like he recognising actual threats and disposing of, or them just having dumb luck, but she had the feeling that he did it on purpose, he was still there, and she felt like she needed to pull him out. Soki's blood spewed on the floor as Dia's foot drove itself into his lower abdomen, however Soki in turn grabbed Dia's foot and pulled him in close,
Earl laid in the hospital room in silence, he was wide awake, but drowsy, ever since waking up, he felt uncomfortable, he never did like hospitals, in fact he hated them, "What happened?" he asked out loud to himself as he began recalling the events that happened, he remembered passing out, the masked people, Christopher, getting his arm cut off, the HP message, the white space, and the reports he heard on the incident while being carried here. He sat on the bed thinking when Mr Adam walked into the room, "How're you feeling Earl?" he asked as he handed Earl a glass of water, "I'm fine", Earl replied, "just trying to recall whatever just happened", he added as he proceeded to down the water till about halfway, he then placed the glass of water on a table beside his hospital bed as the two sat in silence in the small hospital room. The room wasn't big, it had a single small air conditioner off at the side, a bed at the middle of the room, and chairs right beside the d
It was early in the morning, around 6am or so, the fresh morning breeze and the elegant sound of natures music filled the air, gentle and subtle footsteps could be heard ever so slightly as Earl walked about the shop, he had a broom in hand, and other cleaning tools by his side. With light yet vigorous strokes of his hand, and a sweet humming melody, Earl cleaned the entire shop, from dusting the shelves, to mopping the floor, the presence of a speck of dirt was unfathomable, and what's more, the graceful dance that went with the cleaning motions were nothing short of euphoric. eventually another set of footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. although not as elegant and gentle, they too had a blissful rhythm accompany it, Earl turned his head ever so slightly towards the stairs as that was where the second set of footsteps originated from, the light red bandana he had tied up to his forehead waved slightly as his neatly packed hair had their own set of mo
Earl stared down at his shattered blade in disbelief, "What the-" Earl tried to say before his senses once again shot up, and he sensed danger coming. Earl quickly dived left, avoiding the strange beast, it rolled like a bowling ball at blazing fast speed, before destroying the tree that Earl once stood against. "This beast… my sword… I have to…" Earl stuttered to himself as he glued his gaze to the beast. "Did… did that b-beast… just" Earl muttered as he watched the unthinkable, he could clearly see metal razor sharp blades recede into its back as it got up from the tree. The beast then turned its attention over to Earl before snarling and growling at him, its twin tails rose up in the air, the blades Earl witnessed resurfaced, and its huge claws dug into the ground as it readied to pounce. The third eye skill then activated once more, alerting Earl of the coming attack, but Earl was frozen in place The beast stared down Earl in a menacing manner,
Earl, Jake and Norman all stood outside the shop out on the front porch, a gentle breeze blew past the three, with a warm fuzzy smile on Norman's face, he addressed the two young boys in front of him. "I'm gonna teach you guys something called Heka" Norman said with a smile on his face, both boys looked at eachother confused before looking back at Norman, "What's that?" Earl asked. "You see mana is used in performing alchemy, Ki is used in performing ki based attacks known as Hiori, Heka on the other hand is kind of like an in-between of both of these" Norman said maintaining the smile on his face. Jake looked rather confused, and Earl knew why, although both of them were well versed in Alchemy and mana, Ki was a concept only Earl and his club members had learned of so far, so he kind of knew why Jake was confused "Mana is the eternal energy of someone, it's what allows us to do alchemy" Earl said to Jake, Jake turned over with an annoyed look on his face"I kno
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
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
"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
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
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
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
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
Chapters 225: A winner, Earl Vs SidneyCrystal still stayed in shock as she slowly turned her head around to see Jake. He had most likely used his wind to slow his fall so that when he landed next to her it would sound like he was farther away.She was still completely capable of fighting. They'd only just started the fight after all, and she hadn't shown all she had to offer, but the fight was already over.If this was a real fight to the death, he would've lopped off her head in that moment. Perhaps she was just overconfident before, but she'd been sloppy in her first match.No, she couldn't even make herself think she would've done better. There were still two people she would fight later, she could show more of her power then.As for now? She'd totally lost. A smile sat on her face. "Whoa... You weren't playing around," said Crystal. "I kept your face in tact, now you can seduce Henry another time without worrying about how pretty you are," Jake smirked."You think I'm pretty?" As
The rules of the mini-tournament were clear enough for everyone to follow. Whoever won the most battles would be the winner, and the ones who lost the most would be the fourth strongest.Though it wasn't completely official, it was still going to be had. The four of them knew that the difference in power between them would most likely be miniscule at best.Crystal was a natural talent, and she came from the family of the Lloyds, known for being incredible combatants. She was bound to be one of the strongest in the school from birth alone. Jake was the epitome of hard work. Luck was on his side from the beginning, so he was something of a big fish in a small pond.But now that he'd been introduced to the river, he still held his own. Wind alchemy wasn't seen as something incredible or noteworthy by most, but Jake had changed that fact in the minds of the students.He'd held his own as one of the strongest people amongst them, and he didn't look like he would stop growing anytime soon