A child, no older than ten sat in the corner of a dark room. His eyes dark, his heart darker. His dark scraggly hair sat right on his head.He swayed back and forth murmuring something to himself. It was a nursery rhyme. It was humpty Dumpty.He didn't like that one in particular very much. He'd thought it a tragedy how Dumpty would fall from the wall and shatter into so many pieces that even all the king's horses couldn't piece him back together.He was singing it only because it was the only one his mother had taught him. Not just that, he sang it because it distracted him.It distracted him from the bad sounds. From the sounds of his mother getting beaten in the other room.He rocked back and forth and tried singing louder. But his voice was too sore. He was already exhausted and his fresh bruises from his own beating still hurt.It was his fault that his mother was getting beaten in the first place. If only she'd kept quiet and let his dad beat him like he did every other night.B
Ruby stood face to face with it. It's dangling eye, it's rotting flesh, it's scaly skin. Despite looking dead it still looked fearsome, perhaps even more so now that it moved in the state it was.Some parts of its bone were visible. By logic, it shouldn't be moving. Even if it did it should've been falling apart. Technically it was.But now she was frozen in fear. Standing in front of the giant flying lizard monster in front of her. She faced an undead dragon.The beast was on fire. Perhaps it was able to light itself on fire; perhaps it was trying to breathe fire, but its current state caused the fire to leak outside its body.As to which it actually was, Ruby couldn't tell. To her knowledge dragons had fireproof bodies. They breathed fire, but as to whether their bodies could light on fire she didn't know. In fact, up until now, the concept of a dragon felt like a fever dream.Maybe she was just seeing things. The dragon swayed its head and turned to face her.It's head was massiv
The info dump was quick and direct. It needed to be, there was no point in talking if they'd die before much was spoken about.The plan they came up with was simple in concept but hard in practice. The dragon could sense the flow of mana and could vaguely predict their moves.The fact that Ruby was able to land an attack on it that it panicked and used its weight to try and crush was proof that it wasn't completely proxy to the exact spells they were able to do.But regardless, it could tell when they wanted to do, something. But now that meant that they were walking on eggshells.The things they could do were quite limited. The dragon turned around and whipped its tail against the ground. Ruby was seated on the floor behind a rock, her back facing the dragon.Meanwhile, Damian and Christopher were standing beside her on either side of the rock facing the dragon. Damian's arm was still in terrible shape, and while Christopher had his fair share of injuries, he was in by far the best
Lee was sprinting at full speed straight out of the cave. "That dragon... Even Soki shouldn't be able to handle that all by himself," he thought as he ran.Leaving the entrance he used sand and carried himself straight to the top of the depression. He looked down at the cave.Cracks has formed all-over the ceiling for it. He sat there patiently covered by a few leaves and shrubs."I'll wait here till the dragon kills them, and then..." He pulled out a small amulet from his pocket, "... I'll use this to control the beast crystal we put inside of it." It would be a shame that his rival would most likely die—and with such great potential too. But, it wasn't something he hadn't gotten used to.Suddenly he felt another huge tremor ring through the entire cave—reaching him all the way at the top."That must be Soki... He can't beat that thing," he thought to himself. Not too long after the ceiling began collapsing on itself.A smile sat on Lee's face. He could tell that the fight was over,
"Damn it!!!" Soki yelled as he quickly rushed to the floor, taking four rocks and tossing each one into four distinct alchemy return circles."AHHHHH!!!!" shouted Ruby at the top of her lungs, "Where'd he go!!!" Asked Damian as he looked around him."He could still be in the area!" Said Christopher. "No!" Yelled Soki, "he ran away to avoid battle. He knew that if he tried to attack any of you I'd kill him," said Soki as sweat ran down his face.He stood up from the floor. "I'm sorry Ruby," he said as he turned to her. "I should've attacked him the instant he showed up," he added.He placed a hand on his face, "I wanted to gather some info on him first. I'm terribly sorry for causing you pain while I could bring you closure Ruby," said Soki.Ruby stomped her foot on the ground as hard as she could, "I'll kill him myself Soki! You didn't cause anything!!" She said.Damian and Christopher lowered their guards a little, "so where is he now?" Asked Christopher. "I don't know, but it's clea
A spatial rift opened, and out fell Light. Beaten and bruised, yet healing himself quicker than anyone could think.His body landed on the floor, still half-yelling about the ORA. But that quickly stopped when he realised he was no longer where he thought he was."Where am I?" He thought, as his body slammed into the floor. The floor itself looked incredibly clean, only dirtied by the blood spilled once he hit the floor.His face was still bleeding all over, and his body was still horribly damaged. But he was able to push himself off of the ground.His eyes scanned the room. It wasn't that big, but he could see there was a fair amount in the room.A water dispenser, chairs, a desk, a few plants, and very minimal wiring. "Is this a office?" He thought to himself."Would you look at that," a sinister and cold voice said. Light immediately shot his head up, meeting eyes with the voice's owner."A gift from Charlie is a rare sight..." The owner of the voice got up from his desk, walking s
Kipple was running through the halls, desperately going as fast as possible towards Tyger's cell.He'd prayed in his heart that Tyger was somehow safe and sound. But the more Drakemen prisoners he'd come into contact with, the more and more he'd felt like that wouldn't be true.Bodies were littered left and right throughout the prison. Both of prisoners and guards.His anger continued to boil within him, and so did his worry. He was worried about the chief, about his comrades, about Emilia, about the citizens, about Tyger.... He was worried about Earl.He didn't know the jist of it, but he'd do what he could. He was close now, just one more corner and he would be turning into the corridor of the cell.His heart pounded faster and faster. He was seconds away from knowing if Tyger was dead or alive. So many thoughts ran across his mind, but he didn't have the time for any of that.He turned around the corner, still sprinting at full speed. Ahead he saw them, a sight that was completely
Sidney and the Dragon bandits were soaring through the air. Inside of Jade D, a vehicle that looked like a cross between a jet and a bus, they soared roughly 100 meters in the sky.The sound on the inside of Jade D was loud. The air crashing into the vehicle, the heavy engines keeping the thing flying, it was all way too loud.Sidney was shocked that this thing could fly in the first place. But Viking proved to be a better engineer than Sidney had thought him to be.Spike and Viking were at the pilots seat, flying the thing. Veronica and Ronda sat at a table playing poker, both fully loaded with weapons.Jester was eating his chips quietly, sitting down in between Wolfgang and Hans, who were currently arguing about something.Julian and Sidney were leaning up against windows on opposite sides of the room, looking down.Sidney had binoculars in his hands. Down below it finally came into view, the place they were headed for.The city looked fairly large. What closely resembled people, b
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