Alkalians (46 page)

With a single flick of his fluke,
Nicholas turns his body about and charges towards Cain at high
speed. Bubbles escaping his mouth when he gasps, Cain desperately
throws magic spells from his sword at the incoming Beast, who puts
up an aura of blue water that shields him from them. Upon getting a
few yards away from his prey, Nicholas bursts out of his aura and
rolls to rush past him, whose sword was held feebly before him in
hoping to impale him. Turning to look after him, Cain is startled
to find himself spun into a wild somersault through the water from
the gyro effect of Nicholas’ roll.

A moment later, Cain’s somersaults
end, leaving him dizzy and unable to see clearly around him. He
could see enough, though, to pick out Nicholas coming back at him
from above, his jaws wide open and lined with spearhead-like teeth.
As sheer terror leaves its mark on Cain’s face, Nicholas bites down
upon him, containing his head in his mouth and dragging the rest of
his body along in his momentum.

In the next few seconds, he thrashes
his head, Cain’s body being flopped around like a rag doll as his
teeth saw through his throat, and a squirt of wound energy
coincides with him flinging Cain out of his mouth, whose neck
gushes out wound energy to show his battle morph was decapitated.
While Nicholas swims away, Cain is left suspended in mid-flail, the
energy spilling out of his neck rapidly turning red in color before
he finally demorphs.

***

On a higher level of ground than where
the battlefield was, the rest of the students that have demorphed
watched the possessed pool of water stay in place before them.
While the miniature sea was cruel to those still in morph, it
mercifully carried those demorphed to where the defeated students
are, spitting them out onto the dry land. Having watched in awe the
parts of the battle’s conclusion above water, the students are not
prepared when whatever force keeping the pool in shape shuts off,
causing it to collapse and spread out in all directions. One of the
waves sweeps through all of the students in its path, knocking many
of them over and leaving them drenched, slipping, and choking on
the dispersing cold water.

Among those flattened by the flushing
sea include James, both of his human, twin forms sprawled near each
other and their hair resembling wet mops, Buster, raising himself
to his knees while spitting some mud out of his mouth, and Cain,
lying on his back while coughing up water. After the last of the
water is out of him, he sits up, rubbing his sore neck, and pales
when he sees Nicholas, in his human form with dry clothes and hair
straight, stomping towards him, hate and rage gleaming in his black
eyes.

Trying to put on a calmer impression,
Cain shuffles backwards while Nicholas comes closer, saying, “Oh,
um, good evening, Nicholas! What a beautiful night we’re having,
right? It’s a little chilly, but that might just be because I’m all
wet! By the way, well done with taking over the battle, which is
nothing new for you, right? The only downer, though, is you won’t
get a score from me, because my badge is green, too,
eh?”

The towering bulk of Nicholas looms
over him, his mouth twisted into a ferocious snarl. He bends down,
grabs the collar of Cain’s suit with his left hand, and lifts him
up in one smooth motion. Holding Cain at eye level before him, his
legs dangling in the air while he gargles from the hanging
simulation, Nicholas digs his glare deep into him. “You may wrap
yourself up to look pretty with your ribbons and bows, but that
doesn’t change the fact you are nothing but trash. You were trying
to use me, weren’t you?”

Speaking through his gasps for air,
Cain grabs at Nicholas’ arm to steady himself. “Me, use you?
Whatever do you mean?”

“
You know exactly what I
mean, you waste of flesh. When I arrived on campus, you came up to
me and told me all about Matthew Calamos, how he was trying to take
over the school community with his special powers. However, when I
went to punish him in a battle today, I found he was nowhere close
to the cocky, ignorant, foolish brat that you portrayed him to be.
In fact, the only person I know who
still
fits that description is
you.”

Sensing his temper beginning to flare,
Cain pleads, “Okay, okay, I’m sorry I treated you like a tool. But,
you have to understand, he really is trying to bring disorder to
our student community, and…”

“
Don’t start talking to me
about all of your silly, pointless politics! Not only am I a senior
student, but I have also become a military officer back in
Corrasin, so I don’t care how a bunch of inferior strangers are
going to behave around here after I leave this wretched
place!”

“
Gah, Nicholas, please,
have pity on a fellow senior!”

“
Pity? PITY!? Why should I
show pity on an atrocious excuse of an Alkalian like you, a spoiled
brat who takes his stress out on innocent, spineless children?
You’re nothing but a hypocrite, bringing misfortune upon others and
then begging for mercy when it bites you back.” Pulling his right
arm back, Nicholas exclaims while forming his hand into a fist, “I
should have done this years ago, on that cursed day I first met
you!”

Cain squeals while raising his arms to
protect his face. Before Nicholas sends his fist forward, James,
rejoined into one man instead of two, appears next to them and
cries, “Nicholas, stop! As much as he deserves it, you can’t attack
him like that when he’s out of morph, you would be breaking college
rules!”

His fist locked back from James’
interjection, Nicholas growls out his frustration between his
clenched teeth. Glancing past Cain, he notices the other students
staring back at him, their eyes big, clothes dripping wet, and
bodies shivering from cold and fear. Then, his narrowed eyes widen
with shock. The anger in his face fades away, his right arm lowers
itself down, and he lets go of Cain, dropping him to the muddy
ground with a soft thud.

While both Cain and James are
astonished by his sudden change in behavior, Nicholas mutters in a
quiet voice, “I have to go now. Excuse me.” His gaze low, he walks
away, leaving the crowd of students behind and setting off into the
empty fields.

Watching him leave with startled
expressions on their faces, Cain and James don’t notice Buster come
up behind them until he declares, “Well, once again, Nicholas
Narqailein vanquishes all who are captured in his sea of fury. It’s
so expected of it always, freaking happening, I would love to meet
the guy who finally defeats him.”

Shifting over onto his knees, Cain
admits, “Yes, he is due for someone to take him down. He’s just a
big jerk, anyway, it would probably have been for the better if he
did hit me, just so I could get him suspended for it! Heh, how
refreshing that would have been, right, James?”

Looking up to him, Cain’s attempt to
brighten up is denied when he sees James leering down at him. He
rebukes, “You’re full of conceit to the bitter end, aren’t you? It
was a good thing I stopped Nicholas from slugging you, it would
have been tragic to see someone like him lowered to your
stature.”

Stepping over to James’ right side,
Buster shows his grimace while speaking down to Cain, “You truly
are pathetic. You not only tried to use the Wrecking Wave to do
your dirty work, but you failed even at that. Hey, wait a minute.”
He thinks back to what Nicholas had said and exclaims, “Did, did
Matt beat him? Oh, if he did, I’m gonna sock him for doing it when
I wasn’t around to see it!”

“
No, no, that couldn’t
be,” objects Cain with a snarl. “No student here can defeat the
Drowning Dread, everyone knows that. More likely, the freshman
freak begged him for forgiveness after he got crushed, and that
somehow moved him with pity. Now, if it had been me in Nicholas’
place…”

“
Which is even
more
unlikely, since you
won’t dare go within a hundred yards of Matt, you would have
probably gloated over him and spat in his face. Am I right?” Cain,
about to snap back at him, is reminded of the glare on Buster’s
expression. “Oh, and let me warn you…” He tugs on the blue badge on
his chest, identical to the one on James. “Once you get to the
tournament finals,
if
you get to the finals, you’ll get what’s coming to
you.”

With his mind spoken, Buster turns and
walks away, shouting to the students still standing around, “Okay
guys, the show’s over! Go back to your cabins and change into some
warmer, dry clothing. If anyone here volunteers to help me get the
unconscious to the infirmary, however, they get a round of drinks
at the casino, all on me!”

While Buster stirs the other students
into action, Cain and James glance back at each other. Holding out
his hand, Cain wryly smiles and asks, “Can I get a helping hand,
cousin?”

His leer like stone upon his face,
James replies, “Help yourself. I tried, and failed, to help you
years ago.” He walks past him without a second glance, wiping
strands of hair off his face while a stunned Cain looks on after
him.

A moment after he leaves,
and after noticing nobody else moving to help him, Cain pounds the
ground near him with his left fist, bitterly thinking to himself
why every plot he thinks of to bring Matt down only makes him look
worse, and how he is left alone. Well,
almost
alone.

***

Two days later, Sean wanders the
casino’s halls, looking for something to do. Yesterday, he was so
busy challenging people and winning points off victorious battles
he was exhausted by the end of the day. Upon checking the score on
the back of his badge, he concluded he had gathered two hundred and
forty-seven points. Therefore, he decided to take a break before
the final day of battling tomorrow.

Just like he remembers from last year,
Sean sees the casino isn’t as busy as it usually was, due to most
of the students fighting all over campus. He walks about through
the eerily quiet building, not sure what to do as one of the few
using the casino. Soon, he comes into the swimming pool section.
When he sees it mostly absent of people, he’s about to leave when
something grabs his attention. Someone is swimming in the main pool
all by herself, and the tanned skin, flowing red hair, and sudden
attraction toward her tells him it’s Cynthia. Not conscious of
doing it, Sean comes closer to the water as she is exits the
pool.

Before wrapping herself in a towel,
Cynthia’s current appearance is fixed into Sean’s vision. The only
clothing she has on are brown-colored bikini bras. The rest of her
visible body is tanned a beautiful shade, curiously more bronze
then instead of garnet, and her long red hair gleams like liquid
ruby when she doesn’t dry it off. Almost in a trance from her
appeal, Sean doesn’t realize he’s gotten a few steps away from
her.

When she finishes drying the most of
herself, Cynthia turns to notice Sean. Surprised, she says, “Well,
you’re being the most quiet I’ve ever known you. How are you,
Sean?”

Sean, slowly escaping his day-dreams,
replies, “Oh, fine. I was, looking for something to, take up my
time.”

“
Ah, you’re not working on
your project right now?” asks Cynthia with a sweet tone. “Me, too.
I fought all day yesterday, and even had a few matches along the
way here.”

“
Ah,” Sean responds.
“Yeah, fighting for hours can be a lot of work. This is my first
time in such a situation, you know, and it’s tougher than I
thought. In fact, I lost a few battles from taking on too many
people in a row and a guy would only need to hit me once to make me
demorph.”

“
You mean you don’t know
the recovery trick?” Cynthia asks him. When Sean gives a clueless
gesture, she explains, “After a battle, if you demorph and remain
human for enough time, your morph regains whatever health it lost
at a fast rate. So when you have low health energy, just stay out
of morph for a few minutes, re-morph, and you’ll be fully healed
for another match!”

Sean smacks his forehead and says, “Of
course! That’s what they meant in science class when they talked
about the Combat Cycle. The time you’re out of morph must be the
interphase!”

“
Exactly.” She and him
pause for a moment, each of them not sure what else to say. Then
she asks, “Want to go for a walk?”

Caught off-guard by the question, Sean
stammers before answering with, “Uh, sure. I’ll just, wait here
while you change into some warmer clothes.”

Cynthia chuckles before telling him,
“Actually, I didn’t bring any clothes besides the ones I’m
wearing.” After Sean stares at her in disbelief, she passes by him
and gets him to follow with a finger motion, a sly smile on her
delicious red lips.

***

Shortly after they leave the casino,
Sean and Cynthia walk through the open fields. If anyone had seen
them, it would have been an odd scene. A fully dressed man walking
beside a woman clothed only in towel and barefoot. The autumn day
is particularly cold as the northern wind deepens the
chill.

Cynthia acknowledges the current
temperature when she admits, “Like I said, I came through here in
my battle morph. I didn’t feel the cold while I was in
morph.”