The Serpent reinforcents spread out, their bodies already glowing with visible Aura as they prepared to crush these upstart students.
A gang mber’s fist blazed with orange Aura as he swung at a Mafia student’s head.
CRACK!
The boy’s crude Aura shield shattered like glass. His head snapped to the side, blood and teeth flying.
He crumpled.
"DEREK!"
This wasn’t Academy sparring where people pulled their punches.
This was a life and death fight.
Edrin’s tactical skill flared to life, his mind processing everything at impossible speeds. He could see the flow of battle, the weak points, the opportunities.
But seeing and executing were two different things.
A Serpent mber – E rank by the feel of his Aura – ca at him with an Aura-coated machete that glowed sickly green.
Edrin’s twin swords blazed with his own blue Aura as he blocked.
CLANG!
The impact sent shockwaves up his arms. His feet slid backward across the cracked pavent.
’He’s stronger. More experienced. But I can see his pattern–’
Another slash.
Edrin ducked, his tactical mind showing him the exact angle to dodge.
His counter-strike caught the man across the ribs – Aura-enhanced blade biting deep.
The gang mber scread.
Blood sprayed hot across Edrin’s face.
The man staggered back, clutching the wound, Aura flickering as he tried to stop the bleeding. But he still died.
Edrin stared at the blood on his swords.
His stomach lurched.
He turned and vomited violently, his breakfast splattering across the pavent.
"EDRIN, BEHIND YOU!"
He spun just in ti to see another attacker–
BANG!
The gang mber’s knee exploded in a spray of blood and bone.
On the rooftop, Damian stood with his gun pointed, his other hand casually tucked in his pocket.
The man collapsed screaming.
Edrin wiped his mouth, forcing himself to focus.
’No ti. No ti to be weak. They’re counting on .’
"Lysa! Find a higher ground, NOW! Ronan, with ! Everyone else, surround them!"
His voice cracked but held authority.
****
Lysa had already found a better vantage point – the roof of a two-story building overlooking the entire street.
Her sensory skill was working overti, tracking every enemy, every movent, every threat.
She drew her bow, condensing her Aura into the string.
No physical arrow.
Pure Aura.
The technique she’d spent two months mastering under Professor Seraphina’s brutal training.
’Focus. Breathe. See the target...’
THWIP!
The blue Aura arrow shrieked through the air and punched through a gang mber’s shoulder, the Aura detonating on impact.
He scread, his entire arm going limp.
THWIP! THWIP!
Two more shots. Two more hits.
But there were so many of them.
And then she saw it – a window on the second floor of the building across the street.
Three gang mbers with rifles, taking aim at her friends below.
"NO!"
One of them fired.
BANG!
A Mafia student – a quiet girl nad Emily who always helped Lysa with her theory classes – jerked violently as the bullet tore through her stomach.
She fell.
Didn’t get back up.
Sothing snapped in Lysa.
Her Aura exploded outward, brown mixing with gold – far more than she’d ever channeled before.
She drew the bow back, pouring everything she had into a single arrow.
"Piercing Gale."
Her weapon art activated.
The Aura arrow was massive, nearly a ter long, spinning like a drill.
BOOM!
It didn’t just hit the window.
It obliterated the entire section of wall.
Bricks, glass, wood – everything exploded inward in a devastating blast.
The three gang mbers inside didn’t even have ti to scream.
The arrow detonated.
When the dust cleared, there was just... a hole. And red mist.
Lysa stared at what she’d done.
At what was left of three human beings.
Her bow slipped from trembling fingers.
She turned and vomited over the edge of the roof, her body shaking violently.
"I killed them. I killed them. I killed–"
"LYSA!"
Ronan’s bellow snapped her back.
"We need you! Don’t stop now!"
She wiped her mouth, tears streaming down her face, and picked up her bow.
They needed her.
She could break down later.
****
Ronan was a hurricane of violence.
His Brown Aura blazed around his massive fra as he activated his innate skill.
Titan’s Fury.
His already impressive height shot up another foot. Muscles bulged, veins standing out like cables. His dark bronze skin seed to glow with inner fire.
"Co on then, you bastards!"
A gang mber swung a tal bat crackling with yellow Aura.
Ronan caught it.
With his bare hand.
CRUNCH.
His fingers crushed the tal like paper.
"My turn."
His Aura-coated fist slamd into the man’s face.
The gang mber’s head snapped back at an unnatural angle. His body flew backward, crashing through a storefront window.
He didn’t get up.
Ronan didn’t stop.
Another enemy. Another punch.
This one caved in ribs. The cracking sound was sickening.
A knife scraped across his back – his Aura-hardened skin deflecting most of the damage but still leaving a shallow cut.
He roared and spun, backhanding the attacker.
The man’s jaw shattered.
Blood and broken teeth sprayed across the pavent.
But even Ronan’s monstrous strength had limits.
A gang mber – E rank, stronger than the others – slamd a chain wrapped in dense green Aura into Ronan’s knee.
CRACK!
"ARGH!"
Ronan staggered, his leg buckling.
The sa man followed up with a crushing blow to his ribs.
Even through his Aura defense, Ronan felt bones crack.
He went down on one knee, coughing blood.
"Gotcha, big man!"
Three more gang mbers rushed in, seeing their chance–
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Three headshots in rapid succession.
Three bodies dropped.
Damian stood on a fire escape now, closer to the action, his gun still running non stop to help them.
His crimson eyes t Ronan’s for just a mont.
Get up.
The unspoken command was clear.
Ronan spat blood and forced himself to stand, ignoring the screaming pain in his knee.
"Thanks, Boss."
He threw himself back into the fight.
****
Zavier was still crying.
Still screaming.
Still stabbing.
"I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY! PLEASE JUST DIE SO I DON’T HAVE TO!"
His spear, coated in his shaking Aura, punched through another gang mber’s leg.
The man collapsed.
Zavier stabbed him again.
And again.
And again.
"Zav, he’s already down!" soone shouted.
"I KNOW! BUT WHAT IF HE GETS BACK UP!?"
He kept stabbing.
Blood was everywhere. On his face, his clothes, pooling around his feet.
A gang mber tried to flank him.
Zavier spun, tears and snot streaming down his face, and threw his spear in pure panic.
It flew wild...
And sohow buried itself in the man’s throat.
Pure luck.
Zavier stared, then imdiately vomited, adding to the ss at his feet.
"Oh god. Oh god. I killed him. I actually–"
Another enemy charged at him while he was distracted.
Zavier’s eyes went wide with terror.
He grabbed the nearest thing he could find, a broken brick, and hurled it.
The brick, infused with his panicked Aura burst, hit the man square in the face.
His nose exploded in a spray of blood.
"AHHH! MY FACE!"
"I’M SORRY!" Zavier shrieked, grabbing his spear back and stabbing wildly. "STOP ATTACKING AND I’LL STOP STABBING YOU!"
Despite the chaos, despite the blood and death and screaming–
Soone laughed.
Then another.
"Did he just... apologize while stabbing soone?"
"Zav’s fucking insane!"
"I love it! KILL ’EM, ZAV!"
The laughter was hysterical, tinged with madness, but it spread.
These kids were breaking.
But they were breaking forward, not backward.
****
The student nad Marcus caught a knife to the shoulder, the Aura-coated blade punching through his hasty defense.
He scread.
Selene, the girl with twin daggers, had one of her hands dislocated, when a staff hit her.
She stared at her ruined hand in shock, unable to process what she was seeing.
Another boy – his na was Rio – took a bat to the skull.
His Aura shield held just enough to keep his head from splitting open, but he still went down hard, blood pouring from a massive gash.
The injured were piling up.
But so were the bodies.
The Mafia students were learning, adapting, becoming more vicious with every second.
And more Serpent Gang mbers kept arriving.
"How many of these fuckers are there!?" Ronan bellowed, his Titan form starting to flicker as his Aura reserves ran low.
"Too many!" Edrin shouted back, his tactical mind screaming warnings. "We need to–"
A new voice cut through the chaos.
Older. Harder. Infinitely more dangerous.
"Well, well. Look at this ss."
Everyone froze.
A man stepped into the street, and the very air seed to grow heavier.
D- rank.
His Aura was dense, controlled, absolutely suffocating compared to the E rankers.
He cracked his knuckles, each one glowing with condensed orange Aura.
"You brats killed a lot of my people. That’s gonna cost you."
Behind him, five more E rank gang mbers erged from the shadows.
The students’ faces went pale.
They couldn’t handle this.
They were about to die.
And then–
BANG!
The D- rank man’s head rocked to the side as an Aura-infused bullet grazed his temple, leaving a bleeding furrow.
He touched the wound, staring at the blood on his fingers in shock.
"What the–"
He looked up.
Damian stood on the roof edge, his gun aid casually, its silver engravings shining in the moon light.
His crimson hair stirred in the wind.
His eyes were cold. Ancient. Terrifying.
"You’re in my way."
His voice carried despite the distance.
"Move, or die. Your choice."
The D- rank gang mber’s face twisted with rage.
"You little shit! I’ll–"
BANG!
This ti the bullet hit his shoulder, spinning him around.
Damian’s voice was perfectly calm.
"That’s strike two. There won’t be a three."
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