Chapter 33: What We Share In Common
[Is he... dead?]
[There's no way he just got picked off like that, right? I mean, isn't he supposed to be super strong?]
[To think that I got fooled into thinking he was anything more than an F-rank...]
While the unrest in the stands continued to grow, Elias sat to himself at the peak, head dipped in thought. 'Should I have come all the way out here? Yumi and Victor were both blabbering on about this new guy, so I thought it would've been fun to see him in action, but I suppose it was all for nothing.'
"You humans are blind. All it takes is one look to see that he's perfectly fine," the girl next to him said.
Elias tilted his head in disbelief. "Huh? How could you be so certain from this distance? Look at him, he's dead on the ground—what!?!"
Logan was pushing himself off the floor, groaning through each movement. Without meaning to, he dug his hand into his scalp, looking around deliriously. "What...? I'm alive?"
The crowd went through an upheaval, waves of screams washing over the battle station to inebriate Logan past his breaking point.
He squeezed his face, trembling through the pain.
His senses were flooded, and it didn't help that he still couldn't control his heightened hearing.
Zack, standing at the edge of the battle station, lowered his fist. "How'd you dodge it? You've been using no mana to aid you this entire fight, and you were barely able to avoid my punches just a second ago. It doesn't make sense."
Logan lowered his gaze to the ground beneath him—no, to the person laid out on it. There sat Pixel, digging herself out from under his back. "Ghhggh, get your big body off of me!" she shouted.
'So that's what it was. She got out from my back pocket and pulled me to the ground before the attack connected."
Grunting through the flashes of pain moving through his spine, he pushed himself off the hard ground.
"Pixel, why'd you save me?"
"What type of question is that?" she answered, wriggling her way into his pocket. "We share the same fate. If I don't fight to keep you in check, then I'll die before completing my life's mission."
"Your mission...?" Logan shook his head once she didn't respond, taking the time to dust himself free of dirt.
His posture was meager, the bright in his eyes beginning to wane.
Each time he wanted to take a step back, or move his hands up in anticipation to an oncoming attack, his muscles would twitch, pushing back against his will.
He could feel himself slipping, and yet...
Zack stood just as strong, perhaps even stronger. Despite being situated in the middle of a duel, his hands were unclenched—like the situation didn't call for his immediate attention.
Though he didn't want to admit it, Logan felt himself experiencing flecks of envy.
"I suppose that you're not quite as weak as I've made you out to be," Zack said suddenly, turning to Logan. "I really did intend to kill you."
Logan, pained as he was, tilted down into a smile. "Oh, yeah? You'll find my resilience doesn't end there."
"Oh, I know of how persistent you are. After all, despite being nicknamed the "training dummy," you never backed down—even going so far as to have the third most duels out of anyone in this entire school." Zack—almost solemnly—looked down, eyes vibrating. Logan stepped back. "It's for that reason that I've set myself to ending your life."
"Training dummy?" Selene asked, looking up at Sabrina.
Sabrina averted her gaze, a sweat trailing her cheek. "Uhm... well, I think it's best you don't learn anything about that—"
"It's the nickname attributed to the weakest student at this school. He earned it by giving students free merit points in his duels.
It got to the point that people stopped fighting him for the merit, and instead just used him as an opportunity to train their new techniques." The one to speak was Jasmine, meeting Selene's eyes with all the icy indifference that she owned.
Sabrina's head jumped back, caught between Selene and Jasmine. Uncontrollably, she shook her hands in the air. "No, Selene, you must know, none of the rumors about him are true! In the end, a title is a title! He's just as cool as you think—"
"Sabrina, you shouldn't lie to me. How others look at my brother doesn't change my perception of him. Even if the whole world is against him, I just know that he'll rise up and conquer it. It's the promise that he swore to me, so I just know it."
Promise...?" Sabrina said, not expecting a response. Quickly, her frown rose to a grin. "Well, I suppose that's just like him. In which case, you and I share one thing in common."
Selene tipped her head to the side, confused. She withheld the urge to follow up with a question once she watched the way Sabrina' eyes glinted.
Meanwhile, Logan clenched his teeth against the great tension in his legs. As fast as his body would allow, Logan ducked to his left, narrowly dodging thin air.
The crowd looked on, confused. Some even stood up to laugh at him, others twirling their finger at their head as if to signal he was crazy.
[What is he dodging?]
[Has Zack's beatings made him lose it?"]
[Man, to think I came after-school for this.]
Despite not being visible to the naked eye, Logan could just make it out.
The attack was straight, howling through the air in all the same tone of a wolf.
Its energy was enough to make the mana react, trembling at its presence.
In addition, if one really paid attention, they would catch the small, branching striations of power cackling from the beam like electricity.
'The same attack that he used earlier?' Logan thought, pushing up off the ground. But without a single moment's hesitation, he jumped to his side.
"GRAAAGGGHHHH!" he screamed, gripping the side of his stomach with his left hand.
Liquid violent streamed from an open sore where the beam had connected, gushing freely—even pulsing in synchronicity with his heart.
He fell to his knees, glowering at the boy standing ahead of him.
Zack smiled down, finger gunning Logan's head. "Well, come on then. Show me some of that resilience of yours, unless you want to die."