Insecure
Glen unsheathed his sword and lowered it to be parallel with his stomach, mind you this was a giant two handed sword.
A grown man’s pride is hurt by a couple of kids talking during his oh so precious assembly.
As these thoughts were swirling in my head, Glen’s foot cracked the pavement underneath him as he dashed forward. I couldn’t use my trump card as it would actually break everything around us and probably hurt innocent students. I rolled around him and his wild swings. He had no technique, he was a brute who relied solely on his strength.
“ARE YOU JUST GONNA DODGE OR ARE YOU GOING TO FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN?!” He shouted.
Many others had gathered around to watch the spectacle.
It’s like he didn’t even realize that we were being watched.
He gathered his sword and prepared to charge once more.
“Are you serious? All of this over us talking? What’s your problem?” I asked him, prepping my evasive maneuvers.
I weaved to the left as he charged once again like a bull seeing red. He used his momentum and shifted his sword to the left, grazing my chest, cutting my shirt in half.
“THAT COULD’VE KILLED ME!” I swerved to face him; hands balled up in fists.
He was basically unreachable at this point, his sole focus was to hurt me.
This is just ridiculous.
The students were cheering and whistling rather than getting some help.
“HELLO! ANYONE HERE?!” Aura and I had dropped Josh off at the infirmary and
reached the office.
The receptionist looked at us with a confused look.
“You need an appointment to speak with the principal,” she stated.
“This is a bit of an emergency..” I replied.
“Well, right now he’s discussing something with an important guest, so I’m sorry but it will have to wait.”
Aura rushed back there without hesitation.
I looked at the receptionist and bolted behind Aura.
She began barging on the door.
“PRINCIPAL, WE NEED YOUUUU!” She genuinely did not care what was going on in there and continued knocking.
Finally, someone opened the door. It was the principal with Vene sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the principal’s office.
She looked at us like we were crazy. The principal excused himself as he shut the door behind him.
“Now, young lady, that was very rude-”
“THAT ADVENTURER GUY,”
“Glen,” I corrected her as she continued shouting.
“ATTACKED JOSH. DOMINICK IS FIGHTING HIM RIGHT NOW BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP!” Aura yelled, cutting off the principal. Apparently it was loud enough because Vene exited the office with a panicked look across her face.
“That moron said he needed to go to the bathroom,” She said, exasperated.
“This isn’t a joking matter, Vene, does Glen have prior cases as such?” he asked, turning to face Vene.
“He has some anger issues. He went to rehab and all was going well. I guess it didn’t work as well as we thought it did,” Vene answered, “Nothing to this degree though, I didn’t think he’d attack a child,” she let out a long breath as if something like this was in the cards to happen.
“Students, where is this going on?” He turned back to face us.
“Outside of the dorms,” we said in unison.
Aura, Vene, and I ran alongside the principal who was weirdly fast despite being restricted in a tight suit.
“Hold out for a little longer, Dominick,” I muttered to myself.
I managed to connect one of the blows on Glen as he retaliated with a blow of his own. My ribs and my lungs were on fire.
I’ve never had to fight someone so talented in hand to hand combat.
His sword laid across the courtyard. If he was used to fighting hand to hand, this fight would’ve probably been over by now. His eyes turned red from the blood that had seeped into his eyeballs, his face was also covered by his blood and some of mine.
I can’t say that I look much better than he does.
I’m covered in blood.
I’m tired. I can barely move my body.
We’re both gasping for air. We look pathetic.
I ran towards him and punched him as hard as my body would let me. He spit out the blood in his mouth and hunched over. I swung my leg, going for a kick in his ugly face, he grabbed me and threw me to the ground.
He got up and ran over to his sword.
He picked it up and dragged it on the ground as I struggled to get up. The metal grinded against the ground, leaving a trail of sparks behind it. His mouth contorted into a wicked grin. His eyes were a scarlet red as they stared at me deep beyond my eyes.
I wiped the blood that dripped from my eyes and stood up.
I wasn’t going to go down without putting up a fight. That’s when I realized.
He threw his sword at me while he bolted forward. I easily evaded the sword. He was right there where I dodged.
“What-”
His fist landed into my stomach.
I let out a sharp, wheezing gasp as I struggled to breathe. I screamed as the pain radiated throughout my entire body, a metallic taste rose up to my mouth. I doubled over; holding my stomach as the concrete got covered in blood.
I’ve never felt pain like this before.
The students all wore worried expressions on their faces now.
There’s too many people here to use my magic.
He kept pummeling me while I grasped at the air that was leaving my lungs.
With the last punch, my mind went black. I couldn’t see or hear anything.
Was this really all that I was meant to be? Wasn’t I supposed to do more?
I drifted further and further into the depths of my mind as I faded out of consciousness.
“That was pathetic, Dominick. The power you hold inside of you, you aren’t worthy of it. The power inside of you is nothing more than extraordinary. The depths of this power go unnoticed as you continue to be weak and use it in the only way you know how. You must grow strong in order to protect the things you love, the ones you love. Look at you,” The voice changed the black void into the outside world.
Glen was standing over me, triumphantly.
“THIS IS NOT YOU ARE! YOU ARE MUCH MORE THAN YOU REALIZE! NOW WAKE UP!”
A thunderous boom reverberated as the sky began to turn dark. Students began looking around, shocked and confused as the aura in the sky began to feel eerie.
Rose and Aura had just arrived at the gloomy scene of my body strewn across the ground, defeated underneath Glen.
I couldn’t control myself. My body rose on its own as if I were a puppet. My eyes whited over my pupils, causing them to disappear completely.
Glen had already jumped backwards to the other side of the courtyard before anyone else knew what was going on.
Those adventurers’ instincts can’t be beat.
Unless you’re me.
I walked forward, almost instantly I reached Glen. The height difference caused me to be at his chin. I looked up at him, my breath settling on his chin. His legs began to shake as he drew his sword once more. He swung it down on me. It broke upon contact when it hit my head. I lifted a finger and flicked him. He soared backwards into the wall, causing a human shaped crater to take form into the concrete wall. He was unconscious as my body began to move again on its own.
It was attracted to whoever was the strongest.
That was when the Principal walked through the door leading to the courtyard.
In an instant, I dashed towards him in a heartbeat. The principal stared at me before I punched him. A large gust of wind blew everyone back except for the principal who stood there, still staring.
He summoned a few fireballs and sent them towards me at frightening speed. I dodged most of them, one made contact with my skin, leaving a blistering pain where it hit. The principal took a stride towards me, closing the distance in less than a second.
He swung his leg back and kicked my calf, causing my body to fall. He proceeded to put me in a chokehold until I was rendered unconscious once more.
“Nothing to see here, students,” he said, grabbing my body and tossing it over his shoulder and dashing away.
Everyone stared, mouths agape.
Rose, Aura, and Vene were left there stunned after all of the destruction that was in the courtyard. They eventually followed the principal to the infirmary where he laid me across the bed and sat in the chair next to me. Aura and Rose stayed behind with the principal and I while Vene helped the Magic Defense Force with Glen.
He would never be an adventurer again.
My eyes were groggy as I was able to finally be able to fully open them to see a burly figure. The Principal stood on one side of the bed while Aura and Rose remained on the other side.
“Oh, you’re awake now? Good,” the Principal left the room.
“Dom, what the hell was that?” Aura said directly in my face.
“What was what?” I answered, confused.
“You don’t remember?” Aura asked.
“No, I don’t, was it bad?” I answered, worriedly.
“WAS IT BAD? YOU BET YOUR ASS IT WAS-” Rose covered Aura’s mouth before she could spit out anymore.
“It wasn’t that bad, she’s just exaggerating. Glen beat you and the principal was able to subdue him. We brought you here,” Rose explained.
“Huh. Feels like something’s missing. Well, did anyone get hurt?”
“Nobody but you and Glen,” the Principal walked in with the school nurse.
“Girls, we need to leave so Nurse Mian can perform the final evaluation before he’s able to be discharged,” he ushered them out. He looked at me with a serious expression before exiting himself.
Nurse Mian asked me a few questions and did her examinations to make sure there were no more injuries. I couldn’t help but smile stupidly as she rolled her eyes to every single one of my answers.
She scolded me for being so stupid as to fight someone with his experience and his skills.
I guess I wasn’t as strong as I thought I was. I was barely able to keep them safe, if it wasn’t for the principal then who knows what Glen would’ve done. This whole situation really put in perspective of how weak and powerless I was when compared to someone of his caliber.
Eventually Rose and Aura would come back after Nurse Mian finished her examination.
They explained everything in detail to me.
“It seems like trouble follows you,” Rose sighed.
“You’re not far off,” I answered her, groaning.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Rose said, pushing me back down onto the bed.
“I’m going back to my room,” I stood back up and grabbed my clothes and went to the bathroom to change out of this hospital gown.
“If you say so,” Aura replied, sounding conflicted.
I walked to my room from the infirmary. I opened the door and closed it behind me.
I laid down on my bed.
I began questioning what happened. Questioning whether or not this was the extent of my power.
I want to be stronger.
I’m too tired to think about this. I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep.