Friday September 15th, 2018

  Back inside the tier 2 reality things are quickly spinning out of control. Left on the other side of the passage there are twenty people. Twelve of which are Hinata and Alli’s parties. The other eight come from other non-noble students.

  “What was that?” One of the students asks. It took a while for Helo to learn his name, but he is Connar Mitchel. He also happens to be the ice mage that worked well with Arisah. He doesn’t have the strongest reserves of magic, but he is skilled at using his magic to restrict movement.

  In his hands he has a long staff with a spear tip attacked on one end. Due to his weak reserves, he isn’t a typical mage. Instead of blasting an enemy with magic, he freezes them and then attacks with the spear tip.

  “That was somebody laying a trap.” Luna says while looking around quizzically. She is arguably the most intelligent member in Alli and Hinata’s party. Between what Bibbin said and the passage suddenly closing, it seems obvious to her.

  “Well, what’s done is done.” Hinata says while trying to calm down some of the other students. Unlike Hinata’s party, they are not used to this amount of constant stress and pressure.

  “Hina’s right. We need to go help Maria.” Alli doesn’t wait for agreement, she trusts her party to have her back. Gesturing to Bibbin he starts to lead her into the jungle. Behind her, her party members start to follow.

  The last is Hinata. She looks back at the other students. “You can stay here. Or you can come help.” Then she enters the dense forest.

  The non-noble students quickly lose sight of her. “I think we should go.” Connar says.

  “Hah, yeah, I’m sure you would say that. You do know that both Heiresses are in a relationship with that quiet Helo guy? You have zero chances; he singlehandedly killed a tier 2 wild cat. It was… intense.” Bill Curtis says with a scoff. He isn’t reacting well to the stress and is starting to lash out a little.

  “What! That’s! NO!” Connar starts to stutter at the insinuation.

  “Leave him alone Bill.” Gale Huber says. Just before Bill is about to respond there is a rustling noise from beside them. Everyone jumps in freight and looks toward the noise. Then they all look to where Hinata disappeared. “Yeah, I’m not getting left behind.”

  After that Gale takes off into the woods. She has zero desire to encounter a tier 2 creature without anyone from Hinata’s party around to help. It doesn’t take them long to catch up with Hinata. She was intentionally walking slowly to give them a chance. But as soon as they do, she picks up her pace.

  “Yip!” Lelai barks angrily from the left. Hinata is supposed to be following Lelai to catch up with everyone. Helo asked Lelai to stay back and help. Unfortunately for Hinata, Lelai compares everyone to Helo. So, she is very unimpressed with her ability to follow a simple trail.

  “I get it!” Hinata says with a huff. Turning left she tries to find the trail left by Lelai but she can’t tell a difference between a fallen branch and a branch that fell because Lelai brushed past.

  About a mile ahead of Hinata and the non-noble student, Bibbin is leading the party toward Maria’s group. Maria has her four party members and then approximately eighteen non-noble members. Helo is sure that she can hold off her attackers for a short time. But he also knows that the students that are not part of her party, they don’t have the endurance and reserves to keep up a sustained fight long.

  “SCRAWWWW!” Looking Alli can see a massive bird circling. It looks like a Harpy Eagle with a white body, dark neck, dark wings and hooked beak. A second later the eagle dives down toward them. It is diving in a circular motion, picking up speed as it goes.

  “Keep going.” Helo says to the group. “It is alone, I’ll distract it.”

  “You’re not supposed to be fighting.” Alli says.

  “I know, but it will be quick.” Helo grins after that. Rocco and Arisah want to argue, but this isn’t a normal situation.

  “Fine, catch up quickly.” Alli says with a pout. Then she focuses back on following Bibbin.

  Up above the eagle is almost on them. It broke through the tree coverage and is diving down. With its circular light pattern, it is weaving its way down the trees. Looping around a trunk, the eagle is about to snatch Rurgrim with its claws.

  Just before it can latch on, it is forced to dodge. With a quick and powerful beat of its wings the eagle barrel rolls to the left. Spreading its wings wide it is carried back up into the trees.

  The ‘Dark Blade’ that Helo launched soars past and buries itself into the tree behind Rurgrim. It lands with a solid and heavy “Thunk!” Right beside the dwarf’s head. Rurgrim stares with wide eyes at the blade that is quivering in the tree.

  “Hah!” Gabi laughs at the dwarf. “It probably through you were a perfect little snack. That metal casing probably made you look like you were already packaged!” Gabi almost trips on a root. But instead of being embarrassed she just continues to laugh at the dwarf.

  Alli chuckles a little as well. The idea is pretty funny and Rurgrim does have the right shape to look like a tin can. Up above the eagle glides up. Just as it reaches a wide branch it tucks its wings and flips over the branch. Coming down it builds up speed.

  This time it appears to have wind wrapping its body and increasing its speed. “Keep going!” Helo yells. “I’ll draw its attention.” Taking out his enchanted Kukri, Helo starts to pour energy into the blade. At the same time he shifts the bag that Inka is in to be on his chest.

  It goes from dark gray to red, then white hot searing heat. Jumping from his spot on the ground. He starts to hop between trees until he is underneath the eagles flight path. In one hand he is holding the excited kitty steady. In the other he has the blade in his hand; it has shifted color. Now it is the tip and edge that are coated in white hot energy. Only the heat is radiating out, creating a heat mirage around the blade.

  Raising the blade above his head Helo tucks his face down into his jacket. With his other hand he covers the cub head with his hand and pushes it further into the bag.

  “CAWW!” The bird cries just as it reaches Helo. “WHOOOSH!” Roars out above Helo. All at once he released the heat from the blade. This is the first time that he has used it to this degree. It didn’t disappoint.

  Above Helo a mini sun was born as the heat is launched from the tip of the blade. “CAWWWWWW!” The bird cries as it flies down right into the wave of heat and flame.

  Just as Helo is about to hit the ground, there is the sound of roaring wind and then the ball of flames in the sky is dispersed. Up above the bird used its control of wind to blast away all the heat.

  A strong gust is created as he lands on the ground. With his hood blown back and his hair waving in the wind, Helo looks up. He finds the bird surprisingly okay, its feather tips were burned, and it seems to have a hole burned into its chest. But it is nowhere near enough to down the powerful tier 2 creature.

  The bird flaps its wings, creating strong winds as it holds itself in the air above Helo. With a moment to think Helo uses ‘Detect Weakness’.

  Harpy Eagle.

  One of the largest earth eagles. The Harpy Eagle has adapted to inherit abilities from its name’s sake.

  Weakness: End, Agl.

  Raising his brow, he is surprised to see that the eagle has agility as a weakness. But he also knows that it is situational. He has seen the bird maneuver through the trees very skillfully.

  “SCRAWWW!” Air seems to blast back and tremble from the power of the bird’s cry. Its wind magic tying into its raw emotions. But as the call ends, the sound seems to linger in the air. It creates a dissonance effect that makes his ears feel odd.

  Staggering slightly, he manages to catch himself. But he continues to feel more sluggish and dizzier. Looking up with blurry eyes, the bird is still flapping in the air and staring down at him. Its feathers are riled up creating a large crest around its head.

  Growling at the perceived slight. Helo hates the fact that the bird is looking down on him. His aura flares out. It lifts out of its concealed state and surges around him. The mana weakening effect hits with full force.

  Helo’s head clears slightly and he steadies himself. Take after its name’s sake. Harpy. I should have known. Helo managers to think. Looking down he can see the baby cub completely passed out in the bag.

  Glaring up, he activates ‘Bloodline Awakening’. His power flows from his heart and surges through his body. The natural dark affinity in his blood starts to nullify the magic of the eagle.

  “CAW!” Realizing something is wrong, the eagle dives down with a wind magic assisted attack.

  Its speed is impressive, but it isn’t so fast that Helo can’t track. If anything, Helo would argue that the Ocelot was faster. The only reason the bird seemed fast was because it had so much room to dive.

  Rolling back Helo evades by slipping behind a tree. Splinters fly as a wind blade cuts into the truck beside his head. Helo flinches back as the wood hits his face. But he doesn’t have long as the bird swoops past in a tight turn.

  Rolling along the trunk of the tree he goes from the back to the right side. The bird can’t turn any sharper, and it swoops back up into the sky. Getting to his feet Helo tracks the path of the bird. It is skillfully weaving between trees and branches. But it is coming back around on his right side this time.

  Charging his blade with energy, Helo is a little annoyed to realize just how much of an energy sink the thing is. He has only used it twice. But to get two powerful blasts he will have used almost one-fifth of his energy reserves.

  Not to mention his boosting skill burns through reserves as well. Sighing, Helo gets ready to meet the diving bird. He is annoyed that it also put Inka to sleep. At the same time though, he is a little thankful that he doesn’t have to worry about pushing her head back into the bag on his chest.

  “I should have handed her to Luna.” Helo says under his breath as the bird flies closer. Slipping one of the throwing knives from his bracer Helo crouches low. Just as the bird reaches him, it launches two attacks at the same time. Then the bird veers left and swoops around. One is a concussive blast of sound, the second is a blade of wind.

  The wind blade was sent over his head; Helo assumed it was meant to cut off his escape. Focusing his aura in front of him, Helo manages to weaken the two attacks. His aura is like a dark presence, slow seeping away the power of the two attacks.

  With the attacks weakened Helo would have just tanked the sound wave. Unfortunately, the attack would probably burst the eardrums of Inka. He can feel as an invisible ripple approaches, above the ripple a blade of swirling wind is close behind.

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  With a throwing blade in his hand Helo jumps in the air and prepares to throw it. He intended to use it on the bird. But now he needs to block the wind. Coating the blade in ‘Dark Hand’ while it is still in his own hand. He simply drops the blade.

  It stays in the air where he leaves it. Then a moment later it turns into a grey blur. The blade intercepts the wave of wind. Normally it would have done very little to dispel the attack. Normally it would have been swept off its own path and knocked aside by a powerful wave of wind.

  But ‘Dark Hand’ is more than a telekinetic throw. The mental energy is infused with Helo’s own dark affinity. This causes his own telekinetic abilities to weaken other attacks, specifically mana. The blade of metal and wind meet in the air. There the two attacks combat one another. As the wind blade weakens, the dark whips of energy that surround the throwing blade start to dissipate.

  A second later Helo’s throwing knife is tossed off course, and the blade of wind continues forward. A second after that the knife disappears and reappears back into his bracer. Thankfully that second was all Helo needed. Beneath him the blade of wind whistles and cuts through shrub after shrub. Then it breaks apart as it strikes a tree in the distance.

  Behind Helo the bird is swooping back in for another attack. Helo reacts quickly and pulls out the second throwing knife. Not facing the right way, he twists as soon as he lands and tosses it over his shoulder. The blade is laced with ‘Forced Still’.

  It clips the bird on the right shoulder while it descends. No longer able to control its flight, the bird flies toward the ground right at Helo. “Shit.” Helo says. He didn’t realize just how big that bird is. Now that it is barreling toward him, he realizes that he might have made a mistake.

  Twisting around again, Helo wraps the cub in his arms and takes off. Behind him the bird lands with a loud thud that shakes the ground. A second later the tumbling bird overtakes Helo’s run, and both go tumbling into the dense shrubs.

  One-hundred feet or maybe ten, Helo has no idea. But he rolls onto his back with a sigh. “That didn’t go as planned.” He says while his arms flop to his sides.

  “Mrowwww.” Inka says as she peeks her head out of the bag. Some loud noise woke her up from what was a nice nap. One Helo’s chest she looks down at him and meows again.

  “Hello Inka.” Helo sits up and looks around. About twenty feet away from him the bird is limping to its feet. One of its wings looks broken and it has a shaft of wood sticking from its chest. “Ohhhh. Glad that wasn’t me.” Helo says.

  “HELO!” A voice comes from the distance.

  “YIP!” Lelai jumps from a bush. She is about to tackle Helo in a fluffy hug, but she stops as soon as she sees just how dirty he is.

  “Nooooo…brubbrug” Helo shouts, but he is to slow. A swirl of mist, water and wind wraps his body and starts Lelai’s own unique cleaning magic. He won’t be surprised if in the future she has something like a Soap affinity.

  “GAH! Lelai!” Helo splutters as he gets to his feet. On his chest Inka is freaking out. As a cat she does not have the same love for water that Lelai has.

  “What are you doing here?” Hinata asks. Before Helo can answer, they are interrupted.

  “What is that!?” Bill shouts, his shaky finger is pointing at the massive bird.

  “Oh that?” Helo says. “That is why I am here.”

  “CAWWWW!” The bird cries out again with its magic voice. The magic is lessened with Helo’s aura around them. But the non-noble students start to stumble and one even instantly falls unconscious.

  Hinata staggers slightly but she catches herself on Helo’s shoulder. “Here. Take this.” Helo hands over Inka. But a second later he changes his mind. Taking back the cat, Hinata pouts at him but he ignores her.

  “Lelai. If you would.” He says while gesturing to the eagle.

  “Yip!” She happily barks and jumps forward. “Awooooo!” She lets out a cute howl as she creates a mist orb. At the end of the howl the orb launches forward. The eagle tries to dodge, but it can’t move fast enough.

  The orb isn’t fast. But the eagle is to injured. Reacting quickly, it intercepts the orb with a blade of wind. Right in it’s face the orb explodes with “WOOOHHMMMM!” Of rushing water and wind.

  The bird is blasted backed and tumbles over itself until it slams into a tree. The slam shatters the stick that is sticking from its chest. Back with Helo, everyone is covered in a dense layer of mist. It sweeps all their hair and clothes back, while also covering them in water.

  Everyone that doesn’t know Lelai stares in shock. But Helo and Hinata just sigh. Hinata casually starts to wring out her clothing as she glares at Helo. He sheepishly scratches his neck, “My bad.”

  “Ahuh.” Hinata replies with no real belief in her tone.

  “Yip!” Lelai runs up to the bird and can still see it breathing. But at the same time, it is completely weakened. Happily, Lelai starts to form another orb.

  “Is she going to get hurt!” Gale yells. She didn’t know that fox was so destructive. But that doesn’t change the fact that she is adorable.

  “No.” Hinata says calmly. At the same time, she and Helo step behind a tree. “She has long sense learned how to control her explosions enough to not effect herself.

  Everyone looks at the two of them in confusion. But before they can ask the ground shakes. “BOOM!” The powerful orb explodes and the entire area for almost fifty feet is covered in dense mist. At the same time the explosion, exploded the eagle, spraying blood and gore out in a circle around them.

  “Hahhh. She probably wore out all her mana with that.” Helo says with a sigh.

  It isn’t long before Lelai takes control of the mist and lifts the fog that settled over the area. As she does, she revels the eight normal student. The only one that isn’t covered in gore and dirt is Connor. Instead of asking about why Hinata and Helo were acting weird, he just followed their example.

  Hinata notices this and nods in appreciation. He is in Alli’s group, so she is going to talk to her about him. He seems like the smart and loyal sort.

  “Aguhhh.” “Gross.” “Eweeeeee.” The other seven start to wipe themselves off. Ignoring their plight Helo and Hinata look toward Lelai. She is happily prancing back without a single hair out of place.

  “Hah.” Helo chuckles in a self-deprecating kind of way. “Whatever, we should go.”

  After that he and Hinata turn and keep moving. With Helo here Hinata doesn’t have to worry about Lelai’s judging looks as she has issues following tracks. The group follows behind them. Seven are complaining and groaning, but they all still follow.

  It isn’t much longer and Helo can start to hear the sounds of fighting up ahead. They truthfully weren’t very far from the spatial passage. If he went at full speed he would have been there in a few minutes.

  But not every has his agility and practice running through a heavily wooded area. Tilting his head to listen, he stumbles to a stop. “Huh?”

  “What? What do you hear?” Hinata asks worriedly. It isn’t often that Helo looks this confused.

  “There is just a lot of noise. It sounds like cawing, grunting, yelling and chittering.” Helo looks at Hinata. “It sounds like complete chaos.

  Just as they finish speaking the others finally catch up, they are all panting hard and hoping that it is time for a break. But instead, Helo takes off as soon as they get there. A minute later they all emerge from the trees into a clearing with complete chaos.

  This was within the concentric circles that Helo made while scouting. But he never saw this. The entire area for hundreds of meters is filled with toppled trees and cut shrubs. In the center there is a massive ant hill that just sprung up.

  Infront of where they emerged Alli is with the rest of their party. They are fighting to reach the area where Helo can hear shouting and yelling. It seems that a ton of trees toppled over and created something like a makeshift barrier.

  But they are having trouble just getting there. All over the area there is a four-way battle between a massive flock of birds that are circling in the sky, a group of chimpanzees, a infestation of ants, and then Alli and Maria’s groups.

  Carl, Arisah, and Rurgrim are working hard to defend the rear and flanks of the party. While Gabi and Rocco push forward in a flurry of steel, claws and blood.

  “What do we do?” Hinata asks. She truly has no idea how to help. She doesn’t trust her own group of eight normal students to be able to handle that mess. At the same time, she doesn’t want to leave her own party and Maria’s group out in the middle of that bloodbath.

  Helo takes it all in quickly. A moment later and a dark energy starts to seep from his body, at the same time his veins under his skin start to glow with a golden light. His voice is a little deeper and sounds almost like a growl. It sends a not so unpleasant shiver down Hinata’s back.

  “Ill make a diversion. Create a place to collect everyone as they flee. Take Inka.” Helo says. There are trees, rocks and magic at their disposal. They can find a way to make a safe enough place. At least from the birds and chimps. The ants are another story.

  Holding out a hand a small capsule appears in Helo’s hand. This is the last one he has. Holding it between his pointer and middle finger, he studies it for a second and pops it into his mouth. Right now, isn’t the time for stealth.

  Looking around Helo finds a nice rocky area. He takes off his shoes, and they vanish from his hands. Hinata wants to sigh, he was supposed to keep the dimensional storage a secret. She sneaks a sublet look at the normal students and they don’t react.

  Flexing his hands his claws slide out, doing the same with his toes, his nails elongate and have subtle curves that will be great for getting a grip while running. Stretching his neck, his fangs elongate until they rest half an inch below his bottom lip. Not for the first time, Hinata starts to wonder just what Helo is.

  Crouching down Helo’s claws flash with a dark light. Then sink into the rock that he is standing on. Hinata knows what that was, it was the color of his aura wrapping his blades. Only with his own body, there is no gathering shadows. With his own body the ability to penetrate just about everything at his own tier appears in the space of a heartbeat.

  Then, flexing his jaw, Helo bites the capsule.

  Maria just can’t believe this is happening. She was excited to go into the tier 2 spatial layer. For her friends Alli and Hinata, this was just a normal dungeon run. They have experience fighting tier 2 monsters and leading others.

  But for her, she has been living under the thumb of Lucas and Miguel for a while. There was only so much her mother Isabella could do without stepping on too many toes. So, when it came to leading her party, she was always forced to follow along with Lucas.

  It is this reason she was so excited to go to the School of Awakening. It is a chance to get out from her adoptive father and brother’s shadow. That is also the reason why she spent all the money she was able to save on getting her and her four friends into the school. She even had enough to get a decent sized house with workstations.

  But how could things go bad so quickly. She had heard about Helo over the years. The wild boy that saved her two friends. Both girls would tell her about him. They would do it together and separately, like they both were trying to hide their infatuation with him.

  But now that she has met him, she can understand at least a part of it. He carries himself like nothing could phase him. She heard about him standing up to a teacher in class. When seniors were falling due to the aura pressure, he was shielding Alli and Hinata.

  She even saw him do the same thing with her father. But he shieled her as well. Then she saw him fight in the jungle, he moves like he lived there this whole life. No, better than that. The only people she has seen move smoother than him are high tier 2 and tier 3 people.

  He moves through the trees and shrubs like he knows where everything is. Like the jungle speaks to him. But that is impossible.

  “Maria! We have to move! Alli is leading her party to help us!” Ana yells from beside her. She has her arm around Maria and is helping her stay on her feet.

  “Jorden!” Ana yells as she drags Maria further under the fallen tree. “You need to heal her!”

  Suddenly all around them the jungle had exploded into action. Three different packs of creatures attacked all at once. It was like they were planning their attack. But things went from bad to utter chaos shortly after. The monsters were just as interested in killing one another.

  They got to cover and have been doing their best to defend. But they have already lost four people. Then an explosion occurred just outside their safe area. This caused the trees that were covering them to go flying. One knocked Maria on the head as it went past.

  “I’m coming!” Jorden comes into view. She is limping on her leg and holding a bleeding wound on her arm. But instead of healing herself she is coming to heal Maria. Maria is a lifeline to them.

  Her, Ana, Laura, and Helena, they were all chosen as good prospects to serve Miguel. They expected to become guards or maids, but in truth, glorified bed warms. They chose them because of their skill, but then Maria came.

  She was so skilled in mana, that Isabella found a reason for getting involved, plucking Maria away from Lucas. Then claiming that her adoptive daughter needed a party, she saved them all as well. But they all know the truth. It is Maria that saved them, now they are her friends.

  But they all already decided that they would gladly sacrifice themselves for Maria. Not only will it help their savior, but it will keep their other three friends from going back to Lucas and Migual.

  With hands glowing with green light Jorden pours out all her energy into helping Maria’s head wound. Before it can fully close Jorden’s eyes start to flutter and then she drops to the ground, mana completely spent.

  “Wh… where am I? WAIT?” Maria jolts up from Ana’s arms. “What happened? Jorden?” Maria shrugs off Ana’s arms and falls to the ground. Checking her friends’ pulse she sighs in relief.

  “She used all her mana to heal you.” Ana says while kneeling next to her. With practiced movement the two girls pull out a healing salve and bandages. Quickly binding Jorden’s arm and leg, Ana tells Maria what happened.

  “So I was hit… and we lost another.” Maria looks around. “The explosion blew away some of the trees, leaving us with less room to hide, but it also made the cover above us thicker.” Maria quickly tries to think up a plan.

  “You said Alli and Hinata were coming?” Maria asks.

  “No… Just Alli and the rest of the party. Hinata and the scary boy weren’t there.” Ana says. The two girls move between the members of the group. There is so little room in the trees that everyone is forced to stand or crouch right next to each other.

  At first there was enough room to lay down, now there isn’t. That’s okay, we won’t be here long. Maria thinks.

  While squeezing between the bodies of the scared and injured students Maria has the chance to peek between the fallen trees. Outside she can see a scene of chaos as the monsters all fight one another.

  She doesn’t think that this was an accident. The monsters all attacked at the same time. Plus, something had to have happened to the passage, because if her mother knew about this, then it would already be over. Each of the monsters would already be turned into paste.

  Finally reaching the entrance to their little hideout, it is large enough for almost eight people to stand shoulder to shoulder. Which means that three of four people can guard it without getting in one another’s way.

  She can see Laura leading everyone, making sure that everybody switches through and nobody is overworked. At the same time Helena is standing in the center. Her shield and spear raised. Maria smiles at the sight. Out of all her friends Helena reminds her most of her mother Isabella. She is tall, muscular, and a powerful warrior. She also happens to be from the same race of women warriors as Isabella, an Amazonian.