Daniel walked away from the training field. He did not look back at the cheering crowd or the bright lights of the stage.
The noise of the celebration faded behind him.
He was alone, and for the first ti in a long while, he preferred it that way.
He enjoyed the cool weather , but his mind was burning with plans.
The announcent about the seventy-two-hour break was a gift. It was the only good news he had heard all day.
He touched the pouch at his waist. Inside, there were 1,000 Vanguard Coins. It was the reward for ranking sixth.
"A thousand coins," Daniel thought, shaking his head. "It is not enough." He knew that high-grade equipnt cost thousands of coins. If he wanted to survive the Astral Verge, he needed more.
He began to strategize as he walked toward the main academy building. He ran a ntal checklist of his gear. His D-Grade Vibro-Knife was still sharp, but the blade was chipped near the handle.
It had struck the hard bones of the Fenrir too many tis. It needed to be repaired and polished.
His D-Grade Deflector Vest was in worse condition. The acid rain had weakened the fabric, and the claws of the Ravagers had left deep gashes in the protective plates. If he took a direct hit now, the vest might fail.
"Repair first," Daniel decided. "Then buy new gear." He thought about his new class, the Divine Warrior. It gave him extra strength and defense. It made him tough. But he knew he lacked range.
He looked at the Skyreaver Bow slung over his shoulder. It was a beautiful weapon, white as bone. But he didn’t have many arrows, and he didn’t have any archery skills to make it deadly.
"I need a skill book for the bow," he muttered. "And I need better boots. Sothing that works with [Shadowsteps]."
His mind was a whirlwind of numbers and tactics.
He was so focused on his plans that he almost forgot where he was going. Daniel walked through the large double doors of the main building. He entered the central hallway that connected the training grounds to the dormitories.
The hallway was wide and brightly lit. It was filled with students who had just been dismissed from the assembly.
The atmosphere was loud. It was chaotic. "I can’t believe we made it!" a girl shouted, hugging her friend. "Did you see my rank? Top 50!" a boy bragged, showing off his Databand.
Daniel moved through them silently. He kept his head down. He weaved between groups of happy students.
He felt a little disconnect from them. They were celebrating survival. He was preparing for the next war.
Then, he saw him. It happened in slow motion.
The crowd ahead of him parted slightly to let a group pass. About twenty ters away, a figure was walking down the center of the hall.
It was a boy. He was lean and had ssy brown hair. He wore a standard grey uniform that looked slightly too big for him.
He was walking with a limp. He dragged his left leg slightly with every step, favoring his right side. It looked painful. It looked pitiful.
Daniel stopped. His boots skidded slightly on the white tiles. He stared at the back of the boy’s head.
His heart skipped a beat. He knew that limp.
The boy turned his head to the side. He was talking to a short girl walking next to him. He looked down at her with wide eyes. Then, he smiled. It was a shy, innocent smile.
It was Bran.
For a second, Daniel thought he was hallucinating. He thought maybe the guilt had finally broken his mind.
Bran should probably be dead. He should be lost in the forest. But it was him. Bran laughed at sothing the girl said. He reached out and touched her arm gently, playing the part of the sweet, harmless boy.
The sight of it triggered sothing dark in Daniel’s brain.
The bright lights of the hallway seed to blur.
The students’ laughter and chatter faded into a dull buzz.
All Daniel could see was that smile. It was the sa smile Bran had worn right before he paralyzed Daniel with poison.
"He is here," Daniel whispered. The voice didn’t sound like his own. It sounded like a growl. "He is alive."
Reason disappeared. The logical part of Daniel’s brain tried to speak.
"You need to calm down, you’re back in the Academy. You need to wait."
But the rage was louder. It consud his logic. It burned away his fear of the rules.
Daniel didn’t think. He didn’t plan. He just reacted. He focused his mind on the power dormant in his soul. He didn’t care about the caras on the walls. He didn’t care about the witnesses.
[Skill Activated: Shadowsteps]
The world around him seed to freeze. The students walking in the hallway looked like statues trapped in ti.
A surge of electric energy rushed into Daniel’s legs. His Agility stat was already high. With the boost from [Shadowsteps], it tripled instantly.
ZHOOM!
Daniel exploded forward. He moved so fast he was just a grey blur to the others.
The wind from his movent whipped the hair of the students he passed. Papers flew out of soone’s hands and fluttered in the air.
Bran didn’t even see it coming. He was still smiling at the girl.
Daniel closed the twenty-ter gap in the blink of an eye. He didn’t draw his Vibro-Knife.
He wanted to feel this. He wanted flesh on flesh. He wanted to break him with his bare hands.
Daniel’s hand shot out. His fingers clamped around Bran’s throat. The grip was tight, crushing the windpipe.
"Danie..." Bran choked. His eyes went wide with shock. The smile vanished instantly.
Daniel didn’t let him speak. He used his montum. He didn’t stop. He lifted Bran off his feet and drove him backward, across the width of the hallway.
SLAM!
He smashed Bran into the reinforced tal wall. The impact was loud. It sounded like a car crash.
The tal wall dented inward from the force of the blow. Dust fell from the ceiling tiles. The entire hallway went silent instantly.
Hundreds of students stopped and turned. The laughter died. They stared in horror at the scene.
Bran gasped for air, his feet dangling six inches off the ground. He clawed at Daniel’s hand, his fingernails scratching uselessly against Daniel’s skin.
His eyes bulged out of his head. His legs kicked helplessly against the wall.
"You," Daniel growled. His voice was low, a deep rumble that vibrated in his chest. "You rat."
Bran stared at him. For a split second, the innocent mask tried to slip back into place.
"Daniel... wait..." Bran wheezed, tears forming in his eyes instantly. "I... I thought you were dead! I’m so glad..."
The lie. The absolute audacity of the lie. It was the spark that ignited the powder keg inside Daniel.
"Don’t you fucking dare!" Daniel scread. "Don’t you dare lie to !"
He pulled his right fist back. He didn’t use any technique. He just used raw rage.
CRACK!
His fist connected with Bran’s face. The sound of the nose breaking resonated through the corridor.
It was a wet, crunchy sound.
Blood sprayed out imdiately, splattering onto Daniel’s grey uniform and his face. Bran’s head snapped back against the tal wall. His eyes rolled up.
His body went limp for a second. But Daniel wasn’t done. He wasn’t even close to being done. He let go of Bran’s throat.
Bran slid down the wall and hit the floor. As the boy hit the tiles, Daniel climbed on top of him.
He straddled his chest, pinning Bran’s arms down with his knees so he couldn’t cast any spells.
"You killed them!" Daniel roared. He raised his fist again. "You killed them and you laughed about it!"
BAM!
He punched Bran in the jaw. Bran’s head whipped to the side. A tooth flew out of his mouth and skittered across the white floor.
"You left them in the dark!"
BAM!
Another punch. This one hit Bran’s eye. The skin split open instantly. The crowd watched in terrified silence. They had seen fights between Awakened before. But this was different.
This wasn’t a fight for survival. This was hatred.
Bran tried to struggle. He tried to summon his magic. His fingers twitched, trying to form a seal to cast a spell.
"Oh no, you don’t," Daniel hissed. He saw the movent. He activated his C-Grade skill.
[Skill Activated: Forceburst]
A visible ripple of kinetic energy gathered around Daniel’s fist. The air distorted around his knuckles like heat waves on a road.
He brought his fist down.
"DIE!"
BOOM!
The impact was devastating, sending out a shockwave. The reinforced white tiles beneath Bran’s head cracked and shattered.
Dust and debris flew into the air. Bran’s body jerked off the ground from the blow.
His eyes rolled back completely into his head. Blood poured from his nose and mouth, pooling rapidly on the white floor.
He was unconscious imdiately. His face was a ruin. His nose was flattened against his skull. His lips were split wide open. One eye was swollen shut.
He looked less like a human and more like a broken doll.
Daniel raised his fist again. He was going to use his raw strength this ti, because the [Forceburst] had to cooldown.
He was ready to deliver a second killing blow. He was ready to smash Bran’s skull into paste.
"STOP!"
A powerful voice resonated through the hallway. It wasn’t a student’s voice, it was an instructor’s . But Daniel didn’t listen.
He started to bring his fist down. Suddenly, heavy hands grabbed him.
"Get him off! Now!" Two assistant instructors in power armor slamd into Daniel. They grabbed his shoulders and hauled him backward.
Daniel struggled. He thrashed like a wild animal.
He threw one of the instructors off him, sending the man stumbling back into the crowd. "Let go!"
Daniel roared, his eyes fixed on Bran’s broken body. "He has to pay! He has to die!"
Two guards rushed in. They grabbed his arms. Another instructor jumped in, grabbing his legs.
"Suppress him!" soone yelled. It took four of them to hold him back. They pinned him against the opposite wall.
Daniel panted heavily, his chest heaving up and down. His hands were dripping with red blood.
Bran lay still on the floor, a pool of blood slowly spreading around his head.
"dic!" soone scread from the crowd. "We need a dic now!"
Daniel stopped fighting, hanging in the guards’ grip as his strength drained away.
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