The buzzer went off like a broken alarm. Students wearing black shirts found themselves flopping to the ground like sacks every few seconds.
None of them could see who their attacker was, nor did they notice him moving on to yet another unsuspecting target after brushing past them like a sumr breeze. All they heard was just a loud whoosh of the wind, followed by five taps to the shoulders—the sickening sensation of overpowered aura—and the imdiate release after the Gibbit vanished to attack another group.
Echoes of "ohs" and "ahhs" ca from the parent and student-filled seats surrounding the stadium, each going off at the sa ti the buzzer rang after a team was expelled.
Unbeknownst to them, Damien was that Gibbit causing the eliminations.
He couldn’t believe how he weaved cleanly amongst the unsuspecting students despite the speed he was sprinting at and the attacks flying about—although most of it was thanks to this innate skill that ca with his newfound ability.
’I’m so gonna learn how to enter overdrive state by will,’ Damien thought, sliding past an ice shard that flew right above his head.
As he was tagging his opponents, Damien noticed a lot of things that he hadn’t learned from the Vampire royals. For example, how the dragon shifters were the only Gibbits who possessed elental powers. Every attack Damien dodged that had to do with elents was coming from the kids whose bodies had scales or horns on them—and they were color-coded too.
Literally.
Those with white, blue, or any other light color usually controlled water, ice, or the wind like Yong Kim; those in red or crimson colors—fire; those in dark colors that almost looked black—earth; and there were rare sightings of those who controlled nature, usually in colors mostly found in plant life with green being the most common color amongst them.
As for the rest of the children, they had to use aura to suppress each other and fight.
Damien wasn’t sure what their tribal abilities were, although, the werewolves would shift mid-battle and subdue their enemies with animalistic strength. The vampires and the wizards kind were the most disadvantaged group among the lost. Well, unless they had powerful skills like the one Damien had suddenly manifested that is.
By the ti Damien reached the end of the stadium and was standing right below the phoenix glaring at him, thirty buzzers had gone off in the stadium.
He had succeeded in accomplishing his mission.
’My arms feel sore,’ Damien thought, massaging his shoulders and glancing in the direction he had co from.
In the far distance, his team was still fighting Vestin and his team. Ambrose was battling against so guy in a tall pointed hat with sunglasses and a green robe like the one Damien had torn from Vestin, and Yong was going against the leader himself. From what Damien could make out, it was a rather feisty battle. He could see them jumping and kicking at each other, and at so point, Vestin was carried into the air by a wind attack from Yong—but he managed to land easily on the ground either way.
’I’ve got to hand it to him. He’s good.’
Finishing his stretches, Damien was about to sprint back inside the stadium and help his friends when the exhaustion of the strenuous sprint he just perford finally caught up to him.
’So it ends here huh,’ he thought, his aura dissipating into thin air as he returned to his normal boring and weak state.
However, he was happy either way. He had managed to accomplish all his goals and save himself and the team from disqualification.
’Thanks shadow . I won’t fail you.’
Just then, a buzz louder than the ones that had been happening during the battle rang inside the stadium. Everyone imdiately stopped fighting and glanced at the cube oblong by the phoenix statue which had returned to its normal positioning. The nas in red were now more than the ones in blue, and they were slowly disappearing from the screen.
"That marks the end of this year’s first selection process. Every student in the stadium should stop fighting or tagging other teams," the comntator who had been awfully silent for a while now finally spoke.
Damien glanced in the far distance at his team. Thankfully, they had stopped fighting and were now hunched together—with Eden jumping around and making the most noise amongst them.
’It’s always the most useless one,’ Damien thought, rolling his eyes.
The announcer continued with his explanations:
"The nas of the team mbers who qualified for the next round will be displayed on the oblong. If your nas are there, proceed to the right side of the stadium below the dragon statue. Your seniors will assist you with first aid or answer any questions you might have while you’re there. If your nas are not there that ans you’ve been disqualified. Kindly proceed to the left side below the serpent. Those with wounds are to remain seated on the ground, the air dragon shifters will lead you to the nurse."
The students were already ahead of him before he finished speaking. Damien too. He had already noticed his team sitting in third place before the announcent even ca. It seed that among the students he had disqualified, two or three teams were recomnded students.
He had landed a whopping 1680 points and three extra tags, making them third overall after Vestin and his team, and another team that had rather strange nas.
"Lisa Mambrada, Craig Ashbone, Troy Lumberjack, and Flin who?" Damien read their nas out loud, getting stuck on the last na that got cut by the screen.
"That’ll be us, big guy," ca a girl’s voice behind him and Damien turned his head to face her. It was the redhead and her team.
"You’re the ones in second place?"
"We might not look like it, but yeah. We’re strong," the girl bead, her innocent smile making Damien wince a little.
’Her face’s too pure for this world.’
"And I assu you’re the one who tagged the most teams since your na’s first?" He asked.
Lisa shook her head. "It was Craig actually. Bit of a beast ain’t he?" She said, pointing at the beefy guy.
Damien gawked at him. Hadn’t he run off because he was afraid of Brandon?
"I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t like it. So stop or else I’ll rip you to shreds with my wolf teeth," Craig growled, half shifting his hands into large clawed paws.
But then, Lisa slapped his back lightly and he stopped shifting. Damien cringed at their strange relationship, glancing at the boy behind them— the plump scaredy-cat from before who was now fidgeting with his hands and looking at the large oblong screen.
’Probably hasn’t found his na yet.’
Aside from him, the other boy who had been with them wasn’t with them. Damien rembered the kick he had received in his groin from Ambrose and winced a little.
’Yeah, I’d not move after that kick too."
Ignoring the wolf glaring at him, Damien made his way to the right side of the stadium just like the announcer had told them.
The group of students who had managed to survive the elimination was already being attended to by a few of the senior students. So were receiving first aid treatnts—Eden was already among them—whilst others were beaming at their soon-to-be seniors and already asking questions about Gibforge—already forgetting how the comntator said this was the first round of the selection process.
As for those who had lost, Damien passed by them through the stadium. Their faces were distraught, hopes broken as tears welled out of their eyes. So even had snort flowing out their noses, and there were a few violent ones who were pointing fingers at each other.
"You should’ve held on you bloody cack!"
"How was I supposed to do that when you suddenly attacked the dragon behind ?!"
Words were thrown about, so Damien couldn’t understand because they were in different languages.
Not that he cared.
His eyes were now on the students he had tagged out, he rembered their faces at least. However, unlike the guilt he had expected to feel for squatting their dreams so rcilessly, nothing tugged at his heartstrings. Not even a bit of pity for the states they were in. It was a rather funny feeling coming from the boy who used to pity the weak and would volunteer at the old people’s ho every weekend because he felt bad for them.
Oddly enough, he felt the opposite of pity.
’I feel...powerful,’ Damien noted as he passed by a crimson shifter who was lying on his back clasping his face, crying.
’Who knew being at the top would feel this good despite killing other people’s dreams? I feel like I just won a golden trophy, and I don’t want to stop. I want to beco even more powerful, Nun level power...just like my Dad.’
"Damien!"
’Eden.’
The girl wrapped her hands around his neck, tackling him to the ground as she fell along with him, a grin on her face. Damien noticed how all the wounds had disappeared from her body, and how she was now more lively than the last ti he saw her a few seconds ago.
’The first aid here is that strong?’
"You sly little shit. Since when were you able to enter into overdrive state? Why didn’t you tell about it even though we used to spend every day together?" Eden shook him, her voice loud enough for the students surrounding them to glance at the couple suspiciously.
"You guys spent that much ti around each other?" Yong asked, his eyes narrowed at them.
"Why don’t you worry about yourself and the punishnt waiting for you once we’re done with the enrollnt process?" Ambrose chipped in, her voice icy.
Damien watched as she glared at Yong, her eyes holding enough contempt to kill him without needing to attack. The poor guy withdrew himself, making Damien smile to himself.
’Yep, no ssing with her before I beco more powerful.’
A vigorous shake from Eden who was still clasping his neck managed to bring him back to reality. The two of them had grown a bit more close since they t at the hospital, mostly because the princess was happy she had finally found soone like her. However, now that Damien was growing at a rate unimaginable to any Gibbit she’d ever known, she didn’t know what to think of him anymore.
Was he recessive or not?
"Why didn’t you tell you can use Overdrive?" She pressed shaking Damien’s body senselessly.
Unbeknownst to her, her question was killing the smugness away from Damien’s heart. She was reminding him that he wasn’t the reason why his overdrive state suddenly kicked in but rather, he had received help from his subconscious again. It made him feel weak, useless even, and he started thinking he wasn’t really different from the kids he had disqualified.
"Damien!"
Grateful to hear Ahara’s concern-filled voice during such a crucial mont when his teammates were waiting for an answer, Damien shrugged himself out of Eden’s grasp and stood.
"I’ll be back soon. My sister’s calling ," he told them, departing before they told him to wait for her arrival.
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