Tricks of Fate

I dodged underneath the clay golems heavy punch and struck the side of its chest with my elbow.

*CRRK*

A small dent appeared on the golem's chest, but it didn't pause as its left hand reached for my neck, attempting a chokehold.

I dashed forwards to evade the grab and once behind the golem used my momentum to release a spinning hook kick targeting the back of the golems head.

The golem had attempted to block the kick with its right hand, but it couldn't reach in time as my heel crashed into the back of its head causing it to stagger.

I used this opportunity to grab the golems head, interlocking my fingers at the back before violently pulling down and at the same time raising my knee to meet the golems face.

*CRASH*

My knee dug into the hardened clay structure of the golem as its face cracked like a vase and soon the entire golem began to crumble into dust before being absorbed by the golem machine.

"Defeated G+ rank humanoid: Unarmed medium difficulty"

A robotic voice rang out from the machine as I sat down on the nearby bench to recover, breathing heavily as I used a towel to wipe off my sweat.

For the last few days, I had been spending most of my day at the training center, fighting clay golems with a knife or unarmed, practicing at the shooting range or the training dummies.

When I got exhausted like now, I would sit down and practice mana control. It was efficient and it also helped me recover faster as I willed for mana to flow faster through my body and also increased my attacking power as I was able to imbue dagger and unarmed strikes with mana.

Arrows were tricky, I only had a limited time to enhance them before releasing so I was still struggling with it, but mana was useful in ways other than attacking to.

A thin film of dark mana began covering my body as I began blending into the shadows and when the mana reached my eyes, my vision became foggy in the bright lighting of the training center.

I retracted the mana; I had spent a lot of time trying to do that and as a result my mana control had become better.

I headed to the changing room, I had brought training clothes which stuck tightly to my body and were comfortable, but I felt uncomfortable wearing it in front of a crowd and after a short shower changed into a hoodie instead.

I was ending training relatively early today; I didn't want soreness when I went to the Cave tomorrow.

The academy held an induction ceremony tomorrow, a grand event that many will be watching, and it also marked the start of the novels story as the first years would begin their classes and at the same night a forbidden god guided Katz to the Combat Art.

I was cutting it close, but I didn't see any reason for the story to change and if I didn't take time to train, I would be putting myself in unnecessary danger.

Walking outside I saw the large glowing banners of the academy and the lights of the city as many people around my age walked leisurely through the city streets.

They were first years celebrating getting into the academy as music reverberated through the empty streets, filling the streets with life.

I walked towards the bus station while awkwardly moving through the crowded streets of the city.

It was getting dark; I could go back and practice mana control before waking up early in the morning and heading directly to the caves.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared, I had killed Mephits and Hounds, but Shriekers were terrifying creatures right out of a horror book, which is why the academy didn't allow students to go in there.

I was going to exit the academy section when a familiar voice called out to me.

"Ajaaax! Heeeey!"

Clair was waving at me wildly like a child from the front of a cafe and she was with a group of students one of whom looked at me with recognition.

I wanted to ignore them, but Clair was already running towards me so I couldn't pretend I hadn't seen her and walk away.

"Ajax! I hadn't seen you in the last four days! I thought you had run away from the shelter!" She began in a hurried voice.

"I'm sorry, I had something to do in the city."

I left the shelter before the church volunteers arrived and just made a crude breakfast for myself with cheap ingredients, so I wasn't surprised she hadn't seen me.

"You know him, Clair?" Emma asked.

"Yeah! He lives at the shelter I volunteer at. Have you met him before?"

"Yes, he's... the one who saved my brother." Emma said awkwardly.

The other two people who had been previously disinterested in the conversation, looked here in surprise and Clair turned back to me with sparkling eyes.

"You saved THE Adam Kane?!"

"I just gave him a potion, it's-" I tried to reply.

"So, you are the mystery boy the news has been talking about!" Clair cut me off.

"What?"

"Yeah, it's all over the news! The mysterious young awakened who saved the life of Adam Kane." She said as she pulled out her phone and showed me an article.

The article was quite long but contained an interview with Adam where he went over the circumstances of his supposed death and rescue.

He hadn't mentioned my name and appearance but that caused the article to speculate, the theories were all wrong but their speculation about my background were a bit too close to the truth.

"That's enough, Clair." Emma said as she took Clair's phone away.

Clair looked a bit surprised but then donned a guilty expression when she read the bottom half of the article, she had shown me.

Was it that obvious? I thought I had hidden my discomfort well, but Emma had seen it quite easily.

"I'm sorry about that, and my loud-mouthed brother. He should have just said it was another hero, now every news article is making baseless speculations about your identity." She said with a mix of guilt and anger.

"It's alright. I have to get going." I said trying to leave.

"Wait! The next bus isn't here for another 45 minutes. You can come with us to this Cafe before you leave." Clair said with pleading eyes.

I understood what she was trying to do but I would rather just wait at the bus stop, so I tried to find an excuse to leave.

"I don't want to intrude."

"I don't mind." said one of the other two people in the group quietly.

"Neither do I!" exclaimed the other with a smile.

I looked over at them and sighed.

'Why?'

They were the other two members of the hero's party and the remaining main characters.

'Marcus Reinhold and Grant Berg'