Friend or Foe? 1

[A/N : I apologize for the inconvenient. This chapter was supposed to be much more longer, but after opening it earlier, the file got corrupted for some reason. I had to rewrite everything I remember and cut the chapter short, so that I could post the other part on Monday...]

Earlier after the class time had finished.

"Athan!"

Upon hearing someone call out to him, Deus halted his steps and turned his head towards the direction of where the call was. He saw William running towards his direction with a widened smile, and on his side was Arthur, Leigh and Lumine.

By the time William reached him, he was already panting hard as if he had ran around the whole school for hours.

Normally, since William was trained by his father, it would be obvious that his stamina was pretty decently high. But seeing him like this, Deus had thought that William might actually have ran around the whole school in order to find him.

"Where's Persia? Isn't she supposed to be with you?"

When he noticed that Persia was missing, Deus couldn't help but get curious.

"Ah, well, she left and went to the Eastern Cathedral City, Indiges, few days ago. She was supposed to be here by now, but the carriage carrying her and her troops had a slight problem that's why they had to stop at the near town." Replied William, scratching the back of his neck with a flustered expression.

"Oh, so she's not here yet?"

"Yup!" William nodded. "It'll probably take a day for her carriage to be fixed. Although she wanted to join the tournament, it seems like she won't be arriving here on time." He said with a saddened expression. Though, it didn't take long enough for him to brightened up.

"Oh, by the way, where's Alicia? I thought she would be with you since she told us that she wanted to be with you the moment she joined the tournament."

"Her? She's probably still playing around with my sister... I'm not that sure, though." Deus shook his shoulder lightly before turning his attention towards Arthur.

"Anyway, what are you guys doing?" He asked, slightly curious about their group.

"Ah, well, I just joined them since they, too, were on their way to Academy's Arena. Do you want to join us as well?"

Hearing his reply, Deus turned his attention to the three behind William. His gaze stopped the moment his eyes caught Leigh talking with Lumine on spot. He noticed him, too, as their eyes landed on each other. The two fell silent.

"Ah, I almost for forgot to introduce him to you." William suddenly pulled Leigh on the shoulder and pushed him lightly towards Deus. "Athan, this is Leigh, the older brother of Cayla. And Leigh, this is Athan, he's-"

"The infamous students who had bad reputation for who knows what reason."

Deus cut William off and continued his trail of thoughts.

"Hey, you don't need to feel bad about yourself..." William pinched the middle of his brows in contempt.

"I'm not. Anyway, it's nice to meet you." Deus said to Leigh, extending his hands towards his direction. Leigh took it with a smile, and they both had a handshake.

𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘥. 𝘐𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺... He thought as the two removed their eyes from each other.

𝘐𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘮, 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳.

"Athan, do you want to come with us?"

Breaking him from his thoughts, William spoke as he nudged him on the shoulder. He was letting out his casual smile, and Deus couldn't help but heaved out a sigh seeing this.

"I... Well, fine. I'm about to head there, actually..." Before he could even add something more to his sentence, William pulled him from the back of his clothes as the lad was caught up in surprise, almost tripping on his own feet.

"Let's go already!"

"W-wait!"

Deus almost tripped on his feet a few times after William pulled him to the side before managing to walk with two feet.

They continue on walking until they finally reach the arena. To say that it filled with students is a lie, there were people trying to participate in the tournament, while some or them just came to watch from above.

"Damn, that's a lot of students in here..." Arthur spoke, turning his head all around to look at the direction of the people trying to participate the event. His gaze didn't contain with any kind of fear, since he know that he can beat all of them except for Athan.

"Isn't that supposed to be obvious? But I'm sure that tomorrow, the whole seat will be filled with either students, their parents, or the teachers... It's not like we'll have to worry about that since I'm sure that the five of us will pass."

"Wow, I never thought that you could 'be' this arrogant... Good job in changing my mind, William." Said Lumine as a sarcasm, while gesturing her hands in a playful manner.

"Let just wait for the announcer to call our names here," Deus went in front of the group to take the lead as he led them toward the direction that was yet to be filled with people. "Why don't we take a seat here." He said, patting the dust off the seat before sitting comfortably after making sure that the others had sat as well. He was thankful enough that they could find and take a seat while waiting patiently for their names to announced.

"Oh, it seems like the first match is about to begin."

When they heard what Leigh said, the four turned their attention to the center of the arena.

"Who do you think will win this match?" William spoke up. His eyes never left the two students at the center. It was as if he was carefully observing them.

Placing her fingers under her chin, Lumine squinted her eyes, "I think the guy on the left side will win. He's big and look quite domineering w with the way he show his stance."

"I see..." William closed his eyes for a quick second and nodded. He then turned his head towards Deus and asked, "What do you think Athan? Who do you think will win between the two?"

Deus didn't replied immediately as he glanced at William with a carefree expression. It took about a ten seconds in total before saying, "While the other guy looked indeed big, his opponent look like he already had experience fighting people like him. Depending on the way he handles the big fellow, I'm sure that he can turn the tides to his advantage later."

As soon as he was done speaking, Arthur, who was quietly drinking his drinks, agreed to what Deus said with a nod. Leigh also followed up by saying something like, "Bigger is not always better. Sometimes, you'll have to use your brain in order what seems to be an 'unwinnable' battle. Isn't that right... Athan?"

Hearing his tone, Deus felt weirded out for some reason. But, he shook this off and redirected his full attention back to the fight that will happen at center of the arena.

***

At the center of the arena.

Standing before the two rivaling students, the referee flew up in the after a visible barrier appeared below his feet, lifting him up in the air.

"Ref, can we get started?" The student wearing a red bandana on the neck asked. He held his wooden sword up and prepared his stance.

Nodding his head, the referee raised his hand, "Are you guys ready?"

The two looked like they were both at the same page.

Their eyes were burning with sheer determination as they looked at each other.

"Yes."

"Yes."

Slashing his hand down, the referee shouted, "You may begin."

-Foosh!

-Boom!

Both the competitors exploded with great speed the moment the battle started.

The tall student with a buffed body appeared mid-air, his hands were clenched into a fist. There were also sharp and spiky metals appeared and covered his hands with an appearance like a spiky gauntlet.

As for his opponent, he held the wooden sword with both hands, and swiftly positioned his attack towards the waist of the student.

"Haaaaa!" The gauntlet user student landed with his fist, causing the whole arena to shook due to the impact of his attack. It was powerful, indeed but the boy was able fo calmly dodged his attack by moving his body slightly to the left.

After dodging the fist by hairbreadth, he raised his wooden sword above his head and stepped forward towards the direction where the tall student had landed.

"Huuuup!"

Without having any time to dodge his attack, the tall student used the back of his other hand to deflect the attack, redirecting it away from his face.

Although it managed to put a small scratch at his cheeks, after he was able to remove his hand that penetrated deeply in the ground, he tried to hop backwards to distance himself away from the lad's reach.

"He's fas-!?"

Before he could even finish his sentence, he saw the wooden sword flying in his field of vision, almost catching him by surprise.

"That won't work on me!" He roared, crossing both of his arms to shield his head from the incoming sword.

But...

Pffft-!

Without even noticing it, the boy suddenly came out below him... He came from his shadow.

'He's a shadow user!?'

The student kicked the boy's knees, almost causing him to lose balance. He also caught the sword in the air, and held it with both hands before raising it up.

"Oh no you don't!" Even if he was off his balance, he forced himself to jump and the dodge the surprise attack.

The sword penetrated on the ground after missing the attack, and the tall student managed to find a good spot to land.

Unexpectedly, instead of being frustrated that his attack missed, the tall student saw the smirk he was making. Because of this, he tried to look around for incoming attacks, but saw nothing.

"It's your lost." His opponent raised his head slightly to look at him falling. He suddenly had a bad feeling after noticing his gaze. The vibe his eyes let out were the same to how the hunter see his prey after seeing them fall right into their trap. It was already too late for them to realize that everything had been set into place.

'What's with his gaze? Did he do something...-?!'

However, he made a grave mistake. The trap wasn't in the air, but was on the ground. The moment his feet landed on the ground, his opponent's trap activated, as his feet went and penetrated deeply on the ground.

"Damnit!" While cursing at himself for not being cautious, he tried to get his feet off the ground. But to his vail, it sank more deeply the more he tried to get it out as quickly as possible.

Without waiting for other opportunities, his opponent, who was in knees with his sword sank on the ground as a support, forced himself to rush forward after gathering enough time for him to take a few seconds to breathe.

The lad was quick enough to surprise the trapped student, and got behind him swiftly without problem. He just slashed his wooden sword and smacked the back of his opponent's neck. Watching him passed out without defense, he showed a thoughtful expression to the boy who fell unconscious on the ground.

"Finally..."

He raised his fist up and looked at the audience before turning his head to the referee with a widened smile on his face.

"I won!"

~~~~

The prologue of the story is about to end in just a few chapters. If any of you guys have any questions, ask me before it's too late.

Also, the story is about to take a leap into something new. It might get a bit confusing at first since the story will proceed faster than expected, however, after some time, you'll be able to process everything that happened so far in the story.

Why I made the 1 to 150 chapters a prologue? This question will also be answered in the future.