Victor and Sully

At that moment, there was silence.

You could hear a pin drop a mile away onto a cushion made of velvet.

In this deafening silence, the man at the centre of the crowd turned slowly to the only other person who was within the impromptu human encirclement.

Jacob.

Jacob looked at the young man he had just pushed. His face was no longer confident and gloating like before. Instead, it held a mix of rage, embarrassment, and most of all, pain.

Now that Jacob could see him up close, he was even more intimidating.

[Male. Name: Unknown. Negative impression]

'Negative impression huh, who'd have thought' Jacob thought sarcastically as he accidentally activated his ability.

The man had to be nearly 2 meters tall and had definitely spent a lot of time in the gym. He had a cookie-cutter handsome face with blond hair, blue eyes, and no facial hair.

Not only that but his impression was one that imposed his superiority unto others as if it were a given. 

The man's back straightened slowly as he regained his posture after curling over slightly due to the pain in his lower extremities. As he did so he seemed to exude a hard-taught discipline of body and mind that contrasted sharply with Jacob's own posture, one of casual embarrassment.

"Sorry about that. I didn-" Jacob was cut off as a fist landed squarely in his face.

His first thought was, 'how have I been in this university less than an hour, and already 2 people have assaulted me'

His second thought involved more profanity than he cared to admit.

"This motherfucker, trying to pull some ambush, glory stealing crap with me... The fuck you think you're trying to pull with that cowardly bullshit!" the aggravated man spat from behind Jacob.

It was then that Jacob realised in his stunned state that his unwanted aggressor had teleported behind him.

His accent made Jacob realise his newfound attacker was probably American.

Thankfully his experience in the mansion had made him more adaptable. In that moment he made the decision to dive forward, guessing that another hit was coming his way from behind.

The next second, the man was in front of him again, and Jacob was diving headfirst into his rising knee.

To Jacob's credit, he managed to move his hand in front of his face to absorb some impact, but he ended up keeling over the ground.

Another mistake as the man's earth manipulation came into play, rising from below him to punch him solidly in the gut.

In the next moment, his tormentor was beside him again, his leg poised in a striking position.

"Know. Your. Place." The man emphasised each word with a powerful kick to Jacob's ribs.

It was a painful experience, but it wasn't so bad compared to the nightmare where he could have died from one wrong move. At least here he was only taking some hits from a human, albeit strong ones.

A couple of kicks later Jacob managed to roll away and barely get back on his feet.

Unfortunately, this did not go over well with his newfound bully.

"Playing the tough guy, let's see if you can keep it up, you weak little shit" he said after seeing that Jacob wasn't begging for mercy.

After saying this, Jacob saw a change occur.

First, his surprise opponent teleported directly in front of him before using one hand to lift him to an appropriate height.

But that wasn't so much a change as he had already shown off this ability several times.

Then the man's fist, which had so far been normal, became coated with an earthen gauntlet.

If he had to wager a guess, this hit would hurt a lot more than the others.

Jacob tried to get free as the gauntlet formed, twisting and squirming with all his might.

From what he could the gauntlet was very bad news for him. Since it took so long to 'charge up' he figured it had to have appropriate power to match the wind up.

Since he had been raised so high, Jacob finally got another look at the crowd. By this point, many of the onlookers had dispersed. Some of the few that remained cheered and looked oddly excited by his torment, while the others filmed the beating and whispered among themselves.

Then out of the blue, the bastard that had been beating him... flew.

Not in the controlled way he had seen others fly around the courtyard, but more like he was hit by a bus and thrown by the impact way, leaving a wet spray in his wake.

As the bully reached into the realm of aviation, Jacob heard a young, stern and slightly Scottish voice say.

"That's enough of your shite Victor."

The next thing he knew, Jacob was falling back down to normal height, then further as his legs gave out, but before he could hit the ground, a strong arm grabbed him under the shoulder and hoisted him back to his feet.

"Sorry bout that. Victor's a right bastard, but he's a dual mana prodigy, so he gets away with all kinds of crap." Said his saviour.

"The name's Sullivan, but you can call me Sully. Since you're not wearing a clan patch, I'm gonna assume you're a new dreamer." Sully guessed, seeming to forget the man he had just thrown about 10 meters through the air.

This was only exacerbated by the smile his saviour wore, he seemed to be treating the whole scenario as a joke, most likely at his own expense, or maybe Jacob's. He couldn't quite tell, but the mirth in his eyes didn't lie.

"SULLIVAN!" A shout echoed as the bully named Victor got to his feet.

Any further comments were quickly silenced as Sully took an odd stance and moved his arms in a weird but mesmerising pattern.

What was even odder was the geyser of water that appeared out of thin air, which quickly surged forward and lifted Victor off the ground and away from them again.

"Right, we should get out of here before he has a chance to pull some more shit." Sully stated, gesturing to one of the courtyard's exits.

Jacob decided that not engaging the bully any more than necessary was a smart call, so he followed his newfound friend in a hurry.