EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

"So... why are we here again?" I asked the group as I sat down at the backseats of the great hall of Mars right after my little chat with Flintheart, back in the camp's appropriate clothes, just discharged from the hospital.

We were all called in by the school, no one having a clue about why. But I may have some ideas, judging by the number of students with bandages around.

"Beats me," Arnold answered as he sat to the right of me, he too discharged from the hospital against my protest.

"I might," Blade began, same condition as us, "Maybe we're here to award me for my bravery in taking down the demon horde!"

"Yeah, let's go with that. Probably they'll even remember how fast you run away from the sword as it beat you senseless," Bareth joked, and then immediately closed his eyes as Blade shot a light beam straight at his face. Unfortunately, he had bad aiming, and the light ended up blinding Kira to the left of Bareth.

"OW! Dammit! What was that for?" she lamented as she rubbed her eyes in pain.

"Shush! It's about to start," I hushed everyone as I watched the Principal, Mrs Kelly, come forth from her seat, when everyone had finally settled down.

As usual, she was dressed to kill, but learning from their previous experience, most boys chose to keep their thoughts to themselves. All of the teachers were beside her, but I could not see the generals from both first and second years, each with one male and one female. They might still be discussing about the attack somewhere probably discrete.

"Hello school? I'm guessing all of you already understand why we called this meeting in the first place, seeing that you are all now fully awake and mostly healed from the injuries. First of all, I'd like to apologize on behalf of the teaching staff and entire school for our failure in protecting you students. The fifty who lost their lives even with the intervention of the school council are a show of just how powerful our enemies really were. Their parents have already been informed, and soon, they will come to claim the bodies. A moment of silence for the lost students,"

We all kept silent, calling to mind the ones we lost as their pictures were shown on the hall's screen. As I carefully observed them, I noticed that most of the students who were unlucky enought to lose their lives were mostly the first years, at around forty, while the remaining ten were in the second year. That's a real shame, the loss of a young monster life before he or she could even show the world what they could do.

Once the screen was done showing the students, the Prinipal cleared her throat before she continued, "But in light of that, more damage would have been done to this school were it not for the bravery of the second years together with a few first years who managed to keep their cool and handle the demons well before the teachers were released from the restriction,"

"Max, I think they are talking about you," Kira whispered to me.

"I should say the same about you and the rest of the guys. But I'm not so sure they even noticed our efforts," I whispered back and continued listening in to the principal.

"But, suprisingly, there were only two key first year students who managed to make the largest impact in that attack. One of them was able to take charge of most of the first years by; taking them to a safe zone, away from all the fighting and managing to save more lives than even the second years!" Mrs Kelly continued.

The entire school immediately began whispering amongst themselves, no doubt trying to come up with the said student.

"Who do you think it is, Max?" Arnold asked in a hushed whisper.

"Hmm... I'm not so sure," I anwered, even if I had a pretty good idea who the monster was.

Principal Kelly shushed everyone before she continued, "And this student would be non other than Flavo Gustov from one North! Can the cadet please come foward,"

Right after the principal had announed the monster, the red head I saw a while back when I was with Kira, stood up grinning, like he had just won the Olympics or something.

Except for me, everyone who was present at the battle opened their mouths in shock and all turned to look at me. Flintheart at the teachers table raised an eyebrow in question while Emily, who was sitting quietly beside Kira with a hoody on to conceal her presence, shook her head in disappointment. Flavo walked down to the podium like he owned the place and stood next to the principle.

"He's the one who took charge of the situation all by himself, at least, that's what I heard from the students. He is also a prodigy of the class North and as of today, will be joining the student council of the school!"

Everyone, especially the North students, all showed their appoval by giving him a good round of applause. But some people weren't as pleased with the outcome.

"The hell?! That boy did nothing but just made himself look good! And why are you just sitting there and taking this, Max?" Kira whispered at me in anger.

"Yeah, Max. You risked your life for this school and this is how they repay you?" Arnold asked, him too in a hushed whisper.

I just sat there silently and ignored them both. I mean, don't get me wrong. Maybe they were right and I should be angry and all that. But honesty, I never cared much for attention more so being known. So, if you asked me to keep my mouth shut so that that Flavo kid could steal all the glory, I'd say it's my safest bet. But I think I might have just jinxed myself with what the principal announced next.

***

<Ain't you the self righteous one, giving up your glory like that. Just pray that no one saw transformation while were battling demon, who I just now realized is near>

[Yeah, not my idea about the demo–wait hold up. My what?!]

<You didn't know? Every time you use your dark power, pupils turn a deep golden yellow and hair pitch black. Also, miasma snakes across hands like it's trying to free itself. A much better improvement than the real puny>

[Ha ha . Real funny. Why haven't you told me before?]

<Never crossed my mind you didn't know>

[You have a mind?]

<Bigger than yours, that's for sure>

[Why you...]

***

"Of Course, the student had to be from my class! Wasn't that obvious? No lower class like South can ever measure up to us!" a teacher to the left of Flinthart suddenly said, suprising me, and just about everyone else in the hall.

"There was no need for your loud input, Miss Ivory," Mrs Kelly spoke, her eyebrows furrowed in irritation.

"Why shouldn't I? The entire class is scum, just like their teacher. It doesn't help that the are holding the demon responsible for all this mess!" she continued blabbering, with a satisfied smile on her face as she pointed to where Emily was.

Emily sunk even deeper in her seat, probably wishing the ground would swallow her up and save her from the shame she was feeling. Everyone's' eyes turned towards her in shock, but the principle drew them back with with her next speech.

"Away from all that, let's go to the one student whom, if not for him, there wouldn't be a camp to speak of in the first place. It's good that all of you students know that we couldn't offer our assistances during the fight due to a powerful artifact that seemed to be restricting us. But, this student, by the help of his friends, managed to hold most the demons back, but this is where it gets even more intresting,"

"From one of our sources, we were informed that he even came up with a plan to deal with the demons. The demon leader herself, who is of sane mind right now after her freedom from the Demon king and has already expresed how sorry she is for what she did, said that it was true, the boy was the one to fight and win against her, even when she felt that no one could measure up to her,"

"The Beast king, once he got the report about the attack at the camp, had chosen to give the said hero something that is quite frankly a lot more powerful than just a title. Can the student, Mandrax Randoff, please come up here,"she said, as she touched her storage ring and a large spear with the color of silver appeared.

One glance at it, and I'm sure everyone could tell that it was made purely out of adamantium, which, in the Beastverse, there are only eight weapons forged with that kind of metal. Everyone gasped in shock cause many of us(yes, including me) have never seen such a high class weapon before.

The gasps of shock after everyone had already viewed the spear all disappeard, only to be replaced by even more gasps of new found shock when they saw that whoever was called up to the front, aka, me, was not from any of the three main classes.

I slowly made my way to the front while avoiding eye contact with everyone, but somehow I still saw the school president stare at me while shaking her head, almost like I had disappointed her in some way.

Most students from the other classes stared in disbelieve as they watched a "South class trash" walk towards the front, almost like they still didn't believe that was possible. Even the red head, Flavo, had a frown formed on his face and if you looked even more closely, you see his eyes flicker in envy.

On reaching the principal, people from my class all started clapping, forcing the others to do the same. I still didn't know why everyone was making such a big deal to be given a spear. I mean, I can't deny that to have adamantium means you're rich or something, but what's so special about it?

***

<Idiot! >

[Wait, what happened again? Bradley, what does-]

<Find out yourself!>

[Typical]

***

"Mandrax, for your bravery in taking on the Demon horde and a demon general with some help from your friends, I give you one of the eight adamantium weapons in existence of the Beastverse, the Adamantium spear, on behalf of the Beast king!"

"WAIT,WHAT?!" I shouted as the realization finally kicked in.

"Indeed. To face a demon horde and taking them down at your age is something so brave, the Beast king acknowledged it and gave you the title of one of the adamantium warriors!" principal Kelly clarified to me, then proudly handed me the spear.

I carefully took it like I was handling glass, then realized that I was holding it a little bit crooked but then fixed my stance.

"NO, NO NO!" a voice from the teachers table shouted in disbelieve.

"There must be some mistake! Yes, that's it. He must have stolen someone else's glory from my class, maybe Timmy, but for him to face a demon horde and come out alive is all lies!" the same teacher from before said.

What's her problem with me anyways? Is it because I'm from South?

"Miss Ivory, I suggest you choose your next words wisely. Don't forget, this is the choice of the Beast king, so if you oppose him, you oppose all monsters." Mrs Kelly finalized with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"But Madam Draunhard I-"

The principle gave her one look that said "one more word from you, and I'll burn you to a crisp", and she immediately quieted down.

"With that out of the way, on to more pressing matters. The generals and I have discussed how most of you lack battle experience, as evident with the attack, so we've all come up with a solution. You'll all be going for a quest once a week to the unexplored planets of the Beast verse, hunting down the deranged beasts found there and acquiring their beast essence,"

"HUH?!" The whole hall once more erupted. But the principal ignored everyone and continued her speech like she didn't just hear us shout in shock.

"You'll be travelling in groups of five, and let me remind you once again, dungeons are still available for some stundents so, if anyone wishes to go, meet your homeroom class teacher to discuss it. Lastly, class competitions are to be held nine months from now so you all better be ready. School dismissed!"