173 A Chance Meeting

Walking through the halls, stepping through the shadows as both a form of security and to practice his latest and greatest spell, Cyrus hurried towards his room so that he could make as much progress on his research as he could. An interesting sight soon caught his eye though..

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Standing in the hall were two groups of people, one person surrounded by many others who was in a defensive posture. Their hand was their weapon as they backed up further and further, pressed by the aggressive shouting and yelling of the people in front of them.

"You witch, leading us by the noses telling us that you held some kind of power here."

"How stupid did you think us to be? Your family name is as good as dirt here, else why did your daddy not speak up for you?"

The lone individual was in fact a girl of the Vita department with lush golden locks, blue eyes, and a dainty figure. The expression on her face was anything but pure however, a ferocious and wild look took hold the moment her family name was mentioned.

"And? It is a fact that I am a member of the great Asinus family, the direct daughter of Master Magus Zephyr Asinus. I am superior, you should lay down and bark for me like the dogs you are!"

The men who were surrounded her just laughed as if they had heard the best joke in the world told by the God of Comedy itself.

Several of them loosened their robes, revealing several burns and scars that littered their bodies like they were survivors from the harshest POW camp.

"We put up with your little act not because we respected you, but because of the name behind you. Good thing we wised up fast, else we would have been bankrupt from all the trips to the Vita Department to heal the abuses you launched at us."

Over half of the men present showed off ghastly burns, bruises, and outright scars from the flesh being torn wide open...a surprising amount if what they said was true and that it was all the result of this one girl that they surrounded.

"No more! We will not fear you anymore, we know that your father cannot lift a finger so long as we follow the rules...don't worry, your life will be spared."

The men drew their blades or began to cast their own spells, each of them belonging to various departments.

The girl, on the other hand, grasped her rapier and drew it with a steady hand whilst a ripple of Vita magic spread out from her.

"Worms, have it your way. I will show you that I am to be feared not just because of my last name."

With a flick of her wrist and a pivot of her foot she slashed through the space around her, causing everyone to back up to avoid being cut, and then with several thrusts forward she immediately took down three of her opponents by sticking them straight through the gut.

Still, she was completely outnumbered, and several more attacks came from her blindspot in the form of a sword fast approaching from behind and a ball of fire descending from above.

Given how she was still recovering from her final thrust and that she had no way of seeing the attack behind her, even if her sense detected the one from above, it seemed that fate would hand her a loss this day.

Yet suddenly the girl dropped to her knees. The stab from behind missed as the owner of the blade had put his full force into it, so much that he could not adjust his course and he ended up tripping on the girls leg that shot out and ended up shielding her from the fireball above with his own body.

Jumping back, having cleared the space behind her, the girl stood up with her rapier drawn close to her. Amazingly...her eyes had been closed the entire time.

The battle continued, several partially hidden attacks from a Mors spell were easily parried by the girl and the owners incapacitated.

The other side also had Vita mages though, who were hard at work healing everyone who was temporarily done in...who got back up in short time and charged at the girl once more with renewed vigor and even deeper hatred.

In the back of this confrontation were several girls, each with a look of arrogance that almost matched the amount that the surrounded girl had if you added them all up and multiplied it by two.

Laughing to themselves in pure schadenfreude every time the girl with the golden locks was wounded or thrown into the wall by a kick, they seemed to be extremely pleased to say the least.

"Who would have guessed that the little diva of the Vita Department would fall so far?" said one of the women as she covered her mouth with her hand to stifle the laughter that was threatening to erupt once more.

"Agreed, agreed. What a little hussy, leading us and all the other men on by making us fear her name. I can't believe we tried to suck up to that brat...." replied the second of the women.

The third then chimed in,

"Good thing THAT man told us the truth. Else we would have continued to suffer under her arrogance, hah, who cares that she is from some noble family. The time of the nobles is over..."

They continued their prattle, completely unaware that behind them watching the happening in interest was a curious masked fellow.

---

The girl ended up taking down all ten of the people she was fighting at least once, but they inevitably all got back up again thanks to the several healers who hated her with a passion.

"Damn commoners...damned cattle, what is with you lot!?"

Her sudden outburst caused her to lose focus, a fatal error for someone fighting against impossible odds, and she barely parried and dodged the combination of two sword thrusts and an Aero spell that sliced off several of her hairs.

In the path of her retreat, one that she would have ordinarily noticed, was a roundhouse kick that connected with her stomach sending her flying into the wall behind her. Coughing and dry heaving, her stomach having been shocked silly, she was unable to stand for several few precious seconds.

The moment she was down on the ground, the men descended upon her with righteous fury. They dropped their blades, which would have caused her suffering to be far too short, and instead began kicking and tearing at her hair.

Ripping handfuls from her scalp and kicking her around like a ragdoll, some even tearing at her robe to expose her fair skin underneath and trying to cop a feel all the while.

Completely defeated the girl was at the mercy of her attackers, curled up in a ball to defend herself as best as she could with no other recourse left to her.

"Hmmm, I think that is enough for now," said a voice from behind the men.

They stopped in their tracks, turning with anger to see who dared to stop them from getting revenge for their weeks of torture...but froze completely when they saw the speaker.

Walking towards them, with all of the healers and women in the back having been rendered unconscious by him already, was a masked man with a dangerous and deadly air about him.

"Quintus, Cyrus...."

The name spread like wildfire among the attackers, all of them feeling truly threatened for the first time in a long while.

"Oh? You have heard of me, how flattering," said Cyrus with a smile that was not a smile, "then if you know who I am, then you should know how I operate. Move or feel some pain, simple. I have use for that girl behind you."

The group were silent, but the sweat that appeared on their brows revealed how much pressure they found themselves under.

"He slices up men like vegetables, not even sparing their manhood..."

"He is ranked 5th in the entire school, we are nothing compared to him..."

"Did you not see his fight against the drake? Are we stronger than a drake?"

The murmurs rang out as the men discussed, several of them even lowered their weapons as the choice they made became obvious.

'Reputation can be its own weapon it seems, interesting. Good thing I tried it...'

Cyrus advanced, the men parting like a certain red sea for him but a voice that came out from behind the men ruined his plans.

Spitting blood from her severely bruised and wounded face, her clothes in tatters and even one of her arms was bent the wrong way, the girl looked up at her attackers and spat,

"Fucking cowards, is that all you scum got? Am I really the only girl here? It seems to me that you buffoons are the same as me, cockless!"

The girl was clearly temporarily insane with rage, babbling whatever vile insult came to mind.

Her words had great effect though, reigniting the rage in all present causing them to temporarily shut off their rational minds and raise their weapons once more. Completely intent they were, thanks to a certain stupid girls words, to fight even the vastly superior Cyrus to reclaim their honor.

'Seriously? What a foolish girl... Though the less intelligent the easier to use. Whatever.'

Shrugging Cyrus drew his sword, pondering how much pain he should give those who dared to stand against him.