Anger

"Be prepared to use your elemental magic anytime; otherwise, we're doomed." Tracy's vines wriggled in the air as soon as she spoke, but she almost tripped on those same vines as Jacob's reply soon followed her words.

"I can't."

"Huh!? Can't what?" Tracy's face morphed into confusion.

"I don't know how to use my elemental magic," Jacob lied with a straight face. Between losing the match and losing his life, he pretty much preferred the former.

'I can't have myself killed yet,' he thought. His elemental magic wasn't something he could casually use; he needed to become strong enough to protect himself first; otherwise, he would be dead before he knew it.

'This motherf*cker can't be serious,' Tracy grimaced in disbelief and looked back, shaky-eyed, at Lina, hesitantly feeling kind of regretful for screaming at her earlier.

"Lina, can you, um, provide us... support, please?" She didn't have the time or the patience to question how such a guy entered the prestigious Erou Academy.

"Day and night, no matter what, be safe and sound. Protection." Lina was already casting a spell.

Looking at Tracy, who had gone distracted, Amanda's lightning-fast attack caught her off guard.

She appeared at super speed by Tracy's side and kicked her stomach.

The impact sent her a few meters away.

However, Tracy was relatively unharmed, with only a minor skin injury thanks to Lina's protection spell.

"Philodendron." Vines sprouted from the ground to wrap around Amanda as Tracy's eyes glowed green.

"I'm here," a playful voice murmured. Almost imperceptibly, the air moved slightly, and Tracy was hit again.

Her body floated just a few inches from the ground and soon was flung backward, hitting the hard surface of the maze's wall.

Spoort!

Wiping the blood off her mouth, Tracy retreated, using her plant to surround her like a shield.

The moment Amanda's fist met her face in what could only be felt as a blink of an eye, the vine wrapped around her hand, pushing her back.

'The first to be attacked in a fight is the healer.' Jacob positioned himself in front of Lina, blocking a frontal blow to the face with his arms raised. He punched back only to meet with air.

Elsa's figure materialized and vanished, delivering him a blow that fractured Jacob's rib with a sickening crack.

-Crack

"Healing," Lina quickly cast a spell, trotting to the side to support him.

Radiant mana enveloped Jacob's injured area, mending his broken rib.

"Thank..." Before Jacob could fully straighten, he received another punch to the guts, dropping him back on his knees.

"Hercules strength." He punched the air frustratedly multiple times in all directions, to no avail, not caring how ridiculous he looked.

He tried to rely on his hearing sense, but nothing could be heard. His opponent used invincibility to attack him.

"Damn it."

Elsa kicked him once again, increasing his agitation; his arm was bleeding, and Lina's magic was barely holding on.

On the other side, Tracy wasn't faring well either.

Amanda was so fast that the momentum alone was enough to break all her vines, and she was running out of mana.

The only reason she and Jacob could still hold on was due to Lina's help. She was surprised at how those two could hold on for so long.

"Levitation!" Jacob yelled, and Amanda was instantly suspended, floating in mid-air.

Tracy quickly used her vines to bind Amanda, but they didn't stop there, they also entwined around Elsa, who attempted to sneak attack Jacob.

"..."

"Fuck, it's an illusion." Jacob cursed, "The same pattern; the attack is repetitive."

"I know it." Tracy clenched her teeth angrily, and with her words, Amanda and Elsa vanished like smoke.

"We have to find Ryan." Jacob looked up as the illusion around them broke, but Ryan was nowhere to be seen as they had moved quite a distance while fighting.

"No, we have to go to the center and retrieve the flag."

"Why don't we split up?" Lina said hesitantly and shut her mouth as the two started to argue, her words unheard.

BOOOMM!!!

A sudden, explosive sound came from near the center.

The two looked at each other and started to run toward the source.

---

"It's time to crack this illusion."

Ryan got up, moving radiation around to help him recover faster. He tripped on Kevin's leg, narrowly dodging Amanda's flying attack by a hair's width.

Whoosh—

He engulfed his body in flame, retreating from Amanda, only for a scream to be heard from a sneaky Elsa.

Ryan turned around, launching a fiery swing aimed at her head. His leg paused slightly in mid-air.

Ryan hesitated, but only for a fraction of a second. Yet, that was enough for Amanda's attack to fall, smashing every bone in his right hand and Elsa punching him in the stomach.

"How dare you look down on me," Elsa fumed.

"It's burdensome," Ryan whispered. 'If you don't want me to hesitate, why be afraid?'

"What?"

"Your... emotion. Is... burdensome?" Ryan whispered, the radiation heating up inside him.

Fire stirred up one ripple after another in his meridians and soon emanated through every part of his body, manifesting into bright but warm red flames.

Amanda beckoned at the sight of Elsa and said, "You go search for the flag. I'm going to deal with him. He seems to have high senses, and your invisibility is useless in front of him."

Elsa tearfully nodded and left.

Ryan massaged his head. Elsa's fear-filled aura made him remember his younger sister's childhood days when she was bullied at school for not having a mom and a disabled dad.

He increased the intensity of the fire around his body, launching explosions everywhere.

Amanda was sent smashing through the wall, coughing up blood.

"You shouldn't have woken up," Ryan said to Kevin, who stabbed an ice spike in his shoulder.

Blood seeped out of his wound, his face emotionless. "I am... angry."

With not a single drop of radiation left in his body, blood dripped down from his mouth.

The entire area's radiation trembled, and the red flames that formed around Ryan's temperature started to rise.

The group of people realized, to their horror, that they could no longer use their abilities and no longer felt the power in their bodies.

BOOM!!!

With every step he took, fire exploded around Ryan.

"Oh sh*t, oh sh*t—let's talk this through," Amanda yelled in shock, retreating as the fire started to swallow her shirt.

Drip—

Blood dripped from Ryan's eyes as he walked toward Steve.

"Damn it, damn you. Why don't you die already?" Steve shouted, half supporting his brother on his shoulder. He tried his hardest to manifest an ice spear in his palm.

BOOM—

"It must be great to be that strong," Eddie sprawled on the ground with a defeated look.

SMASH—

"Don't come closer," Anna trembled, her arms raised in a protective position as the heat from the incoming fireball drew closer to her face.

BOOM!!

'Why am I crying?' Tears fell from Ryan's eyes; he didn't feel anything, but Hiro's left emotions, the same feeling he felt when he met 'the Seer' for the first time made him act unlike himself.

These people here didn't deserve any pity; there is practically no one in this entire academy who didn't make Hiro's already miserable life a living hell.

Ryan's body fell slowly in a soft, warm embrace, tears still falling from the corners of his eyes. 'Not even you.' "Tracy..."

"R... Ryan."

"Eddie's team won." Mia's announcement thundered through the training ground.

_Chapter 19: Punching Bag_

In the infirmary,

"A completely shattered arm, 11 broken ribs, a burnt torso, and an extremely exhausted body due to overconsumption of radiation. It would take two weeks to heal," the doctor said, shaking his head unenthusiastically.

"You're worse off than your opponents. This is by far the worst injury I've seen in my 20 years of working here. You should cherish your body more, young man."

The nurse came in soon and helped him adjust his bed into a more comfortable position. "Enjoy your days in the hospital. I wish you all the luck in the upcoming classification exams."

She exited the room after checking his vitals, leaving him alone.

'Finally peaceful,' he said, closing his eyes and sighed.

Ryan looked in front of him as there were three balls of radiation around him: super speed, invisibility, and illusion.

He created these abilities based on the pattern of radiation that flowed through the three girls' bodies.

Amanda, Elsa, and Anna, respectively.

Their light was weak and dim, barely visible to the naked eye.

He looked down at his hand, where he saw a parasite that was currently asleep.

He consumed the illusion ball of energy to effectively use the weak parasite in the future, merging the two in what people would call the base of an ability card.

'Now, I had no way of ever recreating the same power. However, this should be enough,' Ryan thought as he watched the illusion ball integrate itself with the parasite.

'The only way to have a peaceful life in this academy.' He clenched his fist, thinking back to the main culprit behind making Hiro's life a living hell in this academy.

He started circulating radiation once again to quicken his recovery; however, he was surprised to watch as it got swallowed by the parasite instead.

He felt an abnormal throbbing pain in his head, as though someone had ruthlessly pierced a sharp object right through his temples.

He frowned slightly before relaxing immediately; the initial pain of reactivating his power was gone.

Despite the doctor's words, Ryan could feel that he would still be able to use his powers regardless of his physical condition.

"I need to get better before the classification exam starts," he murmured. Sleepiness washed over as he started to close his eyes.

The classification exam was what he had been waiting for the entire time.

It would be two weeks from now, and that meant he no longer had to be stuck with Astin.

Every student would have their own private room after the end of the exam, similar to mid-term exams on Earth.

Looking at it that way, his damaged body was a blessing in disguise.

"Otherwise, I would have thoroughly become Mia's punching bag."

---

Mia staggered as the gaze of the young man was hidden in her full view.

She could see him now, even in the cloak of darkness, but the moment he would leave her, she would forget his face, his name, and his voice.

A scream of ecstasy almost escaped from her lips, but she gritted her teeth and pushed it down.

'Ah…'

The feeling of being looked upon by the young man was unlike anything she had ever experienced. Mia had been in the presence of powerful people before, and even more powerful heroes and villains.

She had been crushed by the suffocating force of their presence before and struggled to move while being pressed down by it.

But the gaze of the being hiding under the silent, dark waves was entirely different.

The young man known as 'Hero Killer' would surely come visit her every night; the ridicule and amusement in his gaze made her body tremble weakly in pure ecstasy.

'I want to see him soon,' She couldn't help but look at her phone expectantly, feeling that the hours of wait were torturous.

She swallowed, hoping the time would go by faster.

"..."

The muffled sounds of the shower whispered into the air as a breeze passed in Mia's bedroom.

The only thing she could do while waiting for the man from that night was look out the window wall, which, unsurprisingly, had a somewhat amazing view.

Waiting for the day he wouldn't dilute her memory anymore to come, and she would finally be able to touch him.

Mia swayed a little and took a step forward.

Then, another.

She wore a thin, see-through bathrobe as she walked out of the shower.

"To think you'd seduce me to your room," Astin said out of thin air in her presence, and Mia gleefully smiled.

'The day I'll make your body and heart mine will surely come.'