The Blue Hearts

[The match between Dark Age from Erou and Majestic Thunder Dragon from Soma ended with Dark Age announcing his surrender.] The MC declared.

Fights passed one by one. Eddie, Amanda, Tracy, Damion, Jacob, Elsa, and Lisa fought their way quite easily.

Among all other academies, Erou students had the least experience, yet its top rankers managed to keep up with the rest of the students.

[The next match will start now. Welcome to the arena, Slumbering Crown from Erou versus Golem Master from Yarden.]

Standing in the arena, Josh's voice echoed in Ryan's ear.

"That time I was unprepared, and you took me by surprise. Don't think I'm going to be an easy opponent this time?" Josh declared.

"I will beat you here and prove to the 'forest fairy' that I'm a better pick than you."

'You can have her if you want,' Ryan didn't say these words out loud; he was certainly aware that uttering them would only provoke Josh.

"Haa..." Ryan massaged his eyes. 'He first kept Tracy around so he could use her against Lisa, but now she's no longer useful.'

Josh came near Ryan and threw a rock fist at him.

With his continually weakened body, Ryan, whose rank recovered back to B in a matter of hours after the side effect of raising Eddie's potential wore off, relied upon his speed to avoid the attacks.

'Considering that Josh is a mana user, I can't use radiation control to stop him,' Ryan thought, successfully dodging the golem that sprang from the ground by jumping up and landing backward.

Ryan threw fire at a golem, but it was fruitless as he absorbed it like a sponge.

"Even though my level returned to back B-rank, my strength regressed considerably, and now I'm much weaker," Ryan contemplated as he skillfully dodged Josh's attacks, relying on his eyesight to predict where the attack was coming from.

Using an Ice barrier to avoid taking any damage, Ryan was unharmed. With no hit landing on him, Josh got increasingly frustrated and angered by the moment.

"Stop avoiding me and face me like a man, you coward," Josh berated Ryan, shouting. Simultaneously, the golem raised its hand to deliver its mightiest blow, knowing that Ryan positioned at the arena's edge, had limited space to evade and nowhere to hide.

-BOOM!

"You have a short-lived temper." Jumping over the head of the golem with ease, Ryan pushed its head ever so gently; the ice beneath it shattered, causing it to fall outside of the arena and break apart.

Standing face to face against Josh, he opened his mouth, his eyes on the stance, "I promised some people I wouldn't lose."

Josh summoned a protective rock wall in a desperate attempt to shield himself from Ryan's counterattack, but it was too late. Before he could react, Ryan was within his line of defense, hurtling him off the arena.

[Congratulations to Slumbering Crown's advancement toward the next round.]

Ryan turned a deaf ear to the cheering audience and looked around him as he descended off the arena; the black world adorned with colors was being dyed a red mist at a painfully slow pace, just as he felt his heartbeat slowing down. 

The world is a total mess with no resemblance to the original novel.

"How did it start? When Mia died?" Ryan asked himself, slowly leaving the arena toward the special lounge of Erou students.

"Was it because of Jacob's weird appearance as a space manipulator?" Ryan tilted his head in thought.

"It may have even started before that; all the characters acted weirdly. Even Astin acted out of the norm to the point the plot in his hand became nothing but a collection of words."

Mia played the role of the second heroine who would put the antagonist through the most bullying and torment, making him the public target for abuse.

But are the other Professors the type of people to keep silent about it? Of course, they would, no matter how kind the security guard Daniel, the caring professor Lucas, and even professor Ania, someone with a great sense of justice, remained silent and actively participated in alienating Hiro, when the highest authority in this school was that of the 'The Seer'.

The Seer that saw Hiro as a pawn naturally wouldn't stop Mia, others were convinced that Hiro was evil as a consequence, and that's why he wouldn't stop it. Humans, by nature, are highly adaptable creatures.

Ultimately, everyone respects the strong, and no one dares touch someone with a status they cannot comprehend.

The butterfly effect is such a scary theory, but in fact, just one small change can destroy the fate of the world. That's the main reason the Laws never allowed time manipulators to exist. 

It can either change for the worst or the best, and Ryan didn't care about such a result in his mind when he decided to change the plot. The original flow of the world was nothing but chaos and a bloody mess.

And the current change is not but a consequence of that.

"But for sure, it's nothing good," Ryan mumbled.

[The next round of matches will start shortly after; please applaud all the 20 contestants that...]

Entering the spacious lounge. "I can't believe they only gave us half an hour to rest," Amanda grumbled, eating the strawberry cake in her hand like she was gnawing on her enemy.

"Why should I be the one bringing you food?" Kevin, who looked like nothing happened to him, grumbled even more handing Ryan his share of the cake.

"Losers shouldn't be complaining," answered Amanda, her mood improving.

"I thought you were gonna lose for a second over there," said Tracy glaring at Ryan in accusation.

"You're overthinking it," said Eddie.

Ryan shook his head and sat on the bench. He was indeed hungry, asking in passing, "Where are Astin and Jacob?"

"Astin got bored and went back to his room," Lisa answered with a small smile. "He said he wasn't interested in fighting with weaklings."

"Ayaa, that child," Professor Ania rolled her eyes. "You all did a great job, but he should have stayed. I bet all my money on you guys, so don't lose. Ouch... Laila."

"I know it," Laila rolled her eyes and pinched her friend even more.

"And stop trying to put pressure on the students. If you lose money, that's your problem. Do something about your childhood friend."

Daniel buried his face in his cake, pretending to be deaf. If he stupidly got into these two ladies' fights, he would end up being the one in the wrong.

-Slurp

"What are you doing here, by the way?" Amanda asked, eating noodles. 

"What do you mean? We're here to check on you guys, and from where did you bring that cup of noodles?" Ania said, mouth drooling.

"I brought it," said Steve, handing everyone in the room a share.

He entered after Ryan, but no one saw him. He said to Damion, "Your parents are looking for you."

Damion nodded and left.

Ryan looked around; everyone was there, even Elsa and Anna, everyone except Jacob and Astin.

"Haaaaaa..." Ryan yawned and started to doze off. Feeling Tracy's soft hand on his face. He could hear her grumbling atop his head, but the surrounding sounds began to fade into the background.

Ryan closed his eyes; he could feel it, he was going to die soon.

*****

The heavy rainwater trickled down as Astin wiped the droplets of water off his body.

The dark, cloudy sky and flashing thunder added to the sight, making the island look like a ghost town. Standing at the base of the mountain, Astin looked at the castle, his two black eyes dangerously examining it.

As he took the first step toward it, he paused and looked back. His mouth formed an annoyed smile.

"The Bleu Hearts."

Hundreds of knights surrounded Astin, their bodies covered from head to toe with heavy black and blue armor.

"Astin Buer," the leader of the Blue Hearts said, "To think that the famous hero killer was hiding in Erou as a student."

"Hmmm, took you long enough." Astin's mouth raised to a mocking grin, "and here I started losing faith in the Farris Union."

"Huh, kids like you need to be taught respect." The leader unsheathed his sword, and so did the rest of the knights.

-BOOM!

Astin appeared from behind the leader, his head in his hand.

"It's disrespectful to take off someone's head without their permission," the head spoke.

"Hahaha, turns out the famous tales about you are true," Astin looked at the empty shell of armor returning to its body like a magnet.

"The Blue Hearts truly aren't humans." Astin smiled widely, "This is gonna be fun."

The sound of heavy metal resounded but was quickly buried by the sound of rain.

"There is something up there, something dangerous," the leader frowned.

Crash-

"Hmm, so you really don't die," said Astin, dismembering the leader for the nth time.

"Leader, should we split?" said another Blue Hearts member, his body being assembled back.

-...

Astin frowned in distaste, "This isn't as fun as I thought it would be."

Astin activated his black magic, wrapping it around his hand. "I'm just gonna destroy you for real this time."

"Hahahaha," the leader laughed heartily, "Is this the honorable Archimage finally getting serious?"

"This old metal almost thought I would have to wait for centuries," the leader laughed and said to his subordinates, "We won't split until we tear this Villain down. Knights, as long as we are together..."

"The Bleu Hearts are invincible."