Being watched?

I scanned the crowd behind me slowly. I didn't see anyone in particular that caught my attention. Whoever was watching me didn't feel hostile. I didn't feel danger so they weren't a danger. I'd have to try catching them watching me later.

Ethan hugged me from behind.

"I missed you," Ethan hung off of me like an overexcited kid.

I shoved him off with a little more force than necessary. Yoinking him back into the pavement.

"Hey!" Ethan complained as he got up.

Rubbing his sore backside. I flinched at his pain, but decided to ignore him for the most part. Savannah was headed our way.

"What happened to you while you were gone?" Ethan's tone went serious.

"Back to the room first," I shut down any questions he might ask for the time being.

We strode along side by side for a while before we were joined by Savannah at the hotel. She wasn't sure how she felt. We rode the elevator up to my room. I went in, and held the door open for them. Closing it after they were in the room.

Locking it as I threw the damn beanie on the floor. All questions died on their lips. My hair looked like completely different from the last time they'd seen me. Then there was the little scar on my forehead that went into my hair. I rubbed it because it still itched.

It would fade in a few weeks. For now though it would stick around. The hair was a bigger problem though. I had about four inches of hair total. Three inches closest to my skull was completely black.

The last inch was streaked with both light blue, dark blue, silver, green, gold, and even a few small bits of white. Right now it was in completely messed up from wearing that cheap beanie.

"You can lecture me later," I frowned at them, "Yes. I did almost die. No." I pulled my shirt off, "I'm not in the mood to talk about it."

There were more scars all over my upper body area. Some overlapped with others, but they would fade just like the one on my forehead. Except for the stone colored scar the basilisk gave me. I was stuck with that one. I looked down to the tear in my pant leg.

The pants were already shot so who cared if they got ruined that much more. I switched forms quickly. Shredding the pants I had on. More colors were added to my horns, and on my scales. I didn't know what I would do about the hair color change.

Should I just pretend I'd dyed it? I snorted to myself as I settled in to sleep. I was bigger now. Not enough for it to be obvious, but enough that I could tell there wasn't as much room between my horns, and the roof. I crossed my right over my left, and dropped my head down to go to sleep.

I inhaled deeply before exhaling slowly as my eyes drifted closed. Falling asleep as I relaxed slowly. I fell into my inner world. I experimented with the new spells I'd gained while I was away. My wings twitched as I worked on stuff in my inner world.

"I didn't think I still twitched when I was in my inner world," I mumbled to myself.

"Your body is resting," the system answered, "Despite your active mind. Twitching is natural."

I almost chuckled at that response. Ethan joined me in my inner world sometime later. I started playing with my elemental manipulation. Creating whatever wacky creations I thought would be fun. I even created a Ferris wheel out of water, and ice.

We experimented with a lot of techniques. I woke up around ten the next morning. I sprawled out on my side as I stretched slowly. My wingtips gracing the far wall as I did. I swiveled my head to look at the hollo screen on the wall.

I rolled up, and pulled myself over to turn on the screen. I wanted to watch the matches as I chilled out in the room. Ethan was sprawled out on the couch, and Savannah was in Ethan's room. She still had a problem with sleeping in the same room as us. I lazily waited for the first round to end.

I checked my email, and I wasn't going to be fighting today. I might not be fighting, but I could still watch the other fights, and learn something from them. I was more interested in the ones that finished quickly. Those ones were the ones with the strongest, and the weakest fighters. It was actually pretty boring to watch people being crushed by their opponents.

I could tell how most fights were going to end with just a glance. I debated on turning it off, but I couldn't do that either. I might miss something if I did. My wings slowly pulled in tight as I debated on what I would do later. The matches ended a little after three in the afternoon.

Then they were followed by some commentary. I thought the commentary was kind of a waste of time until I heard something that caught my attention.

"We had a record breaking round yesterday," they started commenting on my match, "Fastest round on record."

"What did you think of that precise brutality that he ended the round with?" the commentator showed a slow motion frame by frame playback of my round.

Most people who'd been watching yesterday hadn't actually seen me fight. The frame by frame slowly showed me pushing his right hook to the side as I pivoted, and whacked him with an elbow shot. Then his face was just in the ground, and he was skidding across the floor. Out like a light. I snorted as I shut off the hollo screen.

I didn't care to listen to them talking about me crushing my opponent so brutally. It wasn't my intention to hit him that hard. I hadn't fought with anything weaker than myself that I didn't want to kill in a long time. I'd forgotten to hold back. If I'd hit him any harder I might have snapped his head clean off his neck.