Chapter 15 : Guild wars (1)

When the college began after the internships it was a customary thing for many students go through the ranking tests again, it was especially common in class C and class B and many class A students also went through the test to see if there was some improvement in their own rank.

This time in RUA though there was a new class. the special class with 6 students. people knew it would not be an easy task for anyone in hero class to change their ranks but there was a C class among them and it did interest them as to how her class will be affected.

Krishna had urged Anika to take the test to see the change in her rank as he knew he had given every bit of aura he got from Fakhar to Her during their healing sessions so he too expected a good enough change in her even though her foundation was too massive and such an amount would not mean much. But at C rank he was expecting some changes as he had very little idea of the way ranking systems worked and he had very little in terms of reference, So even though he had sensed the changes the actual number was something to be seen.

Rajdeep and Reema who were on the fence about going to rankings also decided to join. the rankings of the special class were to be held at the end after every other section was done.

Rajdeep and Reema still had no idea who defeated Fakhar and Anika had decided to leave the decision of tell them on Krishna but when they woke up they saw Yash Bakshi on the helicopter so they had naturally assumed that the Lion had finished the job. They were also a bit disappointed as they did not get to see the leader of a major guild fight. Surprisingly even though he was so famous not too many had seen him fight. it was said that his fights never lasted long and as per internet exaggeration he only needed 10 seconds to finish things no matter who his opponent was and those that had seen him had not been able to describe what actually happened.

Krishna stood with Rusjeet singh and Ram in the booth as his students got ready to take tests. There were also many unknown people in the booth there which ram explained were emissaries of other major guilds. First came the heroes and they had no change of rank, Rishi stayed S3 and the other 2 stayed at S2 ranks. then came Anika, many people were interested in her ranking change and thought there was a chance she had moved to C5 at least if not B. But when the ranks came on the screen everyone shocked by the sight. she had not reached B rank but entirely skipped it. She was in A1 now.

Next came Reema she was in B5 and changing ranks after B was not impossible but is was surely Rarer. there was another shock on the board for them, as people began to chatter and whisper.

Rusjeet sighed as he looked down and said, "This place will soon turn into a battlefield."

Krishna did not understand how, so he faced his trusted source Ram who was also in agreement with Rusjeet singh by the looks of it.

"Why a battlefield, this is good news right?"

"That is the problem you see, there are three factors that play a role in this. 1st one are these people standing here in this booth, which is a proof that association has been getting soft with their security. 2nd is the big announcement by lions that out of their 2 great pillars ,the 2B's Bakshi and Butterfly, the later has announced she will only participate in the next wave after which she will be leaving Lions, so for all purposes she is out of Lions. Then the third one is what you are witnessing here, Anika's jump to A rank is itself was going to cause fires but Reema's jump into hero class S1 has just made the war inevitable. there is a big power gap created in the west now and every major guild will want to take a bite from this fruit."

Then Came Rajdeep who had definitely lost some of his over bulked muscles but he was in no way looking weaker. The crowd had already seen something unbelievable by now. the lightning had already stuck twice and even if Rajdeep was to get into Hero class it would not come as a total surprise to the people but they might still be astonished.

"To think being with heroes can have such an effect."

"Shouldn't they be keeping more such classes the more there are the better it is right."

"But it's not like this is the first time such a class is made, there are many such classes outside India."

"I heard China even has no A,B,C classes. They straight up study with everyone."

"That is a part of their thing, Government wants control so they only control the top brass and the lower ones who evidently are their followers come directly under their umbrella."

"No matter what or how you say, it is still a very efficient system."

"But you can't deny they are reaping the benefits of being with heroes."

While the chatting went on Rajdeep's rank assessment was in progress and it started taking more and more time than normal. When the results came it was like the old shocks were nothing compared to this new one. A result that had never before been seen in India. In fact this was the Third case ever known to man of having such a result. When it first came about nobody knew how to measure it so a new code was embedded into the measuring software's all over the world but it had remained dormant to this day. Rajdeep had two rankings one being A4 written in white text and another one being A5 written in red.

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Rishi and the other 2 were in the class while the rest of the three were called in for a retest after all the people were gone so that they can confirm the acquired readings, especially that of Rajdeep. Rishi was swirling the water in his bottle thinking what is it that they were doing wrong. How did those 3 get so powerful and they achieved nothing in comparison.

The association had specially arranged for powerful gates where they could practice. Anomaly type 2 gate which took 7 days to open could be measured in overall ranking with the same violet crystals that were used to measure the rankings. Rishi and his team were perfectly aligned too, Jia was a support, Anirudh had close combat prowess and he himself had long range attacks. A team having this combination of S rank having such synergistic powers would not be the norm and they had certainly shown by going through as many gates as possible with ease.

how is that someone can jump so many ranks in such little time. if this was to go on they would soon lose their holding against inferior classes. Jia who had been looking at Rishi with smile came up to him and said, "You know now that we have a new member in our ranks why don't we invite her in, I am sure she would love to be with people of her calibre."

Anirudh who was sitting and also pondering over similar questions said, "I would sure like to know how they jumped those ranks, But no matter what there is a limit to ranking up, with each fight your rank becomes solidified more and more. You can beat the steel to make the sword better but eventually the increments in quality become slower and those two will need years more to reach the hero class."

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When Abid khan got the news of the rank jumps and a dual ranker it was surely a happy shock but that also meant that now there would be a big competition among the guilds and they were not exactly on friendly terms with each other currently, so the association had to see through the fact that there is no fights erupting in this competition and everything goes as smoothly as possible.

The problem was their leaders, how do you control the behemoths that stood at the top of strength charts. The Lions in the west always had problems with the Tigers in the east and then the Strykers of North and Clovers from south though not having a bad blood yet were in the competition of being the strongest in the nation, so it was imperative that there is not a new development of bad blood in them.

The guild economies were working on the demon crystals that were retrieved from every gate. the association had their own force but it was not even close to what the guilds could do so their biggest job was to keep these guilds from fighting each other and make them fight the real enemy, the demons. They would try to enter the new territory if they could but they could not thin out their powers and finding competent people with enough ranks was obviously not easy so it was easy for association to distribute gates and keep the guilds from spreading into each other, keeping the conflicts to a minimum. Now there was an opening and there were competent fighters available to fill the positions too, it was a prefect disaster recipe that needed immediate attention.

Abid called Pooja over in the office and asked,"What is the current status of the guild leaders?"

"all three leaders of Strykers and the leader of clover are heading to RUA soon, we have flight bookings to confirm that." Said Pooja confirming everything on her tablet.

"What do we have on Tigers?"

"Not much movement from their side yet, I will keep you posted if something was to happen...But what should we do about the current situation?"

Abid Khan joined his hand and took the support of his table thinking about the next action,"I cannot leave the Delhi yet but we have Rusjeet singh there, tell him to keep an eye out, this takes priority over anything else. Also advise him not to interfere unless absolutely necessary and if things get out of hand he should get in touch with use immediately."

"Yes sir." Said Pooja and left the office as Abid sat there pondering about the report he had received recently about a potential new problem that was keeping him in Delhi.

"Let's hope it doesn't get ugly."

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Nandini was waiting outside the training room at the end of college day when Rusjeet singh's class was to end. She wanted to have a talk with Anika about Krishna for quite a long time, it was not a comfortable topic of both but she had finally mustered up enough courage to face her. When Anika came out all sweaty in her comfortable clothes she saw Butterfly near the door, she knew her name was Nandini but it took time for her to settle with the name as she had always know her as butterfly a role model of strength, first woman to have such a prominent place in any Indian guild.

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

Anika understood the purpose by her tone so she nodded and said,"Let me change and we can go somewhere to talk."

They went to the Kankaria memorial which stood at the place where there used to be Kankaria lake which was devastated in the alpha wave so the government built a memorial for the fallen there. it was an open ground with white pillars that had all the names of the people that died etched on them and then there was a central pillar that had the name of those that had fought valiantly against the demons and died the death of a martyr. it mostly had names of a few heroes and many A ranks that had died, the other lower class raiders only had a website with their names and ranks in it and nothing else. the pillar was still not full of names reminding them that their tragedy was not yet over.

"What do you want to talk about?" Said Anika as they stood in front of the central pillar that was surrounded by flowers for those higher class fighter that had died in the recent Naroda gate break.

"I wanted to ask you if you love Krishna."

Ankia's slightly turned red by such a sudden question and asked,"Why are you asking me?"

"Because there is a difference between loving someone and liking someone, If you don't love him then don't pursue him. He finally smiled for the first time since I have seen him. I don't know what happened but he said he had to smile if not for himself then for the people that matter to him. I have known him for a long time, he has always fought his demons alone with a smile but after all these years, the only thing I saw in his eyes was pain. I finally I saw some hope in his eyes. I am not here to tell you to not follow your heart, I do not have the right to that but I don't want that little light of hope to go away in him, because I love him."

Anika Remembered how Krishna always kept himself away from interacting. How Ganesh would have to force him around. He had grown warmer bit by bit since then. The Krishna that had walked away from that glass booth without even glancing back at her, talked about hurting the people he cared about on the terrace. Surely after Ganesh had died he reverted back to the old self for a little while.

"You know even when you were with association I used to look at you and see a strong woman, I woman I wanted to be. Look at you now, how can you think of sharing someone's pain when you can barely hold yourself. I wish I could say I made him smile but some people don't need a pillar to that says their name, their legacy is the smiles that they have left in this world."

Nandini felt something she had felt before in the past, her heartbeat became faster as those memories flooded in with those feelings. She may have not answered her directly but she had given her the answer she needed. Anika left after sometime as they talked about some things that were on their mind, the two of them obviously bonded but the anxiety over Krishna never left Nandini. she was happy and sad at the same time because Anika was falling for him the same way she did in the past, how she changed all those years ago, because one man made her truly believe in herself.

They had also talked about how Krishna remembered a lost love. Anika thought it was Nandini but from what he told Nandini made it clear it was not her Because Krishna knew she didn't die, in fact it was him that saved her when that golden armoured demon suddenly entered their class.

Unfortunately she remembered nothing from that day except that she fell unconscious and when she woke up everyone was dead except her and Krishna was missing. What exactly happened that day she wondered and who is that person that still lingers in Krishna's mind. She had no explanation to fit in the scenario, even the power he possessed started creating some questions in her mind that she had not thought of in all the nostalgia that hit her after seeing Krishna back. She too left after giving up on those questions for the time being as knowing Krishna he wasn't the kind of guy that would open up.

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After the fighting session in the morning ended with Krishna, Reema was walking down the hallway to the class, she looked outside as RUA staff looked in a lot of haste preparing for something. after a curb she was faced with Rishi, Jia and Anirudh who were blocking her way. Rishi walked to the front as Jia was smiling, There was something about Jia's smile that always made Reema uncomfortable, Anirudh on the other hand stood silently with his hands folded.

"Congratulation on becoming a hero, We were thinking of throwing you a party, it seems like the right thing to do as colleagues."

Reema looked with suspicious eyes and said, "It's OK, I don't want anything."

she tried to walk away but Rishi blocked her way, "we insist."

"Look, I don't wanna stir any trouble here but I am fine, I will celebrate with my friends."

"We are all friends here."

Anirudh unfolded his hands as he saw Reema getting uncomfortable, he moved Rishi away and said, "You can go. All we meant to say was that you should be among powerful people, being with us will only lead to a better future for you."

After Reema went Jia whined and said, "Oh come on Anirudh way to spoil the fun." Anirudh gave her a stern look silencing her as he walked away. Rishi held Anirudh's arm in anger of being pushed away, "That was uncalled for mate."

Anirudh shook him away and said, "We are not mates, I am with you for the same reason I told her. I respected you for your strength and she has also earned that from me."

Anirudh knew that Rishi had financial strength along with the his hero status and being with him would make him gain more than being with someone with just strength but he could not see anyone forced into something especially not a woman.

He remembered his root as his Affinity awakened 3 years ago in his small village on a hilly regions of north north India. His sister was forced by a boy but when she said no, some people threw acid on her face. unlucky for her she died from the burns.

His parents tried to get justice for years but being the relative of a powerful politician he faced no charges, on the contrary his sister was branded as a lewd girl who wanted to get the boy in ropes of marriage and threw acid on herself to make the boy feel guilty.

They had to face continued shunning from the society every day and one day his parent finally gave up, committing suicide. At that moment he learned that power is what runs everything and justice is just tool for their own narrative. That is when he awakened his affinity and the first thing he did was to kill that boy and his whole family.

He was in grief and was impulsive at that moment and as he was a juvenile at the time he was sent for a 4 year detention. On behalf of his good behaviour and intervention by the association he only served 2.5 years. It showed him again what power could do, His rank had so much power to change things in his favour.

That is why he preferred to crush his opponents totally and show them the taste of real power. He looked down upon the lower ranks for so long only to be utterly defeated by a girl who could not summon her aura. It broke his perception of the lower class raiders, he respected her strength but there was a part of him that still knew power was necessary to survive.

As he walked out he saw a tall brown man with sturdy and well built physique, the man wore simple T shirt and ripped jeans but his hand was far from simple, studded with gold rings in every finger. He also noticed the clothes though simple were obviously from a very expensive brand and his aviators were non less.

The RUA staff was also there with men standing to offer this man water. He was the very definition of power down to his expression and that man knew it too. Reema was standing in front of this man as he removed his glasses.

"Long time no see Reema, you have grown so much."

Reema was clenching her fists in anger seeing that man, "Abhimanyu Rao, Why are you here you scumbag."

"Is that how you welcome your big brother?" Said Abhimanyu hanging his Aviators in T-shirt.

"You sure were like a big brother to me once but not anymore...not even by a long shot."

Reema jumped and threw a punch at Abhimanyu but he caught her by the neck in mid air and said,"Don't be like your old man now."

"You better drop her right now." came a voice from the back. When Abhimanyu looked back it was Yash Bakshi in his ridiculous suit. Abhimanyu knew this was not a time to start a battle and especially with Bakshi so he dropped Reema down.

"Why do you care?"

"She is a part of my guild." Said Yash as he came and picked up Reema,"You attack her, you attack my guild and As a leader it is my duty to stand by my underlings. You can understand that, can't you?" Bakshi now stood face to face with Abhimanyu, "Leader of the Clover guild."