(chapter 5) Beatdown

Kuni lay still for a few moments before suddenly being thrown into a massive fit of coughing and spluttering with blood shooting out of his mouth. He groaned in pain so loudly it was almost a scream as he clutched his ribs.

"W-what the f-fuck." He said through gritted teeth as he stood up. "Come on Regen. You're a Passive Skill that heals me faster so fix my ribs."

Slowly he stood up straight as the pain coursing through his chest and body began to fade while he looked at the trail of destruction in front of him, the result of him being hit by Nova's attack.

"Lion Rank my ass." He muttered to himself.

"The badge on my shoulder says otherwise." Said Nova, materialising in front of Kuni with a blank expression on his face.

"Holy!" Kuni yelped just managing to dodge another punch from Nova by a hair as his fist slammed into the wall of the Clash Dimension. The impact seemed to shake the whole dimension itself as Kuni leaped away trying to distance himself from Nova.

"You know what screw it, knives." He said and swung his arms to the side while in the air, summoning multiple knife-like weapons which flew forward straight at Nova.

As Kuni landed the knives seemingly bounced off thin air an inch away from touching Nova.

"The Skill Blade Master. Being able to summon bladed weapons which you can control at will." Nova said walking forward. "That's cute."

He leapt forward, cracking the ground beneath his feet, with another punch ready to be thrown as Kuni leapt forward himself.

"Multiplier: times 5!" He yelled as both him and Nova clashed fists.

The impact ripped apart the surrounding area, as if a bomb had been set off, while Kuni could feel the bones in his arm crack from it leading to him to yell out through gritted teeth.

"Multiplier huh?" Nova said pushing forward. "A Skill that multiplies the user's strength and durability up to 8x and your arm is still on the verge of breaking like a twig."

Kuni, clearly enraged by this, tried to throw two more punches which Nova dodged the first and ducked the second one before delivering a massive kick to his stomach launching him up into the air.

Nova backflipped into the air hitting the Dimension wall way up high just above Kuni. He launched from it shooting towards Kuni like a rocket, grabbing him by the face and smashing him into the ground. They both continued through the city with Nova grinding Kuni's face into the ground like he was a piece of cheese against a grater.

"Like I said Kuni," Nova muttered. "You'll wish you were dead."

Still being ground into the earth, Kuni tried to throw a punch which stopped short of hitting Nova who then grabbed the arm and threw to the side like a ragdoll.

"How about I start using Flash." Nova said and rocketed forward, many times faster than before, giving Kuni no time to even hit theground before landing a devastating kick to his back.

Nova was sure he broke his spine considering Kuni's scream of pain as he was flew up into the air while Nova jumped up after him.

"Batter up." He said connecting a punch with Kuni's jaw, sending him hurtling back down into the ground causing a massive explosion of dust and debris on impact.

Nova landed a good distance away from the place of impact and there was a long pause as the dust floated up into the air, the rumbling of the explosion still echoing across the planet sized city.

The dust suddenly cleared as Kuni rocketed forward and threw a punch which sounded like a clap of thunder on impact, but it still stopped short by an inch from Nova's face who immediately grabbed Kuni's head and slammed his face into his knee shattering his nose like glass.

As Kuni's head bounced off of his knee, Nova grabbed his face again and shot forward, dragging Kuni's face through multiple buildings this time, completely levelling the city before being thrown away once again. As Kuni was thrown forward into the air again, he seemed to regain control and dodge Nova who slammed into the ground where Kuni had landed.

The two rocketed through the city trading blows after blows with Kuni beginning to block some of Nova's attacks even though his own still wouldn't land.

Nova threw jab that was 50x faster than the speed of sound that Kuni just managed to slip by with hidden blade forming in his hand aiming for Nova' s eyes.

The blade broke when it hit the seemingly invisible wall an inch away from Nova who then leaped over Kuni way up into the air.

While in the air, mid flip, Nova threw out a pair of chained blades that materialised into his hands, the blades burying themselves deep into the ground around Kuni. Nova grabbed hold of the chains and pulled, throwing himself back down at an insane speed delivering a kick straight to Kuni's skull smashing his face into the ground, once again causing another explosion of dust and debris. Bouncing off his head like a trampoline, Nova leapt into the air, yanking the blades out of the ground as he landed.

Nova swung the chained blades around in a dance like movement before they then slammed together and seemingly merging and changing its shape into a spear which Nova took hold of. He spun the spear like a propeller behind his back before throwing it at a charging Kuni who didn't completely dodge it as it grazed his cheek. Kuni met Nova and delivered a series of punches to Nova's chest in the blink of an eye, none of which landing, who then reeled back and hit Kuni with an uppercut, that on impact sounded like a cannon being fired, sending Kuni rocketing up into the air.

"This has been fun Kuni but I'm ending this." Nova said leaping up into the air after him.

Nova met Kuni in the air, leaving a good distance between himself and the practically unconscious Kuni, and pulled back his right arm.

Nova's right hand was then surrounded by a whitish blue aura that looked like electricity as, what could only be described as a lightning bolt, formed a couple of inches away from his hand. It was a good few meters long and was the same colour as the aura around his hand.

"This is it!" Nova yelled launching the lightning bolt like a spear. "HAND OF ZEUS!!

The blot, literally as fast as lightning, hit Kuni in the chest and slammed him into the ground almost instantaneously followed by a massive whitish blue explosion, crackling with electricity, that spread out a mile across in every direction, releasing a shockwave that actually cracked the very walls of the Clash Dimension itself. Everything in that mile radius was instantly vaporised leaving a gigantic crater behind with a horribly burnt and beaten Kuni in the centre who was just barley still breathing.

Nova landed at the very edge of the crater and watched as people, students and teachers alike, began to pour into the room rushing towards his direction.

He heaved a heavy sigh.

"This is why I didn't to fight you Kuni."

"Nova!" Lazuli screamed shooting past all the incoming students and teachers. "Your amazing!!"

My body suddenly felt slightly warm which was not good news at all.

Wait a minute, what time is it!?

I dodged a hug from Lazuli before grabbing her shoulders.

"No time to explain Lazuli but what's the time?" I said urgently.

"Time?" She tilted her head to the side confused.

"Yes, the time of day what is it?" I said my face expressionless, but my voice had a sense of urgency that seemed to have taken Lazuli off guard slightly.

"It's 10:45am." She answered sounding a little worried and confused.

Ok that's enough time.

"Sorry, I can't answer any of your questions right now as I'm sure you have many." I said spotting Shion in the crowd as well. "If you and Shion can meet me in my room at 12:10pm I'll answer them al but I gotta go now."

Before either her or Shion could protest, I shot past them and the crowd, going straight through the exit of the Clash Dimension and continued on running, exiting the building as well as the whole school complex after too long.

I just gotta put as much distance as possible between me and the school for a while. I thought as I jumped up high into the sky.

"Your late." Shion said while I closed the door behind me as she sat in the armchair facing away from said door.

Lazuli was stretching out on the sofa eating an apple, her glasses were off and were on the small table next to the armchair.

"You said 12:10pm Nova." She said pouting. "It's 6pm."

She pointed at the orange evening sky that could be seen through the massive wall window in the room.

If anything, it makes the view even more beautiful.

I went to get sit on the sofa next to Lazuli but Shion stopped me.

"Nope. Sit." She said pointing at the floor. "You don't get to sit or lie down anywhere until I get some answers Lion Rank."

"Should you really call him that." Lazuli said. "I mean he's beaten two Dragon Ranks now."

"He came into G.E. High as a Lion Rank. He seems to what to be a Lion Rank and the next Rank Reading isn't for a few months so until then, he's a Lion Rank in my book."

Why do I feel like a child that's being told off when they get caught still a cookie from the jar by their parents?

"A Lion Rank" Shion continued. "Who's a lot more powerful than he lets on so you better talk."

She opened her palm and a mini sun formed in it.

"And I'm not afraid to go to extreme methods."

I funny quip came into my head that involved me raising a point to Shion that her attacks won't actually hit me, but a second look at her face told me to probably save it. Don't want to risk the whole school being destroyed again. Even Lazuli wasn't stopping her either, although she did look a little reluctant.

"Ok I'll talk." I said kneeling down on the floor. "I can't promise that I can answer all your questions, but I will answer what I can."

Shion nodded.

"Good now I have my suspicions but just to confirm, why did none of Kuni's attacks land and hit you?" She said narrowing her eyes.

"I'd like to know that as well." Kuni said leaning on the sofa beside Lazuli who then screamed and leapt off the sofa and hid behind me, holding my arm for comfort.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" Shion screamed standing straight up, her eyes burning with rage.

Kuni smiled and laughed weakly scratching the bandage on his nose leading me to notice he had bandages on both his arms and the right side of his head.

"I saw Nova walking by" Kuni explained. "and decided to use Ultra Stealth, so not to be seen, to then follow him and hopefully get some answers myself while also staying out of his eyesight so the man wouldn't spot me himself."

This guy is persistent. I just beat him half to death and he's still bugging me also how is he out of the school's hospital.

"How are you even moving in the first place?" Lazuli said asking the same question I had.

"With a combination of my Skill Regen and a small donation of Miss Skyline's Restore and I was able to move around again but I ain'tgonna be fighting for a couple of days." He said taking a water bottle off the kitchen counter before walking over to lean on the wall window.

"That makes sense." Lazuli said returning to the sofa.

"I'm the strongest Assassin Class besides the Beast King Vide Blackstone so it's gonna take a lot more to actually kill me."

"Well," Shion said sitting back down. "considering how badly Nova beat your ass I'd say that title goes to him not you."

Kuni opened his mouth to say something but hesitated and shut up releasing he couldn't argue with that.

"Do you want me to answer the question or not." I said piping up and everyone nodded with Kuni taking a swig of the water bottle at the same time.

Ok here goes.

"The reason why Kuni couldn't land an attack on me is because I possess the passive Skill Barrier."

Kuni spat out the water his was drinking while Lazuli's eyes widened in surprise.

"Thought so." Shion said nodding confirming her suspicions.

"Well, no shit I couldn't land an attack!" Kuni yelled throwing his arms into the air. "That Skill is basically cheating also that is so damn humiliating."

"Barrier is a Passive Skill that puts up an invisible wall around it's user 24/7" Lazuli said. "and the wall can only be broken by attacks that are worth 25% of the user's full power."

"Meaning that Nova here wasn't even using half his power when annihilating this prick who's strong enough to wipe out a Sun." Shion said pointing to Kuni who was lying on the floor.

"Hey! No need to be rude I just found out that I wasn't even a fight for this guy." Kuni whined. "I thought that he was at least going at 80% or something around that range."

Please don't ask the percentage that I was actually using for both your sake Kuni and I don't want people to know in the first place.

"I won't bother asking how much strength you were using as it's not that important." Shion said causing Kuni to protest but Lazuli quickly shut him up. "Is there any more defensive or nullifying Skills that you have?"

"There is." Kuni said speaking up after Lazuli had shut him up. "He has Specific Cancel as my Second Sight Skill stopped working after he realised, I was reading his mind."

I suddenly felt the urge to throw another Hand of Zeus at Kuni again.

I nodded when Lazuli and Shion turned to me to confirm what Kuni said.

"Ok I have an idea." Lazuli said after a brief pause. "Since doing it like this is gonna take a while, I suggest another option. Nova reveals all his Skills and what they can do and then to fair, we will do the same after him."

"Equivalent exchange as the saying goes." Kuni said with Shion also agreeing to the proposal.

I don't like this. In fact, I hate this but there's no point trying to avoid as they all know I'm hiding my power in the first place so I might as well.

I looked at the three people for a few moments.

"For the record I hate this idea, but I'll comply as there's not much point in hiding this." I said but held up a finger. "On one condition. This stays between us. Everything said here does not leave this room."

Everyone agreed and I began to talk.

"Fine then." I sighed before continuing. "Status open."

A display appeared in front of me looking similar to a character profile from a video game.

Name: Nova Laos

Class: Assassin

Rank: Lion

Incarnation: Zeus

Unique Skill: [Data Hidden]

Incarnation Skill: King of Gods – Grants the user immense strength and speed being able to move as fast as 50x the speed of sound and be able to lift 100,000 Tons with ease. User can also summon a massive attack called The Hand of Zeus.

Class – Specific Skills:

Ultra-Stealth: An Active Skill that completely hides the user's presence.

Flash: An Active Skill that massively increases user's reflexes and doubles user's speed.

Eagle Eyes: An Active Skill that allows the user to see distances that could be hundreds of miles in extreme detail

Skills:

Military: User can create basic weapons varying from bladed weapons to crossbows etc.

Copycat: A Passive Skill that allows the user to sense and then temporarily copy and use any Skill they see being performed by someone. The stronger the opponent's power compared to the user, the less time the user will be able to copy. User cannot copy Unique Skills

Fake Out: An Active Skill that allows the user to suppress their aura while also change the appearance of the Skills, Class and Rank the user may have as well as hide them completely.

Barrier: An Active Skill that puts up a protective barrier around the user that can only be broken if the opponent/attacks are worth 25% of the user's power.

Specific Cancel: An Active Skill that allows the user to disable/nullify one whole Skill from the opponent.

Sin Immunity: An Active Skill that grantsthe user immunity to all the Seven Deadly Sin Skills

There was a brief pause as everyone read the display of my Skills, scanning it like a computer with their eyes darting across the display.

Why does this feel almost violating.

I could see Shion was a little annoyed as her eyes kept on looking at me then back at the display.

Kuni nodded saying fair enough while Shion didn't look satisfied along with Lazuli.

"Mind telling us where this missing data is." Lazuli said pointing at my Unique Skill on the display.

Shion did not look happy.

"I thought I told you to show us everything." She growled.

"I'd rather you not know the full details" I said raising my hands. "but long story short it allows me to slice up my opponents however it's not a Skill I can spam."

"He's telling the truth." Kuni said. "He's not cancelling my Second Sight Skill so I can read his mind."

"And that's the last you'll read anything from my head again." I said folding my arms before cancelling his Skill.

"That Fake-Out Skill is cool, but can we be sure you're not hiding something because of it." Lazuli pointed out.

"That's why I'm suspicious of you lying again." Shion glared at me.

"I was using this Skill before when I entered the school to hide my Nullification based Skills, Copycat and a portion of my Unique Skill." I explained to her. "Remember although it hasn't been very successful so far my goal was and still is to try and keep as low a profile as possible. You just have to take my word I'm not hiding any extra Skills."

Please don't ask anymore questions it's getting really annoying now.

"Guess I'll have to trust you for now." Shion said. "Now as promised we'll reveal our Skills."

I nodded gratefully.

This should be good.

Kuni revealed his Skills first and is showed off his display.

Name: Kuni Saber

Class: Assassin

Rank: Dragon

Incarnation: Grim Reaper

Unique Skill: All Seeing Eye - Allows the user to be able to detect the flow and precise movement of Ethos within an opponent's body allowing them to locate openings/weak points almost instantly.

By watching the flow and movement of Ethos in the opponent's body, the user will be able to foresee attacks that use up Ethos, as they are being executed.

Incarnation Skill: Scythe of the Abyss – The User, when the Skill is activated, can kill anyone who are in his Rank or below instantly in one attack as long as it draws blood no matter how big or small. The attack can come as a melee or range-based attack.

Class – Specific Skills:

Ultra-Stealth: An Active Skill that completely hides the user's presence.

Flash: An Active Skill that massively increases user's reflexes and doubles user's speed.

Eagle Eyes: An Active Skill that allows the user to see distances that could be hundreds of miles in extreme detail

Skills:

Sloth: A Passive Skill that instantly tells the user what Skills, Rank and Class an Ethereal has by seeing them in person

Second Sight: A 10th Tier Active Skill that allows the user to be able read the opponents thoughts/mind. The user can incorporate this in battle and use it predict attacks just before they're executed.

Regen: A passive Skill that significantly speeds up the healing process of the user

Ruler of Blades: user can summon and manipulate bladed weapons at will.

Multiplier: An Active Skill that can multiply the user's strength up 5x.

If there was a skillset designed for fast quick kills and fights, this would be it.

I nodded my head, Kuni's Incarnation Skill taking peeking my interest the most.

"I'm quite glad I have the Skill Barrier now after seeing what your Incarnation Skill." I said looking straight at Kuni startling him a little.

"It's come in handy many times over the years." He laughed weakly scratching the back of his head. "I used to do contract killings against some of the nasties in the numerous cities across the globe."

"Aren't you a scary person." Lazuli teased.

"Careful or I might punch you, I'm a man of equality after all." Kuni said shrugging his shoulders.

Lazuli raised a hand in front of her face and clenched it into a fist, her skin turning into a familiar looking rock like texture.

"You'll break your hand trying." She grinned evilly at a Kuni who was raising an eyebrow.

"Careful your two." Shion piped after being quiet. "Keep that up and I'll give you guys some burn scars."

"And that's my que to show you all my Skills." Lazuli said jumping up cheerfully.

Name: Lazuli Titana

Class: Tanker

Rank: Hydra

Unique Skill: Herculean - Gives the user the ability to multiply their physical strength by 5x

Class – Specific Skills

Wall: An active Skill that Allows the user to harden their body making it almost impossible to cause significant damage if the opponent is a lower Rank

Enchantment Magic: An Active Skill that Allows the user to enhance a subjects probities. This could be a weapon or enhancing the user's as well as another person's certain skills or physical abilities.

Skills

Pride: An Active Skill that doubles the amount the user's strength every two minutes.

Not bad. That skillset is pretty basic but can be very deadly in battle if wielded correctly, something tells me this Lazuli has a lot of untapped potential.

"Ok now it's my turn." Shion said as Lazuli sat down looking proud of herself.

"Now," Kuni said clapping his hands before rubbing them together. "This should be interesting."

Shion shot him a glare stopped him from smiling before turning back round.

"Status Open."

Name: Shion Marble

Class: Mage

Rank: Dragon

Incarnation: Lernaean Hydra

Unique Skill: Bodiless - A Skill that makes anything, and everything pass through the user making them completely untouchable. This Skill must be activated and can be active for a max of 20 seconds at a time and needs another 10 second cool down before use again

Incarnation Skill: Ultra Regeneration – Grants the user very powerful regeneration that can even regrow limbs and most serious injuries. Cannot heal injuries caused by heat or fire based attacks.

Class – Specific Skills

Solar Magic: A Topic Skill that holds the following Skills.

Solar Harness: can harness the power/energy of the Sun and light to manipulate it into almost anything like weapons, shields weapons and energy-based attacks almost as hot as the Sun.

Light Speed: Can move at the speed of light as well as gain the ability to fly

Light Recovery: Gives user an extremely powerful healing factor

Air Magic: A Topic Skill that holds thefollowing Skills.

Air Manipulation: An Active Skill that can manipulate air into anything like barriers, shockwaves, razor sharp gusts of wind, make the user fly, etc.

Storm: An Active Skill that allows the user to create/manifest different types of storms like, Tornadoes, Hurricanes and even thunder/lightning storms.

Underworld: A Topic Skill that holds the following Skills.

Hellfire: An Active Skill that gives the user access to a type of Fire that is almost if not hotter than the Heat produced from the Solar Element. Hellfire I said to burn the opponents very soul.

AfterLife: An Active Skill that allows the user to open a portal to one of the many different underworlds in mythology

Skills

Gluttony: An Active Skill that allows the user to absorb the power of any non-physical attack that is below the user's rank and temporarily stores/stacks it onto the user's own power.

Kuni let out a long whistle, his eyes wide as they darted over all the Skills laid out on the display.

"Very impressive Phantom Mage. Even if someone was able to manage harm you, you'll heal up right away plus you can pretty much absorb any long-range attacks and are invaluable to physical ones." Kuni said crossing his arms.

Kuni voiced my thoughts spot on. No wonder she's one of the strongest Dragon Ranked Ethereals out there, her very impressive set of Skills combined with the very large amount of Ethos I can sense her body produce, I feel bad for her opponents. Plus, she's always getting stronger.

"That's the strongest Ethereal in G.E. High for ya." Lazuli said grabbing Shion's shoulders and shaking her gently.

"You wouldn't think it but Air Magic Skills and Solar Magic Skill work really well together." Shion said waving the display away.

"Well, I'm going to sit on that sofa now as promised by you Shion." I said sitting down next to Lazuli. "I feel bad for your opponents in the upcoming tournament, I'll wish you guys luck and hope Kuni isn't as badly beaten when he eventually picks a fight with Shion."

My comment caused Kuni to roll his eyes and Shion to smirk.

"You say that like you're not joining us." Lazuli said stretching out on the sofa getting very close to my face.

"I'm pretty sure Shion explained why I'm not gonna enter." I said before noticing that Lazuli's chest was being pushed up against my arm. "In other news you are very close right now."

Lazuli's eyes widened as she realised, she wasless than an inch away from my face, her chest pushing up against my arm and body. Her face went bright red before letting out a high-pitched squeal as she quickly jumped off the sofa, opened the door and rushed out the room. As she ran out a letter from her pocket fell out of her back pocket.

"I think that's our que for you to leave" Shion said pointing at Kuni. "and for me to go to bed."

"I'm gonna go… console, Lazuli though that might just make me end up getting hurt." Kuni said walking towards the open door as Shion got up. "Catch you guys later, tomorrow is the day we find out who's entering the Divine Tournament."

He left the room closing the door behind him as eyes were drawn to the envelope that had fallen out of her pocket.

"Oh yeah Lazuli was supposed to give that to you." Shion called from the landing upstairs. "Some random girl wearing a hat and a facemask we bumped into in town when we got sick of waiting for you up hear."

A girl wearing a face mask and a hat. That doesn't sound sketchy whatsoever.

"Why'd was Lazuli going to give it me then? What did the girl say?" I asked looking up Shion as she peeked over the landing.

"I don't know what she was up to, she just told us if we knew anyone called Nova and if so to give this letter to you. Nova isn't a common name but it ain't a rare one for an Ethereal so it's probably nothing."

She then disappeared before I heard the closing of her bedroom door as she, presumably went to go to sleep like she said."

I looked back at the note and picked it up, turning it over and inspecting it for any secrets it had maybe. It just had the same name Nova in the middle of it."

"A girl with a hat and a facemask." I muttered to myself as I started to open it. "Why am I getting a bad feeling about this."

I opened it up and pulled out another envelope.

Ok now this is getting odd.

There was nothing on the front, so I turned it over and found something. It was two words that read,

Come Back

I immediately crushed the envelope in my hands before ripping it to shreds as sudden mix of fear, anger and shock ran straight through me.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Fuck!

"Not good." I muttered as I began to pace back and forth. "Not good at all. How do they know I'm here already? They can't know. It's impossible."

I stopped as something came to mind.

"Wait, the Carrion incident. Did they figure it out because of that because of that?"

Keep a low-profile Nova how's that going for ya? Don't get involved in anything that may draw attention to you it was that simple but oh no winning is always a higher priority, always has been and you know it. Why am I such a saw loser? This is one of, if not, the worst-case scenario.

"Actually." I momentarily paused the fight I was having with myself in my head. "No, it isn't because of that. If they knew 100% that I was here, they would have busted in no problem."

The it dawned on me.

Oooh, I see. Very smart of you, this has your name written all over it. You always were the trickster of the family after all.

"You have no idea where I am." I muttered starting to clean up the pieces of the envelope on the floor. "So, you're sending out these letters all over the place to as many Novas as possible hoping that it comes to me and try to get a reaction out of me to show you where I really am. Genius!"

I almost smiled as I dropped the pieces into the bin.

"I can relax a little. They're looking for me but that's no surprise and they're beginning to use some unorthodox tactics to try and lure me out. Which means they have no idea where I am."

I walked over to the wall window as I watched the sun begin to set in the bright pinkish orange sky.

"Nice try. Bro, Sis." I said staring off into the view. "Better luck next time.