Chapter 7: Anonymous

"Claudia Hart, it's time you know your place." 

Claudia quickly shot her eyes open as soon as that voice resounded in her mind.

She didn't know how but she was back in her room and on her bed now.

She stared at the ceiling for a while with a confused expression on her face before raising both of her hands.

"My hands are still working normally? What is going on?" She muttered before trying to get up from the bed but her body was just too weak for her to pull herself up and she ended up crashing back on the bed. 

That was the moment everything that happened just before she passed out came storming back to her memory.

Arsha was getting ready to use a very powerful attack on her, a quiet but powerful attack.

She had seen him use it before and she knew just how powerful it was, the thought of having her arms pierced by those water bullet attacks terrified her, but she was barely able to move her body.

She wanted to plead, but the words just wouldn't come out or in other words, her pride wouldn't let her.

"I think you should reconsider coming here after today." Arsha remarked before a water bullet shot out from his hand straight toward her.

She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth ready to take the hit but she didn't feel a thing.

The bullet flew past her and hit the tree behind her before releasing a shockwave on it that even shook her body.

The tree couldn't handle that impact as it was sliced clean from the point of impact and slowly fell backward.

Claudia was deeply terrified, she just stared at the floor with one thought continuously repeating in her mind.

'What if that hit me instead?'

With time, both her mind and body got exhausted and she ended up collapsing on the floor.

She was expecting to find herself on the floor because she believed that he wouldn't have any reason to carry him back but here she was, in her room.

"Was that really his goal? To terrify me and make me look pathetic in front of him." She muttered before turning her gaze to the right.

There was another made on that side of the room, an indication that she shared the room with someone.

"I wonder if Jessica has seen me like this?" 

Her long black socks were off her body now leaving her with just her skirt, and for some reason, she couldn't help but wonder who took them off.

"I have to get up and clean myself up before Jessica comes back and sees me in this pathetic state." She muttered under her breath before attempting to get up from the bed once again.

She gritted her teeth as she managed to sit up on the bed this time but doing that seemed to have taken a lot out of her.

'My back hurts terribly and my arms and legs require a lot more effort to function than usual.' She thought before slowly bringing her legs down. 'It was stupid to pick a fight with him but still…"

Just thinking about that set her heart ablaze with a burning anger, one that made her feel like tearing something apart.

"I still don't know how I got back here but I'm sure that Devil had nothing to do with it." She said before attempting to get up on her feet.

That resulted in a failure as she came crashing down on her knee just before she could stand with both of her legs.

"Owww."

The door opened at the moment and a dark-haired girl walked in with a bag in her hand.

"Claudia." She gasped as soon as she spotted her roommate on the floor before quickly rushing over to her.

"Oh, hey, Jess," Claudia muttered with a weak voice as she helped her up the bed.

"You shouldn't be moving, you're still hurt."

This dark-haired girl with brown eyes and a height that made her a bit taller than Claudia was Jessica Roland, a level four second-year student who was ranked somewhere among the top twenty and was Claudia's roommate and best friend. 

"I know, but I needed to go clean up," Claudia responded before placing her hand on her forehead.

"Don't worry about that, I'm going to help you do that." She assured her before moving to her bed to drop the bag she was holding there.

'So, I was worried about nothing, she had already seen me like this. Does that mean….?'

"Hey, Jess…."

"Taking you to the clinic would have been the better option." Jessica chimed in just before she could ask the question.

"Huh? What do you mean?" She inquired with a confused expression on her face.

"The person who contacted me to come find you told me that nothing serious happened to you, they said that there was no need to take you to the clinic and that would cause only more problems for you." She explained before turning her gaze to Claudia. "But when I got to you, I sort of doubted that, and the worst part is that I didn't get any explanation about what happened."

Listening to all that, Claudia felt quite confused, but before saying anything she had to confirm her thoughts first. 

"This person that sent you this message, who was that?" She inquired.

"I could ask you the same question."

"Huh? But you said he sent you a message."

"Yeah, with an anonymous ID."

"Huh?" Claudia gasped. "But that's not even possible, the only people who can communicate with these wristcoms are the students and some of the teachers and the ID always shows whenever anyone gets a message no matter what."

"Yeah, I had the same thought as you but this person seemed to have figured it out somehow," Jessica responded. "But anyway, you'll have to explain how you got hurt like this later, I had to think hard to come up with an excuse for both of us to skip combat class."

Claudia seemed to have missed that part because her mind was somewhere else now.

'Was that Arsha or someone else?'

________ ________

With the sun slowly setting and the world slowly turning dark, Arsha could be seen standing in front of the entrance to a huge forest that was located in the south just outside the academy.

It was a huge forest with really tall trees but what really stood out in the area was a large blue crystal sitting on some kind of compartment to his right.

The crystal wasn't just there for decoration or anything like that, this forest was crawling with dangerous demon beasts and that crystal served as one of the energy sources for the barrier that sealed the monsters away. 

"I'm still behind on the funds needed for the silver one." He muttered before walking closer to the crystal.

He stood there for a couple of minutes before letting out a deep sigh.

"I just wished this thing was a bit faster than this." He sighed before slipping his hands into both of his gauntlets. "This is why I hate combat classes sometimes."