One of the girls, still crouched over the victim, straightened up with a scowl. "What?! Who the hell are you?!"
DEJA VU...
Classic line. "First-year, Rex Knox."
"We don’t give a shit who you are! Why would we listen to a single word you say?!"
ಠ_ಠ
I raised my right hand, placed my palm over my face, and stared at her through my fingers with absolute disdain. "Bitch... you literally asked who I was and then immediately replied with ’I don’t care’? Are you RETARD?"
I took another step closer, noticing out of the corner of my eye that the dark-haired girl against the wall was hugging her textbook tightly to her chest, watching me with wide, terrified eyes.
"And come on," I added, glancing around at the five of them, "there’s five of you. She’s alone." I narrowed my eyes. "Isn’t that pretty pathetic, when you actually think about it?"
"Are you calling us—"
"BITCH, shut the fuck up," I cut her off instantly, my tone dead flat. "I don’t want to talk to you." I leaned forward slightly, dropping my voice to an audible whisper: "You’re just going to say ’I don’t care’ again anyway."
The girl choked on her words, her jaw snapping shut as her face flushed with pure humiliation and rage.
I let out a tired sigh, rubbing the back of my neck. "And, honestly? I was really hoping none of you would push this further."
That’s when the blond one— the one who’d been crouched near the girl’s feet —finally stood up fully, face twisted with the kind of pent-up anger that had clearly been simmering since the second I walked in, and swung a punch straight at my head.
I casually leaned my head to the left, letting his fist whistle past my ear, and delivered a short, compact counter-punch straight into the center of his jawline.
He stumbled back three full steps, slamming his back against the brick wall with a loud gasp. "Ah, fuck!" he screamed, clutching his jaw while blood trickled from his lip. "I wasn’t supposed to use this, but this is your own damn fault!"
He raised his right palm, and a bright, violent surge of green mana began crackling around his fingers.
The braided girl gasped, her eyes widening in panic as she backed away. "Duke— don’t! You know using magic outside the arena or approved training fields is punishable!"
"Shut the fuck up! No one’s gonna see anyway!" Duke said, his eyes bloodshot.
Oh fuck.
I took two slow steps backward, raising my hands in surrender. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You’re bringing out magic? Dude, come on. Let’s just have a clean fistfight. You’re not a pussy, right?"
Duke’s brow furrowed into a furious scowl. "Fuck you!"
"Pussy."
"AAGH! SHUT THE FUCK UP! Stop talking, you’re pissing me off! WIND BLADE!" Duke roared, voice high pitched, swinging his glowing hand violently through the air.
A condensed, razor-sharp arc of green wind pressure erupted from his palm, slicing through the air and missing my left shoulder by mere inches, cutting a deep groove into the stone wall beside me.
Oh, fuck. That actually would have cut my head off.
Like fuck dude... I’m manale— no. I DO have mana now!
Recalling Professor Myra’s lecture from earlier that morning, I closed my eyes for a microsecond and focused inward.
I didn’t know any actual spell incantations or elemental formations, but I could feel the warm, liquid energy sitting in my core. I focused on circulating that energy rapidly through my torso whatever pathways, driving it straight into my muscles.
Instantly, a sensation of extreme lightness washed over my entire body. The world seemed to slow down slightly.
I concentrated the raw, unrefined mana heavily into my right forearm and fist, feeling the muscle fibers tighten with unnatural density.
Duke raised his hand again, screaming high pitched as he generated another spell: "DAE—!"
Before he could complete the casting, I moved.
Enhanced by 24 Agility and powered by raw mana acceleration, I closed the distance instantly, appearing directly in front of his face.
I threw a straight, mana-infused right punch directly into his cheek.
BOOM!
The impact sounded like a sledgehammer striking concrete.
The raw force launched Duke off his feet, sending his body flying backward through the air until he slammed violently into the alley wall ten feet away.
He hit the stone so hard a spider-web of faint cracks blossomed across the masonry behind his head, before he slid down into an unconscious heap on the ground.
The two bully girls let out blood-curdling screams of pure terror. Abandoning their fallen companions without a second thought, they scrambled over each other and fled out of the alley at top speed, their footsteps echoing frantically down the main corridor.
Only the short dark-haired girl remained standing near the back wall.
She looked down at Duke’s unconscious body, then at the cracked wall, and finally up at me. Instead of screaming, she let out a low scoff, crossed her arms, and murmured, "Well... that was surprisingly cool."
She turned on her heel and casually strolled out of the alley like nothing had happened.
Silence returned to the alleyway.
I stood there for a moment, shaking out my right hand as the faint blue glow of raw mana faded from my knuckles.
That’s... yea, shit, this is cool.
My muscles felt slightly sore, but the mana pool had held up remarkably well.
Turning around, I looked toward the corner where the victim was still crouched.
She was clutching her heavy textbook tightly against her chest, her knees pulled into her body, watching me with wide, trembling dark eyes behind her round glasses.
I walked over, dropped down into a low crouch in front of her, and gently placed a hand on her trembling shoulder.
She flinched violently at the contact, shrinking back against the stone.
"Hey... so..." I started, pausing as my mind went completely blank. Shit, I am genuinely awful at dealing with emotional situations. "Look, I’m pretty bad at conversing when the mood is like this, but... you’re safe now. They’re gone. Yey. ಠ‿ಠ"
The girl slowly lowered her textbook, looking up at me through her disheveled dark bangs.
Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, reflecting the dim light of the alley. "W-Why..." her voice cracked, barely a whisper. "Why did you save me...?"
"Honestly... I don’t really know why I saved you," I answered immediately, dropping my hand from her shoulder.
"Um... What...? ( ;∀;)" she murmured, clearly expecting more than that.
"I mean— you were getting beaten up."
"And?"
"And..." I paused, staring at her blankly.
She waited, her dark eyes wide behind her round glasses. "And...?"
I scowled slightly, rubbing the back of my neck. "Come on. There were five of them. That’s just completely unfair, dude."
She stared at me like I had just spoken an alien language, her tear-stained face flushing with sudden bewilderment. "...Dude?"
"Yeah."
I remained crouched on the cold cobblestones for another awkward second before a sudden realization struck me like a bolt of lightning.
Right. The quest. I had 24 hours to spend seven continuous hours accompanying someone, or the System was going to roll a chance on my death.
Staring at the bruised, glasses-wearing girl in front of me, I realized my prospective survival partner was literally standing right here.
Leaning slightly closer, I kept my voice calm. "Actually— I have a favor to ask."
Her eyes widened in immediate surprise. "W-What is it?"
"Spend half a day with me."
A heavy, absolute silence fell over the narrow alleyway.
She sat completely frozen, her dark eyes locking onto mine as a dark, furious blush spread across her cheeks, sweeping all the way to the tips of her ears.
"...Oh," she murmured softly.