>>Ohta Waterfell, you have been awarded 10 yellow points for your victory in a Life Or Death battle<<
The alert came from the yellow umbrella shaped pin by his collar.
Ohta ignored it.
By now, his legs hurt a lot from using Mirage steps.
But he was used to pain, even this much.
"You are out of bullets. Too bad, you weren’t counting." Ohta gave a side smile.
In Ohta’s experience of things, people repeated their habits.
Including the bad ones.
It was the same thing that happened earlier in the day during the test.
Sofia never kept track of the rounds in her guns.
She ran out of bullets mid battle with Haruto. And Haruto took advantage of it.
"Sig Sauer P226, Pablo Escobar’s personal weapons." Ohta spoke, gaze fixed on her. He did not mind that her guns were still against his temple.
"Each weapon has a magazine capacity of fifteen rounds. However, because of its age and design, most will only use fourteen rounds, else the rounds can get stuck in the chamber."
Sofia’s breath seized, ’how does he know?’
"All I had to do was let you spend the fourteen rounds in each gun."
’Nice try, asshole.’ Sofia thought to herself, ’I still have spare magazines in my...’
"And don’t think for a second I’ll let you reach the spare bullet magazines in your pouch. Before you reach them, this Beretta M92 will drill three to four holes into your brain at the flick of my finger."
Sofia paused.
Ohta had released no killing intent, but everything in her told her that this seemingly normal boy that accidentally won the class test, was not ordinary.
She nodded.
"Good." Ohta’s eyes seemed to smile even wider. "Now, tell me. What’s this thing about you being commodity ?"
Sofia looked away.
"Huh? You don’t want to say anything." Ohta clicked his tongue in annoyance. "...and you go around accusing an innocent person with a loaded gun. What if you had actually killed me, huh?!"
’What kind of weird guy is this?’ Sofia felt perplexed. ’Avalon students are tenacious, but is this not a little too much? Only a few minutes ago, I was shooting at him. And he is here talking like we were an old married couple arguing about dinner.
Is this not too abnormal?’
Also, speaking of couples, why was his knee resting on her chest? Did he have no decency?
The worse part was that Ohta did not notice. Even when her cheeks took a red shade.
He just kept on yapping about the injustice she did to him.
Sofia remembered that even those sicarios (assassins) under her Grand Uncle always held resentment against any body that pointed a gun at them, including their own allies.
But this boy treated everything like the annoyance of a fly.
In her head, nothing Ohta did made sense.
"...Hey, I am talking to you. Didn’t your mamá and papá teach you to pay attention when a gun is pointed at your head?"
A pause.
Those words caught her attention.
And then Ohta noticed tears filling her eyes. Her hands slumped.
"Oh no! No!! Don’t cry... I didn’t mean to talk about your parents."
Sofia’s gaze suddenly tightened as her body gave a sharp yellow glow.
Ohta was alarmed. ’She can use mana?’
His mind flashed back to the battle in class. Sofia did use mana back then. At least Ohta sensed the shift in the air when she fired that bullet.
Mana had enhancement properties on objects and people.
Although that bullet had missed its intended target, it was still too danger to have been used in class.
And now, she was about to use it again.
But just as the yellow glow appeared around her body, it flickered—like a dying lamp—then it went off.
A pause between them.
Sofia’s cheeks glowed red in embarrassment again.
Ohta raised a brow, ’is... is she bad at using mana?’
Ohta’s gaze suddenly sharpened.
Movement behind him.
He immediately leaped to the side.
Whoosh.
Quick projectiles from behind.
He rolled on the ground, turning in the direction of the assault.
Within the woods, two people. They were masked, carrying blow guns that shoot darts.
Ohta frowned.
They fired again.
Ohta moved. He used the Beretta M92.
Ratata...
His aim was true, bullet hitting every dart shot his way.
The two masked men turned to each other. Shock apparent in their eyes.
"I don’t remember seeing a second and third challenger on the board. Who are you?"
The assaulters turned and darted into the trees.
"Seriously!? Not even a hi!" Ohta was starting to believe that every student in this school was just rude.
Mirage steps.
He followed after them. Ohta was fast, strategically cutting their path by taking a short cut.
He raised the gun to their faces.
They dispersed, one to the left and the other to the right.
"Wait... really?" Ohta rolled his eyes. He turned left and then right.
He followed left.
"Stop." Ohta shot. The bullet drilled throw the assaulter’s ankle.
They fell.
Ohta hurried over. He flipped the assaulter.
"Hey stupid, if you don’t want more holes in your body, then you better answer me. Why did you attack me?"
The Assaulter smiled, a crazy look in his eyes. "For the Azure Dragon." They bit down on something in their mouth.
All of a sudden, their body got hotter, as their eyes bulged up, red veins spreading across their face, skin, body. Their muscles also got swollen until...
Ohta noticed something was wrong and instinctively leaped back.
SPLASH!
Blood, guts, meat paste splattered across the garden.
Ohta’s eyes widened in shock.
"What the hell is...?"
"AHHHH!!!" A high pitch scream came from behind.
"Sofia!"
Ohta immediately ran back to her.
They were two assaulters. When he chased one, it was possible the second had ran back.
Ohta arrived at the clearing where she laid.
Her body jerked continuously as she screamed, teeth clashing loudly with each other.
Ohta hurried to her, wondering what was happening.
"Lady Escobar, what’s wrong...?" Just as the question left his lips, he noticed a needle in her neck.
His mind flashed back to when he was attacked by the assaulters.
He had dodged the darts, but Sofia had been unable to move in time.
Suddenly, her body began to change, becoming dried up and brown, like the bark of a tree.
Her fingers broke and deformed, some became elongated like branches.
Ohta was confused on what to do.
He had never experienced something like this before.
"HELP!" He screamed out. "Somebody... BOPPA!!!"
The war merchant popped up from the ground again. "Hey, asshole. You stole my Beretta M92, and you dare scream my..." Boppa’s words got stuck at the sight of Sofia.
"Quick, get help." Ohta urged.
Boppa immediately hurried away.
"Lady Escobar, I need you to just breath and..."
In her pain, she grabbed Ohta by the shirt.
By now, branches were already growing on her forehead.
From one of them came a violet fruit.
"Please! It hurts... help me." She pleaded. Ohta tried to hold her down.
Accidentally, his hand brushed against the fruit.
Whoom ...
Images flashed in his mind. He jerked and fell backwards.