Midas lay numbly on the plastered floor of the entrance grounds, the faint taste of his own blood picked up by his tongue as he gasped dimly for air. The fading adrenaline blocked the aching of his wounds and bruises for a while—the three of them were left behind as the carriage took off, taking the five students with them.
Numbly staring at the clear sky, Midas wanted to blank out—the screaming and whining of Skye burnt into his head as she was dragged into the car before it left for good with the commander's son. His head turning to rest on the back of his skull, he eventually glanced at Jakal—his body still balled up loosely, shivering as he heard him sob to himself.
Groaning dimly as he moved his pupils to his other side, seeing Patriq sit beside them thoughtless, Midas pressed his teeth together to move up his torso. With aching joints and a hurting stomach, the youth eventually sat up on the floor, dimly watching Jakal cry to himself quietly, something Midas was also guilty of, having dragged him into this situation. Breathing hurt; his ribs sent a stinging pain through him as he expanded his lungs.
"Who are these people... and why, why did they take her with them...?"
Stopping his silent sobs to voice faintly, Jakal looked up at Midas with teary eyes—the faint bit of confidence in himself he had gained mere moments ago was now completely shattered, shivering in disbelief. Answering his question was harder than Midas initially thought; with a tired expression, he watched his classmate lie in front of him for a while—his own mental state somewhat frustrated, yet much calmer than Jakal's.
"This guy I tried to follow took a liking to her—eventually he adopted her or something like that... now he thinks he owns her, able to choose what to do with her freely. Now they are gone, off to wherever..."
Midas wiped the spit from his cheek, unphased by the humiliation attempt—used to constantly being hurt thanks to his trip across the desert. Stabilizing on the floor with his hands to get up from the ground, Midas felt his spine ache from being kicked in the back—loosely standing up eventually to look in the direction of the gate with weak knees.
"Staying here won't help us regarding this problem... if they really leave the city, they are forced to cross its only bridge—that's where I'm going..."
Jakal's eyes widened at Midas's dimly voiced declaration, his brows stern as his left hand loosely pointed towards the gate, making Partiq eventually stand up, handing him his rusty sickle without any word needed. Lying defeated beside them, Jakal's eyes froze at Midas and Patriq's stern expressions—his tears stopping eventually.
"You two won't go anywhere."
A strict-sounding tone voiced from one of the side entrances, Ivyda and Avalon eventually caught up to them, their expressions matching Midas's sharpened brows. Mustering the three of them and glancing at their roughed-up uniforms and faces, Ivyda stepped forward to grasp Midas's shoulder, making him flash his teeth dimly in pain.
"You just love to risk your life, don't you..."
"Ivyda, calm yourself... He has his reasons to be this stern. Midas, how do you plan on interrupting them? How would you be able to catch up to them in your state...?"
Avalon's calm but testing tone made Ivyda turn around to her teacher in a hasty movement, frustrated at his question—allowing Midas to fuel his frustration. Flashing her teeth dimly as she lifted her fingers off of him, Ivyda eventually glanced at Patriq again—seemingly a good friend of her new club member.
"I could try to bend myself there... maybe there's a way to move stone in a way that would allow me to cover the distance without having to take a step..."
"Propelling yourself by bending stone... are you sure you have enough mana?"
"Mister Avalon...!"
Midas turned to the crimson-haired man, his worry making his mind race to find a good solution to the problem. Hearing Inaya snap at him made Avalon laugh dimly, enjoying the fact Midas already had zoned out to find a possible solution. Patriq eventually glanced over to the frozen expression of Midas, his sharp glance directed to only look forward to what lay in front of him.
"The Null-Ability that speeds up the digestion process..."
Midas's utter surprise made Avalon's joy fade, mustering him intently as he held onto his chin. Inaya sounded a confused cry at his idea, barely holding off from putting the youth to sleep with her fist in frustration. Using the Null-Ability Avalon had told him about on their way to the university possibly helped with keeping his mana at a high enough amount that would allow him to keep up the usage of his stone without fading—making his body draw out any energy he could possibly be storing.
Midas clenched his teeth, pressing his palms on the plastered floor as he kneeled on the ground in front of them, making Patriq step beside Jakal, who now sat completely taken away. Spreading his bandaged fingers made his hand ache around the rune—the sun shard inside of it lighting up in an orangey light. Narrowing his eyes as all of them watched the youth, Midas felt the ground beneath him lift up; the slab of stone he rode on was lifted up by many tiny stone pillars, making his left fingers grasp the edge of it.
"Wait, are you actually going to go...?"
Having not anticipated seeing Midas be able to bend stone to such a degree, Avalon took a step towards him. Clearly having underestimated the youth, the man found himself torn between seeing what Midas was capable of after having trained in his dorm by himself and stopping his bending with his own Null-Ability.
"Stop him, Avalon...!"
Turning to Ivyda with widened eyes, Avalon was only able to watch the surprise in Midas's face dim down again as he grew used to sitting atop the stone, his right hand on his lower stomach area as he furrowed his brows again. Before any of them could react, Midas propelled the slab of stone forward, like a sledge—the tiny pillars beneath him carried him forward, shooting up from the ground and disappearing right behind him as the youth set off.
"Damn you...!"
Ivyda hissed a frustrated curse, sternly sprinting forward towards the surrounding water that encircled the tiny plateau the town was built on top of, making Patriq run after his friend eventually as well, trying his best to catch up to him. Blinking slowly at what played out, Avalon rubbed the back of his head at the crater in the plastered ground in front of him, eventually looking at Jakal, who remained seated, matching his blank expression.
"Let's get you to the nurse. I'm sure whatever happened to you must've hurt bad. Then you're going to tell me everything that happened after you felt better."
Grasping the edge of the stone slab that buckled under the shot-up pillars, Midas quickly advanced across the plateau—his sickle strapped under his belt as his knees began to ache with time. Clutching his teeth helped to focus his mana to circulate through his gut area, shutting down the pain he felt from being kicked in his stomach. Leaning forward, Midas avoided heading through the town as he drove off the path he followed, moving on flat grass plains as the bridge surfaced in front of him.
Stepping through the tiny formation of pine trees that surrounded the university grounds, Ivyda hastily made her way to the surrounding water—the stone slotted in her necklace already beginning to shine as she laid eyes on the rocky shore. Jumping from in between the trees onto the water, a perfectly round shell of circulating water formed around her—the speed of its movements making it behave like a solid beneath her feet. Accelerating the pace at which the water moved around her, she propelled herself forward to catch up to Midas, gliding over the sea.
Seeing the bridge in front of her, Ivyda shot up from the water, landing on top of it in front of buckering beasts, surprised by her sudden arrival as they stopped in their tracks. Grasping her double daggers, she pointed one of them out at the driver—met with the wide eyes of the student with combed-back hair as five more students appeared from the back of the carriage.
Clutching her teeth as she realized who he fought against, she halted as her eyes mustered the five of them advancing toward her—three from the right and two from the left, their speed matching each other almost perfectly. Grasping their wooden weapons, they eventually dashed forward towards her, no longer divided by the ride. Ivyda barely avoided being hit as the water shielding her spread out in their direction to flash their faces with compressed water.
Making one shoot blood from their nose at the numbing contact with the floating water, Ivyda stepped onto the ride, one of her feet resting on the driver's seat as she pointed her blade at the commander's son. Watching him raise his hands slowly, she noticed his many rings on his fingers, unable to see a blue light emerging from one of them as his expression mustered her closely.
Midas leaned forward on the slab of stone, his eyes widening as he saw four bundles of water rise up from the surrounding waters the bridge was built over. Making his board crash into the back of the ride as he lumpily moved his body off the stone, watching the carriage shake at the collision—the four big water droplets that had emerged disappeared into the river again as Midas's body fell onto the bridge.
The foreign student widened his eyes in surprise, only able to watch as Ivyda gained her footing much sooner than he did, kicking him out of the back of the carriage—making him tumble out of the back of the ride—as she shortly mustered Skye sitting beside her, her limbs bound up by rope as her dim expression began to light up briefly.
Jumping up from the carriage after the student, she noticed the broken-up stone—shortly turning to the destroyed back wheels of the carriage as her foot stepped onto his stomach, briefly mustering Midas lay on his side in front of her before bowing down to the commander's brat to look down on him.
"You should've checked which club she belonged to first, before deciding to get cuddly with her, you upper-class filth..."
"Ugh, get off me...!"
Struggling to wiggle her off from his body, the foreign student clutched his teeth in pain as he felt her heel dig into his guts. Eventually giving up on lifting her leg off of him with his hands, he let them fall to his sides, mustering her with flashed teeth.
Ivyda raised her head again as she heard another carriage cross the bridge, dimly surprised—she turned to her right, met with wooden beams painted in white and blue cloth that spanned perfectly over its frame. From the fancy ride that was covered in intricate patterns, a man stepped forward, making her and Midas' breath halt at who opened its doors to step out.
"Wonderful seeing you here, Ivyda. You grew tall..."
In a light tone she remarked, his scarf neatly covering his neck despite the warm sun still hovering over them. Midas's eyes were only set on the young commander, his steps planned carefully, as he made the club leader lift her leg off of his son on her own by just mustering her face. Letting his son stand up as he tidied his clothing with a frown, the foreign student grinned dimly in satisfaction as he saw the blinding shock in her eyes at his father's arrival.
"I feel sorry for her being one of your sparse applicants. I understand your worry... but this is a royal affair now, given my presence here. Listen, I will overlook the fact you hurt my son and his friends and will cover the damages for you... but if I notice you following us or trying to disrupt this exchange any further... I won't be this nice."
Patting her shoulder, he turned away from her to guide his son into his carriage, making his driver pull Skye out of the damaged wagon simultaneously. Having stashed her into the back, Midas was forced to watch with widely flashed teeth as the carriage took off, turned around, and crossed them another time, leaving them behind.