Thursday November 3rd, 2018

  Helo stumbles back a step as the elf introduces herself. “Star? Starhaven? Are you Dorimer’s sister?”

  “What? NO!” Vallory yells and waves her hands in front of her. “He is my stupid cousin. Seriously sometimes I think he and his father are just babies with temper tantrums that run one of the wealthiest business empires in the world.”

  As Vallory complains about her family Helo leads her toward the Greenhouse. He hasn’t knocked her out like everyone else, and she is following his lead without complaining.

  As they approach the Greenhouse, Vallory mumbles under her breath while messing with the shirt Helo gave her. “Serves me right for listening to Dorimer. Should have just gone to class. Or at least gone home to get my armor.”

  “Sooo… Where are we going?” Vallory asks him.

  Helo doesn’t respond, instead he opens the door and gestures for Vallory to enter. As she does she looks around with some surprise. “Woah. This place is beautiful…. WHAT IS THAT!?!”

  Vallory points to the side at the wall that is full of bodies. “Well… I decided to name it the Bio-Battery.”

  Vallory turns to the side to where the voice is coming from. There Arisah walks between some plants with a smile on her face. “My seeds should be able to go through six more iterations in the next few hours. That is a lot of growth.”

  “Iterations?” Helo asks from the side. He isn’t as shocked as Vallory, he has already seen the wall of people.

  Arisah looks at him with a smile. “Each time they germinate and create new seeds and I can enhance them further. But when I use my magic to forcefully grow them, they don’t germinate properly. But feeding them the vitality from everyone you have captured… It is helping soooo much.”

  Helo shivers a little at the smile that Arisah is giving him. Beside him, Vallory is starting to slowly walk backward. “I… I don’t think I need to go there. I’ll just stay here.” Then before anyone can respond Vallory’s body flashes with a bright light.

  Even though his eyes are burning Helo uses his aura to sense where Vallory is. It wasn’t hard to guess; she is heading right for the door. Beating her there with his speed is easy and she runs into him while trying to flee.

  In an apologetic tone Helo says. “Sorry, but you tried to steal from us. I promise I won’t let her keep you.”

  Vallory looks into Helo’s red eyes with her own blue ones, but before she can say anything, or try to flirt her way out, she feels something on her leg.

  “AHHHHH!” Vallory screams as she is yanked backward and wrapped in vines.

  “Well… I have work to do…” Helo slowly backs out the door and flees into the garden. Is Arisah going to be okay… Or is she going a little psychotic… Nah it will be fine.

  For the next few hours Helo and Lelai continue to protect the Greenhouse. Outside the walls, parties have gathered and people are preparing to win the challenge. But every minute, as each group that entered fail to return, people are starting to get more nervous.

  “EHHHHHH!” “RUNNNN!” “BOOOM!” Sounds out from within the walls.

  “What was that boss?” Eric asks his boss. All around them their small gang is looking less and less interested in actually entering the property. “Maybe we should just try to steal one of the flowers from the Brazilian girls. They have four wood elves, I bet they will do well.”

  “NO.” Allen the Brutal Finger says. “It was just some traps. That is why we are waiting, so that by the time we enter the traps are gone.”

  “Ohhhh. Boss, your like, really smart.” Dan says with a dumb nod.

  Liking what Dan said, Allen smiles. “Exactly. Plus, their class ends in one hour, we have plenty of time to get in, beat up the Druid, and get out.”

  “That is true, the Druid should be the only person there.” Eric says.

  “Yes, that is why we are going after them and not the Brazilian’s. With a Druid they are going to take first place in their year. In my year, I bet their chances are still high.” Allen says with a vicious smile.

  With only thirty minutes to go before Hinata and her teammates are reported to be leaving class, everyone that has been waiting prepares to assault the property. Many of the first-year students are either resigned to not do well, or they are taking on challenges that are not quite so steep.

  But the second- and third-year students see The Twin Heiress Party as fair game. When it came to the first challenge, many of them were able to reach as high, if not higher than their party. So, they see the flower as easy pickings.

  Across the world, space barely fluctuates as Kristen appears within Akira’s office. He is sitting off to the side with his wife. They both have busy lives. Not only managing the entire Awakened community within Japan, but they also make time to train and gain experience. So, they take every chance that they can get to have some personal time.

  Even with all of Kristen’s skill, she can’t hide her teleports from Akira when he is paying attention. “Yes Kristen?” Akira asks while pulling away from the kiss he was sharing with his wife.

  “Sir.” Kristen bows. “There is about to be… Wait, let me preface first.” If she were to just come out and say that there is about to be a large scale attack on his daughter’s manner, he would just see red. Explaining the details, Kristen waits to see what Akira has to say.

  “You want to know if you should get involved?” Akira asks.

  “Yes. The school is strict with their rules. But as soon as they signed the paperwork to make that mansion Kashiwagi territory, I became a loophole. My skills are a loophole in their no assisting students on school grounds rules. Since technically, it isn’t school grounds, and I don’t have to cross school grounds to enter.” She says.

  “Mhm…” Humming and looking down at his wife Akira comes to a quick decision. If it were just up to him, he would tell her to sweep them up and show everyone just how stupid the idea is. But he can see in his wife’s eyes that she wants Hinata to face some challenges. “Fine.”

  “Only interfere if someone on Hinata’s party is going to die.” Akira says. Then he turns back to his wife.

  “What if they are about to kill someone?” Kristen asks.

  With a sigh Akira turns back. “I don’t care.” Waving her away, Akira gets back to spending some time with his wife. He only has two hours before he has to enter a rift.

  “Come on!” Alli grumbles while she watches her teacher drone on. “I swear he is doing this on purpose.”

  Just as she says that John flashes a brief smile.

  “See! He is!” Alli turns to Hinata to complain.

  “Alli. Calm down. Helo is fine, Arisah is fine, and the flower is fine.” Hinata says calmly, even if on the inside she is also worried.

  For the entire class period they have seen students dip out early with all kinds of excuses. “My homework is missing.” “I have to check on my grandmother.” “Spontaneous emotional distress.” After the third person left John announced that if anyone else wanted to leave, they must turn in a twenty-five-page paper on swords. Otherwise, they will fail the class.

  Even with the paper looming over them, people kept leaving. Only they grumbled how lucky the first three people were for leaving before the rule.

  “We have to go.” Alli grabs Hinata’s arm and shakes her aggressively. All around them, their party is fidgeting anxiously. Gabi on the other hand looks completely depressed, this entire situation is her fault.

  There were probably a few thefts planned during the night. They will be turning in their plants the next day. But after Gabi bragged about how amazing their plant was, everyone started considering taking instead of growing.

  “This is getting REDICULOUS!” Helo shouts into the sky while dodging under an arrow shot from someone that keeps peeking over the wall. Diving forward Helo tackles the man in front of him around the abdomen and shoulder checks him into the ground.

  “AGUH!” The man grunts as all the air is expelled from his lungs. Before he can regain his breath Helo palms his helmet with a clawed hand and rips it off his head. In the same movement Helo swings his other arm around and clocks the man in the temple with a ‘Forced Still’ clad fist.

  Beneath him the man falls limp to the ground. Just when he thinks he might get a chance to take a quick breath, Helo can feel an arrow within his aura glowing with power. Flipping over the man’s head Helo narrowly dodges the arrow. It strikes the ground beside the man and explodes, sending Helo and the unconscious man rag dolling through the destroyed garden.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Looking up with a growl, Helo takes in the large hole that used to be a simple berry bush. Panning his gaze across the garden his anger starts to rise. He never cared much for the garden that was surrounding his party’s new house. It was too manicured to remind him of his forest home.

  But what he doesn’t like is that all these people think that because the school’s challenge allows for fighting and theft, that he will just let them do it. Two hours ago, seeing the Bio-Battery made him uncomfortable. Now he is thinking about telling Arisah to keep them for a while, a couple weeks of lost time and weakened physiques might prove a point or two.

  Feeling as his bloodline pulses in a way that it hasn’t done in a while, Helo knows that his anger is starting to affect him. Using ‘Bloodline Awakening’ changes a few of his physical characteristics. His fangs lengthen, his nails turn into claws, and his power becomes physical as his veins glow golden and shadows start to gather.

  But changes to his mind haven’t happened sense he balanced his cultivation. Helo thought that he had his instincts and affinities under control. But seeing people trample on what is supposed to be his home makes him angry.

  Looking up with a rumble deep in his chest, Helo’s pulsing red eyes lock with the archer. “AH!” The man yelps and ducks down below the wall.

  Not liking seeing his prey get away Helo tears across the garden at a speed that he wasn’t able to reach before. Using his aura Helo can feel that there are more people behind the wall. This specific part of the wall is one of the areas where the barrier becomes weaker and Bibbin set traps. But after waves of people went through there no longer are any traps.

  So instead, an archer set himself up on that spot and has been taking potshots at Helo for a while now. But right now, Helo plans to fix that.

  At the speed he is going Helo only has a few seconds to sense the other people on the wall and realize that the archer isn’t alone. The only thought he can truly formulate is, It’s a trap. Then he is already perched on the wall, gazing down at the archer and what seems to be two parties worth of upperclassmen.

  His gaze pans over the group and they all flinch slightly at the aura of dark power that is radiating off him. The person who appears to be the leader fights off Helo’s aura and shouts, “FIRE!”

  All at once the two parties launch the attacks. They have been charging them each time their archer takes a shot at Helo. Seeing multiple attacks come at him at once, Helo falls backward off the wall. Flipping gracefully, he lands on his feet. Looking up Helo watches as a series of ‘Mana Bolts’, ‘Mana Slashes’, and elemental attacks strike the barrier where he just was.

  Chuckling to himself he thinks, I don’t think that they realize the barrier is weak to entrance, not attacks. While the dust clears Helo has a few seconds to wonder. Because when he felt his anger rise, he assumed he was going to that instinctual place he entered when those poachers tried to catch Lelai. That instinctual mindset was all about attack, counter, and overwhelming force. But a few seconds ago, he just retreated.

  “Maybe I have more control than I thought.” Helo says to himself.

  On the other side of the wall Helo can hear a few people talking. “Henry did we get him?”

  “I don’t know. Something is blocking my tracking skill; I think it is the barrier. Plus, I can’t see through the mana cloud.” The man Helo assumes to be Henry answers.

  “What do you mean your skill isn’t working Henry. That is the only reason we agreed to do this. I have no desire to fight that little devil.” A deeper and accented voice cuts in.

  “I don’t know what to tell you Kumar. We agreed to split the points. Even if my skill isn’t working.” Henry says back to Kumar.

  While waiting for the dust and mana to dissipate Helo checks his body. As the two-party leaders were talking to one another they mentioned some kind of tracking skill. Scanning his body Helo is a little surprised to find some kind of mark on his body.

  The mark seems to be trying to send out pulses of mana that Henry’s skill probably uses to track people. Only, Helo’s aura is blocking each pulse. He isn’t even trying to do it. He is just naturally blocking his presence. But the effect that his aura has on himself seems to be transferring to the mark. Each pulse is being nullified by the shadows that are leisurely swirling around him.

  “Nice.” Helo mumbles before jumping back over the wall. He didn’t have to wait for the dust to settle. He can feel them well enough with his aura. But he wanted to stop because of the realization that he had about the level of control he seems to have over his actions.

  Channeling his energy into ‘Negative Weakening’ Helo sends out a weak pulse of tainted energy. He noticed that the energy had a large effect on Vallory. The eerie feeling that tends to come with dark aligned energy really affected her, he is hoping for a similar response now.

  The wave of red and black energy sweeps out in a cone that covers the two parties. Their flinch from earlier is nothing compared to the stumble that sweeps the party as the energy comes blasting from the dust and over their bodies.

  The skills sweeps away the dust in the air, reveling Helo perched in the same spot that they last saw him. Leaning forward Helo dives down directly for the archer that was taking shots at him.

  Before the parties can really react, Helo is in front of the archer. Twisting his body, Helo’s fist follows close behind. “CLANG!”

  One of the tanks appears between Helo’s fist and the archer’s stomach. Helo isn’t sure what it was, but he could tell that it was some kind of ‘Auto-Defensive’ skill. There was no mana that was channeled. Just a release of stored mana and the tank moved.

  Ducking low and spinning under the sweeping sword strike, Helo dodges the tanks attack and rolls around his shield and body. The second that the tank bought was enough for the archer to jump away, and the rest of the party to react to Helo.

  Moving into formations, Helo can easily tell which party each person belongs to. They are not set up like two parties working together, but two separate parties. The archer uses some kind of movement skill to propel himself back and over his own party. Then what seems to be another part of the skill slows the archer’s fall and he takes another potshot at Helo.

  Easily dodging the basic arrow. Another “Clang.” Is heard behind him. The archer wasn’t from the same party of the tank that saved him, at he had no issues with hitting the tank that was in the line of fire.

  Growling under his breath Helo glares at the two parties arrayed before him. Before he can attack, two spells get cast. One buffs each person attacking him. The second spell layers itself over Helo and he can feel it trying to weaken him. Like the mark, his aura tries to nullify the spell. Only it is much stronger than the mark and whoever is casting it continues to feed the spell with their mana.

  With his strength and speed weakened by about ten-percent, Helo’s overwhelming speed isn’t as overwhelming. Ducking low to dodge a ‘Mana Bolt’. Helo is forced to roll left as the tank that was behind him tries to get the drop on him.

  For the next ten seconds Helo is forced to dodge and block as the two parties continue to attack him. In his deep and accented voice Kumar calls out. “Ping! Now!”

  With an eruption of stone and earth the ground around Helo starts to heave. Helo quickly realizes that the trap he jumped into was better thought out than he expected.

  “Lisa give it everything you have.” Henry says to the woman standing behind him. The magic trying to restrain Helo pulses with new vigor and his slowed body slows even further.

  Jumping up Helo tries to evade the moving stone, only for the tank that initially blocked him to meet him in the air and ‘Shield Bash’ him into the ground. The force of the blow sends Helo careening toward the ground.

  At the same time the ground tries to rise up to meet him. With cat-life reflexes Helo twists in the air. Landing feet first Helo slides off the stone that is rising to meet him. Contorting his body, Helo flips over his right shoulder to dodge another arrow. In the same movement he twists to meet another stone pillar with a slide.

  Reaching the ground without taking any damage Helo starts to form a ‘Dark Blade’. He wanted to sweep in and take the archer, but they were more intelligent than he expected. He has gotten used to fighting monsters. Some monsters are intelligent enough to lure people into traps, but rarely do their traps have traps.

  Before the ‘Dark Blade’ can form, a loud “BOOM!” comes from Helo’s left. The ‘Stone Pillars’ that are rising around him shatter and a wave of mist sweeps the area. Henry’s party to his right are all sent flying as a ‘Mist Orb’ explodes within their midst.

  “HAAA!” Laughing in relief and joy. Helo sends his ‘Dark Blade’ directly toward the archer. The blade is coated in ‘Forced Still’ and it slices through the archer’s thigh. Crying out, the archer stumbles and falls on his frozen leg.

  Dashing forward Helo’s stats are returned as Lisa is tossed through the air. While everyone is jumping away from a second ‘Mist Orb’, Helo snatches the archer and leaps back over the wall.

  Dragging the archer through the garden Helo lets his more feral instincts win over common sense. Stepping on the leg that is frozen, Helo hears a “Crack!” as the man’s thigh breaks.

  “OWWWW! WHAT THE FU…!” The man tries to yell but Helo’s fist connects with his jaw and the man falls unconscious.

  Sighing Helo looks up at the sky. “Well, I feel a bit better now.”

  Dropping the archer off with Arisah, Helo can see that she has another two captives. “Sorry I got caught up with a trap.” Helo explains.

  “Oh, are you okay?” Arisah asks sweetly. Her hands glow with the effects of her ‘Nature’s Heal’ skill. Stepping up she runs her hands along Helo’s back. The two bruises that were already starting to Heal vanish under the effects of her skill.

  “And don’t worry about it.” Arisah smiles up at him with her head slightly tilted. “I got the opportunity to test my new batch of seeds. Their resistance to fire is growing well.”

  “Ah… Well, I’m happy for you.” Helo mutters before heading back to check if anyone else decided to enter his territory.

  “FINALLLY!” Alli yells as the class ends. It was supposed to end at three. But Mr. Arkson kept lecturing for another thirty minutes. Alli is certain that he did it on purpose. Now she thinks that her teacher is a closet sadist.

  Their entire party sans Arisah and Helo dash from the arena. By the time the class ended only half of the students remained. All they can really think about is that each person that left is another person that is going to be trying to break into their home.

  Reality is that some students left to attack someone else. Some left to defend their own challenge flower. While some truly did leave, only to be added to Arisah’s growing Bio-Battery.

  Running out of the arena and the town they all move at their best speeds to make it home quickly. By the time they get within viewing distance, most of them stare in shock. The wall is still standing. It and the barrier enchantment are too strong for the students to just break.

  But that doesn’t mean that the constant attacks didn’t leave some kind of trace behind. The road, grass and plants around their property are destroyed and ruined. The roads and paths that separate their property from the nearby ones, are some kind of demarcation. The only mansion that has its plant life ruined is theirs.

  Not only that but from where they are running, they can see that the usual dense shrubs and trees within their garden are gone. Normally they can see the garden that surround their house over the wall. Only now, a few patch-marked trees are left standing. At certain areas around their wall, areas that Alli, Hinata and Bibbin recognize that the locations that Helo marked as having weaknesses, they can see groups of students waiting.

  When the first student recognizes them, shouts start to sound out that make it all the way down both sides of the wall. “There here!” “It’s them!” “Get-em!” “Use them as hostages!” Someone yells as they start to run at Alli and Hinata’s party.

  “What?” Aiko says in confusion. “Do they really want to use us as hostages?”

  Luna is running beside her fellow support and breathing slightly heavy. She isn’t as used to sprinting like that. “Ha. Ha. Yeah, it seems like it.”

  “Stupid.” Rurgrim says from beside Carl. “You see how none of em are dwarves. That goes to show how smart we stone-kin are.

  Hinata rolls her eyes at Rurgrim’s comment. But before anyone can respond to the surly dwarf, the wave of people and attacks reach them. With two bursts of mana, one cold and crystalline, the other sturdy and hard. Earth and Ice merge into a wall in front of them that easily absorbs all the attacks.

  From either side of the new roadblock Carl, Rocco and Gabi spring into action. All three are training fanatics that want to perfect their own styles of combat. It shows with how they pick apart each of their opponents fighting styles. Even those that have more levels and experience.

  Forming a construct platform Alli, Cody, Aiko, and Luna step into the air and start raining attacks down on their opponents. Standing below the platform with Rurgrim, Hinata starts to speak. “Is it just me… or are they all falling to quickly?”

  “Aye missy. They are dropping like a stone down a boulder-hole.” Rurgrim answers her.

  “Boulder-hole? Whatever.” Hinata waves away her question. “Make sure not to kill any of them!” Hinata shouts at her party. Using her own ‘Identify’ skill Hinata starts to look over the opponents arrayed before them. To her surprise most of them are crafters or have basic classes.

  “Why are there so many of the weaker students attacking us?” She starts to wonder. Each of the attacking parties are from the first-, second-, and third-year students that are at the lower end of their own years. They are the students that drop out of the advanced course load and go on slower paths, the kind of paths that focus on learning a craft, versus fighting.