Bennett tried to understand those words that had nearly made his head explode, but, at most, had made his ears start bleeding, which Maya had staunched quite quickly. Speaking of Maya, there had already been a few times where the world had started to slow down, but he’d found he could simply ignore it and she couldn’t pull him in.
Just wait for me to sleep, I’ll be fine for three seconds.
Clearly, she didn’t think so, as she poked him on the inside of his arm, which was immensely uncomfortable, though his comfort was clearly not a thing she cared about.
Bennett raked his hand through his hair, looking at Luna as she seemed to think, her hair pulsing weakly. Based on what he felt from her, she had no clue what had happened either, which added up, at least in his humble opinion. When she had suddenly stiffened, he had felt something akin to extreme panic as some sort of wall broke down before it devolved into cold calculation, snuffing out everything, not just her emotions, but his. It was probably the only reason he’d been able to bring himself to hit her with a Lightning Bolt, which was more effective than he thought it’d be, immediately disabling her… for about two seconds, in of which she had switched back to the non-murderous version of herself, which he would have to say he liked much better.
What he didn’t like was the sheer self-deprecation he could tell she was giving herself.
“Luna, I’m sure you can’t blame yourself. There’s no way you could’ve expected that to happen. Plus, look on the mildly warmer side of the bed: I’m not dead,” he explained, spreading out his arms.
She looked at him for a few seconds before touching his bruised neck, which still ached a little bit. A moment later, he could tell she was on the verge of crying, something he wasn’t necessarily sure how to deal with.
I don’t want to treat her like a child, but… I don’t know what else to do, Bennett thought to himself, watching her curl up against his side. It’s different from when I’m around my sister, since I know what cheers her up, but Luna… I’m realizing just how little I know about her. Wait… did she just-
Looking back down at Luna, he saw that she’d fallen asleep, though it was definitely not soundly, as she twitched the moment he put his hand on her head. Bennett let out a sigh before carefully moving Luna so that she laid on the bed, covered with a blanket.
“Huh. Never seen anyone fall asleep that-” Bennett then felt his head suddenly go light before suddenly coughing out blood.
But damn. Luna is so much stronger than I thought she was. Just how much does she hold back? Bennett thought as he blacked out, falling down next to Luna.
…
He then woke up again in a panic to somebody seemingly stabbing him in the chest. He flailed around until he heard a voice hiss at him.
“You idiot! Why didn’t you let me just kill her?!” Maya yelled at him stabbing him again with one of her legs.
Bennett barely managed to grab the leg just long enough so he could redirect it and it didn’t hit him. When he looked back up, he saw Maya’s face right in front of him, looking more pissed off than his mom when he’d once accidentally burned the table in their kitchen. He gulped.
“I’m not going to let you kill Luna, Maya. Why in the hell would I do that?!” he snapped back, trying to pull the very sharp leg out of him, only getting a few cuts from the long, very sharp scythe leg. “Now can you let me-”
“She tried to kill you because you misunderstood her. Who knows what could happen?” Maya interrupted, pushing the leg in deeper.
“I feel like… the person misunderstanding… is you!” Bennett hissed, summoning some sort of unknown Strength and pulling the leg out of him and tossing Maya away, who was clearly taken aback. He let out a huff and looked at his chest which had a gaping hole which didn’t seem to bleed.
He then looked over at the very distraught Maya, who’s form flickered momentarily, shifting to the more… primal version of herself before going back into the Academy uniform, though still looking pissed.
“Why, by the gods, are you so adamant on protecting that clear anomaly, or whatever she is?” she growled, looking like she wanted to cut him to bits.
“Why are you so adamant on killing her?” Bennett snapped back. “I feel like I’m supposed to be understanding you, but I get the feeling neither of us are understanding of one another.”
She began to wave her legs around, clearly unsure of how to continue from here. She then took a breath.
“Look, I want to understand your reasoning, but every time you do something new, you completely surprise me. I don’t know how to react to half the things you even do, but the problem here is obvious; you refuse to see the red flags that are covering her and, let's tell the truth, you hate seeing the worst in people, unless you’ve been abused by them enough, which shouldn’t even be the case.
“I’ve seen some of the things that nobles have done to you, just because you got in their way, and you’ve somehow pulled off lies that don’t even seem like they should work, but with your track record, starting from age ten, did. Your old ‘boss’ if you can even call him that, worked you to the bone, and never fairly compensated you for it.
“My question is; what the hell is your problem to not be even seeking revenge, just content to hate them for it?”
Bennett blinked, taken aback at her sudden spouting of his life story. He felt a few memories surfacing…
However, he pushed them back down, unwilling to really care for them.
“Look, that’s not really important to me, or who I am, so I don’t really care to remember much of anythin-”
“How long are you planning to put up a facade until you finally snap? How long do you think it’ll take you to be surrounded by the type of people you loathe until you can’t keep your own emotions buried six feet under? We both know that you’re slowly going mad inside. I saw how you completely manhandled Ulayla and, to be frank, when I finally finish getting through this stupid divinity barrier, I’m worried that you becoming a Hybrid will be a net negative. At that point, you’d be able to rip a normal human in half with moderate effort.”
Bennett clenched his jaw, annoyance and anger rising in him before… it suddenly died. He simply couldn’t be mad at someone who was right-
Maya scoffed. “You can’t even get angry at me. Maybe you were the wrong choice. You’re worse than your idiot sister, who clearly can’t even realize danger when it’s right in front of her because she trusts her brother so much that she thinks almost everything he thinks is right.”
Bennett twitched at the mention of his sister, but refused to get annoyed.
“Are you just going to berate me all night? If so, I’d rather just sleep normally.”
Maya was silent, glaring at him. Bennett was unsure of what to do at this point, watching her warily, silent, after nearly five whole minutes of this, her eyelid twitch and she looked away.
“Fine. I give up. You live with the person who tried to kill you all you want. I’m even too angry with you to give you a Skill.”
“Wow, I never thought I’d see the day,” Bennett couldn’t help but mutter.
“You-”
She stopped mid-sentence, glaring at him for a few seconds, some thoughts going through her head. A moment later, it clicked for him. However, he was nowhere near fast enough to react as she crashed into him.
~~~
Bennett woke up the next morning with a bruised throat and a very unimpressed expression on his face. He ignored the notification that the System gave him to look at his arm. A moment later, a bit of Maya poked out before wiggling and retreating as he flicked her. He looked down at Luna, who was still fast asleep, her hands buried in his shirt. He shook his head and looked straight forward, not expecting-
Half a second later, there was a giant hole blown out of the wall, right where Reah had just been standing, which had shook the whole dorm. Luna yelped, nearly jumping out the bed, but instead grabbing him with a few tentacles in some half-asleep attempt to defend him, at least as far as he could tell from her half awake mind.
Reah watched Bennett struggle to pull Luna off of him, but, and somehow, he never noticed, like a normal octopus, she had suckers on the bottom of her tentacles and said suckers had stuck to him and refused to let him go. After a moment of futile struggle, Bennett groaned and glared at Reah with his visible eye, which just so happened to be his red one.
“Pray tell me: what the hell are you doing in here?” Bennett snapped, probably looking very much more annoyed with a tentacle draped across his face as Luna started to come to her senses.
Reah shrugged. “I’m still technically your trainer, dimwit, so I was going to wake you up, but the two of you looked sooo peaceful together-”
“I regret asking you anything. I still cannot believe I looked up to someone like you,” Bennett interrupted. “What do you want?”
“What do you mean, ‘someone like’ me?” Reah interjected, narrowing her eyes at him as her hair crackled.
Fell for it. “A pervert. Who sneaks into someone’s room and watches them sleep when they know they could just wake them up?”
She took a few moments to process what he said, and in those few moments, her face slowly went red. Also in those moments, Luna finally removed her tentacle from his face and looked between him and Reah with confusion.
Finally, without a word, Reah turned on her heel and stormed out of the room, literally, blowing the door off its hinges, which nearly decapitated Mia, who was only saved by Tyreese casually pushing her out of the way while watching with apt interest. Bennett gave the missing door a blank look before sighing and hopping out of the bed and out of the room to look at the door, which was now embedded in the wall next to Jennifer’s room door. She poked her head out of the room to look at the door in confusion, along with the other three.
Bennett then shook his head. “I didn’t think she’d be that embarrassed. Serves her right though.” He then tried pulling it out of the wall with brute strength, but ultimately failed. “Well, how do we get this out of the wall?”
Tyreese looked at him and he looked back, a silent conversation being exchanged between the two of them. They would absolutely not use Blood Claw unless absolutely necessary.
***
After nearly ten minutes of watching Bennett and Tyreese struggle to remove the door, Luna was still unwilling to get much closer, just because she was nervous. Nervous of what could happen if she suddenly lost control of her body again and-
She looked at the very determined looking duo of Bennett and Tyreese, who were slowly cracking the door out of the wall, though it was obviously a struggle.
“How does one damn girl-” Bennett grumbled. “Stick a door so far into a wall?!”
“Agreed,” Tyreese responded, pulling a bit harder. “Oh hey, it moved another inch-”
The two of them pulled a bit harder, motivated by their progress. After another minute of this, there was a loud screech and the door finally fell out of the wall and nearly fell onto Tyreese before Bennett caught it, lifting the door over his head with a hand before letting out a huff of annoyance. Tyreese nodded as if impressed at this display.
Luna was unsure of how to react, looking between the two of them in confusion. Before much else could happen, the blunt end of a spear that was clearly Mia’s slammed into the back of Bennett’s head and he dropped the obviously heavy door on his head. In a slight panic, Luna caught it with two tentacles before going over to check on Bennett who, at first glance, didn’t seem hurt, but, looking a bit closer, she could see a bruise around his entire neck and extreme guilt washed over her, yet before she could fully process it, Bennett gave Mia an annoyed expression.
“What could I have possibly done to warrant that?” he complained.
“I didn’t do anything,” she responded, casually eating a bowl of pasta while lounging on the couch. “Also, when did the electric bomb even get in here?”
Bennett stood there for a few moments, confused. “Wait… how long was she watching us sleep?”
Luna thought for a moment and looked at Bennett for a few seconds, who looked back at her, concerned.
“Why?” He mumbled before shaking his head. He then grabbed the door, which Luna finally noticed had some heft to it, as her feet had sunk into the carpet to the point she had to lift her own legs with her hands to get them out.
Bennett then froze in place, slowly looking over to her, then up at the door, then at her tentacle. After thinking for a few moments, he shook his head and seemingly tried to line up the door with the hole that used to hold it. He then sighed before simply pressing the door to the hole.
“Alright. I’m going to get changed and grab the potato sack, otherwise known as Yelena,” Bennett grumbled, absentmindedly pulling the door open, causing it to fall directly onto him.
He stared at the ceiling for a moment before muttering, “Ow” in the most monotone Luna had ever heard him. She, though a bit wary, looked down at him, who was clearly annoyed.
“Hi, Luna,” Bennett said. “I’m just going to sit here and reflect on my actions.”
She blink at him before reaching for his throat to heal him. He flinched slightly when she did so, but a moment later, he was healed and he yawned.
“Okay, actions reflected.”
The door suddenly flew up and hit the roof, pinned there by what looked like a spike of solid blood. He gave his arm a confused look as he clearly hadn’t expected the door to suddenly go flying just from him moving his arm.
“Huh.”
***
Bennett was unsure of what was happening, looking to his stats to try and see what had just-
“What in the fuck?” Bennett blurted, sitting up quickly.
Tyreese gave him a baffled look. “Whatever’s happening with Sir Skillsalot, it’s clearly big for the clean guy to curse.”
Bennett, deeming this important enough to share, let his Status be visible. Tyreese peered at it and, mirroring Bennett:
“What in the fuck?”
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Seeing the clear confusion, Luna and Mia both seemed to grow more curious.
Status
Name : Bennett “Yasmine”
Race : Human (Godling - 2nd Generation) (80%) - ??? (20%) (Time Remaining : 2 Days, 5 Hours)
Class : Blood Reaper
HP : 100% | MP : 100%
Level : 10 | EXP : 0% (2 / 452 EXP)
Soul Bond : Luna (19%)
Alignment : Lightning / Blood
Weapon : Maya
Stats
Strength - 17 | Effectiveness - 150%
Endurance - 20 | Effectiveness - 150%
Vitality - 23 | Effectiveness - 150%
Dexterity - 15
Mind - 10
Intelligence - 10
Unaligned Stats : 3
In his head, most confusingly, he could hear Maya cackling like a maniac, as if she’d finally achieved something.
(Go to the Seventh Circle of Hell, Divinity! I finally won! Took more than long enough with you interfering- wait, you can hear me now?) she suddenly said.
Why is it that every time I talk to you, you somehow become more intrusive? Bennett thought to her, a bit annoyed.
(Oh come on, I can’t possibly get more intrusive. I’m literally a part of your body at this point… though, I’m the only one who’d die if my core was destroyed, so I’m still a bit of a parasite, now aren’t I?)
May I have an explanation, or do you not know what's happening?
(Oh, did I not mention it? Your body’s not suitable for your “Class”, so I’m making you a Blood Aracne to compensate.)
Dead silence for a few moments, only interrupted by Mia’s confused mutters.
What? You what? Heh?
(You seem far more confused than I’d hope…)
Well, for starters, Blood Aracne are extinct.
(False. I’m literally right here, very much not extinct.)
You don’t count. You are basically a figment of your own imagination, based on your own soul locked in a weapon.
She was quiet for a moment before sighing. (Sure. Fair enough.)
A moment later, Bennett felt Luna poke his cheek, her expression full of concern, but she was still keeping her distance, obviously still unwilling to put him at risk.
“Uh-”
“Man, what’s that timer there for? What’s this random 20% next to your race- wait you’re a GODLING. How in the hell-”
As Tyreese rambled, Mia simply frowned, unsure of how to react to the information presented in front of her. Luna, however, was confused at what it said, clearly not understanding the meaning or the reasoning for their panic-
Woah. I’ve never been able to read her emotions so well before, Bennett thought.
“Honestly, I don’t really understand what the big deal is either. I mean, I know about Godlings, but none of the books I’ve read really explained what it is. I, at most, know it’s important, but not the breadth of it-”
“How can you not know how important a Godling is, even a Second Generation one? It sure explains the amount of power you have for a young age… but not the Effective stat multipliers,” Mia mused, blowing her hair out of her face. “Do you have any clue what could be causing it?”
Maya, but it’s not like anyone except maybe Luna would believe me, let's be honest here, and even then, that’s debatable. However-
(...Too bad, so sad.)
Please let me think.
(No. I like talking to you other times than at nighttime and expending a large chunk of energy to create a temporary pocket in your mind where we can talk while actually having a semi-physical body. Every time I do that, I have to expend half of my full capacity of blood. Speaking of-)
“I get it already, you want blood,” Bennett grumbled aloud without noticing. “Stop bothering me about it and I’ll try and figure it out already.”
Bennett looked down at Luna, who gave him a baffled look and, looking at the others, they looked confused as well.
“What?”
(Well, for starters, you said that aloud.)
“No shit, Maya,” he unintentionally said aloud again.
Tyreese frowned. “Maya? The allegedly sentient weapon? What are you on about?”
“I-”
(ALLEGEDLY? Look here you little-) Maya forced herself out of his arm and formed into a large needle, attempting to poke Tyreese, who yelped and barely dodged, but he was then poked immediately after, yelping in response.
“Call off the living needle! I’ve been corrected- OW!- I’m sorry!”
Bennett sighed and grabbed Maya. “Stop it-”
Before she processed what he’d said, the needle was already all the way through his hand and about to keep going when Maya realized what she’d done and froze in place, clearly debating on how to react next. A small trickle of his blood ran down his hand and he sighed. “I can’t even get annoyed right now. Guess I’m not getting changed.”
He felt Luna grow slightly more nervous as he stood up. “I’m going to the infirmary, I guess. Just tell my sister when she inevitably comes to look for me. And if Ms Thunderclap comes, tell her I’m not here.”
Bennett then walked out of the room and, after pausing for a second and letting Luna mentally debate with herself, of whatever mental gymnastics she was doing, before she rushed after him, they both made their way to the infirmary.
~~~
“I can guarantee this is not my fault,” Bennett said, watching as more and more of his blood slowly circled around his head as he expended minimal amounts of MP on Blood Manipulation.
The very scary woman gave him a skeptical look before looking at Luna. “Is this his fault?”
Luna shook her head before pointing at his right arm, where Maya was hiding.
Come out already.
(Absolutely not. She’s shorter than Jasmine, yet immensely more scary than even me,) she complained, hiding deeper inside of him.
After thinking for a moment, he sighed. “Fine, have it your way.”
Bennett, in one fluid motion, grabbed his dagger, sliced his arm open, and pulled Maya out before she could react, forming her into a scythe and dropping her onto his lap as his arm sealed over. The infirmary nurse blinked at the bloodred Scythe before blinking.
“Wait. You have the weapon that killed nearly a dozen students and was up to warn students of getting too cocky. That does explain the strange red eye… but how in the world did you even manage that?”
Bennett didn’t have much of a chance to respond as Maya seemingly panicked, turning into a blob and attempting to force herself into his arm.
“Hm… Interesting,” the woman said, leaning closer to the blob.
Maya then froze, apparently making some sort of realization before shaping herself over his arm and forcing his arm up, nearly slashing across the woman’s face before she could move in time.
What are you doing?! Stop it!
Bennett pulled Maya by the most solid part of her, struggling for a moment before huffing and pulling a large amount of blood from her and surrounding her in a ball of it and letting it float there for a moment, making sure she couldn’t escape as the blood crackled with lightning, obviously being his own blood.
He then looked at the woman, expecting not a single scratch to be on her as that was the case with high Level people-
He blinked at the small amount of blood running down her face, which Bennett and Luna were surprised by.
She looked at the floating orb of blood with curiosity, ignoring the blood as if it was a daily occurance. “Interesting. I didn’t take any damage, but I’m still bleeding… at least according to my negative effects. Very interesting debuff. Can only be cleansed by healing the wound itself, but I’m assuming if there’s multiple wounds, you’d have to seal all of them. Very annoying.”
Bennett frowned. “There’s not another debuff like Bleeding?”
“Unless you count Blood Loss, then no. Though, I guess you can call Poisoned very similar, but it has a much longer tick time, but can be much harder to deal with. You’d be quite the annoying bug with bleeding and some sort of poison or venom along with your flashing around faster than our dear porcupine.”
He then heard a very sinister giggle from Maya and he got a slightly dark feeling, but ignored it for the moment.
Bennett sighed. “Does everyone call her a porcupine?”
“Behind her back, of course. She’s very insistent when you insult her to the face,” the nurse said with a matter-of-fact-ly tone. She then frowned. “Wait, you were supposed to be here for the hole in your hand… which is now gone?”
Bennett looked at his left hand, which had had a hole in it not that long ago before looking at his HP.
HP : 105% (Overhealed)
Status : Overhealed - 5% | Duration : 23 hours
Ohh. Uh, that’s a problem.
“And your HP… is over 100%? Hold on a moment…” she then looked at Luna with a confused expression. “You… have Overheal, don’t you?”
Luna froze next to Bennett, nervousness blooming in her mind along with… preparation?
Does Luna think she can fight her if it comes to it? Lemme think… how can I deescalate the situation-
“Well, props to you for not revealing that to anyone else. If I was someone like the headmaster, who’s so focused on reputation, he’d destroy his mother if he could, I’d immediately take you away. But, it’s not like I don’t have my own secrets. Namely, the fact I’m technically not allowed to be on this planet.”
Bennett looked at her in sheer terror. “You’re a Harbing-?!”
She covered his mouth and put her hand on his mouth. “Yep. But stay quiet about it, will you? I have an agreement with your Grandmother to stay here, but it’s not yet time for you to learn the specifics of that agreement. You need to reach Battlemage before you can learn more, got it?”
Bennett blinked and looked at Luna, who was tense, clearly nervous about his safety. He then looked at the orb holding Maya, who was also very much not very happy with the revelation. He then nodded, restraining himself from doing what his sister would definitely do in this situation.
“Good,” she said, lifting her head. “Now get out of here and stop getting hurt.”
***
Bennett, despite Luna’s half-hearted complaints, carried Luna in her normal position, though she was still wary of herself.
I mean, I did completely silence Cthulhu, so it should be fine, right? Luna thought, nervously looking at her own hands, as if they would start moving on their own out of nowhere. But I don’t want to hurt him again. He’s acting like it’s okay, but I know he’s just refusing to acknowledge it. He has to know his original idea of who I was is wrong, or at least flawed at this point. But-
“Ben! Luna! There you are!”
Luna looked up to see Yelena rushing towards them, her hair a very bright orange. As she approached the two of them, it seemed to cool down to its normal brown, though the normal white streaks were replaced with ember colored strands, with only one white streaks left.
She stopped in front of them to catch her breath, before looking at Bennett, concerned. “Are you okay? Tyreese said you were ‘mortally wounded’ or whatever. He’s so confusing, but I got the gist of it. What happened?”
“Maya happened. She got annoyed at Tyreese and tried to stab him. I tried to stop her and she stabbed me instead through the hand. No big deal though. Luna saved the day again,” he responded, waving his free hand in dismissal.
Luna felt her face heat up, embarrassment fluttering in her chest. She attempted to force it down, but found it much harder than usual, with it taking a moment more than she was used to. However, when Bennett patted her head with his free hand, smiling at her, it immediately burst back up as she waved his hand away.
Yelena rolled her eyes before letting out a groan. “Did you have Reah wake you up as well? She practically gave me electrotherapy.”
Bennett shook his head before patting his sister’s head, who grabbed his hand and kept it on her head, a stark difference from Luna.
“Nope, she stood there for gods know how long and watched us sleep, probably cause she knew shocking me probably wouldn’t have worked, though it definitely would have, since I don’t have innate Lightning immunity, like you have Flame Immunity.”
His sister frowned. “Speaking of… immunity isn’t really that common, is it? Tyreese doesn’t have immunity, does he?”
Bennett shook his head before starting down the hall. “Nope. He definitely has some resistance, though. He stuck his hand in the stove the other day to prove a point, and Mia poured some sort of oil onto it, which burned way hotter, burning him as well.
His sister then seemed a bit pensive. “Hm… I wonder if I could take a bath in Lava…”
“That’s certainly an interesting image.”
“Mhm. By the way, Rhea told me to call you down to the arena the moment after you got ready, though I’m sure she won’t mind if you eat.”
Bennett nodded. “Yep. And I’m sure Luna’s hungry too.”
Said Luna poked Bennett’s ear, signalling the obvious. Obviously, I’m hungry. I’m never not, and it annoys me.
Bennett laughed and poked her cheek back, which eventually devolved in the two of them poking one another over and over
~~~
Half an hour later Bennett and Luna found themselves in the Arena, Yelena having gone elsewhere, apparently to ask another Professor about something.
Pretty empty, Luna thought, looking around curiously. I thought she was going to be here- wait.
Apparently, just as she noticed the strange amount of MP behind them, Bennett also took notice and used what she assumed was his Flicker Skill to go straight up, avoiding the bolt of lightning that nearly blew them up. He landed in the stands, looking over to the other side of the arena, where a very annoyed Reah stood, another Bolt charging.
He frowned at her as Luna climbed onto his back, readying herself.
Good thing I decided to change before coming here, makes things immensely less embarrassing, she thought, wrapping her legs around him. Still need to figure out how to fix that dress though. It should be able to change however I want it to.
Bennett ran across the stands dodging the next bolt before jumping down red lightning crackling across his skin as he used Blood Dash. Luna wasn’t exactly sure how to explain Blood Dash, but, according to Bennett, it was like both moving exceptionally fast along with everyone else being the same speed as normal and simply being the same speed, but everyone else was slow. She basically guessed it was more like he grew very fast and thought really fast. Back when she was Cthulhu, it was a bit like the same. However, it was more like her being able to think of something very fast, along with being fast. Basically being able to process things as she saw them.
Suffice to say, it was difficult to explain. Though, to be fair, it wasn’t exactly a time to be thinking about that. Bennett, though he was quite agile, nearly crashed into a wall instead salvaging the crash by using a shield, then climbing up the wall using Blood Claw. As they approached the top, Luna grabbed him with three tentacles before reaching up with another to grab a railing and, with a grunt of effort, pulled the two of them up a decent chunk of the wall and over the railing.
“Thanks, Lu,” he said before yelping and tossing her forward a few yards as another bolt nearly blasted the entire railing off the platform, including them. A second later, he caught her right before she hit the ground and they continued down, Bennett teleporting to the lower stadium, damaging multiple chairs around them before continuing on. He hopped down a set, simply running while grumbling about something to do with long cooldowns.
He launched a Bloodbolt towards the ground a few yards in front of them kicking up a huge amount of dust before he jumped into it, Luna on his back. She held on tightly wondering why he suddenly stopped the moment he made it into the dust. A moment later, there were footsteps nearby.
“Really? Hiding?” Rhea snorted. “Surely you know that won’t work.”
“Uh huh. As if that was my plan,” Bennett sighed under his breath.
Luna, confused, patted his cheek, unsure of what he was doing, sitting still in the dust. He had closed his eyes and, looking to his arm, where Maya had gone nearly completely liquid, waving around slightly. He didn’t respond to her other than putting his hand on hers, trying to keep her still. A few seconds of stillness and silence later, he suddenly sprang into action. Within a second, Bennett, with even more speed than she and clearly Reah could’ve possibly expected, nearly giving Luna whiplash as he blasted in a destructive bubble of blood and lightning, crashing directly into Reah, who’s spear barely had time to move to block him before she flew backwards into the nearby wall.
Bennett, who was moving faster than ever, went after her, an explosion rocking the wall as Luna jumped off of him, unsure of what was happening. She was barely able to tell what was happening, but his entire body was wreathed in a reddish glow, which clearly made him stronger and faster, by a very large amount. However, she could tell it was costing him to do this, and it wasn’t infinite power, as, by the second, he was clearly losing more and more HP and fast. However, he seemed to be quickly tiring. A few moments later, she could feel herself being picked back up and they were suddenly on the other side of the arena before she could react.
What the… I was not prepared for that. He’s never been this fast before. He’s, at least, doubled in speed and strength. And-
Getting a good look at Bennett, she had to stifle a scream as she saw the horrid state of both his arms and legs.
He himself looked at his arms and frowned. “Holy crap… I didn’t think it’d be that bad. I knew it’d destroy my body, but I can’t feel it… that probably makes it worse, let’s be honest.”
How could’ve he done… this in such a short time? Luna thought, trying not to panic at the sight of his skin practically peeling off. However, it seemed like it was grabbing itself and pulling itself back onto him.
Makes my job easier, but he has things to explain later.
She wrapped a pair of tentacles around each of his arms, trying to heal him as quickly as possible, but it seemed that, as she healed him, he was being damaged quite quickly, but not enough to overwhelm her healing.
Speaking of, can much of anything overwhelm my healing? She paused before looking at Bennett. Probably.
He looked at his quickly repairing arms and nodded. “Thanks, Luna-”
They both noticed the living bolt of lightning shooting at them and Bennett, this time with Luna actually paying attention, practically ran up the wall and ended up on top of the wall, looking down at Reah, who was watching him with confusion.
“The hell is that?” she complained. “There’s no way I can catch up to you in any decent timeframe. How the hell are you so damn fast?”
Bennett shrugged, fully prepared for her to pounce at him again. There were a few moments of the two of them watching one another before the girl sighed and her lightning suddenly fizzled out.
“Come here, I’m done fighting you for now,” Reah called, putting her hands on her hips as her spear hovered next to her, which was interesting.
I just realized I’ve never Scanned her… or many people, for that matter.
After Luna made this realization, she then decided to scan her.
Reah Justyce - Level 62
Human
Alignment : Lightning
Cannot Generate Additional Information : Secondary Consciousness Inactive
Hmm… Seems like Cthulhu allows some sort of summary of people I Scan. Well, I don’t care. This is my body, not hers. Mine.
Bennett gave her a strange look, clearly noticing her sudden strange attitude. She blinked at him before patting his cheek. He sighed, and the layer of what she recognized as Blood Mana disappeared.
“Hurry up already!” Reah yelled.
Bennett sighed, taking a step forward. “I’m com-” He suddenly faltered, slipping and banging his head against a chair and falling forward, Luna yelping while on his back.
Luna managed to get off of him before grabbing him before he fell off the edge of the seats, lifting him up with a pair of tentacles.
She set him down and looked at his expression of obvious pain with confusion. What just happened? It’s like he just suddenly… wait. He said he didn’t feel any of the pain from his strange Skill… did he just feel all the pain from it all at the same time? His skin basically ripping itself off… that would be a horrid thing to feel…
A moment later, to her absolute horror, Bennett stopped breathing.
***
Melony had somehow managed to grab a single link of the giant chains, but the power of those chains wasn’t exactly her current concern. Her current concern was the barrier that kept her out of the Academy’s grounds, along with the Headmaster. The only, repeating message she got was:
Dungeon clear in progress. You are not eligible to enter the area.
Duration Remaining : 11 days, 15 hours
“What the hell? My children are in there and you’re seriously refusing me?” Melony growled. “Let me in, System.”
“We both know that that won’t work,” the Headmaster sighed. “We’re going to have to wait until the other teachers clear this unexpected Dungeon. And no, don’t even try to get through by force, you’ll just be punished-”
“Uh huh, like I don’t already know that. First of all, you must have some sort of way to connect to the Professors inside, or something. I need to know if-”
“Yes, if your children are okay, I know. Speaking of, you may want to have a conversation with your son about his father and just nobles in general, whenever you feel you should reveal yourself.”
Melony gave the man a suspicious look. “What do you mean by that? How much have you already explained to him?”
“All I told him was the heavily abridged history about you and very basic information about your father. Not sure about his history professor though; she was very secretive with them in her class.”
Melony scowled. The Headmaster sighed. “Whatever happened to that curious Godling who never knew when to stop asking questions about everything?”
Melony shook her head. “She died the moment she realized that keeping her children out of her situation was more important. We both know we can’t have the founder of the school, otherwise known as my mother, find out about them. We know how that’ll end.”
The Headmaster sighed. “That we do.”