Seeing Marie having a strange look on her face, there was one person who was worried about her.
“Don’t worry, Marie, I know you must be scared, but I’ll figure a way for us to get out of this place while they are fighting.” Tom exclaimed, trying his best to sound confident as to not let her worry. Marie just gave him a sad smile, because she wasn’t scared. No, the high school girl was just upset because she understood that she wasn’t strong enough to openly join the others, and revealing that she had brought blades into school would cause a problem down the line.
Together with Innu, Kai and Blake, Gary was able to form somewhat of a circle to deal with the red colour gang members that were charging towards them. The four teenage boys were skillful enough to deal with them, while also not getting hurt. The students were baffled at the sight they were witnessing, for it looked like a scene out of some movie.
They couldn’t understand how John and the other members from the fighting clubs had failed so miserably against the gang members, and yet these four made it look easy. At the same time, it appeared as if the gang members were getting concerned about what was happening in front of them to the point that they had kept their eyes off everyone else who was sitting down.
However, out of all of them, there was one person who stood out. Gary didn’t care if he got hit, he just continued to fight non-stop like a machine. The high schooler even lifted one of the gang members by the neck, throwing him towards another wave of gang members.
At one point, another baseball bat was heading towards him, yet he grabbed it with his bare hands, swinging it, hitting another remember and breaking it at the same time.
“Gary, you have to do something. Unlike you, we don’t have unlimited stamina! They don’t care about Mr Root on his own, so let’s cause some chaos. If possible, go and open the door.” Kai advised his friend.
Gary understood his upperclassman’s logic. He covered his head with his arms and started to charge forward, running as fast as he could towards the back door, since there were less red colour gang members remaining on that side.
The others tried to get in his way, but with his speed and strength he was like a bull. The high schooler just rushed into people, knocking them over, but then, just before reaching the double door, a large figure stood in front of it.
It was the one red colour gang member that was nearly as large as Mr Root. The giant adult took on a sumo like stance as he got ready to stop Gary from advancing any further.
‘He’s a big guy, and he looks to be tough, but I need to get past him NOW!’
[3 Points have been allocated into Strength]
[Your base Strength is now at 18]
[Skill activated Controlled Transformation]
[Agility 15 (+3)]
Without hesitation, Gary placed all of his available stat points into Strength, while also boosting his speed via Controlled Transformation to change the bottom of his legs.
He had only changed them ever so slightly, in order to give him a boost in speed at the last second. Using his power to springboard himself off the floor, Gary flew up like a rocket, and the large gang member was unprepared for what he was about to face.
The gang member could hardly hold back the power, and his body was pushed back, slamming itself into the metal door. The chains and door began to give way, breaking a gap in them, and the back of the door had dug into the man’s back.
“Get out of my way!” Gary shouted, as he jumped from where he was and threw out a kick, hitting the man on the side of the head, and causing him to be fly to the side and fall to the floor.
The door had given in, but it wasn’t completely done yet. Grabbing the chains, Gary pulled on them. Using Controlled Transformation on his arms, his forearms grew slightly bigger, and the chains eventually snapped. Kicking the door open, the escape route was now open to everybody.
The students and teachers still couldn’t believe it. The large man who had terrified all of them, had just been defeated and not only that, Gary had secured a way to freedom. Strangely, for some reason he wasn’t going through it, instead he seemed to be making his way back towards the stage.
“Everyone, what are you waiting for?!” John screamed at the top of his lungs. “Let’s get out of here!”
————
After John had screamed those words, it served its purpose to wake everyone up from their stupor. One would think the teachers and students were being chased by a zombie horde, as they all pushed each other to be the first to run through the small exit. The power of more than six hundred people storming in one direction was too much for even the red colour gang members to take.
None of them could put a stop to it, as they were simply overwhelmed by the suddenness of their action. The large group that had been so frightened and scared one second had suddenly transformed into something akin to a wildebeest stampede.
Storming towards the exit, the only thing Gary didn’t expect was for him to be swept up in the crowd of people as well. No one stopped to thank him, and for a moment he was afraid of getting trampled.
“Gary!” He heard a familiar voice. Hearing it, the teenager immediately pushed past the people, shoving them out of the way, and he could see that Tom had fallen down. The others were stepping over him, hurting him while not even caring what they were doing, and he also looked to be covering another one as well.
Seeing this, Gary quickly pushed past everyone, and went over to his best friend. When picking him up, he could see that he had shielded Marie from the mass of people. He then stood around them, like a solid wall. Making sure that no one else hurt them any more. In the end, everyone had escaped through the door, and the only ones that were left were Gary, Tom, and the three who had decided to stand up with him.
“Those people…what is wrong with them?” Gary asked, as he made sure his best friend and Marie were okay. Tom had suffered a few bruises, but he seemed to be mostly fine and okay otherwise. What Gary was most surprised about was how his weak little friend, who had never gotten into a single fight in his life before, had selflessly decided to protect someone.
“Hey!” Kai shouted, trying to grab Gary’s attention.
Turning around, Gary could see that the others had already made their way to Mr Root, checking up on their teacher. They didn’t want to move him, just in case he was seriously injured, but there was something else that was more shocking.
‘The red colour gang, where are they?’ Gary looked around, only to see the other door had also been unlocked. The dozen or so gang members that they had beaten were still on the floor rolling about in pain, but the rest had seemingly escaped in the panic.
“I think they used some type of jammer in this hall. When you opened that door, it allowed everyone to escape, so they should be able to use their phones again. They were probably afraid that the police would come soon. That’s what I was hoping for, but I didn’t expect everyone else to act the way they did.” Kai explained, before he let out a sigh.
Walking over to Mr Root, Gary went over to see his condition for himself. The teacher’s face didn’t look too bad because they mainly focused on other areas, yet he seemed to be hurt everywhere else.
“Hey, broccoli head… you were… amazing back there.” Mr Root coughed out, and it sounded like he was choking on something. “You know… ever since you joined I was… I was always watching you’… I saw what you did. How you were able to analyse everyone’s movements.”
“Stop.” Gary worried that the large adult had to be hurting just from speaking.
“No… I want you…you… to know that you were always special. I was just waiting for you to shine… and I’m so happy that I…you…you got to…”
It was at that moment that Gary realised something.
“His heart rate is slowing down!” The high schooler reported in a panic. “Somebody call an ambulance!!!”