While lying on his bed in his new room, Gary stared at the ceiling with his mind full of thoughts. He was struggling with the current predicament in front of him.
'What do I do?' This was the question in his mind. The scene at the end of the previous fight flashed over and over in his head.
Numba's bloody and swollen face, with which he could barely see or talk, appeared in his mind, yet, in the end, Numba had mustered up the strength to tell Gary to get away from him.
'Have I done the right thing? Did I believe everything else would be effortless after the Underdogs just because I managed to get rid of them? Either way, I screwed up.
'If I take out Sty, then he'll direct his frustration on Numba, and I'm not sure even getting a higher position than him would do anything. The way they treat Numba might even worsen after this.'
Right now, Gary was honestly missing the Howlers more than anything. Making decisions on his own was hard. If he could, he would have picked up his phone and discussed with Kai about what the best thing to do in this situation.
He was sure that the latter would have some ideas and would have probably explained the consequences to him before he acted on his own ideas. But, unfortunately, communication wasn't permitted in this place, at least not via phone, unless Gary wanted to get disqualified.
Once he was in the real academy, it would be no problem.
'Wait a second? Doesn't that mean Sty and the others can't really do anything unless they have some way of contacting the outside that I don't know about? Still, as one of the Rank Ten, he'll be out of here in a couple of days.'
Even after racking his brain for a long time, no solution came to his mind. Initially, he planned to take out one of the Top Ten and wait a week before going through, but now, he didn't want to leave Numba in a situation like this.
——
The next day soon arrived, and Gary was looking for Numba but couldn't find him anywhere. Wherever the teachers had taken him off, he had yet to return. Gary did make eye contact with Sty several times though, who would immediately look the other way and walk from him.
'Tch...I thought I could get them to challenge me to a fight, but they seem to be making a big deal out of this pact thingy.' Gary thought.
While waiting for lunchtime to begin, Gary had resolved his goal. For now, he would stick to his plan of knocking out anyone in the top ten, but before that, he would eat a nice meal for lunch, so he has enough energy just in case he needs it.
Seeing Sty the other day proved that some of his opponents were close to Gary’s level. And the latter can't just beat them in a single hit or so.
Right before lunch had started, Numba finally returned.
He looked a lot better. In fact, it was hard to tell if he had ever been in a fight, but Altered’s did heal at an incredible rate, so it made sense. With the medical treatment at the academy, students were assured that they could take the risk of fighting every day with their full strength.
As he kept an eye on Numba, Gary saw him heading straight towards Sty, ignoring all the stares he was getting from the other students.
'Don't get involved, Gary. You'll just make things worse.' Gary stopped, wondering for a second if he should get close so he could hear their conversation.
——
Lunch had finally arrived, and as usual, Gary was one of the first people there. He quickly began stuffing his food down. The meal was decent enough that his energy levels would no longer go down for the day, but they were neither going up.
[168/300 Energy]
Still, from what he had observed, he should be able to beat some of his opponents quickly, and if it was proving a difficult match, he could always go into his complete transformation. After finishing lunch, Gary walked up to Izzy and Ian. They hadn't fought for a few days and were waiting for their next assessment.
While the three were chatting, they saw the top rankers enter after a while, with Numba following Sty closely behind. Like before, Numba went to collect food for Sty, but there was something strange about his food.
As Numba placed it down, the others could see someone was moving and wriggling about in the bowl.
"As you all know, the top ten students can request whatever they wish. They just have to put in the order at the start of the day. This is why I have decided to be nice to my fellow participant and ordered some nice worms for him." Sty said aloud so everyone could hear, even the ones who weren't at their desk.
He then pushed the bowl of worms to Numba, who stared down at it. They still had pieces of mud on them as if someone had freshly picked them from the ground.
"This is my treat, and please remember to eat every single one. The staff has worked hard to gather these lovely worms, you know?" Sty smiled.
Some at the table and a few others were put off by their meal, while the rest stopped to see if Numba would actually eat this specially ordered 'food'.
Numba stared at them for a few seconds and picked up the bowl. He stopped a few centimetres away from his mouth before opening his mouth with a gulp. He then chucked them in and tried to swallow them rather than chew.
However, the thought of what he was doing and feeling them wriggling about in his mouth was too much for him, making him gag. Then, putting the bowl back half-empty, he threw up all across the floor.
In the vomit was whatever he had eaten earlier and the wriggling worms.
"Now that's not very nice, that's not very nice at all." Sty said, standing up. He patted Numba on the back as if he was a good friend.
"Look at all of this. It's such a waste. I think you should eat it. We can't waste food now, can we? I think you should get on the floor and lick up every single bit you just threw up." Sty advised.
Numba's body quivered, but he got on his knees. Staring at the vomit, his eyes teared up.
'I…I have to do this...I have to...otherwise my family. I can't let them down after everything they've done for me. I'm sorry...for not being able to do better…and Gary, I'm sorry for saying that to you yesterday. I just know that…you would get involved, and then you would be in this mess.'
Sty put his foot on Numba's back, kicking him towards the mess on the floor, but his attention soon changed to something else. Just like the days before, a certain someone was walking across the room.
"Ah...look, your hero has come to save you again." Sty laughed. "What's he going to do? stare at me again?"
Gary continued walking without a word. He didn't slow down his pace and didn't look up either, and when he reached the table, he picked up the bowl of worms with one hand. Before anyone could do anything, and before even Sty could react, the bowl had been slammed down onto Sty’s face. A loud clash was heard as it broke to pieces.
The bowl had smashed on impact, shattering and making scratch marks across Sty. Then, as he lost balance, he dropped to the ground, and worms covered his face.
"Eat the damn f*cking worms yourself, you damn fly."
*****
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