Numba had been so badly hurt that he was fading in and out of consciousness, but a deep rumbling voice which shook even his core caused him to look through his blurry eyes.
‘That can’t be… is that Gary? … How is he here? Why is he here?’ Numba’s brain was too muddled to make sense out of the situation. He hadn’t had the chance to tell anyone about where he was going, and at the same the place they were at, wasn’t a place a student would just stumble across.
“Please… don’t get kicked out of the academy for my sake.” Numba quietly muttered with his limited strength.
Under normal circumstances, Gary might have listened to him, but the Werewolf was only seeing red. The scent of blood from both Izzy and Numba had wafted in his nose, so his instincts told him to punish those responsible for hurting his friends.
“Look at this guy!” The student in the back ridiculed Gary’s tough guy approach. “Something is seriously wrong with your whole batch. Your friend down there also thought himself a hero and look what it did for him. Take a look around, do you seriously think you’re capable of taking ALL of us on?!”
Although the student standing next to Izzy seemed confident enough to taunt the green haired teenager, the rest of his friends had yet to act. If they could, they would have moved and attempted to attack Gary, but those closer to the Werewolf could feel some invisible pressure radiating from him. Their brains told them that it should be impossible for one student to fight off nearly a dozen, but with how crazy he looked, nobody wanted to sacrifice themselves for the others.
As Gary approached the first student, he clenched his fist tightly. When he got within attacking range, the student reacted instinctively. Mid-swing, his arm turned into a limp that resembled a tentacle, indicating that his Altered was based on a creature from the sea.
As the tentacle came toward Gary, he dodged under it, and kicked off the ground, aiming for the Altered’s face. His fist was inches away from the student's face, yet before he could connect, the guy suddenly fell to the side, making his attack hit nothing but air.
‘Did he dodge that?’ Gary wondered, since the student had yet to move away.
For some reason, he remained on the ground, though his body randomly shook as if someone was electrocuting him. Seeing this, it reminded Gary of when he had been in a similar situation. Turning his head in the other direction, he could see Xin putting her leg down.
“You’re too angry. With how you are now, you may seriously end up hurting someone and regretting it for the rest of your life, so let me deal with it!” Xin shouted as she ran toward the next student that was close to her.
She had already jumped in the air, spinning her body and landed a kick right on one of their heads. When her foot made contact with the person, sparks were seen for a second. Even though the kick didn’t seem to be too hard, he ended up zapped, suddenly sent flying away.
“What are you doing? Don’t attack her just one at a time! Get her all at once!” The student from the back shouted.
The rest of the students headed toward Xin as they all began to transform, Gary was ready to rush in and help, but lifting her foot in the air, above her head, yellow sparks started to surround her leg and she slammed it on the ground.
The sparks from her foot were released and went in every direction like a current. Whenever it touched the other students, the current of electricity went up their bodies. A tingling feeling could be felt, it wasn’t painful like some of them imagined, but what they soon found out was it was a lot worse.
They were struggling to move properly. Trying to move their hands, it was their feet that reacted, making them all fall down. It completely creepted them out, as they felt like someone else was in control of their body, yet in reality Xin’s attack had simply messed up the signals from the brain to their bodies.
Before they could ever recover, Xin punched one in the stomach, lifting them in the air, and went right to the next one, kicking one of them into another. Each one was dealt with a single hit, and there was no need for her to do more.
‘What is this? Nobody told us that someone like her would interfere!’ The older student next to Izzy thought. There wouldn't be many students that could take on 10 Altereds at a time like this. When she was finally done and was walking toward him, that was when he could see her face clearly, and everything was starting to make sense.
“You…you’re Xin! Why is a debut student like you getting involved?! You should know the rules! Do you even know this person?”
It was clear he was startled and he had good reason to be. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he could take on the best student in the whole academy, and as a way to get out of it, he looked towards Izzy and reached out toward her.
“You idiot!” Xin shouted as she threw her fist out, there was still a distance of around five metres between them but when her fist hit the air, a single electric current came out, looking like a lightning strike had hit the student, throwing him against the wall and causing him to pass out immediately.
Gary was mesmerised by what he had just seen. Xin didn't even have to transform to fight against the others yet she was able to use a strange power. A skill, or more accurately, an attribute just like her brother Jayden.
‘She’s so powerful without even transforming. Just what type of Altered is she? I have no clue, but it has to be really powerful given her current status and the electric powers it lets her use. Damn, how is it fair that others get all the cool powers?!’
For a second Gary was actually feeling jealous, wondering if he hadn’t been turned into a Werewolf, what type of Altered he could have been. However, when he thought about it some more, he realised that while his Werewolf System might not have granted any really flashy type of skills, something like Last Stand was too good to give up.
Getting a one-minute extension of life was an extremely extraordinary skill.
Snapping out of it, Gary quickly went to Numba’s side, checking up on the true extent of the damage. It was clear to him that his friend had more than a couple broken bones. He gently lifted up the Goat Altered’s head, as he could see Numba was still alive and conscious.
“Gary… I’m sorry! I'm sorry for getting you involved and you having to help me again.” Numba blurted out.
“I think you might have hit your head a bit too hard.” Gary replied. “For one, I’m not the one you should be thanking. I didn’t even get to do anything. Second, how is it your fault that those scumbags attacked you?” You don’t have to explain yourself, let's just get you to the medical office as soon as possible.”
Lifting Numba up, Gary was practically lifting him in the air with his shoulder alone, so he had to put as little pressure on his one working foot as possible. The two of them went over, and looked at Izzy. Xin came over and picked her up off the ground, helping place her on Gary’s other shoulder.
“Look after them, Gary. I'm sorry that our date had to be cut short by this, but I will stay here and handle the aftermath. Don’t worry, as the top-ranking debut student, they won’t kick me out, and I'm also close with the teachers. I’ll do my best so that something like this won’t happen to any of your friends in the future.”
Gary nodded, appreciating how reliable Xin was. Although a tiny part of him wanted to suggest possibly continuing their date after dropping off his friends, he understood that he needed to be there for them now. Using Controlled Transformation, he lightened his load and made sure to get to the nurse's office as quickly and gently as possible.
Once the three were out of sight, Xin knelt down to the man she had shocked earlier. Grabbing his head, she let out another few sparks, showing him awake. The older student groaned in pain as he opened his eyes, directly staring into Xin’s.
“Me and you are going to have a talk, and you’re going to tell me everything about this little stunt of yours.”
——
The nurse's office looked more like a hospital, and there were many trained staff going from room to room. It only took a few minutes for someone to come over and bring the two injured students into rooms of their own. Due to them being Altered, Gary was certain that they would heal in due time, but the pain they had gone through was still the same as anyone else would have suffered.
Half an hour later, Gary was allowed to visit Numba, as he had woken up. From what the receptionist had told him, Izzy was still asleep. Gary entered the room and went to stand by Numba’s side, who for a second looked away and was holding onto the bedsheet tightly.
“Izzy….she was hurt because of me.” Numba admitted as tears fell down the sheets one by one.
“True, but were you the one who hit her? Or were you the guy who bravely tried to attack those who did that to her?” Gary asked back. After that question, Numba cried even more.
“No, but… Gary, I don’t know what to do… I don’t know what to do.” His friend sobbed, wiping his tears away. “Please…help me. Help… my family.”
******
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