“You will need it.”

John opened his eyes and he was lying in his bed, in his dorm. He immediately panicked, rolling off the bed and slamming into the floor with a muffled “oof.” Scrambling to his feet, he ran out of his bedroom and slammed face first into Sera. She didn’t budge an inch after his impact, rather absorbing the **** with her chest.

“Chill out, John. The Developer sent you here after your little chat, she put you to sleep for a couple of hours, your professor excused you from class, and that girl from earlier has only been knocking every ten minutes or so.”

“She what?” The question could have been in reference to any of Sera’s statements, and John really would have liked clarification on all of them.

Sera rolled her eyes and pushed John off her. “You should eat soon. That school restaurant you found is close enough that you can walk there and have plenty of time left before you starve. Plus, it’s included in your admission. I strongly advise you go grocery shopping though, I shouldn’t need to explain to you why, right?”

She’s had plenty of opportunities to call me an idiot, yet she hasn’t. Is this a trap?

Sera huffed in frustration and shoved him towards the door with considerable strength, almost shouting her response to his thought.

“You’re such an idiot! Just go.”

John narrowed his eyes at her as her cheeks started to flush, though she turned away from him so quickly he couldn’t be sure if he imagined it or not.

“Uh, okay then. I’ll just, um… be on my way, then.” He turned around and opened the door just as Layla raised her hand to knock for the who-knows-how-many-time.

She took a shuddering inhale and her face immediately went from sulky and pouty to a radiant smile. She was wearing an oversized white pullover hoodie with a black Firesmith logo emblazoned on the front. It reached to the middle of her thigh, obscuring whether or not she was wearing shorts under it.

“John! Hi!” Her smile faltered for a second, but she pressed on at a rapid, nervous pace, “I hope I’m not bothering you but I was in the neighborhood and thought I owed you an explanation for not showing up to class today with your Aura Crystal.” She laughed nervously before continuing, “There’s a really good reason for that actually, you see-”

“Let’s talk about it on the way to a restaurant? I’m kind of starving,” John interrupted her.

“Oh! Okay! Yeah we can totally walk and talk, that’s no big deal.”

Layla reached for John’s hand as he closed the door behind him and started to walk. Their fingers brushed and she shuddered. John looked back at her and raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. She laughed nervously, quickly clasping her hands in front of herself and flashing him a sweet smile. They took the elevator down and started towards the restaurant.

“So, your really good reason for getting me yelled at by Professor Medici and her threatening to report me to the Headmistress as a failure?” John overblew the situation a bit.

That seemed to short circuit her brain, as she took a few minutes to just open and close her mouth wordlessly before clearing her throat and mumbling.

“Hm?”

“Did the professor really single you out like that?”

“Oh, no. She yelled at the whole class. No one filled their crystals right. I didn’t bring one at all, though, so I imagine she was also yelling at me.”

Layla breathed a deep sigh of relief, then started laughing. John joined her.

“C’mon, Layla, what’s so funny? We all got in trouble!” he managed through minor giggle fits.

“I think the fact that you blended in with the crowd and didn’t get singled out proves that I held up my end of the bargain.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll give you that much. Thanks a lot.”

Layla’s face flushed a deep red and they walked in silence for a few minutes.

“So, where were you? Are you feeling okay?” John started the conversation again.

“Oh! Well, you see, I…” She trailed off, seemingly conflicted on what she wanted to say.

“Hey, if it’s too personal to share, I don’t mind. We barely know each other after all.”

“No, no, it’s not that. It’s just- it’s that- well, I-”

“Don’t worry about it.” John made sure to meet her nervous gaze and give her a reassuring smile. “It worked out, didn’t it? I think we make a pretty good team.”

“A pretty good team…” Layla repeated, dreamily.

“Oh hey, we’re here. Everything’s so close by around here.”

John led the spaced out Layla inside and they were greeted by the manifestation of their auras and the water elemental maitre d’. Layla whimpered quietly as John’s aura brushed against hers.

Does that hurt her? I don’t have Rageflame active, so it shouldn’t. But then again, she seems to have special aura powers or something so maybe she’s more sensitive to it? I should keep my aura away from hers for now.

“Welcome to the Firesmith culinary arts program satellite campus. Would you like a table or a booth?” the water elemental addressed John.

“Do you have a preference, Layla?”

“Hm?” Layla snapped out of her reverie at the mention of her name and looked around. “Oh, is this the culinary campus? Let’s get a booth!”

“Right this way, please.” The water elemental led them to a booth and handed them menus.

“Do you eat here often, John?” Layla asked while looking over the menu.

“No, I walked by once and thought it smelled good so I decided to check it out. Have you been before?”

“I come here all the time when Tessa’s working the kitchen. She’s, without a doubt, the best cook they have.”

“Oh? Do you know if she’s in today?”

“She should be, I’m pre- Oh, there she is!” Layla interrupted herself to excitedly beam at their server.

“Hiya, Lay! Fancy meeting ya here after what happened this mornin’.” Tessa smiled right back at Layla before turning coldly towards John. He swallowed nervously as Tessa’s eyes stared icicles into his soul.

“Tessa? Tess, hey! Hello?” Layla snapped her fingers in between Tessa and John and Tessa finally snapped out of it.

“Sorry ‘bout that! What can I get started for ya?”

“Can we get some drinks first? I think John might need more time to look at the menu.”

“Of… Course… Take… Your time…” Tessa spoke haltingly, and John swore he could hear her gritting her teeth.

“You know what? I’m suddenly not hungry anymore, and I can tell you two have a lot to catch up on, so I think I’m just gonna-”

“NO! I mean, ahaha, no wait, it’s fine! Right, Tessa?” Layla practically growled Tessa’s name.

“If he isn’t hungry, he isn’t hungry, Lay. We can’t **** him to stay, and he’s right, we do have a lot to catch up on.”

John scooted out of the booth, avoiding eye contact with Tessa. Layla practically threw herself across the table, but Tessa sat in John’s place and caught her before she could follow him out.

I think Layla might have way too much going on right now… It would be selfish of me to complicate her life even further, especially with all this Champion bullshit I’m apparently part of. Fuck. I still need food or I will literally starve. Maybe there’s a supermarket or gas station close by? Snacks are better than nothing.

As he came to that conclusion and stepped over the restaurant’s threshold, his aura flashed out of existence and immediately back into existence.

“What the fuck?”

Trap Barrier entered: Elemental Alliance.
Defeat all enemies to be granted release.

“God damn it, not again!”

---

Natalya Ankov strode confidently into her study, yet again greeted by the four monks in her employ looking out of the large bay windows. She sat in her regal desk chair and they turned to address her.

“Status report,” she demanded.

“The students are distracted, they are no longer learning nearly as much as we can teach them. They skip class to train in suboptimal methods, they take **** to improve short term performance at the detriment of their long term health, they do not study and do not retain the information we give them. There is a disturbance in the delicate balance we’ve striven to upkeep between stress and relief among the student body,” said the man farthest to the left.

“The armory is filling at an acceptable rate, and the quality of pieces within has increased on average from a B rating to an A. It is unclear if this is a direct effect of the disturbance or a steady improvement despite it,” said the one next to him.

“The gangs have held a truce meeting, in a barrier set up in the Springfield University parking garage. It was not a woven barrier, it was a smithed barrier. They were cautious and left lookouts in each layer. The meeting was held in the deepest layer, where only the leaders and their lieutenants were allowed. The Pyromancers, Aquamancers, Terramancers, Ventumancers, Flaming Mages, Water Mages, and Earthen Mages all agreed to unify into what they now call the Elemental Alliance. The Air Mages decided to stay out of it and were consequently attacked and left **** in the barrier. This level of unification has never occurred. Nearly one hundred students have joined forces to quash the threat you introduced to the environment. What say you?” the one standing second from the right gave his report.

“If it takes one fifth of our institution’s student body to remove a single threat, we’ve clearly failed in our mission and must start over,” came Natalya’s sultry response. “Twenty years of preparation of a properly indoctrinated **** and all it takes to unravel them is one particularly talented young man? We never stood a chance against our enemies.”

The monks’ body language stiffened in nearly imperceptible rage. The one on the right spoke up, his words slow and deliberate, “The students who haven’t finished their training? Those who we are still shaping into instruments of our plans? Those are the ones which you would test against foreign elements? You would throw away two decades of work and funds because those who are, by definition, not ready are not ready?”

“The quality of agents has been steadily declining the past four years. You’ve said so yourself. We reached a peak but we didn’t plateau. If drastic change isn’t made now, we will have not the **** to be reckoned with that we set out to create, but another mediocre **** to be batted around by the greater forces of the region,” Natalya shot back.

“And instead of consulting with your advisors about what drastic change should be made, you simply made it yourself?” the second from the right questioned her.

“Yes.”

Silence enveloped them for a moment, a minute, an hour, until finally the monks responded in unison.

“Let us discuss how to move forward.”

---

“John Newman, we’ve been looking for you,” a man who couldn’t have been much older than John called out to him, surrounded by dozens of goons dressed in various stereotypical gangster purple outfits.

“And who do you mean by ‘we’? What element is purple supposed to be?” John responded as he started to summon his companions.

The mystery leader’s goons laughed, but were quickly silenced by a gesture. Ignis rose from the asphalt in the ensuing silence, followed by Elora and her airborne soldiers as well as Calista.

“It doesn’t matter who we are, Johnny boy, because once we’re done, you won’t be able to even remember your own name!”

John’s only response was to sigh and cast Observe.

Why don’t they learn?

Observe Failed
Update in progress, observe data for non-barrier entities inaccessible.
Ah, fuck. What level are they? I don’t want to kill them.
“Calista, can you make sure none of them die? I’d rather not deal with the Headmistress’s wrath.”
Or the guilt of killing actual humans.
“Yes, Master.”
“Yo, what the fuck! Did you even hear me? We’re gonna beat the shit out of you and your little freak show of summons! There’s a hundred of us here against just y-”
“Elora, show them how wrong they are.”
“You got it, Chief.”
Squad Deployed!
Elora Demoted to Level 5!
Infantry Squad Alpha Promoted to Level 1!
Infantry Squad Beta Promoted to Level 1!
Archer Squad Alpha Promoted to Level 1!
Archer Squad Beta Promoted to Level 1!
Artillery Squad Alpha Promoted to Level 1!

Twenty new Pixies joined their commanding officer, all taking various fighting stances. The infantry squads held up **** rifles made of emeralds, the archery squads drew bows made of rubies, and the artillery squad started loading a sapphire cannon.

Artillery? I seriously need to talk to Elora about what she’s capable of.

“Fucking damn it, Newman, I’m so tired of your shit!” The leader’s voice turned shrill. “Get his ass already!”

John had lost his spear and cloak in the desert, so it was going to be very difficult to hold back on the gang members rushing at him all at once.

Fireball does 200 damage per hit, I might end up killing them and turning their bodies to charcoal in one hit if they’re weak enough. I’ll just have to Parkour my way around their attacks while Elora and her pixies pick them off.

Ignis cocked her head at John as if to say, “Are they serious? These cubs are going to kill themselves.”

John chuckled in response and said, “Just bat them around, Ignis, try not to kill them.”

The first of the gang members reached John as he turned to face them, and with fists ablaze they swung at him. He sidestepped the swing easily, and began to count his opponents. It was immediately obvious that the gang was dominated by fire mages, as gouts of flame flew every which way in the first few seconds of battle. He counted at least ten before he rolled into a handspring, dodging icicles and flying rocks. He spun to his right and blocked a punch before dropping into a crouch and letting a fireball fly over his head. He swept the feet out from under a gang member and rolled backwards into a cartwheel to continue taking stock of his enemies.

~.・゜゜・　　・゜゜・．~

Elora stood her ground, firm and unyielding while surrounded by giants more than five times her size. The aerial squads spun a cyclone above her head, blocking and diverting any ranged attacks launched in their direction. The infantry and archer squads set up defensive rings, firing steady salvos into their enemies. She tried her best to not be too bothered by the damage readings floating from their enemies wounds, only reading 1’s and 2’s with a rare critical 5 every now and then. They were only level 1 after all.

“AS-1, fire for effect on relative grid 0, 10, 6. One human, danger close, over.” Elora functioned as a forward observer for the artillery squad, calling their shots.

“E-1, fire for effect on relative grid 0, 10, 6. One human, danger close, out.” The squad leader relayed the information to the rest of the squad. “Shot and splash, over.”

“Shot and splash, out.”

10 dmg

Elora sighed. “Repeat, over.”

~.・゜゜・　　・゜゜・．~

Calista giggled serenely as she danced circles around the gang members. Her water whip cracked and another fell ****. A rock flew over her head as she dipped to boop a groaning enemy’s nose, her severe burns fading from life threatening to uncomfortable. Ignis pranced nearby, her flame body absorbing practically every attack that could be thrown at her. Those foolish enough to try and physically throw punches at the firefox had to be healed by Calista or suffer permanent maiming. John wanted to show the weaklings mercy, so Calista took it upon herself to make sure none would be too incapacitated to be of use to him later. They were weak now, but under his leadership she believed they could grow stronger.

~.・゜゜・　　・゜゜・．~

Should I summon Omorphia? We’re holding our own super well as is, and I don’t really know how well she’ll do in a fight, but she could definitely use proper experience if she’s ever going to be part of any fights in the future. It doesn’t get any easier than these guys. I might as we-

John was interrupted in his thoughts by the leader of the gang, brandishing a butterfly knife and flourishing it around.

“I’ll finish this now, Johnny boy!”

John rolled his eyes and side stepped a knife thrust, then shoved the leader off balance.

“Gah!”

The leader nearly stabbed himself trying to catch his fall. John jumped forwards, twisting and turning midair with strategic castings of Flames, to dodge a volley of asphalt chunks hurled at him. The leader steadied himself and lunged again, narrowly missing John’s crotch. John’s eyes widened, and he kicked the knife away with a leg covered by Sparks. The resulting spasming knife swing sliced through his pants and underwear, missing his junk by a hair’s width.

Oh hell no, I need to get that knife away from this madman.

John stomped on the leader’s wrist, and he released the knife with a pained grunt. John kicked it out of reach but had to dodge backwards to avoid an icicle. He looked around and realized nearly half of the gang members were groaning in a pile surrounding Elora and her pixie squads, while another dozen or so lay randomly on the ground either just **** or nursing bad burns. Only about thirty gang members remained, and they stood warily keeping their distance. The pixies repositioned themselves on top of the pile of enemies and started firing on the remaining gang members as Ignis barked playfully and pounced right next to them, batting her paw at one softly. Calista followed leisurely, humming a song quietly to herself as she swung her water whip as a ribbon dancer might swing their ribbon.

“Give it up,” John began, “it doesn’t matter how many of you there are, you can’t beat me.”

“Fuck off!”

“Arrogant prick!”

“Suck my ass!”
John sighed as the gang members threw insults at him.

You’d think they would see reason after I knocked out half of their friends. Isn’t the Abyss all about might makes right or whatever bullshit?

“Haven’t you noticed that I haven’t cast a single spell yet?”

The insults slowly died out. John cast Fireball and held it in his hand.

“Is this what you want? Am I going to have to kill you all to get you to leave me alone?”

Rageflame started to sputter into existence, not quite manifesting fully but still conjuring rings of flame at his feet.

Is this who I am? Is this who I have to be? Is this what it means to be a Champion? Sera told me to kill the Aquamancers when I spared them last time. But all anyone else has wanted to do was beat me up, not straight up kill me. What should I do?

The leader laughed as he got to his feet, cradling his knife hand.

“You don’t understand, Newman. It doesn’t matter how hopeless it looks. The Elemental Alliance will fight to the end for our pride. You disgraced us over and over again, we can’t just let that go.”

“You disgraced yourselves by underestimating your mark. Your so-called pride will be the **** of you, whether by my hand or by someone who hesitates much, much less. I don’t want to kill you, I value the opportunity to learn at the Academy, and I refuse to get thrown out because some gangster wannabes want to throw their lives at my feet. But if you fucking get in my way again, I will kill you.” John paused for a beat. “No, wait, actually, hold on. Didn’t I already fucking warn you all? Didn’t those aquamancer bastards tell you about my warning?”

“Yeah, and wha-” John didn’t let the leader finish his thought.

“I warned you all YESTERDAY.” The Rageflame manifested in full as John recalled being outlevelled and outnumbered after school, and how the water mages had hurt Ignis.

So much has happened since then, I had almost forgotten. But no, I gave mercy and I gave a warning. I’ll face whatever consequences I must. It’s time to follow through on my threats.

“Ignis, go for the kill. Calista, make it painless for those already ****. Elora, go full offense. The time for mercy is past.”

John and his summons leapt to action, and for the first time there was fear instead of pride in the gang members’ eyes. It was a massacre. John and Ignis left charred corpses in their wake, and it took them less than a minute to wipe out the remaining members standing. A very depressing minute for John.

I had to do this. I had to do this. I had to do this. If I didn’t, they would just keep coming for me. They would eventually get strong enough to pose a threat. They would eventually hurt Ignis again, or Calista, or Elora, or Omorphia. Their pride wouldn’t have let them leave me alone. If I hadn’t ended it here, it would have gotten much, much worse… right?

John stood dazed in the barrier, processing what he had just done, reassuring himself that he did what had to be done. Calista and Ignis tried to comfort him, but he was too distant mentally.

Trap Barrier Clear!
Exit Barrier?
Yes/No

John snapped out of his daze as his system dinged at him. He sighed and shook his head.

“Thank you for your support, everyone. Head back to the temple and get some rest.”

John cast Dismiss Summon amidst various goodbyes before tapping “yes” and exiting the barrier. He sighed again as his aura dimmed and the barrier shattered around him.

“John! There you are!” Layla’s voice startled him and he jumped, turning towards her.

She tackled him with a hug and pulled him into another barrier.

“Ohmygod, Iwassoworried I- ah!”

John stumbled backwards in surprise and tried to activate Parkour to somehow salvage the tumble, but it failed and he fell onto his back. He was instantly reminded of the slice in his pants as the rush of air caused by his fall made the loose fabric flutter. Layla landed on top of him, shuddering as she straddled his face.

No way. This is so cliche. There’s no fucking way. How did she even?

John paused his mental line of questioning as Layla could no longer muffle her moans.

She came on contact last time and passed out, is she going to be okay this time?

“Jo- mmmm~ John, I - ah! I can, I can see your hmnn~ Is this for me?”

“Wh- What?”

John flinched as he felt fingers wrap around his member.

What the fuck even is my life right now… I suppose the best way to get used to it is to just… dive right in?