Anguis smirked as she turned around.
Right in front of his eyes, she had defended him. General Ardena herself. He filed that information away as a fail-safe for later. But now, it was time for the performance. The pieces of the first phase were falling perfectly into place.
Anguis let the grin melt off of his face like metal in a furnace, and his left arm, the one he had held out to channel his power into her, dropped down limply.
He raised his right into a salute, making sure it trembled as though he was exhausted and said,
"Thank you, sir."
"At ease, soldier," was General Ardena's automatic response. Her eyes narrowed as she studied him.
Anguis leaned heavily against a small sandstone outcropping nearby, of which there were many scattered throughout the room, likely meant to aid students in hiding from the monster and executing hidden maneuvers. He groaned, clutching his left side with his right hand.
"Are you alright, soldier?" General Ardena asked in a lower voice, stepping closer.
"A minute at most," Anguis muttered softly, anticipating her interest. "More likely only a half. Say what you have to."
"I need to experiment with this," she replied swiftly in a matching whisper, barely missing a beat. "The potential applications..."
"Time and place, General," Anguis said, pushing himself up so he was more or less upright. Just as he had suspected, she stepped even closer and wrapped an arm around him, helping him stand straight. General Ardena was known for her compassion, and even though he suspected it was more of a public face, he could use it.
He hissed in a convincing replica of pain, exaggerating a slight limp as her hand brushed his side, trying to buy time as she started to walk him back to the other students, who were on the other side of the door.
"Meet me on the field at midnight," she muttered back, and he whispered a soft affirmative before pushing himself back upright off of her shoulder.
Anguis smoothly transferred control to Regus, and Regus straightened his back and saluted again, now that they were within easy earshot of the other students, who were watching tensely, some probably unsure if this was a hallucination.
"Thank you, sir," he said, and held out a hand. If he was lucky, she would shake it.
And she did. Ignoring the rush of power that entered him, he met her eyes. There was fire there, but it was not the sort of fire that he had been led to believe he would find. Not that he had ever put any stock in the rumors.
"You did well, soldier," she said, firmly gripping his hand. Her professional mask was now back in place, but Anguis had notified Regus that she had been slightly reluctant to let go of him.
General Ardena had more to unravel, just as they had suspected. Regus would need to consult one of the others.
But that was later. For now, he turned and marched back to the rest of Group Fourteen, his steps even and measured once more. They flooded out before him, encircling him in a chattering group, each of them overwhelmed by the spectacle.
John and Samantha quickly slipped through to his side, and Peter and Rowan soon followed, distinctly jostled by the crowd. Samantha quickly put her arm around him to support him, whispering something almost silently in his ear as he did. He responded with a slight squeeze as his arm looped around her shoulder, and they said no more.
Regus carefully blanked his mind, making sure that Anguis couldn't hear what she had said, then he walked out.
A small amount of power flowed into Regus from her, but it was enough to tell...
Now!
Regus pushed off of Samantha and straightened, turning and raising a hand, then he pushed out a small blast of plasma, slamming it into... air.
The student who was there, formerly invisible, was knocked backwards and fell to her knees.
Regus took a step forward and snapped his fingers, perhaps more dramatically than necessary, and lines of thin, orange plasma shot out from him and lashed her arms behind her back, then her legs and knees to the ground.
Regus said nothing, he imply turned and kept moving.
"You're going to regret displeasing our mistress!" the girl shouted after him. She had a few badges, and from them, Regus could tell that she was a third year, with multiple inter-school tournament participation awards. She was one of them, then. One of Regus's enemies' grunts.
Regus stopped, but he didn't turn back around. He had to send a message. What was the student's name? He searched, and a light memory surfaced.
"Angela Sparks," he said in a solid, immutable voice, his words dropping into the tense shock like stones. Most of Group Fourteen still hadn't recovered from the sudden appearance of the girl. "Your place is taken."
Then he continued walking. There was plenty of time before he had to show up for the fourth and final test. True, he could spend it building power. But his goal was not to top the ranks. Not yet, anyhow. The longer he could keep the administration ignorant of him, the better it would be for him. So far, while some of them had seen some strange events surrounding him, with this many students, they would not remember for long. After all, they had seen most of it before, and there was always some strange new dud, in his estimation.
The next thing he needed was to discover the extent of Anguis's ability. Regus looked around, then settled on going to the field. After all, it was known to be the best place for training abilities. But as he started to walk, he decided against it. After all, in what world would Regus be like the common student?
Certainly not this one. He needed to find somewhere else, somewhere away from prying eyes. If he didn't, realizing his full potential and upper limits would be incredibly difficult. Regus cocked his head, and then he decided to head into town.
By the time that he reached the Academy's official front gate, there were five other students following him. Luckily for him, they were wary enough not to attack him here. If their leaders had even decent intelligence, then they would instruct their underlings to wait until he was far away from here to begin.
After all, aside from prodigies like himself and General Ardena, most of the strongest ability users were what some people called "Guardians", ability users whose power grew the closer they were to a set place, or the longer they stayed within a certain radius, or something like that. For that sort of ability, it was far too easy to simply set the Academy as their home ground and stay there. Very few people had the mindset to wield extraordinary power without restrictions, so it was a fair assumption if someone surpassed your expectations. This was also one of the reasons why most people who had powerful abilities had some kind of weakness. Human minds often searched for balance, even when there was none. He had never been like that.
There were some, notably General Ardena herself, who didn't seem to have any, but Regus doubted she was truly that powerful. It was much more likely that her state of mind was fragile. Or, as Anguis had proposed, she was addicted to her power.
It wasn't an incredibly common diagnosis, if one looked at the medical reports, but that was because it generally cause many other mental ailments with other cures, such as depression and anxiety, especially social anxiety. It wasn't hard to see that this could easily lead to things like dehydration and malnutrition.
There was no sign of that in General Ardena, not one that was visible to the public, anyhow. Obviously, that meant nothing in reality, but taking it at face value, it could be that she simply still held a childlike mentality, in which case she either felt like a god when using her abilities, or at the least invincible, or she just couldn't see how her ability could be a bad thing.
Yes, that would do it. As for the luxury-opposed commoner, that part was likely real. She had been taken in by a noble after her parents had vanished. Where they had gone, Hashim didn't know. It was probably associated with some lost secret society or cult of demonic ability worshipping idiots, but that was another mystery for later.
Yet Regus still couldn't help but notice that the mysteries were getting more and more common. It seemed that with every step he took, he would find three more under a rock, if only he stopped to look. The real question was which of them would turn into land mines beneath his feet.
By now, Regus had reached the city. While it was still midday, the towering buildings, whether it was shops, houses and manors, or inns and taverns, enclosed the small street he was on so thoroughly that it was near impossible to tell. A dark pall lay over the whole area, as if something were holding its breath.
Regus knew what he would find even before he turned around.
Blood, and five unconscious bodies. And one last leg, as thick as his arm and longer, covered in carapace, vanishing into the shadows, having done its job.