Zeke witnessed what was once a calm gathering escalate into full blown chaos.
Nebula crept closer to him as an act of securing her older brother. Some students had started to release their essence auras, coating their bodies like a second invisible skin.
These auras where ranging in many different colours from dark blue to bright pink.
Through his essence perception, Zeke could feel the aura's extending from their souls into the physical plane.
Despite his inability to see their colour at the moment, he could tell who was using what, and where they were using it.
For the two of them, no-one had decided to strike against them due to Nebula's reputation but that seemed to be changing.
Near their vicinity, a large coalition had been formed to defeat any personnel deemed extremely dangerous.
Their first target was the one who ranked fourth in the school battle rankings. He coated himself with a roaring flame aura that was scorching everyone who came in contact with his fists.
He defeated two of the coalition in seconds and was mere moments from making the opponent in front of him submit or fall unconscious when a fourth intervined.
Taking his time, he made a bit of distance between him and the new arrival. As he tried to once again exchange blows with his two opponents, another one appeared from the crowd to cover them.
The coalition was using the chaos around them to hide their members. With the sheer number of students fighting in the suffocating space, locking onto an opponent with just your eyes was difficult.
The aura surrounding his body suddenly exploded with terrifying heat. It made his skin gleasten gold and his eyes glow a bright yellow.
He moved much faster now and every strike of his was just, if not more scary than the last. He blitzed the two who were in front of him and palmed their chest, sending them flying into the wall.
Boom!
They crashed into the wall with great force but it stayed without a scratch. The last fighter tried to rush him from behind but was swept of his feet before being palmed into the air, and landing in the midst of the violent crowd.
He would have been trampled if those who were deemed unable to fight didn't sink into the ground.
More and more kept appearing as his palm attack was flailing everywhere , hitting some bystanders in the process. The strain on his body was becoming evident however with his movements slowing down.
He was still fast enough to beat many of his opponents but not at the original rate he was going.
Nebula watched quietly with a blank expression that slowly began to sour.
With the last of his strength, he leaped a large distance backwards before reinforcing his arms once more. A large number of foes emerged from different parts of the chaos and charged at him with their essence armour.
Once they got close enough however, the essence on his arms receded and coated his legs instead. He began rushing past each one while avoiding their attacks. He got past most of them and was now on leaning on the opposite wall. It would take them quite sometime to get to him and he was planning to replenish his essence in that time.
He unfortunately didn't get the chance. With his essence low, his ability to scout his surroundings with it was drastically low.
This was just enough for one person to avoid his detection and land a mighty blow to his back. The kick sent him flying in the direction of his pursuers and before he knew it, he was surrounded getting pummeled into the ground.
It was only after a few minutes did his body sink into the floor. Nebula watched with whole thing with a cold gaze and a predatory look. Zeke could even feel a bit of killing intent from her.
He wondered if she knew who that just was, but could only keep it to himself for now. Zeke and Nebula watched as the coalition targeted more people, each person they targeted showed signs of being significantly stronger than them individually, but they would still win because of their numbers.
They did suffer losses along the way but they seemed to be recruiting more people in the surrounding scuffles to cover for their losses. Both of them knew that it was a matter of time before this pack of wolves came for them.
Nebula was radiating malicious intent at this point, and Zeke just had to ask what was it she was so angry at.
"This coalition is most likely formed by one of the top ten students like me, Grayson. He's using all of them as meat shields to earn the points for himself. It may seem like a coadinated effort but in truth.. only one person who lands the last blow gets the benefits. That is Grayson every damn time!"
Zeke was genuinely surprised. He didn't really know that the this was how the battle system worked. The principal had done a bad job at explaining how the specifics of this were.
"Shouldn't everyone know this then?."
"No.. this is knowledge people who have done or researched the combat system know. It hasn't been used In five years making the principals words of it being new a lie. Most of us here started four years ago with the new system, and even then... few really know how it worked."
Looking back at the battles being waged around them, Zeke couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of spending four years in a school without knowing how your being marked.
"That's not really why you don't like him. Though is it?."
"No it's because he keeps annoying me with letters of how much he likes me and I don't know how to.. huh?"
She noticed he had sat up from his seat and was walking in the direction of where the coalition was currently engaging a female student.
She was the same girl he had noticed to have the highest quality, and most likely output of essence out of everyone here, including Nebula.
She was dodging every strike thrown her way elegantly. It was like a beautiful dance to an orchestra of world class musicians. He could have just stopped and enjoyed the performance but that was not his intentions.
He pumped his essence to the max around his legs, and located Grayson hiding stealthily among the rest. He seemed to be waiting for his chance to deal the last blow when she had grown tired.
People seemed hesitant to attack him because they felt guilty to go after someone they assumed to be blind but in the next moment, they learned their lesson.
With purple lightning cracking around his feet, he burst towards Grayson with frightening speed. Sensing something headed his way, Grayson attempted to block with his hands the kick aimed at his chest.
The result was him being pushed directly into the wall that was just a few meters away from him before. When he planted his feet firm into the ground, he got a second to see who it was that struck him.
To his dismay, stood the blindfolded person he had seen sitting next to Nebula since he got to the side fields. A malicious grin found it's way to his face as he sized up his opponent.
The blindfolded person seemed to have an even bigger smile on his face, but it promised nothing good.
After that, the two clashed with Zeke throwing a kick that was blocked by Grayson.
A purple aura began coating his body and this time he withstood the strike.
Zeke responded by taking a step back and coating his fists in lightning. The lightning was slowly burning his skin but he didn't care at the moment. He's only focus was on beating the guy who had the guts to annoy his sister.
Then the two engaged once more with murdering the other as their goal.