Allan looked at the new arrival in surprise; after all, it was very difficult to see the principal of his school. The man was one of the few powerhouses in New Chicago.
When the cities were established, the council proposed that each one of them, in each country, should have at least one protector who had reached the 6th rank. Just like all the teachers of the established military institutions were veterans of at least the 2nd rank and above, the principals of said institutions couldn't be weak either. After all, semi-military institutions such as East Gate High were in charge of providing the basic education each teenager needed to survive in the new world.
After graduating from said institutions, students who managed to awaken in their last year, at around 18 or 19 years old, are sent to an established military council's compound to continue their education and train their newly awakened powers. You couldn't just trust young people to be responsible enough to train in their cities and not cause any damage to it, or let them go into the wastelands to die.
Before the war, Chicago was around 240 square miles in land; now, after the war and the expeditions of the brave awaken, it was roughly around 500 square miles, double the size it was before. It was a massive city surrounded by immense walls from all sides.
The city was also divided into five districts: North, South, East, West, and Central, with each one of them having one semi-military institution. Of course, this brought many problems, such as resource and infrastructure failures, but it was thanks to the awaken and the council's contributions that the city managed to reach this size despite it all.
For a city of this size, one protector was not enough. The principals of each institution had to have reached the peak of the 5th rank. Each of these individuals was a powerhouse of their own right, capable of driving the most dangerous creatures away from the city on their own. Of course, the mayor of New Chicago was not weak either; the man had reached the 6th rank after all.
Garrick Veyne, the principal of East Gate High, was the strongest of these powerhouses. All others were at the peak of the 5th rank, but Garrick was well within the 6th rank, somewhere in between low and mid class. He was a veteran of many battlefields; his battle experience was second to none. In fact, that was the reason the position of Mayor was originally offered to him, but he refused it since he couldn't be bothered to deal with all the paperwork that came with it; honestly, he pitied the fool that had accepted it.
Allan was sitting on the ground with his hand on his neck, looking for any additional injuries that the Voranth might have inflicted on him. After finding none, his attention moved to the two beings that were currently staring each other down. Well, technically, the Voranth was staring the Principal down due to the height difference. Still, their sharp gazes were anything but relaxed; yes, both of them wore calm, almost indifferent expressions on their faces, but one could tell that the battle would be anything but.
After a few seconds of assessing each other, the Voranth moved first.
One moment, it stood across the ruined classroom; the next, it crossed the distance between them with enough force to crack the ground beneath its feet.
Garrick barely moved. His eyes tracked the creature's every movement; it was as if time had slowed down for him. He traced it all, its left shoulder, its elbow, then its clawed hand shooting towards his throat. At the final instant, he shifted his weight and caught the Voranth's wrist.
Garrick's expression did not change in the slightest.
The Voranth couldn't do anything but tilt its head in confusion; it had clearly miscalculated the strength of this human. Before attacking, the Voranth analyzed the information provided by the Fourth Elder. The information clearly stated that the principals were of the 5th rank, but based on the strength of this human's grip, the information was clearly outdated, or it was deliberately wrong. Alas, it couldn't do anything about it now; it would just have to get rid of the human in front of it.
Garrick then twisted his wrist; the kinetic energy of the Voranth's charge was redirected, and its momentum suddenly changed direction. At the same time, Garrick stepped aside and pulled with enormous strength; the creature was thrown past him, its enormous body flying through the destroyed wall, hitting the courtyard's field hard enough to shatter it.
Dust and fragments erupted into the air, but before the debris settled, Garrick raised one hand. At that, every piece of shattered ground, concrete, and exposed metal around the courtyard trembled. Rusted railings ripped themselves from their foundations. Broken pieces of fencing, fragments of destroyed military vehicles, spent shell casings, and twisted steel beams rose from the ground.
For a moment, they hung motionless around him. Then Garrick closed his fist, and the metal launched forward. The Voranth had barely emerged from the small crater created by his hard landing when the first steel beam struck its shoulder, the second slammed into its ribs, the third missed. The creature moved with startling intelligence, twisting between the projectiles rather than simply enduring them.
Garrick's eyes narrowed when he realised that the Voranth was learning. It was suddenly capable of reading the trajectory of his attacks. After evading a few more projectiles, the Voranth suddenly grabbed one of the airborne beams and spun the enormous piece of metal and hurled it back.
Garrick's hand snapped upward.
The beam stopped inches from his face. For the briefest moment, neither moved. Then Garrick turned his palm, making the beam reverse its direction It accelerated toward the Voranth with even greater speed than before. The creature not only caught it, but it did so with the limb Garrick had originally severed.
Garrick let out a deep sigh at the sight. He realized the Voranth had regenerative abilities.
"This is going to take a while…" he said, scratching the back of his head, clearly annoyed with this creature.