"Look pal, I'm already quite pissed right now. It would do well for you to not make this worse."

He chuckled a bit and took his stance once inside the barrier.

​​

Meanwhile, the chubby girl took her leave.

"Good luck." Merin giggled towards the transfer student. I didn't fault him, with the mood I was in, my enemies really did need all the luck they could get.

The transfer student meanwhile, held his saber in one hand and had it in a weird stance like he was holding a stick or something. I didn't know why but this kind of ticked me off some more.

"Go!"

I readied my scythe and jumped at the guy. But this guy didn't have any opening and he immediately saw through my barriers. I guess he was studying my moves before the match. Not a bad idea I suppose.

But more importantly, he could see the invisible barriers?

I tried slicing him but he blocked my scythe and fired back his own flurry of attacks. I guess he wasn't all talk. "Can we take this a bit more seriously, please?" He giggled.

But in a moment of his lapse, I kind of scraped his shoulder, and just when I was about to retract, he grinned and ducked. He followed up by clawing me with his hands. Of course, I blocked it with my barrier but it did make me take steps back.

He could make his fingers into claws? Seemed pretty useful for close combat if nothing else. And he wasn't afraid to take damage just so he could damage me either.

This guy wasn't weak and I had to take this seriously. But what surprised me more was that he could move without a problem even with that wound. And more importantly, the wound disappeared just a second later. 'A vamp-no, he healed it with his powers.'

"Alright, I'll take you seriously." I turned the scythe into a two-handed sword. It was heavy but I was still kind of pissed.

"It would be my honor." The guy pointed his sword at me, held it like a rapier, and just charged. He tried piercing my defenses with quick thrusts. He was fast.

But I wasn't slow either: I dodged his strikes and swung hard, cutting through his thin sword, barely stopping before his neck. It didn't stop there though. He was going to do the same thing he did before: he was about to use his injury to his advantage and attack me. But this time, the moment he squatted, he was stuck.

"If you studied my moves before the fight, then you should have known I'd study yours while we fought, right? Anyway, do you give up, or should we see if your head heals once I take it off from your shoulders?" I gave him a solid glare. I was definitely in the mood to cut things up, there was no doubt about it.

He smiled. "I'd like to keep my head, so I give up."

"Three points." Mike declared the end of our match and I released the guy.

"Really not bad. I can see why they want you."

"Who?"

He just smiled and left. I actually forgot his name too.

This just kept on getting more and more irritating by the second.

I scored three on all of the matches today. "I guess that should net me a spot in the actual qualifications, right?"

"What do you mean?" Mike tilted his head.

"I mean, wasn't I trailing behind the others and needed full points so I wouldn't get disqualified before the qualifications?"

"Who told you that? Even if you lost all the matches today you still would have gotten in anyway. I mean they would have taken you in just because you had skills and not to mention your family name."

Giggling sounds were coming from our left. And it didn't take a genius to learn that it was Merin. And not to mention the guy was literally running away.

I wanted to chase the guy and give him a beating, but at the end of the day, he was going to come back to the dorm anyway. And lately, he'd gotten too close to Natasha. I grinned evilly. 'Let's see what happens when you can't get your Excalibur to rise for a whole day.'

***

I made my way to where Marg had her matches. No one was here and obviously, Marg wasn't either.

I was disappointed but this wasn't surprising.

Lately, I started carrying my phone because with loads of things going on, and I couldn't really not afford to use this.

I dialed a very familiar number.

It rung.

"Helio?"

"Mom. I-" I took a good look around me, though it was barely evening, there wasn't anybody around me: there wasn't anybody here. "I slept with someone." I really wanted to keep this private, but I needed advice, and I didn't know anyone better. So I went straight to the point.

"I see. So, what are you going to do now?"

Strangely mom was calm. Was she expecting this or something?

"She's already engaged and I don't know if I love her or not. She doesn't want me to take responsibility and-"

"And? Do you want to take responsibility? Are you doing this out of pity? Or out of lust?"

I guess the engagement part didn't bother her as much as I thought.

"I don't know. It's just that… when I picture her with someone else, my chest tightens, and when she said she didn't belong to me just because we slept together, I felt broken. I've never felt this way before. I don't know what love is, and I don't know if this is just lust or not, but honestly, I don't want anyone else to take her."

Mom sighed. "Well, as your mother and a woman myself, I'd advise you to not force her. If she made her decision, all you can do is wait. If you force her then it'll be a one-sided relationship and neither of you will be happy. But there could be reasons why she'd shut you out too. It could very well be that she likes you, otherwise, why would she sleep with you? I hardly see the reason."

"So you just want me to wait?" The words did come out of my mouth but there weren't any feelings behind them. I couldn't wait.

"Not exactly. Who is she engaged to? What are her circumstances?"

"She's actually engaged to a Battlesuin." I spoke carefully. I knew this was going on a bad route.

Mom sighed again. "We're talking about Marg, aren't we?"

I got busted. I guess she knew.

"Yes?"

"If I was being honest, I think she probably has feelings for you. The way she looked at you whenever we were all in the same room, was definitely not the look she'd give her friends. But I'm not sure about the depth of those feelings. You'll have to do something about that, find out whether she actually likes you or not. If she does, then we'll crush them."

"Well, we're going to war with them anyway." I chuckled.

"Exactly!" Even from over here, I could tell mom was excited. "But seriously, I thought you were a late bloomer."

"Let's not get here."

We both laughed a little and talked some more.

But in the end, I did get some insight. And I was actually pretty surprised that mom didn't actually get mad. But I got the impression, she'd clobber me the next time we'd meet.

***

Marg just had one match today.

She wanted to focus on that. Though everything was already decided she had one last wish, a desire. She wanted to win. And she wanted to prove her sister wrong.

And this was the last thing she was free to do. After that, she was going to something, something she could never take back. She was going to kill everyone involved. And she knew her chances of survival were nonexistent.

She'd made the decision long ago. And yet, why was she hesitating now? Why was she having second thoughts? Why did her heartache?

'Wasn't it just a mistake? Then why?'

She never planned to sleep with Helio, that was a mistake on her part, and yet, why was she feeling like this now? 'What do I want?' She rolled around on her bed. She didn't know what to do, she didn't know what to feel.

"Marg, you should take a shower. We're done."

Marg had three roommates, and all three of them were lovers: they always showered together. Of course, they invited Marg too at times, but sadly for them, Marg was straight.

With a sigh, she picked herself up and went to the bathroom. She undressed and turned on the shower.

As water dripped on her like rain, she looked at the wall, emotionless. 'No, I can't hesitate now.'

If she hesitated now, all her suffering would become meaningless. She had to see this through, and she had every last intention to.