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Part One

Gray smoke rose into the air. The blue and white bus was flipped upside down. A massive hole appeared on the side of the bus.

The buses that the schools used were not standard everyday buses. Their outer shell was difficult to penetrate, not even medium graded EXO weapons could cause such a hole to appear. Medium graded EXO weapons would find it hard to put a dent on the bus, let alone create such damage.

It all happened in an instant; this caused the buses following behind it to come to a sudden stop. All the students rushed out of the buses they were in to check the damages.

Everyone was standing around with faces full of shock. No one was moving; they were stunned.

Finally, one person spoke up; it was a young man with long blonde hair.

“What are we standing around for? Check the damages.”

The surrounding students seemed to realize that they were just standing around doing nothing. They needed to check for survivors if there were any.

“Over here!”

A voice echoed causing a ton of students to rush over to where they were standing.

From inside the bus, Nick’s vision blurred. He checked to his side where Freya was. Due to his shouting, he woke her up but now she lay with bruises covering her face.

He moved his hand to check her pulse.

‘Good, she’s still alive.’

Glancing over to where Matthew and Katherine was he saw a strange sight. Matthew had blood spattered across his face, and most of his body was against the roof.

He did not have his safety belt on, but it is thanks to him that they were all safe. Before the blast hit the bus, Matthew shifted the bus, but it was not enough for them to get out of the radius of the blast. If that attack landed directly on the bus, they would all be dead.

There was a giant hole leading towards the outside by the window next to Matthew’s seat. Thick smoke was coming up, so it was hard to make out what was going on outside.

Nick could use his EXO ability, but due to the shouting, he heard he knew that others were assessing the situation.

Katherine coughed, and blood came out of her mouth.

From Nick’s eyesight, he could see that her left arm was missing. If she did not get treated right away, then she was more than likely going to die.

As he was worried about her because his sensei told him to look after her, a green light flashed over her body. Her left arm started to regenerate as if it was never gone in the first place. The bruises across her body also began to heal.

‘What is that?’

Nick asked himself. He used his EXO ability to check the flow in her body, but it was light blue in color. That was a control type EXO ability, and what was happening now was categorized as a healing ability.

Nick recalled that there was no known healing EXO ability that allowed one to regrow limbs. If there did happen to be one, it would not regrow a person's limbs at such an alarming rate as Katherine has done.

Even for one the highest ranked healing EXO it at most would be able to treat her wounds, but that would take at least ten to twenty minutes depending on the person using it.

Nick was not going to ask anymore questions, at least not now. They needed to escape from here first before anything.

While thinking of a way to escape Nick felt the bus started to tilt. Someone or a group of people were flipping the bus back on its wheels.

They could have extended the hole that was already in the bus, but it seems they were using more brawn than muscle.

The bus rocked back and forth once before it was finally on its right side. The entrance to the bus did not open by itself, two of the students had to pry it open with their hands.

Once the door was open two students rushed in to check on everyone.

Nick now had a better view, now that everything was not upside down. He unsheathed his sword and cut the straps off of himself. Once free he laid Freya’s head against the window that was still intact.

Nick was a bit weak, but he was better than most of the others. He made his way towards the front of the bus, using the seats to help hold his balance.

A student saw Nick walking towards the front of the bus, and he rushed over to Nick’s side. Nick was bleeding on his forehead and using the seats to keep himself stable; the student did not know what this guy was thinking. After an accident like this, it was best to stay still and wait on a healer.

“Stop, you are in no shape to move. Let me help you back to your seat so you can wait on one of the healers to come.”

He told Nick as he grabbed his shoulder, yet in response to his kindness, he got a deathly glare. To him, Nick looked like a demon that would murder anyone in his way. He took a step back away from him and let him be.

“Fine! Go on then.”

While walking towards the front of the bus, Nick also checked on the students he passed by. So far so good, they were injured, but it was not anything too severe. As long as they got to a healer, they would be fine. Sure this experience would be with them for a lifetime, but at least they get to keep their lives.

‘Darius, where are you?’

Nick asked himself.

Darius was in the front, but now he was not there. The seat was empty; it was like it has never been filled. Nick couldn’t help but click his teeth.

Nick slowly made his way down the stairs, and outside the bus, the people surrounding him were giving him strange looks.

The majority of the people that were here were students. Almost all of the professors were on the first buses, or they arrived at an earlier time.

Alyson pushed her way in front of the crowd along with eight others following behind.

“Nick, wait up. You’re in no shape to move your body, let me heal you.”

She told him as she approached.

Nick fanned his hand at her.

“I know my condition, the others inside at in worse shape than me. Check on them first; I can wait.”

Honestly, his head was banging almost like it was about to explode. He knew he was not in his best condition, but there was something he needed to check.

Alyson did not listen to him; she told the other healers to go on the bus and check on the others, she was going to follow Nick.

Nick looked far into the distance where there was nothing but mountains. Alyson who was next to him did not say anything but also looked where his eyes were focused. She knew he had some type of eyesight EXO ability, but for the specifics of it, she was not too sure. However, if he was looking off into the distance, that had to mean he could see something she could not.

From the corner of her eye, she saw his hazel colored eyes turn icy blue. Those eyes of his gave her a chill; it was like he could see right through her soul even though he was not looking at her.

Nick’s eyesight increased dramatically; he could see up to ten kilometers. This was the maximum he could see, and even this was pushing him to his limits.

Nick could see a light purple wave in the shape of a sheet hovering in the air. He knew this was not normal, especially if those mountains were ordinary mountains.

It was an illusion or a projection of some sort to hide what was actually going on. However, it was useless in front of his EXO ability. The light purple sheet seemed to vanish, and Nick could make out two small colored objects. They were outlined like a human, but they were two different colors. One was light purple; Nick knew that this person was the one who put up the projection. The other one was gray, and it did not take a scientist to figure out that he was the sniper.

Suddenly Nick felt a surge of pain course through his body. Blood started to come out of his nose, and he felt it hard to breathe. He clutched his hand on his chest.

Alyson hurried and grabbed Nick’s hand.

“Rejuvenate.”

Alyson said softly.

A green light emerged from her palm and was absorbed by Nick’s hand. The light traveled across his body giving him a cooling sensation.

Alyson did this a few more times, and a few of the bruises on Nick’s body started to heal.

“Thanks.”

Nick said as the pain in his body subsided.

“It’s my job, no need to thank me. Now as your nurse I recommend that you get some rest.”

Nick gave her a soft smile, causing Alyson’s cheeks to turn red.

The look on her face was the last thing on Nick’s mind. His head was filled with questions that he did not have the answers for.

This was not an accident; it was an attack.

Nick glanced back up at the vast amount of mountains in the distance. From that range, you had to have a very powerful weapon to be able to have it travel such a distance. Not only was the weapon powerful, but the bullet it shot out would turn an average EXO user into mincemeat.

He did not know who those two people were, but he knew they were no AEU members. The people in AEU were ordinary civilians that used advanced cold iron weapons. They did not have a trace of essence in their body, but these two were something else.

For them to make an attack on the academy, Nick could only think of two possible options. This was either a declaration of war or an assassination attempt.

Neither one of those thoughts were good, especially when they were going into this camp. Once those people find out that their attack was not very successful, they would return.

“Come, let us get you on another bus. It is not very likely the one you were on will be moving anytime soon.”

Nick was woken up from his thinking when he heard Alyson’s voice.

“Alright, but first I would like to check on my friends.”

He was in a hurry to see if he could spot the people or person who attacked them. He could now regroup with his friends and assess their condition.

“So caring, you’re friends must mean a lot to you.”

“They are silly at times, but they are fun to be around. Without them around I think I would sometimes forget I'm human too.”

Alyson tilted her head a bit at this sentence. What exactly did he mean by ‘sometimes forget I'm human too?’

“Nick, what do you mean?”

Nick seemed to understand her question because of his word choice.

“Nothing, forget I said anything.”

Alyson did not think about it anymore, and she led Nick over to where his friends were.

“Alyson! Why did you run off leaving us to handle all the work?”

One female student questioned Alyson as her hands were placed on her hips.

“There was someone else who was injured, he insisted on moving around, and I could not leave him alone.”

Alyson answered her right away.

The female student looked at Nick and nodded her head a few times.

“Indeed, I wouldn’t leave him alone either. Alyson, your friend over here, is pretty hot.”

Alyson rolled her eyes and grabbed the female student's arm, urging her to move along.

“I’ll see you later Nick, and I hope nothing too serious happened with the others.”

“His name is Nick? Haha, on a first name basis, don’t tell me you two are alre-”

Alyson couldn’t take it anymore and hit her friend. She was talking a bunch of nonsense that would cause anyone to misunderstand.