When Reia Blocked, Reia found Brick shaking and red with rage right in front of her, like, she'd somehow defiled him by having the gall to parry his attack.

But look, Brick didn't move or actually fight her, instead his ridiculously long sentient chain did.

"Ah, you're the photomancer. I heard we had one of you at our school—pretty cool to have a rare affinity."

Why did people feel the need to address her by her affinity? Maybe she should start addressing people based on their shoe size? Assuming she knew... of course.

Swish!

The chain had a mind of its own, it slithered like a snake, and struck Reia's photon blade over and over again with itself, the chain was literally dueling with, forcing the lady knight to fight while backing up on her heels. She blocked, matching each attack from almost any conceivable angle as their battle entered the hallways of the second floor, clearing late students out of it faster than any instructor or dean. From her peripherals she could see Blanket following them, his mouth parted and concern all over his face.

Another one!

She dodged, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and blocked hundreds of the chain's strikes, proving that her maneuvering abilities far outweigh any of his flurries of chains that struck the floor and dented nearby lockers.

Reia was fast. But whenever she went to attack Brick, the chain would put all of its resources into keeping her away and protecting him as he stood back, only maneuvering when she got close enough.

Clang!

It was Metal against materialized light!

And no matter how many times she counter-attacked with her sword of incinerating light, the chain was strong and her weapon proved unable to melt or slice through it.

Brick's veins were all visible when his chain and her blade broke apart in a single clash, leaving him to watch her with a glare.

"You're good, but don't make me ruin your life. Somehow, I don't think you'd like that." Brick said.

Ruin her life? Yeah, maybe if he kept opening his mouth and letting his hot ass breath out.

Brick calmly walked over, watching her battle the chain as if it were an actual enemy, even having the gall to smile at "Let's hurry this up, alright? I can be late to Dame Foster's class, but I don't want to break her sweet wittle heart—I've been on an on-time-streak, that's what she calls it. Corny little lady, huh?" the boy snapped, and the chain winded itself up and began rolling at Reia like a ball, forcing her to duck as it hurled past her like a bullet, bounced off the wall and came for a second round.

She grunted, Dame Foster definitely wouldn't appreciate that Brick was a bully because she was a sweet and awesome woman.

Reia turned away from it, stuck the back of her foot onto the wall, and then kicked off dodging a lunge from the chain that punctured an enormous hole into the whitestone wall.

Landing a few feet away, Reia taunted them with her hands coming forward, before looking at the hole and sweating slightly "You're really gunning for me."

"You punched me in the face!" He retorted, a huge frown at the thought, his calm demeanor slowly transitioning to a more intense emotion.

"You were trying to turn Blanket into mush!"

There was no way he was serious. She regained her composure, but still couldn't believe the stupidity and downright lie.

"You punched me right in my face! A Purple Monkey got punched by you, a non-club-associated loner... a clubless loser! That shit hurts, and you need to pay!"

"And squeezing Blanket with your stupid ass inanimate pet didn't hurt him?!"

Brick sighed looking to the floor and scratching his head "See, you should have just minded your damn business because now you're getting into things you weren't even around to understand. You've officially pissed me the shit off—not only did you hit me, but you insulted Tony! And that doesn't make Tony happy."

Tony? Who. The. Hell. Was Tony?

She looked at the pet, it must've been looking at her because Reia couldn't tell, it had no eyes.

"Tony? Don't tell me you named the damn chain Tony." To be fair she was just taunting him.

But Brick didn't know this, because he was some dimwit of a boy. His face dawned a pale red and like, his life depended on it, he snapped over and over again.

The chains shot at her, slinging attacks at her at hundreds of miles per hour, she maneuvered, bounced off of lockers, and spun through the air, but the chain didn't let up.

Students were dispersing, instructors and sentinels conveniently heard not a single sound.

Brick moved forward, getting extra close to the battle and that was his major flaw.

She could win!

After dodging a jab from the inanimate pet and a few attempts at constricting Reia, she slowly molded a ball into her free hand, still blocking each attack, and with the ball just as the chain tried to sweep her off her feet, Reia hurled it at Brick, and then drove her weapon into the chain and pinning it to the nearest locker, unfortunately melting the metal of the locker when she did so.

The glowing chain walloped and jerked like a dying snake with a spear pinning it to a wall.

Brick dodge the attack, looking at Reia with disdain, but instead blinking when she wasn't even at the spot her attack came from?

-Oh yeah, Brick was outmatched.

Instead, Reia was in front of Brick, no weapons in hand, the sweat on her forehead seeping into her eyes, and a scowl to make sure Brick knew exactly where he screwed up. With a windup that either Brick didn't see coming or was way too shocked to see, Reia got another punch right into his face. He grunted like an angered beast.

Bang!

He fell over, right into the locker.

And admittedly, she should have stopped—but she swung again.

Punch!

He fell and she straddled over him and kept swinging.

SMACK!

And again!

POW!

Right into his mouth. Brick was on his left side. And again, she hit him before stopping, before the chain broke free but collapsed into the floor in a heap of metal. The bell rang, the final bell that determined when you were late.

Reia stood, her knuckles red with what looked like rug burn, so it only slightly hurt.

And it was then that she stopped looking down at Brick who'd at some point opted just lay there and take the pummeling—

Oh, wait!

Did she knock him out?

Well, Brick laid there unconscious, she got up to her feet motionless, looking down at Brick, really staring at the poor kid and slapping herself for hitting him so hard.

She didn't even consider that maybe she'd gone a little too hard.

"Oops." She muttered "shit."

And only when she heard a click and a sudden flash did her heart drop.

Turning she looked face to face with some short sloppy-looking brown-skinned boy with a parted dark brown fade on his head.

He looked up to her and they both made eye contact.

"Uh, watchadoing there?"

The kid looked down at his camera "T–taking a few shots..."

There was no way this kid just did that.

She wanted to facepalm.

"May I ask for wha—" but the kid started running down the hallway before she could finish "Oh don't—come on! Forreal?" and soon rounded the corner.

What did he get a picture of?

...shit.

She blinked, then looked between the small crowd of students, watching Reia in the aftermath of her battle with Brick.

Whispers and murmurs, and faces of disdain spread across the crowds of late students.

It was all directed to her.

Like she had just gone and beat up Brick on a whim!

Like he hadn't just moments ago been squeezing the meat out of Blanket!

Hell, they never stopped what they were doing when it was someone like Blanket.

Having enough, Reia raised her head to the tiny crowd and then turned away, heading back to the staircase and preparing some half-assed excuse for her tardiness.

But her head felt like it was trying to solve a hard math equation, as to what just happened?

But it was all too clear—those in clubs clearly played by a different set of rules.

Hopefully, there was some leftover healing elixir leftover in her dorm room.

TBC...

*>X<*