Chapter: Times Up

I then jumped out of a high tree branch and down towards her, Alice smirked and jumped up towards me with her knife held tightly in her right hand. Before we reached each other I used 'Mana Cloak' which created a cloak of blue aura around my whole body as a layer of armour.

Alice and I came into striking range. Alice gripped her cleaving knife tightly and with a smirk, she brought it down with power as if she was going to cut meat. But I did not waver, I clenched my right fist tight and launched it directly at her blade, my fist smashed straight through her knife shattering it like glass.

My first continued going straight, landing a clean and solid hit directly in her face, sending her hurtling into the ground. I do a flip in mid-air before landing in front of Alice. "Reinforced Ethereal Cuffs and Scorching Thunder Prism" I casted

Orange translucent cuffs formed around Alice's hand and legs with a chain binding them together, a prism made out of fire and lightning formed around Alice trapping her.

"Checkmate" I smirked

Meanwhile on Hanako's end

Hanako right now is currently fighting multiple golems that would pop in her way trying to stop her from catching the golem that had stolen her tag.

"Alright, I've had enough" Hanako mumbled to herself "Winter Style: Moon Light Flash!"

Hanako swung her wooden Katana upwards diagonally, which caused a blue flash of light that covered the forest 600 meters wide. Once the flash disappeared everything that it had touched was completely frozen, as well as every golem that was in her way including the golem that had stolen her tag.

"Stealing is bad!" Hanako said to the frozen golems

Hanako put her wooden katana back on her hip and ran to the golem that had her tag and snatched it out of its frozen fingers.

"Great! Now I should get back to Ken," Hanako said a little puffed out

Before Hanako could rush off, the golem that stole her tag broke out of the ice and started to absorb all the other frozen golems into itself, increasing its own strength and size. Its hands morphed into giant blades and it grew bigger and taller, standing around 10 foot!

"This isn't good," Hanako said a little worried, as she looked at the towering golem standing in front of her

The golem launched itself at Hanako and started to hack and slash at Hanako with no actual skill, only using brute strength and speed. Hanako kept a firm stance and held her wooden Katana tightly and was able to block all of the golems' wild attacks with little effort. Since the golem wasn't using any actual skills it was easy for Hanako to find an opening and once she did, she stepped forward and swung her katana upwards putting the golem off balance, once the golem had lost its balance Hanako tried to cleave the golem in half with her wooden katana, but the golem's body was too tough and study and her Katana just bounced off of it, Hanako quickly jumped back keeping her distance.

"That's some tough skin...but I should end this now before I run out of time," Hanako thought to herself

Hanako held her wooden katana up in front of her face with her left hand, and slowly ran two of her right fingers up the katana, from the guard of the katana to the tip while counting upwards "120, 140, 160, 180, 200!" Hanako mumbled to herself as her wooden katana got brighter each time she counted up. Once she reached 200, she swung her sword down to her left side and her wooden katana stopped glowing.

The golem scraped both of its blades together, trying to intimidate Hanako. The golem charged straight towards Hanako, with its massive hand blades held up, ready to slice and dice Hanako.

Hanako did not flinch, she held her katana with two hands and twisted her body to the left a little, making her right shoulder face the golem.

"Autumn Style:" Hanako said to herself as the golem got closer

The golem got in range of Hanako but before it could attack Hanako. Hanako quickly spun around as she zipped past the golem, stopping a few meters behind it with her wooden katana drawn in front of her. The golem also stopped and it slowly looked down at its abdomen only to realize that Hanako sliced it in half, when she spun and zipped past it.

"110 Razor Wind Twister!".

A whirlwind erupted around the golem shredding it into pieces including the nearby trees, it was as if countless blades had torn up everything within the whirlwind. After the whirlwind calmed down and disappeared, the golem was left in a thousand little pieces, so was everything else caught up in the whirlwind.

"Now time to hurry back to Ken," Hanako said as she put her wooden katana back on her hip and ran off looking for Ken

Back to Ken

Right now I'm walking towards the direction that Hanako and that long arm golem ran off in. Now you're probably wondering what happened between me and Alice, well here's

what happened

*

*

*

15 minutes earlier

Alice is trapped in the scorching lighting prison that I put her in, but she doesn't seem to be bothered, she just sat there, smiling with a satisfied face.

"That was amazing!" Alice said in a playful tone

Now that Alice was in one place, and I was closer to her, she looked really familiar, like I've seen her somewhere before. After a few seconds of thinking it finally came to me

"Do you know Giovanni Gourmai?" I asked. Giovanni Gourmai is an old man, that was a friend of my grandpa, he came over to Zen Island a couple of times and would cook a grand feast for us whenever he came. Grandma Edna is one of the best cooks I know, but her cooking is nothing compared to Giovanni

Hearing me say, Giovanni, brought a surprised expression to Alice's face "How do you know my grandpa!?"

"Ahhh of course! That's why you look so familiar!" I said with a smile "Your grandpa use to visit my home and he would always talk about his granddaughter Alice, which is you!"

"You knew my grandpa? That's awesome! You just moved up my kill list" Alice said casually in a playful voice

"We can do catch up another time, right now I just need you to keep your end of the deal"

"Bladeless Magic: Mince" Alice mumbled to herself

The prison I hand Alice trapped in, including the ethereal cuffs that restricted her arms and legs, all spontaneous torn apart into small chunks, like mincemeat. Alice had freed herself and was now standing face to face me with a smirk

"This was an interesting little fight of ours when it comes time to kill you, it'll be much more entertaining" Alice giggled in a childish tone "anyways, here are five tags, as promised," Alice said, as she handed me five tags

"Great! Maybe we can become great friends" I said with a grateful smile

"I'll enjoy spilling your guts and bathing in your blood," Alice said with a soft and cute smile filled with innocents. With that Alice disappeared into the trees

*

*

*

"Kennnn are you alright!?" Hanako called out, as she came running towards me

"Yeah, I'm fine. Did you catch the golem or its master?" I asked

"I caught the golem and retrieved my tag but the master didn't seem to be around" Hanako replied

"Well that's great that you got your tag back, now we should hurry to the hotel," I said with a smile

"But none of us have three tags yet...I'm sorry I couldn't be of much help," Hanako said in a sad tone

"You don't have to apologize for anything, you did nothing wrong" I replied with a smile "Plus I obtained enough tags for both of us," I said as I held up all five tags that Alice gave me

"Woh that's great Ken, where did you find them!?" Hanako asked with relief

"From a girl named Alice" I replied "Here have two so it can put yours up to three," I said handing Hanako two tags

"Alice? The Demon Chef?" Hanako asked as she took the two tags

"The Demon Chef? Yeah I think she is the one, anyways we should head towards the hotel now" I replied

Hanako and I ran through the forest heading east towards the hotel, we tried avoiding every student so we could avoid getting into a fight and wasting time. After about 10 minutes Hanako and I finally make our way out of the forest and about a few hundred meters in front of us was a very big and expensive-looking hotel.

Hanako and I quickly ran towards it and as we arrive we are met by hundreds of other students that had made it and were waiting outside for the rest. Hanako and I joined them and went looking for other RisingSun members.

"Ken and Hanako!, you two made it!" Koko shouted as she ran up to both of us

"Yeh, it's good to see you made it too, are the rest of the RisingSun members here?" I asked

"Yeh everyone else made it, they are probably up front somewhere" Koko replied pointing upfront

"Do you know who was the first one back?" I asked

"yeah it was Claire and Emelia" Koko replied

"Wow maybe she is better than I thought," I thought to me

There were now only 25 minutes left and most of the students were back, but there was still a large number that had not returned. As time went on a few people started to make it out of the forest, some in pairs, some in groups and some alone. Everyone waited as there were now only 15 seconds left and there were still more than 100 students that had not returned.

As time was running out, a panda beastfolk came running out of the woods and towards the crowd. "Waittttt!" The Panda shouted as sweat raced down his face, and he panted heavily, pushing himself

Beastfolk are humanoid animals with self-awareness, intelligence and free will, just like humans and elves. Beastfolk comes in all animal species, each species having their own culture and way of living. They are the opposites of Kin'Ma who are more human than beast.

The Panda kept running despite being very tired. It soon reached 1 second but just before it hit 0 seconds, the panda just made it in the nick of time. Once he made it he fell on the ground in a puddle of his own sweat, gasping for air.

"Alright! the second phase is finally over, for those that made it, good job" A man in a suit announced, after magically appearing in front of everyone

"now head inside all your luggage and belongings will be in the hotel"

Everyone cheered in relief and happiness before making their way towards the Hotel all excited.

Next Time: New Roommates