"How did you do it?"
Crumb stood up from his chair. They locked eyes, and Crumb crossed his arms.
"What do you mean?"
He stood with his arms relaxed at his sides.
"You know what I mean."
Crumb walked toward him with a frown. He was nearly a foot taller than Cassian, and his body was filled to the brim with hulking muscles.
"Unless you specifically mention what it is, I would have no idea what you are talking about."
Crumb exerted the same spiritual pressure as the red-headed teacher, but this time it was much heavier. Cassian's knees began to buckle, but he found himself rapidly adjusting to the pressure.
'This isn't too different from torture.' The thought appeared in his head.
Both exerted pressure on his body; torture was just more painful.
Seeing he wasn't intimidated by the pressure, Crumb eliminated it. "I mean the duel, how did you take so much damage without activating the defensive item?"
"I got a regenerative skill from a random magic scroll." The same excuse he gave Alizée, but it was more believable than what actually happened to him.
"Lucky." Crumb backed away after that.
That night, Cassian left for torture later than usual; he was caught up in sword practice. More importantly, just a minute after he left his house, he got jumped. A dozen people literally jumped out from around a corner and immediately started attacking him.
There were three mages and nine warriors. They all wore the uniforms of his school, combined with various equipment depicting their class types.
'Again?'
Three different spells flew through the air at him; he was able to dodge two, but the last one, a water arrow, pierced him square in the chest.
-7.5
The impact knocked him to the ground, where the warriors started attacking him with sharp weapons. None of them was sheathed, meaning each attack dug into his skin dully. More importantly, it meant that if he did not have his pseudo skill, he would be dead.
-7.22
-6.99
-8.02
Each person added their own insults, "Bastard," "F rank," "Fucker."
After a minute, they stopped. Cassian was covered in blood and wasn't moving.
"Did we kill him?"
The voice sounded slightly excited. Like a delirious child almost caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"Doesn't matter, see if he has the skill stone on him."
A deeper voice cut in.
Two of the warriors quickly started to search his body. It was at that moment that Cassian sprang into action.
He rapidly dug his fingers into the eyes of one of the warriors, causing ear-shattering cries.
-6.43
Warm blood spilled from the boy's eye sockets onto his hands.
'Blood that isn't mine.'
"I don't like hurting people." He forced himself to say.
At the same time, he kicked in the knee of the other one.
After both fell to the ground, he rose, hand firmly gripped on his wooden sword. If he were actually allowed to fight with a sword in hand, he would not lose so easily.
"Come."
He held his hand out in invitation, the same dead look in his eyes.
Everybody attacked at once; however, now it did not go the same as before. The mages couldn't attack because of the fear of hitting their allies.
Cassian aimed only for the knees of the warriors. Unless properly trained, the legs were harder to protect, and damage to the knees could cause long-term damage.
Unless they were healed by a potion or a priest, it would hinder their ability to even walk. The school would be able to heal them, but they would have trouble walking away from the fight.
Cassian didn't bother to duck blows and instead blocked them. His strength stat was higher than any of his enemies, which made it quite easy to overpower them. Whenever an opponent made contact with his sword, it would stop there without moving an inch.
Like a child with a foam bat hitting an adult, their attacks meant nothing.
One by one, they attacked, got blocked by a wooden sword, and then got their knees broken. After all of them fell to the ground, he started walking to the mages.
"S-stop, I-I will r-report you.
Cassian crippled all three mages.
Now all dozen of the ambushers were lying on the ground, groaning, and clutching their legs.
Cassian immediately went to each of them, stripping them of their equipment.
He got three dozen common-grade equipment. Which was worth tens of thousands of dollars.
He dumped the pile in his house and grabbed a clean pair of clothes.
Finally, he grabbed a sword, boots, bracers, and greaves from the pile.
[Longsword - Common - Strength+3]
[Boots - Common - Agility+3]
[Bracers - Common - Defense+1 Strength+1]
[Greaves - Common - Defense+1 Agility+2]
This put him slightly above other low-ranking students, since everybody was given only three pieces of equipment.
Cassian was too busy checking the equipment to notice the time; it was three-quarters of an hour until midnight. He was going to be late.
His eyes widened in horror, 'What is going to happen if I am late?'
Everything from more extreme torture to the demon invasion filled his mind.
He equipped the boots and greaves, which would boost his agility. Then started sprinting as fast as he could.
He passed by the group that ambushed him; they were still on the ground. However, one was already on the phone.
Speeding through streets, pushing people out of the way. He did everything he could just to get there one second faster.
He finally arrived at the torture building. He never noticed how haunted it looked in moonlight; he was always worried about something else.
He checked the time; he was ten minutes late.
Instead of an open door, with Cypher waiting for him, it was closed.
His heart stopped, every fear imaginable flying through his mind.
'Did I just doom humanity?'
He walked to the door, needing to know. Even if it meant his life was forfeit, he still had to do something.