Chapter 8: Enter Explosion Logan

I realize, of course, that it was not entirely my fault ... what happened afterward ... what befell the Lurranna family after I made my decision. However, that is no comfort. We were already living in opulence, but I could only see it as insipid mediocrity. I had no idea that in my search for greatness, I would trade living in plenty for living in squalor.

Ryan was angry, so angry that he didn’t even bother thinking about where he was going to in such a hurry, all he knew is that he needed to get away ... from everyone. He barely even registered the looks of surprise or distress that surrounded him as he passed dozens of Elemental students with their pestilent expressions. It had been a long time since Ryan had heard the voice in his head. In fact, the last time was the day that Silvia died. Even if there was no proof that the voice actually belonged to the Dark Creature, even if it was just some conjuring of his disturbed psyche, Ryan found the experience quite odious, to say the least.

As Ryan continued his unyielding march, he found himself in the arena where Grafael had beaten the living daylights out of him. Suspended high above the grounds with sakura flowers in full bloom, the serene beauty of pink petals fluttering in the wind contrasted the brutality of a coliseum meant for battle. His mother often told him that looking at beautiful things sometimes made her feel better when times were rough. Ryan closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as if to absorb the innate majesty and calm his inner torment.

“Hey!” called an unfamiliar voice, drawing him out of his momentary euphoria.

Ryan turned to see a young Elemental student about his own age, and a First as well judging from his single-notched red armor, staring down at him within the bleachers amidst a group of other First Level Elementals.

“Are you deaf? I already told you that this arena has been reserved for our training.”

By the harshness in the boy’s tone, he’d probably been yelling for a good long while, but Ryan was too much in a funk to notice. Still, knowing that didn’t help Ryan’s degenerating mood. Sure, be freakin’ rude about it, why don’t ya? It’s not like I very recently took on a crazy nobleman and his psycho Goblin. Have you ever taken on a Goblin? Let me tell you something, it’s pretty damn hard! Especially with the ‘getting stabbed repeatedly’ part!

Slightly confused, and feeling more depressed than confrontational, Ryan said half-apologetically, half-sarcastically, “Oh, really? I had no idea. As you were then, gents.” Ryan often copied the weird accent that Leon and Éclair employed because it made him feel intellectual.

As he turned to leave, he noticed the boy take a provocative step closer as his face curled into a sneer. Ryan had seen a sneer like that many times before, but the last time was on a most unfortunate fellow named Shaver Creed. “Wait a minute. I know you, don’t I?”

“I’m really horrible with faces,” started Ryan, sensing something hostile in the boy’s tone. “If perhaps, in the past, I offended you, or possibly blew you up, or maybe blew something up that was yours, or perhaps blew you up as well as something that was yours - then I apologize. All I can say is put it on my tab. Okay. Bye, bye.”

The boy jumped down from the bleachers with the dexterity that all Elementals naturally possessed to stand directly in Ryan’s path. “You’re that half-breed everyone’s talking about. Bryan something.”

Ryan managed a fake laugh of sorts in spite of the tense situation that had developed. “It’s Ryan, actually. Ryan Uruks. And technically, I’m what you’d call a part-breed, due to the fact that my father was half-alien, half-human.”

“That takes too long to say,” said the boy with a mock smile as his cohorts started gathering and snickering amongst themselves.

Ryan had seen this kind of behavior many times before. Classic bully-type scenario. Neanderthals in the front, dumber ones in the back.

“A lot easier to just call you guys half-breeds, isn’t it?” That last part earned the guy a couple of snickers from his companions.

“Oh, sure. I get it,” said Ryan, still managing to smile. “We wouldn’t want you using up all your brain cells in a single sentence.”

“Oooo!” said the group simultaneously as if their minds were in sync.

Ryan expected the boy to get angry at his quip, but instead, the guy just nodded as if acknowledging the comeback. “You don’t like me that much, do you?”

“Now what could possibly have given you that impression?” he asked innocently.

As Ryan got a closer look at the young First, he got the faint feeling that he’d seen him from somewhere. He took in the boy’s attributes: his tall and athletic build, military-styled dark hair, flawlessly tanned skin, green eyes, strong chin ... bewitching good looks that girls like Éclair would absolutely go gaga for. And then, suddenly, Ryan remembered seeing the boy numerous times in the cafeteria. The guy was always in the middle of what could have been called the popular kid’s table, so Ryan naturally gave it a wide berth. Although he couldn’t place a name with the face, Ryan felt fairly certain that this kid was in the upper tiers of his class in terms of popularity. Like many ego-ridden jocks, the guy certainly seemed to be living up to the stereotype as a class-A jackass.

The boy chuckled softly, and said, “I guess I can’t blame you since I don’t think I like you that much either. In fact, not many Firsts have a high opinion on your celebrity status. See, we have a pool. We’re betting on how exactly a newb freshly scraped off the streets managed to get in good with the elitists of Squad 99 in less than a year of awakening his powers. The consensus is somewhere between your dad being some kind of old fling with the Fire Minister to the council just going for a diversity hire since that kind of thing looks good with the media.”

The First paused and looked back to his cronies who all chimed in their various theories and disgruntled jeers at Ryan’s expense. Although, since they all spoke at once, Ryan couldn’t understand half of their mockery in the jumbled mass of voices.

The group’s leader then smirked triumphantly at Ryan as if he’d just said the biggest zinger. “As you can imagine, that kind of special treatment is a little hard to swallow for the rest of us mere mortals who have to get by on hard work alone.”

“Aww, and here I was hoping we could be friends,” said Ryan sardonically as he nodded to the groupies huddled behind their overlord. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted to be a mindless follower of a teenaged angst wannabe. If I was one of you guys, surely I’d learn about this concept you call ‘hard work’. Your little minions behind you must have it so hard, letting a big, strong, Twilight fanfic like you do all the thinking and talking for them.”

The First stared at Ryan for an uncomfortably long time, and then burst out laughing, his minions joining him. “You’re funny. I wasn’t expecting that. But then, I guess you’d need a decent sense of humor to suck up to the cyclops all day. By the way, we’re all wondering, how does the Demon-Slayer prefer his daily blowjob? Is it just all-in right from the get-go, or do you need to help perk the old dude up a bit before you really get to work?”

Another round of obnoxious laughter and jeering followed as the group of six or so young Elementals all gave each other hi-fives and slaps on the back followed by provocative hand gestures. Surprisingly, one of the human girls took credit for the comparison, saying, “I came up with that one.”

Despite the blatant disrespect to his mentor, Ryan managed to remain calm. That being said, he was making a list of whom he would pulverize first when the time was right. “Okay, so for now, let’s just gloss over the fact that y’all are dissing a superior officer who can quite literally, and quite legally given your clear insubordination, melt all your stupid little brains out if any of you had the balls to quote your witty masterpieces to his face.” Ryan paused and let that fact sink in.

The facial expressions of the group visibly dropped as they considered the ramifications of their actions. Even their leader became visibly uncomfortable as he took a step back, shifting his gaze back and forth between his supporters.

Ryan resisted the urge to smirk. I think deep down, these idiots know better than to mess with a guy who has the title of Demon-Slayer.

“That being said,” continued Ryan as he held up a finger, relishing the turn in the conversation. “Just to clarify, none of you think that I earned my way here?”

The leader of the group, no longer smiling but still managing some gumption, spearheaded the group’s reply with an aggressive step forward. “I know you didn’t. And if you wanna cry to Wielder Razor about it, then go ahead. It’ll just prove our point. I might get expelled, but it would be worth it to expose what a pussy little hypocrite you are. I don’t care what they say you did to stop the civil war last year. You’re just riding the coattails of the Grim Team’s hype ... you scaly, inbred chicken shit!”

All joviality and mischief had left the First’s features as he glared down at Ryan. He wasn’t much taller than Ryan, maybe only an inch or two, but he knew how to use every inch to his advantage. Ryan had gone through a bit of a growth spurt since joining the Ministry as he was almost taller than Éclair now. That being said, he still wasn’t quite as tall as he would’ve preferred, and that fact was never more apparent than when someone was literally staring down at him.

“And you think that even though I pretty much stopped a war last year when all of you guys were ... Actually, what were any of you doing? Probably hiding in the dome like the good little Firsts you are. Cause, you know, Firsts rarely see any action, right? It’s only badasses like the ones in the Grim who pull their weight around here.”

The mood in the group changed from mocking to murderous as the young Elementals bunched in closer. The way they glared at Ryan, it was like they expected him to drop dead at any moment.

Ryan pretended not to notice as he spread out his hands congenially. “But, you’re probably right. I probably didn’t earn my way here. All I did was fight off an army of mercenaries and a couple Goblin Assassins. It’s not like I went through the proper channels like you guys did with the First Level Exams. You know, running through an obstacle course that might as well be a kindergartener’s playground, and scribbling a few right answers on the written portion that you memorized after a couple nights of cramming. That’s the right way to become an Elemental. I’ll never be good enough to do any of that. You guys got me beat there.”

In the back of his mind, Ryan knew he was being a little too arrogant and a little too harsh, but given his mood after his ordeal with Torsha, he was hardly in the mindset to care.

The lead Elemental chuckled, shaking his head slightly, his tone growing lower by the second. “I’m glad you said all that. It makes it a lot easier to hate your guts knowing what an egocentric little asshole you are. It’s actually hilarious, ‘cause I remember hearing something about you. That your parents used to be Elementals too, from this Ministry in fact. But then they defected like traitorous turncoats. It makes sense that their son would turn out to be a jumped-up little turd like you, ‘cause you know, as far as I’m concerned, people like that aren’t any better than Mystics.”

“Hmm,” said Ryan as his eyes drifted upwards and he wetted his lips as if thinking really hard about something. “Alright, alright, alright. Just to be clear, I’m going to punch you really hard. Probably in the face. If not, then you can just be surprised. But before I do that, I’d like to put a name to the face I’m about to bitch-slap.”

“Logan Crutch,” said the boy, his smile returning.

“Crutch,” said Ryan with a little giggle. That’s appropriate given what’s about to go down.

One of the female Elementals in Logan’s group stepped forward, pointing at her leader with a thumb. “Not that this little tough guy act of yours isn’t adorable, but as if, newbie. Logan’s top-ranked in the entire class of First Level?”

“He’s predicted to be in the top tier of the exam. He already has his seat reserved for when he makes Third,” said one of the boys.

Logan nodded at the compliments, but never took his eyes away from Ryan’s.

“Are you really that strong, Crutch?” asked Ryan mischievously.

“Let me put it to you this way, asshole,” said Crutch as he glanced behind to be reinforced by his friends’ supporting snickers. “Even if you did manage to hit me with your scaly little lizard fist, I wouldn’t feel a damn-”

Ryan swung his fist like lightning, jabbing Crutch in his pompous nose. Ryan had been getting a lot stronger lately, so he intentionally held back just a little so as not to bash the guy’s face in. That being said, Ryan hit the guy pretty damn hard. So hard in fact that Logan Crutch was thrown up to the top of the bleachers and broke several benches as a cloud of dust accumulated over what would undoubtedly soon be called the ‘Crutch Crater’.

As Logan’s friends stared up in disbelief at his handiwork, Ryan smirked satisfactorily as he observed the First’s half-crumbled form. “The lesson here, Crutch - one that I learned pretty damn well while scrounging for whatever I could on the streets while you were living all nice and cozy here - be careful who you tick off. Not every problem and solution will be written down in some freakin’ test.”

Walking past Logan’s cronies, who stood motionless in shock, Ryan stood over his victim’s twitching body as the boy blinked away the dust and groaned in confusion. “And since you, with your nonspecial treatment, already have a spot reserved for the Level Three Exams, you might wanna leave this part off your resume.”

And with that, Ryan huffed loudly and turned to leave. What he didn’t count on was Logan being such a sore loser. First, Ryan heard a popping noise near his head. As he turned, a flashing spark floating in the air hovered towards his face. Not like a flame, more like one of those sparklers one might see at a fireworks show. Suddenly, the spark exploded without warning, throwing Ryan’s whole world into a white haze. When Ryan recovered a moment later, he found himself on the ground with cloudy vision. His ears were ringing so loudly, and his head felt so foggy, that he barely even registered Logan’s cronies were kicking him from all sides.

Logan jumped down from the bleachers and wiped some blood from his lips with his sleeve as he said, “Not so tough now, you sucker-punching asshole!”

As Logan raised his foot to deliver another blow to Ryan’s head, a large, blue-scaled hand grabbed the boy by his ankle and lifted him up like he was a rag doll.

Ryan then saw Grafael throw the cringing First into several of his other companions. The only one who stood her ground was the girl as she threw back her head and screamed like a banshee. A high-pitched whistle pierced the air, paralyzing Grafael where he stood.

Ryan had heard of Sound Elemency, an Air-Type element that manipulated vibrations. He thought his head might explode as he covered his bleeding ears, but that did little to shield himself from the unbearable noise.

The girl’s scream was so strong that dust and debris flew back in all directions. Even Grafael seemed a little shaken as his back arched in pain, but that only lasted an instant. With a quick thrust of his gigantic hand, Grafael grabbed the girl by the face, staunching the noise and defeating his opponent at the same time.

Still unwilling to yield, two of the boys drew glowing-orange, Psionic Swords from their belts and rushed at Grafael as fast as lightning. Fortunately, Grafael T’Macor was faster than lightning. Grafael easily deflected one weapon with his palm and the other with his foot as he aimed for the attacker’s hands. Then he twisted his body into a pretzel-like position in order to avoid their counterstrokes. Incredibly, he accomplished all this while keeping his hand firmly over the banshee girl’s head who struggled uselessly in his grip as her feet dangled above the ground. Ryan was amazed at Grafael’s flexibility given his bulky physique.

Talk about dexterous! Mental note: remember to thank Éclair for all these nifty new words she’s taught me!

As Grafael swiped at his two attackers with his tail, Ryan noticed that Logan had recovered and lifted his hand towards the Wingless Dragon. Logan was several yards away and Grafael only had command of physical attacks, giving the Elemental the advantage in terms of ranged attacks.

In a rush of energy, Ryan jumped between Grafael and Logan while preparing a little Elemency of his own. He guessed that Logan was going to use another exploding technique, meaning that he just had to create his own explosion to cancel out the first. Eramar had been teaching Ryan about defensive techniques, and sometimes the best way to fight fire was with fire ... literally. Though seemingly counterintuitive, Ryan soon realized the wisdom when Eramar blocked all his fireballs using a wall of flame as some kind of makeshift forcefield.

Another firecracker-like spark shot from Logan’s hand straight towards Grafael. Ryan put his hand to the ground, focusing his psions to cause the floor in front of him to explode like a bomb, resulting in a wall of flame around him and Grafael. He protected the three stooges trying to kill them too just so that he wouldn’t have to feel guilty if they died.

Surprisingly, it worked, but not the way he expected. Ryan assumed that Logan was using some kind of fire technique, but there was something different about it. It was difficult to explain, but Ryan felt no Fire Elemency in Logan’s attack. Suffice it to say, Ryan did cancel out Logan’s explosion with one of his own, but he underestimated the destructive yield of the two conflicting attacks and was nearly thrown off the arena from the shockwave.

Just before Ryan went over the edge, a furry hand reached out, holding him firmly in place at the shoulder. Although their last meeting was not the most kosher, Ryan certainly couldn’t complain about his fuzzy friend’s timing. After pulling him roughly back to safety, Torsha drew one of her strange, glowing weapons as it changed from a sword to a whip which she used to lash out at Logan, striking him in the hand.

Logan gave a short cry of pain as he cradled his injured hand, blood dripping from his fingers. However, the Elemental showed uncharacteristic discipline as he pushed back his companions, stopping them from retaliation.

Grafael immediately released his prisoner and came to Ryan’s side, running his clawed hands over Ryan’s body to check for injuries. The banshee girl, who spent the majority of the fight with her head crushed between Grafael’s fingers, seemed no worse for wear as she rubbed her neck stiffly, but gave no sign of injury. Her companions checked her just as Grafael checked Ryan, but she soon shooed them away.

“Hate to cut the fun short,” called out Torsha in a commanding voice. “But battle between students outside of an official match or the exams is strictly prohibited.”

“You’re not even from this Ministry! You’re a Monastery Envoy! Why should you care?” asked one of Logan’s crew.

Torsha let loose a quiet growl as she glared at the First who spoke, causing him to visibly cringe under her scrutiny. “I am an official proctor. I have been granted authority to facilitate all participants taking part in the Second Level Placement Exams by the Minister of Fire herself. You will respect that, First. Otherwise, you can take up any complaints with your superiors.” Torsha’s usual girlie attitude had completely vanished as only absolute authority emanated from her.

“I am also a proctor for the Exam,” asserted Grafael with a growl of his own as he stood at Torsha’s side and crossed his massive arms. “Do you wish to question my authority as well?”

Another one of the opposing Elementals opened his mouth to retort, but Logan silenced him with a finger. “We would never question the wisdom of our mentors. But I think you should take into consideration the fact that this First attacked me and my squad mates unprovoked. We had reserved this training arena to prepare for the exams when he showed up behaving in a very belligerent manner.”

Grafael sniffed. “You’re Elementals, for Rhuknor’s sake. You’re telling me that because you felt threatened by one individual, that gave you leave to attack him in bulk instead of dueling him one-on-one like real warriors. Disgraceful! Next, you’re going to tell me that you felt justified despite the numbers advantage because he hurt your feelings!”

Logan gritted his teeth and looked like he desperately wanted to say something else but reconsidered as Torsha stepped forward.

“I am well aware of this First’s misdemeanor and will deal with him accordingly. But that is for me to decide as his assigned mentor, not you. Return to your dorm. I will make a report of this incident to your own proctor. He will decide if you and your squad mates are still fit to participate in this Exam. Am I clear, First?”

Ryan, who had slowly extracted himself from the ground, flinched at the reprisal. It was difficult for him to picture Torsha as a figure of discipline, but the more he thought of it, the more he wished not to see that side of her.

Torsha’s voice lowered as she leaned slightly closer to Logan. “I said, am I clear, Elemental Crutch?”

Logan drew in a sharp breath, but still managed a polite smile and salute. “Transparently, proctor.” And with that, Logan and his crew left with a few muttered curses.

“Whew,” sighed Ryan. “That guy had a few screws loose.”

Ryan tried to leave discreetly, but Torsha held him in place with a painful squeeze to his shoulder.

“You’re not off the hook either, rookie,” she growled.

“Oh, come on,” said Ryan as he waved his hands towards Logan’s group as they descended from the arena in the distance. “Those guys jumped all over me. If I didn’t stand up for myself, no one would ever respect me again.”

“Is respect really worth more to you than honor?”

“What?”

“It’s true that you have to stand up for yourself. But there are some battles that are just not worth fighting. You shouldn’t have let them goad you like that. No matter what you may be feeling, an Elemental never loses his composure. Never fights unnecessarily. If you want any of your superiors to trust you to keep a cool head in tense situations, then you at least need to show the maturity to not get embroiled in every potential schoolyard fight that comes your way.”

“You’re not even a goddamn Elemental!” yelled Ryan, becoming angrier than he meant to.

Torsha leaned in close, bearing her fangs. “No, but I know more about what it means to be one than you ever will!”

Her tone left no room for argument, so Ryan went quiet. Even though he felt certain that he and Torsha were close to the same age, something about her almost seemed ancient to him. The bright shine in her deep, brown eyes almost seemed frightening now. But frightening in a way that went far beyond predatory savagery.