As soon as Izzy’s eyes fell on the supervisor who was standing in the way of their escape, her heart sank. There was a sick feeling in her stomach as her fight or flight instinct kicked in, rushing her to get out, even though her brain screamed that it was impossible.

‘Damn it… I was such an idiot. I should have realised sooner that if Sty had the lead supervisor under his thumb, that this meant the other teachers could also work for him.’ As her brain was racing to find a solution to this insurmountable problem, she only noticed a sharp pain for a moment before everything around her turned black.

“Izzy!” Ian shouted as he helplessly watched from the side. “You bastard, what do you think you’re doing?!”

Inside Izzy’s stomach from the supervisor’s hand there was what looked like a stinger that had been injected. Almost immediately, she closed her eyes unaware of everything around her. Ian, now knowing the dire situation that they were in. Spun his body as he performed a spinning back kick towards the adult’s head.

Unfortunately, the teacher merely had to lift his arm to catch the attack. With his other hand he injected another stinger into Ian’s body. In less than a second, his whole body felt weak and drowsy.

‘This is f*cking unfair! How are we students supposed to win a fight against the supervisors? I’m sorry… Izzy… for being unable… to protect you… ’ was the last thought running through his mind before he too lost consciousness.

———

With nobody else disturbing them, Numba and Gary had enjoyed their breakfast, even joking around a bit. They had used the time to become closer friends. Before they had even noticed, it was already free time, yet surprisingly neither Izzy nor Ian were anywhere to be seen.

At first, the green haired teenager just found it odd, but not enough to look for them. After all, he was sure the two of them would join their training. When lunch came, both Numba and Gary noticed that neither of them were present. It was weird but still didn’t worry them too much, that was until when heading back to Gary’s room, none of them turned up to training.

This was a first, especially since all three had been ‘enjoying’ the training. The increase in their ranks had been the best evidence to support the use of it, so for the two of them to miss out without prior warning was more than odd. What’s more, with Gary and Numba both being top rankers, the time they would stay here was limited, which should be all the more reason for Ian and Izzy to not skip out on any of it.

“Well now I’m starting to get worried.” Gary admitted, pacing back and forth. “This isn’t like them at all. If they weren’t feeling well today, they could have at least told us. Do you think somebody challenged them?”

“I don’t think that’s the case. Before coming here, we passed the guy who was next in rank to Ian, yet his badge number remains the same. If they fought, the badge numbers should have changed.” Numba replied.

“You don’t think… Sty has got anything to do with this, do you?” The Goat Altered gulped as he considered that possibility. However, how could a single student cause two people to simply disappear? Nevertheless, he had been the first one to leave the canteen earlier…

“Maybe… he did send over those twins to try and ambush me last week, so I wouldn’t put it past him to try and do the same. Or something similar. If that’s the case and they were badly hurt, there’s a good chance that they could be in the medical bay.” Gary answered after thinking it through.

Numba was silent for a while. He had this uneasy feeling in his stomach. “That might be it… but maybe he did more than that. I didn’t have the chance to tell you this, but before the teachers called all of you out to the meeting, both of us had been informed that the result of our match had been inconclusive, and that the teachers would discuss what to do about it.

“To be honest, the more I think about it, the more it seems like he must have bribed some of those teachers. He was all confident and looking at you during the announcement, even though we hadn’t been told that they wouldn’t count it.

“I know I should have said something earlier, but I thought it might have just been me overthinking things yesterday. I mean, Izzy and Ian aren’t even a part of all of this.”

Considering Izzy’s curious nature, she might have figured this out before them. There had to be a reason why Sty was confident in staying behind even after Gary had beaten him, and it looked like they had just found the answer.

“What should we do?” Numba asked nervously. “We have no idea who among the teachers is on Sty’s side. But without asking them for help, how else can we find the two?”

“We’ll just ask the one person who seems to be involved in all of this charade.” Gary answered confidently as he left the room. Without caring how it looked, he started to sniff the air to filter out his target.

Walking through the main area, out at the centre arena where there were those that would fight. There were large staircases that led upward to the rooms. On a few of the large stairs, there were a few students hanging about and joking, as for one of them sitting down calmly with his arms spread out, it was none other than the Rank 3 student.

“Sty!” Gary shouted the name in a volume that it instantly caught the attention of every student in the vicinity. It was aggressive and powerful, making them freeze in their place.

“You’ve got five seconds to tell me where they are before I smash your face in.” The green haired teenager threatened as he approached Sty. Not fazed by this, the Altered stood up and shrugged his shoulders.

“How am I supposed to know what the hell you’re talking about? If you’ve come here looking for a fight, then I have to disappoint you. I’ve already been challenged. Try again tomorrow, but you might have to get there reeeaaaaally early because there’s someone who is very keen to challenge me these days.” The rank 3 student let out a chuckle, visibly enjoying the frustration that was building up on Gary’s face.

The Werewolf continued approaching him, and when he was a short range away, he stopped for a second, before suddenly transforming his legs. Sty’s was busy laughing, as Gary closed the distance between the two. Transforming his hands as well, Gary grabbed the back of Sty’s head, clenching it tightly.

“You think I give a sh*t about whether you’ve been challenged or not!” Gary shouted, slamming the Fly Altered’s face down right on the edge of the staircase. Teeth were seen flying through the air and dropping to the floor.

Being lifted, Sty’s mouth was now a bloody mess.

“Mwy tweath!” He struggled to say.

“Wrong answer!” Gary interrupted him, slamming his head down once more into the staircase.

“Where are they?!” The Werewolf demanded to know, his eyes glowing red with fury and fire.

*****

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