1.5 – Damn, how do I get a villa like that?

The taller girl had pink hair, which made her look quite menacing, or maybe it made her feel like a rebel. Her ability seemed to reflect that assumption. Nathan didn’t know her from the game—he rarely knew anyone from here, but he usually got a good read on people on the first look. Not that he was judgmental, he just liked assessing the people around him.

She swung the pillar at him in a horizontal arc, and Nathan ducked under it in the last second. It seemed heavy, yet she swung it as if it was made from paper. Immediately, the pillar stopped on his left side after the arc finished its trajectory, and then the woman pulled it up above her shoulders, preparing to strike once again. He dodged to the side, making her pivot as he prepared to strike her on his own.

His hesitation about hitting a woman disappeared the moment the pillar shone brighter. These people were superheroes, not little damsels in distress. He would treat them as what they were.

She seems muscular enough. Hopefully it won’t hurt much.

The elbow tucked behind his upper back, he rushed to find a good angle, and after that he struck, aiming for her abdomen.

It felt like punching a rock.

He bit his lip as his knuckles all felt as if they cracked after hitting concrete, and he quickly rushed to create distance.

The woman didn’t let him get a moment of reprieve. She followed suit, her pillar once again aimed to strike at his chest.

A spider made from water suddenly appeared at the end of her pillar, jumping through the air as if the ‘down’ of its gravity got changed for it. It landed on top of Nathan’s head before he could even comprehend what was going on.

What is Alicia doing? He groaned in his mind, yet couldn’t say that out loud. He was too focused on dodging the strikes.

He tried to punch the girl again, yet all of his attacks ended in the same way. Whatever ability this woman had, it wasn’t only the pillar. She was tough beyond comprehension, somehow more solid than most materials that Nathan knew, and this was against his strength, supposedly enhanced by the five dollars, though he was beginning to doubt that the five dollars meant anything at all in the grand scheme of things.

His punches felt the same as they always had.

“Are you just gonna run away? Fight me like a man!” The woman ordered, trying to strike him once again as she missed with her hand, just like she missed with her pillar moments earlier.

“Just give me a sec.” He huffed as he almost got hit once again.

The attacks were quick, but Nathan felt light, worry-free, and amazed at his own agility, dodging them somehow quite easily. He had to focus, but it almost felt as if he knew where she was going to strike before even she did. He watched her plan for every move and dodged accordingly.

I wish I knew how to wrestle.

Suddenly, water appeared in his eyes, making him lose sight for a second. This second was far too long, longer than any other second in his life. He tried to wipe it off, stepping backward to create space from the attacks that he knew were coming, yet it wasn’t enough. The moment the water finally disappeared from his eyes and he saw what was in front of him, he saw the pillar arcing straight toward his arm.

It was too late; he wouldn’t make it this time. This was the end.

Suddenly, as he was preparing for the surge of pain that would surely follow the attack, the woman in front of him burst into flames in a small explosion, shoving away the pillar swooshing right in front of Nathan’s eyes. Her uniform had a hole in it, right underneath her clavicle, and she stared at it with a confused expression.

“Don’t just stand there, dummy! Get the other one!” Alicia said from behind him, and he did look at her for a moment, trying to see why she didn’t help him until now. The reason became clear in that very moment: she was wrapped in a tight hug of a water snake that completely enveloped her whole body. Was this their plan, to completely immobilize one of them and then both focus on the other? A smart plan, he had to admit, but they would be winning this time.

He surged forward, aiming toward the black-haired girl. If she was afraid, she didn’t let it show on her face, but Nathan saw the water from Alicia’s body rushing back toward her in the form of a rabbit that immediately outran him. A giant rabbit that was far faster than him, and that itself transformed into a very small wingless dragon that stood on the woman’s shoulder.

It leaped on her outstretched arm, jumping off to meet his chest as he ran forward. But did water even count as a hit?

He still ducked under, ignoring the splash of water behind him and ran forward, and finally the woman seemed to understand that this was unwinnable for her, because she just shook her head and stepped out of the bounds.

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He took deep breaths. In and out. Then he looked at the crowd of his classmates watching him. Some of them clapped a little bit. Deadlock stepped into the small square, clapping as well.

“That will be all! Good fight, everyone. Now I understand how you all need to improve, so I hope you are ready! In the upcoming months, I will shape strong superheroes out of you! You all have done well. Dismissed!”

———-

“That was so cool! Did you see their expression as we won? Oh, they so thought that they were gonna win. And then I saved us and the other one couldn’t do anything. Man, I wish every single fight would go like this, so easy! Just—”

What the fuck are you talking about? Nathan thought, but he didn’t say that out loud. He knew there was no arguing with Alicia already, even though he knew this version of her only for a few hours, and so he didn’t explain how that fight was anything but easy.