chapter 13

The second day of the Midterm battle came. Everyone was excited because of the unthinkable results from the day before. The firs battle was between Shin and Max from class B-1. This was Shin's second battle with a B class student. Almost all of his previous oponents were C class. When he fought with the other B class student yesterday, he almost lost but in the last moment he dodged and striked his oponent with one of his short swords, making him lose. Max had a 'bear' type ONE, it was strong but quite slow.
'Ok. I'll use my speed and strike him quickly.' (Shin)
He used the thrusters to boost his speed even more and attacked. He hit Max with a lot of force and pushed him a bit backwards but it wasn't enough. He was still unharmed, despite the heavy slashes by Shin's blades.
[Ooooooh! It seems that Max is still fine. What will happen now?] - the commentator said.
Then Max swung his palm towards Shin's body. Shin senced that the attack was charged with quite a lot of energy, so he tried to dodge. Unfortunately, he was a bit slower and Max managed to hit his leg and tripped him. Shin rolled on the ground a few times. When he stopped and tried to stand up, Max had already gotten to him.
'Oh, no.' (Shin)
He was hit once again and sent flying. He managed to keep his balance a bit, used the thrusters to slow his falling down and landed without crashing. Shin was panting and standing unsteadily. He was still in daze from the shock when he was hit, his head was spinning.
'This is bad. If this coninues, Shin will lose!' (Mary & Petia at the same time)
Max rushed towards Shin and charged a lot of energy into his fists. He was going to finish it with a big boom.
"You're finished!" (Max)
Shin looked at the running Max with his fists glowing, charged with the energy.
'I guess I'm going to loose, huh? It's good enoug. I reached here with my own strenght. Even if I don't reach the semi-finels, it will still be very good.' (Shin)
Then both Mary and Petia shouted.
"Don't give up! Figt, Shin!"
When he heard that something flashed in Shin's mind. A memory of the past that he had almost forgotten. Then, with determination, he looked up and used his blades to guard against Max's attack. He charged them with energy for more protection but he didn't have enough time. He was hit and flung onto the wall. Athough tere was no blood Shin was hurt badly. His head was spinning, his eyesight was blurry and he couldn't make his body move. A glint caught his attention, it was his mother's favourite pendant, which he was entrusted with by her during the day of the 'Starfall' .
=== Flashback ===
Three days had passed since the 'Starfall' . Shin, Mary, Viki, Jack and the other surviviors were waiting in the shelter for the army's convoy to come and take them to a safer place. They could hear explosions from time to time. The smaller children would cry whenever they heard them, their parents hopelessly tried to make them stop, as to not attract the attention of the ARDs. Soldiers were guarding outside, waiting to mobilize at any time. Shortly after the convoy came. They helped the elderly and sickly people get in the armored trucks. Shin got on the last truck, while his friends on the other ones. When they were ready, the convoy left. Because many trucks moving together would attract more attention, they split at some point of the road. Each truck took a different route towards Banley base. The truck Shin was on passed trough a mountain road no one used. Althought it was bumpy, it was hidden by a lot of trees, it was located on a small mountain near the city. It was supposed to be safe but......it wasn't.
Pfsheeeew! BOOOM!!
Something fell in front of the truck and exploded. It couldn't penetrate the armor but the truck fell down the mountain. When it stopped falling and the passengers calmed down, a few of the adults opened the door. The people slowly walked out and saw that they were had fallen back to the outer part of the city. he fall was pretty long and there were people with fractures or broken bones. One of the men tried to go and ask the drivers what happened but to his horror, they had died from the explosion.
"What are we going to do now?" - a woman asked.
They heard rustling from the trees on the mountain and saw an ARD coming down. They panicked and ran in different directions. Shin ran down a small back alley. He ran and ran, not looking back. He was afraid that he would see a monster if he did so. He reached the city centre and stopped. He was out of breath, panting, covered in sweat. He frantically looked around. There was nothing. He was about to sigh in relief when, suddenly, something hit him from the back. He flew a few metres and crashed into the glass window of a clothes shop, falling on the floor with the mannequins. He cried in pain. He was cut by the glass pieces. He weakly stood up and saw a lizard-like, five metre long ARD. He lost his color in an instant. He became deathly pale. The figure of a man appeared in the corner of his eye. It was a soldier! The boy looked at him with hope to be saved but the soldier screamed and ran away when he saw the ARD, leaving him alone with the monster. Shin slowly backed away from the monster.
'Wwhy?....Why did that soldier ran and left me here? Is there realy no hope?' - Shin thought.
As he made another step back, he slipped and fell down backwards. He hit his head on something metal. His consciousness started to slip again.
'Am I going to.....die?....No, I don't want...to. I....promised mom...'
Before everything went black and he lost consciousness, he heard a sound like a sharp blade cutting fish and a liquid splashing loudly. When he was aware again, he was slowly walking towards Banley base. It was only a hundred metres in front of him. He was still groggy and couldn't understand the situation imediately but when he did, he was extremely happy. He ran towards it at full force. He was still feeling pain but ran. The soldiers were surprised to see him but took him in and led him to the infirmary. He rested for a while after his injuries were treated.
"You are lucky, boy. Your injuries aren't serious and only need a few bandages." - the nurse said as she sticked the last one on his scraped knee.
"Thank you miss." (Shin)
He then went to look for his friends. To his surprise the convoy hadn't arrived, yet. He was very worried but still waited, that was all he could do. A little before the sun set, the convoy came. Every truck was there, except the one he was in of course. He rushed towards them. When his friends saw him, their smiles quickly returned. They hugged eachoder and cried for quite a while. He was safe, his friends too. Everything was fine on the outside but not on the inside. Back there, in the city, something inside of Shin's mind cracked. Without him knowing, something appeared, deep in his subconsciousness. A wild and cruel desire for survival.
=== End of flashback ===
He had forgotten about this one incident for some reason. Now, because of the dire situation he was in and the burst of emotions, it sufaced again.
Max stood in front of Shin, still sneering.
"What's up? Have you given up already shrimp?"
He charged some more energy, ready to attack again.
"Stop it already! He has no way to fight, right?" (Petia)
"If he's still consciousnous, he can fight. In other words, I'm still not the winner. That's why-GAH!" (Max)
With a lightning speed, Shin kicked Max and sent him flying a few metres high. Everyone in the arena was speechless. When did he do it? From where did he take this power from? Shin leaned forward, gripping his blades tightly, he activated the thrusters and flew towards Max. An amazing amount of energy was released from his ONE, especially from his blades. At that moment they changed shape. The metal blades split in two and opened. From there a metre long plasma blade grew. Like an enraged beast, Shin continuouslu slashed at max with lightning speed. The other boy couldn't react, nor escape. From the side it looked like Shin had just gone mad, nothing else, but if they could catch a glimpse of shin's eyes, tey would be scared. His kind, light brown eyes had turned electic green with cat-like pupils. Just like a beast's. Moreover green veins had appeared on the white part of his eye. What had happened to him?