The Hotblade Chronicles (Chapter 2)

ATTENTION EVERYONE AT WRITERS CAFE: It goes without saying that if you haven't read chapter 1, read it before you go to this one

Everybody knows nothing could possibly make a morning better than a cold hard slap to the face and yelling across the room. It makes for a peaceful and habitable living environment. When Hotblade awoke, his face could be seen with a large hand imprint across it as Ritsa stood over him. "I knew it, he's an idiot." With a scowl across his face, Hotblade jumped off the bed and angrily yelled "Dude, couldn't you possibly like, I don't know? NOT do that?" To which Ritsa replied "Well, being the nice person I am, I didn't want you to be late for your first day of school. You wouldn't wake up when i gently shook you about three times so... I took drastic measures." She then smiled and Hotblade eased up a bit, though ignoring her and heading straight for the bathroom. Ritsa was already dressed in Reposa Uni's school uniform and was headed out the door when Hotblade stopped before opening the bathroom door. He turned toward her and asked "Where is Clara?" To which she said "Well, she already left. I stayed behind to make sure you didn't oversleep and now I'm gonna be late because of that." He them gave her a certain look that, even as the author, I can't describe to the audience.  "That's so sweet. Look at you actually having a soft side." She brushed off his attempt at clowning her and said "It's not for you. The dorm manager came by with specific instructions to give you your new clothes, make sure you wake up on time, and show you where your classes will be so shut it." Hotblade shrugged her off and then got ready for school. Showering, brushing of the teeth and getting dressed in his black suit and tie uniform with the school's logo on it were the basic motions he passed through before he noticed Ritsa had already fixed him breakfast. As nice as that was, he didn't want to set her off again by mentioning how considerate she was being despite her abrasive personality so he scarfed it down and headed out the door with her. They both walked in grandiose silence side by side as they made their way down to the first floor of the school. She then walked him over to a giant board in the middle of one of the hallways flooded by students and said "There, the board shows you where your different classes will be located. Everyone has a schedule of three classes per day so find your name, find your number, and goodbye." She turned around hastily leaving Hotblade with a 'wtf' type face before he stopped her. "Hey, no hard feelings, right? We're friends after all?" To which she said "No" and walked away.

Hotblade, by himself, began to wonder if Tenshi and Slash were nearby or if they were already in class. He still had about ten minutes before homeroom so he figured the latter. He searched up his name and found his three classes, the first simply being named "Mission Briefings", and left to find it. After about five minutes of asking around and looking like an idiot he found his homeroom. Once he entered he noticed the room was packed with about thirty to thirty five students with a nice even mix of guys and gals. He took a seat towards the back next to the window like a nice cliched shounen anime protagonist and waited for the professor to enter the classroom. The sliding door opened again and making an entrance was the man himself. A tall generic looking individual with short black hair and dark skin. He motioned for everybody to take their seats and without hesitation began to lecture.

"Hello everybody, and welcome to Mission Briefings CN11. My name is Professor Reigh (pronounced "ray") and it's a pleasure to work with you this semester. Now, Mission Briefings will arguably be your most important class this year as it explains how you will be making a living and contributing to society as well as how to rise through the ranks of a soldier of Sunrise. Be patient with me here. I know lectures can be a pain to sit through, I was young once too but this is very important information. Now, here in Sunrise we are giving you students here specifically the chance to make living off your talents and abilities. How can you do that, you might ask yourself. Well that is what the point of this class. The students of Reposa are all Celestials or Hybrids with abilities to do things normal citizens cannot. As a result, we have tasks and missions readily available for you 24/7 that upon completion, can earn you a lump some of money. These missions cannot be completed by just anybody, therefore there is a constant need of tasks needed to be done by you guys who will hopefully be generous enough to complete. It's exactly what it sounds like, a job, of which you've already been hired to do and will be paid for. These missions have ranks in difficulty in which the harder the task is, the more money you will be paid. They range in everything from helping an old lady cross a street to traveling to different countries to help civil wars and everything in between. The possibilities of what these missions might require from you are endless. This class will train you on how to check what missions are available using the Task Board Interface, and the proper way to sign up for them and go through the motions."

After hearing all of that, Hotblade was very interested in what type of missions he'd be doing and how it'd all pan out. That chunk of the lecture was what Mr. Reigh expanded on as he explained what missions are delved into how you'd be getting paid to do them. 

"Usually when you carry out these missions, it will be in groups. We want to ensure these tasks don't get failed and that we are consistent in being able to carry them out. Payment will be split among groups and ranks will be updated upon completion. A good track record of always carrying out your task will raise your ranks, meaning eventually you will be granted access to harder missions with bigger payments. Fail too many missions and you will drop to an F rank and will not be able to do much."

Mr. Reigh then handed out something called a digital electronic holocard which looked incredibly futuristic. When Hotblade got his, he saw that upon touching the left bottom corner a screen popped out of the card displaying his name, student ID, rank and funds in his account which was disappointingly none. Mr. Reigh then continued. "These cards are very important so DO NOT lose these. When you interact with the Task Board and accept a mission it will ask that you swipe your holocard. Depending on your rank, the system will approve the mission or deny you access. Right now all of you don't have a rank at the moment. After your third class of the day you will all have one and will be approved to start taking on missions."

After going through the motions again and expanding on what he said, Mr Reigh let the class go and everyone left. Hotblade was excited at the thought of getting money for doing these jobs and wondered what his next class would be like. He still had an hour before his next class so he decided to go outside to the courtyard which looked sprawling and massive from the outside. Indeed it was. as he stepped out beautiful luscious cherry blossom trees and green foliage covered the courtyard. There were tons of students just hanging out and sitting on the benches or chilling by the shade by the trees reading and doing whatnot. That was when all of a sudden a huge hand covered the top of his head and began to shake his green hair fervently. That type of careless friendly messing of the hair could only be Tenshi who had seen Hotblade from behind and ambushed him. "Yooooo, so this is where our little ladies man is! Man it's only been a day and I miss you bro!" Hotblade gave his brother a smile and said "I miss you too man. can't believe I missed seeing you in your homeroom probably already debuting as the dropout." Tenshi and Hotblade laughing and handing out jokes left and right stopped for a minute when Tenshi asked "Hey, you seen Slash as yet? I wanna fire him up too. He was probably just sitting in class being serious, contemplating life and existence." Hotblade replied "nah, but let's go find him and embarrass him." They went to go look for their missing counterpart of the Three Musketeers around campus all while joking and laughing to no end.

Meanwhile, in another part of the country, Eddy and Ariella were kneeling down, inspecting a section of the infamous Sunrise wall border. They were investigating claims of a huge hole being blown in on the wall leaving everyone there stunned. They were with a team of five other people who were rank A soldiers all doing there part to figure out what had happened. A man of the team stopped everyone to give new orders that came in from HQ. "Everyone stop for a second. We just got word of a possible suspect who they're sure did this. The Prime Minister including guys down at the base are sure that this was the work of him." Eddy replied "Was our evidence that conclusive to say for sure though?" To which the man said "Yes. the blast radius of five feet including the purple shards left on the floor only makes us that much certain. And lets not kid ourselves, only one person we know of has the ability to break this wall and he's done it. The shards are still glowing too, meaning he's still in the vicinity. Everyone has orders to split up and search the area and arrest the criminal." Everybody nodded and began to cover the local city. They all knew exactly who had done this. 

About two hours ago city hall was flooded with calls that a loud explosion was heard followed by mass panic and confusion. No one would have guessed that someone had actually broken through the border as it was seemingly impossible. At least for one person though, it wasn't. Soon more Sunrise soldiers showed up, possibly thirty and began fanning out in search if this man. One soldier, new and unaware to everything was bold enough to ask another, "Who is it? Why do we need so many men on what might be just one intruder?" The other soldier looked uncomfortable and motioned for him to not ask questions and to just stay stationed. Eddy, being the skilled special investigator he was began to ask around and search people for information regarding if they had seen the criminal. Ariella was off on her own too searching a remote part of the city not heavily populated. She wondered into what appeared as dangerous territory. She had knowledge the others didn't however as she wondered into a local bar and ordered the special. It seemed like she was taking a break despite the seriousness of the situation and sat herself down amidst a party of five people. The bartender served her up as she smiled through to her teeth. "Thanks." Everyone seemed a bit restless though as she entered. Before she grabbed her drink though, the bartender held onto the glass. "Will that be all you're having today?" She turned serious and snatched it from his hands then downed it. "No it's not." She ordered another and then another before her face became flushed red. This was very unlike Ariella's character as she wasn't a heavy drinker in the slightest. The atmosphere became incredibly heavy and the tension thick. She then stopped for a moment before finally saying "actually, since this might be my last drink, I was wondering if the Bombshell is finally available to order. Is it in yet?" 

All of a sudden everyone jumped from their chairs and stools and pulled out guns hidden in their articles of clothing and pointed it at her. They were ready to trigger at a moment's noticed as she sat there, hiccuping and giggling at everyone. "What's the rush boys? You all want to buy me a drink?" The bartender, cleaning a glass off calmly said to her "I think that's enough for you lady. Now look, the Bombshell is NOT available and will never be. now pretend this didn't happen and get on out of here." Ariella replied "I don't think so buddy (hic). Now we all know I'm an officer of the law. I can't walk out of here (hic) knowing he's here. I'd be exiled. Now stop the games, stop hiding him and hand him over." He put down the glass and got even more serious with her with everyone still pointing guns aimed perfectly. "Now look, I don't think you're in a position here to start calling the shots (get it?). None of us know what you're talking about so I'm gonna say this one last time. Get from here." She slowly got up, and then took a step away from the table still laughing, leaving everyone anxious. She was about to head out and then turned back. "Actually, I think I'm gonna stay." Just then she activated her affinity, the Glass Arts and started deflecting bullets as everyone started to shoot. Bullets went flying, zooming and bouncing back off her impenetrable field of pure glass as it deflected back to it's senders. bodies went flying and dropped to the floor and in an instant it was over. Only about five men gathered their cowardice and fleed the bar, some crawling away as the bullet wounds only left them injured. The bartender stood there unfazed by the damage of the situation and proceeded to clean the next glass. Once again he put down this one and began to speak. "Oh Lord look at this mess imma have to clean now. Now why would you sully a fine establishment like this in such a manner?" He then called out "Hey, you can come on out now the jig is up. She knows." 

That was when a man appeared from behind the back of the bar. He was massive and buff. Also wearing a bartender's uniform he was tall and easily recognizable with his long black hair that went down his back. He wiped off some water off his hands with a towel and Ariella grew wide eyed. "S**t, it's just my lucky day isn't it. It's the legend himself. Why did you come back here, I thought you were exiled for good?" He took a minute to gather his thoughts and then replied "Ariella goddamn. You sure look shitfaced drunk and stupid as ever. You're gonna regret coming in here." She looked at him still waiting for answers. He saw the look on her face and offered a vague answer. "I'm here because you know what this country is doing. Leave my family out of this. You're all just trying to repeat the process by using him instead of me but I won't let that happen again. I'm here to take him back." She looked at him and smiled in a precocious manner. Motioning her hand she said "Try and stop us." 

He leapt over the table and sprinted towards her. she threw a pure sphere of glass towards him as he approached but before impact shattered it sending shards flying in his direction. Snapping his finger, the man somehow made the shards vanish into thin air leaving her wide open. he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the wall behind her. choking now, he strangled her and began to speak. "You picked the wrong day to come here. You knew before this that you had a chance to walk away. Now you won't get the chance to." He then threw her across the room sending her body flying towards a table breaking it upon impact. He left no time for her to recover though as he once again sprinted toward her. He jumped into the air, fist raised and proceeded to slam it in her direction. She quickly recovered and dodged just in time for his fist to come crashing down and slam the table into even more pieces. His strength was inhumane, blowing a hole in the ground and causing the table to completely shatter. He threw another fist in her direction landing directly on her stomach causing her to cough up a small amount of blood. She fell to the ground and lay there while he stood over her. "You know you're not leaving here alive, right?."

She slowly stood back up and regained her composure. Forming more glass shards she threw them at him and tried to dodg as he disintegrated them and sprinted towards her trying to land a punch. She knew this strategy wasn't going to last very long and began to think quickly. At this point she had to retreat. She used a giant glass cylinder to bust through the wall and made her way outside. The mysterious man was fast though, catching up to her quickly and grabbing her once again.  This time she thought quickly however. forming a glass barrier she encased his body in a giant box freezing him inside. She then expanded the box to make his escape impossible. Before long it appeared as if he was frozen inside a giant block of ice. She escaped his grip and quickly ran however as retreat was the only thought on her mind. Making her way through the forest nearby, she radioed HQ for backup and gave them her location. The man, far away from her now started to shake in his prison box. slowly he mustered the energy to shatter the encasing glass that kept him frozen and proceeded to break the rest. Finally breaking free, he began to bleed from the shards that pierced his skin upon shattering the glass but shook it off as if it was nothing. He then ran towards the direction Ariella was heading at an almost supersonic speed. Ariella knew from the man's strength and speed that running away wasn't going to help for much longer. Using the sand that covered the ground below, she turned it into a glass tunnel dropping herself underground. Now, falling below the pits of the surface, she turned the entrance to the top back to sand covering up her escape. She continued to fall until she hit a metal surface. Landing softly, she continued to walk along this metal surface until she found an opening along the path. A metal grate that she pried open and jumped inside of led her to the sewers of Sunrise's underground system. Now, finally safe and away from the man, she gave herself a moment's reprieve. HQ tried to get in contact with her but the signal was dead where she was located. The people breaking up over the line were trying to issue some kind of warning but it wasn't getting through. She gathered herself and began to run through the sewers. She almost made it outside when a loud crashing noise banged in from the ceiling causing scraps of metal to fly everywhere. The man from before somehow made his way underground making the situation hopeless again. Ariella quickly sprinted back in the opposite direction, forming barriers along the way to slow down his progress as to help her distance herself from him. The man was tough though, breaking his way through the tough glass as if it were sheets of paper. He had caught up and this time his fist had a glowing purple aura around it. She saw this and began to panic, throwing everything she could at him from shards to barriers to glass spikes. They tore apart the sewers while leaving the man unscathed as he danced around the attacks and disintegrated the rest of the glass. The purple aura around his fist grew bigger and brighter until finally he cocked back his fast and slammed it down on Ariella's body as soon as he caught up. The impact hit so hard she went flying through the metal walls of the sewer and kept on going for thousands of feet. Once she landed her body was paralyzed. The man whose clothes were torn and hair in a mess now slowly made his way over to a still Ariella. 

Looking at her body on the floor he noticed she was going in and out of consciousness. He grabbed her by the throat again, slapped her awake and slammed her against the wall. He spoke to her "Our little chase is over. It's sad really, you knew what was going to happen. Was that why you decided to drink like that back there?" Struggling to get words out with his hands around her throat, Ariella mustered out "Things won't go your way. You think your actions here will make him think you're the good guy in all of this? Hah! Go to hell you b*****d. Someone WILL find out where you are. you can't hide forever. And when they do find you, I hope they give you the most painfully slow torturous death you've ever imagined." Then she spit in his face. The man's eyes grew wide with hatred and he laughed at her crazily. "This is why you've sealed your own fate." Then he gripped his hands tighter and tighter. Ariella was running out of breath. He gripped even harder until eventually the loud sound of a snap echoed through the hall of the sewer. Ariella's body turned limp and lifeless and he tossed her aside to the ground. The scene here was gruesome and unreal. He looked at her body and began to laugh even harder. "Look at who'll be going to hell even sooner than I will! Have fun!" He then picked her body back up again and ran out of the sewers.

(Time passes. It is now 2:00 in the afternoon)

Back at Reposa Uni, Hotblade and Tenshi, never finding Slash were forced to go to their second class without finding where their brother was. The subject this time was "Affinity Control and Intermediate Fighting Techniques. This time his teacher was a bouncy off the wall kind of old man with a spring in his step. The man explained how the class would be about teaching the students how to control their affinity and fight using it. But, he explained that this class was subject to change as the third class of the day would determine everyone's rank and position in the classroom. He dismissed everyone after relaying the short but easily understandable message and it was time for the last class of the day. This one simply named "Preliminaries." As Hotblade walked into the room, he noticed it was incredibly massive. It held at least fifty, if not more students in this one class. Even better was the fact that none other than Tenshi and Slash were waiting for him in the middle row, saving a seat just for him. He took the seat next to Slash and waved at his brothers. Slash however was unfazed. Something was wrong with him. Very wrong. He looked like he was going to throw up at a moment's notice. Tenshi looked concerned for his brother. Hotblade gave Tenshi the "What the hell happened face" to which Tenshi shrugged. He didn't know either but was also growing worried of what might be wrong. 

Before they could even get Slash to talk, the teacher stepped into the room. It was a young female teacher looking to be in her mid-twenties with a bright smile and eager attitude. She had luscious silver hair that draped all along her neck, shoulders and back making her look like some kind of goddess. This one was gonna be a popular choice among the boys for sure. She took her place on a microphone placed on a podium unlike her other teachers probably to try and make her voice a little louder to all the fifty plus students in the room. This was a very diverse class of Hybrids and Celestials of all shapes and colors. It was interesting knowing each of them had an ability only unique to themselves. Hotblade wanted to see what each and every one of those abilities looked like.

The teacher cleared her throat and began to speak. "Good afternoon class! I'm Ms. Yasuhara. Just call me Ms. Cyra, that's my first name. I don't like being called by my last name it makes me feel old so you can address me that way. Welcome to your preliminaries! To get straight to the point, in this class you'll be fighting against each other in one on one battles tournament style to determine your rank and position in the university as well as a soldier. Now, on this board to my left, you'll notice your opponents have already been selected. After I'm done talking, you'll check to see who you're facing off against and meet me outside on the battlefield. Obviously since you're determining rank and position in the army, you'll be fighting against way more people than just these students in the classroom. We have over fifty thousand students participating in these events so this will be going on for quite a while and we'd like to do this as swiftly as possible. Rules are simple, beat your opponent until they either give up, or pass out. No killing allowed obviously. Depending on how far you make it, you'll make your way down to the finals where only one person will win the tournament. The person who wins, gets the only A rank we're giving out as a title. The people at the bottom who finish early will start off as an F rank. Now, are there any questions?"

A student towards the front raised their hand. A nerdy kid with glasses who didn't look to tough was the first to ask. "Does intelligence count for anything as far as how we'll be judged in these matches? Doesn't it seem a bit unfair to just judge us only on our physical capabilities?" She smiled at him and eagerly replied "Intelligence does count little one. If you're smart, you will read your opponent, use certain tactical strategies to gain an advantage over him and beat him with more than just brute strength. There was no reason David couldn't beat Goliath, as smart as he was yet obviously weaker."

Another student shot up a hand. A portly girl of average height. "How long will the whole process take? Seems like we'll also need time to recover from injuries and prep ourselves for each match." Ms. Cyra replied "A week. We don't care about your injuries or how long you need to prep. If you feel unprepared or too injured, wave the white flag and give up while you still got the chance. A soldier needs to be strong and ready for anything at a moment's notice. He has no time to rest when anything can be expected."

A bunch of other students also shot up their hands asking different questions pertaining to these matches. That was when Tenshi also joined in on the discussion. He raised his hand and Ms. Cyra called on him. He stood up proudly with a face of self righteousness. Hotblade face palmed his head already guessing what he was up to. "Hey, what if we don't care about the A rank like that. Isn't there something else we could get as a prize? I mean if someone is the top student in a college of fifty thousand, can't we get a special request or something? Anything?" Ms. Cyra thought about this for a moment before answering his question. She seemed very quizzical. "Hmm, sure. What did you have in mind?" He then grinned hardly and scratched the back of his head "If I win, I want to go on a date with you!"

The whole class was stunned in silence. Even Slash looked at his brother like he was a special needs case. The teacher also looked at him with a skeptical look. About 30 seconds of silence followed before she even answered him. "Look kid, what are you? eighteen? I'm way too mature for you. You're kidding yourself." Tenshi then gave a disappointed but determined look on his face staring daggers at her intensely. He was too damn serious about this for her to brush it off. She sighed and then compromised with him. "Look, if you win, which you won't in a tournament such as this, you can MAYBE take me to dinner but that's it. Just a nice friendly teacher and student dinner at a nice public open setting." After hearing that, Tenshi basically through himself a party in his own mind and danced around the room already deciding he was going to win the tournament for sure. He sat back in his seat and said "Thanks, I'll see you in a week." Reluctantly she let it go and said "Okay............ Now if there's no more questions......... please check the board and meet the rest of the school outside for the tournament." After that display, there was definitely no more questions. Everyone gathered up around the board, including the three brothers and checked who they'd be facing off against. Hotblade eagerly searched for his name and when he did saw he'd be fighting against somebody named Bandura. He anticipated in his mind what the match would be like already deciding he would win. Tenshi saw that his opponent was someone named Fieri (pronounced fairy) and Slash's was someone named Earl (pronounced...... wait, I mean c'mon...... y'all know how to pronounce that name now so stop...). Slash pulled his brothers aside to a corner of the room and he looked as pale as ever. Guys we have to go. Hotblade and Tenshi looked at him like he was insane. "Dude, are you kidding me? We're about to start like, now!" said Tenshi towards him. Slash wasn't letting go though. He dragged them outside the classroom into the hallway and got even more serious. "Look, during break today I overheard a discussion the principal was having with a soldier from the Reposa. Somebody's broken through the wall and is hiding in the city to the northeast of the country." Hotblade and Tenshi straightened up and stood silent at this news. They stopped talking and let their brother do it for them as he continued. "During the search for the man who did this, One person found out where he was and radioed HQ." Hotblade and Tenshi breathed a sigh of relief but Slash wasn't done nor did he look as relaxed. "Guys, the first group of people they sent out there included Eddy and Ariella, the investigation team." Slash got incredibly choked up all of a sudden, even tearing a bit. This was something that never happened to him. He was an incredibly hard individual to crack. Hotblade and Tenshi became incredibly tense as they dreaded the next words that came out of Slash's mouth. "Ariella had a lead that led her to a bar in a local town. She found out where the man was hiding and..." He stopped for a minute. He was done tearing up strengthened himself as he didn't want to appear weak. "The man engaged her in battle. They found themselves beneath the sewers in Sunrise and he got her. Guys, Ariella is dead."

----------------------- END OF CHAPTER 2---------------------------

----------------------CHAPTER 3 PREVIEW---------------------------

With the news of the mysterious man on the loose and along with word of Ariella passing away, tensions grow thicker. Hotblade, Tenshi and Slash quickly ditch the preliminaries to settle this matter for themselves and seek revenge. The Prime Minister is bracing for a possible state of emergency. The mystery man is calling upon unknown forces on the other side of the wall to enter through the impacted area. Is a war coming? How will our three heroes survive? Just who is this man and what business does he have here? Find out next time on The Hotblade Chronicles!

-------------------------Author's Afterthoughts---------------------------

If you stood with me through chapter 1 and read this, jesus christ bless your soul man. The world here is massive so the first two chapters here were dedicated to building it up and explaining it all. Now is when the story can begin to really happen. Chapter 3 will be an incredible experience that's all I can say. Once again, thanks if you're still with me on this. You guys keep this coming. Stay tuned and find out what happens.

Author's Note

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