Maybe something good will happen... Well, you can guess what happened—nothing good. In fact, things just got worse. Here I am, battered and injured, trying to protect a girl who seems utterly helpless, surrounded by a pack of the Crowned Blades martial artists, with nowhere to escape. Fate is such a bastard. Every single day, it throws more crap at me than I can handle. What can I do? Someone please helps me… Oh wait, let's rewind back to three hours ago before this mess happened.
It was my second day at the school for monsters. I had already ticked off one of the strongest guys in our level. During class with Leo, I turned to him and asked, "So, I basically have to find at least five other members to join my sect?"
He looked at me with a serious expression. "Yes, basically. You have to do it before the deadline, or else you'll end up joining his sect—and trust me, he might torture you."
He was right. After everything I'd heard, joining that guy's sect would be a nightmare. Winning was my only option. "Then who should I ask to join my sect?" I inquired. "How can I do it without getting beaten to death?"
Leo scoffed. "Don't worry. That won't happen. Your senior here will protect you."
Sure, he would say that. Have you seen him? The guy practically sleeps through every class. I could just picture him snoozing while I was getting pummeled. Still, he was strong, so at least I had someone on my side. But if he were in that dude's sect, I'd be done for.
Just then, I noticed Leo looking at me. "What's wrong?" I asked.
He smirked. "Do you really know how handsome you are? Your sharp red hair, ember eyes—it's quite captivating. You should know that before I kiss you."
I gave him a disgusted look. "Yeah, that won't happen."
He laughed, clearly amused. "Okay, your first target should be that girl behind you."
Curious, I glanced back. Sitting a few rows behind was a girl with bright yellow hair that reached her shoulders, dull blue eyes, and a cold expression. She wore the school uniform but had a baggy sweater over it and a blue face mask. It was weird but in a place like this, she was just another puzzle piece. When she caught my gaze, I quickly looked away, feeling embarrassed. At least I finally had a target for today.
"No," she said harshly before I could even approach her, as if she could read my mind. With a glare, she walked down the hallway. Normally, I would have backed off, but given my current predicament, Pride won't save my life especially my neck from being cut off. So, I followed her, pleading and begging for her to join my sect.
It was a humiliating spectacle—kneeling, lying on the ground, and making a scene that probably had onlookers thinking I was insane, but I don't care, Scratch that. Finally, she stopped and turned to face me. "Why are you pestering me to join your sect? Do I look—or even smell—strong to you?"
I hesitated for a moment before replying, "Honestly, no. You seem to have little P.E. energy, but my instincts are telling me you're not just an ordinary monster."
She looked at me, shocked. "Wow, you're rude. And you want me to join your sect?"
I stammered, "No, I didn't mean it like that! I really want you to join. You can leave after the Sect War, but I need your help!"
I didn't want to do this because I knew it wasn't going to work, but I tried giving her my best puppy-dog eyes. She looked at me like I was crazy. Typical. Then, surprisingly, she softened her tone. "It seems like you don't know the rules."
"What rules?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Don't worry about it," she replied, a hint of mystery in her voice. "Most guys approach girls to join their sects under the pretense of wanting to protect them, but their motives are usually... immoral. You get what I mean?"
"Yeah, I understand," I said, feeling a bit embarrassed. But still, I said "Yeah that is disgusting, wait you don't think, I am asking you to join my sect because of that right".
She shook her head and said, "No, I don't think so. You're not like that." I sighed in relief and then asked, "Wait, how are you so sure I'm not like that?"
"I can dictate a person's character through their speech and words, and importantly, the way they talk. Through that, I knew you aren't a pervert," she replied. I smiled and said, "Which means you will join my sect."
" Nope, my decision is final. I'm sorry, I know you're a good guy, but I just don't want to be involved with all this fighting and sect stuff."
I countered, "If you don't want to be involved, then why come to this school? To me, its foundation is based on fighting, and honestly, it's stupid."
She glared at me, and I immediately felt I had made a huge mistake, fearing she might kill me. "If I were you, I would never insult this school in front of others unless you want to be sent flying through buildings. Also, the answer to that question is personal information," she warned, before walking away.
"Wait for me!" I called out, running to catch up with her. When she faced me, she said, "You are a persistent one."
"Okay, just give me one day to convince you to join my sect. If I can't, I promise I'll stop bothering you," I proposed.
She sighed and replied, "Okay."
"Oh yeah, my name is Blaze," I said.
"I know," she responded. My confusion deepened as I replied, "But I never told you my name."
She smirked and said, "Who doesn't know the idiot who went against Wang in a sect battle of all things?"
"Oh," I exclaimed, then cleared my throat. "Ahem, so what's your name?"
"Personal information," she replied.
"But I told you mine!" I protested.
"You never told me; I heard it from someone else," she pointed out. She was right.
"How do you talk in that mask for so long without suffocating?" I asked.
"Also, personal information," she said curtly.
"Seriously?" I said, exasperated.
Just then, two boys ran up to us, looking quite hurried. One of them asked, "Are you Blaze?"
"Yes," I replied, wondering how I had become so popular.
"We really need your help now," he said urgently.
Then the face mask girl quickly said" What do you need his help for huh, exactly"
Then the other boy said" We can't tell you right now, you have to see for yourself"
Then face mask girl said rolled her eyes and said," Well sorry, but if you don't tell us what your problem, he is not going anywhere", hey I can make my own decisions myself.
Then both of them faced each other with a look of panic, then one of them quickly said" Um, we need your help against the Crowned Blades Sect, they captured our friend, and we don't know why, and we are weak so we can't get him back, and if we ask others for help, they will ignore us since it is related with Crowned Blades Sect, so we can only ask you".
Then I said," Even if all you want you said was true, why bother asking me, you don't whether I am strong enough to face them, and you don't even know my powers do you", what I was expecting them to say was yes and praise me for being the fire elemental, then I heard a shocking answer from them" No, we don't", huh, didn't Cosmo say the fire elemental are rare breeds in the cosmology, that obviously means I would be known right.
Then they continued saying" It is actually obvious that you are strong because, anyone who messes with wang will not be able to come back to school for a month because of trauma, but you survived and you look perfectly fine even able to come back the next day, which means you are strong, so please we really need your help", then they bowed their head to the ground.
Huh, is Wang that dangerous, ..., who am I having war against right now.
Then the girl with the face mask whispered to me saying" I can understand that part, but something is telling me this is a trap, as sects like to lure other sect's members into traps"
Then I replied to her saying" It is okay, you don't need to worry much I am sure they are not like that, and if they are, I have a plan for that okay"
Then she said "Sorry, for worrying on your behalf", Haha, then I looked at the boys and they were looking at me with a weird smile, I hope they are not thinking trash, then I told the boys to stand up, and said to them "Okay, then lead the way"
As we were following the boys, I looked at the girl with the face mask and said, "You don't really need to follow me. This is my problem. I thought you said you didn't really want to be involved in fighting." She replied, "Don't think too much about this. I'm only here to watch how you're going to solve this situation. After all, I need to know the power of my future sect leader—if you can take me in."
Wasn't she there during the tournament? How come she didn't know I was the fire elemental? Just as I was about to tell her, the boys stopped in front of a big iron door and said, "We are here." My intuition started telling me something was off; I couldn't sense any P.E. energy inside. So, does that mean we aren't dealing with P.E. users?
One of the boys said, "They are inside here; you can enter now." I replied, "Nah, we're entering together with you guys. If you don't, I won't save anyone." They whispered to each other and finally said, "Okay."
We walked together to the door, which opened by itself—a strange occurrence. As we entered, it was dark inside, and before I could say anything, the door closed behind us. I sensed bloodthirst and instinctively formed a block. Suddenly, a kick came out of nowhere and hit me, sending me flying into the room. As the light shone down, I found myself on the floor alongside the face-mask girl, surrounded by more than twenty people. Despite their very low amount of P.E. energy, I could tell from the strength of that attack that they were all "MARTIAL ARTS EXPERTS."
I saw the two boys with them, and the face-mask girl said, "I was right; this was a trap to lure you in." The two boys smiled, and one of them said, "You were really smart, Blaze, but you were too late." I asked, "Was everything a lie? Your friend—are you in trouble?" The other boy replied, "Hmm, you won't believe me like this. Okay then," and with that, they vanished in a puff of smoke.
From the smoke emerged a tall dude with green short hair and black eyes, wearing a karate outfit with a black belt. He stuck out his tongue and said, "Fooled you." The face-mask girl exclaimed, "Shit, it's Kage!" I asked, "Who is that?" She replied, "He's a guy people are saying will become one of the top warriors in the Crowned Blades Sect."
Kage grinned and said, "Well, I am really famous. Now let us give this boy who disrespected our master, levels of hell." I realized I was fucked