Simyon was relatively worn out. Sure, his body had just advanced to a new stage. After several beatings from Liam, he had expected it to happen sooner or later, since he could feel his body growing stronger.
However, it seemed that what he needed was someone who was truly trying to kill him, and at a higher stage. His body had taken a beating, and he was physically as well as mentally drained.
Which was why he thought that maybe the person who was in front of him might have been an illusion of some sort.
"Crap, this doesn't look like the Vice Clan Head either. I know you've just been through a lot, but we need to move; one of our group is in big trouble," Dame exclaimed.
Hearing these words from Dame, he shook his head, as Safa had appeared in his mind.
"Wait, what do you mean by that? Why did you come here then if the others could be in danger? What about Safa?" Simyon called out.
His worry had caused a spark of adrenaline to surge through his body, and now he was standing up on his two feet once again.
"Did you think I had a choice?" Dame replied back. "You should be thankful that I came in time to save you from that beast, or you might have become food for him. Although he might have found you a bit hard to chew and just spat you back out."
Simyon wanted to shout and argue back, but that's when he could see others running in the distance, all of them with red headbands on top of their heads.
"Other students?" Simyon raised an eyebrow.
There were three in total, and they were running at quite the fast pace, using every bit of Qi they had. When they eventually arrived at the scene, they were huffing and panting, and now Simyon could get a good look at their faces.
"Wait, you're Tinson, and… and… the others!" Simyon exclaimed, remembering only one of their names.
"Hey!" Violet retorted back. "The others, do we call you Raze and his two backside whippers?"
"Calm down," Tinson said, holding his hand out. "Now is not the time to be fighting against each other."
"He's right about that. Dame, what is going on? Why are these guys with you, and what do you mean we're in danger? What about Safa?" Simyon asked.
"Dame?" Joe replied, with his finger on his lip. "I thought his name was Pink. Now I'm really confused."
The students were getting out of hand, and Dame just shook his head.
"Look, follow me, let's get out of here, and I'll explain the situation as we go."
All of them nodded and quickly followed Dame as he headed to the exit of the Dimension. On his way, he explained the situation to the best of his abilities.
What Simyon realized all of them had in common was that each one of them was attacked, and there was a common link: all of them were from the Lethal Bite Clan.
"The one that attacked me, he told me that there were attackers sent to others, so I decided to exit out of my dimension as quickly as possible," Dame continued to explain.
"I had no clue who was in which dimension around the academy, and I needed to get information. The teachers that were guarding my portal, I… persuaded them into telling me where the other dimensions are.
"I went in and rescued these three, and now I've rescued you as well."
Now Simyon was understanding the situation a bit more, and he was a bit worried about how Dame managed to persuade those who were protecting the dimensions.
It was quite likely that the Academy would find out about this, and if that was the case, then this could very well be the start of the battle against the others.
"But when I defeated the Lethal Bite Clan member, you looked at her, as if you were trying to find out who she was, are you looking for someone?" Simyon asked.
"Yeah, I am. Among the attackers, one of them is the Vice Clan Head. From what these guys tell me, he has power either equal to Feebie, or maybe even more so. If that's the case, whoever has come across him, they don't have much time to live."
Out of those they hadn't met yet, there was Mada, Ricktor, Safa, Liam, and Raze. Now, Simyon was really worried.
He stopped talking so they could just focus on getting out of the area as soon as possible, but he had to accept a reality: a lot of time had already passed.
Liam's body was wavering; he was stumbling back and forth, his vision blurry, his body cold. Blood was still coming out from his wounds, and he could hardly feel pain.
He was fighting against himself, doing anything he could to just stay awake, to continue standing, but that was why something was strange.
The back of his neck; there was a large pain, it was pulsating, stinging the back of his head every once in a while.
"I told you, I didn't want to do this. So, let me kill you in one strike; you have already fought hard enough, that is good enough for someone like you," Royo claimed.
Liam went to reach the back of his neck, but realized that it was something that just wasn't possible.
"Why the heck are you talking like someone high and mighty, like you're doing me a favor? I'm just a student, I'm just a kid, and yet you followed orders to kill me, don't you go talking like that, you sick freak."
"You know what you can do? Suck my balls," Liam managed to gather enough strength to give a smirk, as he could see an irritated face of Royo.
"Very well, this world can do with one less crude mouth," Royo exclaimed as he went to reach for his sword.
At the same time, the pain in Liam's neck started to grow more and more.
"Arghh!" Liam screamed in pain, and right on cue as he screamed, in the air in front of him, a red spark had appeared.
It had appeared at the top, and slowly it was drawing around, forming a large oval circle. As the red spark moved in the air, a line followed, and when the two ends met back up, what was in front of them was a portal.
Immediately, a metallic foot came out from the portal. The foot had red glowing markings running up through its body as it landed in the grass.
Following along was the rest of the metallic body. A single exoskeleton suit, with red markings of energy surrounding it in particular places.
When the full body stepped through the portal, it closed behind him. The strange man that had appeared started to look around the area.
"That's odd, I don't see the mage here, and what has happened to you?" The man asked, as he looked at Liam's poor state.
"You came in here through a portal; who are you?" Royo shouted. "As Vice Clan Head of the Lethal Bite Clan, I order you to state who you are and why you are here."
"Me?" the stranger pointed at himself. "I guess it is polite to state one's name. My name is Zon Grain, and it would be wise if you didn't attack me."
While saying those words, Royo was already moving. He didn't know why, but he felt like with this person in front of him, he needed to get an edge, the first strike in.
He pulled out his sword, gathering his Qi in one point for a quick slash. Royo's body zapped right past Zon, and past Liam as well, his sword held in his hand, but the sword itself, it was broken in half, torn.
Looking at his neck, Royo could feel something trickling. It was red in color, and slowly it started to go around his entire neck.
In Zon's hand, he had a blade that was glowing red in color, not a solid metal but looked to have been made by nothing but pure energy.
The energy sword quickly disappeared as if it was never there.
Liam turned his head, and he managed to catch the Vice Clan leader's head falling to the floor, and right after, his whole body dropped.
'Royo, from the Lethal Bite Clan, was killed just like that!' Liam thought. 'I didn't even see what happened, I didn't see either of their strikes, they were both too fast.'
'Who is this person, how could they kill a Middle-stage warrior, not just any but quite a skilled one just like that! Wait, why is he even here, why did he appear out of nowhere?'
Now Liam was worried; it was quite possible that one tough enemy had just been replaced with an even harder one.
Zon turned around to look at the student.
"You, you were with that mage before, in that ice place, why aren't you with him now? Why are you in a different dimension?"
"Mage?" Liam's voice was weakening, as he was trying to listen to the questions, his body continued to waiver until he fell right on the floor.
Zon just stared blankly at the fallen child on the floor.
"It appears that the kid is dying," Zon stated as he walked over to his body.
He then started to hover his hand on top of his body, a red glow coming from the palm of his hand.
"At this rate, he will die in less than a minute from blood loss. He's my only link to the mage at the moment. I have no choice but to save him, but doing so will mean he won't be the same as he was before."
