Chapter 123 Kidnapping Incident [2]
Challes stumbled a few steps back before he regained his balance and stood straight. He was not caught by surprise or anything—he was expecting Ryfin to be at least this powerful, but even so, right now was more than what he'd imagined.
"Not bad," he noted.
"Sadly I can't say the same for you," Ryfin criticized.
"Then I'll make you say it…Magiken!" Challes screamed, and his sword emitted light.
He'd activated his magiken but the light his sword released was more than the students' swords. His magiken-enabled sword was then revealed; it was a violet-colored blade that was shining beautifully.
Then he looked at Ryfin who was waiting for him to finish his show so that they can continue where they left off, though aside from that he didn't look like he was anywhere close to activating his magiken.
"Don't tell me you intend to fight me without your magiken?" Challes asked, pointing his sword in Ryfin's direction.
"Well, I don't want to destroy the academy grounds so no. I'll fight with just my normal sword," he explained; though it looked more like he was flexing.
"You're an idiot, seriously!"
"I wonder about that," this guy was not denying it after all.
Challes dashed toward him, leaving a trail of air behind he moved faster than the students of the academy.
-Clank!
In less than five seconds, Challes came close to Ryfin, attacked him, and was then blocked and countered. He was now using magiken which means his speed and strength were higher than normal; sometimes magiken even helped you cross human limits and enter a new realm of power.
But this didn't work on Ryfin for one simple reason…he was better than Challes. Whether it be in his total mana quality, his fighting style, his sword art, or magiken, he was better than him in all aspects.
If he wanted then this fight would've ended before it even started but he was toying with Challes. Why? Simple, because he wanted Challes to realize what he was doing and stop it.
That's why he wanted to prolong the fight enough to make Challes realize how powerless he was and stops now when there was still time left for him.
Ryfin didn't know why he was kidnapping Zero but he did know that Challes was up to something for the past few days. He noticed this when he saw him stalking Zero after the classes, and not just Zero, he'd seen him stalk Leon, Anya, and Ellyn also.
From then he started to keep tabs on him and due to that many things came to light. Challes was not acting like a normal professor at all; he stalked students, made notes on how powerful each one was and their relationship with each other.
Both Ryfin and Challes were teaching in this academy for quite a number of years and they had interacted with each other enough to be labeled as friends. He knew that Challes was not the king of man who'd do something like this, that's he wanted to give him a chance to correct his mistake.
But Challes seem nowhere near realizing his mistake and was continuously exchanging blows with Ryfin; though the fact that not a single attack was able to touch Ryfin and he was dodging them all was a different matter.
"You are good, I guess all that talk was not just talk after all," said Challes.
"There's still time Challes. Stop this and go back with me. I don't know why you're doing and I don't care either. I just don't want you to go down the wrong path because of some stupid reason," Ryfin suggested.
"It's not for some stupid reason Ryfin; though you won't understand even if I told you," Challes argued.
"So you're not coming back then?"
"Then you leave me no choice," Ryfin sighed and then tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.
"Yeah? Finally decided to take this seriously?" Challes asked sarcastically.
Ryfin didn't reply and held his sword straight, maybe Challes was about to say something else but words didn't leave his mouth because a sword was hanging before his neck.
It was Ryfin, without a single sound he appeared in front of Challes at a speed normal people can't see; even Challes wasn't able to. But this wasn't what he planned to do.
His original move was to decapitate Challes but he stopped because he noticed something.
Behind Challes, Zero was lying on the ground. He thought Zero was unconscious but right now his eyes were opened, he was looking up and showing a thumbs up to Ryfin.
He should've been unconscious because of the anesthesia Challes gave him but he wasn't. It was due to the liquid he drank from the test tube; it was an antidote for all basic level poisons and the one Challes used also counted in them.
He was just pretending to be unconscious because he wanted things to go the same way as they did in the novel. But here Ryfin was interfering in it and he had to tell him not to do so. That's why he gave that signal to him.
Ryfin was not in loli_pop's novel—probably because he was the homeroom teacher of class B and no main character belonged to that class, maybe that's why he was never mentioned. True or not, that was the best explanation Zero had as of now.
Since he was not in the novel Zero wasn't able to predict what he will due, thus there was no way for him to know that he will be here and will try to stop Challes.
And to his luck, leaving aside the fact that he looked incredibly stupid right now, Ryfin understood what he was trying to say. Only because of that signal Ryfin stopped himself from killing Challes.
If it was any student other than Zero then he would've finished Challes off first and then listened to them, but since he was Zero—not a normal student according to Ryfin, he decided to go with the flow.
After all, if he was playing to be unconscious then it must be for a reason. Plus Challes wasn't aware of this.
Ryfin pulled his sword back and put it back in its sheath. "I changed my mind," he said and then walked away.
"Why?" Challes asked.
"You're the one who said me to get out of here, didn't you?" with that he left for the stadium.
Zero closed his eyes again before Challes came and hanged him over his shoulder again. After that, he opened the main gate, killed the guards, and left the academy with Zero.