VILLAIN'S RISING

-“So the best strategy here would be to flank the main body with two sentries and have one special class on backup…”

The lecture about battle strategies was going on and Sam was nothing but bored.

First, he had memorized more advanced battle strategies than what the teacher was teaching right now before he even turned 10.

Second, most of these strategies were meant to apprehend the opponent(s) and not kill them.

Why? Because Heroes rarely kill. Unless it’s not a high-ranking criminal or a Supervillain, Heroes refrain from killing.

Although it’s not wrong morals for Heroes to have, Sam couldn’t help but find the “no killing” rule bullshit.

If you really want to vanquish all evil from the world then just eradicate all evil doers.

He knew his thinking was broken but he has accepted his broken point of view a long time ago.

There was one more reason why Sam couldn’t focus on the class lecture. A certain silver-haired girl was staring at him for quite some time.

“What?” Unable to bear her piercing stare, Sam finally decided to confront her.

Hearing him confront her, Kiara decided to reply herself. “Did father call you yesterday?”

Kiara was in the Academy’s medical care the whole night. So even though she wanted to visit her father, she couldn’t.

When she was discharged this morning she went straight to the Dorm Mansion but she didn’t find Sam there.

So she changed and quickly came to the Academy. She wanted to ask Sam as soon as possible about what they talked about behind her back.

“No, he didn’t call me. He came to meet me in person.” Sam replied, knowing full well that this answer would make Kiara feel jealous._.

Clenching her fists, Kiara asked in a whispering tone so that others sitting around them may not hear her: “What did you two talk about?”

With no intention of truthfully answering her question, Sam leaned back on his chair and smirked.

“Oh we talked about this and that, you know, boys talk.”

“Quit it, Sam.” Irritated, Kiara ordered her henchman to stop acting cocky.

“Quit what?” But Sam, on the other hand, just played dumb.

“Tell me what you two talked about?” Kiara repeated her question, this time with a little hostility behind her voice.

Seeing her attitude, a nerve started twitching on Sam’s forehead. To be perfectly honest, any feelings he had for her a few months ago were now nowhere to be found.

He was keeping Kiara alive for two reasons. He had to use her father for his plan and he had some use for her in mind too.

“Didn’t you listen? Tell me what you two talked about?” Kiara repeated her question again. Clearly, she was at the end of her rope.

“I said-“

Before Sam could complete his sentence, the voice of the class lecturer cut him off.

-“You two at the back! Stop it!”

Drake and Robin, who were sitting in front of Sam and Kiara, pointed at themselves.

“Us?” Drake asked with a frown.

-“Not you dumbhead, the two behind you!”

“Sorry!” Sam raised his hand and apologized.

-“It’s fine,” the female lecturer said. “Anyway, it’s time I tell you all about your class excursion.”

***

In an empty gym, a lean figure of a boy could be seen hitting the punching back. With every punch that he throws at the punching bag, ripples would form on it.

If he wills he could destroy the punching bag anytime he wants, yet he was controlling his strength and enjoyed throwing punches.

He wasn’t wearing anything on top, displaying his toned muscles and desirable abs, while wearing joggers below.

He had golden hair, which floated in the air every time he threw a punch and blue eyes that were locked on a spot. The spot where he was hitting on the punching bag.

-Knock

Hearing a knock on the door, the boy spoke without breaking his barrage of punches.

“Come in.” He said, his voice laced in authority.

-Click

The door of the gym opened with a click sound and a black South African man stepped in. The man was huge and burly.

He was the kind of man you would see in heavy lifting championships.

He was wearing a white shirt and black pants. His clothes were doing nothing to hide his inhumanly huge muscles.

He stood a few steps away from the boy and put his hand behind his back like an obedient servant.

“Master, our intelligence officer contacted us.” The man reported as if reporting matters like this was his daily job.

The boy, however, didn’t stop hitting the punching bag. He had little to no interest in what his “intelligence officer” had to tell him.

Seeing his disinterest, the burly man sighed but continued his report anyway.

“The Hero Academy is going on an excursion next week. They are conducting their special exam on the deserted island near the Pacific Ocean.”

As he heard that, the boy stopped his punches.

“Say what now?” Unable to believe his ears, the boy asked the man to repeat himself.

“You heard right, master. It’s our chance to strike and eliminate our target!” Fired up, the black man spoke.

“Ha! Indeed! This is indeed our chance!” The disinterest that the boy had on his face earlier was replaced by excitement.

-Boom!

He threw a punch and punctured the punching bag.

In the next moment, as if nothing had happened, he walked over to a bench and picked up his towel.

He dried his hair that was drenched with sweat and put the towel around his shoulder before sitting on the bench with his legs crossed.

“If they are conducting their special exam then they are bound to stay at that island for at least a week at best. That means till the time they land on the island, we’ll have at least one week to strike and take him out.” The boy mumbled to himself while the burly man beside him just kept nodding.

“Fine, Bret, prepare everyone! We have a Hero to kill!” Standing up, the golden-haired boy declared.

***

While a mysterious person was planning to sabotage the Academy’s excursion, the 1st years were getting themselves ready.

Special Exam means the midterms were about to come. And after that, annual exams.

Three months had passed by like a breeze, and freshmen were anything but ready for what was to come.

“Did you hear Micheal?” A blue-haired girl approached Micheal, who was sitting beside the window, with excitement.

The girl had blue hair and a full figure. Judging by her curves you would never be able to guess she was only 18.

Micheal, although, just nodded with a smile.

“Why aren’t you happy?!” The girl shook Micheal. “We’re going on an excursion!”

“Irina, I don’t know if you have heard the full details but we’re going to an island for the Special Exam. It’s more of an exam than an excursion.” Micheal said with a helpless smile.

“I know! But we’ll go there on a cruise ship! That will be awesome!” Irina practically started jumping up and down in excitement.

“Yeah, that will be awesome indeed.” Micheal nodded with a bittersweet smile.

His sad bittersweet smile didn’t get past Irina. She knew exactly why Michael was feeling down.

Irina was Michael’s childhood friend. That and the fact that she had a long 5-year crush on him, Irina was very familiar with Michael’s mood.

She knew he was sad because Michael didn’t get to have a talk with his brother, Samael.

She had seen Michael being obsessed with his big brother. Even though he had never met him in person, Michael really looked up to Sam.

Although Michael was never lonely and always had the love of his parents, he, all his life, longed for a sibling. So he was really looking forward to meeting Sam.

But their meeting a few weeks ago didn’t go as planned. Since then, Michael had been feeling down and it was just painful to watch for Irina.

Seeing him feeling down like this, Irina tried to cheer him up. “Micheal, you’ll have plenty of chances to talk with your big brother on this trip!”

Hearing that, Michael nodded in understanding. That’s right! It was not his last chance! He would get plenty of chances to make up for their lost time in the future!

A genuine smile finally appeared on Micheal’s face after weeks. Seeing him smiling like this, Irina was about to say something else but before she could, her phone buzzed.

-Buzz

“Ahh sorry, let me have this for a minute.” Irina said and stepped to a corner before taking out her phone.

It was a message. An SMS no less. Who in this era sends SMS? Seeing that, Irina frowned but decided to click on it nonetheless.

However, as soon as she opened the SMS her eyes widened. It was from a person she thought she had cut all ties with. It wouldn’t be wrong to say it was a text from her dark past.

[It’s time to return, Euryale]