Back in Gary’s classroom, there was one student who hadn’t moved at all from her seat, and that was Xin. She had kept her head down, which was still pounding from the lack of sleep. After everything she had experienced that night, the most frightening thing for her was waiting for her when she got home, because she had been forced to confront her father.
As the mayor, it was impossible for her to keep something of that magnitude hidden from him, especially since the bodyguard assigned to her had been killed in active duty, leaving her no other choice but to tell him the truth. Xin had confessed to everything, though she claimed that she had wanted to celebrate with some of her friends because of the rugby match, before they had been attacked by an Altered.
The news report later revealed this fact and the police report made it so her father believed her. Unlike what she had expected, the mayor had hugged her tightly and had just been thankful that it appeared to have been a random attack rather than someone trying to go after her.
Of course, that hadn’t been the end of it. This morning, after having thought things over during the night, he had told Xin about the changes that would happen to avoid such a situation. The increase of bodyguards was the least of her troubles.
‘The worst part is, I can’t even complain about him changing the rules of this deal. Still, he could at least have allowed me to go home by myself. How am I supposed to make any friends, if I have to drive to and from school in a car? I guess the only freedom I have left is in school.’ Xin sulked as she could hear the sound of giggling from behind.
The annoying high pitched laugh had become an annoyance and it was giving the high school girl a bigger headache than usual.
‘How great would school be if Tiffany wasn’t around… She has yet to actually do anything since our talk, but I can’t shake this feeling that she is plotting something big.’
However, right now Xin was simply too tired to care whatever that banshee was preparing. Her last thought before she fell asleep was where Gary had actually disappeared to yesterday.
——
When returning to class, Gary spent some time talking with Tom. During the breaks they were trying to come up with ways of preventing what happened the first time, and on top of that, his best friend was actually trying to figure out ways to deal with the other Omega wolf.
“The only weakness we know of is chocolate. Even that is something we can’t be too sure of. In the worst case scenario it might actually be something completely unique to you, but even in the best case scenario, it’s not like we can get rid of him by throwing a chocolate cake in his face. Say, do you think if I smother myself in chocolate that it might act as a repellent, so he won’t eat me?” Tom questioned him.
“That is the strangest suggestion I have ever heard.” Gary commented, as he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Do you want me to wear gauntlets or something and smear that in that stuff to deal poison damage to him or something?”
“If it works, why not? Although it might be a bad idea for you to be the one to use them. Double-edged sword and everything. Who cares if it sounds stupid? You have to remember that our freaking lives are on the line here! And for some reason that Werewolf seemed to have taken a particular liking to Innu.” Tom whispered.
Over to their right, Innu was snoring lightly. Gary had a feeling that he already knew why the other Werewolf was after him.
‘I don’t think something like chocolate is going to do much. At best it might make him vomit Innu out if he tries to eat him, but it won’t really stop him from killing him. Eating human flesh seems to empower a Werewolf.
‘I can only assume it will either be an increase in stats or more stat points to assign, or maybe a direct increase like it was for hunting down a target. As long as one can actually live like that, the pros seem to outweigh the cons. It really seems to be the easiest and fastest way to get a power boost.’
Later in the afternoon, it was time for club classes again, and when Gary and Blake met they looked at each other, before giving the other a nod. It seemed that their little talk had improved the relationship between the two of them.
Instead of their regular training, Mr Root talked about the game, telling everyone what went well and what went wrong, but in the end, how it was ultimately not their fault that they didn’t win. Eton High had used an even dirtier method than usual, so not losing was already a huge achievement. Most surprisingly, he actually thanked all the non-regular players for taking up their role, calling them out by name instead of just referring to them as ‘the benchwarmers’.
All of the regular players gave them a big round of applause and Gary was starting to think that Mr Root actually was one of the better adults he had seen in his life. Practice continued on as normal after that but there was one thing that the high schooler had noticed a certain student hadn’t arrived who had done every time since.
‘His Mark is too faint, so he can’t be in school. Just what is he up to? He seemed fine yesterday… Maybe he isn’t over Barry’s death yet?’ Gary wondered.
Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who had noticed his disappearance. He could overhear some of the students talk to each other.
“Hey have you noticed that Gil isn’t here?” A student asked. “I heard that he went to Headmistress Young this morning to drop out.”
“Seriously? Are you sure he didn’t just plan to transfer to another school? You know, he and Barry were inseparable. Maybe he just wants to be elsewhere to not be reminded of his childhood friend.”
“I thought the same, but someone told me that Gil had actually joined a gang. I doubt he has a need to go to school if one of the big gangs accepts him.”
The students carried on talking about Gil, and Gary could only think of one gang that he probably had joined. The grey colour gang which was related to the Grey Elephants.
‘Tomorrow I have that fight with Innu, so we were meant to do some training today, but if we run into Billy again, there isn’t much chance I can beat him.
‘If I meet Gil again, I wonder if that Quest will activate again. I wouldn’t mind farming him for some Exp.’ At that moment he crossed eyes with Blake, remembering that there were others out there.
‘It should be okay. As long as I don’t transform, I’m just a normal high schooler. I can’t avoid taking risks. If I just sit around, my friends, and family could all be in danger. I need to get stronger.’
Thinking about his last remaining hunting target, Gary thought back to the last time he had seen Gil together with the colour gang, how he had almost killed a defenceless old man. That had just been a test after joining the gang. Now that he had proven that he didn’t shy away from dirty work, he might actually be given worse things to do, and thinking along these thoughts…
‘Billy has eaten multiple people already, that’s why he was so much stronger than me. If I were to do the same I might gain the power to rival him. I can’t bring myself to end innocent lives like Billy does, and Barry was just an accident.
‘However, there are some people that don’t deserve to live in this world anymore, and if I have to kill, if I have to get stronger to protect the ones I care about, then I would rather them die over my friends.’
Thinking about this, without realising it, saliva was dripping out from Gary’s mouth
*****
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