Dante’s comrades, already demorphed by then look worried after watching their leader beaten into the water. Rising back into the air on his end of the river, Cain looks thrilled as he waits for Dante to reappear. When he does, Dante crawls onto the right-side river bank, orange wounds glowing on the back of his red armor.
Cain humors himself with wild laughter before boasting, “You’re even more pathetic than the rebellious freshman! Like I said before, you are forcing a pointless struggle here. Not only will I soon finish you off, but you can’t harm me in anyway, you can’t even scratch me. Face it, Dante, you have no chance against me, because I am invincible!”
His left hand tightening into a fist over some wet mud, Dante glares back at his foe while raising himself back into the air. Turning to face him directly, he declares in his controlled, intimidating voice, “You are so predictable, Cain, that you cannot see your own fault. Prepare yourself, for in the next ten seconds, I will defeat you.”
Surprised by the warning, Cain’s anger rekindles as he cries, “The only fool around here is you!” while bringing his glowing sword down and forward, throwing a large sphere of magic at Dante. Side-thrusting out of its path, Dante then charges at Cain on air balance. Before he reaches him, Cain thrusts forward on his own air balance with his blade. Dante, however, rolls out of the way, and the two swordsmen fly past each other.
Whirling around in agitation, Cain throws another magic spell at Dante, who ascends in momentum to avoid it, turns around, and comes back at him. Putting his shield out before him while raising his sword, he expects Dante to hit his shield while he would chop into him in response. What happens next, however, Cain could never have foreseen.
Dante slows to a stop in front of him, brings up his left hand, and throws the mud he grabbed earlier into his face. Blinded by the mud, Cain rubs at it with his sword arm, forgetting to keep his guard up. He pays for it when Dante grabs his arm, pulls it out of the way, and thrusts the point of his katana through his exposed neck, the only part of his body besides his face that isn’t armored.
Gagging with shock and pain as the wound flashes green, Cain is so stunned from what happened that he is unable to react when Dante brings his sword out his neck, does a quick rotation, and cleaves through his neck in one clean motion. With his head thus decapitated, wound energy spouts from his neck like a fountain, quickly turning red in color, and he remembers to demorph after realizing what was going on.
***
The battle is over as Cain in his human form drops into the river, and a moment later resurfaces, unconscious and dragged along by the current. Tempted to leave him like that, Dante instead swoops down to him, grabs him by the collar, and lifts him out of the water, carrying him back to dry land. Setting him next to his fainted subordinates still lying on the ground while landing, he looks to his own men as they gather around him, the discipline on their faces betrayed by the amazement in their eyes.
After glancing at each of them, Dante demorphs and says, “Well gentlemen, we accomplished more here tonight than I thought we would. Not only did we knock out all of his minions, but we also vanquished Cain himself. The only thing that puzzles me is how Cain knew we were fighting his henchmen.” Turning his gaze to a bush near the wall of the casino, he focuses on it to pick out someone hiding behind it. Realizing he was spotted, the person morphs into a Dog and runs away, disappearing behind the corner of the building. “Ah yes, the cowardly Johnny, Cain’s spy who doesn’t like to fight at all. Leonardo, why don’t you go and chop him up for us?”
“At once, sir,” replies the white-coated man before he turns away, remorphs into the Arm Blades Warrior, and runs after the Dog.
Dante then says to Giovanni, “Go find some actual school staff to deliver these injured students to the infirmary.” Giovanni nods, remorphs into the Machine Cat, and takes off into the night. After bringing out his stone lighter and cigarette for a smoke, Dante turns to the last two men with him and tells them, “As for us, Raphael and Paul, let’s go into the casino and play a few rounds of blackjack. And while we’re at it, announce to everyone around that we defeated Cain and his entourage in the name of Matt Calamos.”
Chapter 7
Capturing the Crowd
***
“Wind Spirit damn it!” Cussing as her fist slugs the wall before her, Cynthia fumes, leaning her pounding forehead against the wall. Within a suite-like room, with a coffee table before a large couch and stone sculptures arranged throughout it, her back is turned to the other three women present. Two are in similar dresses to her own, blue and purple in color, and the third wears a suit of bright yellow leather, complimenting her long, blonde hair with streaks of black through it. Sighing, Cynthia asks without turning to them, “And how long has it been going about?”
“A few days now, Cynthia,” replies the blue-dressed woman.
“And Sean hasn’t wound up in the infirmary, or worse, why?”
“Well, despite the rumor going around, not many people are willing to believe it,” answers the purple-dressed woman. “They logically think it’s impossible for you to wind up with him, given you are both on far sides of the spectrum.”
“I see. That’s good, then. We’ll let them think that, I can’t afford to be, uh, humiliated like that.” Waving her hand, Cynthia says, “You two may leave, I wish to speak with Irene on further matters.” The two women bow before leaving the room, exiting out a door a few feet to her right. Once they are gone, she turns around to look at the blonde woman, asking, “And how have the boss students reacted to this rumor?”
Shrugging, Irene tells her, “Oh, they’ve thought the same as the most of the community, that it’s just some silly lie Sean came up with to tarnish your reputation, in return for you tarnishing his in gambling. No need to worry about them on that subject.”
In truth, Irene is furious of how her gossip failed to be as devastating to Cynthia as she hoped it would be. Yet cursing her younger brother for declaring her word couldn’t be trusted on such topics, she doesn’t dare let Cynthia know it had been her that spread the slanderous rumor. She asks her with a smile, “So, are you recovering well from your fever, Cynthia?”
“Ugh, I guess. The fever itself is gone, but my head still hurts, and I am weary from trying to rest in the infirmary all day and night. I desperately need my beauty sleep.” While Alkalians can quickly recover from injuries endured in their battle morphs, trauma from disease or illness is a different matter, their bodies taking longer to recuperate from such. Walking across the room past Irene, she sits down on the couch, collapsing against the cushions, and sighs, “That’s the last time I take medicine personally prescribed to someone else.”
“Aw, don’t fret about your beauty sleep, Cynthia. You still look beautiful to me!” Staring at Cynthia’s figure briefly, she sits on the couch beside her, brushing away some hair from across her face, and asks, “So that’s what triggered your illness? You took some drugs they had?” She already knows this, but plays dumb on the matter.
“Yeah, Matt has some insomnia pills or something. I was hoping the one pill would put me to sleep before I did anything with Sean. But, unfortunately, it backfired terribly on me.” A hot flash passes through her, causing her to pause for a breath and fight back a fainting spell, before she continues. “Although, the fact Matt has such medicine can be used to spread gossip, itself. You can tell Cain about it, I’m sure he’ll appreciate such knowledge to twist into a tall tale against him.”
“Uh huh. I’ll be sure to give him the information.” She has already done so, but again, nothing Cynthia needs to know. Shuffling closer next to her, her eyes grazing over the beads of sweat on her bare, bright red skin, a rare pink from the hot flash, Irene asks, “So, how was it, with Sean? How much do you remember of it, despite you being out of your mind?”
“Well, I can’t remember what I was thinking, but what I was feeling, it, it was bizarre. I just had this, ah, overpowering attraction to him, and he, he wasn’t too bad. H
e certainly satisfied my desires, I guess, but there were a few painful moments. Things he couldn’t have been wary of, from it being his first time.”
“Hmm, interesting. Then, did you like it, or no?”
“I, I don’t know. It’s hard for me to say, I wasn’t really myself when we did it, so I couldn’t give an honest answer.”
“Yeah. Well, what do you say we make it more clear to you, with something to, oh, compare it against?” As she suggests it, Irene moves in closer to Cynthia, pressing herself against her as their faces are inches apart with her looking deeply into her eyes and breathing on her, the stance of a predator before pouncing on its prey.
Her aching head and weakened body hindering her from properly responding and denying the thing Irene suggests, Cynthia looks in curious confusion back into her eyes, asking, “What do you mean by that, Irene?”
“Oh, don’t worry. You’ll understand soon enough.” On that final note, Irene slowly moves in on an impressionable Cynthia, the few inches between them disappearing as their lips meet in a silent kiss.
After holding that first kiss for a few seconds, they break away for a moment, each staring dreamily into the other’s eyes, before they resume kissing, becoming more passionate as they embraced, holding each other tightly. Soon, Irene’s hands move across Cynthia to pluck at and slip off the straps of her dress from her shoulders, and then zip down the back of it to let it fall from her torso, leaving her chest bare.
As Cynthia found herself relieved to be free of the clothing, sighing contently and arcing her back, Irene quickly tugs off her leather vest and undershirt to expose her bare torso as well. Going in for the kill, Irene ensnares Cynthia again in a deep embrace, kissing her furiously while their bodies rub together, a fiery friction massaging their warm skin.
A minute goes by in their crazed passion, each relishing the searing sparks of sensation between them, before Irene breaks from the kissing to let them breath in gasps, and asks, “What do you think so far, Cynthia. Any better than Sean?”
Her eyes closed, Cynthia replies, “Hmm, this is, nice.”
“Ah, that’s good.” While her right hand sneaks down Cynthia’s waist to her legs, brushing away her skirt to stroke her bare hip, she assures her, “Before we’re done here, what you had with Sean will look pathetic compared to this.” She licks Cynthia’s cheek like a tongue of flame before kissing her again, laying them down on the couch with her on top, her hand yet stroking Cynthia’s leg, her nails dragging across her like flint to produce more sparks.
Softly moaning with rising arousal and pleasure from Irene handling her, the fire started between them engulfing her, Cynthia yet manages to ask her, “So, what have you been up to, while I was in the infirmary and you were not working for me?”
“Oh, not much, just a small favor for Cain,” Irene responds, moving down to Cynthia’s neck to nibble her sensitive skin there. “All I had to do was spy on Matt and Rose, let them fight each other, and then shoot Rose after Matt defeated her. But, unfortunately, it was Rose who defeated Matt, and I didn’t get the chance to shoot her.” Arcing her back over Cynthia, she takes a moment to gasp, letting her body shudder with burning pleasure, before staring back down at her, hungrily licking her lips as she slowly lowers her face towards her breasts.
At first not caring, but rather enjoying, what Irene does to her, blinded by the heat between them, something in the back of her mind suddenly yanks Cynthia’s attention to a specific part of what she said. Steam hisses as it clears the flames, and she stops her just before her mouth reaches her chest, speaking out, “Whoa, wait, hang on. What were you going to do with Matt and Rose? Shoot one of them?”
“Well, yeah,” Irene replies, a bit flustered. “That was Cain’s plan, after all. Get them to fight each other, and then frame Matt for shooting Rose when she was out-of-morph. That would have put him in huge trouble, and…”
“What the hell is wrong with you!?” A fierce back-hand slap from Cynthia smacks Irene across the face, sending her reeling back from the shocking blow, instantly dousing the flames of passion. Then kicking her away to stand up from the couch, she glares down at her, steaming as she explains, “Deceiving and manipulating others is one thing, but physically, and maybe even fatally, harming them out-of-morph? That is a confederate crime, Irene! How could you even consider doing that!?”
Trying to not lose her dignity, Irene stands up, whipping her hair back while rubbing her stung cheek, and remarks, “Well, isn’t that surprising, you sticking up for them. Why should you care about them, Cynthia? They’re just freshmen, after all, and Matt is a threat to our student community, as Cain has explained.”
“And that’s your excuse to endanger their lives? They’re not just freshmen, Irene, they’re actual people, like you and I! And you would do that, for Cain!?” Groaning in disgust, she puts her dress back up over her torso. “Some guy’s sick obsession over being cruel towards other students shouldn’t be something you’re willing to risk your reputation and liberty over.”
Sighing, Irene adapts a superior air about her as she steps closer to Cynthia, her breasts still bare as she squares her shoulders, before she tells her with a venomous tone, “My reputation, huh. Well, let me remind you, Cynthia, that I don’t care what other people think of me here. After all, away from campus, I’m superior to them all. I’m the heir to the throne of Saratu.” Bringing a hand to Cynthia’s face to stroke it, she adds, “And perhaps, since you’re from Saratu as well, you should give me proper respect and loyalty, as well as your ‘service’ to me.”
Irene’s attempt to hard-press her into resuming their love-making is foiled by another slap across the other cheek, and Cynthia, her eyes burning with an different fire, remarks, “You haven’t acted like any noble I’d be proud to serve the whole time at this school, so you are no princess of mine, Irene Goros.” Pointing to the door, she orders her, “Now get of my sight, and don’t ever cross me again, or I will become truly angry. You understand that, Irene?”
Honestly shocked, hurt, and humiliated she had been rejected by her, Irene glowers back at her before retrieving her clothes and putting them back on. While zipping up her vest, she says, “That’s a shame, Cynthia. Now I’ll have to let Cain know you are no longer loyal to the cause, that you would let the freshmen take over this school.”
“Go ahead, Irene, let that wretched, insane bastard know I’m not on his side anymore!” Cynthia explodes. “In fact, go ahead and tell the whole community, I don’t care! I will never work with that heartless monster again, and you are a perverted fool to still support him!”
“Fine, then. I’ll let them know.” Heading for the door, Irene stops, glances back over her shoulder, and brings up, “Oh, and by the way, the one who spread the gossip about you and Sean? That was me. Have a good evening, Cynthia Volvaron.” Without looking back, she opens the door and leaves the room.
At first speechless, Cynthia then erupts into furious screaming after the door closes, whirling on the couch and repeatedly hammering her fists into it. Her snarling turns into sobbing as she breaks down, her wearied body trembling under guilt and shame. It feels like her whole world at the college has flipped upside down, and she doesn’t know how to work out her feelings, who to turn to, what to do. Until it all comes back to Cain.
Raising her tear-streaked, enraged face from the cushions, she understands all that she has suffered, her being manipulated beyond her will, happened because of him, and she would make sure he pays for it. If he was wound up so much over some freshman, then he was in for a real nightmare once he met a woman’s scorn, hotter than Hell itself.
***
Over the next few days after Dante’s victory by the river, Matt’s operation unfolds and spreads throughout campus. Dante and his friends continue to challenge and wreck any of Cain’s servants they meet at the casino. Sean’s criticism of Cain inspires more people to go against him and his entourage. And in the pit arena, Matt, Rose, Sean, and Dante win many of the duels they
enter, taking control of the monetary flow and the alliance of the students. The tide of opposition begins to reverse, especially thanks to the shocking news that Dante also defeated Cain. Soon, more people are for Matt’s uprising than for surrendering to Cain’s dwindling oppression.
Cain himself, meanwhile, becoming rarely seen outside of school hours, tries to resist Matt’s conquest of the community when he releases information through his gossipers about two rumors against Matt. The first is that Matt isn’t naturally a Dark Warrior, and instead he has special drugs that enhance his abilities. Matt, upon hearing this accusation, proves it false by bringing his medicine, the drugs in question, with him into the public, taking a pill, and going out cold to the surprise of everyone around him.
In response, Cain brings out a second rumor to try and diminish Matt’s standing. This story is about the scars on Matt’s neck, which Cain uses as evidence in trying to prove he was sexually abusing a girl and got scratched when she was fighting back. He even has some random female student lie about the story being true, until Sean takes some prize money gathered from the casino and pays her more than Cain does. As for where the cuts came from, Matt sticks with the story that he was sparring and got damaged greatly enough that the scars were leftover.
With the two lies denounced, Matt finds himself feeling good and content one afternoon in the study hall with Lyn and her colleagues. Rather than studying, he is simply hanging out, sitting on one of the couches and having small talk with Lyn beside him.
Meanwhile, the other women are dispersed about the room, having their own chats, but one thing Matt can’t overlook is how Amelia is one of the two closest to him and Lyn, as she and her buddy are on the couch opposite them. He is just starting to convince himself that Amelia, appearing oblivious of him while in her conversation, is flashing him subtle looks when Lyn says to him, “I have to admit, Matt, I’m surprised and impressed with how well you’ve done in tarring Cain’s name throughout the community. I mean, it’s like you’ve got nearly everybody no longer afraid or loyal to him!”
Alkalians Page 24