Previously, Alex and Huy finally arrived in Lancer! It was pretty dangerous even in that city. It looks like William, who appears shortly after the two students enter the city, can use some strange powers! He can control inanimate objects to do whatever he says. As expected from a tough lieutenant of the CORP soldiers! But wait, can he only animate objects? What about humans? William goes on talking about Tony’s real intentions on increasing the amount of elemental power. He also has the Telsi formula! This must be the missing page of the Grimoire book and he is here to take back what was originally his. Because of Huy’s insecurity, he decides to force the book out of Alex before Alex loses it. Instead, the two students end up fighting. Oh my! Let’s see what happens next.
Episode 147 – Knowledge Equals Elemental Power
The Marconian Continent is a very, widely expanded island where many students from El Monte had split up in search for Jaime. Their goal, perhaps now, has changed in the slightest bit. For the moment, Yessenia is helping Shirley and Van reach Lancer while Alex and Huy are trying to defend themselves against William. Venus no longer wants to interact with anybody that she met from the past, and so she decides to stay in Elk Village.
Matt on the other hand… He stood near the Elk Village’s fountain with Nix. Matt and Nix were quite alert with the announcement that Bunhong gave moments ago about two strange people nearing the entrance of Elk Village. A step was heard from behind both Matt and Nix but from across a really narrow river behind the well. Matt turned around in alert.
“J-Jenny?” Matt was confused about where she came from.
Jenny was blushing. Her hair was perfectly straightened and she was tall. She had her hands cupped together in front of her to indicate that she is harmless. “Matt… There you are.” Jenny took a step forward but Matt took a step back in response. “Wait, Matt.”
“Why are you here all of a sudden?”
Nix said to Matt, “Don’t ask her questions. I can feel a strange essence coming from her.”
“Well still…” Matt was pondering with the thought. “Jenny is a really nice person, at least from what I saw last year.”
Nix frowned. “Hm… I don’t know then…”
Jenny disregarded their conversation. “Please, we need you.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“My boss.”
Matt began to notice Jenny’s clothing. It was the same outfit from the organization that Jaime, Tony, and Michael were wearing. Matt could barely remember that William’s outfit looked the same as well from the Floyde ship a long while ago. “Your boss… who is it?”
“That does not matter. Matt, please trust me. I…”
Matt clenched his fists. “I-I don’t care if it’s for your boss.”
“Don’t you trust me? I haven’t done anything all last year to you.”
Matt became silent. Nix whispered, “Don’t give in to her this easily…”
“But…” Matt thought about it carefully. “Jenny, I’m sorry. I can’t do this!” Matt ran off and Nix followed.
Jenny was still blushing from the heat. She was sad. “Matt…”
Yessenia, Shirley, and Van were all running together towards Lancer. While running, Yessenia spoke, “We must hurry to Lancer. Alex and Huy may have taken out some of the wolves, but those two could still be in danger in Lancer.”
Shirley was already exhausted. “What could be dangerous in Lancer at this time?”
“Tony.” Van answered her. “Tony is the culprit of all evil on this continent. He has a bunch of people supporting him and his CORP soldiers. Me, forcefully being one of them because of my boss.”
“You still will not tell us who your boss is?” Yessenia was still wondering.
A new voice was heard on a cliff nearby. “NEVER! Do not tell them, Van!”
Van looked up. “M-Maggie!”
“Soul – activated.” Maggie said with an evil grin. “Why are you siding with them anyway, Van? They are heartless! They do not understand what Tony is going through.”
“B-But we can solve this problem in a different way. We don’t have to throw more people into our troubles. South El Monte will be proven wrong if we fight back in a cleaner way.”
“What are you two talking about?” Yessenia asked.
Maggie opened her palms. Her right hand moved upward while her left hand moved downward. A large spider web appeared. Shirley took a step back as she summoned her pole weapon. “W-What was that just now?”
“Another animal-based elemental crystal?” Van shook her head. “Maggie, you have to know the truth! Master William is only controlling you.”
“William?!” Yessenia murmured.
Van quickly shut her own mouth. “I didn’t mean that William!”
“So William, William Ni is your boss. I have seen him a few times in class last year and this year.” Yessenia added.
Maggie threw the spider web towards the group. “Enlarge!” The spider webs magically grew larger as it got closer to the group of three girls. “Entangle!” The spider webs closed in on them. Yessenia ran in front of the group to slice the spider webs with her long sword. Maggie clapped her hands together. “Expand!” The spider webs re-grew again and the tangle was so sudden that the three girls had no time to defend themselves. The spider webs coiled all three of them.
“Oh great, first a giant snake and then spider webs!” Shirley complained.
Van tried to cup her hands together so that she can summon an animal nearby. “Ergh… agh…!”
Maggie said to Van, “Come back to us, Van! We don’t need those who don’t want to help us redeem ourselves against the South El Monte students!”
Van clenched her teeth. “You’re… only being controlled by William!” Van suddenly stopped struggling with the webs. “We… we’re not that weak! We don’t have to show our strengths by throwing in other people into our problems anymore.”
Maggie’s right eyebrow rose in alert. “Tch!”
Van continued. “Last year, you, me, and Jenny always had fun together. Isn’t it more important that we have fun rather than get revenge on people we don’t like? Those South El Monte rivals that we know are nothing to us now that we are in El Monte. We don’t have to fight anymore.”
Maggie closed her eyes. “Be quiet! You can’t change what has already happened! People can be insensitive to how others feel. No one understands us!” Maggie clenched her palms so that the webs coiled onto them more tightly. “My goal is to get you all to run out of power and take you back to our leader.”
Yessenia could barely move. The coil of the web was getting tighter. “Ergh, at this rate, we will never reach Lancer!”
William was still facing against Alex and Huy. “You see, all of us former Potrero students who go to El Monte now are suffering. Right now, South El Monte students are most likely increasing the amount of power users in their school as well.”
Huy stopped him. “Wait! But…” He remembered what Yessenia told him about how all class of 2011 students had to fight each other eventually. “What about the fate of powers?! We’re all going to fight each other in the end and only the stronger person keeps his or her powers!”
“Yep. By the end of all our high school careers, Tony will find out who the strongest member is from El Monte and send him or her to South El Monte to challenge the strongest member over there.”
Alex knelt down, feeling a little tired. Huy did not notice. He began to laugh at Tony’s concept. “Alright, then Tony can take me. I’m the strongest one here in El Monte.”
“That will not do.”
“Eh?”
“Tony is experimenting right now. He is estimating right now that the strongest ones are usually the smartest ones.”
“But,” Huy stopped him. “caring for each other gives us a strongest sense of power. You don’t need to be smart to be powerful.”
William shook his head. “Not exactly. Tony could sense strong power from the smartest students in El Monte. There was a student named Santiago who happened to wield his powers quickly, same goes for Yessenia. Omar, being another of those three, is also knowledgeable. There are a few other students in El Monte but we cannot decipher now since as a freshman and sophomore, our grade-point average is not affected with advanced classes.”
Huy readied his fists. “What do you mean?”
William began explaining. “As a freshman and sophomore, students are divided into two different classes: regular classes and accelerated classes. You only get into an accelerated class if you pass with a very high letter grade in the previous class. Let’s say in eighth grade English, you got an A on many of the exams, then, you are thrown into accelerated English the next year as a freshman. This also applies to math, science, and history. However, accelerated classes give four points if you get an A, the same goes for a regular class.”
“Then what’s the point of taking a tougher accelerated class if it only gives the same credits and units as a regular class?”
“The system is messed up that way. Accelerated classes are only to prepare you for the actual harder classes. This is where we move on to honors and advanced-placement classes as a junior and senior.”
“What if we get an A on those two types of classes?”
“Five.” William answered him. “You see, those classes are even of a higher division compared to accelerated classes. Not a lot of students can enter these classes. Only about ten percent of the class of 2011 students can enter. Since it gives an extra point and only the super, duper smart students can get an A in honors and advanced placement classes, that is when we can easily determine who is smart or not. As of now, we are basing all of El Monte’s sophomores by how many A’s we have now. Omar and Yessenia have plenty. Sadly, Santiago had to leave.”
Alex fell to the ground. Huy turned around, “Alex! Hey!”
Alex felt extremely sleepy. “I… can’t stay awake… I think I’m just… going to rest… here…” He fell asleep.
“H-Hey! Dude, what the hell.” Huy turned back to William, “You said that book is the source of Alex’s powers.”
William shook his head. “Hm-hm!~ That’s correct.”
“Then I’ll fight you back for it! I’d rather have the book belong to him than to you anyway!” Huy boosted off the ground and he flew towards William with speed.
Matt and Nix were running away together. Nix tried to catch up to Matt’s speed. “Where are we going, Mr. Giant Man?”
Matt only ran forward. “As far away from Jenny as possible. I don’t trust her just yet. We should also talk to Bunhong and Amy. We have to find Venus too.”
“First off, where are any of them?”
Matt suddenly stopped running as he stopped while looking confused. “Oh… I don’t know actually.”
Nix frowned. “We were running mindlessly?”
“Where else can we find them?!” Matt yelled at the little orange-reddish bird.
“Sorry, boss!”
Matt became serious. “But anyway, now that I think about it, we were told to meet back at the little inn once we’re finished with Elk Village. Where did Amy tell us to go to again?”
Nix pointed to the right. “That way!”
As they were about to run east, a man stopped them of their tracks. “I’m afraid you two should not move any further.”
Matt turned around and noticed that the man was Michael. “Hey, it’s you! I didn’t know you are a sophomore!”
Nix remembered him from Biology class when Nix was hiding in Matt’s backpack. “He looks like the teacher’s assistant…”
Matt gasped. “A sophomore as a teacher’s assistant?! Whoa! Only juniors and seniors can do that. This guy must have gotten through a loophole or something.”
Michael turned away and said to himself while fixing his glasses. “This guy has no idea who I am exactly… So oblivious…” He became serious and said to Matt, “You are in danger! Tony is gathering all of the sophomores and testing out their strengths. However, that requires us to challenge each other. I am here to take you back to Arkon’s Magic.”
Matt took out his cellphone. “No thanks. I can go back there myself- ah… the access is closed.”
Michael sighed. “Only the CORP lieutenants can take you to Arkon’s Magic.”
Matt scratched his head. “I don’t get it. It was working a while ago.”
“The Pendulum of Time changed everything. It alternated who got to rule over Arkon’s Magic. It is one of the strongest magic forces ever used so far. I’m with the CORP soldiers.”
Matt yelled, “Excuse me?! You’re automatically our enemy then!”
“W-Wait. I’m basically a spy of the lieutenants. I am Lieutenant Braus.”
Matt yelled louder. “GAHHH! That’s even worse!!”
“C-Calm down! I also sense a strong powerful force wandering around in Elsiya… He could be in this Marconian Continent.”
“How bad is this guy and who is he?”
“He is an alumnus of El Monte – class of 2007.”
“Alumnus?”
“It is a term for a person who used to graduate from high school. You can also say ‘alumni’ for a whole group of students who previously graduated.”
Matt became curious and worried at the same time. “Ergh… So he graduated before I even went to high school three months after. Well, who exactly is this alumnus guy…?” Nix flew behind Matt. It was feeling a bit iffy about the thought of this alumnus.
Michael said in a very serious tone. “This dangerous man goes by the name of Rowen. Rowen Bartholemute.”
Nix suddenly froze in fear. “R-R-Rowen… B-Bartho… le… mute…?”
Matt turned around, watching Nix frightened. “Hey, are you alright? Nix was too frozen to respond. It could not move at all. Fear erupted in his mind and everything went blank. “Nix! Snap out of it!”
Matt: Are you calling me dumb?!
William: Yes.
Matt: Are you serious?!
William: Yes.
Matt: Stop saying ‘yes’! You know what? I’m the best person in the whole wide world. What are you going to say now?! HAHA!
William: No.
Yessenia: Stop joking around, Matt. This is serious!
Van: Maggie! Why are you here?
Alex: So basically, the smartest person is the strongest one who can control his or her elemental powers… that sounds just about right, actually.
Huy: Give me the Telsi potion!!
Matt: Why is everybody so loud lately?! Next time on episode 148, Fire Bound, a Whole New Level of Animation!
William: You’re probably the loudest one here.
Huy: Oiy… your sarcasm is pretty evil.
0 comments:
Post a Comment