BLOOD CURSE ACADEMIA - PREVIOUS DRAFT EDITION -

Chapter LXXXVI (86) - Ulric’s Rematch

Kizu regretted not drinking one of his warming potions before following Allik outside the cabin. After only a few minutes of trudging against the snow and wind, his feet felt like frozen lumps and his hands barely retained enough mobility to form fists. The silt in the wind made his eyes water, which resulted in frozen tear streaks down his cheeks. Even breathing was difficult, each intake a gasp that competed for oxygen against the gales of wind.

When Allik gestured to a cabin on the left, Kizu broke away from the Kemon man’s path. Before entering, Kizu looked behind himself at the path they’d forged through the snow. Normally, a three-minute walk, it had turned into a ten-minute slog through the snow. His cabin, normally visible at this range, was engulfed by the blizzard. The lanterns that hung outside each cabin door vanished behind the miserable weather.

Kizu practically fell through the cabin’s entryway as he shouldered the door open. The warmth of the hearth inside welcomed him with the kindest embrace imaginable. Inside, his old cabinmates all ate lunch seated on benches that stretched the entire length of the long cabin. It looked like the cabins had been paired up, his old cabin with one of the girls’ cabins. Boys sat on one side of the table while girls on the other. Harumi practically shot out of his seat upon seeing Kizu.

“Is everything okay?” he asked frantically. “Yesterday you packed up all your things and disappeared. And then you didn’t show up for the astronomy lesson this morning. Some people speculated you’d been sent home. Not me, of course, but some people.”

“I was meeting with the brewer Professor Knoff asked us to deliver a message to. He gave me a few tips about how to use the local flora.”

Harumi’s mouth fell open. “No way? You had private lessons with the tribe’s medicine man?”

“I guess so? I don’t think that’s the term they use here, but yeah. Anyway, what’s on the menu?”

Harumi showed him a bowl of reddish-brown mush. Kizu took a bowl for himself and examined it. As far as he could tell, it contained berries mashed up with animal fat. He spooned a bit into his mouth and found it didn’t taste as bad as he feared. In fact, the berries made the dish surprisingly sweet while the fat exacerbated the flavor. And even Mort should be able to digest both of the ingredients without any issue.

Grabbing an extra bowl, he started back to the cabin’s door.

“Wait.” Harumi chased after him. “Where are you going?”

Kizu raised one of the bowls. “I have to deliver this back to my cabin.”

“Can I come with you? I mean, Professor Knoff asked me to deliver the message too. Do you think it would be okay? I just want to talk a little with the brewing master.”

Kizu thought about turning down the first-year but decided against that. If Harumi joined, he might be able to entertain Anata for a bit and give him some more time to study the plants Allik introduced to him. He still warned Harumi that it might be a while before Allik returned, but the boy appeared unbothered by the fact.

As they left, Kizu looked over his shoulder and spotted Harvey sitting adjacent to a pretty Tainted girl with a nice smile that showcased her dimples. He was showing her part of his tattoo near his wrist and beaming with pride. And she looked enthralled by the conversation. Apparently, Harvey had finally cracked the code for talking to girls.

The trip back to his cabin was only marginally better than when he went to pick up lunch. At the very least, now his back was to the wind. But it felt like his ears were going to fall off. And, even stuffed inside his uniform’s pockets, his hands had lost all feeling.

Harumi tried saying something to him, but the words were lost in the wind.

“What?” Kizu asked.

Harumi spoke louder this time, but at that same moment Kizu’s bond with Mort flared. Something was happening. He focused, attempting to block out the blizzard and Harumi. Only able to gain an impression of danger from Mort, he sent back a simple command. Stay with Anata. Then he felt Mort move, jumping into action.

Kizu dropped the bowls of food into the snow and scrambled forward through the blizzard as quickly as possible.

“Come on!” Kizu yelled at Harumi. The surprised first-year stumbled after Kizu.

When the cabin came into view, Kizu immediately noticed the damage to the structure. The front door stuck out of a snowbank and the doorway smashed. Mort wasn’t here. Kizu could tell that much immediately. But he still stepped into the building.

“Was it like this before?” Harumi asked as he looked around the trashed building. The walls had fist holes the size of an adult’s head and almost every piece of furniture had been smashed, leaving wooden debris scattered across the floor.

Kizu didn’t bother responding to the question. He snatched up his pack. It had been shoved off his bed, but thankfully remained closed and the contents secure. He removed his usual academy uniform.

“Harumi,” Kizu said, shoving the uniform into his hands. “Listen to me. I need you to do something important. You need to deliver a message to Professor Grove and Nanook. They need to track me. Grove is more than capable of finding me if she uses my uniform as a link. Whoever broke in here is on the move. I need to leave and go now. Do you understand?”

“N-no? Why do you need to follow them? How are you following them? Isn’t it dangerous?”

Instead of answering, Kizu set a hand on the boy’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Details don’t matter right now. Do you understand what I need you to do?”

Harumi nodded slowly and gulped, looking pale.

“Then go!”

Kizu reached into his pack and downed one of the warming potions. The sensation relaxed tension from his shoulders like a warm bath, but he shook off the feeling and focused. He considered putting on the necklace to hide his presence but decided against it. Professor Grove needed him visible to track his location.

Why would someone break into his cabin for Anata? It didn’t make any sense. A jolt of fear gripped his heart as he thought of the possibility of Ulric coming for him and finding Anata. But he had just seen the students bunking in cabin 3 eating lunch. Ulric should have been there. And, even if not, he would have crossed paths with him on the way.

He cursed himself for not putting more pressure on Professor Grove to send Anata home. He had known it wouldn’t be safe for her to join. Unfortunately, having his concerns validated didn’t make him feel any better about the situation. Somehow, he needed to find a way to curb Anata’s constant reckless decisions in the future. Assuming he found her.

Again, he tried to get a clearer image from Mort. But the monkey only returned the sensation of cold. He was clinging to Anata while huddled under her sweater. Other than his vague direction, Kizu couldn’t make out any more details.

Kizu strapped on his snowshoes and left the cabin’s warmth behind.

He only made it a couple minutes out before he met someone standing in his path. At first, Kizu thought it was Nanook or Allik, based on their stature. But as he raised an arm, hoping to receive help in his search, he saw the uniform denoting the identity of a student. A large student.

The good news was that Ulric didn’t have Anata, so his fears there were misplaced. But the bad news was that Ulric had seen his raised arm. He stood directly in the path towards Mort and Anata.

“Kaga Kizu,” Ulric said, his voice grinding like a whetstone. His tone was filled with loathing, as if disgusted by Kizu’s name. “I’ve been wanting to have a private…conversation with you.”

“I don’t have time for this Ulric. I need to get past you.”

“No time. I agree.” He showed his teeth.

“Ulric, I don’t know what your problem with me is, but it’s not important. If you want to talk about reinstating your spot in the weekly fights, we can talk later. Just move aside.”

“You don’t know what my problem is?” Ulric barked three humorless laughs. “I’ve been looking forward to this.”

Realizing the older boy wasn’t going to let him past, Kizu decided to cut to the chase. “Fine,” he snapped. “What’s wrong? What did I do? This entire vendetta against me is idiotic!”

“Emilia!” he growled.

Kizu blinked. That had not been the response he expected. Emilia had mentioned Ulric several times. And never in a positive light. And she had never been shy about publicly showing her interest in Kizu. Even before the combat contest. He had never thought much about it.

Far more expected, however, was Ulric pumping himself up with enhancement spells and rushing at Kizu. Anticipating the older student to result to violence eventually, Kizu had vigilantly watched him with his spellsense throughout the conversation. The moment he saw the enhancements activate, he jumped behind Ulric.

Normally, Kizu always aimed for a few centimeters above the ground to give himself a margin of error to work around. This time, his perception completely warped by the blizzard around him, he found himself knee deep in the snow. Instead of using his jumps as an escape, as he had initially planned, they instead functioned as a trap.

Ulric, thankfully, took a moment to realize what had happened. It gave Kizu the precious few moments to jump again, this time on top of the snow just half a meter up. Unfortunately, not everything came with him. Unused to the bulky snowshoes, one of them remained buried beneath him. He reoriented himself on the snow. Without his snowshoe, he took a knee to remain balanced.

“I’m going to break up with her!” Kizu said, hoping to placate Ulric. “As soon as I get back from this trip.”

Ulric snorted and spat. The glob of spit caught in the wind and flung itself out into the tundra.

“I don’t want to fight.” Kizu tried one last time to make peace with Ulric. He could feel Mort getting further away with every passing moment. But he couldn’t leave like this. He needed to dig out his snowshoe or he stood no chance at tracking Anata down.

This time when Ulric charged, Kizu attempted a new strategy. He created an illusion over himself, whitening out his location while simultaneously creating a second illusion, this one of himself, over to the side, reacting like he had just jumped to the spot.

He started frantically digging with his hands into the snow, searching for the lost shoe. With the wind billowing, he never heard Ulric’s attack.

Ulric chopped down on Kizu’s bad leg. The split second he felt the metal of his leg brace bend inward, Kizu acted on instinct and jumped.

This time, he aimed too high, and the remaining snowshoe strained, breaking slightly as he fell onto the snow. His leg brace, while having protected the bone from Ulric’s strike, now jutted into his calf, the metal piercing through the skin.

“I can see you, dumbass.”

It took Kizu only a glance at his illusion to understand. The snow of the blizzard went straight through it. Ulric likely just used his spellsense to find Kizu after noticing that. Kizu cursed himself silently for not putting on the necklace earlier.

Kizu dismissed his illusion and stood, balancing on his single snowshoe. Ulric cracked his knuckles. He approached, his own pair of snowshoes leaving massive footprints behind him.

It was time to fight seriously now. Kizu clenched a fist and raised it out in front of him.

He jumped again. But this time, not in retreat. He jumped into Ulric, his fist appearing inside the older boy’s leg. Just as Roba had warned him about so many months ago, jumping prioritized the mage. Bystanders were fodder to be displaced.

Kizu, chest deep in snow, felt the warmth of Ulric’s blood soak his hand. The fragments of his calf’s bone scratched against his fist. But if the older student was in pain, he showed no sign of it. Instead, Ulric bared his teeth again in a nasty smile.

Kizu ignited his fist in flames.

That got more of a reaction out of Ulric as the reek of burning flesh filled the air. But not the response Kizu expected. He felt him channel his magic into his leg, enhancing it and expanding the muscles. Kizu’s hand, now caught in the muscle’s tissue, trapped him in place.

Ulric punched down at him and Kizu didn’t react in time, catching a glancing blow to his forearm before jumping away.

This time, his remaining snowshoe broke completely as he fell a full meter before making contact with the snow. He wiggled his boot out of the broken bindings of the snowshoe. His arm throbbed where Ulric had made contact, but he ignored that. Without any footing, he was as good as dead.

Despite his low rankings, Ulric wasn’t an idiot. Having wised up to Kizu’s jumping strategy, he now approached him erratically, making it difficult for Kizu to predict his movements. But he did, however, limp. The leg Kizu had injured was lit up by a burning pant leg illuminating a circle of red muscley sinew that held the leg in form.

Kizu pressed his hands against the snow as he attempted to pull himself up to his feet. It melted on contact with his warm flesh. An idea occurred to him. If snow was just water in another form, he could manipulate it. Once he knew what he wanted to do, the execution was quick and simple. He melted and molded the snow with elemental magic, then refroze it to the bottom of each of his boots in a thick sheet of ice.

Standing, blood dripping down his leg and staining the white snow under his feet, Kizu faced down his enemy. His makeshift-snowshoes reminded him of another resource he had on hand. He reached into his pocket and removed the three vials he had brewed earlier in the day.

Ulric charged at him, Kizu staring him down. Just as Ulric’s fist was a handspan away from his face, he jumped.

Not to the side. And not even behind him, like Ulric expected. Instead, Kizu jumped five meters over his head and dropped one of the vials. Before rapidly jumping back to the snow nearby. The time between jumps was so miniscule that Kizu had the opportunity to watch with horror as the vial, instead of falling on his opponent, was snatched by the wind and hurled against a nearby empty cabin. Crystalized ice exploded as it made contact with the dilapidated building.

Kizu then hurled the second vial at Ulric, hoping to salvage the moment of distraction. Not missing a beat, Ulric threw himself to the side with inhuman speed. The second vial flew harmlessly past him and disappeared into the tundra.

However, the sudden movement still caused Ulric some damage. The hole Kizu had created in his leg reopened slightly, signifying a loss in focus on Ulric’s enhancement spell.

The final vial in hand, Kizu jumped again at Ulric. While Ulric still managed to chaotically maneuver so Kizu couldn’t predict where exactly to jump to, the older student didn’t have full use of his other leg. Ulric predicted that Kizu would go for the wounded leg a second time and aimed an enhanced kick with his good leg.

Kizu enhanced his arm and met the kick with an open palm, the glass vial shattering at the contact.

Ice exploded out, fully engulfing Kizu arm and solidifying him up to his shoulder. Likewise, it spread across Ulric’s leg. But, unlike Kizu, he had no escape.

Kizu jumped one last time. Shards of glass from the broken vial still jutted out of his palm’s skin. With Ulric finally stationary, he could have easily sent a fist into his skull, but instead he opted for a nonlethal option. His bloody fist appeared inside Ulric’s frozen leg, shattering his kneecap. As an added present, Kizu left behind the glass shards in the broken knee as he removed his hand. No matter how much muscle enhancement Ulric used, he wouldn’t be walking off the near complete removal of his knee.

Not that Ulric didn’t try. As Kizu stepped away, he watched as Ulric snarled like a beast and expanded his muscles again, sending cracks through the ice. It shattered and Kizu prepared himself for the worst.

But Ulric collapsed face-first into the snow. He reached towards Kizu, pathetically trying to worm his way forward.

Kizu stared down at him. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel guilty about what he’d done. He’d given Ulric half a dozen outs. Ulric had relentlessly pushed for this unnecessary fight. If he was smart, he would crawl over to the nearby empty cabin until the storm subsided. His life wasn’t in any real danger.

He considered taking Ulric’s snowshoes but decided against it. Moving within Ulric’s reach still would be a stupid decision. Besides, his ice snowshoes seemed to be working well enough.

“Hope your leg heals better than mine did,” Kizu told him as he turned and started to walk away.

Ulric raged, shouting incoherently into the wind. The only thing Kizu understood from the ravings was the name ‘Emilia.’

Kizu was starting to think dating girls might be more trouble than it was worth.