NOVEL NEXT Chapter 6: Annihilating Bullies
I woke up to the sound of Victoria knocking on my door. I answered it in my underwear.
"Get dressed. We're moving out in ten minutes," she said.
"Got it," I said.
I put coffee on and got dressed. I put ice cubes in the coffee so I could chug 3 cups really fast. I wasn't really tired, but I was tired. This was usually the point in the day where I'd regret the decisions I made the night before, but today wasn't one of those days. I did what I needed to do.
When I walked outside, I checked the mailbox to see if they'd brought me what I asked for. Sure enough, my bag of lockpicks was in the box. I stuffed those in my pocket and walked up to Victoria.
"I'm ready," I said.
"Good," she said.
I followed her back to the elevator. She hit the button B13. When the doors opened, we walked out, and she said, "Welcome to the Vampire Academy."
The ceiling was several stories high with an artificial sky. Martial arts buildings spread out before us. People of all ages walked past in uniforms of red and black. The air felt fresh and outdoorsy, despite it being in doors. I noticed a series of gardens with trees throughout the complex.
"This is where they train and teach new vampires how to adjust to their new powers and strength. It doesn't matter how old you are. You are all younglings in the eyes of the more experienced senior vampires. I am an instructor here, so you may see me around," Victoria said.
"I'm taking you to registration. Then you'll be on your own. Until you graduate and join the Vampire Corps. I think you have the potential to do great things on the frontlines, but you have to go through this process just like everyone else did before you get there."
"Vampire Corps? Frontlines? Is there a war going on that I'm unaware of?" I said.
"Yes. A war against the unknowns. Every nonhuman that exists on this planet came through a rift from another dimension. There are many rifts still opening. Unlike the ones who have formed sects and entered nonhuman society, most of the nonhumans that come out of the rifts are mindless killing machines," Victoria said.
"It is our duty to destroy them before they cause any harm to human or nonhuman society. You'll have your time to join me on the frontlines. Just train and do your best."
"I will," I said.
Victoria took me through registration. They gave me classes, a dorm room, a map, and a uniform to change into.
"Good luck," Victoria said. "People are ruthless in here. Just don't die."
"I won't. I can take care of myself, but I appreciate y0ur concern." I kissed her on the mouth. She kissed me back and I left for my first class.
As I made my way to my first class, a few students stood in front of me, stopping me.
"What's your problem?" I said. "Don't know how traffic works yet?"
"Uh, no. We're taking donations," the tall blonde one said.
He was unreasonably good looking like the other two but I assumed that was a vampire thing. I was probably unreasonably good looking now too. I just hadn't looked in a mirror in a while. That was assuming I would show up in a mirror. According to myth, vampires didn't show up in mirrors.
"For what? Of what?" I said.
"For us, of course," he said with a smile that said he thought he was clever. "Of life essence."
"Oh, I don't have any life essence I can give you," I said, honestly.
"You're alive, aren't you? You wouldn't be if you didn't have life essence," he said, still thinking he was smart.
"No, I have life essence. I just can't give it to you. It's crystallized," I said.
"It's what? Crystallized? What do you mean?" He said, confused.
"Oh, you don't know about lifeblood crystals?" I said, feeling slightly superior to this obvious bully.
"You just made that up," he said. "Now give me your life essence!"
He went to grab my neck, and I put up my arm, blocking him. He grabbed my arm and bit into that instead. He sucked the blood from my arm like a creep, but then he stopped and spit it out.
"There's no life essence in this blood!" He said.
"I told you. Mine is protected. It can't be stolen," I said.
"If you won't pay me in life essence, then you'll pay in blood," he said, raising his fist.
"I already did," I said, indicating the blood he spit out.
"Not enough," he said. "Not yet."
He tried to sucker punch me, but time slowed down. I saw his punch coming like it was moving through molasses. Instead of dodging it, I thought it would be fun to punch his fist with mine. You know how superheroes do in the movies and a shockwave comes out.
So that's what I did. But rather than a shockwave coming out, his fist just shattered and crumpled under the force of mine. Then his forearm cracked and broke in several places, and blood shot out of the back of his elbow and sprayed the wall behind us.
"Fuuuuck!" He said. "My arm! What's wrong with you?" He held his shattered arm.
"What do you mean? You attacked me," I said.
His two friends tried to get revenge for their friend. One threw a roundhouse kick to my face, while the other threw a cut kick to my balancing leg. It wasn't a fair attack, but I was prepared. Slow motion had already kicked in again.
I blocked the roundhouse with one arm and grabbed the leg with the other. Simultaneously, I moved my balancing leg away out of his reach. I twisted the leg I was holding until it broke it several places, and blood sprayed out of the foot into my face.
That guy fell to the ground holding his leg. The other one had recovered and was circling me, looking for an opening. I wasn't going to give him one. I had only studied martial arts for a few years, and that was years ago, but this guy was an amateur.
He threw a haymaker punch at me, and I ducked. Then I uppercut his chin, breaking his jaw, knocking him out, and laying him out flat on his back.
A blonde haired woman wearing a more prestigious and official-looking uniform than mine or the other students came up to me and said, "I saw the whole thing! You mercilessly brutalized these students. You're in a lot of trouble."
"What the f*ck?" I said.