Chương 23: R&R Ch. 23 — Graduation

Nicholas cursed the idiot who was doing this to him. The scion of all things should have known what would happen if he tried to rank up right now, but still the moron had done it. But Nicholas persevered. He knew that if he gave up, the higher ranks would save him. He was a prospect like no other; they wouldn't let him escape with death, especially when he could do more. But that's not who Nicholas wanted to be, so he fought.

As Jasmine's twenty blades flew across the area killing the strongest of their foes, his playroom shrank till it was less than a hundred feet from him in all directions. He didn't need the range, and it was one of the most expensive parts of the playroom to keep active. Walls rose, traps sprang, and stone bombarded the enemy, his own efforts matching Jasmine's as they focused on the beasts bordering the second rank.

They were growing fast, almost too fast if they were being honest with themselves, but the answer was easy. These weren't natural Beyonders who were formed out of the nothing. They had either been artificially reduced in the case of the more esoteric ones. Or beasts implanted with power. They didn't need time to progress; they would fill up with power until they reached their former peak and return to the natural way or— Nicholas batted away the viscera of the exploding bird with a thought.

The fact that some monsters were drinking in so much power that they exploded their vessel unable to contain it, was novel, but something Nicholas was glad for. It helped cull the numbers.

"Any idea how much longer he'll need?" Nicholas asked as he crushed three more of the beasts.

"No clue we took about an hour."

"We're not going to be able to defend that long, I've got five minutes of power tops," Nicholas said laughing.

"About the same. Want to go out with a bang?" Nicholas knew that skill wasn't ready yet, at least not in the perfect form he wanted to make it, but there was something to be said about just going for it. It had more than enough power even when he was just testing it with the smaller version. And with playroom active, he didn't need to get high in the air to see every target he could feel all of them around them.

"Buy me a few seconds, I need to mark them all," Nicholas said, his mind already preparing his next command.

"Sheesh, making me set them up for you to knock em down seems a bit rude to do that to a lady," Jasmine jokes as she activated her swords. The swords weren't just able to fly around; that was only a small portion of the power she had given them. The other abilities were actually easier to use; they just required more power, and before some idiot had increased the power level of everything, it was going to be enough. Now they were going to have to push harder.

The power of wind, water, and lightning pulsed through the swords as the completed storm blades resonated with the power of the storm.

"Here it comes!" Jasmine swept a hand, and the swords thundered across the battlefield, piercing through any that would come into range of her attacks, and Nicholas breathed a sigh of relief at her side. She was cutting out a ton of the enemy, which meant he could pour his effort into other pursuits than numbers. His power built inside as his wall crumbled. They didn't need to last long; it was almost done.

Jasmine's thunderstorm continued to rip across his battlefield, reducing the number of targets he had, as did the other supers who had finally made it to the center as well to begin cutting away at the chaff.

"You ready?" Jasmine asked, having dropped to one knee as her blades rampaged, blasts of lightning, water, and wind ripping through the battlefield with no heed to how their master was running on dregs.

"Two seconds," Nicholas said as he grasped the last of his targets in his mind. Two seconds passed." Barrage" A veritable storm of shards of condensed force shot out of his hands, spiraling into the sky before dropping down to drill through the skulls of his enemies. Each bolt perfectly aimed. And each bolt with just barely enough force to kill them in a single shot without perforating the ground.

"Holy shit!" Jasmine cheered, having stood up to watch the tower of destruction rain down on the enemy.

"That was incredible. I didn't know you had that in you!" Jasmine cheered, turning to face Nicholas. Nicholas, who was passed out on the ground bleeding from the eyes, nose, and an ugly bruise forming on his throat. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Jasmine could tell he was alright mostly, as alright as anyone could be in his situation; it was just a matter of him overusing his power.

He channeled too much in that last act, all of his remaining power, and with the increased potency it was probably equal if not greater to everything he had in the previous tier. Jasmine hiked him up over a shoulder as Nicholas stirred, his words slurring as he stated that he could walk and didn't need help.

"I'm just getting us off the castle. I might be able to scrape enough together for a big flying sword to fly us back in victory."

"Thanks," Nicholas rasped. She pulled out a flying sword made from a Beyonder soul. Her control with it was, in a word, horrendous, but it would fly and it was big enough for both of them to sit down without a problem. And that they did first Nicholas, who was in the process of zipping up his jacket so that his throat was covered, and her behind him as they rocketed up into the air before drifting to the cheering clouds at a languid pace.

"Did we just leave him?" Nicholas asked, snorting.

"Yeah, the little prick can find his own way back." Jasmine said as she pulled her hair out of its ponytail so it could fly freely in the wind. Nicholas nodded before turning his attention to the crowd. He should still be fine for a small working. That would have to be enough, and he could do the combat cycling technique he had found by accident that prioritized regeneration rate.

It was a kind of stupid one to use all the time in Nicholas's opinion, but to use it while recovering was novel and it didn't harm the potency of his power. It was just. The technique felt wrong to him, though not in a it was harming him way. But in making an adjustment that was painful way. Like when he had learned to touch-type. This was just something he wasn't used to yet. And he would change that. Every time he was in a fight or actively training, he would use this method.

He knew Jasmine practiced two methods as well, though he hadn't figured out the second one yet, or at least what it did.

"Think we can go a little slower makes it more dramatic and gives me the chance to recover slightly," Nicholas whispered to Jasmine who happily obliged, slowing down their procession.

The crowd was still cheering wildly when Retort and Retribution arrived riding regally together on a flying sword the size of a surfboard.

"And let's greet the heroes of the day, the duo who ranked up in secret for the big reveal, dominated the battlefield, and then when their fellow hero was in danger acted and destroyed all the monsters in a combination super attack!" The announcer prattled on, but the crowd could barely hear them over the sound of their own screams. As one Retort and Retribution raised a hand to the sky, forming a one with their hand, proudly proclaiming their status as number one. The crowd roared its approval.

The final tradition of the day was for the children to run into the field and play with the superheroes, and the moment they began bursting onto the field, Retort spoke his word audible despite the cheers not dying down." Playroom" An elaborate playground made of stone and carpeted with grass formed while other children drifted into the sky, flying as if under their own command, now able to soar the sky at their leisure.

Retribution's swords flew out again now sheathed, and the older children got a chance to ride them like Retort and Retribution had done in the grand fight. It was then the team split up, Retort governing over his castle and making sure the younger kids were safe and could fly as close as he could get to their desire. And Retribution was racing across the sky with a team of teens doing flips to see who could do the best trick.

It was an exhausting tradition, but the smiles Retort and Retribution had were even more brilliant than when they had been in the throes of combat and the joy of pushing themselves.

Rend thought it was good that the duo seemed to actually enjoy interacting with the people they wanted to protect. He had been worried about Retort when the man had just glared at everyone when they weren't looking during the meet and greet last week. But that, as it turned out, was just how the man was at those things. Rend couldn't blame him. Though he was jealous that the duo seemed popular. Though a playground where you could fly and flying sword racing was way cooler than anything that he could do.

He was impressed. If they had been a second slower, the adults would have had to step in, but when the duo moved, Astra told them to watch, and low and behold, they had done it. Their backs against the wall, the kids had dug deep and pushed beyond what could be expected. They had ranked up, sure, so theoretically fighting at rank should have been easy, but they were still young. And both had to rely on new methods, unlike himself. Their methods only got stronger when they worked on them.

Rend just had to rank up and his abilities evolved. He couldn't wait to see how far these two would walk. And what they would learn from him. His own mentor had been nearly as bad a match for him as he was for these two, and yet he learned a lot from that experience. There was something you couldn't learn from a hero that fought in the same way as you. Spinning his keychain around, he severed space and returned to his hotel.

Tomorrow they would leave; he had no interest in staying in this city, it would have been chosen for a reason, so there wasn't a chance his team would be staying. Now that they actually had members, it was approaching time for them to decide where exactly they wanted to rest their heads.

Astra breathed a sigh of relief that the duo had done it. And she knew she was going to have a conversation with both Horus and his father about the absolute ridiculousness of his actions today. There were stories of people ranking up in an instant and immediately being ready to move and fight, but they were just that stories. The shortest recorded rank-up was a twenty-two minute rank up from rank one to rank two.

It had been seven minutes since Horus began his own rank up and when Jasmine and Nicholas had finished the battle. Now it was approaching the fifty-minute mark, and she could read from the energy flows that he was finally beginning to return to his body. It would be another hour till the process was complete though; forced rank ups were always slower. Mostly though she was glad that the duo was going to be gone soon. There were problems with having people that talented in your area.

Nails that stuck up got hammered. She just hoped her academy wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.

Leo crushed the glass in his hands as he snarled at the screen showing that damned brat showing off. He ranked up early. He butchered the monsters. Couldn't they tell the kid was cheating? How else would he have been able to defeat Leo's own working two ranks beneath him? Because of that brat, he was going to get fired the moment they found a replacement for him, Astra had told him. And yet nobody was doing anything to this kid. That was fine; he could do it himself.

He wasn't strong, but he still had favors to pull. Someone who could do anything racked them up fast. He would get revenge on Nicholas soon enough.