Luminary Institute

35: A Human-Shaped Bomb

The explosion rocked the stadium. A fireball enveloped a quarter of the pitch—and it all centered on Slade and his guildmates. Swooping upward, Nyssa and the rest of Class Zero avoided the explosion. Her wingbeats had sent gusts of wind downward, pushing the flames away. 

Ryker—after detonating his entire body—began reforming near the edge of the explosion site. All the regeneration started from his head, but even before his legs regenerated, he began crawling away on his arms. 

A moment of foresight, if anything; because, not a moment later, a tremor sank the area into the ground while prehensile hair began crashing down from the sky. 

“They’re still unharmed? What is this...” Ryker muttered to himself, picking himself up and running off after his legs regenerated. A string of expletives left his mouth as he dodged beams of energy coming from Amaris, the Moon’s Apostle. 

He flipped, he laid flat on the ground, and he ran. Putting on a show, Ryker sparked cheer after cheer from the crowds in the stand. Smiling, he just waved to the crowd. “I’ll be here all week, no need to worry! I’m also available for autographs at any ti-.” 

Unable to finish his words, he looked down only to see a spike of hair coming through his chest. 

“Oh.” 

Dragged backward towards Caesar, Ryker began screaming “HELPPP” before blowing his head up to dodge a blow from Accelerator. Here, his saviors came. Nyssa, the huge dragon, came swooping down while bathing the pitch in fire. Helped by Titus, she blanketed the pitch in flames while Albion, Electra, and Celeste sent precise attacks towards Slade’s group. 

Nyssa snatched away the tatters of Ryker’s body before retreating back into the sky. To give Ryker time to regenerate, she began a slow loop in the sky. Meanwhile, the four on her back sat back while Conrad went to work. 

Rings of blue and red began expanding out from Conrad’s eyes as panels of information popped up in every part of his vision. Activating his powers to the fullest, he began acting as the surveyor and updated everyone on the situation. 

“Caesar’s begun expanding his hair outward. He’s transforming into his signature giant spider-like form. Like us though, Slade, Amaris, Leora, and Accelerator have climbed onto his back. It looks like it’ll be a battle of the gian- SWOOP LEFT!” 

Rolling in the air and banking towards the left side, Nyssa felt her stomach turn as a beam of energy from Amaris tore through the space her right wing had just been occupying. This Apostle of the Moon title was no joke... 

And this dragon transformation took a lot of energy... 

“Ready for round two?” Nyssa asked once done with her loop. To her delight, a resounding yes came from everyone. “Alright let’s go.” 

Repeating the same tactic from earlier, she soared downward and dropped Ryker like a bomb. Another explosion later, she smiled. They had done damage this time—Caesar’s spider had lost three legs. Of course, the hair grew back in moments, but they had chipped away at their opponents nonetheless. 

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Instead of retrieving Ryker though, she swooped downward on a far steeper trajectory. She rolled midair and flipped all the other students off her back while throwing Conrad downward. Now free, she kamikazed herself into the giant hair-spider to the utter surprise of the audience.

“Oh my god, she bit the spider!” 

“That’s... ew, I'm shuddering just imagining that.” 

Ignoring the feeling of hair exploding and stabbing the inside of her mouth, she persisted through the blows from Slade and his team. It was... fire time. Letting loose a torrent of flames, she exhaled as much fire as possible—burning through her huge stores of energy like it was oil. 

A second later, as the attacks from the rest of Class Zero came pouring in, the pressure on her lightened up. “It’s just you and me Caesar.” 

“You’ve grown plenty since we last fought,” Caesar praised, a relaxed smile on his face as he continued pumping out hair. “But. While this is a smart strategy, you’re still far too young to win an attrition war against me.” 

As his words left his mouth, an explosion of hair threw Nyssa backward. Midair, she gave up on the dragon form and retreated as a hawk. On the ground, she morphed into a snow-white panther and ran around the battlefield to avoid Caesar’s chasing hair. 

Up. Down. Left. Right. 

Rapid-cycling through animals, she put her transformation powers on full display in front of the entire school. Panther to phoenix. Phoenix to unicorn. Unicorn to cheetah. Cheetah to mouse. Mouse to... weird, spike-covered turtle. Turtle to eyeball-laden octopus. Octopus to griffin back to panther. 

Exhausted after the frenetic chase, she transformed back into a human to catch her breath... only to get hoisted into the air by a smiling Amaris. 

“Got you,” Amaris pulled Nyssa into a brief hug before letting her down and patting her on the shoulder. “You did well. You’ve improved so much since the last time we fought.” 

Nyssa, without the energy to respond, just sat onto the ground. Watching Amaris disappear from her spot and begin to let loose a barrage of energy attacks, she could only sigh. Maybe in the future, Celeste would reach a similar level... 

Right now, though, Nyssa could only watch as Celeste got absolutely dominated. Her beams got drowned out, and her physical capabilities couldn’t hold a candle to Amaris’s martial arts. And so... the battle came to a quick close. Slade’s team began double-teaming the remaining Class Zero students, packing them up without too much effort. 

“And that’s the end,” Kaiser’s voice came over the speakers. Ryker, in theory, could still fight, but he could do little while surrounded by the entire opposing team. “Well done Class Zero, I’m sure Slade and the others have plenty of praise for you all. However, as always, it’s time for judging. Shall we ask our judges for thoughts?” 

“I thought the initial tactic was quite ingenious. Taking to the skies is an effective way to avoid the most powerful combatant on the other team, Slade.” 

“In addition, I’m sure everyone felt quite the shock when you all carried out dive bombing tactics with Ryker.” 

“The main problem though, is that you all could never mount a full-fledged attack. The dragon biting offensive was certainly one way to do it, but unlike the previous group, there wasn’t a great amount of organization going into it.” 

“Instead, you all set yourselves up for a chaotic battlefield where no one could support each other, and while that can be a veritable strategy at times, it sets you up for failure in this case. A chaotic battlefield allows for the much more powerful, and much more experienced group under Slade to fully exert their advantage.” 

“Well said, judges. Class Zero, I commend you all. A fine effort that came with a great amount of creativity,” Kaiser nodded, clapping his hands before spreading his arms and turning to the rest of the stadium. “ That wraps up our sparring for the day, can we have the crowd give everyone who fought today a round of applause and some cheers?” 

The roar of cheers came bursting forth, and, among them, Nyssa could hear people shouting about her... 

“She can transform into so many things, is there anything she can’t transform into?” 

“Your girlfriend, so stop being such a fangirl, dude.” 

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being a fangirl! Let her transform into the mature, goth mother figure of my drea-” 

“Shut the hell up. She’s a student like us. A FIRST YEAR. Don’t be creepy like that, uncool, dude.” 

“You’re right, you’re right. I’ll send an apology sometime and give some flowers...” 

“Just... just stop.” 

Shivering, Nyssa rubbed her arms. Unsure as to how to feel, she just wanted to not think about anything... 

She was exhausted after that battle anyway... so... maybe a nap was the answer to this all.