King was in a pinch.

He and Seiren had successfully found Annabel after their class had fallen in the pit created by the enemy, but not before the pervert had gone and got himself stabbed in the shoulder and the side of the stomach by two of the crystal spikes at the bottom. So now the leader of Earthling Class No. 1’s healer-sensor five needed to focus her attention on healing him and someone needed to provide cover for both the medic and her patient.

If King were faced with only one opponent, that wouldn’t have been a problem, but right now he was up against three. That trio included Zalan – the bastard who had aided in the crumbling of the ground beneath the Earthlings’ feet with his quake deva earlier, the deviant who had created the crystals the pit was full of and another who had a teal energy deva.

Zalan was the most annoying of the three. Partially because he resembled King in appearance, except that his hair was reddish-brown and his eyes – olive-colored, but mostly because his abilities inhibited the orange-haired giant’s speed the most.

King could only move fast on smooth terrain, but when every surface he could use shook and cracked, utilizing the power of his Daroid was all but impossible. The only way he could pull it off was to go with full force again and again to dodge the tremors and the cracks formed by them.

In the present moment the speedy warrior dodged yet another quake pulse only to see how the other members of Zalan’s trio sent a teal energy wave and hundreds of double-terminated obelisks of coral-colored crystals at Seiren and Annabel.

These attacks were sent from opposite directions, so there was no way to stop them both. King released his scarlet energy compound to a level where a whole cloud of it formed around him to try and do the impossible and surprisingly, it worked.

The reason for that wasn’t him overusing his deva, however. It was due to the intervention of a lightning bolt that had come out of nowhere, shredding the obelisks to pieces while the giant ripped the energy wave apart with one of his own making.

After that, the bolt landed on the ‘big’ battering ram’s back, revealing itself as Hikaru who had a smile that was as confident as his classmate had ever seen on his face.

The first person he addressed wasn’t even the one he was standing on, though, but his rival. And Hikaru talked to Seiren without even looking at him as he had focused his gaze on the enemy.

(Hikaru) ‘Well done, Blackscale! I was sure you’d be dead already, but you seem to have just been stabbed a few times!’

(Seiren) ‘I won’t be for much longer, Summerbolt.

I like the tan on your back, by the way. How’d you get that so fast? By being a weak dumbass?’

At this point the orange-haired giant thought that maybe the mad genius considered him to be nothing more than a prop from which to look at his rival from up high. Maybe the reason Hikaru had intervened at all was to humiliate Seiren by putting him in his debt, rather than to save King and Annabel.

(King) ‘I’m also here, guys. And so are the enemies. So how about putting the rivalry stuff on hold?’

A new earth-shattering wave was sent at the quartet now, Hikaru teleporting Annabel and Seiren away from the range of Zalan’s attack and cladding King in his bolts, which lead to the transformation of the Daroid cloud around him into a scarlet mini-storm. With the speed boost he had received, Earthling Class No. 1’s ‘big’ battering ram zigzagged around the cracks on the ground to shorten the distance between him and the Martians’ seismic warrior, the young Summerbolt on his back also making a move at the same time.

He attacked the coral crystal and teal energy deviants with a barrage of lightning projectiles just as they reached the pervert and his healer, stopping them in their tracks. King then passed through Zalan and his classmates with one arc of scarlet energy and lightning, landing a heavy hit on each of his opponents, the crystal-making one managing to cover himself in a partial armor of his deva to lessen the damage.

Seiren had finally been healed while all this had been happening, however, blasting that crystal armor to pieces with his bright red fireworks and leaving burns on his foe’s skin that distracted him long enough to receive an explosive head-butt, which finished the Martian off.

(Seiren) ‘That’s for all the shit your crystals did to our class!!’ – while Hikaru got off King’s back and they dispelled the union of their lightning and Daroid, Annabel joined them and Seiren, the golden-haired pervert turning to her – ‘Thanks for healing me, Bel.’

(Annabel) ‘You should thank King for providing cover for me all this time, so I could finish healing you. Hikaru, too.’

(Seiren) ‘Good job, King.’

(Hikaru) ‘No gratitude for me, huh? Not that I was expecting such a thing from a perverted bastard like you.’

(Seiren) ‘Since you weren’t expecting it, there’s nothing to be disappointed about, right?’

(Annabel) ‘You two can keep on fighting while I heal Hikaru. We’ll need him at a 100% when Zalan and co. hit us again.’

She placed her palms on Hikaru’s back after saying that, running cyan healing energy over the burns he had suffered. King thought that burns like those would be quite painful, but the young Summerbolt didn’t even seem fazed by them. He definitely had something much bigger on his mind right now than his wounds.

(Hikaru) ‘There won’t be time to heal me all the way, Bel. Not now.’ – the healing beauty was as confused by the mad genius’s words as the pervert and the glutton, so he went ahead and explained – ‘Blackscale, King and I have another place to be.

I came here after making sure Keiry D was safe, but she located Hock and Gorudora before that. And neither of them is near this battlefield.’

(King) ‘Where are they, then?’

(Hikaru) ‘Across the Kisdeya River, along with Nepalo.’

The three Earthlings’ confusion turned to shock after that reveal.

(Seiren) ‘The Martians’ Ares Trio are just sitting there, waiting? Why not join the battle here?’

(Hikaru) ‘I think it’s all part of their strategy. While the Hera Trio delay Tora, the rest of the enemy forces are meant to face our class on the big central field, where we are right now.

Except for Hock, Gorudora and Nepalo, who are to stay behind so they can move in after their classmates have tired out our forces here, taking us out with minimum damage for those three. And their plan is probably to do this before Tora can finish off Lara and the Nelaz twins, so the rest of us can be neutralized by the time he gets to this field.’

This scared Annabel, angered Seiren and confused King. But thankfully, the reactions of the orange-haired giant’s two classmates cleared things up for him.

(Annabel) ‘And with the Ares Trio still being in good shape and Tora being all alone, they can take him out when he arrives and win the Battle!’

(Hikaru) ‘Exactly.’

(Seiren) ‘The bastards have us right where they want us, then!!’

(Hikaru) ‘Not necessarily. All that needs to be done to turn things in our favor is for someone to hold off the Ares Trio until Tora gets to this field.

I’ve already given our guys a hint to turn the tide of the battle in the pit. With the healers’ support for us and the absence of the Ares Trio for the Martians, their forces here can now be taken out. If any of our people on the central field are still battle-able when Tora arrives, they can join up and help us finish off Hock, Gorudora and Nepalo.’

(King) ‘So your plan is for you, me and Seiren to hold off the Ares Trio?’

(Hikaru) ‘We three are what’s left of our class’s frontal assault group. There’s no one better for a task like this. If we pull this off, we’ll rob the Martians of the advantage they have over us. The Battle will be as good as won from there.’

Annabel had a thoughtful look on her face after hearing the young Summerbolt’s suggestion, but meanwhile Seiren and King had already grinned with a lot of mad confidence and excitement.

(Seiren) ‘Another one of Summerbolt’s crazy ideas. This one I like, though. Let’s do it.’

(Annabel) ‘If you’re going after the Ares Trio, I should definitely come with you.’

(Hikaru) ‘No, Bel. You stay here. I know the original plan was to not leave any healers or sensors alone, but seeing as how the enemy’s strategy isn’t what we thought it was, we’ll have to change ours as well.

You’re the strongest and most experienced fighter among the healer-sensor five, so you can be a lot more useful here by making sure the rest of the Martians get taken out.’ – Hikaru paused for a moment, so he, Seiren and King could look at each other, the mad genius now grinning as widely and confidently as the other two –‘Plus, in order to hold off those three, we’ll have to go beyond all-out. You don’t want to be anywhere near us when that happens.’

(Annabel) ‘But leaving you alone …’

Annabel’s worry was well-founded, but the longer the hot heads delayed the execution of Hikaru’s plan, the better chances the Martians had of defeating them. Instead of listening to what she had to say, King grabbed each of the rivals by the neck and jumped beyond the pit, darting toward the pines with his Daroid from there.

(King) ‘We’ll talk again when we’ve won, Bel!’

Crossing what remained of the Nebula Park’s pinewood area beyond the central field with the muscle-bound glutton’s energy compound took less than a minute, the valley of the Kisdeya River revealing itself before his eyes soon enough. And on the other bank of the river his eyes could clearly make out three silhouettes.

As Keiry D had told Hikaru, the members of the Ares Trio were just waiting here. Waiting for the right time to strike. Such a time was never going to come now, though, thanks to what King considered the equivalent of those three for Earthling Class No. 1.

(King) ‘There they are. Do we have a plan from here on?’

(Hikaru) ‘We can’t let them fight together. Splitting up the trio comes first. You’re the best match for Hock because you both have the Daroid, so you take him on, King.’

(Seiren) ‘Then you should fight Gorudora because you can both use lightning, Summerbolt.’

(Hikaru) ‘I plan to do just that.’

(Seiren) ‘Which leaves the strongest one for me! Ha-ha!’

(Hikaru) ‘That’s right. So you better not screw this up and lose to him too fast.’

(Seiren) ‘There’s not a chance of that happening as long as …’

A crescent mixing a scarlet and an electric violet color passed beyond the river and through the Earthlings’ Ares Trio then, Hock, Gorudora and Nepalo coming out of it. Hock dragged Hikaru down a nearby gully, Gorudora teleporting himself along with Seiren amid the rocks on the other side of the river with his carmine bolts, while Nepalo crushed King in Kisdeya’s waters with a burst of crimson energy.

Things certainly hadn’t gone according to plan so far, because all three hot heads were facing the wrong opponent. The time for worrying had passed, however.

Right now, it was time to fight. Against the man renowned as the King of the Martians, just as Ulura was their Queen – Nepalo, the Crimson God of War.

Now that he looked at his opponent up close, the orange-haired giant thought he had never seen a more plain-looking person: average height and muscle mass for his age, average complexion, straight black hair, dark brown eyes. No distinctive features whatsoever. No emotion on his face. Nepalo could pass for a puppet if only puppets were as devoid of personality as him.

This appearance could be a trick, though. King’s normal form didn’t look like much, either, and that had made his opponents underestimate him to the speedy warrior’s advantage. He couldn’t let himself fall in a trap like this now.  

Nepalo was getting ready to say something, but his adversary interrupted him by unleashing his attack.

(King) ‘Sorry, but I don’t have time to chat, fellow King!’ – the first wave of the attack took the shape of a barrage of fists made of Daroid energy, after the target was destabilized by them, King attacking with his own fists and kicks and not allowing a moment of respite amid his superfast combos – ‘DAROGIANT’S 1000 FISTS!!!’

When faced with an opponent like this, who was clearly hiding their true power, the key to victory was to not allow their trump card to be put to use. To neutralize them before they can act. And so the ‘big’ battering ram held nothing back with his two-staged attack, finding himself to be out of breath by the end of its execution.

What was left in front of him was a smoking hole with cracks stemming from it, scarring the valley’s face within a range of at least 50 meters. A part of the valley gave in under all the pressure it had been put through and collapsed over the place where King had left his opponent lying down, ensuring further damage.

The muscle-bound glutton started searching through the rubble to confirm his enemy had been defeated, making a discovery then that defied reason.

Nepalo was indeed amid the rubble, but was just sitting there with no change in his appearance – not having so much as a scratch on him and his face still being as expressionless as before.

(King) ‘T-this can’t be real …!!! Even if you were a Daroid user, there’s no way you could’ve evaded all those attacks!! No one could evade all of them!!!!’

(Nepalo) ‘I didn’t evade them. Every single one of those punches and kicks landed and I commend you. You’re almost a match for Hock in terms of speed. But your attacks lack power even more than his.’

King’s utter surprise now turned to rage.

Seeing as how this was just a Class Battle and he had never released such a destructive attack against an opponent whose actual power level he wasn’t aware of, maybe the giant had subconsciously held back a bit.

He knew his own strength. His fists had brought down many a foe.

Therefore there was definitely some kind of trick behind Nepalo being able to survive such a barrage unscathed and further use of that trick could not be allowed. This time King needed to really break all the restraints his mind had put on his power. To just focus on sheer destruction. Without mercy.

He lunged at the leader of the Ares Trio with a speed that made him fear he would hurt his own body, everything around him becoming a blur. Luckily, his target stood still right in front of him, so he didn’t need to see him clearly, but only ensure he’d keep going in the same direction. And release the greatest barrage he was capable of when he reached his target.

That was what King had thought to unleash, anyway, until he was pierced between the chest and the stomach, which made him stop prematurely. Huge amounts of crimson energy spread around the Earthling, his vision still being a little blurred from the high speed he had just moved with to be able to clearly discern anything else.

As the pain from the piercing wound became more acute and his eyesight returned to normal, he was struck by shock again. The arm that had pierced him was connected to something, but that creature did not bear any resemblance to Nepalo.

Standing taller than even King in his giant form, it had bright yellow eyes burning with murderous intent, its mouth being a shredder full of wide and sharp teeth with brown smoke coming out of it. Its hair was a black cluster of long and thin strands sticking out in all directions, its skin – pinkish-red with patterns of black shapes here and there, its face and body also having a number of dark gray spikes coming out of them.

When the creature spoke, the heavy, hoarse voice coming from its mouth made the ‘big’ batterimg ram further question if this was indeed Nepalo.

(Nepalo) ‘I see you’ve got nothing more to offer than those hollow attacks, so I’ll spare you any further embarrassment. And I’ll just end it all for you right now.’