Chapter 1708: Staying Alive: Part-1
Chapter 1708: Staying Alive: Part-1
"Oi, cunts. If you’re done screaming like idiots, get the fuck out of here."
Every one of the boys flinched as though the voice had struck a nerve buried deep in their memories. Their laughter died instantly, and several of them instinctively looked toward the staircase as if considering whether they should leave before the owner of that voice appeared.
Even the muscular boy’s expression stiffened.
Slowly, he looked upward.
Sitting near the edge of the rooftop was a young man with messy black hair and a thoroughly annoyed expression. Resting his chin against his knuckles, he looked down at the group with sleepy eyes before letting out a long yawn.
The muscular boy’s face twitched.
"Y-You..."
The black-haired boy narrowed his eyes.
"Huh?"
He tilted his head slightly.
"Why do all of you look familiar?"
Several faces immediately became red with humiliation.
The black-haired boy stared for another moment before realisation slowly appeared.
"Wait."
"Don’t tell me you’re the same idiots I beat up last semester."
The words hit harder than a punch.
The muscular boy felt his face burn.
"Don’t act so cocky!" he shouted, forcing confidence into his voice. "There are five of us and only one of you. You think you can order us around?"
The young man stared at him for a moment before yawning again.
Without saying another word, he stepped off the rooftop.
The boys below immediately tensed.
Several of them unconsciously took a step backward as they watched him drop from above. The distance wasn’t particularly dangerous, but the casual way he did it made it seem as though he simply didn’t care.
He landed smoothly on the terrace and slid his foot back into the shoe he had thrown earlier.
"Look," he said while stretching his arms and shoulders lazily, "if you don’t want me acting cocky, then come do something about it. Why are you standing there babbling about it?"
His tone remained calm, almost bored.
The muscular boy turned furious, throwing the manuscript aside, he charged forward and swung a fist toward the black-haired boy’s face.
The attack never landed.
The black-haired boy casually shifted half a step sideways. The punch sailed past his shoulder, leaving the muscular boy completely exposed. Before he could recover, a fist buried itself into his stomach.
Thud!
The air exploded from his lungs.
His entire body folded forward.
"Still those muscles are buff, aren’t they? Hehe~"
A knee immediately followed, slamming into his chest and sending him stumbling backwards across the terrace.
The other boys hesitated for only a second before rushing forward together.
Unfortunately for them, numbers didn’t help when nobody knew how to fight.
One boy swung wildly and hit nothing except empty air. The black-haired boy grabbed his wrist, twisted it just enough to break his balance, and shoved him directly into another attacker. Both boys crashed onto the ground in a tangled heap.
"MOOMMMMYYY!!!!"
"ARRRHH!!"
A third tried charging from the side.
"Take this bastard! I will ki--ARH!!"
The black-haired boy planted a foot against his chest and kicked him backwards. The boy stumbled several meters before crashing into a bench hard enough to send it screeching across the concrete.
The remaining two immediately lost their nerve.
Their confidence had existed only when they outnumbered weaker students.
"Still want to fight?" the black-haired boy asked.
The student immediately shook his head.
"Thought so."
Within less than two minutes, the entire group looked completely defeated.
Nobody was unconscious.
Nobody was seriously injured.
But every one of them had been knocked down, humiliated, or frightened badly enough to lose any desire to continue.
"Y-You’ll pay for this!" the muscular boy shouted while backing toward the stairs.
His threat immediately lost credibility when he missed a step and nearly tumbled down the staircase. Several members of his own group accidentally laughed before realising what they had done.
The black-haired boy simply waved dismissively.
"Yeah, yeah. Get lost."
The group disappeared down the stairs far faster than they had arrived.
Silence finally returned to the terrace.
The black-haired boy released a tired sigh before walking over to the scattered manuscript pages. He crouched down and carefully collected them from the ground, straightening bent corners and stacking them back together.
"You know," he said while dusting dirt off the first page, "if you keep letting people walk over you, they’re going to keep doing it."
The chubby boy lowered his head.
The black-haired boy handed the manuscript back.
"Most bullies aren’t strong. They’re just used to people being scared of them. The moment somebody stands up to them, half their confidence disappears."
The chubby boy carefully accepted the pages.
"Thank you..."
His voice was still shaking.
After hesitating for several seconds, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few crumpled dollar bills.
"Please take this."
A vein immediately appeared on the black-haired boy’s forehead.
"Fuck you."
The chubby boy nearly dropped the money.
"I didn’t help you for cash, asshole."
"T-Then why did you help me?"
The black-haired boy opened his mouth before pausing.
A strange expression crossed his face.
"Honestly?"
He scratched the back of his head.
"I guess you could call it.... main-character syndrome."
The moment the words left his mouth, regret immediately appeared on his face.
"God, that sounded way cooler in my head than it actually did."
Shaking his head in embarrassment, he turned around and started walking away.
Then—
"W-What’s your name?"
The chubby boy asked the question while hurriedly gathering the scattered contents of his bag. Even after the bullies had left, his hands were still trembling slightly.
The black-haired boy glanced over his shoulder while walking toward the staircase.
"You should introduce yourself before asking somebody else’s name."
"S-Sorry!"
The chubby boy immediately straightened his posture.
"M-My name is Jonathan."
The black-haired boy stared at him for a moment before shrugging.
"What a lame name."
Jonathan’s mouth opened in disbelief, "W-What?"
The young man ignored him and continued walking down the stairs as though the conversation had already ended.
Jonathan hurried after him.
"H-Hey! That’s rude!"
The black-haired boy yawned.
"Doesn’t make it less true."
Jonathan stared at the back of his head before quickly jogging to catch up again.
"T-Then what’s your name?"
The boy shoved his hands into his pockets.
"Aether."
Jonathan blinked.
"Aether?"
"Yeah."
The corner of Jonathan’s mouth twitched.
"That sounds kind of lame too-Ouch!"
Jonathan immediately regretted speaking.
Aether lightly smacked the back of Jonathan’s head.
"S-Sorry!"
The two continued down the hallway together.
Although Aether never noticed it, Jonathan’s pace naturally matched his own and followed him everywhere!
"Why are you still here?"
Jonathan blinked.
"Huh?"
"You keep following me around."
"I was just walking."
"You followed me down the stairs."
"That was a coincidence."
"You followed me through the hallway."
"Another coincidence."
"You followed me toward the restroom."
Jonathan froze.
Both boys slowly turned toward the restroom entrance.
Aether looked at him with visible disgust.
"Don’t follow me into the restroom. That’s fucking weird."
"S-Sorry!"
Jonathan retreated several steps while waving his hands frantically.
Aether shook his head and muttered something about strange people before continuing toward his restroom.
Jonathan stood there awkwardly for a moment before suddenly laughing.
It wasn’t a loud laugh.
It wasn’t even particularly happy.
But after everything that had happened that afternoon, it was probably the first genuine laugh he had managed in a long time.
Perhaps neither of them realised it at the time.
Perhaps they were too young to notice how important small moments could become.
What began as a random encounter on a school terrace would eventually become years of friendship.
Through victories and failures.
Through arguments and laughter.
Through moments when life seemed impossible to endure.
Jonathan remained there.
Aether’s first true friend.
The first person who chose to stay.
The familiar face.
The familiar voice.
The familiar awkward smile.
The familiar pleas.
The familiar sound of pain whenever Aether smacked him on the head for saying something stupid.
All of those memories, buried beneath years of experiences, suddenly surged back to the surface.
They flashed through Aether’s mind with startling clarity.
And when his eyes returned to the present, he saw the same friend standing before death.
The Commander’s face turned pale as he struggled to breathe even a single breath.
The plating around his neck creaked under the crushing grip of the skull-headed monster, whose hollow sockets remained fixed upon him, silently watching as life slowly drained from his body.
The Commander’s violet eyes gradually rolled back as his final breath threatened to leave his body. Just then, the skull-headed monster suddenly flinched and looked upward when it noticed a translucent crystalline rectangle hurtling toward it at incredible speed.
Strange white particles spread across its surface, and within the next instant, the crystal shattered.
BOOMMMM!!!
A violent shockwave erupted in midair, releasing a burst of blinding white energy that distorted the surrounding atmosphere. The explosion slammed directly into the skull-headed monster and sent its body hurtling through the air before it crashed heavily onto the ground, carving a shallow trench through the ruined grassy land.
The creature instantly clenched its fist and scanned the area. It quickly realised that the human it had been moments away from killing had vanished.
Its hollow sockets shifted sharply to the right, where it finally spotted a small figure sprinting across the battlefield at remarkable speed while carrying the damaged mech-suit in one hand.
"How dare you interfere with my hunt!"
The skull-head’s furious roar echoed as it raised one skeletal hand toward the sky. Instantly, the space around its arm twisted and vibrated violently as invisible forces converged into a single point.
Energy condensed within the distortion before materialising into a double-edged axe.
Its handle was forged from bones that continuously slithered and twitched, while twin razor-sharp stone blades pulsed with an ominous glow.
The moment the axe fully materialised, the skull-head vanished from its position.
Sshh~
And reappeared directly above the fleeing figure. The creature raised its weapon high overhead before bringing it down with enough force to split the ground apart.
"DIE!"