Chapter 107: Cutting It Close...

Kass let out a nervous laugh. "Of course I’m nervous! I didn’t think I’d be marrying someone at 19."

Nyx gave her a hug. "What’s on your mind sweetie?"

"I’m a demon who is going to marry an immortal human and am expected to be part of the vampiric council. It’s just a lot and this tournament is making my emotions run wild. What if something happens to one of us?"

Nyx patted her on the back.

"Kass, you’re always the confident one who stays positive, remember? I’m sure everything will be fine. Do you want to go first instead of Sophie?"

"No, that’s not it. Do you really think I’m going to make a good council member for you?"

"Of course I do! I wouldn’t have asked you or introduced you to my family if I didn’t. My Aunt and Uncle aren’t ones to shy away from the truth. They said you did an amazing job while sitting in on the royal meetings and are excited to have you as a new noble. If anything, you bring the vampiric people closer together with the demons!" Nyx smiled while giving her a tight squeeze.

"Thanks Nyx," Kass smiled. "I feel a lot better knowing you and your family trust me. I never really thought about the ’bringing two races together,’ thing much."

"That’s because we’ve had ten million other things going on at one time. You were the one to bring up honeymoons, maybe you should take the first one to help you get your mind off things."

"Really?!" Kass lit up with excitement.

Kass always used her confidence to hide her emotions but lately she felt like she wasn’t keeping pace with the rest of the women. Sophie was S rank, Amanda was almost there and Nyxara was SS. Tyler was on another level compared to all of them so part of her worried she wouldn’t keep up with the rest of them and Tyler wouldn’t feel the same way about her anymore. After talking with Nyx, she convinced herself that she was being overly emotional and Tyler would always treat her the same way.

"Yes, really. Kass, you’re an amazing woman. Keep up your confidence and look how far Amanda has come because you and Sophie took her under your wing."

Those were the words Kass needed to hear. She needed to know Nyxara still viewed her as an equal despite being much more powerful than her.

"Thanks Nyx. That means a lot coming from someone as powerful as you."

"We all have our strengths and our weaknesses Kass. Sure, I’m SS rank and can do a ton of things, but I can’t charm someone and become a puppet master while they keep their conscious thoughts or expand my body and use giant metallic claws as finger nails!" Nyx said sincerely.

Kass smiled. "Yeah... you’re right. We all have our own strengths and Tyler loves each one of us the same. He always has and always will."

"Is that what you were worried about?!" Nyx exclaimed.

"Of course Tyler will always love us for being who we are. He doesn’t care how powerful or what rank we are. He loves us for us Kass... don’t ever lose sight of that ok?"

Kass gave her a confident nod. "You’re right. Hopefully they’re back soon and I really hope Amanda wakes up before this reset happens. I don’t want her to get lost in the shuffle."

"Yeah, me neither, but if I know anything about Tyler... he won’t want to waste time out there." Nyx grinned.

*****

The harpies started drowning in mud while ensuring their queen remained safe and was pulled from the sand. Rex, Vivian, Maximus and Shadow charged in, all using various spells to try and separate the nest as much as they possibly could. Tyler and Sophie kept their distance because they knew the noise was going to be really bad.

Shreik!

"My goodness that’s loud," Sophie complained while covering her ears. They weren’t even close to the action and they could still feel their ears burning with pain.

"Now Ash!" Tyler said telepathically while covering his own ears and grimacing.

Ash swooped in and let out a massive white fireball that crashed into the majority of the harpies.

[200 punisher harpies killed. 1000 bonus points for first guardian kill. You are now level 93. 3 unassigned stat points].

"Now’s our chance Sophie, let’s go!" Tyler said as the two started sprinting.

The queen Harpy was raging and shrieking loudly. Thankfully, Leviathan made a suggestion to put bubbles of water around their ears. Tyler cast water magic around their ears and drowned out the sound from almost everything around them, so they were hoping they wouldn’t be blind sided.

The masked Eidolon was watching from the shadows, observing and noting every move Tyler and his familiars decided to make.

[50 punisher harpies killed.]

Tyler reached the nest and used his staff to burn through the mud and corpses. They touched each heart they saw while Sophie and Tyler protected each other from oncoming attacks from the minion Harpies. They tried not to look at the scoreboard, but the other school’s’ and the people watching from home started getting excited again.

"Well ladies and gentlemen it looks like Tyler and Sophie from Ability Academy 1 have made a bold move against a nasty nest of Harpies! This could be a high risk play that nets their team a lot of points. The real question remains: Where are the rest of his team members with only 30 minutes remaining on the reset clock?" Tommy Vanna, Vexarra’s top streaming influencer commentated to billions of viewers.

"YES!" Dean Pritchett shouted from the control room before he regained his composure and apologized.

"Sorry! Just excited to see my students are alive and well." He tried to sound like he wasn’t biased, but no one in the control room actually cared. They were too busy working to bother themselves with who the Dean of the home school was routing for.

"Tyler, the Queen’s headed your way, I’m coming to you. Link with me and get Sophie somewhere safe. We’re running out of time." Ash said calmly.

Tyler sprinted toward Ash, whose white orb was floating into him. Without hesitation, he immediately linked and darted toward Sophie, who he picked up and gently set down close to the cave, kissed and told her to get back to the girls as soon as possible and go wake Amanda up.

"Ok babe I got it!" She said with a determined look.

Tyler went back quickly, his aura even more prominent again and recalled Ritsu. He cloned himself and the two of them sent a massive barrage of white flames, flares, and meteors flying into the Harpy cluster.

The internet exploded. Commentators lost their minds.

"Did he just clone himself?! What are those spells?! This world has never seen anything like it! Who is this young man and where did he come from?!"

"The real question we have for all of our viewers: Who knows Tyler Rask?! Reach out for an interview!"

[Congratulations. You have defeated all the guardian harpy, including the Eidolon leader. You are now level 94].

Sophie screamed through the wall for Nyx to go get Amanda.

She rushed through the portal, grabbed Amanda and sprinted right back through... just as the timer hit 00:00.

A giant arctic wind swept through the forest.

"LOOK OUT! THERE’S AN AVALANCHE!" Nyx screamed while teleporting the girls to Tyler, who was panting with exhaustion.

Nyxara popped open the three potions and poured them down his throat.

"You need to get us in the air and somewhere safe, fast!" Kass said while clinging on to him. The other girls did the same as Tyler’s wings expanded.