Second Genesis

Grey’s body became as light as a feather. Using his battle axe as a pivot point, he spun through the air.

In one moment, he was face to face with the woman. In the next, he was suddenly behind her, timing his spin more perfectly than she could have ever expected.

His foot kicked out toward her back, landing solidly. Or so he thought.

Half of him felt like he had hit an odd half hail, half cloud structure. She was fast enough to dull the blow, but not quite fast enough to slip out of it entirely. But what was sure was that she didn’t suffer nearly as much as Grey would have liked. With the gap in their Classes, it might as well have been a mosquito bite.

The second problem was the crimson lightning that immediately reacted, ripping up Grey’s leg.

’Shit.’

He kicked off the body of his battle axe, ripping it out of the ground and flipping back in the same motion. He landed deftly on the ground, black forces screeching to a stop along the dried grounds of the encampment.

The red-head’s neck snapped back, her eyes glaring at him.

"Who are you?" she asked coldly. The crimson lightning faded, though not entirely. While it disappeared from her body, Grey could still catch flickers of it in the depths of her eyes.

’Wait... is that her Neural Frame? Or is it actual lightning?’

Grey suddenly found himself confused, because when the lightning disappeared, the woman wasn’t in the Vector Class like he thought at all. Instead, she was in the Proving Class.

But he could have sworn just moments ago that she was far more powerful. Was the lightning boosting her? What kind of ridiculous boost was that?

’Does that mean she’s one of the prisoners? Her accommodations are probably the second best after mine, did she have a good performance they want to reward?’

Grey shook his head. What kind of reward was this? They were practically slumming it.

It wasn’t like Grey was so bougie he couldn’t stand a little hardship. He had slept in the barn more times than he could count in his life. But that was by choice, and this, well... he would much rather be taking the head of whoever he needed to so he could get the hell out of here.

He also didn’t have any interest in getting tied up with another woman, from yet another zone, who once again attacked him on sight for merely existing.

Well, at least this woman had a little bit more of a reason. But it wasn’t his fault, hadn’t he let her know he was there? She should be thankful.

A real pervert would have enjoyed the show in silence.

"I saw you sitting with the knights, but you’re one of us, aren’t you? How did you manage that?"

"You’re asking a lot of questions for someone who just tried to pull my heart out of my chest."

"Don’t peep on women, then. It’s a safety hazard in a world like this one."

"Not my fault you’re an exhibitionist, lady."

The red-head’s eyes narrowed as though she was contemplating whether to attack again. But she really hadn’t ever met any other competition that could withstand her blows like that, and Grey had done it easily.

"We are meeting up to decide a course of action. Since you weren’t in the carriages, you aren’t privy to this. So I’m letting you know now."

Grey raised an eyebrow. "Where?"

He had been talking to Megan for much of the trip. If there was such a thing going on, he would know... if they had invited everyone, that is.

Clearly, they were being selective.

Grey’s eyes narrowed. "Alright."

...

Not long later, Grey was standing in the woman’s tent, a gathering of four other groups standing around him. It seemed that he and the woman were the only lone operators. Everyone else was in teams of three.

As expected, not only had they not invited everyone, but Megan, the mohawk man, and that other dude were nowhere to be seen. They hadn’t known about this meeting to begin with.

"You all know me. But to reintroduce myself, I am Delanai. To reiterate why we’re all here, I believe that we are the strongest who have entered this Instance. Any Instance that allows this number of people to enter has a reason for it, so I believe our only chance of making it out is to band together.

"The man we’ve all been interested in has chosen to make an appearance as well."

Delanai looked toward Grey and practically the entire room shifted along with her. They had been holding back out of respect for Delanai, but it was clear their greatest interest was Grey who had been the most chummy with the Holy Knights. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Oh, hey. Introductions, right? I’m Grey." Grey grinned, putting two thumbs up.

The group was speechless.

Compared to the serious air Delanai gave off, Grey was just...

They seemed to only realize then that Grey was also a lot younger than them. It was harder to spot because he was also taller than all of them, but he had only the budding signs of maturity. For the most part, he still had many of his baby features and his eyes looked almost too innocent despite being crimson.

If Grey knew what they were thinking, he’d probably start laughing his ass off. There wasn’t a damn thing innocent about him.

"Now that introductions are finished—" Delanai was going to shift the conversation when Grey interrupted.

"Sorry, I have a question. All of you guys were in the same carriage?"

Delanai’s gaze flickered. "Yes, that’s right."

"And these are all the most powerful people you spotted during your battle? Other than me, of course. But I was clearly an exception."

"Yes." Delanai was frowning now.

"You don’t find it weird they separated you all out like that? Where are the injured people? Where are the medical tents?"

Delanai fell into silence.

"The injured were never disembarked. It seems like they’re heading toward the city."

This time, it was Grey who was frowning.

On the one hand, this made perfect sense. So long as they were being taken for treatment, that is. But Megan’s reaction to the question he asked her didn’t seem so clear cut.

"Have your meeting. I’ll be back." Grey said.