Ch.68— A Duo of Circumstances: Part 3 (Patreon)

It was only after both Crow and Amy saw the students from Class S rushing through the hall at top speed that they realized they had fucked it up.

Amy looked towards Crow, and Crow towards Amy; if understanding had been impossible between the two of them ten seconds ago, it wasn't the case anymore.

Words weren't even necessary as they both prepared to run as fast as they possibly could. As awful as their situation looked, it really wasn't that bad—like, it was bad; they had ruined their head start because of a childish quarrel, and now the other groups were catching up to them. BUT it truly wasn't yet hopeless; they still had some time before—

Amy, feeling mana gathering behind her, instinctively raised a barrier between the two of them and Professor Alcatraz, head of Class B, who—she now realized—had cast wind magic in their direction.

Her barrier only trembled slightly as the spell connected and was repelled.

"Oh?" The professor raised an eyebrow at her. "I hadn't put that much mana into it, and yet I find myself surprised. I suppose you are S-class students for a reason."

Dammit…

Amy gritted her teeth, turned, and was about to start running, but then stopped and gritted her teeth even harder.

Beside her, Crow, with Bloodedge drawn, stood unmoving while facing the hall they were supposed to go through, which should have been devoid of people just moments ago, with the exception of the six random students.

It wasn't the case anymore; in front of them, the three teachers Crow had warned her about—the ones waiting to ambush them if they ran—had finally come out of hiding, now that the other students, their competitors in this exam, had managed to break through the combat classroom's barrier.

Dammit, dammit, dammmit, dammit…!

Amy could only glare sideways at Crow, who somehow noticed and glared back.

They frowned at each other for a second before Amy refocused on the teachers rushing towards them.

Priorities, Amy. Priorities.

The blame game could wait till later; right now, they had to pass this exam.

"We shouldn't fight; otherwise, we'll lose our lead," Amy said, turning to look at Professor Alcatraz, who was preparing to meet head-on the rush of four students whom Amy recognized as second-years who had decided to go through this hall instead of the others.

Amy once again turned to look at Crow when she didn't hear a response.

He hadn't lowered Bloodedge at all, or even made the motion to; she wondered if she had even been heard.

Amy gritted her teeth before speaking. "I will be using my powers."

Now that did make him turn. He immediately looked directly into her eyes with an expression of…

…huh?

Crow's eyes were slightly wide, his eyebrows upturned, his mouth downturned. The anger Amy had expected to see on his face wasn't there; instead, she had a faint feeling that he seemed almost…afraid…

Amy massaged her temples before adding to her earlier words, "Unless, of course, you decide to cooperate as you told me you would before this exam."

Crow's expression returned to normal just as fast as it had changed. Then he bit his lip, looked ahead and behind towards the two corridors, before taking Amy's hand and finally volting in the direction of the three professors.

"I usually would not allow myself to be blackmailed like that," said Crow as he basically dragged the slower Amy along while she did her best to stay on two feet and cast barriers behind her, stopping one or two wind attacks from Alcatraz. "However, I happen to think that in this situation that is the better idea."

Sure…

Amy observed Crow's face once again, trying to discern his thoughts for a second before shaking her head. Right now it wasn't the time for this.

Instead, as she ran, she prepared to meet head-on the three professors coming this way—something that proved to be completely unnecessary as Crow suddenly jumped towards the left wall, then towards the right, and then once again towards the left, shooting past every single one of them at such high speed, and without touching the ground, that the teachers could do nothing but stand there looking around in confusion.

Amy felt an urge to puke as she was dragged through the air from one wall to the other.

Once back on the ground, she wanted nothing more than to sit down—something that obviously wasn't possible, as Crow kept on dragging her, forcing her to run.

"W-What the hell was that?" Amy said, looking back at the teachers now behind her. They looked at each other, wondering whether they should follow or focus on the next group of S-class students coming this way, and eventually decided to let Alcatraz pursue the two of them alone. "Since when can you do that?"

Crow gave her a side glance, then turned his head. Amy expected him not to respond, but then, in a voice barely loud enough to hear, he said, "I've become stronger."

Amy kept staring at the back of his head silently for a while before replying with a simple, "Right."

Crow's powers were, after all, ones that grew the more suffering he went through, and this past month he had definitely gone through a lot of shit. Not only that, but Azazel had also gifted him a book that let him relive his worst memories for one hour every day. It shouldn't be surprising that he had become stronger.

Still, what he just did was sort of insane… Maybe killing Abaddon was good in more ways than…

Amy frowned and bit her lip, trying to get rid of the weird thought that had formed in her mind.

As they continued running, she kept creating barriers behind them, both to impede the teacher's advance and to block the occasional wind spells that tried to reach them.

They continued exactly like that until they finally reached the stairwell. Crow made a sharp turn that almost sent her flying against the wall. Amy would've complained about it if it hadn't been because, the very next instant, she felt herself falling; they were simply going at such high speed that when they started descending the circular stairs, they took three or five steps at a time.

If it hadn't been for everything much, much worse that she had gone through, Amy was sure she would have screamed like a little girl. Hell, at one point she was about to.

Amy felt her body once again swish to one side as Crow was forced to leave the stairwell due to another ambush by two teachers, this time two whom Amy recognized very well. A bald old man with a white beard and blue eyes, and a woman with green hair like something out of a shampoo commercial.

Lirienne and Vanheim, both teachers from Class S.

Hesitantly, Crow exited the stairwell, moved into the hallway, and finally stopped while looking at the two teachers.

Amy, meanwhile, had to muster everything she had not to instantly fall to the floor and vomit.

"What's wrong, boy?" Vanheim said while looking at Crow with a smirk. "Not going to try getting past us?"

Crow only replied with an awkward smile while Amy, who had already recomposed herself, groaned. "Don't you two have work to do?"

Vanheim only smiled while Lirienne chuckled and said, "Well, when a colleague asks for our help, we can't really say no, can we?"

Amy groaned as she cursed Professor Drayke in her mind. She had thought that teacher was nice but strict, but after forcing her to pair with Crow, indirectly making her go through a wet and probably dirty tunnel, while also making an exam that was crazy hard to beat, she realized that there was truly nothing nice about him.

Amy took a few deep breaths before covering her mouth and whispering to Crow. "Do we know any of their abilities?"

Crow glanced at her before shaking his head—something which made Amy's frown turn somehow even worse.

The situation had turned from bad to worse. The fastest exit from the building was by that staircase. Obviously, there was another one if they turned around and ran through the corridor, but that one would take more time, and they didn't know if there would be more teachers guarding that region; in the worst-case scenario, they might get surrounded—actually, that was probably guaranteed, considering the exits had to be the most guarded. If they wanted to pass the exam, they had to make a decision: either try to—

It was at that moment that a third person rejoined the two teachers. Alcatraz was breathing hard with a hand on his hip. "You…youngsters…sure have a lot of energy…."

Amy's frown deepened even more, and a stream of curses started popping up in her head.

Why always me? God, why? Why!?

"You are getting old," Vanheim said to him with a smile, to which Alcatraz just sighed.

"I can't deny it. I'm really not what I used to be."

"Respectfully," Lirienne interjected, "I don't think you've ever been athletic in the first place."

Alcatraz frowned, then responded with a muttering that made the other two teachers chuckle.

As they continued conversing with each other, Amy looked at Crow, and Crow at Amy. Whatever hesitation had been there before was gone; they both seemed to share the same brain cell as they slowly backed away one step at a time, trying to make the least amount of sound possible.

Long path it is, then—actually, more like looooooonnnnnggg path. Because that was what it had just become.

The bell signaling the end of classes went off and reverberated throughout the whole academy, bringing the three teachers out of their conversation and once again back to the present.

Something that might seem like awful luck by itself, but when looking at a situation like this, seeing the full picture was necessary. Their luck was bad, yes, and the situation was worse, yes, but it actually could get even worse.

Around them, students from other classes began exiting their classrooms, making the hallway more crowded with each passing moment, and so the path out of this damn building even longer.

Amy and Crow didn't waste any more time with ninja nonsense before once again volting; Crow took her hand and tried doing the jumping-between-walls thingy, but was stopped by tree branches literally sprouting from the ceiling and blocking their path.

To avoid the branches, he had to once again come back to the ground with a sharp turn, once again making Amy want to vomit.

"Excuse me! Please move!" Crow yelled as they ran.

Cries and angry yells rose around them as the two of them, plus the teachers, pushed and zigzagged through the crowd.

The hallway kept getting more and more crowded, and their pace slowed; this wasn't sustainable.

Amy shook Crow's hand up and down, trying to get his attention, something which worked as he looked back with a face clearly asking what she wanted.

Amy pointed towards the windows, and Crow thought for a second before shaking his head. "There is a barrier protecting them," he said, loud enough for Amy to hear despite the noise around them.

Amy bit her lip and asked, "Can't you break it?"

"I can, but," Crow alternated between looking in front of him as he zigzagged between the increasing number of students and back at her with a frown, "it would take too much mana from me."

"Oh, then you can do it."

Crow's frown deepened, and he pursed his lips.

Amy found this reaction extremely odd, so she squinted and tried to think of the reason behind it. It wasn't long before she realized.

"Listen, I know you don't trust me, but this really is our best option right now," she said while looking at Crow, whose eyes had gone a bit wider. "I haven't used my ability this whole time, and I've let myself be dragged around by you. This is not going to change even if you are too weak to resist. I promise."

Crow stopped moving and stared at Amy in silence. Whatever was going through his head at that moment, Amy couldn't tell, as his face was completely devoid of any expression.

Amy looked behind her toward the students, and at the teacher making his way through them.

Her feet started tapping the ground faster and faster as she looked nervously towards Crow, still lost in his mind.

It was only when she was reaching her limit that she finally saw something from him.

He took a deep, deep breath, shook his head, and began to move towards the window. "You better mean that."

The students parted away from him as he moved, and Bloodedge appeared in his hand. Then some sort of miasma appeared around the blade.

Amy squinted as a faint sense of déjà vu assaulted her. Hadn't she seen that before…

It was only after Crow prepared himself to attack that she realized where she'd seen it.

Isn't that the same move Abaddon had used at some point during their fight…? What in the…

BAAM!

There were many screams and then mutterings as every single student turned their head towards the sound.

"HEY!" Vanheim's voice cut through the noise from somewhere behind the wall of students. "That's school property, you little—"

Neither Amy nor Crow got to hear the rest as they jumped without any sort of hesitation through the gap.