Chapter 10: Confrontation
Just picturing Leila's supple body made Brice's heart thrust against his ribcage.
Her thin lifted eyebrows, her fair white skin, her slender legs, and her ample breasts that shook ever so slightly when she walked. She was the perfect beauty, and ever since Brice laid his eyes upon her, he wanted nothing more than to fuck her brains out and to touch every nook and cranny of her voluptuous body.
Just picturing her rocking up and down on his erected cock made Brice's body unwittingly tremble and for saliva to form in his mouth as his eyes flashed with carnal excitement.
Amid his wild, erotic thoughts, someone uttered from beside him, waking him up from his trance, "Boss, are you okay?"
Brice coughed lightly and swallowed the saliva that formed in his mouth.
He knew that he shouldn't get too excited just yet, especially so before they had subdued her, so he threw those erotic thoughts to the back of his mind as he began devising the plan to his gang.
"Look, I need each and every one of you to be on full alert. We're not going after a low-leveled beauty like we did before. We're going after the cream of the crop, one of the top beauties in school— and not only is she extremely beautiful but also powerful as well, she can block one of my force-field punches with a single hand!"
Knowing how powerful Brice was, the group couldn't help but unwittingly tremble at Brice's statement.
Some of them even cast glances at one another, not knowing if they should proceed, feeling it was too risky.
Though before they could think too long, Brice continued, "Even though she's incomparably powerful, that doesn't mean she has the upper hand…."
Brice's gaze turned passionate, and he looked at his group with fiery eyes, "We outnumber her 6 to 1, and she'll be walking to us, while at the same time being unaware of our presence. It'll be too easy; all we have to do is catch her off-guard, and sneakily attack her. Even the most powerful don't have eyes at the back of their heads!"
The groups' minds which had been falling in spirit quickly became ignited once more, and their once droopy exteriors became firm.
"Yeah, this will be a piece of cake!" said Nicholas exuberantly.
"Yeah, she'll be ours soon!" responded Robby with a lustful gleam in his eye.
The other students also gushed with excitement, some of them even occasionally licking their arid lips in excitement.
And not long after, their passion was back in full force.
Seeing this, Brice felt glad and proud. He had always been an incredible orator, and by using those orating skills, with the aid of his charisma and leadership abilities. He had been able to create a gang after the first day of school.
He had never felt prouder, and just thinking about his gang's success, he wondered what his brother would think.
Brice had an older brother who had gone to military school before him, and his brother had taught him that if he wanted to be powerful and successful in school, then he needed to be a part of a gang.
Brice didn't understand this concept at first, having only thought he needed to be a high leveled ability-wielder or intelligent to succeed, but after having it explained by his brother, he became exceedingly interested and listened to his brother's explanations and past experiences with afresh interest.
He taught him that gangs were universal in every military school, and being a part of one would be very fortuitous for someone's success.
Apparently, these gangs were like families or social circles and could be used advantageously if you were apart of one— especially so if you led one or was apart of the upper-echelons.
Once you were apart of a big enough gang or a gang with strong enough members, then you could use your members to do your bidding and as a shield to discourage others from provoking you, which is precisely why so many people flocked to joining gangs, especially the one's who weren't that high-leveled.
The extremely high-leveled was different though. Brice was taught to stay away from them. They already commanded respect wherever they went, and if they were seen joining a gang, then people would look down on them— like they were too weak to protect themselves.
The middle-ranked, though, like Brice and his brother, and as well as some of the peak lower-ranked weren't the same— especially so for the ones who weren't satisfied with being at the underside of the hierarchy, wanting more power.
Not only would you gain a big social circle, a significant workforce, and protection, but also command respect wherever you went, feeling people's nervous and reverent gaze's cast in your direction as you walked the school's corridors.
Just hearing his brother's experiences made him yearn to create a gang— and so he devotedly did.
Brice wanted nothing more than to know if his brother would be proud of him if he saw him now…
At the gang he had been able to create with his own hands…
Amid his thoughts, Robby suddenly blurted, "The targets are getting closer!" in a hushed voice, as if scared of making any noise would give them away.
Hearing Robby's voice, Brice was shaken from his stupor and began devising everyone's role in the upcoming skirmish.
Everyone turned to Brice, and he expressed discreetly, "Monty, Clark, Robby, you three will approach from behind, staying hidden, only showing yourself if something goes terribly wrong or if they try to escape…."
The three boys nodded from the side, expressing their approval.
Brice turned to the other three, "And then Nicholas, Liam, and I will attack her from the front surreptitiously? Everyone understand?" asked Brice as he darted his glance to each of them.
"Yes, boss," replied the group quietly in unison whilst nodding their heads.
At everyone's approval, the 6 boys began climbing down from the tree in the quietest way they could manage, only occasionally causing some of the precarious bark to fall from the tree where their hands and legs touched.
Luckily, the two targets were still too far away to hear the bark falling to the mud-strewn ground.
When they finally reached the ground, Monty, Clark, and Robby, the lowest leveled ability-wielders of the group, began circling behind the two approaching targets— making a bigger than needed circle as they were scared of giving Leila the slightest chance to hear them.
After all, the higher in level a person's ability was, the better their physique, hearing, eyesight, and instincts were, which is why they did this.
At the same time, Nicholas, Liam, and Brice huddled together, where they began discussing the plan's particulars. They would be the one's doing the fighting, and their opponent was a level 5.5; they wouldn't be lax in their planning and go in blindly.
The plan was for everyone to stay hidden until the two targets were close enough to be engaged. Once they were, Nicholas would shoot out a condensed toxic cloud at the target which would block her vision and possibly effect her lungs. Though, not much hopes were in the latter, as the main objective was only to block her vision long enough for Liam to shoot out his arrows, which would in hopes cripple her legs.
Liam was a tall, wide-shouldered, boorish-looking student who appeared older than he actually was. There was no hair on his head, and his face looked unkempt and ferocious. He was a stark contrast to the rest of the group, and he gave out an indomitable presence from his stature as if he towered above others.
He had an ability called ‹Arrow Generation›, which gave him the power to manifest arrows in his periphery to shoot out at opponents. It was a level 3, long-range ability that had many variations like trick arrow, which was an arrow that spun erratically, making it difficult to avoid.
After she had been crippled, Brice would finish the rest. She wasn't going to stand much of a chance versus his force-field— especially so when she was in unbearable pain and couldn't use her legs.
When everyone understood the plan and their respective roles, each of them got into position behind three separate trees, which were equally distanced from one another.
Finally, after a minute or two, the two targets were close enough for Brice to make out their outlines.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of sunlight, he couldn't see who was who, but he could tell at a glance that the furthest back silhouette was definitely Lachlan from how timid and skinny it looked. But he couldn't make out the one from the front. It looked big and didn't resemble the petiteness of Leila, but still, he had no more time to consider as they were only a few meters away.
Eventually, when they were close enough for the sound of footsteps and the ruffling of vegetation was be heard, Brice snapped his fingers, which was the cue for Nicholas to shoot out his gas cloud.
"Snap—" sounded loudly within the forest, bringing the approaching footsteps to a halt.
Nicholas, who had heard the snap, got out from an adjacent tree and swiftly shot out a condensed toxic cloud that flew towards the person in the front with a high speed.
As it hit, a "Pshhhhh" echoed throughout the forest, which sounded like a gas canister being emptied.
It followed by a condensed cloud of green gas to form at its spot amidst the lonely figure.
Liam, who had awaited for the gas cloud to form, got out from his cover and began manifesting 6 arrows in front of himself, which after a few seconds when fully manifested, were shot towards the bottom half of the gas cloud.
The arrows flew away from Liam's hold as they swirled through the air, causing the surrounding foliage to slightly recoil as it flew past and entered the gas cloud.
Liam hoped it would impale her thighs, and when he didn't see the arrows coming out from the other side of the gas cloud, he screamed with a tinge of excitement in his voice, "Hit! She's hit!" as he glanced towards Brice jubilantly.
Brice couldn't help but feel delighted, and he walked out from behind his cover with a wide smirk on his face.
He walked towards the nearby gas cloud and hollered with an amused expression. "I don't know if you're Leila, but whoever you are, we'll have our fun with you!"
After a while, when the gas cloud finally faded and the silhouette came back into view, Brice felt his scalp go numb.
The silhouette stood there, quiet and upright, not making a single sound.
The scene in which Brice expected of the person being impaled by arrows and heaving a handful of coughs due to the gas wasn't there.
Instead, the person stood there like a boulder, only rhythmically breathing as one could see its chest slowly rising and falling.
Brice also noticed something even more peculiar. The arrows in which Liam shot were levitating mid-air in front of the silhouette, remaining motionless, like an unknown force had blocked them.
Brice's smirk that had been on his face was no longer seen and instead was replaced by tensed facial muscles, with veins popping out of his forehead.
Obviously, he was panicked, but he still tried to keep his cool as he questioned loudly towards the silhouette, "W- Who are you!" though if one listened closely, one could hear the slight tremble and fear in his voice.
After not getting an answer, Brice tried looking towards the silhouette's watch, but the lack of sunlight made it impossible to see its number.
All he could do was wait there silently for the silhouette to make a move.
The two other boys' behind Brice weren't faring any better either as their faces shook and their bodies trembled. Beads of sweat covered their faces, and their clothes were slowly becoming doused with sweat.
The silhouette, who stood there silently for a long time, eventually slanted his body slightly as it asked calmly, "Were you the one who shot these arrows just now?"
The silhouette's voice was male, and they felt a shiver as those words were spoken.
He sounded relatively calm, but if one paid attention, his underlying tone was intense and severe.
Brice was frightened but more so puzzled. He definitely recalled the other silhouette from before looking like Lachlan, and he was supposed to accompany Leila here…
Unless…
He couldn't have…
He l-lied?
Brice gritted his teeth and felt his eyes becoming bloodshot as he did.
Never in his life had he met a cripple so audacious that he would dare lie to his face. Just the thought of it made his face swell red.
"I'm definitely gonna destroy that cripple the next time I see him," he thought to himself.
Though, in this situation, there was nothing he could do.
So, in the end, he calmed himself down by taking a deep breath and inspected the male in front of him instead.
He didn't know who this male was, nor did he see the person's watch number. But what he knew was that the person had remained upright and seemingly uninjured after taking the two powerful abilities attacks head-on.
It was sure that this was someone powerful, and all he could do was try to mediate the situation from here on out.
With that in mind, Brice slightly bowed as he said apologetically, "No, my friend here shot them; we seriously do apologize— we thought you were someone else!"
The silhouette paid no attention to the bid of forgiveness and instead asked, "Who did you think I was then?" with an even fiercer tonality than before, sending shivers down the boys' spines.
"Well- umm... You know, just this cripple and this girl..." answered Brice anxiously as his face gradually became tenser.
He formed the best smile he could muster, as he added quickly, not wanting to create any more trouble, "It's not something a powerful guy like you need to worry about…."
"No… I think it is something I have to worry about…" said the silhouette gravely as he began slowly trekking towards Brice, who only stood a few meters away.
Brice knew that his attempt at mediation had failed, so he once again snapped his fingers.
Hearing the snap, Liam, who had been shaken and frightened, came back to his senses; he quickly began re manifesting his arrows.
As Liam finished, 3 arrows regenerated in front of him, fully taut in the sky in preparation to fly out.
He wanted to generate more, but within the timetable he had, it wasn't possible.
"Oh, so these arrows belonged to you?" said the silhouette as he looked at Liam, seeing the arrows being manifested. "Then I'll happily return them," he jeered, making it so his blue eyes, which were partially viewable thorough the darkness, become crescent moons.
The arrows which had been frozen mid-air in front of the silhouette startlingly flew backward with a blurring speed that created a miniature whirlwind in its wake.
At a moment's notice, the arrows that blurred across the sky squarely connected to Liam's thighs. Impaling them, causing blood to drip in abundance from the wound it created, coloring the foliage and grass under him deep crimson.
"AAAGGGhhhhhh—" was heard throughout the forest, followed by a close echo which sent shivers down the two other boys' spines that had just witnessed what had happened to Liam.
Amid it all, there was also another spectator. Although this one wasn't feeling shivers but goosebumps instead from the silhouette's display of power.
This spectator sat in a bush close by, murmuring to himself as his eyes widened, "Incredible!"
"I should have appraised him sooner…" it chided itself.
The spectator was no one other than Lachlan, who was crouched in a bush feeling elated beyond belief with a smile so wide it hurt his cheeks.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Cloudthief
Cloudthief Next Chapter: Showdown...
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