Chapter 55: Jaw breaker

"Shut up," Rei said, her beautiful voice carrying an unyielding, freezing authority as she suddenly manifested directly above Darian’s head.

CRACK!

A purple spatial rift fractured the air currents near the iron ceiling conduits. But thanks to his Super Hearing talent, Darian already knew the exact millisecond the gateway was going to form. He didn’t even raise his eyes, his clear face twisting into a confident smirk as his ears tracked the precise acoustic vibration. He slid his weight onto his heels to smoothly slip past her downward trajectory before her boots could even touch the wet grit.

Thomas stood squarely beside Julian, his dark eyes wide open as he meticulously scanned the layout of the fight. "We need to interfere in this battle, Julian," Thomas stated flatly, his voice carrying an unrefined grit. "If we throw his balance off from a distance, we can confuse his hearing and give her the opening she needs to end this."

Julian looked at the year two senior’s smug posture, a look of supreme disgust hardening his aristocratic features as he offered a sharp, rigid nod of approval.

Thomas didn’t waste a single microsecond posturing. Utilizing the full reverse-engineered blueprints of the Trap Assassin Talent stored deep inside his brain, his long fingers twitched in a rapid, seamless motion. He violently slammed his bare palm flat against the damp stone floor.

Clack-clack-clack-clack!

A massive, hidden matrix of grinding rock gears and mechanical teeth violently erupted from the earth right beneath Darian’s landing coordinates, making the ground completely unsafe for him. Darian’s eyes widened into circles of sudden panic as the grinding stone teeth aggressively threw his balance off, the loud, deafening friction of the mechanical traps completely deafening his ears and fracturing his sensory rhythm.

Ryan, who was already making his rapid way back to their side after shielding Mina, didn’t hesitate to join the offensive. "I can help as well!" Ryan yelled fiercely, his fully healed wind core drawing an immense amount of ambient mana as he aggressively slashed his arms forward, sending a rapid barrage of sharp blades of compressed wind whistling through the grey smoke directly toward the senior’s flank.

Darian was forced to desperately evade the incoming gale blades, his backflips turning clumsy as the noise of the wind and the grinding stone traps completely overwhelmed his hearing. Julian capitalized on the chaos instantly, making his own calculated move by snapping his fingers to collapse a localized pocket of space right beside Darian’s elbow, pulling his physical posture completely wide open.

The synchronized, multi-angled assault gave Rei the exact opening she needed to deliver the final blow. But instead of executing a standard strike, her sky-blue eyes flashed with intense amusement behind her green face mask. She turned her head slightly, looking through the grey dust straight at Thomas, and deliberately winked right down at him.

Thomas’s sharp intellect immediately caught her meaning.

In a fraction of a second, Thomas vaulted forward like an absolute bullet. He seamlessly transitioned into Gerald’s heavy combat form, channeling his mana to violently harden his right fist into the hyper-dense, reflective armor of the Diamond Skin talent. Simultaneously, Rei snapped her fingers, opening a glowing purple gateway rift directly in front of Thomas’s rushing path. Without a single frame of hesitation, the lesser-blood freshman dived straight into the spatial gateway with his diamond fist drawn.

To completely isolate Darian’s tracking, Rei moved with a fluid, jaw-dropping grace, opening multiple glittering gateways all around the perimeter to mask the true vector of the attack. She blurred through the central fracture line, moving in to deliver a lethal, high-velocity kick aimed straight for Darian’s head.

Darian’s instincts screamed in primal horror. Driven entirely by his remaining reflexes, he violently twisted his upper torso downward to evade the devastating kick to his face, believing he had successfully avoided the vanguard.

But he was entirely out of options.The exact microsecond Darian’s head ducked away from her boot, a massive purple gateway rift cracked open right beside his defenseless blind spot. Thomas stepped fully out of the gateway at the absolute last possible moment, his reinforced diamond fist already fully drawn back as he swung a bone-breaking hook straight into the senior’s jaw.

BOOM—!!!

The explosive kinetic impact resonated through the abandoned iron reservoir like a catastrophic clap of thunder. The immense physical density of the diamond skin connected cleanly with his bone structure, the sheer, unyielding force knocking the absolute lights out of the High-blood mastermind. Darian’s jaw was almost shattered into pieces by the raw power, surviving only because his instincts had forced him to desperately reinforce his face with a dense layer of mana at the last possible microsecond.

Darian’s body was launched fifteen meters across the vault, crashing violently through a row of rusted iron drainage pipes before collapsing onto the wet stones in a cold, completely unconscious heap.

Rei approached the group while lazily smoothening over her fluffy white bathrobe, her sky-blue eyes blinking with a quiet amusement through the slits of her green face mask.

She stopped right beside Julian, looking over the row of unconscious bodies cluttering the wet stones.

"Leave with your friends," Rei said smoothly, her beautiful voice carrying a sharp, rhythmic melody. "Let me and Julie handle this mess out here. Oh, and lesser, you owe us one."

With that casual remark, she carelessly waved them off, her long manicured fingers tracing a brief circle in the dim light. Thomas offered a single, firm nod of his head, keeping his face perfectly hard and smooth as glass. He never told anyone anything about his talent, keeping the secrets of his system locked away behind his eyes. He turned his upper torso toward the Grade S freshman prodigy, bowing respectfully to Julian.

"I will repay this favour one day, Julian," Thomas stated flatly, his voice carrying a firm, unrefined grit.

Julian looked down his nose at the lesser blood anomaly, adjusting his silver-rimmed glasses as he let out a cold, condescending scoff. "I doubt it."

Thomas didn’t waste another second posturing. He reached down, carefully picked up Mina in his arms, and turned his back on the central vault. He kept his stride measured and steady despite the sharp, lingering ache in his midsection, marching out of the abandoned iron reservoirs with Ryan and Lina closely trailing behind his boots.

After they were gone, the thick silence of the subterranean grid returned to the stone vault. Rei turned her head toward the core successor of House Carter, her violet hair towel shifting slightly over her shoulders. "Who should we call, Julian?" Rei asked in a voice akin to a whisper.

Julian didn’t answer immediately. He reached into his inner uniform pocket, pulled out his runetech communication device, and quietly fiddled with the miniature gravity formulas etched along the side. He activated the secure channel, waiting through three long seconds of soft static until a voice finally came out of the core. It was a soft, lazy, and distinctly raspy feminine voice that Thomas would have instantly recognized.

"This better be good," the raspy voice murmured over the line, carrying an unshakeable, quiet authority.

"I need your help," Julian said cleanly, his elegant voice dropping into a serious weight.

"Where are you?" she asked almost immediately, the lazy tone instantly sharpening into an intense focus.

Julian checked his campus coordinates and told her their exact operational quadrant beneath the Outer City marketplace.

"I’m on my way," she replied.

The link snapped shut. A few quiet minutes passed inside the grey gloom of the reservoir block, the continuous dripping of the water pipes providing the only sound. Then, the rhythmic sound of light footsteps began echoing from the dark stone entrance of the tunnel.

The heavy iron threshold ground open, and Cecilia appeared. She stepped fully into the orange light of the wall torches, her gold-trimmed academy cloak snapping slightly in the wind as she looked around at the catastrophic devastation cluttering the floorboards. Some of the Class 1-A nobles were twitching in the grit, some were groaning miserably against the drainage conduits, while others were completely out cold.

"It seems like I missed out on all of the fun," Cecilia said, looking over the shattered vault floor at her siblings.

Julian adjusted his collar, his posture perfectly rigid. "Thanks for coming. You were the only person I could call for a situation of this magnitude."

Cecilia rolled her ebony eyes with an exaggerated sigh, placing a hand on her hip. "Well, I wish I wasn’t."

She slowly paused, her sharp perception tracking the layout of the space before she looked over at Rei with a deeply confused, analytical expression. She looked her childhood friend up and down, her eyes lingering on the fluffy white bathrobe and the thick green cosmetic paste covering her face.

Rei caught her staring, letting out a soft, raspy chuckle as she shrugged her shoulders. "Don’t even ask."

Cecilia smiled cleanly, her eyes crinkling at the corners. "I wasn’t going to."

She turned her head away, her raven-black hair shifting over her shoulder plate as her gaze scanned the far corner of the vault. She immediately spotted Darian Calagher, who was lying flat on his back, out cold against the stone tiles with his jaw slightly distorted from the impact. Her ebony eyes narrowed into slits as she inspected the precise nature of the trauma.

"Who did that?" Cecilia asked, her voice dropping into a serious weight.

Julian side-eyed the empty doorway, a cold, bitter smirk settling over his handsome face as he answered his sister. "Your little boyfriend."

Cecilia raised a brow, her ebony eyes widening slightly as she repeated the name. "Thomas?"

"Yes, him," Julian replied flatly, his voice perfectly rigid as he adjusted his silver-rimmed glasses under the dim orange glare of the wall torches.

Cecilia nodded her head, a slow, distinctly impressed expression breaking across her bare features as she looked down at Darian Calagher.

Rei adjusted the heavy towel wrapped around her vibrant violet hair, her sky-blue eyes blinking with intense curiosity through the drying cracks of her green face mask. She took a step forward, her fluffy white bathrobe brushing against the wet grit of the stone floorboards.

"Can I ask, why are you so interested in that kid anyways?" Rei asked, her beautiful voice dropping into a sharp, rhythmic cadence akin to a whisper.

Cecilia casually shrugged her shoulders, her gold-trimmed academy cloak shifting loosely over her dark shoulder plate as she looked back toward the empty entrance threshold. "He is good-looking."

Rei let out a soft, raspy chuckle, nodding her head in immediate agreement as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh, that is very true. I don’t understand how he is a lesser. Those good looks are usually found strictly inside the High-blood families."

Julian suddenly cleared his throat, a sharp, loud cough echoing off the rusted iron drainage pipes as his handsome face twisted into an irritated scowl.

Rei turned her head toward him, her eyes flashing with pure mischief through her mask. "You need water, Hun?"

Julian let out a cold, defensive scoff, violently turning his head to look away into the deep shadows of the perimeter walls to hide his annoyance.

Cecilia smiled cleanly, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she leaned closer to her younger brother, her voice dropping into a playful, teasing drawl that cut cleanly through the continuous dripping of the reservoir water.

"He’s not bad, is he, Julie?"