All the laughing and shouting in the arena disappeared. No one could believe that a student labelled a failure had just ripped the arm off a creature with his hands.

Meanwhile, Luke collapsed onto the stage. The adrenaline left him, reminding him he still had three arrows stuck in his body.

"No! My elf!" Chloe screamed as she ran toward it. The instructor joined her too while calling for the medical team, who arrived in seconds and carried the Woodland Elf away.

"Did... did he just rip that thing’s arm off?" some students wondered, staring at Luke lying motionless.

"Did you see how quickly he moved?"

"Are you kidding me?" Adrian muttered.

Many students glanced at him to see his reaction.

"Where did Luke get that kind of strength? That glove shouldn’t even have enough power to snap a pencil, let alone: do that."

Even the management up in the balcony had something to say.

"Look at the arm socket," the Dean said, adjusting his glasses. "Luke Kingsley didn’t use a skill, just physical output. To tear a limb apart like that..."

"Keep your voice down," Principal Claris interrupted, her eyes on Luke and her fingers tapping restlessly on the balcony. "The instructor is already handling the stage. We will discuss Luke in my office once the boy is moved to the clinic."

Down on the floor, Luke could hear buzzing and drowning as his consciousness slipped away.

*********

Luke opened his eyes to see a white ceiling staring back at him.

As his vision got less blurry, he noticed something else peering into his face. It was a fairy, floating just a few inches above his nose with her insect-like wings and glowing outline.

"Patient is finally awake!" the fairy cried. "Doctor, patient Luke is opening his eyes!"

A middle-aged woman in a white coat soon arrived to check on Luke. When she saw his eyes open, she smiled warmly and helped him sit up.

"You’re in the academy’s clinic, Luke," the woman said. "I’m Doctor Evans. And before you ask—yes, we got the arrowheads out of your leg and shoulder. You’re lucky none of them hit an important artery, though your uniform is ruined."

"What about Chloe’s summon? Is it..."

"It’s alive, if that’s what you’re worried about," Doctor Evans said, giving him a knowing look. "You really didn’t hold back, did you?"

Luke stayed quiet, looking down at his bandaged body until the fairy floated, landed on his shoulder, and pinched his cheek.

"Listen to me, student!" the fairy barked. "You’re as full of holes as a fishing net right now. Therefore, you need to take a lot of time to rest your body. That means you cannot do any practice or fighting for the rest of the week!"

"My fairy is right, Luke," the doctor nodded. "So I hope you don’t go throwing blows right after today. Also, you need to stay here for a while and finish your IV before you can go back to your dorm."

Luke nodded for his own good.

He spent the next minutes playing with the fairy until the door to the clinic opened and someone stepped inside. Principal Claris.

Luke’s heart skipped several beats. He thought she was here to condemn him, hand him an expulsion notice, and throw him out of the academy for mutilating a classmate’s summon during practice

However, the reality was the opposite.

After showing such power, Luke was considered a valuable asset to the academy.

Besides, since he didn’t kill the Woodland Elf, he was still in the green.

Principal Claris walked to his bed and inspected his wounds like a worried mother.

"I’m glad you didn’t suffer any serious injuries," she said.

Luke looked up at her, his eyes meeting hers. Neither of them said anything for seconds as the room fell quiet.

But the fairy became suspicious of the two. Claris looked away at the breaking point. She also pulled her hand back into her coat.

"The school needs you fit before the Exchange," she said.

"I will be ready," Luke assured.

"Your sister, Vivian, came here to check on you. She was crying and refusing to leave. But once I explained to her that you were safe and that you were staying in the dorms, not on the streets, she felt much better and agreed to go back home."

Luke sighed in relief, glad that he’d gotten Vivian to stop worrying. He wanted to offer some thanks to the Principal, but she just gave him a look before turning around and leaving the clinic.

Down the hallway, out of the clinic, and into the administration building, the Principal walked briskly until she arrived at her office, where the Dean and the Vice Principal were anxiously waiting for her return. They were eager to hear about Luke’s condition after the incident.

"He is fine, and he will make a full recovery within a few days," Claris said, taking her position behind her table.

"That’s good to hear," the Dean said. "So, now, we can turn our attention to the bigger matter? Everyone deemed that hand armor useless, but what we saw changes everything."

The Vice Principal nodded his head, agreeing.

"It is unfeasible for a human to move so quickly and possess enough strength to rip out an arm," he explained. "Are we to understand... that gauntlet gives him all that power?"

"Yes, it seems to be the case," Principal Claris said, interlocking her fingers. "I believe the gauntlet alters his limitations to match the level of a beast."

Unbelievable. Extraordinary. The Dean and the Vice Principal couldn’t believe their ears.

Although it wasn’t confirmed, the Principal’s words made some sense.

While they analyzed, Claris decided she would speak about what she saw on the awakening tablet.

"I want you to keep this between the three of us," she said.

When the men nodded, she continued.

"After Luke’s awakening, I got to see his data on the tablet. Instead of a low grade, I saw a baseline of Ancient 7.5, with a potential of... Mythic 5.5."

Gasp!

"Ancient? Mythic? Principal, that is impossible!" the Dean exclaimed, dropping his pen.

"Are you sure?" the Vice Principal asked sensitively. "The tablet could have been malfunctioning."

"The awakening tablet has never made an error in years," Claris said coldly, ashamed that both of them took it worse than she had.

Meanwhile, down the hallway leading to the Principal’s office, a girl was walking, her uniform stained with blood.

It was Chloe Ackerman.

She was holding a petition to submit to the principal. The petition was to demand Luke’s expulsion from Montclair Academy.

But when she reached the door, she froze in the hallway as the words from inside the office drifted into her ears.

"...a baseline of Ancient 7.5, with a potential of Mythic 5.5."

Chloe froze. Her fingers loosened, and the petition slipped from her hand, fluttering down to the floor.

Mythic?

She stared at the wood of the door, her knees suddenly feeling weak.

The same Luke Kingsley she had called trash, the failure she had tried so hard to humiliate in front of the whole school, was a monster hiding that kind of power?

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A/N: T.O.R!