Xavier wasn't entirely sure if her ability would return eventually or not. That would determine just how strong this evolution was. But in the meantime, he had another show to get to.
Xavier walked silently through the forest back to the main campus, and arrived at the field in short order. There were still a few minutes left of the earlier group's session, so he waited by the side like Hashim had done, standing this time.
To no surprise, he got more than a few glares and odd looks. No one really watched unless they had a friend participating.
It seemed that today was some sort of initial ranking test day. Each of the students entered the arena and faced off against each other in what seemed to be some sort of elimination tournament schedule. At least, that's what he assumed, because by the time he got there, there were only five students who were still participating, and the first one who lost sat at the side and watched, disappointed in herself.
Xavier made a mental note of her. People who lost within reach of glory often became frustrated with their situation. It would likely be easy to sway her. Or at least, easier than some of the other powerful people.
There was no chance that she was on his side, unless she was very segregated from the others. She had a decent amount of power, Xavier admitted it freely, which meant that she was almost certainly in with the popular group, as though he couldn't tell from the badges resting on the cloth above her chest. Unlike Regus, he didn't judge others' power based on Hashim's in general. Because if he did, then what would be the point? Everyone would just be weak.
Except Ardena.
True. In the future, she may even have posed a problem to them if Regus and Anguis hadn't established a connection with her. The only problem was that she did have bold ideals. If her honor had been a lie, like Xavier had been guessing, then no matter who she was she could have been conquered by their power. But it was people like her that fought to the end against someone who went against their conscience.
He still had to watch himself, but the closer he got to her, the better it was for him.
Next to her, none of the rest of these students stood a chance.
Well, almost none, Hashim broadcasted as John hobbled over. Closely following him was the girl from before, Samantha, as well as John's little brother and the arrogant prick, Rowan. It made sense that they were sticking with him. After all, he was their ticket to the top.
The girl was mostly a mystery, but John was powerful, Xavier knew it. There was an air, an aura, around someone with sufficient strength. If you were near them for too long, your confidence was sapped, and you could feel death in their movements.
This, or a result of it, was what was known as "killing intent". You didn't have to have an ability to sense it, or to exude it, but it had only come around after people had first begun to develop abilities.
Although, more specifically, killing intent was the power one felt when someone much stronger than them was focused on them with violent thoughts. Much as its name suggested... Well, it was exactly what its name suggested. You could feel the intent of someone else to kill. Most could feel nothing if it wasn't directed at them, but Xavier could always feel it.
It inspired a powerful fear, and sometimes even visions of what they could do to you even before they had done it, but that required a massive amount of power.
Corpse... Well, Xavier would love to think that Corpse was nearing that level, but he really didn't know. It had been since before they had forged their pact that he had controlled the body. Xavier didn't even know what his ability was, or what his motivation was. He was mostly just a voice at the back of their head, degrading everyone and everything around them when he was conscious of his own existence.
Just as Xavier thought that, Corpse came forward and began to curse him in his monotonous, steel-spike mental voice.
He winced. So much for focus.
As he tried to retain his grip, he grit his teeth. If he could endure this...
Nope. Not quite.
Xavier slipped out of control, and Hashim took over, immediately passing it to Jake.
Jake turned towards the other four members who were previously in his group in the testing. It seemed that they were in the same time frame as he was for the field, though so far they hadn't seen them in any of their other classes. Jake wasn't surprised by that. Toon had had to take separate entry tests for most of them to get in, some of them verbal, and Miscellaneous Experiences wasn't for everyone. In fact, it wasn't for most people. They were a notable exception, but Jake hadn't expected any of these four to be in it. Maybe Samantha. She was still largely unknown to them, though, so that wasn't based on information, but rather a lack of it.
Jake smiled at them pleasantly.
"Lovely day for a coup, isn't it?" he asked them in a normal voice. He didn't put any specific inflection on it, and did absolutely nothing to hide it from anyone else who might overhear it.
Some of the girls nearby did, and he nearly smirked when he heard the whispers start up. Sure enough, the school's rumor mill was incredibly efficient, he could judge that already. If they were willing to whisper beneath the observance of Captain Rekhard, then they would do it anywhere.
Rekhard was the leader of the field sessions, and took charge of most of them personally, though occasionally he would have a student do it if he wanted to give them a chance to take command.
Jake turned himself back towards the arena, and waited.
It wasn't long before the time slot ended. Jake made a specific note that each of these four had arrived before time by quite a few minutes. They were beginning to view themselves as above the rest of the herd. It was probably true, anyway. In Hashim's entourage, they would likely enjoy privileges that others didn't have. Although perhaps they hadn't left their classes early, as it was entirely possible that the classes themselves had ended earlier than their time slots were set, they had taken it up on themselves to arrive on time.
The instructors here took timings, such as the ending and starting times of their classes, quite loosely. Except for Rekhard, they hardly ever took the effort to end on time. If they completed their goals early, they would release the students early, and they would only let them go begrudgingly if they ran out of time, usually assigning the rest of the planned work to complete before the next day.
It was interesting, because although each class took place every day, they hardly mattered. Physical discipline, as well as, naturally, strength, speed, and combat sense were valued quite highly. The administrators cared much more for those sorts of tests. That was why so many of the classes were more focused on application than the subject itself. Sometimes the professors would even cancel class with no preamble or reasoning, or collectively swap time slots.
Rekhard was one of the few males who hadn't gotten in on his power, but instead on his history of service. Although many of the men who were now on the staff, including the principal, had quickly been raised to powerful administration roles, theoretically to show that they were being fair with their management.
But Jake suspected that it was just the Headmistress's plot to have to spend less time managing the Academy directly. With the new principal, Carmane, acting as a glorified secretary, she was free to attend functions, meet co-conspirators and allies, and just generally spend the Academy's money with no budget.
But Elvira was a bit smarter than that. She kept her books cleanly, with perhaps a small bit of misdirection, as well as any officiary could ask. She was, after all, still considered a noble.
After people had begun to manifest abilities, who exactly a noble was began to blur. Peasants with the strength to destroy an army of knights on horseback would do that, after all. But if you were a noble and had a strong ability, you were undoubtedly in a good place, at least for now.
Hashim had been a part of an organization that attempted to raise orphans as loyal members by providing them with host families, taken from their own membership, back when they had been fragmented. That hadn't worked out too well for him, but similar plots had begun to spring up once their preliminary success got into the mainstream information circulation.
If he were still with them, he would be some sort of trump card in their ever-continuing war against the ruling class. The Academy was one of their strongest competitors. And if that didn't give Hashim a chance to obliterate them, they would make their own.
He had never minded being the villain in anyone's story. In this case, he minded it a whole lot less. If any of them had family, friends, or anyone at all, he wanted to live in their nightmares.
Hashim didn't have a goal, not really.
Unless it was to make every single person that ever doubted him, wronged him, or underestimated him suffer.