"I think you are hiding something from me," Valeria said softly. "I am going to find out what it is."
Zen's heart skipped a beat. But he didn't let it show on his face. He kept his breathing shallow and irrgular, playing the part of a terrified and injured student perfectly.
"What do you mean, Val?" Zen asked, wincing as he held his bruised ribs.
Valeria didn't answer. She just raised her right hand. Her fingers were glowing with a bright, scary golden Aegis mana. Without asking for permission she pressed her palm flat against the center of his chest over his heart.
"System," Zen thought instantly. "Suppress my core signature. Drop it down to Low F-Rank. Make it look as shattered as possible."
[Executing Core Suppression. Warning: Forced suppression while injured will cause physical discomfort.]
A sharp pain shot through Zen's chest, but he bit his lip to keep from screaming.
Valeria closed her eyes letting her mana flow into his body to inspect him. A second later, her eyes snapped open. The suspicion completely vanished from her face replaced by a look of panic.
"Your ribs are fractured," Valeria gasped with a trembling voice. "Your core... It's so weak. Its barely holding together. The shockwave from that monster's fall almost shattered you completely."
Zen let out a weak cough. "I told you... I just got lucky."
Tears welled up in Valeria's eyes. Her psychotic and interrogating expression melted away. Seeing him actually hurt and fragile pushed her yandere instincts to go in the other direction. She wasn't an investigator anymore; she was his savior.
"It's okay," Valeria whispered frantically, wrapping her arms around him. She pulled him in tight, pressing her large, soft breasts firmly against his chest as she let her warm golden mana wash over his broken ribs. "I'm here. I'm going to fix it. I'll always put you back together, Zen."
Zen leaned into her hug pretending to be exhausted. He let out a breath of relief though his ribs throbbed from her tight hug.
The golden mana felt great soothing the pain in his side. He had played her perfectly. By making himself look weak he fed her obsession. She loved the idea that she was the only thing keeping him alive.
While she was distracted holding him, Zen opened his eyes and looked over her shoulder.
The massive Blood-Horn Minotaur lay dead in the dirt just a few feet away. A large, dark purple Heart-Stone had rolled out of its crushed chest cavity.
Zen pretended to stumble slightly from the pain, shifting his weight and pulling Valeria a step backward. As he did, he reached down into the dirt grabbed the Mid E-Rank Heart-Stone and smoothly slipped it into the side pocket of his canvas bag.
Just as the stone dropped into his bag, a bright blue light pierced through the ceiling of the dusty cavern.
[Alert: Academy Emergency Extraction Portal detected.]
Valeria looked up. "The emergency extraction," she said, quickly wiping her eyes and adjusting her glasses. She grabbed Zen's hand holding onto it tightly. "Lets go home, partner."
The light enveloped them and the dark bloody cavern vanished.
—
Professor Vance was pacing back and forth in front of the teleportation pad. His face was pale. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack.
"Any signal?!" Vance yelled at the technician.
"Nothing, sir!" the technician panicked. "The spatial fracture is too deep! I can't locate their coordinates!"
The entire F-Rank class was whispering nervously. Jax looked sick to his stomach staring at the empty blue circle. Maya had both hands clamped over her mouth looking like she was going to cry.
Up on the viewing balcony, Kaelen Thorne leaned against the railing trying not to laugh loud. His sabotage had worked perfectly. Zen Arclight and his girl would be taught a lesson, and the academy thought it was a random computer glitch.
HUMMMMM…
The teleportation pad suddenly whirred to life. Sparks of electricity shot out across the metal floor.
"Sir! The emergency recall just locked onto a signal!" the technician shouted.
A massive pillar of light crashed down from the ceiling. When the light cleared, two figures were standing on the pad.
The entire training room went so silent that you could hear a pin drop.
Zen was covered in ancient dust. His lip was bleeding, his knuckles were scraped and he was clutching his side as if his ribs were broken. Valeria was standing next to him completely unharmed, holding onto his arm with a look of concern on her face.
Professor Vance was standing next to the control console looking like he had just seen a ghost. The rest of the F-Rank students were huddled together staring at Zen and Valeria in shock.
"Arclight?" Professor Vance stammered, stepping forward. "Val? You... You're alive?"
"Barely," Valeria snapped, her transfer-student persona snapping back into place, though she added a touch of trauma to her voice. "What kind of school is this?! We were supposed to be in a training maze!"
Vance swallowed hard, looking terrified of the angry new girl. "There was a critical system error. A spatial fracture. The pad teleported you to an unmapped High E-Rank containment zone."
"It was a dark cave. There were skeletons everywhere. And a monster."
"What kind of monster?" Vance demanded, pulling out his terminal to record the report.
"It was huge," Zen said. "It had dark fur, iron chains wrapped around its arms, and a massive rusted battleaxe."
Professor Vance dropped his terminal. It clattered against the metal floor. The color completely drained from the veteran instructor's face.
"A Blood-Horn Minotaur," Vance breathed out in absolute horror. "That is a High E-Rank boss. How in the hell did you two survive?!"
The class erupted into gasps.
Jax pushed his way to the front of the crowd, his eyes wide. "A Minotaur?! Zen, dude, how are you not dead?!"
Zen hunched his shoulders, making himself look small and pathetic. He rubbed his bruised ribs and looked at the floor.
"We didn't fight it!" Zen said, making his voice shake slightly. "The monster chased us. I thought we were going to die. But it was dragging these huge iron chains. It swung at me, and the chain got caught on a rock. It tripped and slammed its head into the cavern wall and the ceiling collapsed on it."
Professor Vance stared at him his mouth slightly open. "It... Tripped?"
"It was a complete accident," Zen nodded weakly. "We just hid in the corner until the portal pulled us out."
A collective sigh of relief washed over the classroom. To the students and the Professor, it made perfect sense. There was no way a shattered core F-Rank and a rich transfer student could kill a boss like that. Pure, dumb luck was the only explanation that made sense.
"Unbelievable " Vance muttered, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "The Academy matrix is completely shut down until further notice. Arclight, Val you both get automatic passes for the practical. Go to the infirmary and get yourselves checked out."
"Come on partner," Valeria said softly, wrapping her arm around Zen's waist and supporting his weight. She glared at the rest of the class. "Move out of our way."
The students quickly parted, giving them a wide path to the door.
"Just a second, Val," Zen muttered. "My ribs."
He stood up straight, letting the 'scared student' act drop for exactly two seconds.
He slowly turned his head and looked up at the viewing balcony. Kaelen Thorne was staring down at him sweating bullets. The Mid B-Rank student was visibly shaking, realizing that his perfect, foolproof trap had failed completely. If the Academy technicians traced the sabotage back to him, he was going to be expelled and sent to a military prison.
Zen didn't yell. He didn't point a finger. He just locked eyes with Kaelen.
Zen gave him a cold dead look that silently said, "I know it was you, but I won't say anything yet. But trust me, I'm coing hard for you."
Kaelen took a step backward stumbling away from the balcony railing. A terrifying chill ran down his spine just from Zen's look.
Zen smirked faintly, then turned his head, immediately hunching his shoulders back into his weak posture as Valeria guided him out the doors.
"Are you okay, Zen?" Valeria asked sweetly as they walked down the hallway toward the infirmary.
"I will be " Zen said. He touched the heavy canvas bag slung over his shoulder feeling the weight of the Mid E-Rank Heart-Stone. "Things are about to get very interesting."