Maturinus: School Days

Kinesthetic Learning

With exception to Bradley's appearance, October had been a quiet month. Life had gone on easily, with no extra challenges lain upon them. With Sabrina exempt from Arena contests and the others being under her wing or too low on the rankings list to worry about, all Katie had to worry about was regular schoolwork, a thankful respite from her worries. Sabrina's leg had healed completely, allowing her to go straight to work reversing the entropy that had set in, training twice as hard as she could in the last four days. She'd also set out to reapply her tan, as having a pale white leg from the knee down just looked plain strange against the rest of her. The weather had been less than kind to her on that front but she was happy enough to be up and about again, and doubly happy on the afternoon she'd set out to get ready for the Halloween event. 

Unlike the regular contests, the tournaments were completely optional events that students could enter. With the option of multiple brackets, the Coliseum could accommodate more students than usual by converting the Assault Course and Performance Arts sectors into new battlegrounds for the Adept Games. The Halloween tournament featured four brackets, each with two hundred and fifty-six contestants. The contests between students would eventually leave four as the victors, with each receiving a thousand credits or a battle with Reaper as their reward. As the brackets were randomised there was little reconnaissance that Katie could do to help her friend, so she'd settled for looking up two in particular: Bradley and Reaper.

Bradley's power was known to them, and ranked highly because of it. By manipulating his blood he became a one-man human weapon, creating crystalline armour to protect himself while firing cannon shots from his hands. However, his favoured weapon was those blades by far. After all, they had been the tools of his killing spree. Reaper appeared to be a psychic like Alexander, but also had the ability to manifest energy as a physical form, creating shields for protection and weapons to bludgeon his opponents while throwing them around with telekinesis. There had been more than enough footage on him to go through, and the brutality he displayed in all of his fights made Katie want to run out to the Coliseum and drag Sabrina back for a quieter life. Slamming his opponents around like ragdolls, smashing them with those shields until they barely twitched. The only thing close to a weakness he seemed to have was a lack of close combat finesse and the warm-up time. Every time he went for an attack, be it with a psychic projection or telekinesis, he would pause to prepare himself before unleashing it with a motion. The trick to fighting him seemed to be attacking during that charge, or to know what he was going to use by his motions. 

According to Sabrina, all she needed was the one good hit, but Katie found herself wondering if she'd even be allowed to get in that close to start with. And that wasn't even the worst thing, because before all of that, she had to wait. Sabrina was in the last set of the tournament brackets, which wasn't until late in the day. And so in a rare act of social assertion, Katie decided to throw a pseudo-Halloween party with Cherri and Grace while they watched the tournaments and waited. No costumes, but plenty of snacks and fake spiders, which terrified Grace for reasons Katie couldn't fathom, as she found spiders adorable. Now there was an idea for a transformation. All she had to do was research if spiders could be sized up without square cube law killing her in the process.

She was taken from her arachnid-based thoughts by a knock at the door. Opening it found Alexander and Angela there, the teacher's warm smile at odds with the vampire fangs replacing his canines and the black cloak enveloping his body.

"Hey there. Just here to drop Angela off."

"Thank you for having me. Sorry I couldn't come earlier."

Angela's winged helmet wobbled a little as she bowed in greeting. She'd clung to Alexander's side even more since the incident with Bradley, even with his assertions that he'd find a way to keep the killer from seeking revenge. Her arrival made the party the only accepted attempt out of the requests Katie had made to meet up, and so she'd sworn that they were going to get it right in one shot. She'd made a promise to Alexander and to karma to look after her, and Cherri and Grace were happy enough to bring her into the group, Cherri actively wondering why they hadn't tried earlier. Angela made her way inside after quickly hugging Alexander, bright red as she entered despite the chill of the evening. Alexander chuckled.