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Mu Tieren threw a beast over his shoulder, letting Wu Mingbai kill it off with his ability.
This has been going on for a while now.
They were yet on another mission—the ability world in need of more forces to fight.
This time, they were fighting a low level nightmare beast nest.
They were stationed at a neighbourhood that had been evacuated due to the actions of the nightmare beast.
Their main objective was to eliminate the beasts so the civilians would be safe, but they were also told to find out if there was an Opening point in the neighbourhood.
A gear whipped past his face into a beast behind him.
Mu Tieren turned to the direction the gear came from and nodded gratefully at Su Bei. The blonde just inclined his head once before going back to throwing gears.
Su Bei was ahead of them, tearing up more low level nightmare beasts with his gears.
His original pair had been Wu Mingbai, but Su Bei was paired up with them due to the presence of a Mid level nightmare beast. His original pair, Qi Huang, had also been paired up with another group, their mission involving a mid level nightmare beast.
Mu Tieren wasn't disappointed nor mad, quite the opposite, really. He was excited to finally be paired up with one of his first acquaintances in Endless.
It had been a long time since they've interacted other than fleeting conversations and greetings, and he was glad that he finally got the opportunity to.
He dodged a low level nightmare beast that lunged at him, punching it in its face not even a second later.
Shaking off the remaining goo in his hand, he sent a smile to Wu Mingbai, who was waiting for him.
“Class Monitor,” The brunet greeted with a smile of his own, though it was full of mischief and amusement rather than happiness.
Mu Tieren kept the smile on his face. He was used to how his classmates act, and knew that this was one of the ways Mingbai showed happiness.
That title outside of class still embarrasses him sometimes. He's gotten used to it, of course, but a whole crowd hearing that title might make him nervous.
“Mingbai.” He nodded at the other, and at his confirmation they looked around for Su Bei.
There were gears laying around, some left over dirt from Mingbai’s ability, nightmare beast bodies, a few scratched Windows but other than that…
…Nothing.
There was no sight of their blond classmate around. Just some of his gears, and nightmare beast bodies lying dead.
“Su Bei..” Wu Mingbai sighed out loud. “Maybe he's gotten lost?”
A nearby sound of an explosion jolted them out of their thoughts, and they quickly turned to look at the direction it came from.
There were nightmare beasts laying dead on the ground, as well as an assortment of gears all leading from one direction.
How did they miss such an obvious trail..?
Smiling wryfully while dragging a hand down his face, Mu Tieren sighed once again.
When they arrived, there were a couple nightmare beasts teaming up to attack Su Bei.
It would've been alarming if they didn't know who Su Bei was.
That didn't mean they didn't jump in to fight though. The blonde had already done quite a lot on the numbers. There were only quite a few left.
Something black flashed by quickly in the corner of his eye, and Mu Tieren raised his arms up in a blocking formation. His instincts were right, because not even a second after, a force sent him skidding across the pavement.
He narrowed his eyes. There shouldn't be a nightmare beast that strong in this area. Unless…
“Su Bei! Wu Mingbai!” He yelled, running towards another nightmare beast coming at him.
Punching it through its stomach, he yelled, “Watch out! There might be a mid level nightmare beast!”
“Ghk—!”
Mu Tieren turned quickly, alerted by the noise of pain and surprise near him, just in time to see Su Bei get thrown across the street. As he hit a building, a loud crash pierced his ears, the sound of glass shattering making it worse.
Feeling anger and worry surge at him like a ride, he upped his power output to attack as efficiently and quickly as possible.
Wu Mingbai was already saving Su Bei, a shaking piece of the building's floor rising with the boy on top.
As Su Bei was currently safe now, he immediately started charging at the one or two remaining beasts.
After a few seconds, the street was finally silent, only the sound of heavy breaths in the air. He wanted to turn back to Su Bei already, but he knew that there was a mid level nightmare beast nearby.
If it ran away now…
Speak of the devil and it shall appear. Mu Tieren heard the thing before seeing it, its voice crackly and static like.
“Hehehehehe…”
Wu Mingbai walked up beside him, watching the nightmare beast with narrow and pointed eyes.
The beast was truly grotesque. It had a similar physique to a human, but there were things about it that were just off. Its head looked like wax, falling and dropping down. The body was like a mismatch of clay and slime on a mannequin— unnatural colours not blending together.
It was larger than a regular human too. Instead of it being 5-6 feet tall, it stood at 14 feet, almost thrice their height and size.
“Ghe-ghe…” It hummed, raising its multiple slithery tentacles at the two of them.
Another thing not right about it. It had many tentacles, using it as legs as an octopus to slither around.
They tensed up as its tentacles suddenly grew sharp like blades, but much more deadly and sharp.
“Die.” Its voice was wrong. High when it's not, multiple voices saying the word at once.
The tentacles quickly descended on them, and Mu Tieren crossed his arms in an instinctive block.
Nothing came.
..?
He raised his head warily, only to see the nightmare beast slithering on the ground. It seemed to be trying to cover something, but a second later something pierced it from the middle of its head.
The thing shot straight out from the head, piercing through the beast cleanly. He heard it clink on the ground, rolling a little until it fell.
It was a gear.
Mu Tieren instinctively looked at the direction the gear came from.
Lo and behold, Su Bei. He was standing on top of a store, hand still in a throwing motion even when the nightmare beast died.
“Yo!” He cheered, dropping down to the road, where he and Wu Mingbai were gaping at him. He was walking leisurely, little hops visible in his step.
“Su Bei!” He ran to the blonde. How was he already standing up?
His hands were hovering indecisively. He didn't know what hurt and what didn't. All he knew was that their classmate was looking like he went through a cheese grater.
His clothes had been torn slightly from the impact, there was blood running down his mouth and nose, and he was clutching his stomach tightly.
Su Bei must’ve noticed his worry, as he quickly tried to reassure the two of them.
“I’m fine.” The blond said with a smile. It would've been reassuring if there wasn't blood on his teeth and lips.
Mu Tieren almost shook the boy right then and there, wanting nothing more than to put him in a bed and heal him himself.
He put his hands on the boy’s shoulders, feeling his eyes twitch at the audacity of the other.
“Fine?!” He snapped, tightening his grip on the others’ shoulders.
Su Bei just looked at him, looking as if he were any innocent deer. He felt his eye twitch again.
“Fine, my ass.” Wu Mingbai muttered behind them. The other was watching the neighbourhood in case of any more incoming nightmare beasts.
Mu Tieren was grateful.
“I’ll bring him to the car.” He said to the brunet. “You’ll be fine to guard on your own?
Mu Tieren put Su Bei’s arm around his neck and shoulders, and he did the same to the blond.
“What do you take me for, Class Monitor? I’ll be fine!” responded Wu Mingbai, smiling brightly at the two of them.
“Now shoo, we need to get Su Bei Medical attention quickly.“
“I don't need—”
The two of them shushed the blond simultaneously.
“Shut up, you need it.”
“...I really don—”
“Say one more word and I'll tell Teacher Meng that you left on your own and that's how you got injured.”
“...”
“That’s what I thought.” Wu Mingbai smirked.
“Until then, get your body back to the best condition you can— we need to know if it’s serious or not.”
My Tieren could only name the emotion on Su Bei's face as incredulousness. He looked very.. deadpan. Like someone he knew just told him the stupidest joke known to mankind.
He fought down the laughter coming from his lungs. He felt like Su Bei wouldn't appreciate it.
In the end, Meng Huai put all three of them into detention. Which basically just meant spending more time doing missions instead of relaxing.
“I didn’t even do anything…” He muttered sadly, pulling his knees against his chest.
“Yeah, well,” Su Bei cheered, standing around like it was a normal occurrence. “Sucks to suck.”
The glare he sent would've made buildings crawl down.
He sighed. Seriously, these two somehow always got a rise out of him.