He could feel each impact closer, the wind pressure of rapidly crashing attacks grazing his back.

Gen tapped into his reserves of stamina and reached a full sprint as he threw himself feet-first into the hallway connecting the main building and the gym.

“MOVE AWAY!” He shouted as Sophia opened the door as much as she could, letting the sliding Gen get inside. He didn’t stop, as he dropped the injured student and slid under the railings that circled the balcony, letting him land on the gym’s polished wooden floor below.

He rolled upon touching the ground, and the moment he stood u,p he pointed his finger at Sophia.

“GRAB HIM AND GET THE FUCK OUT, THE ASSHOLE GOT MY SCENT!” He declared, turning his finger to the vaulted metal ceiling. 

“HE IS ON THE FUCKIN’ ROOF!” He shouted as he jumped to the side, just in time to avoid the falling spheres piercing through the corrugated panels overhead.

Inside the gym, with much more space to see them coming, Gen was much more capable of dodging them, as he looked for his medal inside his jacket pocket.

“Where the fuck is it?” Gen fumbled around his pockets while he kept moving, the waxed wooden planks of the gym getting peppered with holes, much like the hallways of the main building.

Finally, he felt the metal against his fingers; it was slightly warm and pulsating, as if it had a life of its own, an instinct to find the Gainen and exterminate them.

As soon as he found it, he stopped for a second, and three attacks fell in rapid succession, endangering his life, but Gen was ready.

“ARMORED!” He bellowed, as orange lightning arched throughout the gym, creating blackened scorch marks on the already embattered wooden floor.

Instead of covering his left arm with armor like before, he manifested two gauntlets covering up to his elbows, where they slowly faded into nothingness, releasing orange bolts from the boundary between armor and flesh.

“I’M FUCKIN’ TIRED OF THIS FUCKIN’ BULLSHIT!” The young brawler cursed as he released a barrage of fists upwards, bouncing back the initial 3 attacks and the 8 that followed, forcing the falling objects back up, hitting the ceiling above him.

Instead of perfect holes, this time around, the deflected objects punched large jagged cracks through each of the corrugated panels they went through, creating a cobweb of cracks that slowly joined, and that whole section of the roof collapsed.

Gen rolled out of the way as the debris hit the floor and stood up, taking a fighting stance, ready for anything.

Slowly falling from the hole, a twisted figure appeared. An impish humanoid that, upon first look, seemed to be dressed in jester robes, but after a closer inspection, it seemed that everything he wore was part of his body.

“Ya’re one ugly bastard.” Gen spat the words, fist at the ready, as the Gainen slowly descended, as if he wasn’t chained by gravity.