Hope seemed to vanish before all of their eyes at Zavier''s revtion. Alissa began to wish that Dah hadn''t inquired of Zavier.


    Clearly, the masked man wasn''t pleased with Zavier. The disruptive brat had meddled in his ns andpletely robbed him of his expected result from his calcted attack. Obviously, the attacker was done ying mister nice guy.


    He was going to kill Zavier first! Vrie didn''t need visibility to tell her what was up. She could practically taste her opponent''s bloodlust in the air. But she couldn''t do much with little or no visibility. She knew she had to get rid of the ck smoke first.


    Doing so would level the in field for her.


    So, Vrie unveiled another side of her ability. Using wind magic, she spread out her arms and a whirlwind began to blow with an rming speed.


    Like a tornado, it angrily swished through the terrain, and within a few seconds itpletely dispersed the odious smoke around her. The masked man stopped dead in his tracks once he saw that he no longer had the covering of his own smoke anymore.


    Once again, Vrie stopped the masked man from executing his diabolic n.


    But the battle was far from over. It turned out the assant had learned a thing or two from Vrie. He copied her initial tactic andunched a speedy counter attack, this time not on the barrier, but on Vrie herself.


    Unfortunately, the lead teacher''s mental energy had been fully devoted to securing her students and the barrier around them, so she had left herself wide open for a sneak attack.


    A three foot long two inches thick bone spur (shot from the masked man''s torso) ripped through Vrie''s arm.


    Alissa, Dah and Zavier watched with horror as their dear teacher and protector took a hit. They couldn''t tell if it was lethal, but from the size of the bone spur, they could tell that it was bad. But Vrie didn''t let her injury deter her.


    She fought on with an incredible tenacity and repelled the masked man. Having forced him back, the turned in the direction of the barrier and enhanced the boundary spell till it had been restored to its original strength.


    Dah, Zavier and Alissa had nothing but reverence for her.


    When the masked man saw that Vrie had casually strengthened the barrier despite her injury, he spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders. Then he said conclusively;


    "Well, this was an honor. I never thought I would fight a genius like you Miss Adam. For this joust, I am truly grateful."


    Thus, the masked man left, as quickly as he and his dead colleague hade. The atmosphere of calm and peace that followed was unbelievable.


    As expected, at first, nobody truly believed that the masked man had willingly retreated. They all believed that this was probably some mean trap.


    So, they waited for a painful ten to twenty minutes before they began to ept the fact that maybe the man was truly gone. Only after Vrie confirmed that his energy signature had truly retreated did she turn to undo the boundary.


    As the barrier finally came down, for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, the group of three finally heaved a sigh of relief.


    But their relief was short-lived. When they recalled that Vrie had been pierced by a bone spur the feeling of joy turned sour in their mouths.


    They rushed towards her with concern and ambushed her with a storm of questions. Alissa shrieked when she saw the injury up close.


    "Miss Vrie are you okay…?"


    "Does it hurt too much…?"


    "What can we do to help Miss Vrie?!"


    Vrie was overwhelmed by their concern, but she didn''t show it. She assuaged their fears.


    "Rx everybody. I am perfectly fine as you can see."


    The questioning looks on all of their faces told her that none of them believed her. But Vrie wasn''t one to seek public empathy or praise.


    She returned to her usual self and took charge immediately, issuing new directives and analyzing the situation.


    "We can''t afford to rx at this point. If anything, we need to speed up. There''s every possibility that more dangers may lie up ahead.


    So, everyone get ready! We leave in five!"


    Zavier watched his aunt carefully. He wasn''t fooled. He knew that her injury wasn''t just a surface wound. But he couldn''t ask her in the presence of everyone.


    His aunt was egotistical like that. So, the prudent Zavier waited till the others had dispersed before approaching her privately before they could set off.


    "Aunt V…"


    Vrie looked up and met her nephew''s concerning eyes.


    "Tell me the truth aunt V, what''s the real situation regarding your arm?"


    Vrie brushed him off.


    "It''s just a small flesh wound Zavier. It won''t bother me at all."


    Zavier immediately knew she was lying. So he countered her. With his time-space eye, he could clearly see that the toxin from the bone spike was eating through her arm and spreading progressively like a virus.


    Zavier was stunned that Vrie couldn''t notice the tiny pathogens gnawing away at her arm from the inside. Still Vrie maintained her confident front.


    p "I said I am fine Zavier!"</anda>


    She rasped.


    "There is no poison okay?"


    Again, Zavier moved to protest. He could clearly see the poison. Why was his aunt fighting him on this?


    "But Aunt V, I am telling you that…"


    She cut him off angrily.


    "Zavier Adam…!"


    Zavier recoiled inwardly. His aunt used his full name only when she was truly annoyed. Even now, Zavier could see the embers of anger in her raging eyes.


    "Listen up…"


    Vrie began;


    "You''re still very much a student who hasn''t graduated yet, your judgement is anything but wed!"


    Vrie''s words stung the already riled Zavier. It wasn''t her words per say, it was the hidden meaning which she had cleverly concealed behind her well structured speech.


    It dawned on Zavier that his aunt wasn''t just trying to act tough, no.


    The real reason behind her sudden outburst was rooted deep in her responsibility to the entire group as the lead teacher. The astute Vrie had correctly judged that they were indeed in a very precarious situation.


    This simply meant that she couldn''t Afford to attend to the poison right now. To do so would drain them of their most valuable resource which they were running low of at the moment; TIME. Every second was precious.


    Vrie knew that she couldn''t afford to waste the time they could have spent fleeing on attending to her poison.


    Zavier examined his own presumptuousness and shame dwarfed him from the inside. It was indeed a serious oversight on his own end. Of course Vrie knew about the poison.


    She had simply chosen to downy the seriousness of her injury just so she could protect her young students from any more worries. But she hadn''t anticipated that Zavier would see through her charade and discern the truth.


    Compassion slowly reced the storm of emotions that had been raging in Zavier''s mind. He was truly touched by Vrie''s strength of character despite her condition.


    Her care wasmendable and her actions were justified, but Zavier just could not run the risk of losing Vrie. Her sacrificing herself for the sake of saving the others wasn''t something that Zavier was willing to go along with. So, he stood his ground and challenged her ruling;


    "No."


    He said quietly and with a confidence that resonated his unflinching resolve.


    "I will not go along with this aunt V. If you do not treat your injury, I will abandon this team at once and set off on my own towards the school."


    Vrie didn''t think she could experience so many levels of shock within the space of a few hours.


    The Zavier who stood before her now seemed like apletely different person altogether. She assumed that his battle with Shiranui was the trigger that had caused him to grow up so much.


    The determination in his eyes showed that he was driven. She knew more than anyone that it was better for her and everyone else to give in.


    She sighed and dropped her shoulders in defeat.


    "Fine. Let''s have it your way."