Note: Voila, the next chapter! Originally, I wrote this chapter and Chapter 11 as one, but then I decided to separate them cause it was like double what I usually write. So I'll leave it up to you guys. Do you guys want me to write around 10,000 words/chapter or my usual 5000? Please review and share your opinion!

Oh, and the principal's granddaughter was an OC character I created. I hope she'll have some more parts in the story later on. I'm looking forward to writing her character :)

And please review your take on the story! Plus, thank-you to the people who reviewed and favourited me last time!

Chapter 12

'Good. Coast is clear.'

A teen wearing an unique ancient Chinese robe rushed towards the portal, followed by three other people who were dwindling behind, unable to catch up to their master's speed.

'Aha! There it is! The portal!'

The firefly glowed brighter in his outstretched hand. One more step, just one more step till he could reach Stage 3.

A hand suddenly grabbed his arm, mere inches from the edge of the portal.

Shocked for a moment, the teen looked up with anxiety. Then upon recognizing the person's touch, the teen shook off his enemy's hand, while flicking his robe away to reach for the dual sai that hung on his waist.

"Ezart, eh? Should've known it was you."

"Ahaha! Shain Bailian, did you see your face back there? It was my first time seeing you so shocked!" teased Ezart. The dragon on his face also seemed to dance with amusement.

Shain obviously wasn't impressed. It was his misfortune to meet Ezart here out of all places. Just when he was so close to his goal too. No doubt his long time arch enemy will try to pry the firefly from his dying hands.

A few panting voices echoed behind Shain. "Master, would you like us to take care of him?"

The teen didn't even turn around to acknowledge his three servants. As far as he knew, they were just all spies sent by his father to keep him in check. Besides, they definitely weren't strong enough to take Ezart down. Then again, Shain had never lost to the spiky, orange haired baboon, no matter how many times he was challenged to a fight.

Ezart had long since noticed Shain's three followers: an ice witch, a gunman and a dwarf. Rolling his eyes, he taunted, "Oh, I see you've brought your 'Snow White' trio here again. Did you want them to protect you? How about you tell them to all attack me at once? Yourself included. I can take all of you on."

Shain smirked, refusing to lose his cool. Slyly, he replied, "No, just me would be enough."

Giving a signal to his men to make sure none of them interrupt his fight, Shain swiftly lifted his dual sai and ran for his opponent. Ezart blocked the teen's attack, but wasn't quick enough to counter. By the time his punch touched the ground, Shain had already spun around to his back, aiming for his neck. Ezart tried to whip his arm around to reach his snake-like enemy, but Shain was too fast, and evaded his attack. Immediately, Shain stabbed one of his sai into Ezart's leg, forcing the latter to bend on one knee.

Ezart clenched his teeth and grimaced at the pain.

Shain laughed through the smoke, "Was that all, Mr. Orange Baboon? Were those your only tricks?"

Ezart coughed, and stood up, while his leg was still spewing out blood. Damn this smoke. It was making him dizzy and his vision blurry. Glaring at Shain, he answered, "Oh, you haven't seen the worst of it yet."

Shain merely stepped away from Ezart's punch, and continued to evade the other punches that his opponent were throwing left and right. He did it with such grace, it was like he was dancing, and he knew it was pissing Ezart off. His opponent's attacks became more and more predictable, trying desperately to land one hit. Shain yawned, just to tease the baboon.

That action seemed to set off a fire inside Ezart. Shain was laughing at him! Ezart's eyes burned with a scorching flame, as his attacks became faster and faster. There was no way he would lose again. No way. He would kill Shain, and finally be the victor in their age-old war.

Remarkably, Shain found he had to actually try to counter Ezart now. He couldn't let Ezart push him around and not go on the offense. His opponent's speed had increased, so he had to end the fight soon, or things might end up messy. How much time did he have left?

Looking for an opening, Shain aimed for Ezart's stomach, which was promptly blocked by the latter. Ezart tried to punch Shain's head with his free hand, but the teen ducked and kicked at Ezart's injured leg. Ezart winced, but his eyes were still determined. He couldn't be knocked down. In return, Ezart grabbed Shain's leg, and aimed to break it with one swift punch.

Shain knew that his position right now left him very vulnerable. He was of the high-agility types, so if Ezart succeeded in breaking his leg, then there would be no way for Shain to dodge his future punches. It might as well be an instant win for his opponent. Using his last resort, Shain threw one of his sai at Ezart's heart. At this point blank proximity, there was a 99% chance it would hit. If Ezart succeeded in breaking his legs, then at least let him die the next moment after.

Ezart's eyes widened at the upcoming sai. He twisted his body away, but wasn't quick enough. The sai pierced his left arm, basically rendering it useless. However, Ezart knew that he couldn't let go of Shain's leg. This would probably be his last chance to attack the poisonous snake. Ezart threw his opponent onto the ground, causing Shain to cough up a storm of blood. With one powerful foot, Ezart stepped on one of Shain's legs, causing a crisp 'crack'. Shain growled with anger and pain, and was temporarily paralyzed, unable to move.

Ezart wrenched out Shain's sai that had been stuck in his arm. He didn't care that more blood was leaking out. This was going to be his victory. Finally, he would win against Shain. Finally.

A bullet wormed it's way into his back. Ezart turned around like a mad beast, growling in the back of his throat, wondering who was suicidal enough to interrupt his moment. His eyes eventually fell on the gunman, who one of Shain's followers. Now they spring up to help their master? It was a bit too late for that wasn't it?

Shain's voice contorted with pain, but still managed to scream out, "Don't get in the way! This is our fight!"

Ezart's mouth curled up at the ends. It didn't matter that they wanted to pick a fight with him, he was up to the challenge. But first, Ezart gingerly broke Shain's other leg, leaving his opponent writhing on the floor in agony. Perfect, this was the ideal image for a dying snake.

The gunman looked bewildered, once he realized Ezart was walking towards him. Ezart then remembered what the instructions were. He had to kill the entire team in order for the firefly to become his. Brilliant. Another excuse to beat these kids up to the high heavens.

By now, the gunman was joined by the ice witch, possessing huge claws, and the dwarf, who held no conceivable weapon. The ice queen ran to meet Ezart, but with one punch was knocked unconscious a few metres away. The gunman tried to fire as many bullets as possible, but none of them managed to hit Ezart. The latter merely blocked them with his armor or caught them with his metal gloves. Either way, he walked steadfastly towards his remaining two targets. Then suddenly, the dwarf bared his teeth and jumped for Ezart's face. He was like a mad dog, and Ezart definitely wasn't prepared for that. It took him a few seconds to knock the dwarf away from his face, but it had left him with some bloody scratches and a broken nose. Not to mention a couple extra bullet holes from the gunman, because Ezart couldn't see enough to block the bullets.

Completely angered now, Ezart threw his leg at the gunman, kicking him towards a tree. The poor thing knocked down several other trees in the process. Shain face-palmed. Well that ended quickly. In a complete and utter defeat of his subordinates. He had known that they stood no chance, but the way they lost was absolutely pathetic.

By the time he reopened his eyes, Ezart had already returned to his side.

"Forgive my subordinates for disturbing our fight. I'll punish them for it later."

Ezart grunted, wiping away blood on his mouth. "I'd have to kill them eventually anyways." He paused, as if in thought, "Well then, you poisonous snake, how am I supposed to celebrate this victory? How about I leave it to you. How do you want to die?"

Shain laughed. "That should've been my question to you. I wonder what was different about this fight, I've won all the others," his eyes drifted away, "I wonder if it was because..."

"Because of what?"

Shain looked at Ezart with a weird expression. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed."

"Noticed what?" asked Ezart impatiently.

"Ever since the start of this fight, you've never realized it? I'm blind right now, Ezart. I'm blind!" shouted Shain at the top of his voice. He coughed several times afterwards. It was a bad idea to raise one's voice in the blasted smoke. Now even breathing seemed hard to do.

Ezart's eyes grew big. "What are you talking about? Blind?" He stared into Shain's eyes, and for one second, his pupils shined with a pink luster. Then the next second, it disappeared.

"Ever since the start of this stage, the pink smoke irritated my eyes. At first, everything was just blurry, but soon I couldn't see anything at all," said Shain, "I still can't believe you've never noticed it."

Ezart retorted, "I'm sorry, but I don't make it a habit of staring into a guy's eyes." He had tried to sound cool on the outside, but mentally, his emotions were burning. He'd really never realized that Shain had been blind. That's how well Shain fought even with the handicap. True, he did feel that Shain's openings were a bit more today, but he never took it to heart. Now his victory was ruined. He didn't even feel elated at winning anymore. As far as he was concerned, this fight couldn't even count.

"-Although thank God I trained how to fight blindfolded when I was young, or else I really would have been screwed this time around," ranted Shain, "Hey baboon, you mind killing me and getting this over with? My fingers are already frozen and I am in tremendous pain right now."

Ezart grunted and lifted up Shain's sai. He couldn't even look at his opponent's face as he did so. This was supposed to be his victory fight. But after hearing the truth, all the adrenaline and excitement had faded away, leaving only bitter emptiness.

"Hey, I'll look forward to when we fight next time."

Ezart turned his head to look at Shain. The latter had died holding a coy smile plastered on his face. Ezart smiled at this too. Yes, there'd always be next time. His victory will just have to wait.

Searching through Shain's pockets, Ezart finally found the glowing, silver firefly. With a mechanic 'Ding', the bug re-registered him as it's next master. Putting his ticket to the next stage in his pocket, Ezart headed for the portal.

Skimming atop the pink smoke, Dark Sun was running out of time. He had exactly 3 minutes and 43 seconds till this entire place would be blown to kingdom come. And yet he still hasn't found Eloise or Ezart. The teen sighed. Just how big was this tundra?

"NOOO!"

Dark Sun's face turned towards the voice's direction. The scream was definitely from a man, and it wasn't far away either.

Using his microchip, he was able to see through the smoke and register where the voice came from. As he scanned through the smoke, three life forms came up, two men and one woman. It seemed like this was a team.

As Dark Sun neared the trio, his microchip was able to make out more details. One of the men was hugging a woman, and the other was standing idly, not moving a muscle. This scene seemed quite odd to the silver haired teen, as he flapped his wings over top of the spectacle.

Wait, the girl in the man's arms had pink hair! Dark Sun's eyes widened and his eyebrows creased. Could it be? He swooped down into the smoke, intent on checking if things were really as bad as he thought.

Elian lifted Eloise up, and shook her shoulders. His desperation was apparent when shouting, "Come on Eloise! Wake up! We don't have time for this!" This can't be happening. They had finally found a team who had a firefly. They were so close to killing them all. Until Eloise collapsed from an enemy's bullet and fell unconscious. Now, she wasn't even breathing.

"Eli!" snapped Elian, "Do you sense anything from her?"

Eli seemed shaken from a nightmare. He shook his head. Eloise's mind was quiet. Completely quiet.

Elian cursed. He lifted Eloise up, intent on getting her to the portal, or wherever that is. Even if this was a simulation, he just couldn't bear to see his beloved friend like this. They didn't have enough time anyways. Even if they have to be disqualified, it was still better than being blown to pieces by the upcoming explosion.

Suddenly, an abrupt wind hit them in the face. It chased most of the smoke away, and for a second, the bare, frozen tundra ground could be seen. Elian raised his head, but the hasty glow of the sun pierced his eyes, forcing him to look away from the cause of the wind.

However, Eli immediately noticed a being approaching them. He instinctively tried to read this being's mind, but was only received with complete emptiness, much like Eloise's mind right now. He couldn't read this person's thoughts? Was this 'person' even human? It sure didn't look like it.

After Elian's eyes adjusted to the brightness, a silhouette of a flying angel stood before them, except the angel wasn't sporting it's usual feathery wings, but rather metallic ones that glimmered in the sunlight. Then, upon closer inspection, Elian noticed that the 'angel' was but a teen his age, perhaps even younger than him.

Eli nudged him in the side. "Be careful, I can't read his thoughts," said Eli.

Elian's eyebrows creased. What did Eli mean he couldn't read this person's thoughts?

Eli abruptly answered, "Either he's dead or he's not human. His mind is completely empty, like Eloise."

"Are you sure?" asked Elian, whispering.

"Positive."

There was no mistaking it. That was Eloise, lying on the man's arms. Her pink hair was all messy and one of her arms flailed out helplessly at her side. Dark Sun even forgot all about his wings. He had totally forgotten about them while worrying for Eloise. As he tried to approach the trio, one of the men got out his throwing knives and the other put Eloise down, then reached for his twin energy swords.

"What do you want?" came one man's voice.

Dark Sun answered honestly. "Eloise," he said.

"How do you know her name? Are you an acquaintance of her's?" questioned the same man, wiping away some flicks of his red hair.

Dark Sun was about to answer yes, except suddenly he noticed that the man's hair wasn't the only thing that was red. Eloise's chest was covered with blood. Running directly past the man's twin energy swords, Daren knelt by Eloise's side.

"What happened to her?" he desperately asked.

Elian's eyes grew wide. The 'angel' was there a second ago, yet with astonishing speed dared to push past him. Turning around, he attacked the winged teen, and his energy swords easily swiped off a few steel feathers.

Dark Sun grabbed Eloise and jumped back. He can't fight, not while holding Eloise. Desperately, he pleaded, "Stop! I'm not going to attack her!"

Elian ran towards Dark Sun, closely followed by Eli. "How can we trust you? Put Eloise down right now! Or don't say I didn't warn you!"

Following Elian's instructions, Dark Sun did put Eloise down, but as a defensive measure surrounded himself and Eloise with his steel wings as protection.

Elian stopped. Eli did as well. Just who was this teen?

Once Dark Sun got a closer look at Eloise, all he could see was blood. He couldn't even tell what sort of wound it was. He tried ripping away some of her clothes to see the damage, and successfully found a bullet hole mere inches from her heart.

Elian screamed, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" and tried to hack away at Dark Sun's wings, only giving him limited success.

Dark Sun shouted back, "No time to talk!" Upon closer inspection, his microchip deemed that Eloise still had a pulse, although it was really soft. However, the microchip was also sure that she would probably die of blood loss in less than 5 minutes.

With a ferocious flap of his wings, he pushed Elian and Eli back, forcing the two to take a few steps away.

"Do you guys have a firefly yet?" asked Dark Sun.

"What does that have to do with you?" growled Elian, "Get your hands off of her!"

"I asked if you guys have a firefly! Do you have one?" shouted Dark Sun, who was very near the end of his patience.

Elian was stunned. This teen did indeed step away from Eloise, but he couldn't trust him yet. However, something in the teen's eyes did make Elian tell the truth.

"No, we don't have one yet."

Eli nudged him, and whispered, "Why are you telling him this?"

Elian had no good answer to give to his teammate, so he gave none. But for some reason, he knew that giving the truth was the right answer.

Dark Sun only nodded, and reached for his pocket. From it, he took out a silver ball of light, and handed it to Elian. Elian was dumbfounded. This was... It was a firefly!

Eli finally spoke up. "What are you doing?" he asked the teen.

Dark Sun replied, "I'm giving it to you.

"Grandpappy!" shouted a girl from across the room.

A familiar voice replied, "What is it?"

"Grandpappy! Someone's trying to break the rules again!"

"Disqualify them my dear. Do it like I taught you." answered the voice, "Grandpappy's gonna go to a car exhibition right now, so you can tell me the details later, alright?"

The girl whined. "But Grandpappy! He's so cool! I can't disqualify him! Tell me what I should do!"

The voice sighed, and shook off his brand-new Italian shoes. Getting his granddaughter to take care of the simulation had been a mistake on his part. He hurried over to the simulation control room. If he could get this over with now, he still wouldn't be late to the car exhibition. Using Elian's VIP ticket of course.

As he opened the door, the principal of Yelan Academy followed his granddaughter's finger to the big, middle screen. It showed two of his three favorite members of the Elite combat section talking to a... Was that an angel?

The principal took a seat next to his granddaughter and stared at the figure in the screens. Who was that? Those wings were definitely not on the weapons list for students.

"Isn't he cool?" said the girl, hands over her heart, "I was really hoping he would win, but all of a sudden he wants to give his firefly to big brother Elian's team!"

Looking over to the left screen, which displayed the time left till the final explosion, even the principal's heart started beating an extra beat. Why was his Elite combat section still here with only 1 minute and 3 seconds left on the clock?

"Elian's team still hasn't gotten a firefly yet?"

His granddaughter sadly shook her head. "But they can't accept Dark Sun's firefly unless they kill him! And I don't want them to fight!"

The principal shockingly stood up and looked at his granddaughter. "Is Dark Sun that boy's name?" he asked, pointing at the winged figure.

"Yep! That's the username he registered for the simulation."

After a short pause, the principal sat down onto his chair. Every second he was wasting was going to cost Elian, Eloise and Eli. He didn't know who this 'Dark Sun' was yet, but he swore he would get to the bottom of it. As for now, he had to help his Elite Combat Section, or their hard-earned reputation would be ruined.

"Make an exception for them."

"Wow really?" said his granddaughter excitedly, "So big brother Elian can take Dark Sun's firefly without fighting each other?"

The principal's face was grim. He had a personal rule of no tolerance when it came to rule breaking, but the Elite Combat Section was going to be crucial to Stage 3. He can't let any of them die in this stage.

"Yes, but that would leave Dark Sun without a firefly," grumbled the principal. After a brief look at his watch, he almost stumbled backwards. He had only 5 minutes to get to the car exhibition! He was going to be late, late, LATE!

"Well then, no time to talk, Grandpappy's gotta attend that car exhibition now. You make sure that Elian gets the firefly, alright? Bye dear!" shouted out the principal.

"But what about Dark Sun?"

"He can fend for himself. Now you don't make any unnecessary changes alright? Just leave the simulation until I get back home."

"Yes Grandpappy..."

Elian pushed back the teen's gift, eyes filled with disapproval. "Don't. We don't need it."

Dark Sun in turn forcefully grabbed Elian's arm and shoved the firefly in his hand. "How can you guys not need it? Look at Eloise!" shouted the silver haired teen, "How can you guys leave her like that? You need this firefly. You need it!"

Eli shoved Dark Sun away from his teammate. "Don't you understand? We can't just take it from you. We have to kill you for the firefly to register us as it's owner!"

This had been the first time for Dark Sun to lose his cool like that. He even forgot about the instructions at the beginning of stage. Covering his face with one hand, he remained silent for a moment. Looks like he'd have to hack into the simulation's database and make some few changes. But there was less than one minute on the clock now. Would he have enough time?

Elian gasped, causing Eli to turn back in surprise. A mechanical 'Ding' sounded, and Dark Sun's name disappeared, replaced by Elian, Eli, and Eloise's name. The firefly had re-registered it's owner! The two teammates looked at each other, then looked at their company, the latter whom was still silent, as if in deep focus.

Swallowing his pride, Elian burst out, "Alright! I don't care how you did it, but we got the firefly!"

Dark Sun turned around in surprise. "Really?" He hadn't even hacked into the database yet, but the firefly still somehow bent the rules?

Elian looked away, tensing his fists. This was first time he had to bow his head to anyone. "Thank you," he whispered to the teen under his breath.

A satisfied smile spread on Dark Sun's mouth. "And your welcome," he replied, "The portal is off to the south, so start running there as fast as you can. You have exactly 43 seconds left."

Eli nodded, while Elian bent down to lift up Eloise. 43 seconds was enough for them to reach the portal. But what about their company?

As Dark Sun was about to lift off, Eli grabbed his shoulder, and asked, "What about you? You don't happen to have another spare firefly right?"

Dark Sun shrugged off Eli's hand. "Don't worry about me. Just get to the next stage."

After a few flaps of his metallic wings, the silver haired teen disappeared into the smoke. Elian had one last thing to ask before they began running for their lives.

"What's your name?"

From across the distance, a cold voice answered them.

"Dark Sun."

A blur of silver flew above the mass of smoke. Skimming across the expanse of pink, Dark Sun finally came to the conclusion that he was going to run out of time. Every second he wasted was crucial, yet no silver glows appeared. Could it be? Did all the fireflies really get taken away?

Suddenly, Dark Sun pivoted dangerously to the right. His right wing was injured from Eloise's energy swords, and has now lost the balance needed to fly in a straight line. Like a lost bird, the silver haired teen resorted to flying in large curves instead.

"Aww! Look at him! He has no hope now! All the fireflies are gone!" cried a young girl sitting across a computer screen, watching this so-called 'Dark Sun's movements.

On the left screen, the timer was counting down. Only 30 seconds left, 29, 28, 27...

The girl was in absolute agony. She couldn't let her newly found idol die like this! He'd done nothing wrong. He was only trying to help big brother Elian! Yet Grandpappy had told her not to mess around with the simulation.

Abruptly, the Dark Sun on the screen fell from the sky. This caused the little girl to gasp and hold her breath. Any normal person would have died falling from that height.

After a few seconds, the camera focused, and Dark Sun once again appeared on screen. The steel wings all but disappeared, and he was only lying on the ground, not moving a muscle. Blood was everywhere and one of his arms were bent at an awkward angle. However, he still managed to get up, and continued walking through the smoke.

The little girl almost cried. In a flurry of tapping, she typed in the complex password to the simulation and hacked into her Grandpappy's database. She had to turn down all the firewalls and protective softwares her Grandpappy set up in less than 5 seconds. A blur of fingers worked it's way through on the keyboard. She was going to help Dark Sun, and give him a chance to survive.

'Energy level: less than 20%'

Dark Sun cursed. His wings had long since lost the energy to materialize. Now he was left to run in the smoke, searching for any fireflies.

A silver glow appeared, not far away. Dark Sun's eyes were filled with hope. He started sprinting towards his target.

It was a firefly! The silver haired teen held the bug in his hands, and waited for a 'Ding'. It didn't come. Then again, this firefly did look different from the one he got at the beginning of the stage.

His microchip pounded out a warning in his head. Less than 10 seconds was left! Dark Sun didn't even bother to take a second glance at his ticket before putting away in his vest pocket. He would just have to hope this firefly was good enough. Sprinting as fast he could, he headed for the portal, all the while his microchip was counting down to his doom.

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