"You want to what?" Sirius cried. Clara scowled at him as she practically threw herself down onto a bench. Whatever Sirius had been expecting the girl to do after the previous hour of training – which ended when she forcefully dragged him back to the most secluded corner of the preparation room – had been completely flipped on its head. Clara was silent for a moment, seemingly collecting her thoughts, and then reluctantly elaborated.

"Make Pussy Wolf lose control. Been a while since we've seen him go all out and even then he just ended up surrendering to Abrams. It pisses me off that he's so hesitant to use his Quirk, so I'm going to force him to."

"Didn't he say he could go on a rampage if he ever loses control?" Epiphany asked, looking annoyed but nowhere near as panicked as her host. Clara huffed impatiently and crossed her arms.

"That's kinda the whole point," Seeing the ghost's inquisitive expression, she growled impatiently, "Fine, then. Reason number one for wanting that idiot to lose control is because I want a good fight. That moron's one of the strongest in our year but if he wasn't such a damned coward he could easily be the strongest in the whole damned school. Then maybe I could have an actual head-to-head fight with someone without having to worry about them pulling some bullshit like MacAllister and Wolfbane. Which leads me into reason two: I cannot tell you how much I hate to watch Mondronen fight. It's just as painful to me as watching you trip over your own feet."

"That's unnecessary," Sirius said, pouting. Clara ignored him and leaned back against the cool metal table. She remembered watching each and every one of Narruk's matches, from the labyrinth to his victory in round one, there was always something about his fighting style that bugged her.

"You can be somewhat intelligent at times," the magenta-haired girl said suddenly, her eyes locked onto Sirius whose expression turned deadpan. 'That might be the nicest thing she's ever said to me.'

"Thanks," Again, acting as if he hadn't said anything, Clara started speaking once again.

"What have you noticed about his techniques and fighting style?" Sirius frowned and perused his memory, only for his thoughts to be cut short as Epiphany – who'd taken to sitting on the table behind him and resting her crossed arms on the top of his head – spoke up, much to his surprise.

"Pretty perfect all around. He uses a ton of different fighting styles from mixed martial arts to some judo moves. Obviously has had a lot of practice," She said. While it was one of the few times, the two girls had actually interacted without insulting one another. Sirius couldn't help but to detect the slightest bit of annoyance in his partner's voice, as well as the surprised raise of an eyebrow from Clara.

"And? What else?" When Epiphany and Sirius did not respond, Clara nodded as if she'd been expecting as much, "He's a good fighter but he lacks – or maybe 'suppresses' is the better term – his most basic survival instincts. For someone with as reflexes as good as his, he should not be having so many close calls against those who are clearly beneath him. The fact that he took even a single hit against those two from the other class tells me that he's holding back, most likely due to his Quirk."

"Why does any of this matter?" Epiphany inquired, shifting her weight slightly and causing Sirius to whimper as she continued to press down on his head.

"Imagine he doesn't overcome this issue and he does become a Pro, how long would it take for his inability to use his Quirk leads to a Villain overpowering him? How long before one destroys a city due to his incompetence?" Clara asked, receiving no response other than a slightly stunned look from Sirius, "How long until someone loses their life?"

"It almost sounds like you want to help him. Are you feeling alright?" Epiphany asked, sitting up straight and staring at Clara with a mix of confusion and amusement. Sirius, though relieved to be freed from the extra weight from his partner pressing down on his skull, quickly hushed her and prepared to cover his ears at the impending outburst from their volatile teammate. However, it never came. Instead, Clara just scowled and glanced towards the nearest television, which was counting down the time until their match.

"Two weeks after we finish this tournament we're being sent into the field for the first time as sidekicks to our upperclassmen. It won't be some exercise where we can just stop when something bad happens. We'll be right in the thick of things."

"Aren't we only supposed to be observing? Mr. Holl said we aren't actually supposed to engage any Villains, we're supposed to report it to any nearby Pro Heroes," Sirius pointed out, though Clara quickly waved this away.

"How often in this world do things go exactly as anyone says they will?" She countered. Sirius shut up at this, unable to dispute her argument when proof to the contrary was sitting just behind him, "That idiot has two weeks to get this shit under control before he starts putting everyone at risk."

Purpose of a Hero

"Did we get him?" Sirius asked hopefully as Epiphany backed away from the freshly formed sphere of jagged, interlocked splinters of wood. The redhead frowned and shrugged her shoulders in response. 'I hate to think we did all that training with Clara for nothing but I'd much rather get this over with. She's going to need help if her plan succeeds… though, I'm still not sure I want it to,' Sirius thought as he jogged forward and came to a stop beside his partner. Suddenly, the air around them shot up ten degrees and a bright light began to emanate from within the wooden sphere.

"Supernova!" Kenny roared as his entire body flared out and turned his prison to cinders. Epiphany swore and just barely managed to get in front of Sirius to block the brunt of the blast before it hit, even then it wasn't enough to fully prevent damage as her back and legs felt as if they were burning. In an instant it was over, the light and heat petering out just as quickly as it had blazed to life. Epiphany let go of her host and pushed him away right as Kenny sent another, much weaker, blast of solar energy in their direction.

"Go! Get some distance!" Her order was quickly followed by Sirius who sprinted off a little ways away. She glanced around as Kenny recharged, looking for even the smallest intact piece of wood to use. She found nothing but charcoal which, unfortunately, was useless to her. Epiphany swore under her breath and, deciding to take a page out of Clara's book, charged headlong at her enemy. When he realized her plan, Kenny narrowed his eyes and fired off another blast of energy, which slowed her down enough to allow him to get some distance. 'Just gotta keep her out of arm's reach. Without her weapon, she can't touch me and there's no wood left for her to use. Then again, I can't touch her. I need to find a way to get to Sirius. He's the key to all of this. Once I take him out I can join Narruk to make quick work of Clara,' the boy thought.

"Solar Winds!" Kenny bellowed and released a barrage of smaller, quicker beams of light from his glowing body. Seeing through his plan, Epiphany ignored his initial attack and leaped to the defense of Sirius, who'd been the primary target of the widespread attack.

"That won't work! I've been protecting this useless moron for years now!"

"Hey!"

"Shut up and hide somewhere! You're his target!" Epiphany snapped before once again sprinting directly at Kenny, whose body glowed a muted yellow as he prepared another assault. Sirius sighed and glanced around at the lush, rolling green hills that made up the battlefield. 'Where am I supposed to hide when everything is out in the open? Besides, as much as I hate to admit it… we should be using Clara's plan. Charging at him like a neanderthal isn't going to get us anywhere. I've gotta think. Wait… that could work… hopefully. Oh, man… if this loses us the match I'm never going to hear the end of it from either of them.'

"Solar Flare!" Epiphany closed her eyes, trying to avoid being completely blinded like before, and flailed her arm out wildly, trying to connect with her foe. As with her last dozen attempts, she was way off and had to wait for the spots in her vision to disappear before trying again. For as little as the boy could do to physically harm her, he was doing a damn good job taking away her eyesight and forcing her into more and more wild, poorly aimed attacks. Her increasing annoyance at the boy's cheap tactics certainly wasn't helping matters in the slightest. Epiphany could only hope that her enemy would make a mistake and she'd have a chance to capitalize on it.

For a normal person, such a strategy would have surely lead to an embarrassing defeat but when one couldn't be touched by their enemy's attacks it turned into a winning formula. As long as Sirius stayed out of the way she could outlast her adversary easily and take him down when he grew tired, even though the process was more than a minor pain in the ass. Her vision had just cleared up enough to the point where she could begin her next assault when her opening presented herself, though not in the way she'd have originally thought. As he had been backing up to put space between them, Kenny had suddenly lurched backward and fallen to the soft soil below. To both of their shock and seemingly coming out of nowhere, there was Sirius. It took Epiphany a second to realize that he'd tripped Kenny. She didn't have time to appreciate the irony of Sirius tripping anyone before her host threw something at her. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"Solar Flare!" Kenny roared as he surged to his feet and fired another blast of heat and light at Sirius, who, in a display of uncharacteristic athleticism, jumped completely out of the way of the attack and was back on his feet in time to dodge the next attack. Not wanting to be the victim of a surprise attack from the rear, Kenny whipped around to face Epiphany and his eyes widened in shock. Sharp tendrils of wood raced through the air and impaled themselves in each of his shoulders, knocking him off his feet. As his body began to heat up, more tendrils of wood shot out of the ground like geysers and wrapped tightly around his arms, legs, and neck. He cried out in surprise and glanced up at his attacker. Epiphany grinned as she held up the severed double-headed ax blade that had once been Fenrir. 'She used the wood from the shaft. When did-? No matter, another Supernova should fix this.'

"Solar has been 'captured', therefore he is disqualified!" Ms. Whittaker announced to the crowd – her voice shaking slightly. Shocked and confused, Kenny glanced down at his bonds and sighed in defeat when he saw the white string fused with the wood that had wrapped around his left arm. Before she could revel in their successful plan (she really had to hand it to Sirius and his oft-overlooked cleverness), the same boy called out to her in panic and pointed towards the other end of the stadium. Once she saw what he was gesturing to, a shiver went down her spine.

"What the hell?"

Purpose of a Hero

"Don't get distracted, moron! Howl Knuckle!"

"Shit!"

"Narruk?" At the sound of her voice, Narruk's eyes snapped open but saw nothing but an endless black void. Immediately, a feeling of familiar dread washed over him and he spun around, trying to get his bearings.

"Thalia?" He didn't recognize his own voice. It was much too weak, too fragile. Then… sound began rushing back to him. The roar of the crowd, the labored breaths of his enemy, and his own feral growling. Sight also slowly returned. The sunlight burned his nocturnal eyes, which, with the unbearable noise of the crowd, only served as fuel for the rage building within him. He pushed the feeling aside and focused on the girl in front of him. She was beaten up but he quickly deduced that the damage had come from their previous fight.

He almost sighed in relief before he realized he had taken a step towards her. He also realized that his throat still hummed with an animalistic growl. He tried to speak but no words came out. He tried to back away but his body didn't listen. He could only watch as Clara, apparently fed up with the pause to their battle, surged forward and tried to slug him, only to have her hand caught in his own. 'Run away!' he wanted to shout at her, but the girl only grinned and sucked in a deep breath. Her 'Howl' in such close proximity nearly shattered his eardrums. The shout quickly turned to a pained grunt as the already broken bones in her hand (Narruk vaguely wondered how that had happened) cracked and shattered.

'This can't be happening. How could I let myself lose control?' He thought, panicking as he threw Clara through the air with such force. She dug a small trench in the dirt when she landed. 'Stop it! Alpha!'

Purpose of a Hero

"What's going on? His fighting style seems different from before," Nathan observed, enraptured by the fight on the screen above them. Just as he'd been ready to reluctantly praise Narruk's fighting style, the guy had done a complete one-eighty and was barraging the screaming girl with no apparent strategy or motive. When he received no answer, he glanced over at his partner and a pit of dread formed in his stomach. Melody's face was as pale as snow and her body trembled violently, "Mel? What's happening? You okay?"

"They have to stop the fight," She answered simply, her voice shaking as badly as her body. Nathan had never seen her like this before; in all the time they'd known each other, Melody had always been the type to keep her negative emotions to herself and that especially included fear. Whether it was a particularly bad storm when they were kids or the time their fifth-grade classmate had made a paper mache volcano for science class, she'd always kept her composure under control until they were alone and even then he was sure there had been dozens of times where she'd managed to deceive not only him but her father and kept her emotions to herself.

"Come on, we can use the prep tunnel," He said, without hesitation in his voice. Despite her apparent need to get into the field, it took a moment to get the redhead moving; her eyes never leaving the television screen. As the pair sprinted through the underground room, ignoring the calls of their classmates, Nathan spoke again, "Care to tell me what's going on?"

"Clara made Narruk lose control. That's not Narruk out there… it's Alpha."

Purpose of a Hero

"Damn. Guess it worked, then?" Clara said bitterly as she got to her feet, her broken hand and back aching from their respective traumas. Before her, Narruk's amber eyes glowed even in the mid-afternoon light, and his body seemed to be growing. He stood nearly four inches taller than he had at the beginning of their fight and that was nothing compared to the visibly significant growth on the muscles in his arms and legs. 'Somewhat worked. He's still fighting back. That's fine, my message is getting across and I get a good fight. This is going better than I'd have thought.' The magenta-haired girl grinned maniacally and sucked in a breath, "Howl Missile!"

The feral Narruk whined and crouched down, trying to make itself smaller, as the soundwaves assaulted it. However, Clara's satisfaction quickly evaporated the moment her attack ended, as her opponent charged at her with blinding speed. There was no strategy or technique behind his overhead haymaker, Clara observed. His attacks became stronger but easier to read. Unfortunately, this did not make the battle any easier because, while his offense was brutal yet predictable, his defense was impenetrable. Every time she attempted to counterattack, he would easily dodge and dive right back into his assault.

To make matters worse, his energy was boundless. Even as the battle dragged on, Narruk's power and speed never wavered. In the end, it only took one misstep – caused by his opponent's exhaustion – for the feral lycanthrope to gain the upper hand. He roared in triumph as he latched on to Clara's arm and threw her backwards. In the split second it took for her to regain her footing, Narruk closed the distance. With the force of a speeding car, he slammed into her with his full body weight, driving her into the stone wall of the arena. The girl roared in pain as Narruk repeated the motion, pulling her slightly off the wall and slamming her back into it with enough force to crack the reinforced barricade. Now bleeding profusely from her left arm and the shaved side of her head matted with the red substance, Clara glared up at her assailant and grinned. "That… all you got, Pussy Wolf?"

Apparently not impressed by her taunting – though, in his current state, Clara could reasonably assume that just the sound of her voice was enough to set him off and not her specific insults – the brunette swiped at her head with a wild haymaker. Just as she had dozens of times before, she dodged his poorly aimed attack, which instead connected with a large chunk of the wall, and shattered it beside her head. In the short instant, before he could recover and try to hit her again, Clara jabbed upward and caught Narruk directly in his Adam's apple. His constant growling was interrupted by a sound caught somewhere between a gurgle and a strained howl.

To her surprise, the now seven-foot-tall and even hairier than usual Narruk wasn't slowed down by her dirty tactics. Instead, it only seemed to fuel his rage. Before she could react, he'd grabbed her by her own throat and lifted her up into the air. Instinctively, she struggled and fought back against him but his grip was like an iron vice around her windpipe. When she delivered a steel-toed kick to his chin, his hold only tightened, making it even harder for her to breathe. "Get… yourself… under… control… moron," She choked out. Narruk's eyes gleamed with malicious intent as he drew back his free hand. With no hope of dodging it this time, Clara simply stared defiantly into his glowing amber eyes and awaited a blow that would never come.

There was a flash of red somewhere to their right, near the entrance to the arena, and then a familiar voice called out, staying the beast's hand. "Narruk! Fight back, don't let him take full control!" The beast's eyes locked on to Melody and, if possible, his growling became more incensed. Clara fell to the ground gasping and holding her bruised throat as Narruk dropped her and turned towards the tunnel. With superhuman speed, the boy flung himself at Melody and slammed into the iron bars, causing the only barrier between the two to bend dangerously inward. Nathan hissed and his fingernails grew into razor-sharp claws as he forced himself in front of his childhood friend. "Stop this Narruk! You can take back control! Just stop!"

"Stay back, Mel!" Nathan ordered urgently, though to his surprise neither the beast nor Melody made any more attempts to move towards one another. If he were being honest, he was half-expecting the redhead to push past him and get right within biting distance to talk some sense into her new friend, but he was more than elated when instead the two apparently agreed to keep their distance. Suddenly, Narruk's body twitched and then began one of the most disturbing events of Nathan's life. Narruk clawed, bit, and attacked his own body with any method he could manage. Very soon, the emerald green grass of the hills had been splashed with blood. In the middle of all of this, Elvira Whittaker surged forward and pointed all eight of her fingers at the rampaging student. The self-inflicted bloodshed ceased as strong ropes extended from her fingertips and wrapped tightly around the boy. He struggled for only a moment before his body went slack and he slumped over, the hair covering his arms and face receding and his bones shrinking back to their normal size.

The Forge's History Teacher: Elvira Whittaker

Hero Name: Roundup

Quirk: Hemp

Elvira can create and control strong hemp-based rope from the tips of her fingers and toes. These ropes can be cut off, burned, or otherwise destroyed but they will grow back in about three weeks.

"That's it! No more of that. This battle's over, Alpha and Solar are both unable to continue. Elisnore, Clyde, and Bonnie are the winners," she announced, though her usual peppy tone had been replaced with a grimmer and more worried one. From within his bonds, Narruk glanced upwards, his vision foggy, and stared directly at Melody in despair.

"Thalia?"

Purpose of a Hero

"Clara!" Sirius cried as he ran over to his fallen teammate. Even at a distance, he could tell she was in bad shape. There was blood matting whatever hair she had left on her head and her left arm was twisted at an odd angle. Still, the hateful fire that usually burned in her eyes hadn't diminished. If anything, it had grown exponentially as she braced her right arm against the wall and attempted to stand. "Stop! You'll only hurt yourself worse!"

"Piss off, Sirius. I'm…" He assumed she'd been about to say 'I'm fine, pissant' but with her sudden collapse face-first into the dirt, Sirius couldn't be sure. He watched in dismay as a pretty brunette girl – probably just a few years older than himself – raced over to them and crouched down over his teammate. A soft, green light began to shine from the girl's hands and, to Sirius' shock, the large gash on Clara's head began to stitch itself closed.

"Woah," he murmured. The girl, as if suddenly realizing he was there, glanced over her shoulder and sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness you're here," Sirius blushed slightly and turned his eyes away from the girl. His embarrassment only increased when it became apparent that she wasn't talking to him but to the two small troll-like creatures that materialized beside him with a paper-white stretcher held between them. Even when they rolled the much larger, and much heavier Clara onto the stretcher, they picked it up with ease and rushed off beside the nurse, leaving Sirius alone… or as alone as Sirius ever was.

"Smooth, casanova," Epiphany's voice echoed in his head, sounding very annoyed. Sirius flushed red again and began to feel very awkward just standing in the middle of the field all by himself in front of probably a hundred thousand people. With an undignified squeak, he escaped into the tunnel the girl and the trolls had gone down, which he knew from their last visit – less than two hours earlier – lead directly to the medical center.

Meanwhile, Nathan had to physically restrain Melody from chasing after the two men who carried away a broken and battered Narruk, "Oi, calm down, Mel!"

"I have to see if he's okay. You've no idea what this episode is going to do to him. All the time we've spent the past few weeks trying to keep it under wraps means nothing now," She pleaded. Against his better judgment, Nathan wanted nothing more than to let the girl go and run off before forfeiting their match. He hated seeing her this upset. Fortunately, his more rational side prevailed.

"We can go see him after our match. I think you dropping out of the tournament just to go see him would just make him feel even worse. Best we can do is win our match quickly and then go check on him… and the angry one," He said gently, surprised when the redhead actually appeared deflated and leaned heavily against the wall of the tunnel.

"You're right. We'll end our fight quickly and then go do some damage control. I just hope Narruk's okay."

"I really wish I had a tape recorder. You never admit when I'm right."

"Because you never are!"

"But you just said I was."

"Hush up, Furball."

Purpose of a Hero

Uhhhh, heeey guys. Remember when this story was a weekly upload? Yeah… good times. So, it's been a while and I apologize for that but real life is the fanfic author's kryptonite. Between a lack of motivation/crisis of confidence in my writing and a new GM making everyone's lives difficult at my job, as well as being sick for about a week to start the New Year and… I'm gonna stop. I've given enough excuses. Anyway, one of my New Year's resolutions is to write more so let's see how that goes. *Checks last upload* Ah, well nevertheless the rest of this year I plan to write more and even start a second story (more on that in a minute) so if I haven't uploaded in a week, please… SPAM MY FUCKING INBOX UNTIL I UPDATE.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter this year. Narruk losing control and going loco on Clara. Pretty cool stuff that won't be explained for *checks notes* at least two arcs from now! Uh, yeah I don't know if I've said it enough to get the point across (and I've had quite a few people in my PMs that seemed confused) but this fic is absolutely nowhere near complete. We are currently sitting not even at the halfway point for PART 1 OF 3! Ambition is my fatal flaw.

OH! Speaking of fatal flaws, the second story I mentioned above. It's early in the planning process and… you guessed it! It's NOT the Pokemon story you guys all voted for last year. Yeah sorry, my plans for that bastard just never got off the ground. Instead, recently I've been listening to the audiobooks and they've reminded me just how much I loved this source material so… without further ado… my second story (which will run alongside PoaH but is lower on the ladder) shall be… drumroll

An Unnamed Percy Jackson and the Olympians SYOC!

Yeah, obviously still early in development but this will once again be an SYOC simply because I've had so much fun seeing what you guys can come up with. The first chapter will go up… soon-ish. I know what I wanna do, but… well I've just gotta put pen to paper and you guys know by now how difficult I find that.

Alright, that's enough out of Mr. ShittyAuthorMan. I hope you all are having a wonderful start to the new year and let's get to that preview!

Next Time on the Purpose of a Hero

Chapter 37: Undeniable Advantage

And Finally, a short Q&A with everyone's favorite Angry Girl (Did you really expect her to stick around for the interview? XD)

Q: Do you have sensory overload protection, at least when it comes to hearing? If you have augmented hearing, that wouldn't pair well with loud noises, unless there was a system in place that protected against that.

A: I have both, dumbass. I have enhanced hearing like my old man, enough to utilize echolocation, but both our inner ears and earbones are specialized. They basically 'seize up' and diffuse any vibrations generated from within our bodies, which stops them from rupturing whenever we yell.

Q: Who do you like the most in the class? Who do you like the least?

A: Hmm, at best…. I tolerate Melody the most. Even though she's that crying c**t's kid, she's done enough to at least earn my respect. Everyone else gets on my nerves some way or another.

...If you tell her I said that, I guarantee nobody will find your body.

Q: can you sing opera?

A:... Yes, you think I couldn't use these pipes for anything but fighting? Keep dreaming I have an angel's voice.

Q: things you respect about your dad?

A: The only thing I respect about him is that he somehow made it to the Top 5 without anybody airing out his dirty laundry.

Q: If you could do one thing to one person, provided it is non-violent, what would it be?

A: None of the losers in my class are worth my time unless it's to kick their ass, so I'd probably ignore them all.