Beast Soul

"Are you sure he's coming?" Noah said as he knelt down right next to a beaten and bruised Nelson. "Of- of course he's coming!" Nelson responded immediately with a nervous tone. "I called him and let him know of the situation! He- He'll definitely come! I'm sure of it!"

"Well, he'd better.." Noah said with a frown on his face as he stood up. "I'm getting really impatient waiting for the King."

Right then!

"Oh? For a second, I actually thought that you were stalling for time. But I guess you really were telling the truth.." Noah said with a smile as he stared at the entrance of the gymnasium. He could hear the sound of footsteps getting closer!

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Noah watched as a large group of young men wearing black jackets and facemasks stepped into the gymnasium, gripping right onto metal bats before moving to the sides, making a pathway right through the middle.

"Well, I had initially thought that you would just be another young man who became overconfident after beating our lowest ranked people…" A young man wearing a white hoodie and a red cap with designer pants and shoes entered the gymnasium, walking through the pathway made by the young men with a smile on his face. "I thought that you would just need to be taught a lesson, and it would all be taken care of.."

Pop!

He took out the lollipop from his mouth and threw it onto the floor before continuing, "But boy oh boy, I guess I was way off, huh?"

"I take it you're the 'King' of our school?" Noah asked as he raised both his eyebrows, observing the young man's mannerisms before he continued, "Augustus Harriet? Is that you?"

"In the flesh!" Augustus replied with a smile as he playfully bowed in front of Noah. He seemed to not be taking this whole thing seriously, which puzzled Noah. 

Is he not worried about losing his position to me? Noah thought to himself. Perhaps he was too confident about his fighting abilities? Or maybe there was something else? 

Either way, Noah knew that he had to be careful. Like Adrian had mentioned before, the present Noah had become very different from the Noah of the past. And if not careful, he might underestimate his enemy, which usually would not end well in the long run.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

"You know what? I like you, Noah Pemberton.." Augustus said as he waved his finger around in the air, stepping sideways as he walked towards the stands. "You know why?" Augustus turned around as he continued, "It's because you're a warrior! I can feel it! Even though you don't have the appearance of one! You fight not because you have to, but because you want to!"

'Where is this heading?' Noah had a confused expression on his face as he listened to the rambling words of Augustus, puzzled by what he was talking about. 

"Get to the point!" Noah said in the end, unable to listen to more of this guy's rambling words, and Augustus let out a loud laugh. 

"L-leader! You came for us!" Nelson, who was kneeling on the floor right next to Noah said with excitement, stuttering his words as he spoke. "H-Help us! P-Please!"

"Shut the hell up!" Noah clicked his tongue and kicked Nelson from behind, and the young man crashed onto the floor, landing face first!

"Ha ha ha… I'm liking this even more now!" Augustus laughed even louder as he watched Noah kick Nelson, as though he had no concern for his situation. 

'What the hell is wrong with him?' Noah was now even more confused as to what was going on. 

"You know, I actually thought that it'd be a truly boring experience, being a 'King', I mean.." Augustus waved his fingers and made quotation marks in the air as he finished speaking, letting out a short chuckle in the process. "I mean, I knew what I had to do, but there wasn't anything… that interested me. Everything and everyone was so bland."

Augustus suddenly tilted his head and pointed his finger at Noah. "But then I saw you. Someone who was different from others. A warrior! Like me! Someone worthy of fighting me!"

'Don't tell me that this guy is just crazy about fighting?' Listening to the words spoken by Augustus, Noah couldn't help but think that he was simply a crazy b*stard who loved to fight and have conflicts.

"Some idiots who are part of the untouchables seem to have the idea that I'm injured from the last fight, but oh boy, are they wrong.." Augustus shook his head. "I was just pretending. Acting as though their plan had worked, so that I could figure out who's a rat and who's not. And to fight the ones who were willing to betray me. But with you here, I guess I don't need to pretend anymore, huh.."

Nelson, who had his face slammed onto the floor, widened his eyes. He didn't know how much Augustus knew, but from the looks of it, the King definitely had suspicions about a betrayal. The thought made Nelson sweat.

"I mean, I honestly didn't expect that a human would actually be successful in regaining control of their body after the implantation. But this is great!" Augustus said excitedly as he let out another loud chuckle, and Noah's eyes widened.

"... What did you just say?" Noah was in shock as to what he had just heard.

"To think that a real human was able to resist the implantation process! You must've been one hell of a human being!" Augustus had a sinister smile on his face as he began walking towards Noah. He continued, "Of course, that only makes me want to fight you even more!"

'F*ck! He was a mutant like us?' Noah, who was caught completely off guard by the words spoken by Augustus, clenched his fists in panic as he began to think. 

'No, wait a minute. He called me a human.. that means that he's not a human being..' Noah corrected himself and his fear and cautiousness only grew as he realized that the human looking thing that was standing in front of him was actually a monster!

His gaze then shifted to the group of men that were standing behind Augustus and he thought to himself, 'Don't tell me that they're also monsters?' Noah didn't know who was human and who was a monster. 

"L-leader? What are you talking about?" Nelson said with a nervous smile on his face as he looked up from the floor, but he got no response from Augustus, who had his focus on Noah.

"Noah?" Adrian, who was standing right behind Noah, whispered softly to him. Adrian had been listening to the words spoken by Augustus from the sidelines, and had heard the sentence about human beings, which made him confused and afraid. "Is that guy…"

He too was aware of the existence of monsters, and was suspicious of the superhuman strength and speed shown by Noah. But to actually hear someone imply that they weren't human was something else entirely.

"Don't tell that he's-" Adrian didn't finish his words, but Noah knew what he was asking about. Of course, he had no time to answer his question.

'What the hell do I do?' Noah had never fought a monster in human form before. And definitely not one which could talk properly. This meant that the creature had intelligence, or at least much more than the one's Noah fought up until now. This only put more pressure on Noah, who had to think hard as to what he must do. 

'Luckily, we're inside an abandoned building. So there's no need to worry about casualties all that much," His gaze then shifted to the unconscious group of goons that he had fought earlier and he clicked his tongue. "Well, not entirely free of worry, I guess.."

He glanced at Augustus, who glanced back, and their eyes met. 

'Now,' Noah thought. 'How the hell do I deal with this b*stard?'

---------------

Click!

Max slowly opened the window, as both Alphonso and Gerald kept watch, trying their best to make sure that no one was watching them break into their physics teacher's house.

"Alright!" Max whispered softly under his breath as he leapt forward, through the opened window and into the living room of Mr. Carrick's house without making any noise. He then waved his hands towards the other two, motioning them to follow him. "Coast is clear." He spoke in a hushed tone.

"Let's go!" Alphonso turned to look at Gerald and said as he leapt into the opened window and entered the building, and Gerald hesitated for a second before letting out a sigh and entering the house through the window. 

"Are you absolutely sure that there's no one inside the house?" Gerald leaned towards Max and asked, which made Alphonso roll his eyes. 

"How many times do you have to ask the same question? He told you already, didn't he?" Alphonso replied with an annoyed tone. "There's no one in the house, Gerald.." Max replied. "At least, not on the surface."

Gerald nodded his head with hesitation, and the three boys slowly moved towards the bathroom while being careful.