Beast Soul

"Ah, boys! You're finally here.." In the middle of the room stood a dark shadowy figure, who turned around and spread their arms wide as the two young men entered. It was Dax, who was smiling at them. 

"Mr. Zero had ordered us to come here, Mr. Dax." A.J. said as he bowed his head, and Gab did the same. "We heard that you have an order for us?"

"Ah, yes! There is indeed an order for you!" Dax said as he walked up to the duo and handed them a picture. It was a photo of Noah, and the duo stared at the boy in the photo with confusion in their eyes. 

"I need you to find this boy, Noah Pemberton…" Dax smiled deviously as he spoke, revealing his yellow teeth. "... And give him the good old 'Secret' Test!"

The duo turned to look at each other and raised their eyebrows. "Is there a reason for testing him, Mr. Dax?" A.J. asked with a puzzled expression on his face, and Dax let out a loud laugh that echoed throughout the empty room, making the two boys flinch in fear. It was more of an evil cackle rather than a laugh. 

"Ah, look at you, asking questions.." Dax said with a smile as he placed his hand on A.J.'s shoulders, and the boys eyes widened with terror, realizing the mistake that he had accidentally made just now. "A bit curious, aren't you, boy?" Dax brought his face close to A.J.'s, and the boy began to sweat out of fear. 

"Ah, n- no sir. Of course not.." A.J. replied instantly, realizing his mistake and shook his head repeatedly. He shouldn't have been asking needless questions to his senior in rank. Without wasting any time, he immediately bowed his head down and continued, "I'm- I'm sorry. I made a mistake. Please forgive me!"

"Oh? Would you look at that? That was a really quick response," Dax said as he let out another chuckle, looking amused by the boy's actions. He seemed to be enjoying what was happening in front of him. After a few seconds more of just staring silently at A.J, Dax finally decided to open his mouth and speak. "I'll forgive you this time." He said as his grip on A.J.'s shoulder increased quite a bit, enough to make the young man bite his lips with pain. "But don't forget that there won't be a second chance." Dax whispered softly into A.J's ear as he leaned forward.

"I understand!" A.J. said as a wave of relief washed over him. He definitely expected to receive some form of punishment from his senior, as it was the norm, but to his surprise, he didn't receive any. And he definitely wasn't complaining. "Thank you for showing mercy, Mr. Dax!" He said as he bowed once again, and Dax waved his hands dismissively in the air.

"Enough with the apologizing," He said with an uninterested face. "What I need from you is to test this boy. That's what I care about!" He said as he tapped the photo in A.J's hands.

"And how do you want us to do this, Mr. Dax?" Gab stepped forward and asked with a serious tone, as A.J. composed himself. "Are we supposed to simply fight him while holding ourselves back, or are we allowed to go all out?"

"See? Now you're asking the right questions!" Dax said with a loud chuckle as he patted Gab on the back of his head. Although Gab wasn't too fond of being touched, he couldn't do anything to stop it, as Dax was his senior as well as an untouchable. And like his position suggests, he really was 'untouchable'. "I like this kid!" Dax patted Gab once again, and he let out a fake laugh in an attempt to appease his senior.

"And as for the answer to your question..." Dax placed his hand under his chin and tilted his head up as he thought for a few seconds, before a sinister smile gradually appeared on his face, and he continued, "Since the whole point of the test is to understand his abilities and whether or not he's worthy of joining our secret society, I'd say you two can go all out!"

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"Listen to me, Adrian. You don't have to worry about me." Noah said to Adrian. "I know that it might be hard to believe, but I'm much stronger than I was when I fought you, Adrian." Noah patted the side of his shoulders. "You probably won't get it, but soon you'll understand what I mean. Just trust me, okay?"

Adrian let out a long and heavy sigh of defeat and shook his head. "Fine. I surrender. Have it your way, Noah. Just don't end up hurting yourself."

"Oh, I won't." Noah let out a loud but short chuckle. "I'm sure of that." He then continued, "Now, tell me more about this so-called 'King' of yours..."

"Well, if you do plan on taking down the whole hierarchical system, then I suppose you should learn about the King, Augustus 'The Captain' Harriet." Adrian tilted his head to the side as he spoke, and Noah listened carefully. 

"Augustus is known within the hierarchical society as a man of principle and rules. However, I believe that no man who believes in principles and rules would actually end up taking the position of 'King', even if it was offered to him," Adrian then glanced at Noah for a split second before continuing, "Of course, that is just my opinion, so take it however you want. But there are rumors about him actually using the strength of his powerful family to keep his competition under control."

"So you think that he won't be giving up his position peacefully even if I take it from him in a show of strength, fair and square?" Noah asked, and Adrian shrugged his shoulders. "In my opinion, he probably won't be too happy with the results, if you do win against him. And he definitely won't be happy to figure out that your plan is to destroy the hierarchical system in its entirety. So you might want to keep that to yourself for as long as possible."

"We'll see," Noah replied in a nonchalant manner. At this point, he wasn't too concerned with actually winning against these young men. After all, he had fought worse opponents than high school bullies. 

"Ah, here comes a few of the members right now…" Adrian shifted his gaze towards the hallway and saw two teenagers approaching them, and Noah turned around to see what Adrian was talking about.

One of the boys was a large muscular teenager with a mohawk and a nose ring, while the other one was a bit more lean and wore a tracksuit, with his hair dyed blonde. 

"That's Gabriel Malik with the mohawk, and the blonde haired guy is Andy Johansson." Adrian whispered softly under this breath for Noah to hear. Noah nodded his head, urging Adrian to continue giving him detailed information about them.

"Both of them are part of 'The Specials'." Adrian continued giving Noah information in a hushed tone. "Gabriel is an MMA fighter. Not exactly someone who I'd call a genius. But don't underestimate him. He's not dangerous for his talent, but for his way of fighting."

"Which is?" Noah asked without turning around, and Adrian whispered softly. "He fights dirty. And by dirty, I mean extreme dirty. You do not want to let your guard down in front of him."

Noah nodded his head. "What about the other guy?" Noah asked as his gaze then shifted to Andy, and Adrian narrowed his eyes. "Andy is more of a karate specialist. He's much calmer than Gabriel, and his style is more predictable. However, he's extremely skilled at his craft. Apparently, he's been practicing karate for more than a decade."

"Impressive." Noah had to give him a compliment for sticking with it for so long. But he certainly wasn't feeling intimidated by the presence of these two. 

But the question was, why were the two heading towards them? Noah furrowed his eyes. He could read their gazes, and they definitely were fixed on Noah. Which meant that they were most likely here for him. 

The two young men stopped right in front of Noah and Adrian, looking right at Noah's face, who didn't back down and stared back at them with an intense stare.

"Are you Noah Pemberton?" Gabriel raised one of his eyebrows as he spoke, looking Noah up and down, studying him. 

"I am. But it looks like you two already knew that." Noah crossed both his arms close to his chest as he finished speaking, and the two young men glanced at each other, surprised by the way Noah was speaking to the two of them. "What do you want?" Noah asked in a nonchalant manner. 

"We want you to follow us," Gabriel said with a cold and rough expression on his face. If it was any other student, they would've been scared to death. But not Noah.

Noah let out a short chuckle as he opened his mouth. "What if I don't want to?"