Chapter 36

As Max left the restroom-turned-slaughter house, he briefly thought about using the kitchen to set a fire or blow something up. However, he decided against it for the same reason he hadn't seriously considered it before. Demerits were one thing, and he was resigned to stacking up demerits like crazy. But there was a big difference between killing someone who was going to respawn in a week, a month, or even a few months later, versus destroying property.

Max was not naive and knew that there were different levels of punishments. There'd have to be. His goal right now did not include getting actually kicked out of the Quartet or worse. Also, he found the fact that all these buildings were still standing hundreds or thousands of years later to be a bit ominous. It was very possible the Quartet had some sort of defenses for itself that was common knowledge and Max just hadn’t heard of it yet.  Either way, he decided it was too risky to actually damage any part of the Mystic Spear Path Academy itself…at least intentionally. That just meant messing with its students instead.

He went to the room he'd entered the dorm through.  Once again, Lavinia made him a rope.  This time he wasn’t quick and stealthy using it, though.  Before climbing out the window, he started screaming his head off. A few students were outside, and the moment they noticed him, Max started yelling louder, "There's a murderer in the dorms! There's a murderer! She's from the Replicator Academy! There's a murderer from the Replicator Academy!  People murdered in the bathroom!"

Then he slid down the rope and ran as fast as he could into the forest. Behind him, the people who'd heard his outbursts showed confusion, and more students were walking up to ask them what was going on. Perfect, thought Max. He already saw two students jogging into the dorms from outside to investigate.  He was sure it wouldn’t be difficult for someone to note what floor the window he’d come out of was on.

Once he was in the forest, Max checked that nobody was chasing him.  He was clear, so he looped around to another set of dorms, burst out of the woods, and started screaming about a murderer at the second year men's dorms again. He had to look horrible, covered in blood and sweat.  The students who saw him for the first time were stunned immobile.  There were more people here this time, and a few of them actually began to approach him, so he ran back into the woods.

The entire time he was yelling, he kept one arm around his body like he was hugging himself for comfort, but also conveniently covering his student badge. He actually turned around and ran back into the woods before he'd planned to when he noticed that his student badge was starting to make its way around his sleeve to still be on his chest. Shit! he thought. Covering your badge with your own body isn't possible!

Then Max made his way to the densest cluster of dorms where there were even more students congregating between classes and screamed that there was danger in some of the other dorms. He kept yelling, "Fire! Fire! There's fire in the other dorms!" He shook his crude wood spear like he was in a complete panic. Even in the Quartet, people were people.  The panic spread.

Within minutes, there were students running around campus repeating some of the same things that Max had been saying.  Murderers, fire, terrorists, monsters, there were multiple stories. Max blended in to the crowds of scared and confused students, taking the opportunity to hug some of them like he was panicked and seeking comfort.  This conveniently rubbed them in some of the same blood that Max was covered in. Now there were several students with blood on them.

Max repeated this several more times, working as many people as he could into a frenzy until he could actually hear yells all across campus. However, when he tried to repeat his act one last time, he noticed a steely-eyed professor in the distance walking towards all of the mayhem. There were crowds of students now, hundreds or maybe even thousands, all talking at once, trying to find out what was going on. Max could only imagine that by this time, someone had found all the blood in the dorm where he'd been slaughtering students and had spread this information around too. He hoped so.

He’d intentionally concocted this scenario.  Short of actually setting fire to buildings, it was a way to get lots of attention on his trespass into the Mystic Spear Academy.  And eventually, everything else he’d said to his victims would come out to.  Now there was information, misinformation, and rampant speculation. It was an absolute breeding ground for chaos.

But the moment Max saw the approaching professor, he knew that the gig would be up soon. So he faded back through the crowd and behind one of the dorms, mentally calling for Lavinia. The moment he did, an ectoplasmic rope appeared and Max scampered up. He was able to make it to the top of the nearest building before the professor got near, but not without some of the students noticing what he was doing. There were yells of alarm and confused shouts below, which only added to the chaos and noise.

On top of the building, Max ran to the other side, away from where the most students were congregating and slid down another rope. On this side of the building, there were fewer students and Max started yelling again that there was a group of murderers on the other side of the building. “A professor is with them!  The professor killed someone!” He wailed and flailed his arm and his fake spear so that nobody could get a good read on his student badge and ran to yet another dorm. On the way, there was a group of three students, a woman and two men. Before anybody knew what was happening, he drew his sword and killed all three of them in a flash. He was gone before anyone could react.  The people surrounding the scene were shocked into inaction.

Max took that opportunity to scale up the side of yet another dorm until he was on the roof.

Down below where he just killed the students, blood was splattered everywhere.  Before their bodies began disappearing, new screams drew more people from around the area.  More students saw the bodies.  Max crouched where most couldn’t see him and yelled, “A professor just killed three students!  I’m being chased!”

Now the crowds milled around in growing fear.  Absolute mayhem was growing and Max congratulated himself with a smile. He figured that things could go one of two ways at this point as he hid on the roof. Either somehow everybody in the Mystic Spear Academy would forget he was up here and he'd wait for the situation to settle before escaping. Or more likely, someone would figure out he was still on the roof and come for him. Either way, Max was not planning on being chased down and killed like a criminal. The whole point of this endeavor was to create an uproar.

A few minutes later, he figured out which it was going to be when a thundering voice shouted "Silence!" All the panicked buzz below died. Max peeked over the roof to see a group of three Mystic Spear Arts professors making their way across the area between dorms. All three of them were staring in Max’s direction.

Well, crap, he thought, and stood, using the new silence to shout. "This is all the fault of Prince Regal, his bullshit family, this bullshit corrupt academy, and the corrupt rules. People with enough money do whatever they want, and those of us from newly-threatened worlds are their playthings. I was murdered by the petty, untalented Prince after I fairly won in a duel. Mystic Spear students trespassed on Summoner Academy grounds to hunt me down after I came back to life!  You wanted war, well, this is war!”

There had been at least several hundred students below in earshot when Max made his declaration. He was pleased by the amount.

He didn’t wait around to see the reaction to his accusations.  Max ran to the other side of the roof, slid down an ectoplasmic rope, and took off towards the center of the academy. "Get him!" he heard somebody shout, and within moments there were thundering, running footsteps of a crowd of people chasing him. The next few minutes were complete bedlam as Max sprinted across campus, shouting at the top of his lungs about the corruption of the Spear Academy.  He didn’t even slow as he took targets of opportunity, killing unaware students that obviously weren't expecting a sword in the neck between classes.

Max made his way to one of the large administrative-looking buildings in the center of the Mystic Spear Path Academy.  With Lavinia’s help, he quickly mae it to the top of the tallest building.

By this point, he had confirmed his suspicions that the professors would not directly intervene. He was sure that by now, if any of them wanted to kill him, they probably could have.  Max had gotten lucky not to run into upperclassmen at this point, probably because he'd started near the first and second year dorms, but his time had to be running out.  Fast.

After being on the top of the central building,  Max shouted his normal message, including that the Mystic Spear Path students trespassed onto Summoner Academy grounds to kill him after he'd come back to life.

Some of his words might have been lost because of the sound of the crowd yelling below, but for a second time, there was a thunderous silence as professors barked.  A group of five of them heading over this time. In the sudden silence, Max yelled as loud as he could. "After I was murdered by Prince Regal, my friend was tortured in an alley, I was almost killed by trespassing Mystic Spear Path students who came onto Summoner Academy grounds!  They came to kill me after I came back to life. This is injustice. It’s petty and it’s cowardice!  This is unfair, and I demand accountability! Also, Prince Regal's family is a bunch of goat fuckers, and I heard a rumor they are all inbred, and I believe it."

The silence somehow grew deeper than ever before the crowd gasped in astonishment. A few seconds later, three figures leaped from the ground to the roof where Max was standing. One of them threw a spear before even landing.  The attack was so fast, Max couldn't move fast enough to dodge it. With an audible buzzing flight, the spear punctured through his hip and threw Max to his hands and knees.  The three figures landed, one held out a hand, and the spear ragdolled Max's body, pulled itself out, and returned to the stony-faced man's hand.

A fifth year, thought Max.  Two other presumed upperclassmen stood behind him, but Max couldn’t clearly see their badges.

The man stalked over and said, "No need for you two to get involved. I'll take the demerit." He glared before raising his hand to deliver a killing blow.

Max waited for the perfect moment before rolling, turning, and throwing his dagger at one of the two students behind him. The man he’d been aiming for was caught completely unaware and Max's dagger slammed into his stomach. His comical, surprised face was the last thing Max saw before he witnessed a spear being thrust at his heart, destructive energies gathered on the tip.

He actually felt his ribs separating and shattering from the power of the blow before he knew no more.




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NGL, this chapter was fun to write.