The Perfect Specimen

Alistair and Michelle say their goodbyes to the attendant and make their way out of the mission hall only to be stopped by the two boys from before. There are still attendants within view of the group so Alistair was not that perturbed.

The boys looked to be coming from the postal office of the school which is right next door to the mission hall.

The two boys have a look of anger and reluctance to their faces and they glare at Alistair in silence.

Alistair looks at them and says, "What's wrong? Not going to say anything about how we have nowhere to hide or that we are 'Dead meat'? I'm right here so you can throw your punches at me now if you want."

Feeling a sense of guaranteed safety, Alistair does not mind saying some provoking statements to them.

However, after a few more moments of intense silence and glaring, the boys completely ignore Alistair and turn to Michelle.

The chunkier boy says, "Your brother told us to hand you this. The families contract is up."

Michelle stiffens at the mention of her brother. She never expected them to come right out and say they were working for him. She took the letter and nodded at them before opening and reading the letter.

A moment later, her face goes pale and she slowly falls to her knees.

The two boys who knew the contents of the letter only look at her with a cold uncaring look before turning and walking away.

Alistair is fl.u.s.tered at the sudden change of events. He thought that a simple exchange of words and maybe a fight would break out. However, with just a simple sentence and a letter, Michelle was brought to her knees.

Her shaking fingers let go of the letter and it falls to the ground. Alistair picks it up and looks at her slightly worried before reading the contents.

The contents state that her father has been summoned to the front lines of Shangri-La's expansion project because of some insanely strong monster. On top of that, her mother has been deemed a traitor to the family for stealing from the families treasury to assist with her daughters growth.

Her mothers power plummeted and she is being held in prison for her fathers judgement when he returns along with her helpers right after Michelle left. In the meantime, her brother's mother has been appointed as the head of the family.

Michelle is not stupid, she knows that her mother never stole items from the treasury for her. She loved her father more than she did her.

With the fact that her brother's mother has been appointed as the family head at the convenient time that her mother and helpers are imprisoned solidified her hatred towards him. Right now, she doesn't have time to despair. She knows she will need to make preparations for the future struggles she will endure.

Due to her mother being imprisoned, and the uncertainty of her fathers life. She does not even know if after she graduates, if her family will take her back. She needs to fight for her own legitimacy and her mothers innocence.

The two boys left earlier due to not being able to touch them while in front of the attendants. Alistair knows that they aren't completely gone though. They just left to find a better spot to ambush them.

Michelle thinks about things for a moment, wipes her moist eyes and stands up firmly. She looks over at Alistair and says,

"I need to take care of a few things, I'll need privacy. Those two laptops of my brother don't really seem like to type to give a lady her space though..."

Alistair catches her meaning and says,

"I can try my best to provoke them and get them off of your trail but what are you going to be doing?"

Michelle's eyes flash with a fierce light as she says, "Going to give the new head of my family a bit of a headache."

Not knowing what she is talking about, he just nods in agreement. He promised her at the start of their partnership to help her with any problems that come up.

"When do you need me to distract them?"

"As soon as we meet up with them. We need to verify that they are both together. I will run the moment we see them. All I need is one minute, I'm sure you could keep them busy for that long."

"Okay, but I will want something else for potentially getting myself killed."

"I'm sorry, but those body training manuals were all I had."

"That's fine. I'm not looking for stuff like that. What I want is knowledge. I want you to show me everything you know about magic when you get back."

She looks at him with a pitiful gaze.

"I don't mind teaching you...But you have passed the incubation period that people need to take full advantage of for future growth. The chance that you could actually learn magic at this point is..."

Looking deep in thought at her statement he says,

"That's fine. I still want to know as much as possible. That way I'll be able to understand the differences between them and prepare myself for the future."

"But how do you plan to get away? I'm pretty sure they won't just let you leave."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just try not to be to surprised."

He reaches his hand out and smiles reassuringly at her.

"Good luck."

She shakes his hand and smiles back.

"You too."

They head off towards the end of the hallway outside of the mission halls view and see the two boys standing around the corner, waiting.

"Well, now you have nowhere to hide." The tall boy sarcastically remarks as he looks over Alistair and Michelle.

Michelle smiles in contempt at them and says, "That's where you're wrong."

She runs a few feet away from Alistair and begins mumbling strange sounds to herself.

The two boys look confusingly at her before they suddenly feel a swirl of magical energy surround her. The rotund boy shouts,

"Ha! You think you can get away with just a rudimentary camouflage spell? We can easily see where you are if we look hard enough."

Just as he says this though, he hears the sound of footsteps running at high speed. Both him and his partner were paying close attention to Michelle's display that they forgot about one other person.

Alistair's fist cracks into the tall boys face, sending him falling to the ground. The chubbier kid looks at this then at Alistair and takes a moment to process the situation. He did not expect to be ambushed by the prey he was supposed to be ambushing.

Seeing his partner getting sucker punched and fall unconscious without getting to actually fight set him on edge, the fight is now two vs one.

Just then he realizes that he took his eye off of Michelle. If he is unable to find her, he could be in more danger than he thought. He was told that she was not powerful at all so he did not think she could even use magic in combat.

He looks back to where she was, and sees that she is gone. He lost sight of his main target.

"You're dead meat!" He shouts at Alistair while making strange signs with his hands, causing a strange veil to appear over top of his skin.