BINGED: Reincarnated as an OP-Chapter 25: Nameless, What Are You?

"Argh," Ren groaned as he turned in his bed. One more twist and his head would be diving down for the floor, dragging his entire body down.

There’s this reaction one has when they feel real comfort after years of lacking it, and they are exhausted. What he did in the seclusion room had really taken a toll on him. Even his eyes still looked like they would rather remain shut the whole day.

Duff was on his nails as usual, watching Ren casually sit up on his bed.

"Coby left. You were sleeping like a dead wood."

"What? Left to where?"

"You’re in survival department, right? He left for classes."

Ren grunted and grabbed his head.

"I mean, I told you guys right? I bet you and Coby have that one thing in common."

"What about you?"

Duff licked the tip of his nails and admired it for one long second.

"I joined Heroes’ Act. I have no time for such stress. We only have classes on select days."

Ren watched him while he arranged his nail file into a small box.

"Why do you clean your nails every second? Even miners don’t do that," Ren let his curiosity finally slip out.

"I don’t know. It’s just a habit. Besides I don’t want my claws looking awkward," his fingernails extended into five white, sharp claws.

Ren raised a brow, "Oh, I see."

’At least I wasn’t the only idiot with a weird power.’

Ren dragged his feet across the room into the bathroom. He had a quick brush and showered as quick as he could. His legs now felt lighter and he could walk faster. He grabbed his shirt and stared at it.

He shrugged after a minute of examination and put it on.

"I swear if you wear that to class, bad luck wins for the day."

Duff tossed a bottle of fragrance at him. Ren caught it and gave him an inquiring look.

"Put it on."

Ren sighed and sprayed it all over his shirt till his shirt looked like it was wet. Duff scowled at him when he tossed the bottle back at him.

"You ingrate!" He shook the bottle ferociously, "What the hell?"

Ren pulled on his trouser and wore his shoes.

"Thank you," he did a courtesy bow and zoomed out of the room.

"If I ever do you a favor again, I’m a complete fool!" Duff yelled, but Ren was gone, not even hearing a word he said.

Ren dashed into the lecture hall almost breathless, his intense fragrance filling the front area like an aura immediately he appeared. All eyes darted to him, stealing the attention from Professor Goldahart.

"You," the professor said in a deep, cold tone.

"I dismissed you at dawn. Why are you only arriving now?"

Ren frowned, "We were never dismissed, sir."

Goldahart raised his brow, "Is that so?" he asked, pretending to be amused.

"How then did you exit a sealed containment room?"

The entire hall erupted with murmurs and hushed voices.

Ren looked up and found Coby seated at the third row.

"We forced the door open."

"Hmm," he smiled, the kind that showed he just wanted to hear that for some reason.

"That’s interesting. You are something, Mister..."

Ren stared at him as he dragged the word. He knew the man wanted him to fix his name there, but he refused to play along for the very obvious reason.

"Well, Nameless. I was just about to finish the class. What would you love to do? Join in or step out?"

Ren looked around not sure what to do.

’For how long did I even sleep?’

He slowly backed away and stepped out.

"There is something about that old man and that room he locked us in," he said to himself as he turned round the corner into a hallway.

He looked back as he walked down the hallway. No one was following him.

He navigated his way, almost getting lost twice while trying to remember which route led to the seclusion room he was locked in.

He finally found it. It was sealed again with the scripts glowing on the door.

"He did come here."

Ren summoned one card, compressed the fire and shot the card at the door. The script gave off a dull glow after the blast, before completely disappearing. The door groaned and slid away from its frame.

Ren frowned.

"Huh. It wasn’t that easy last night."

He looked around and studied the door again. With a casual shrug, he pulled the door open. He stepped in and pulled it shut again.

"Coming back to the scene of crime, are you, Nameless?"

Ren jerked. He turned around to find Professor Goldahart leaning on a wall opposite him.

"I guess that theory really holds," he added and leaned off the wall.

"What the..."

"Surprised to see me?"

Ren gritted his teeth.

’I knew he was a jerk too.’

"I thought I should give you a little jump scare," he said and smiled.

"I’m amazed at your keen eyesight. Normal people would have a little difficulty seeing anything in this dark room."

"The big surprise here is that you can even walk around. I hear old people are the ones supposed to have bad eyes," Ren replied with a grin.

"I do take care of myself, Nameless."

A short moment of silence lasted between them, teacher and student staring at each other in stark darkness like it was just another Tuesday.

"So why did you come back? Forgot something?"

"I love seclusion," Ren replied almost immediately.

Professor Goldahart let out a suppressed laughter.

"I would doubt that, except the Binged don’t love seclusion. And you’re not a Binged."

Ren grimaced, almost dying from how he mixed up his words.

"I never said I was."

"You are not fully human either."

"I have no idea what you mean by that."

Professor Goldahart stepped closer, "In all my years of studying demons and the Binged, I’ve never met one quite like you. So tell me, Nameless," his eyes and hands glowed with a green aura, "What are you?"

Ren jumped back in a gasp, summoning two cards, one at each hand, as he landed two steps away from Goldahart.

Immediately he caught the cards, they ignited with scarlet flames.

Professor Goldahart was rather impressed than stunned as he watched the alerted Ren take a stance.

The air between them hung tight, one waiting for the other’s attack.

Seeing that his cards would burn off to ashes if he didn’t utilize them sooner, Ren made the bold move. He tossed the two cards at once in an X movement. The cards swirled and crossed each other right at Goldahart’s face. They missed him by a hair’s width as he had disappeared in a puff of green. The cards touched the wall and exploded, filling the room with a loud blast that shook the ground. One part of the wall cracked after the impact.

"Interesting."

Ren flinched at the sound of the old man behind him. He reacted with a quick summon. The card heeded faster, flipping into his hands from thin air and flaming up upon touch.

Before he could toss his card, he was hit by a green ball that he hadn’t seen coming. It sent him flying, slamming his back onto the wall, and the card slipped out causing another blast a feet away. Ren was unaffected by the blast but the pain in his gut was just unbearable.

He groaned, fighting off the pain, and staggered to his feet.

’I’ll show this jerk!’

Another plain card emerged from the dark space in front of him. He didn’t understand why it didn’t appear close to his hand.

’Does the old man’s ability affect my card summoning?’

Ren reached for the card. The scripts on the walls glowed, the walls rumbled and the ground quaked. The room spun and the bricks on the walls made a wave like they had come alive. It all happened in a split second before Ren’s finger even touched the card. A line of bricks punched his hand away and another hit his face. He swirled three times before landing hard on the floor.

The Professor approached his card. Ren pushed himself off the ground but was dragged down by stony tentacles that shot out from the ground.

He gritted his teeth, struggling to escape the hard grip he was trapped.

Professor Goldahart held the plain levitating card and watched it for a while. Nothing happened. He tossed it aside, clearly disappointed.

He stomped on the ground. Masonry snapped into a fist, punching his face from below. Another came up forming an arch and then connected a blow to his jaw. Three more arches followed, delivering clean punches to his jaws. Ren spat blood.

Professor Goldahart knelt in front of him, grabbed his hair and lifted his face up. He stared into his scarlet eyes like a shaman reaching into the soul of the person he wants to read.

Ren gritted his teeth and suddenly his eyes flared up with a scarlet flame. Goldahart jerked back. He spotted a flaming card resting on Ren’s thumb. He flicked it up. The card went up and landed on the tentacles that held him down.

One. Two. Three.

Bang!

The tentacles shattered into a hundred bits setting Ren free. He sprang up, a blank card snapped into his fingers and he charged at the stunned Professor. He tossed the card, the card spun once, then ignited the air with a scarlet flame. Professor Goldahart shielded his face, but when his hands came down, he spotted Ren jumping through the flames with a clenched fist like it was just a curtain.

Ren’s fist landed on his face, knocking the old man down. When Ren went for another blow, a line of bricks countered. They kept shooting out of the ground, blocking every punch that Ren attempted.

Professor Goldahart directed his palm at Ren. Stone rippled like disturbed water and closed in on Ren. He tried to run, but a brick tentacle wrapped his hands and yanked him back.

Ren strained. The walls closed in. Stone scraped his shoulders. One more inch and he would be crushed. The walls immediately stopped closing in.

"I could kill you but that would just haunt me everyday because I wouldn’t know what you are."

Goldahart closed the distance.

"But if I let you go, the school would hold you, study you and use you."

He leaned closer, "Tell me, what are you?"

"Ren!" A continuous bang on the door forced Goldahart to look at the door that was unaffected by all the restructuring.

Goldahart slowly approached the door.

Ren’s eyes quickly darted to the ground. The plain card that the old man had tossed away rested between his feet.

He forced his boots off and stepped on the card. It ignited immediately. Ren slid the card with every force he could mutter towards the Professor. It stopped a distance behind him, sizzled and exploded, just the same time Professor Goldahart turned around and tried to summon a green ball.

The room was filled with a loud boom that shook the ground and the bricks flew off, and the walls returned to their original form. Professor Goldahart was tossed to the other corner of the room but disappeared in a flash of green.

Ren crashed into the wall and the bricks showered on him, along with the ruby. Smoke and dust rose, make it harder to see anything in the dark room.

The doors finally slid open with a grunt. Coby ran in.

"Ren!" He looked around, panic filled in his eyes.

"Check that pile. I think I saw him fall there," a feminine voice said from the doorpost.