Athanasia: My Hacker System

The situation was desperate, and Elena couldn't make a choice despite she knew she had to.

Eventually, her fear for the future of the team outweighed anything else.

"You say here," she slowly rose from the ground, walked towards the outside, "I'll stop them to the best of my abilities. Once the ten minutes end, make sure to avenge me."

"You…"

Ben never expected to be met with such a situation while being a student in the academy. He watched Elena walk out of his tornado with determination that bordered on insanity.

She was fully prepared to throw her life to save John and Cissel. Ben would have understood it if there was no other option left. But there was a safer path, yet Elena didn't even consider it.

"Does safekeeping the secrets of the team and her friends value way more than her life?!!"

Ben was shocked, and he couldn't decide what to do. His job now became to stand behind and keep the pillar of purple fire hidden.

"No," seeing how Elena started to fight a detachment left behind to stop her, he made up his mind, "even if she values the secrets and the future more, I won't let her throw away her life. She deserves to be there, she deserves to see that future for herself."

He decided. If Elena were stuck and about to die, he wouldn't stand back and watch her fall.

Elena didn't know about that. She simply threw all logic away and started a mad fight against any enemy that stood in her path.

She kept moving forward, throwing her sledgehammers, catching them midair before throwing them again. She used her Speed unlocked attribute to the max, used her special ability without pause, and kept killing many, while walking forward in steady steps.

Seeing her coming from behind, all the enemies had to stop. Elena, right now, was an unstoppable goddess of death.

The moment they surrounded her, though, her fate was sealed. She had no way out. She would never kill all of them at the same time. Ben watched from a distance, clenched his fists, and decided to move.

"Stand back! Don't come to save her!"

Half a heartbeat before he would move, he heard a loud shout coming from nearby. As he was totally focused on Elena, Ben totally missed the incoming group from the east.

This was a group of twenty teachers, led by no one else by Nikolas.

"Attack!"

Nikolas roared the moment he passed by the grand tornado.

"Kill everyone, protect our students!"

His fierce shouts came to stop the enemies from attacking and killing Elena. At this moment, the incoming group was far more dangerous. Even if they were outnumbered, they were quite the force to be reckoned with.

Nikolas opened the clash instantly with a storm of lightning strikes that instantly killed seven enemies. Just this attack was enough to deliver a devastating blow to the enemies' morale, surging his side's morale to the roof.

When Elena saw him, saw everyone, she knew she was saved, she knew John and Cissel were saved. She didn't have the strength to move a single finger, instantly fell on the ground, on her knees, while closing her eyes, and letting the heart curdling agonising screams of the enemies baptise her.

At this moment, she felt like this was the best symphony in the world.

"Are you alright?"

The battle didn't last for a few minutes. During which the purple fire pillar finally vanished, and Ben could, at last, join the fight and vent out his accumulated rage.

The enemies stood no chance at all, and eventually, only a handful of a dozen ran away, being chased by five of the teachers.

The rest remained with Nikolas, surrounding John, Cissel, Elena, and Ben. Seeing how his students were fighting like that, risking their lives to this degree, made Nikolas' heart ache.

'We should be the ones shouldering this burden, not the kids.'

He clenched both fists, vowing on making the one responsible for this mess pay the full price in total. Even if he knew how special John and his friends were, they were still students in his eyes.

"What happened?" Nikolas turned to the most fit student to answer his questions, Ben. "Why are you outside the department and your club?"

Ben looked at Elena, and the latter sighed. She was too tired to speak, but Ben wasn't the suitable one to answer Nikolas.

Even if Nikolas was part of their club and closed circle team, he was surrounded by other teachers. So she had to do it, to make sure Ben wouldn't say anything wrong amidst his talk.

"We saw the department under attack," Elena started, "back then, we were having a meeting inside the club. But as we arrived there to help, we found a dome that stopped us from getting in."

She then moved her eyes towards the dome nearby.

"Then John noticed the second dome falling, and he urged us to run and get outside. Only the four of us ended up getting out. We fought hard, and John exhausted himself and needed to rest alongside Cissel, so the two of us were left to handle the situation and protect them till they woke up."

Nikolas gave her a long look, as he didn't buy any of what she said. He moved his eyes towards John and Cissel, then back at Elena and Ben.

"So… Everyone is ok?" he probed.

"Almost," and Elena's answer confirmed his worst guesses. At the same time, her eyes moved towards Cissel, "You know, Cissel just got out of the infirmary. She isn't in the best shape yet to handle such intense fights."

"I get it," Nikolas grasped what Elena wanted to convey to him. Cissel was facing a problem, and they were left behind to safeguard her. As for John, he didn't get how he got tired so fast, or how he could even sleep this peacefully in the middle of an ongoing war.

"Let's stay here then," Nikolas moved his eyes among other teachers, "and try to see if we can breach that damned dome."