Ryan and Lilith were both eager to fight. John could tell just from their posture, and Destiny probably could as well.

Prota could tell John wasn't so eager to fight, though. He was leaning back a bit, and his face, while still maintaining that usual small smile, felt stiff, as if he were having trouble maintaining his composure.

Of all the opponents they could run into, it had to be this one.

Prota understood, though. It was obviously for different reasons. She knew John had this whole conception of Destiny being the [Protagonist], making him undefeatable, but she had a hard time understanding that. She'd seen him struggle. She'd seen him lose. But she also knew how strong he was, and she also understood that he was stronger than she was and that alone made her wary.

The only question was, could the three of them take on him alone?

"Well," Destiny sighed, unsheathing his sword.

His golden eyes lit up as he held it out before him, pointing the tip right at the group.

"Come on, then. What are you waiting for?"

So much more confidence. So much more bravado? Was this what he was usually like without John?

"Come on!" Ryan exclaimed, chanting as a giant fireball formed above his head.

"A Caster, huh, huh?" Destiny grinned, channelling his mana into his body. "Bring it on."

He dashed forward, his eyes twitching back and forth, analyzing every part of the battlefield. Every pebble, every branch, the inconsistencies in the ground, anything that could be a hindrance to his footwork.

Prota recognized it. He was doing what she did, but he was better at it. She hated to admit it, but Destiny was the superior fighter when it came to manipulating his body, even with all the training she'd been through.

"Ryan!" she yelled, choking on her words.

It was fine. John was there to complete them for her.

"Move! Cancel your spell!" John yelled.

It was too late. Ryan let the giant ball of flame drop, but instead of colliding with Destiny and exploding, it was sliced into two as if it were simply a cloud. Through the flames burst the hero, his sword flaming and ready to strike.

Prota leapt forward, summoning a thick ice wall to block the attack, but it was only able to deflect the strike at best. She was sent flying back from the sheer force of the swing, but she managed to regain her footing and get back up.

"Lilith! Ryan! Do you have anything powerful?" John yelled.

This was bad. If everything Zero had taught him was right, those two would never be able to win. It was up to him to do something, but realistically, what could he do? He was a coughing baby in the face of a hydrogen bomb. His [Anomaly] effect only allowed him to make the situation "realistic" in terms of victory, removing any Deus Ex Machinas that would allow Destiny to win no matter what.

It wouldn't turn him into the [Protagonist]. It wouldn't give him a get-out-of-jail-free card.

"John!" Prota yelled, jumping in front of him to deflect yet another blade.

He was far back, but Destiny was making his way toward them, and if he got too close…

She summoned construct after construct of ice, parrying the strikes one by one, but each time, they'd shatter under the sheer force and weight of Destiny's blade. She was starting to sweat as the heat of the flame kept getting closer and closer, her stamina growing lower and lower. She was drawing mana from her staff and casting mana recovery as many times as she could afford to, but the attack had so much pressure that it was hard to do anything at all.

"Ha!"

With a shout, Prota fired off a small counterattack of her own, a small volley of icicles, but they simply bounced off him as if she'd thrown some pebbles with her hands.

John watched as Destiny's arms bulged, clearly preparing for a powerful attack. He was far enough that he wouldn't reach him, but it would definitely cleave Prota in two.

"Prota!" Lilith yelled, her eyes widening as she saw her friend in danger.

She fired off a giant whirlwind of ice, pushing Destiny away. It didn't quite pick him up and throw him the way she'd hoped, but it was clearly doing some damage to him, seeing how he was flinching and struggling against the wind.

"Ryan, do it now!"

The red-haired boy fired off his own vortex, and the two combined into a storm of fire and ice. Suddenly, a lot more hits were landing on the golden-eyed boy. Why? What was causing this? Prota shook her head. There would be other times for her questions to be answered. Right now, she needed a way to secure a victory.

John watched his sister stare at the battle with determination in her eyes. She was a good fighter, but—

Wait a minute. [Anomaly]. He wasn't the only one who bore that trait, right? He made his way up to her, making sure to keep himself safe.

"Prota," he said quietly, scaring her. "Listen to me."

She nodded, unwilling to take her eyes off the battle for even a single moment. It seemed Destiny would break out of the storm at any moment, and then they'd be busy trying to survive again. What could possibly give this sensation of overwhelming defeat? Why did she feel like they'd lose, even though there were more of them?

No, that wasn't possible, right? Even Destiny couldn't defeat all three of them. They weren't weak.

Right?

"Remember what you tried earlier? With the wind? Listen to me. There's something called wind friction. Now, I have no clue why the ice melted. Ice shouldn't melt that fast. Maybe something to do with magic, maybe it's just lazy writing, but whatever."

Prota's head was spinning. John wasn't taking the time to explain properly, and that meant she had to focus up.

"You know when you rub your hands together in the winter to warm them up? That's called friction. Two things rubbing against each other causes heat, and what's going on is that the air is rubbing against your ice, melting it down."

The air was rubbing against her ice? How was that possible? How could air rub against anything?

"Again, that's not how this works, but maybe magical ice is different. Listen, you either need to make the ice colder or somehow stop the air from touching the ice. Either works. If you can pull that off, you'll have an incredible spell. You could also- no, not right now," John muttered. "Just try that."

"How to make ice… colder?"

"Uh- shit. Think, John!" he cursed, clenching his teeth. Destiny was almost out of the storm. "What did you do with blue fire?"

Prota shrugged.

"Do you think you could do that with ice?"

She started to shrug but then paused. Could she? She didn't know. She just had to try. Her lack of action was interpreted as a yes. John patted her on the shoulder, unsheathing his sword.

"Good. I'm gonna go distract him."

Prota caught his arm, but he shook his head.

"Do you think those two can survive on their own? That's the [Protagonist] out there, Prota. Right now, we're not his companions. We're [Obstacles]. He might struggle a little, but ultimately, he's going to win. You know who can stop him? Us. Got it?"

She flinched. She'd never heard John sound so desperate and yet so confident at the same time. Before, back when Destiny had been Fate, John had been so confident that Destiny was unbeatable. But now, it sounded like he really thought they had a chance of winning, albeit very small.

"How?"

"How?" John frowned. "I don't know. Hit him hard, I guess. If you miss, we probably gotta get the hell outta here."

"Run?"

"Yeah, that. Ready?"

John's eye began to light up ever so slightly as [Infinity] activated. It was a minor touch that the professors were unlikely to notice, and he had no plans of doing anything fancy. He just needed to keep Destiny off the twins long enough to give them a moment to breathe, and to do that, he needed a bit of a boost.

"Ryan! Lilith!" he yelled, charging in.

His form was awful. That wasn't to say it wasn't good enough. Any professional would've called him an amateur, but at this point, his style of fighting could be called its own path of schooling. He dashed in front of the twins before they could get hit and pulled out his sword in a curved arc, managing to deflect Destiny's blade.

The heat singed at his unprotected body, and the blade shattered, but it was just enough time for Ryan to send a strong gale that pushed Destiny back.

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"I thought you weren't fighting!" Ryan yelled, getting his next spell ready.

"Yeah, well, I don't think we're gonna be able to do this without me. Just get ready to pin him down."

"Pin him down? But-"

"Just do it! Can you do that vortex spell again?"

Lilith smiled. "We can do better than that."

"Sis-"

"We can, can't we?"

Ryan sighed, hanging his head in resignation. "Fine. Let's do it."

They began to chant, but John wasn't listening. Unleashing a little more power, he charged forward, scooping up some loose dirt. Destiny was already charging back in, but before he knew it, John was tossing dirt into his eye, ducking down and punching him right in the gut. Unfortunately, that had about the same effect as a baby trying to break through a vault door.

"Gah-! What the hell, man?!" Destiny yelled, using a gust of wind to clear his vision. "Seriously?!"

"You wanted to get stronger, buddy!" John yelled back, scooping up another handful of dirt. "You think everyone's just gonna be nice to you?"

Somehow, against all odds, John was managing to survive. He wasn't doing any damage. He was like a fly buzzing in your ear, flying around, always just out of reach but doing nothing besides that. Ultimately, you could ignore it if you really wanted to, but that damn buzzing would always be there.

Prota was concentrating, but she couldn't help but watch with interest. If anyone was watching the fight, they'd say that Destiny was clearly the stronger fighter here. There was no doubt about it. The fight was visibly one-sided, and it actually looked like John was constantly on the verge of losing.

Still, if you looked a little closer, you might see that John wasn't worried at all. You would need to know him well, but there was a difference between when he was nervous and when he wasn't. Prota was very familiar with those two moods of his, and right now, he seemed quite confidant. In fact, she'd rarely seen him nervous during a fight. Once you noticed that, it felt almost as if John were teasing his enemy, like a bug always staying just out of reach.

She shook her head. She needed to focus. It was hard, but she had managed to condense her ice. Rather than being clear or cloudy white, it was now somehow blue, just like her fire.

Now she needed to focus on the wind. Squeezing her eyes, she visualized creating a sling of sorts, forcing the icicle to hover within a pocket of wind, swirling it and pulling it back over and over as a vortex began to build up behind it.

Her concentration was suddenly broken as a loud crash was followed by a yell.

"Lilith!"

She opened her eyes to see Ryan shoving his sister out of the way just in time to avoid a falling tree. With Destiny's arm extended, it seemed he'd fired off a long-range spell of his own.

"Hey, eyes on me, hero boy," John taunted, throwing a rock at his face.

It didn't matter, though. It seemed that Destiny had had enough of dealing with the manaless enemy, and his attention was now focused on the enemies who'd been channelling a spell for the past couple of minutes.

"Do it, now!" John yelled.

A wave of both hot and cold air washed over Prota as she saw a giant tornado of ice and fire swirling around. Destiny clenched his teeth and plunged his sword into the ground, using it to ground himself, but he was once again taking multiple hits from the shards of ice and blades of fire swirling around within the wind.

While the twins were surprised that their enemy had managed to stabilize himself and keep himself still, that was exactly what Prota needed.

"Prota, now!" John yelled.

She nodded. That was fine by her, because she was having trouble holding her spell back at this point. The pressure the vortex was exerting was almost more than she could handle. She let her magic go, and there was a loud boom as the icicle shot past the speed of sound, aimed straight at Destiny's chest.

It was a shame, but she couldn't bring herself to aim for his head.

She flinched as she saw his eyes flick toward her, and in that moment, he leaned back.

He'd used it. That ability to enhance his thought process, as if slowing down time around him. Lupin must've taught it to him. Shoot. She might've anticipated this, but she hadn't. The bullet just barely grazed him, cutting through his defences and scratching his chest. That alone caused him to flinch in shock, giving them a much-needed break.

"Lilith! Ryan! Run!" John yelled, also scrambling to his feet.

He'd been knocked down by the vortex, but now that Destiny was injured, he was getting to his feet, panicking as he tried to get away. Prota flinched. Her brother was no longer confident. What? They'd hit him. What had gone wrong?

"What?" Ryan exclaimed.

"Just run!"

It was too late. Destiny's eyes began to glow, and his lips started moving. The twins could almost feel the mana gathering, and they knew what John meant. They, too, started running.

"Prota!"

[Stay with me.]

Her eyes widened. What? Why? He was scared. Was he telling her to go marching into her defeat? She didn't mind if he did, but what was the point?

No, that wasn't what he was asking. He, too, was staying. But why? What could he do?

She didn't have time to think as she was sent flying back, slamming into a tree as Destiny unleashed a giant blast, knocking down several trees and flattening all the greenery around him. John was struggling to hold onto a tree, but as soon as the pressure died down, he charged in, weaponless.

"Prota! On me!"

John was already running in, swinging wildly. Destiny simply leaned back, but then his head was knocked forward as Prota threw an icicle, the ice shattering as it made contact with his head. Even while disoriented, Prota understood what her brother needed.

"What the-"

He didn't have time to react before John jumped him, smashing his fist into Destiny's face. It didn't do any damage, but the force was still enough to push him back, disorienting him ever so slightly. Prota's body reacted before she could think, firing off a couple fireballs.

The two began taking turns in knocking him around. As the fight progressed, Prota couldn't help but feel in awe of her brother's combat sense. Every time she attacked, he'd be there to follow up so that the enemy wouldn't have time to recover. If he sensed an attack, he'd feint but back off, and for some reason, Destiny never really went full out in his swings.

John's only purpose this fight was to take Destiny's attention off Prota, the only person capable of doing damage. In essence, he was playing the role of a tank, someone who attracted the enemy's attention and absorbed damage for those who could attack, except John wasn't absorbing any damage at all.

Additionally, they were incredibly in sync. It made sense, considering John had trained her combat style to be nearly identical to his, but they were pretty in sync despite having never practiced on a single enemy before. John would go in, then Prota, then John, taking turns like a well-oiled machine, not missing a single beat. While neither of them alone could match up to Destiny's speed, together, it was like they'd just doubled their rate of attack, not giving the opponent a single breather.

"You're really annoying, you know that?" Destiny growled as his blade deflected an icicle from Prota.

Another one flew out, but this time, John wasn't quick enough. Well, that was to be expected. In a fight like this, it wasn't really a two versus one. It was more like a one versus one with Destiny being handicapped by a minor cough. The hero caught Prota's attack and threw it right back like a knife, barely missing Prota as it grazed her cheek, drawing blood.

With a cry, he raised his sword, and a crack of lightning came down from the clear skies, electrifying the metal.

"What the hell?" John yelled as he backed off. "That doesn't even make sense!"

"It's called magic, John," Destiny grinned.

He pointed his blade at Prota, who barely had time to raise a defence before the lightning crashed through her ice wall, shattering it into splinters and catching her right in the chest. Her hair stood on its ends, and a burnt smell began to fill her nose. She felt hazy. What was going on? Was she eliminated? Where was John?

"Prota!" she heard faintly. "Run!"

The stacks of mana recovery were coming in handy. She was already recovering, and she didn't waste any time in picking herself up, stumbling through the forest as she tried to get out, to get anywhere but here.

John, meanwhile, was distracting Destiny from taking out his sister. Unfortunately, now that it was just him, he was knocked down in less than a minute. Sword aimed at his throat, he was pinned down, with no more room for resistance.

"Go on," he wheezed, panting. "Finish me off."

He was incredibly grateful for the little [Determination] the [Author] had given him a while back. He would've been in incredible pain at the moment if not for it.

"You knew," Destiny said, lips pressed tight in annoyance. "That I had to hold back against you."

"What? Pfft, nooo," John said, feigning ignorance. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, John, you're the only person I talked to about this. You knew I was hesitant to kill you because I have no way of knowing whether your safety device will go off or not."

"Come on, I wouldn't take advantage of something-"

"You absolutely would. Don't kid yourself."

John sighed, shrugging. "Well, yeah. Whatever. But they were pretty good, right?"

"Huh?" Destiny frowned.

"You said you wanted a challenge."

"Well-"

"They gave you one, right?"

John wasn't sure if Destiny would run into anything else on the island, but it'd been fun to try their hand at defeating the [Protagonist]. For once, he understood what it was like to be in the [Side Character's] shoes while facing off against the [Main Character]. To be the one getting beat down, to be the one with superior numbers and yet still get taken down by just one individual.

How many stories had he read where the protagonist would walk into a nearly unwinnable fight and win because of some kind of growth? Well, in this case, it was more likely that Destiny had won due to his training with Lupin, but still. It felt almost unfair. Even with their slight advantage as [Anomalies], there really was no stopping the [Protagonist].

"I mean, yeah-" Destiny started.

"Then we did a good job."

John ignored the sword at his throat and got up, dusting himself off.

"Our camp is over there, if you ever wanna visit."

"...you can't just pretend like nothing happened."

"Of course I can," John shrugged. "We've got a pretty nice setup if you ever want to visit. We won't jump you this time, I promise. We've got a ton of food and stuff, too, if you want to just drop by for a meal."

"Uh… yeah. No problem."

Destiny seemed at a loss as to what to do. John's sudden switch-up in attitude seemed to have thrown him off guard.

"Anyway, you can take this crate. Those kids definitely needed to let some steam off, damn," he muttered, looking at the area around them.

Trees burnt to a crisp, knocked down flat, cut and uprooted, ashes and icicles littering the ground. Well, considering the kinds of magic Scholaris students were capable of, it wasn't that surprising. Considering everything, it was almost underwhelming.

"Let off steam? What do you mean?" Destiny said suspiciously.

"Ah… well, I may have hyped them up a little too much," John said awkwardly.

Fortunately, Destiny seemed understanding as John explained what'd happened. He actually praised him for devising such a plan.

"Well, good luck," John said, heading toward where he'd seen Prota go. "I'll see you around."

"Yeah. You fought well, by the way."

"For a manaless guy, yeah," John snorted, wandering off. "Don't patronize me."

"I mean it, John. You're not as bad a fighter as you think. It's just… unfortunate."

"That I don't have mana? Yeah, yeah, we've had this talk before. Get outta here."

As soon as Destiny was out of sight, though, John smiled. The whole fight had been a great learning experience.

He'd gotten to see how strong the twins were. Thankfully, they were more than what he'd been expecting, enough to give the [Protagonist] a little bit of trouble. In the event of an emergency, they'd hopefully be able to stay calm enough to be of use.

Second, he'd learned that his status as an [Anomaly] could, in fact, bring about victory in any scenario. It really did depend on how well he fought.

With that, the last thing was that he'd realized he could still be useful. The [Author] hadn't cast him aside yet. He was still at the bottom of a mountain looking up, but with his tools, he'd managed to put one chip into the stone. It was just a crack, but he'd done something. And with something, he could do even more. And more. And more.

John had always been a selfish man. If he was given an inch, he'd take a mile.

That much didn't change when it came to the [Story].

~~~

"Huff… huff… come on, Leon!"

A group of students were running through the jungle, clearly being chased by something, but they couldn't tell what. It seemed feral, sounds of growling coming from behind them, trees and leaves being torn through as it made its way toward them.

"I… can't…"

"No! You're gonna make it!"

Allen picked up his friend, but the extra weight slowed him down. Just a little more, and they'd make it out of the jungle and back to their camp. Surely, whatever animal was following them would stop chasing them.

"What the- who the hell is that?"

Three hooded figures stood in front of them. They weren't moving, but they had to be students, right? No one else was supposed to be on the island. Maybe the hoods were some kind of weatherproof equipment found in the crates?

"Hey! Run! Get out of here!" Harriet yelled, breathless.

The figures didn't move. They just slowly turned toward the group of students, and at that moment, they realized that the hooded figures were not meant to be here.

"R-run!"

It was too late. The only thing that followed was a loud shriek, sending all the wild animals in the area running and birds flying out of the canopy of leaves. With that, four more students were sent back to the safe area, where they'd need a while before they could calm down enough to tell the teachers what had happened.

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