Kaizen ran like his life depended on it. Because honestly, it kind of did.
He didn't look where he was going. He didn't care about directions. He just needed distance. Distance from the Hero. Distance from the Villain. Distance from anything even remotely connected to the Plot.
'I need to get to the dorms right now. I need to lock the door behind me. I need to hide under the covers and not come out until graduation day.'
He risked a glance over his shoulder to make sure Leo wasn't chasing after him with a "friendship bracelet" or some other cursed Main Character item that would bind their fates together.
'Clear. Nobody's following me. I'm finally saf—'
CRASH.
Kaizen didn't hit a person. He slammed straight into what felt like a reinforced concrete bunker that happened to be disguised as a student.
He didn't just stumble or lose his balance. He bounced. He literally flew backward a full three feet through the air and landed hard on his butt.
[HP: -2]
"Owww..." Kaizen groaned, rubbing his aching tailbone with both hands. "What the hell? Did I just run face-first into a stone pillar?"
"Oi, oi."
A voice rumbled from somewhere above him. It was deep and raspy and decidedly feminine.
"Look where you're running, weakling."
Kaizen froze completely. The temperature around him seemed to drop several degrees.
He looked up slowly. And up. And up some more.
Standing over him was a girl. She was absolutely massive, easily six foot three, maybe taller. She had pale green-tinted skin, small but visible tusks protruding from her bottom lip, and muscles that looked like they'd been personally carved from solid granite by an angry sculptor.
Hilda Guard.
The Half-Orc Berserker. The "Muscle" of the future Hero Party. The girl who could bench press a horse.
Kaizen's jaw literally unhinged. It dropped so far it practically hit the cobblestone floor.
'No. No way. This is statistically impossible. There are over 2,000 first-year students enrolled at this academy. Why am I literally ONLY running into Main Characters?!'
Hilda looked down at him with sharp eyes, her massive arms crossed over her chest. She was wearing the standard academy skirt like everyone else, but on her frame it somehow looked like battle armor ready for war.
"Wh-why are you staring at me like that?"
She snapped, narrowing her eyes dangerously.
"You've never seen an Orc before? You got some kind of problem with my tusks?"
She extended one hand down toward him. It wasn't a friendly gesture. It was an aggressive "I'm going to pull you up so hard your shoulder joint dislocates" kind of gesture.
"Get up," she grunted.
Kaizen stared at the offered hand. It was the size of a frying pan. Maybe bigger.
If he took that hand, he'd trigger the classic Awkward First Meeting event. If he took that hand, his fate would be sealed. If he took that hand, he was completely and utterly DOOMED.
Something inside Kaizen's brain just snapped.
The accumulated stress. The overwhelming fear. The sheer absurdity of everything that had happened in the last hour.
It was too much. Way too much.
'I just want to be a janitor! I just want to sweep floors in peace! Why won't you people let me live a boring, normal life?!'
"STUPID MAIN CHARACTERS!!" Kaizen howled at the top of his lungs.
Hilda blinked in complete confusion. "...Hah?"
Kaizen didn't wait around to explain. He scrambled to his feet without any help, completely ignoring her extended hand. He didn't bow apologetically. He didn't stammer out excuses. He just spun around on his heel and absolutely bolted.
He activated what he mentally called his [Panic Sprint] skill. His legs moved faster than they'd ever moved in his entire life.
ZOOM.
He was gone in seconds. Just a cloud of dust and the rapidly fading sound of someone crying about "plot armor" and "statistical impossibilities."
Hilda stood there frozen, her massive hand still extended uselessly in the empty air.
She stared at the space where the weird human boy had been. Then she looked down at her hand. Then she looked back at the direction he'd fled toward.
Her left eyebrow started twitching. A vein visibly popped on her forehead.
"What..." Hilda growled low in her throat, slowly clenching her fist. "What the hell is wrong with that diva?!"
She stomped one foot down in frustration, hard enough to crack the stone pavement beneath her boot.
"Who does he think he is?!"
"Screaming at me and running away like I'm some kind of monster!"
"Stupid little weakling!"
"He should be glad I didn't actually get my hands on him!"
"I would've folded him up like a paper napkin!"
She huffed loudly, crossing her massive arms again.
"Humans. Always so dramatic about everything. Always so pathetically weak."
She let out a long sigh, shaking her head. The anger slowly faded away, replaced by crushing boredom.
She looked around the crowded courtyard. Waves of students were mingling everywhere, laughing, forming their little cliques and friend groups.
She scanned their faces.
'Weak. Weak. Weak. Coward. Weak. Pathetic. Weak.'
She sniffed at the air. Even the other Orcs and beastkin scattered through the crowd looked soft to her eyes. Domesticated. Safe. None of them carried the proper smell of blood and iron and real combat.
"Boring," she muttered under her breath. "Is this really supposed to be the famous Zenith Academy? Where are all the real warriors?"
Then her eyes suddenly stopped scanning.
In the middle of a particularly large crowd of students, surrounded by admirers and onlookers, was a boy with bright red hair. He was laughing about something, looking around the courtyard like he was searching for someone.
He wasn't particularly big or intimidating. He didn't look scary at all.
But Hilda's combat instincts immediately started screaming.
She could see it now. The way he stood with perfect balance. The way mana flowed naturally around him like breathing. The calluses on his sword hand.
Leo Crimson.
Hilda's eyes went wide. Her tusks glinted in the afternoon sunlight. A wide, absolutely terrifying grin spread across her face.
"Him!!"
Her heart started pounding hard in her chest. Not from romantic attraction. From pure, undiluted battle lust.
"He's strong!! I can feel it from here!"
She cracked her knuckles one by one. The sound echoed like gunshots.
"I want to fight him!!"
Somewhere across campus, Klaus Silver was walking calmly toward Wing L with a book tucked under his arm and several murders scheduled in his future.