Mirren sat down on the bench as Niven fussed over the beastman. The male grunted in pain after being tossed off from the platform and actually needed Grim's help to move.
It was no surprise to Mirren that he'd lost to Agustine. Someone like him had raw power and was skilled enough to enhance his demonic energy with Arien's instincts, but no one really knew that until Agustine actually fought. Though he was sure Silas knew, he's also lost to Agustine before.
But who would've known Agustine had it in himself? Certainly not the Wolves and the Royals. Even Vasili was unhinged after what he saw.
Mirren snorted and muttered, "Fucking terrifying..."
"Mirren," Niven quivered. He reached out to grasp the male's arms. "A-Are you okay? We can call a doctor over."
"I'm fine, baby. I think you should worry more about yourself," Mirren replied with a strained smile. "I'll head back to my dorm room first. My heat will be starting soon and I gotta prepare."
"Now?"
"Why? You don't want me to leave? I knew this day would come when you'd finally grow so enamored with me."
Niven hesitated to reply. He didn't want to leave the beastman all by himself and wanted to stay with him throughout the majority of his heat, but he looked back to where Simeon and Grimmwolf stood, already preparing to fight. Not to mention what Roselia said to him before he left, Niven was unsure if he should even consider staying with Mirren anymore.
Mirren noticed the slight disturbance on the boy's face and frowned. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing." Niven shook those thoughts away and took one good look at Mirren.
Even though the brunet was exhausted and had several bruises littered across his skin and face, Mirren still had a certain allure he held. Without those bruises, Mirren looked extremely handsome and would be surrounded by many of their classmates everyday. It was usual for the jaguar to tease them back and flirt as much as he could so Niven didn't think too much about what Roselia said to him.
Mirren couldn't actually like him. He's been playing around with too many people to even think about an actual relationship. The thought of that made Niven somewhat relieved.
So once the brunet got up to head back to his dorm, Niven stopped him for a bit and placed his arms around the male's waist. He gave Mirren a tight hug, patting him on the back as well before looking up at the beastman with an uncertain smile.
"You did good," the blond lightly spoke. He started using a bit of Mirren's ability and charm, wanting to ease the beastman further. "I'll come by later to check up on you, okay?"
Mirren's cheeks were flushed red and he began to stammer a little. He was taken aback with Niven, not exactly expecting him to comfort him like this.
"I'll try to help you with your heat after this is over," Niven also offered. "You said just skin contact, right? Would this also be enough?"
Mirren finally realized the boy was only hugging him because of what he said from before. But still, the beastman felt his heart flutter a little bit and awkwardly nodded his head. It wouldn't exactly be enough, but it worked with Mirren. He could take what he got from Niven and wouldn't dare to complain.
Plus, it was nice hearing Niven trying to use Absolute Charisma to comfort Mirren after losing his battle with Agustine. It definitely made him feel a lot more spoiled since Niven was never really the one to take action first. If anything, Mirren was a little excited and felt warm because of this.
"I think Crescent would be happy to spend more time with King if you bring him along," Mirren responded. "Would that bother him?"
"It'll be fine. I planned to stay over for a while if that was alright with you so I wanted to bring King."
Far away down at the platform, Simeon didn't take his eyes off Niven hugging the beastman's waist. He pressed his lips into a thin line, thinking about something before the jealousy in his chest grew worse. Grim could tell, the albino made sure to keep his distance away from Simeon, though it seemed a little odd to him.
Was this because of Mirren's incoming heat? Grim could smell it coming from miles away so the boy must be trying to help his pack mate, but that didn't help Grimmwolf feel any better. He only turned away and gazed at the ground as Levi and Arien glanced up at the blond.
Levi was already in a bad mood today so he felt the aggravation rising due to his envy. But the male lightly snorted and walked off, not bothering to look back. With how close Mirren and Niven were, it shouldn't be considered so weird for them. They just had a different relationship among the others in the student council, one somehow more intimate.
After Mirren left, Niven sat down next to Silas and saw the male give him a questioning look.
"Have you two always been that close?" Silas asked.
"Um, I guess so? I can never really tell with Mirren," Niven shrugged. "His heat is coming up, you know. I figured I might help him out a little."
Silas looked at him for a long time, stunned with growing anger. "You mean, you're sleeping with him?"
"Of course not," Niven scoffed as he lightly smacked his pack mate's shoulder. "I doubt Mirren sees me like that."
Silas gave him a strange look. Niven backed away from that and asked, "W-What?"
Silas wasn't quite sure what to make of Mirren's relationship with Niven, though he wasn't so blind as to not realize the beastman wanted something more with the student. He naturally wouldn't be so hung up on all this stuff and wouldn't really care, but this concerned Niven and so the angel was extremely reluctant to let him go to Mirren afterwards.
Silas didn't really get a chance to explain before they were interrupted by the sounds of fighting. Silas hurriedly looked down and witnessed Grimmwolf being pushed back instantly with his familiar, Antoinette. The albino beastman quickly took out several cards within his hold and held them up in the air, letting them fly over and surround his body as a barrier.
But Simeon kept on playing with him. It didn't matter how many cards Grim had or how many creatures the male summoned, Simeon was strong enough to overpower him.
Not to mention, the dark haired student also summoned his own companion to come up and play. The large beast crept around his owner, baring its teeth and snarled viciously at the sight of Antoinette. Grim's familiar instinctively shook and scooted away to shoved herself right next to the albino's feet.
"Arlo, don't scare the bunny like that. Your meal might run away," Simeon light scolded.
Simeon's beast huffed in agreement, but it kept staring down at the bunny as if Antoinette were its last supper.
Niven sighed a little and felt extremely bad for Grim's companion. He didn't blame the bunny for wanting to back out. Levi and Simeon's beasts were terrifying even if Niven's seen them plenty of times.
The one with his brother right now was a towering manticore. Its face was nearly the image of a human, but the beast's body was of a lion with a long tail of a scorpion and bat-like wings.
Although Grimmwolf's familiar may be afraid of Arlo right now, he really couldn't imagine Antoinette going up against Levi's. He almost thought it was a good thing Grim got paired up with Simeon. His elder brother's familiar had a bit of a temper and usually lashed out whenever it wanted to.
As the manticore jabbed its tail against the barrier of cards, Grim instantly grabbed Antoinette up and placed her on his shoulder. He felt his familiar shake from the fear of witnessing such a beast so he couldn't rely on the bunny as of now.
Very quickly, Grimmwolf swiped several more cards from the air and chanted, "Hear my plea and come forth—Reversed Knight of Wands and Upright Seven of Swords!"
A dark knight crawled itself out of the card and landed with a loud thud. It took a moment to look around just as Grimmwolf snarled, urging the knight to hurry. The knight obediently nodded his head before raising his hand straight up in the air to summon seven swords, floating around and aiming their points right at the manticore.
The large beast was stopped for a moment, having to evade the swords and nearly hissed as one of them struck at its wing. Simeon was also being pushed back and struggled to avoid the knight swinging its weapon down on him.
The student raised his hand and grasped the knight's sword. Simeon barely flinched as his blood ran down his hand and dropped from his wrist. The male swiftly yanked it away and grasped the hilt firmly in his hand before striking at the knight.
It would've been difficult for Simeon to actually attack the being since there were several other swords flying through the air, eager to cut the student in half if it weren't for Simeon's shadow ripping itself away from the male's body to help its owner.
Once Arlo destroyed a few of the weapons, he was about to pounce in Grimmwolf until he saw the bunny drop down to his face and started smacking him vigorously with her wand. Antoinette then pointed its tip at the manticore's face and had confetti explode right out of it, slightly stunning the beast and having to stagger back.
"Fucking rodent," Simeon cursed at the bunny. He lifted his hand up and snapped his fingers, watching Antoinette let out a small squeak as she flew back. Right as the bunny landed on the ground, Arlo lifted his paw and smacked Antoinette away with his scorpion tail.
Even the card barrier immediately grew disoriented, knocking themselves into each other before falling on top of Grim. The albino beastman widened his eyes and watched the cards crumple up into a ball before dropping on the ground, complete destroyed.
The knight wasn't daring any better. The last of his swords clashed with one another and even struck down at the knight, who clumsily tried to avoid being hit until Simeon took that as an advantage and directly jammed his hand into the being's armor right where its heart was supposed to be at.
At the sight of the knight falling lifeless on the ground, Grimmwolf backed away quickly and glared profusely at the dark haired student. He held up several more cards and began to summon another set of beings.
"Come forth and obey my command—Reversed Queen of Pentacles, Reversed Ace of Cups, Three of Spades, Upright Five of Pentacles-" Grim kept on calling each of his cards out and had Simeon witness several beings crawl out of them, each one grabbing weapons of their speciality and not giving the student much time to breathe before attacking with the intent to kill.
The manticore lifted itself up and came down on two of them, sinking his teeth into their shoulders and chewing their necks off whilst ignoring the blood being sprayed on his face. But even Arlo was getting a bit overwhelmed with how many weapons Grimmwolf was summing to help the beings he conjured up from the cards.
It grew to a point where Simeon had been hit, falling back onto the platform as he reached up to cup his new wound. He grunted a little, wanting to ignore the blood seeping out from his side.
Grim felt a bit relieved seeing as how Simeon was close to the edge. But right before the beastman could shove the male off, he was hit in the back and fell to his knees, gasping at the excruciating pain before realizing a sword had struck through his shoulder. The albino beastman looked up to see chaos wash over his summons and even the weapons started falling, clattering into the ground as everyone began to attack each other.
Grim felt himself pale, already knowing what Simeon did. He turned back to see the student already on his feet, looking down at the beastman with a cruel gaze.
Chaos Inducement was something Simeon never used since there would always be a large mess Levi had to clean up. Even Niven disliked him using that ability so Simeon never bothered. But the ability-user with this power was able to cause chaos in any scale from a minor disorder to complete confusion, even allowing people to be manipulated into disobedience. To say Simeon could also cause the loss of laws and order for mass panic was an understatement.
Anything good happening could always be made into a bad situation if Simeon wished it to be.
Though Simeon had to admit that Grim's ability with Card Magic was impressive enough since the male actually had to induce some anarchy amongst the beastman's summons. It was enough for them to start attacking each other and even turn its' weapons against Grim himself.
Just as Simeon drew himself away from the edge of the platform, Grim finally ripped the sword away from his shoulder and gasped a little. The albino beastman couldn't exactly face the Royal head on. Simeon could always cause chaos and counterattack.
Grim didn't get much of a chance to get away due to Simeon throwing down a heavy punch to the male's face. Grim nearly fell back, but he caught himself and returned the hit with a bit more force. The two of them locked themselves into a close fight without any need for weapons as their familiars were still circling around each other, too focused on their own battle.
Antoinette was much faster than Arlo and hopped away every chance she could before the beast would try to devour her. She lifted her wand up to summon several beings just powerful enough to stop the manticore, though they never last long so the bunny had to attack with another angle. She also couldn't rely on any help since all the other summons were either destroyed due to the chaos washing over themselves, or because of them still attacking their own allies.
And then she spotted her owner still engaged with Simeon. She took off, avoiding Arlo with some difficulty only to jump on and crawl on top of Simeon's shoulder.
The students were taken aback, not expecting the bunny to jump right in their fight. Simeon faltered for just a second and almost lost his footing which Grim took advantage of. The beastman shot his hand out, snatching the male's neck to crush Simeon's throat until the Royal's companion knocked himself into Grim.
"You fucking scared me!" Simeon hissed out as he threw the bunny away. "I thought you were supposed to be Arlo's dinner by now."
Antoinette didn't pay much attention to the male and instantly regained her spot right by Grim. She swung his wand up one more time to create a weak shield around themselves.
"What are you doing?" Grim exasperated. "Your wand will run out of power if you keep on using it. Just go and hide if you're injured."
Antoinette angrily smacked her owner's leg and finally conjured up the last of Grim's cards he had. The beastman couldn't recklessly use them since there wasn't much left, but Antoinette furiously patted her paw on two cards and scooted them over for Grimmwolf to take.
The beastman didn't understand for a moment until he realized what these cards were for. He glanced at Antoinette panting heavily and looked back at Simeon, who impatiently tried to get rid of their shield.
Grim might have a shot to take Simeon down if he did this right. But even though Antoinette gave him these cards, the thoughts of Simeon still overpowering him was fresh in his mind.
He wasn't a Royal. He didn't have any outstanding abilities like the twins so he didn't understand why Remiah Westworth was adamant on him being part of the Royals.
He might not win against Simeon.
But then Grim looked up at the stands where Niven was sitting at. He saw the boy also staring down at him, waiting to see what Grimmwolf would do. The beastman turned away and held tightly onto the last of his cards.
Never mind if he was weaker than Simeon. Niven believed he was powerful enough to stand on equal terms with his older brothers and that was enough support for Grim.
Grim grabbed the tired bunny in his arms and lifted two cards up as the rest of them flew up in the air.
"Reversed The Lovers," Grim tiredly called out as chains appeared from the cards. "Upright The Fool, Reversed Two Wands, King of Hearts, Upright Queen of Cups..."
Simeon grew exhausted when another set of summons came out to defend Grimmwolf. They all swarmed the male, hiding him within their circle as they prepared to attack the student.
"We've done this already," Simeon muttered out as Arlo started to lunge for some of them. "You really need to stop using your cards for everything."
Simeon clapped his fingers and watched as the scene grew chaotic once more. He still dealt with a few of Grim's summons, seeing as how they were mentally strong enough to avoid Simeon's ability.
But the male only took a few minutes before making his way into the circle where Grim was at. He saw white long hair just from the corner of his eyes and noticed the male's companion no longer with him. Antoinette must've ran away.
With a small sigh, Simeon lifted up a discarded sword and struck down at Grim, only for his silhouette to vanish.
Simeon stopped for a moment, completely in a daze and looked around to spot the beastman in different spot. He attacked him again, but Grimmwolf vanished before Simeon's sword could even make contact.
"What the hell?" Simeon growled out. Grim couldn't be using magic, the beastman always used his own abilities and physical strength in battles. He doubted Grim even had large amounts of mana like Arien.
Up where Niven sat, the others were also confused as to why Simeon kept attacking Grim, only for the albino to disappear and relocate himself somewhere else amongst the other summons.
Vasili had to crane his neck to the side, keenly eyeing the platform with a frown. The professor didn't expect Simeon to grow this frustrated.
"Could Grim always do this?" Niven asked Silas.
The angel furrowed his brows and shrugged. "I've no clue. It seems like he's using some sort of illusion, but it doesn't exactly feel like magic."
As they kept on watching, Simeon grew irritated to the point of raising his hand and tipping his shadow away from his body once more. And then his shadow multiplied in the dozens, attacking whatever summons were in their way in hopes to getting rid of Simeon's obstacles to find Grim. But even if they did, every time Simeon attacked the albino beastman, he'd always vanish as if he wasn't there in the first place.
Simeon didn't know what sort of trick this was, but he didn't have the time to think it over since he grew slightly exhausted with having to keep up with so many beings shielding Grimmwolf. He wanted to go on a rampage and destroy everything within his sight, but he stopped when he saw a silhouette of a person with a clown mask on—the Joker—standing next to Grim.
Simeon sneered, "What the fuck is this bullshit? You think this fool is gonna protect you?"
Grim's expression didn't change, but the beastman walked away from Simeon, infuriating the Royal. Simeon warped himself in front of the beastman and grabbed the male's collar.
"I should've let you stayed in that goddamn leash," Simeon spat. "Little pest, you really annoy the fuck out of me."
Just as Simeon began to strangle Grim, the male vanished again and the Royal nearly cursed out loud. He began to look around for the beastman until he felt something behind his back. Simeon turned around, ready to defend himself when he was suddenly thrown across the platform, nearly falling off the edge.
He looked up to see the Joker, standing next to his feet with a large staff in his hand. Ten swords floated around the card character's head, ready to strike Simeon down in case the male did anything, but there was also a small animal which caught the Royal's eyes.
It was Antoinette. She was perched up on the Joker's shoulder, pointing the edge of her wand down at Simeon.
Simeon got up to his knees, already conjuring up a wave of shadows underneath him when he saw the being lift a hand up to its face, removing its mask to reveal a scarred face with cold eyes.
"Fool..." Grimmwolf said.
Simeon stopped and stared up at the beastman, the Joker. Was that Grim's goal all along?
Simeon suddenly grew angry and gritted his teeth, "Damn Chameleon!" Without him noticing, Grim used the opportunity to change himself into one of his card characters while they were swarming around him. The other summons changed themselves into Grim and tricked the male, giving the albino beastman more time to recuperate. No wonder he called upon so many of them.
"You've heard of the wild card, haven't you?" Grim quietly questioned. "Apparently in poker, it lets you change the joker to whatever value you wish. I made sure to swap our places and had the others act like me. But the chances of me getting that specific card was extremely low so I had to summon more than I could count, who would've known it'd be my lucky day? Still, there's always a high risk in games like this. I had to gamble a bit you see... my own cards would've turned against me if I hadn't played out at the right moment. So I have to thank you for handing your familiar over to me."
The Royal quickly turned around to find Arlo, feeling a sudden surge of anxiety spread throughout his chest. He was shocked to see his companion being tied down with heavy chains, Arlo's energy being absorbed by them and watching it transfer over to Grim's staff. Simeon was so focused on trying to find Grimmwolf that he'd completely forgotten about Arlo and left him by himself.
All that energy being stolen gave Grim enough power and increased the possibility of him summoning the Joker.
Simeon was snapped out of his thought when a staff mercilessly beat itself into his stomach, shoving him back even closer to the edge. The male scrambled to get up and try warping himself away, only for several swords to rain down on him, stopping the male from going further.
Grimmwolf managed to corner Simeon. Not only that, but he toyed with the male long enough for him to grow tired. Though Simeon wasn't completely exhausted since he spent a harsh childhood with vigorous training by the grand duke himself, so Simeon was able to stand up on his own two feet and avoided being attacked swiftly.
A swarm of shadows lifted themselves up in the air and slithered across Simeon's body possessively, waiting for the other party to attack. But the dark haired student only kept his eyes trained on Grim as the two of them circled around each other.
Simeon didn't expect the fight to drag out this long. He was more surprised with how much Grim was able to endure and use his own abilities against Simeon to survive this long.
Well, it was supposed to be expected. Grimmwolf did come from Arien's vicious tribe after all. He couldn't deny the fact Grim was probably on equal terms with him and Levi anymore, this was possibly why Remiah Westworth even put him in the Royals in the first place. To think, the twins thought the vice-principal only did it to piss them off.
But with that newfound revelation, Simeon found the beastman to be even more dangerous than he expected. Grim may have used up all his cards, but he was sure there were other tricks the albino beastman hasn't played out yet. He doubted Grim would even use them at all in this round since it wasn't an actual fight and rather just a lesson—it still didn't make Simeon feel any better though.
"Brother."
Simeon halted and quickly turned around to see Levi. His elder brother crossed his arms and gave Simeon a pointed look.
Levi wanted him to hurry up.
His twin scoffed and turned away, pissed off with being told to finish his fight with Grim. Simeon waved his hand around carelessly, letting the rest of the shadows roam throughout the platform and grabbed hold of Grim's own shadow. They entangled themselves with it, causing the beastman to stumble forth and wrapping a hand around his throat to feel nothing there.
Antoinette jumped down from her owner's shoulder and hopped on one shadow, waving her wand about and shone light on its tip before smacking at the ground, making the shadows back away before they made contact with the light.
While they were distracted, Simeon rushed over to his familiar and grasped the chains. He pulled on them with abnormal strength, ignoring how his palms grew red, nearly bleeding, and finally got Arlo out of them. The manticore snarled loudly and bared its teeth at Simeon, huffing in irritation before smacking his owner with his scorpion tail.
"You can beat me up for leaving you later, okay?" Simeon rolled his eyes. "Hurry up and take care of that bunny."
Arlo glanced back at Antoinette. He seemed disinterested in continuing the fight, but Simeon shoved the beast's head and forced Arlo to move forward. The manticore huffed one more time before flying over to the bunny, landing right on top of her and slamming his paw on the creature's small form.
Antoinette squeaked, thrashing around to avoid being eaten. The manticore chortled a bit and leaned down, opening his wide mouth and bit at the bunny.
Grimmwolf was incredibly shocked, having to stop struggling and desperately looked over to see Antoinette being lifted up by the scruff of her neck. Arlo didn't plan on letting the bunny go and thought of how to actually devour her when Simeon stalked over and warned him, "I know I said she's your meal, but you can't really eat the bunny."
Arlo chuffed, disappointed, but the beast didn't let go of Antoinette. Instead, he dropped her down and toyed with the animal. And because of his fierce gaze and overwhelming aura, Antoinette could only shake and stay still as she was being swayed from side to side by a large claw.
Grim sighed a little, instantly relieved Antoinette wasn't actually harmed, but his relief didn't last long when Simeon strode up to him and struck at his face yet again.
Forget what Levi said. Simeon was going to enjoy this fight a while longer.