Chapter 10 - Retaliation And Spinal Pain.

Each step Arthur took as he approached made his teacher's face distort with various emotions, rage being the most prevalent, this emotion was only multiplied while listening to his students gossip.

"Thanks for the passing grade." Arthur spoke out in a mocking tone, the nausea still showing on his face. "I'm going to to pay a visit to the school nurse, don't forget your promise."

"Like hell you will, you're playing, or you're failing my class." His teacher spoke out with an aggressive tone, there was no way Arthur could have stopped the ball, he was terrible at sports. He was just lucky, that must have been it. "There was no promise, you're just a student, do as you're told."

As Arthur walked past his teacher he raised his phone into the air and spoke loudly, "I've got plenty of witnesses, and evidence, try me."

Holly ran up to Arthur, her face tinged with worry, "Hey... hey, are you okay?" Her voice was soft, it contained traces of confusion. Holly stood in front of Arthur, looking him directly in the eyes, "What is going on with you today? You're like an entirely different person, it's kind of scary."

Before Arthur could respond he heard a violent rage-induced screech coming from the field. As he turned around to look, he saw Ruslan sprinting towards him. "Don't mess with me!" Ruslan screamed as he kicked a soccer ball towards Arthur, as hard as he could.

The ball travelled through the air, flying towards Arthur at an extremely fast speed. Arthur had only just noticed that the ball began curving away from him during the last few moments, he noticed that the ball had unfortunately began flying towards Holly's face instead of his own. The ball was too fast for Holly to dodge it, her reaction time was horrible, Arthur had to do something.

Arthur performed a mix of stepping in front of the ball's path, and pulling Holly out of harms way, when the ball finally reached them, Holly was pulled into Arthur's protective embrace, while Arthur took the brunt of the attack with his back.

A loud thud resounded through the gymnasium as the ball slammed into Arthur's back, causing his body to be flooded with pain, and his prior feeling of nausea had been amplified. His body tensed up in response to the pain, causing his embrace around Holly to tighten for a moment. Arthur quickly released her, and shortly after the pain faded to a dull throbbing sensation.

"Are you alright?" Arthur asked, coughing as if his lungs had been emptied. Arthur took a look at Holly, noticing that her face was flushed and she appeared to still be in a state of confusion, however that confusion faded as she noticed the soccer ball rolling away from Arthur and a very angry looking Ruslan still walking towards them.

"Uh-- Yeah, I'm fine." She attempted to respond at first but found her throat tensed up for some reason, and she had to clear her throat before responding.

Arthur turned around staring daggers at the approaching Ruslan, his gaze then turned to his teacher, who upon noticing his gaze, broke eye contact and looked away. This told Arthur everything he needed to know, and what had to be done.

"Back away for a second, this is going to get messy." Arthur spoke to Holly while gently patting her on the head like a child. Somewhere within the span of four days since Holly last saw Arthur, his personality had completely flipped, he was more aggressive, confident and at times, surprisingly forward. But Holly didn't seem to mind the change. In fact, she kind of liked it, but she was still somewhat scared at how sudden it was, and how she couldn't figure out why.

As Holly backed away, Ruslan ran forward with a wide swing. The students had previously pulled out their phones and began recording the teacher, as well as the rest of the situation, seemingly taking a page out of Arthur's previous performance with his phone.

Arthur waited until Ruslan was about to hit him, before grabbing the wrist currently swinging at his face with both hands. Arthur twisted his body and used the punch's momentum to throw Ruslan over his shoulder, sending him flat on his back, and gasping for air.

Arthur knelt down to Ruslan, a glint of anger in his eyes. "Now, what you just did was stupid."

"How disappointed would your father be, his very own son trying to ruin his life even more than he already has." Arthur moved in closely and whispered to Ruslan, making sure nobody else heard him. "You already killed his wife, he absolutely hates you for that already. But now you're trying to kill his career too?"

Those words sent a shock to Ruslan, he grew up without a mother and a cold father, but was never told the reason why. How did Arthur of all people know his family situation better than even he did?

"One more outburst from you and I'll make sure the only position your father gets anywhere near a laboratory is as a highschool janitor. Then I'm sure he'll really start giving you the attention you want."

Arthur grabbed Ruslan's collar, and pulled him close to his face as he spoke the next words with as dark of a tone as he could muster. "I can ruin you, do you understand me?"

Ruslan, overwhelmed by the current situation, just silently nodded his head. To which Arthur continued his threat, "I don't want to ruin your life. But I can, and I will... If you mess with me or my friends again. Think very carefully about what you want to do with your life going forward, because this is your last warning, I'm tired of playing nice."

After receiving one more confirmation from the panic-stricken Ruslan, Arthur released his collar and stood up, staring at his classmates.

"Please send all your recordings to my student email, my lawyers will appreciate it." Arthur yelled out, before turning to his teacher, staring him down with daggers, "I'll be seeing you at your disciplinary meeting."

His teacher tensed up, he could feel his student's intense bloodlust, which left him in an uncomfortable state. Beads of sweat were pouring down his chubby face, while the cold chill running down his spine caused his hair to stand on end. This feeling vanished as Arthur turned away from him.

Arthur walked back over to Holly to check up on her, a hint of worry in his voice, "You didn't get hurt, did you?"

She was standing there in a state of surprise, the kind yet shy boy she knew for so long had suddenly become someone who could threaten teachers and beat up students without batting an eye, seemingly overnight. But even with all the changes, she surprisingly still felt a sense of comfort around him, he was still kind from what she could tell.

"You're the one who just got attacked, I should be asking you that..." Holly was dumbfounded, Arthur had just been attacked and the only thing he cared about at the moment was her well-being?

"I'm fine, I'm just glad you didn't get hurt." Holly went silent again as Arthur placed his hand on her head and gave her a bright smile. "Alright, I'm going to go visit the infirmary, I'll see you at the history exam."

Releasing his hand, Arthur walked off, everyone just stood where they were and watched him leave.

Making his way down the long hallways, Arthur found that he had gotten lost again, but after a short detour, had eventually found his way to the infirmary.

"Ah, Arthur, welcome back." A rather chipper young woman wearing what were essentially hospital scrubs popped out from behind a folding privacy screen. She managed to name a student upon seeing him, indicating that she and Arthur interacted on a regular basis, much like Arthur and the librarian Denise. "How can I help you today?"

"Good to see you again Emily." Arthur seemed to make friends with all the supporting members of faculty rather than with his teachers, although there were a few who earned his respect. "I was recently hospitalised due to a lab accident, it wasn't anything serious, but I was told to not engage in any stressful activity for a while."

"Unfortunately, it seems a signed doctors note wasn't good enough for the sports teacher, and I was essentially forced to play." Arthur began explaining his case, trying not to mention that he had threatened his teacher and threw a student over his shoulder, "Also, during the game, I had a ball kicked into my back pretty hard, so I have a feeling that may bruise."

The nurse's facial expression darkened when she heard that Arthur was forced to play against his doctors wishes, she noticed that he appeared nauseous. "Get on the bed, lay on your front. I'll get some ice for your back."

Arthur did as he was told, moving towards the bed furthest from the doors, it was just far enough away to not feel the vibrations of hoards of students running down the hallways. Arthur laid on his front and waited for a moment for Emily to return.

"Alright, where did you get hit?" Emily came into the room with an ice pack wrapped in cloth.

"I'd say the lower half of the thoracic vertebrae, right in the centre." Arthur responded, anticipating the cold sensation.

"It's always convenient having a patient who speaks my language." Emily let out a small chuckle. She gently placed the wrapped ice pack where Arthur directed, making sure it stayed still before pulling her hands away. "Also, ouch, that would have hurt."