Within the dinning room as the students were eating and chattering with each other, a black haired male female Graundar was playful putting a piece of bread in a redhead male Ripar's mouth while giggling, only for the male Ripar to bite both the bread and her hand which led her eyes to widen for a moment before she screamed in pain.
Meanwhile as Cloud was eating alone, four teenagers walked up to him and circled round him.
The first was Van of the Tenplar tribe who happened to be a fair skinned 16 year old teenage male with a brown spiky slickback hair, purple irises and pointy ears, with two earrings on both ears.
The fair skinned human wore a long sleeved black high collared tailcoat styled top, a baggy red trousers and black open toe boots.
The second was Garl of the Graundar tribe who happened to be a sand yellow skinned 16 year old teenage male with a crimson colored irises and long yellow hair that is only tied at the top with the hair on the sides moving freely while having a mid-length spiky curtain bang.
On the right ear, Garl wore a long red earring , a red short sleeved, high collar tailcoat styled cloth while keeping his green inner wear exposed at the chest and abdomen area.
The red tailcoat cloth had five horizontal v shaped symbols from both sides of his body, ranging from his ribsides down to the side of his cloth.
On the upper right arm of his red tailcoat, Garl had two large coils and on both of his wrists were black armbands with a white circle.
Round the waist on his tailcoat, Garl wore a white sash and also wore a blue trousers and a pair of black open toe boots.
The third was Juni of the Kenar tribe who happened to be a 16 year old brown skinned female with a large long curtain bang golden-blonde hair, a braided hair that drapes over her shoulders and bright green irises.
On the forehead of Juni is a light blue cross-like (both sides of the horizontal lines are bent like an upside down V) marking, round her neck is a light blue stripe and in the middle of her collar bones is a small light blue circle.
She wore a long-sleeved, fur-collared icy-blue top, with fur detailing around her shoulders and wrists.
Juni also had blue markings on each of her fingernails.
A white sash wrapped her waist above a brown skirt, lined with fur at the hem.
Underneath the skirt was a black knee-length trouser and on her exposed skin was a light blue stripe markings round her shins.
Juni wore a brown short-length opened toe boots with fur round the mouth of the boots.
The final was Rico of the Ripar tribe, a 15 year old teenage male with ghost-white skin, a black wild and unkempt hair and blue irises with no pupils.
Rico wore a black earrings on both ears and a black open-slit top that extends to the upper end of his thighs.
On the chest of Rico was a large vertical pale blue stripe that parted across the sides of the cloth below the waist.
On the large vertical stripe on his chest, there was a vertical rectangular opening with cross stitch patterns that somewhat exposed his bare chest.
Round his shoulders were large pale blue vertical stripes and on the lower parts of his upper arm down to his wrists were also large pale blue stripes.
Rico wore a black trouser and a short open toe boots.
Three of the teens (Van, Garl and Juni) smirked at Cloud and crossed their arms.
"Well, what do you know. Looks like the little whitehead is sad." Van said, "Hey, tell me, what is your candidate ranking, 'greatest'?"
"Come now, Van. You wouldn't want to upset the little whitehead, would you?" Juni asked Van.
"So what if he is upset. Serves him right for that foolish belief of his." Garl said to Juni, "When he first came to this academy, he opened his mouth and bragged about how he is going to be the best among us.
Look at him now."
"Uh, i don't think now is the time for this, guys." Rico nervously said to the other three while scratching the back of his head, "Why don't we just let him be-?"
"Hey, whitehead. Tell me... What's your candidate ranking again?" Van asked Cloud as he interrupted Rico, "Word in the academy says you are a C."
"It is worse than that. I heard he should have been given a D but because there were no C class candidates, they decided to give him one." Juni said.
"Humph. Pathetic, really." Garl said.
"Uhm... Guys..." Rico said while still scratching the back of his head.
"Van, Rico, Juni and Garl. The self-proclaimed rulers of the Tall order academy." Cloud said while staring at his food, "You know i got to hear what your rankings are.
Van an A plus, Juni an A, Garl an A minus and Rico a B plus.
I gotta ask, why is there no S among the 'rulers'?"
"If you guys are actually the rulers, then there should be an S class candidate among you. No you all should be SS." Cloud said as Van's eyes rolled towards Juni, Garl and Rico, "But no. We got a demon wannabe and his little lapdogs with nothing better to do than picking on someone lower than them just to make themselves feel good."
"Isn't that right.... Imbeciles?" Cloud said as he looked over his shoulder with a smile.
Hearing Cloud's words, Juni slowly emitted a faint green aura as she forced a smile while her eyes were closed.
"Wow. You still got that sharp tongue, huh."
"How about i rip it out!" Juni said as she took a step forward.
However before she could reach close to Cloud, Garl extended his arm sideways to stop her.
"Let him be, Juni. He ain't worth spit." Garl said.
"He is right. The only people that were worth it was his dead tribe." Van said with a smirk as he walked towards Cloud.
"Van...?" Rico called out with widened eyes.
"So here. Be sure to give this to your people." Van said as he stood close to Cloud.
Van then spat on Cloud which immediately made Cloud lose his temper and hastily stand to punch Van across the face but the attack didn't even move Van's head.
Van smirked and landed a swift punch right on Cloud's face which sent him rolling back and crashing through other students chairs and tables in the dinning room.
"Damn it." Rico whispered as he faceplamed himself.
Many of the students in the dinning room, stood on their feet and began to murmur while Cloud laid on the ground.
"What the hell?"
"Van just punched Cloud."
"Those two are going at it again?"
A female Ripar among the students, stood on her feet and turned her back to walk away.
"You all can deal with this nonsense." The female Ripar said.
Cloud groaned in pain as he sat up. Cloud's vision blurred for a while and as soon as it cleared, he saw Van standing from afar with both arms crossed while giving a cocky smirk.
Cloud felt something wet pouring out of his nostrils, and as he touched his nose, he saw blood on his hand.
"Come on now. That was a weak punch. It shouldn't be anything for you, right.. Greatest?" Van mockingly said cocky arched brow.
Cloud wiped off the blood from his nose and glared at Van while Van smiled.
Cloud immediately stood on his feet and ran towards Van to punch him but Van sidestepped him. Cloud repeatedly tried to land a punch but Van continued to evaded casually.
"Slow. Too slow." Van said while effortlessly evading Cloud's swings.
In the middle of Cloud trying to land a punch, Van landed a swift punch right on the face again which made Cloud slid backwards.
Cloud laid still on the ground for a moment before groaning in pain as he sat up.
"Come on, come on! You're letting me down, greatest." Van said.
Cloud stood on his feet but before he could take a step forward, he fell on one knee and started panting heavily.
"Hoh?" Van said in amusement.
"What was that?" Van asked as he walked towards Cloud, Two weak punches and you are already on one knee? How embarrassing."
Van stood in front of Cloud and smiled.
"Really embarrassing."
Cloud hastily stood on his feet with an attempt to land a punch on Van but Van slapped him across the face instead.
The slap sent Cloud soaring backwards in a spinning motion until he crashed on the ground.
"And predictable." Van said.
"I saw that coming, you know." Van said as he was walking towards Cloud, "It's sad, really. To have a mouth so big and yet be unable to back up a damn thing."
"You have improved, though." Van said as Cloud was struggling to stand on all fours, "When you first came, your way of throwing punches were terrible, even for mhnur standards."
"Regardless it's a shame your fists can't do anything." Van said as he stood close to Cloud.
Silence stayed in the atmosphere for a time as Van watched Cloud struggle to stand on his feet.
"If my fists aren't doing anything..."
"Then I'll just have to change tactics!" Cloud said as he twirled his body to land a kick on the side of Van's head.
However, before his leg could get close, Cloud's leg was caught with one hand by Juni.
Cloud's eyes widened and Juni's eyes rolled towards him.
Juni effortlessly threw Cloud to a wall, which made him cough out blood and lay flat on the ground.
"You know... I'm still not over with what you said to us." Juni said to Cloud while her eyes were closed in fury, "I think you need something your tribe neglected to give you."
"Proper..." Juni said as she opened her eyes.
"Discipline." Juni said as her irises glowed.
"Humph. That sounds about right." Garl said as he slammed his fist against his palm and cracked his knuckles.
Riko's eyes widened in worry and he extended his arm forward.
"Uh, guys. I don't think -"
"Don't worry. Just leave the whitehead to me." Van interrupted as he walked towards Cloud.
Van stood in front of Cloud, squatted to grab a fistful of his hair and gaze at him.
Van's irises then glowed as he evilly grinned at Cloud before letting go of his hair.
Van stood and stared down at Cloud.
"Hey, whitehead." Van said as he raised his foot high, "Sleep tight."
Van drove his foot down, only for his foot to be blocked by another person's foot which turned out to be Sting.
"Hm?" Van said with a raised brow.
The other students seeing what Sting just did, began to murmur among themselves.
"Wait, is that Sting?"
"Sting? When did he get here?"
"D-did he just stand in Van's way?"
Van stepped backwards a little and Sting's eyes slightly observed Cloud's state before returning it's gaze back at Vaan.
"What do we have here?" Van said, "The weird one coming to save his best friend."
Sting stayed quiet for a moment while carrying an unreadable expression until he finally spoke.
"Four idiots picking on a mhnur just to make themselves feel good..."
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Sting said as he began to discharge a faint purple aura.
"Like you?" Van asked with a grin as he began to discharge a purple aura.
As the two stood, discharging their auras, the other students watching began to murmur again.
"Wait, is Sting really about to fight Van?"
"Man, this is suicide!"
"For Sting, right?"
"Something isn't right, tho."
"Yeah, i agree. Is that pressure coming from Sting?"
"I'm starting to feel it, too."
While Van and Sting eyes were still locked against each other, Van smirked.
"That's quite the energy you got there."
However before any of the two could make a move, a masculine voice sounded.
"Enough!!!"
Van and Sting turned to the direction of the voice and saw the person to be Rico.
"Can we stop and reason for one minute? Just one minute?" Rico asked, "If this goes on, we were going to get in trouble, so let's just leave."
Van and Sting stared at each other for a moment before Van scoffed and turned his back on Sting.
"I'm going to kill you one day, you little weirdling." Van telepathically said to Sting as his irises glowed.
"You wish." Sting replied.
After Van and his other three friends had left, Sting turned his attention to the barely conscious Cloud.
"Hang on. I'll get over to Leorona, right now." Sting said as he placed one of Cloud's arm over his neck in an effort to raise him to his feet.
While Sting was walking with Cloud, Cloud had a remembrance of his little self years ago in the Sturmbhrn village.
Little Cloud wore a short-sleeved cyan-blue top with a wide turtle neck.
Underneath, a black long-sleeved inner cloth stretched down to his wrists, adorned with a white band on his forearm and wrist.
A black sash was tied snugly around his waist, and he wore black shorts with open-toe sandals.
In front of him stood two adults who happened to be his parents.
The woman had tan skin, blue eyes, and a long brown hair that has a large single bang at the right side of her face.
The woman wore a maroon colored dress with a long sleeve at the left side, leaving her right shoulder exposed; the woman wore a blue short sleeve top underneath the dress that had a circular opening on the upper arm.
The woman had Black tribal markings wrapped around her right forearm—lightning-shaped with two crescent shapes to each side while a white beaded bracelet encircled her wrist.
Beside her, stood a man with tan skin and long slick back brown hair that was shaved at the sides while the rest draped over his shoulders and was decorated with a single bead.
The male had black colored irises, wore fang earrings on both ears and had a brown goatee beard.
The male wore a light blue sleeveless tailcoat styled cloth and underneath it was an inner navy blue short sleeve top and a fang necklace.
On the right shoulder of the man, underneath the short sleeve was a similar tribal lightning mark stretched across his right shoulder.
On his right wrist was a black band and on the left was a white bead.
The man also wore a black trouser and black open toe boots.
Little Cloud turned around and grinned excitedly with closed eyes.
"Don't worry.If they should reopen the phlgrm organization, I will join it!" Little Cloud said, "When i grow up to be big and strong, i will be the first of our tribe to become a phlgrm and the greatest warrior that ever lived."
The woman chuckled and smiled at Cloud.
"Im very sure you will do well, son." The woman said to Cloud.
"Yes, and we'll be there to support you as proud parents do for their children." The man said with a smile.
Years later while it was raining, little Cloud stood in the midst of Sturmbhrn corpses including the corpses of his parents.