The afternoon sun hung low over Empire State University's campus, painting the buildings in warm golden light. Students moved in and out of the buildings in steady streams, earbuds in, backpacks slung over their shoulders, laughing, arguing, or mindlessly scrolling reels on their phones. A food truck near the library steps did brisk business, serving overpriced tacos, while a group of engineering majors argued loudly on the grass about a group project deadline. Somewhere in the distance, a campus shuttle beeped as it navigated the narrow service roads.
No one noticed the big man in the worn green shirt and cargo pants who slipped through the south entrance near the Science and Technology Building. His rough face had a casual grin. No one gave him a second glance. On a campus of this size, strangers were merely background noise. He did earn a few frowns because of the sandy footprints he left behind.
He had just escaped from law enforcement after robbing a jewelry store. He needed cash, fresh papers, and a place to lie low until the heat died down. A big university seemed perfect. He could get a fake student ID, maybe force someone to make one, and disappear into the crowd for a few days. No one would think to look for an escaped convict among a bunch of oblivious college kids.
The man pushed through a side service door near the loading dock, boots crunching on the gravel path. He moved quickly down the corridor. A couple of students glanced his way but kept walking. He grinned under his breath. This was going to be easy.
He soon reached the Admin Building. The building was packed with students crowding the counters, asking questions, filing forms, and arguing over deadlines. The man scanned the room and grinned when he spotted the registrar's office. He walked towards it. On the way, his shoulder slammed into a student. He kept walking while the guy lost his balance and fell.
"Watch where you are going, asshole," the student yelled from the ground, but the man in the green shirt ignored him.
The man opened the door and entered. He didn't bother to close it.
Inside, the registrar was talking with two students. He frowned when he saw the man in the green shirt enter without permission.
"Please wait for your turn," the registrar said sternly.
The man's grin turned wider. "But I don't wanna."
The two female students seated across from the registrar frowned as well.
The man took another step forward. "I want to enroll. Why don't you get the paperwork started?"
"Listen here, mister," the registrar said, his voice clipped. "There is a process for everything. You can't just waltz in here and order me to make you a student."
"But I can," the man said, his smile turning cruel. His hand turned to sand, swelled, and twisted. It became a massive hammer. He brought the sand hammer crashing down onto the desk in front of the registrar. The desk broke instantly upon impact. He had initially thought to be subtle about it, but subtle seemed boring.
The two female students started screaming.
The registrar paled. His eyes widened in recognition. He said in a trembling voice, "Y-you, you are him. You are Sandman!"
The man, Sandman, had been in the news in the last few days after robbing a bank and a couple of stores. Authorities still hadn't caught him because he could turn into literal sand. People speculated he might be a mutant or an alien.
"In the sand," Sandman said with a smile.
The students and staff outside had also seen the scene inside due to the open door. Panic flashed across their faces, and some of the more timid students began screaming.
Listening to the commotion, the Dean of Students came out of his office. He frowned at the scared faces of the people outside and walked towards the registrar's office. There, he saw a man in a green shirt holding the registrar by the collar and dangling him in the air, while two students cowered in the corner. His brows furrowed further when he saw the broken desk.
"Put him down right now," the dean demanded. He assumed it was some delinquent student threatening the registrar over an argument. He was ready to call security on the troublesome guy.
Sandman turned around to see who had so much guts. The dean's dismissiveness vanished when he saw the sandy texture of the man's face. He had seen the news. One look at the sandy face was enough to recognize the newly infamous criminal.
Sandman looked at the dean and sensed an air of authority around him; he figured the man was important. He dropped the registrar, who screamed as he fell, and casually walked towards the dean.
The dean stepped back in fear as the massive man walked towards him. One of Sandman's hands turned sandy and expanded. His palm grew large enough to wrap around the dean's chest and arms in one grip, stopping him from backing off.
"Who might you be?" Sandman asked with a smirk.
Pain shot through the dean as the crushing grip tightened around him. Through gritted teeth, he said, "I am the Dean of Students." He paused for a moment, as if collecting strength, then he begged, "Please leave. Don't hurt the students. I won't call the police."
Sandman laughed hard. "Sure, I will leave, but only after you do as I want."
That was when a red-and-blue blur dropped from the ceiling vent above with a soft thwip of webbing. Spider-Man landed behind the dean, fired a web-line into the man's jacket, and yanked him backward out of Sandman's grip.
After saving the dean, Spider-Man turned towards Sandman. He raised one hand in a casual salute. "Okay, big guy, party's over. This is a no-sand zone. Now turn yourself in nice and easy, and maybe I won't have to explain to the dean why the floor's covered in you."
Sandman lazily sized up Spider-Man, the pain in the ass for every crook in the city. He laughed. "You couldn't stop me this morning. What makes you think you can do it now?"
The fight erupted in an instant. Spider-Man dodged the first lazy right hook, webbing a quick line to the ceiling and flipping over Sandman's head.
Since Spider-Man arrived, the students had visibly calmed down. Now, many looked thrilled by the fight unfolding before them. Some had even started live-streaming the fight on their FlexOrDie account.
"Hey, fam," a student, one of those live-streamers, said to his growing audience. "You won't believe who I'm watching fight right now."
Spider-Man silently cursed the idiots filming as he drove a punch into Sandman's torso, and as he had expected, the fist sank straight through.
Sandman mocked, "You sure are cocky, Wall-crawler. Why can't you accept the fact that your attacks are useless on me?"
Spider-Man pulled back his hand, and Sandman reformed instantly. He countered with a hardened fist that slammed Spider-Man into a row of stools. The students nearby hurriedly got away.
Spider-Man looked at the remaining students and the staff. Many had run when he arrived, and the fight began, but plenty were still there, either watching the fight or recording it, with some idiots even live-streaming it. He knew that if he fought here anymore, there was a high chance that one or more of them might get hurt. And despite them being idiots, he didn't want that. He deliberately dragged the fight towards the exit.
He fired a web at Sandman's eyes. Sandman was momentarily blinded. Spider-Man used the opening to punch and kick him a few more times, but they were useless. Every time he landed a hit, Sandman either softened to let it pass through or hardened to hit back twice as hard.
Sandman ripped off the web and hardened his arm into a hammer and swung at Spider-Man. Spider-Man backflipped and dodged easily. Before Sandman could pull his hand back, Spider-Man was on him instantly and drove a heavy punch into his chest. Because he was hardened, the punch connected. Sandman was punched back and crashed into a wall. Spider-Man shook his hand, which was throbbing in pain.
Sandman roared in anger and punched with his hammer hands again, but Spider-Man dodged each attack. "Stop dodging, you coward," Sandman roared.
Sandman didn't realize it, but he was moving more and more towards the exit. When he arrived near it, Spider-Man punched him, and the punch went through his body, but he immediately pulled back his arm and went outside the door.
Sandman roared and followed after him. "You can't run away from me, you insect."
"Spiders are technically arachnids, not insects," Spider-Man quipped as he left the building and swung towards one of the buildings that was mostly empty at this time of day.
Sandman didn't like the fun fact. "Shut up, you insect," he barked and followed behind, turning into sand and flowing after Spider-Man.
They reached the mostly empty academic building moments later, and Spider-Man webbed at the entrance so idiots wouldn't enter. Spider-Man finally entered one of the large lecture rooms and closed and webbed the entrance once Sandman entered.
Spider-Man shot a web at a chair and hurled it towards Sandman. The chair hit him, with sand grains flying off everywhere. The fight continued in the lecture room for a few minutes. He knew he couldn't deal with Sandman with his abilities, but he had also thought of a solution.
'It was already difficult to drag him here. But how the hell do I bring him to the storage shed to use that industrial vacuum on him? He might injure others while we go there.' Spider-Man frowned, thinking that.
Just as Spider-Man was in a dilemma, he heard a voice near the windows. He had webbed the entrance but not the windows, as they were on the fourth floor.
"You need to use a vacuum cleaner or something similar to contain him." The voice came from the windows. "You can find it in the storage shed."
Both Spider-Man and Sandman jerked their heads towards the window, as neither of them had noticed someone arriving. They saw a guy casually sitting at the window frame, with one foot on it and the other dangling outside. He wore an expressionless white mask with a black hoodie. Spider-Man wondered if he was also a student at the university. With his getup, Spider-Man couldn't recognize him, but his jeans looked familiar.
The masked man jumped inside the room and ran towards Sandman. Sandman grinned, thinking the newcomer was some idiot fame-seeker.
"No, don't," Spider-Man yelled. He wanted to help but was late as Sandman swung the massive hammers.
But both Spider-Man and Sandman were shocked as the newcomer crouched, easily dodging the hammer swing.
Sandman had a mocking smirk as he saw the masked man about to kick him from the crouching position.
The kick swept through Sandman's loosened ankles, scattering the sand that formed them. His legs collapsed beneath him, and he crashed down.
The masked guy looked back at Spider-Man. "What are you waiting for? Quickly, go. I can only hold him off for a few minutes."
Spider-Man hesitated, but in the end, nodded and leaped out of the window.
The masked man looked at Sandman, who had already reformed his legs and was getting up. Sandman looked at him menacingly.
'Now, how to pass five minutes?'
A few minutes ago:
We hurriedly got dressed and left the classroom.
"Hey, Gwen," I greeted Gwen, who was standing a short distance from the door, pretending she didn't know what happened inside.
"Hey, Kevin," Gwen said awkwardly while trying her best to sound normal.
"What are you doing here?" Felicia asked with a mischievous smile. "If I remember correctly, you do not have classes in this building at this hour."
"N-no, I-I," Gwen flustered. "What are you doing here?" She asked, trying to shift the focus away from her.
"We?" Felicia said, licking her lips seductively, "We just came for a quick fuck."
Gwen flustered even further, hearing Felicia's unabashed reply. She might have transformed into a sassy goth, but that was merely a cover; inside, she was still the girl next door.
Before Felicia and Gwen could argue any further, I interjected, "Let's see what the commotion is about."
Without waiting for their reply, I pulled out my cell phone. I opened a custom app I'd built and accessed the university's cameras through it. After cycling a bunch of video feeds, I saw the one from the admin building.
Gwen looked ready to leave to help, but I held her hand to stop her. She shot me a confused look.
I didn't answer her; instead, I looked at the fight in the video and said, "It's good that Spider-Man happened to be here."
Gwen frowned, hearing that.
I ignored her and continued, "However, it looks like Spider-Man isn't really doing any damage here. I wonder if Arachne was here, could she have helped him?"
Gwen's frown deepened.
"But I think," I continued as Spider-Man blinded Sandman with his webbing. "It is better she isn't here. I mean, it would be a hell of a coincidence that both Spider-Man and Arachne happened upon this place at the same time. Possible? Sure. Likely? Not even close. But people like Triple J wouldn't care. They'd call it a staged team-up for attention."
Gwen's brows relaxed as she heard my indirect explanation of her unasked question. She smiled apologetically and gave me a nod of gratitude.
We watched the fight on my phone all the way until it reached the empty building. Last, we watched them as Spider-Man dragged the fight into one of the lecture rooms. The cameras were in the hallways but not in the classrooms, so we couldn't see what was happening inside.
"He took him into this building, right?" Gwen sighed.
"Yep," I agreed. "They are fighting above us right now."
As Felicia and Gwen watched the video, I looked at the latest mission I had received when Sandman entered the building.
Mission: Spar with Sandman
Objective: Survive for at least five minutes fighting with Sandman.
Reward: Three Withered Mortal-Grade Enlightenment Tea Tree Leaves (Xianxia)
I had previously checked Sandman's status in the video. It was D3. There was no way I was ready to fight someone at that level. Even the fight against the Dweller-in-Darkness's clone, who had a similar rank, was only possible because of the multiple buffs that pushed my rank near his. I didn't even have a way to injure him properly.
I had the Armament Haki training manual, and I really wanted to know if it would be useful against people like Sandman. Still, even to start learning it, I needed E3 Strength, Constitution, and most importantly, Willpower.
I looked at the empty hallway in the video and decided what to do.
First, I closed the feed, then stopped the video feed storage from all cameras in the building and nearby. Then I erased the stored feeds from those cameras.
I handed the phone to Felicia. "Call me and keep the line open. Also, keep an eye on the cameras in nearby areas."
"Be careful," Felicia said. She understood what I wanted to do.
I entered the classroom.
"Wait, Kevin." Gwen's voice came from behind. "Where are you going?"
Though clearly confused, Gwen didn't comment when a black hoodie and white mask suddenly appeared in my hand.
I looked back and answered, "Just going to check where I stand currently in the world."
Back to the present:
I looked at Sandman getting up. He had so much potential, yet wasted it robbing banks.
A force of nature trapped inside the mind of a petty crook. I snorted internally.
"I don't know who you are," Sandman said menacingly. "But you have made a grave mistake attacking me."
He hardened his hands into hammers, but before he could attack me, I fired two Mana Bolts at him in quick succession.
Where the spell struck, tiny craters formed in his chest, grains of sand spraying outward. A charred patch appeared around the impact. But clean ones replaced the blackened particles, and the craters filled with more sand. As expected, a novice-level spell barely did anything to him.
"What was that?!" Sandman exclaimed, not in pain, but in genuine confusion and curiosity. It was probably the first time he had seen magic.
I didn't bother with a reply; instead, I ran towards him and struck his head with a roundhouse kick. The attack obviously couldn't injure him, but because he had loosened his body, a big portion of his head was kicked off, including his eyes. He might have received his powers only recently, so he wasn't proficient enough and was unable to see without his eyes.
I didn't waste the opportunity and moved in with another low sweep on his legs. He fell once again.
Sandman roared in anger, and his body turned to sand and fell to the floor. He moved with blinding speed behind me and quickly reverted to human form. He attacked me with the hammer hand.
I hurriedly used the shield spell. But it proved useless as the hammer struck the shield, breaking it, and continued uninterrupted. I hurriedly dodged to the side as the hammer struck the floor, cracking and breaking the tiles.
I fired two more mana bolts in quick succession. Each glowing projectile hit with the same familiar thump.
"You little punk!" Sandman snarled, clearly annoyed now. "You think that glowy shit is gonna stop me?"
No, it won't.
I maintained distance while firing the spells at him. I stayed mobile while using the environment: chairs, pillars, and desks to my advantage, never giving him a clean target.
His hand swelled massively, expanding until it nearly spanned the room from floor to ceiling. He spread it like a net to trap me while I moved to the next position. I dived through the space between his fingers. But he closed the gap at the last moment, and my leg was caught in between.
"Now where are you gonna run, punk?" Marko said with a triumphant grin. He hurled me towards the wall. I somehow managed to turn midair enough to keep my head from hitting the wall. My back hit the wall as I slid down, grunting in pain.
Even though my back screamed in pain, I jumped to my feet and rolled to the side as I saw a massive fist coming towards me.
For the next two brutal minutes, I did nothing but evade, stall, and survive.
Finally, the time was up, and I heard a whooshing sound as Spider-Man entered through the window.
"He's all yours," I said and immediately slid backward, creating distance.
Spider-Man turned on the vacuum and jammed the hose on Sandman's torso. The vacuum roared to life with a deafening whine that echoed down the corridor.
"What the—?! Turn that thing off!" Sandman roared.
Sandman tried to maintain distance but underestimated the suction power of an industrial vacuum cleaner. Golden sand whipped through the air and disappeared into the hose in a rushing golden stream. One by one, his torso, limbs, and head disappeared into the hose.
After the Sandman was contained, Spider-Man turned off the power. Sandman thrashed inside the sealed vacuum bag but couldn't escape.
Spider-Man finally turned to me, but I was already moving towards the window. I interrupted him before he could say anything.
"I wasn't here."