For a brief moment, the two of them were just frozen in place.
Quinn smiled.
For the first time this entire match, Quinn had been able to deal some damage.
And it was a lot.
Nate's eyes widened in shock, as he saw the attack knock his health bar down by nearly half.
Nate knew he was in danger, and he could no longer take the fight as easy as he did before.
He folded his left arm back so it was in front of his right shoulder, and transformed it into a metal sword.
He then swung his entire body, extending out his arm in an arced, slicing motion.
But once again, Quinn activated the Flash Step, avoiding the attack.
Nate grit his teeth.
"Damn it!" He muttered. "How is he so fast?!"
As Nate turned around to see where his opponent was, he was surprised to see Quinn collapsed on the ground.
Quinn was breathing heavily, no longer able to move.
'Damn it, Tsukuru was right.' Quinn thought to himself, thinking back to Tsukuru's words in the assembly hall. 'That doestake up a lot of Stamina!'
Quinn looked ahead, as he saw Nate approaching him.
'How the hell is Tsukuru able to MOVE after that?!' He thought. 'Does this mean…that his Stamina is higher than mine?!'
Quinn was completely helpless.
Due to using both the Hammer Strike, as well as using the Flash Step twice in quick succession, he had pushed his body way past its limits.
Quinn then saw a large shadow cast over him.
Looking up, he saw Nate standing over him.
"Let's do this again, sometime." Nate said with a smile.
He thrust out his left hand, still transformed into a sword, into Quinn's chest.
As this was a fatal blow, the game registered it as a "critical hit", completely depleting Quinn's remaining health, ending the match.
Although the match had ended in Nate's victory, he was more excited than ever.
'Looks like the All-Bases Military Tournament is going to be a fun one this year!' Nate thought, an excited grin on his face. 'Not only do I get to see this 'New-Gen Original' with the Creation Ability that's been the talk of the town among the staff, but it alsoseems that the other bases had a strong crop of new students this year!'
Still collapsed on the ground, Quinn saw Nate walk back over to Sam.
When he reached him, Nate turned back around to Quinn.
"See you around, Blood Evolver!" He said with a grin, as both Nate and Sam began to break down into pixels.
A moment later, Quinn was teleported back to the white room.
As Quinn stood alone in the white room, he was deep in thought.
Although he had lost his fight against Nate, he was satisfied.
He had learned a lot during the fight.
First of all, he learned that his Blood Swipe wasn't strong enough to pierce metal.
He also learned that his Hammer Strike didn't increase his strength.
Rather, it was an attack that did internal damage.
It was perfect to counter people with hardening Abilities, like Riley, and now Nate, had.
Quinn couldn't wait to find out what other tutorials the blonde-haired Vampire had in store for him.
However, he also had no idea how to unlockthem.
The blonde-haired Vampire had simply said that they would 'unlock when he was ready for them'.
There were two things this might mean.
Either it meant when Quinn's Stats were high enough to meet the requirement for the moves, or it meant when Quinn was at a high enough Level.
The second lesson the fight had taught Quinn was how important his Stamina Stat was.
The Flash Step was an incredible Skill that allowed him to essentially teleport, but if he used it more than twice, he would be exhausted.
And, if he was out in the sun, he probably couldn't use the Skill at all unless he was wearing his superior set of gauntlets.
This made Quinn think long and hard about which Stats he would put his Stat Point into in the future.
Maybe going for an Agility- or Strength-focused build wasn't the best idea.
However, before he could think any more, a System message appeared in front of him.
[Attention User: This is your three minute warning! Please finish up your current match, and log out! Your time has almost expired!]
Quinn let out a long sigh, and brought up the Power Fighters menu.
He tapped the "Log Out" option.
His body broke apart into pixels and vanished.
A moment later, he regained consciousness as the lid of his VR Pod opened.
Quinn let out a groan, as he got up out of the pod.
As he stood there in the VR Room, he brought his wristwatch up to his chest, and brought his fingers to the screen.
He scrolled down the long list of student contacts, until Layla's name came up.
There was still one thing that he needed to learn about more than ever.
Especially if he wanted to get stronger in the future.
He pressed her name, and his watch sent out the communication.
***
Back in the training room with Tsukuru, Amelia, and Layla, Amelia had finally gotten the hang of using her electromagnetism to control the swords.
She currently had three of the swords hovering in the air behind her.
She swung her arms side to side, making the swords move through the air.
Amelia had a big smile on her face from her progress.
Tsukuru and Layla stood a few feet behind, watching her.
Layla's number of regular arrows within her quiver had now been replaced with a set of arrows made of a black metal.
Additionally, she also had an additional two of the Intermediate-Tier Firebomb Arrows, and an additional four of the Intermediate-Tier Frostnet Arrows.
This was not only out of Tsukuru's own generosity, but also him experimenting with his Ability.
It seemed that he was able to perfectly replicate any piece of Beast Gear by "scanning" it into his System.
At least, Beast Gear up to the Intermediate-Tier.
When "Scanning" a piece of Beast Gear, something similar to when he scanned one of his cards for his Summons occurred, with a cone of light-blue light shooting out of his eye, and scanning the Beast Gear from top to bottom.
And Tsukuru had been particularly interested in Layla's Firebomb Arrow, or as he referred to it, an "Incinderary grenade".
This brought the amount of Beast Gear he could replicate with his Ability up to five:
The Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Dagger, the Intermediate-Tier Knight Sword, the Intermediate-Tier Knight Gauntlets, the Intermediate-Tier Firebomb Arrow, and the Intermediate-Tier Frostnet Arrow.
It was around this time that Layla's wristwatch began to beep.
Hearing it, Tsukuru turned to her.
"Is it time?" He asked.
Layla brought her wrist up to her chest, and looked down at it.
"Yep, it's Quinn." She replied.
Tsukuru let out a deep sigh.
"Amelia." He called.
Instantly, the girl jumped, her being so concentrated on controlling the swords that she had been zoning everything else out.
Her focus gone, the swords clattered to the ground.
"Y-Yes?" She asked, turning to Tsukuru.
Tsukuru in response, jabbed at the door.
"We gotta go." He replied. "Keep practicing on your own."
Hearing this, Amelia's face dropped.
It was then that Tsukuru glanced over at Layla's quiver, and got an idea.
Tsukuru activated his Ability.
He outstretched his arm so it was pointing downwards.
The sound of electronic interference filled the area.
Amelia and Layla watched, as pixels began to appear on the space directly below the ground.
The pixels clustered together into a square shape.
There was a bright flash of light.
When it faded, they all saw a metal box on the ground.
The box also had leather straps on the side, making it look like some strange backpack.
The box looked like a pure, solid brick of metal.
However, it also had six slots on its top.
Layla and Amelia watched in interest, as Tsukuru picked up each of the six Intermediate-Tier Knight Swords one-by-one, and put them each into one of the "slots".
The swords went down to their guards into each slot, leaving only their handles sticking out of the top.
Tsukuru then walked over to Amelia, and handed the "box" to her.
"Now you have a way to keep those on your person!" He replied.
Amelia looked down at the box, unsure of what to say.
Eventually, she just took the box from his grasp, and put it on her back like a regular back pack.
It was a little heavy, but nowhere near as heavy as she expected.
Tsukuru smiled before then turning to Layla.
"Alright, let's go." He replied.
Layla nodded.
She grabbed the heavy bag, and slung it over her shoulder.
Amelia then watched as the two walked out of the training room.