Riley, after seeing his two teammates who were equal in power to him defeated so easily, started to feel scared.
His body started shaking, and all he wanted to do was get out of there.
He turned away from his friends, and started running deeper into the forest.
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
"Oh, no you don't!" He muttered, he turned to Quinn. "C'mon, let's go!"
Quinn nodded, and the two ran after him.
Their speed greatly surpassed Riley's, and they soon caught up to him.
Tsukuru created a single dagger and used his Video Stasis on it to fling it at Riley's right ankle.
Meanwhile, Quinn shot a Blood Swipe at Riley's left ankle.
The two attacks hit, and Riley fell to the ground.
Riley turned around to face the two, cowering.
"Please, don't hurt me!" He begged. "I'll do anything!"
Tsukuru looked at Riley in disgust.
Just minutes ago, he was threatening to bury another student alive.
Now he was begging like a sniveling rat.
Tsukuru then heard Quinn speak.
"Oh, really?" Quinn asked.
He placed his watch up against Riley's.
"Then hand over all your credits."
Riley's eyes widened in fear.
"But then I won't have enough for Dan!" Riley cried. "He'll kill me!"
Tsukuru quirked an eyebrow.
"Is this really the time to be worried about Dan?" He asked.
Riley gulped, and he quickly transferred the 50 credits he had taken that day over to Quinn.
"So will you now let me go?" Riley asked, hopeful.
Tsukuru and Quinn exchanged looks, as if they were sharing a thought.
Riley saw a sinister smirk appear on Quinn's face under the mask.
"No." The two said in unison.
Tsukuru withdrew the glathrium knuckle he had created last night from his Inventory, which appeared on his hand in the form of clustering pixels.
The two wretched back their arms before driving them into Riley's face.
He tried to activate his Ability, hardening his face, but their strength was still strong enough to get through.
As Riley fell down, slumping against the tree, both Tsukuru and Quinn saw a System message appear in front of each of them.
[An opponent has been defeated. 25 XP has been awarded. You have successfully defeated an enemy with System User Quinn Talen. Bonus 20 XP received. XP: 140/200]
[An opponent has been defeated. 25 Exp has been awarded. You have successfully defeated an enemy with System User Hikiko Tsukuru. Bonus 20 Exp received. Exp: 140/200]
"Jackass." Tsukuru muttered.
He saw Quinn kneel down with the empty test tube from when he drank a vial of Layla's blood.
He filled it with Riley's blood.
Tsukuru rolled his eyes, and created another two tubes.
"Thanks." Quinn replied, as he snatched them, walking off.
However, Tsukuru wasn't paying attention.
His sole attention was focused on Riley.
A deep-seated hatred flared through him.
He knew people like this.
This had been the THIRD time they had caught Riley trying to steal credits from people.
And god knows how many credits he stole when they weren't around.
People like him NEVER changed.
They enjoyed being the bully.
It made them feel powerful pushing others around.
A dark expression appeared on Tsukuru's face.
"People like you." He muttered. "Are better off dead."
As soon as Tsukuru uttered those words, the sound of electronic interference filled the area.
Quinn, who had been collecting the blood of Riley's two friends into the empty test tubes Tsukuru had just made, drawing blood from the wounds he had inflicted with his Blood Swipe and the wounds Tsukuru had inflicted with his blades, looked back at the source of the sound.
His eyes widened when he did.
He saw translucent pixels begin to appear behind Tsukuru.
The pixels clustered together into a slender, humanoid shape.
There was a bright flash of light that temporarily obscured the space directly behind Tsukuru.
When the bright light faded, there was another figure behind him.
It was an individual wearing a full set of slender, iron knight armor.
The armor looked old and worn from age, having rust in various places.
The figure in the armor was clearly female, with Quinn being able to see that the greaves of the knight had stiletto heels.
A red plume came out of the top of the helmet, mimicking a ponytail.
The figure had light-blue, ghostly-blue wisps coming out of the spaces between the individual pieces of armor.
She stood behind him in the "knight sentry" pose.
Before any of them could react, the armored figure grabbed her sword with both hands, and swung her sword in a horizontal arc.
Tsukuru felt the wind breeze over his head, and the next thing he saw was Riley's body, headless leaning against the tree, with the tree sliced horizontally where his head had been.
There was a splattering of blood.
Tsukuru looked, eyes widened and jaw dropped, as he saw Riley's head, a look of terror frozen on it, bounce on the floor like a stone.
'What…What just happened?' Tsukuru thought in a state of shock.
As if to answer his question, a System screen appeared in front of him.
[Your Haunted Knight has killed a human. 2 Pawn Points have been awarded. Pawn Points: 4/5]
Tsukuru slowly turned to look behind him.
As he did, he saw his Haunted Knight return to her "knight sentry" pose.
His eyes widened as he saw her.
'She…She can summon HERSELF?!' He thought, incredulous.
Tsukuru, Quinn, and Layla watched as the Haunted Knight slowly began to break apart into pixels.
Her job complete, she was now de-summoning herself to whatever void Tsukuru's summons went when not in use.
Instantly, Tsukuru snapped back to Quinn, as well as Layla, who was now coming out of her hiding spot.
"You two saw that, right?!" Tsukuru asked frantically. "Please tell me that I wasn't hallucinating!!"
Quinn and Layla slowly nodded their heads, almost robotically, all three of them stunned at what had just happened.
Then after the moment of shock and surprise passed, Tsukuru's eyes snapped down at Riley's wrist.
Or to be more specific, his watch.
As his family was military, he had insider knowledge on how the watches worked.
And he knew that ten minutes from now, seeing as how could no longer detect a heartbeat, it would start transmitting a signal to the base.
At that point, the whole forest would be swarmed with soldiers.
Tsukuru detached the watch, and looked down at it.
"REALLY hope you're not more than ten pounds!" He muttered, and activated his Video Stasis Skill, using it on the watch.
To his immense relief, the Skill activated, causing the watch to hover in mid-air.
He then used his Skill to send it flying to the right at high speeds, hoping to send the watch as far from their current location as possible, the watch flying through the air until it hit something, so the watch would emit the signal FAR from their current location.
Tsukuru's hand that housed his wristwatch then snapped up to his chest.
His fingers immediately went to the screen, and he accessed the "Contacts" list.
Two options appeared on the screen, "Students" and "Staff".
Tsukuru pressed the "Staff" option.
Names began scrolling downwards in a long list.
When Shizuka's name appeared, he pressed it.
Meanwhile, back at the base, Shizuka was bored out of her mind.
There hadn't been any troublemakers today, so she had nothing to do.
She sat at her desk, spinning a blade covered with sharp, jagged points, designed specifically for inflicting as much pain as possible, like a fidget spinner.
It was then that she heard her watch beep, and saw the screen light up.
Normally, Shizuka would be annoyed at being interrupted like this.
But with how bored she was, she eagerly invited any interruption.
Looking down, her face brightened, seeing it was Tsukuru who was contacting her.
"Tsu-Tsu!" She greeted happily. "What's going on?!"
There was a pause before Tsukuru spoke up.
"Can you…come to the forest connected to the park?" He asked in an anxious voice. "You know, like from last night?"
Shizuka's eyebrow raised in confusion.
It seemed as if Tsukuru was worried about something.
And he also seemed to not want to give too much information. Shizuka's face hardened.
Something was wrong.
"I'll be right there." She muttered.