Everyone watched on in bated breath, a tense silence filling the hall, at the surreal sight in front of them.
There, in front of them, stood an armored knight, being reprimanded by a boy half her own size.
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
"Your interference is appreciated, but unrequired." He said in a somewhat steely tone, as if he was discipling an unruly child.
"I was just about to deal with the situation myself when you appeared." Tsukuru narrowed his eyes. "And worst of all, you've blown the lid of something I wished to keep secret…wide open." Tsukuru said in a slightly annoyed voice.
Taking in his words, the Haunted Knight began to shake erratically.
To all those around them, it appeared as if the Haunted Knight was shivering.
Although that would have been quite impossible, due to the temperature of the room.
Instantly, the haunted knight released her grip, and her sword clattered to the ground.
Seeing the sword fall from her grip, Brandon leaped back so as not to be cut by the blade as it fell, falling on his ass.
Everyone then watched on, as the Haunted Knight then slowly turned around to face Tsukuru.
Instantly, she fell to the floor on her hands and knees, her helmet slamming into the hard floor of the Beast Weapon Hall, a resounding clang echoed through the room, like a hammer hitting an anvil.
Seeing this, even Tsukuru winced.
The Haunted Knight assumed a groveling pose in front of Tsukuru, as if pleading an apology.
The sudden tonal shift of the knight seemed to be a complete 180 to everyone in the room, and they all started giving Tsukuru weird looks.
Tsukuru himself was cringing, as the display of his Summon kneeling before him filled him with a deep embarrassment.
Behind him, Quinn and Layla just looked on in shock.
"This…This is the thing that struck that boy down yesterday?" Layla muttered under her breath, as if she wasn't sure she believed the words that were coming out of her mouth.
Suddenly, she felt a sharp elbow in her side.
"Shh!" Quinn hissed, his finger on his lips.
Unfortunately for them, Leo's sensitive hearing had heard her.
Leo began to walk forward. However, he walked past Tsukuru and the kneeling figure, and stopped right in front of Brandon.
He looked down at the trembling boy with disappointment.
"You attacked an opponent after the fight was concluded, and after his back was turned." He said to Brandon in a steely tone. "This is your one and only warning, boy. If you pull another stunt like that, I can…and will ban you from this class."
Brandon gulped and nodded his head, the boy still clearly in shock.
Leo then turned to Tsukuru and the kneeling knight.
Tsukuru looked up, and saw Leo approaching.
"I…I didn't summon her!" Tsukuru said frantically, waving his arms. "I was preparing to use my dagger to stop him in place like I did during our fight when she summoned herself!"
Leo stopped directly in front of Tsukuru.
"Yes, I know." Leo replied in a calm tone.
Tsukuru's eyes widened.
"What…What do you mean, 'you know'?" He asked, confused.
Leo closed his eyes and sighed.
"Like I said yesterday, I can tell when a person is activating their Ability." He replied. "And when…that thing…appeared…" He said, looking down at the kneeling knight. "...Your body's Mutant Cells hadn't activated."
Suddenly, footsteps were heard approaching them.
Looking back, he saw the blonde-haired girl, Erin Heyley, approaching them.
Seeing her approach, Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
Sensing the tension between the two, the Haunted Knight rose to her feet.
She reached down and grabbed her fallen sword, before standing in front of Tsukuru in her typical "Knight Sentry" pose, standing between Tsukuru and Erin.
Erin looked forward at the knight, who was roughly her height.
She stared at her, eyes narrowed, before she turned to Leo.
"I want to fight her." She replied in a cold tone.
Hearing Erin's request, Leo looked at the armored figure standing between him and Tsukuru.
In his wireframe vision, he saw a suit of armor exuding Beast Energy, revealing it to be a full set of Beast Gear.
He also saw a swirling mass of red flames filling the interior of the armor.
It was unlike any Beast he had ever seen.
"I do not have the authority to make the decision to allow a student to fight a Beast on school grounds." Leo replied, before he put his hand under his chin. "However, I will bring the matter up with the Generals. If they approve, I will let you know."
Hearing his words, Erin's face scrunched up in annoyance.
It clearly wasn't the answer she wanted to hear.
Most of the students also internally thought about how this the the highest amount of emotions that any of them had seen Erin express since their arrival.
"Humph." Erin huffed, as she stormed off to find a new opponent.
When she was gone, Leo turned to Tsukuru.
He gave Tsukuru a stern look.
Getting the hint, Tsukuru waved his hands while thinking about dismissing the Haunted Knight, who then began to rapidly break down into pixels.
Seeing the Haunt Knight disappear, Leo began to walk past.
However, he stopped right next to Tsukuru.
"Stay behind after class." He whispered into Tsukuru's ear. "I want to speak with you about something."
After saying his part, Leo then walked past him.
Tsukuru let out a deep sigh of relief.
He walked back to the group of Quinn and Layla.
However, a few feet away from him, Brandon, Fei to his right, finally got over his shock.
And when he did, his fear transformed into fury.
He looked and saw the boy who had just humiliated him, had got him reprimanded by Sergeant Leo, smiling and talking to the OTHER boy who had beaten him yesterday.
Brandon's fists clenched in anger.
Suddenly, Brandon came up with a brilliant idea.
He started whispering into Fei's ear.
"Alright, everyone." Leo said, looking from student to student. "It's time to get into your next pairings."
But before Layla could ask Quinn for a match, Brandon had gotten between them.
"Do you mind if we have a round?" He asked.
Layla kissed her teeth and scorned, but she didn't really have a good reason to refuse.
Then, Brandon's other friends, Fei and Loop, challenged Quinn and Tsukuru respectively.
"Please, I would like to be your next opponent." Fei said to Quinn, pulling out a set of two short swords.
"And I'll be yours." Loop said to Tsukuru, pulling out a sword.
Tsukuru and Quinn exchanged looks, before they both shrugged.
"Sure." Tsukuru replied.
"I don't see why not." Quinn replied.
As they each took fighting stances, both Quinn and Tsukuru received System messages.
[Defeat the Level 2.5 Ability User Fei Lang
Reward: 50 Exp ]
[Defeat the Level 2 Ability User Loop Anderson
Reward: 50 XP ]
Just as Quinn had thought, every person he defeated in the Weapons Hall would grant him 50 Exp.
It was the perfect place for him to grind Exp, since the use of Abilities were banned. And it appeared that the same was true for Tsukuru.
"Begin!" Leo announced.
Fei and Loop both dashed towards Quinn and Tsukuru.
They both seemed to be competent with their weapons.
But due to Quinn's and Tsukuru's prior matches with far better opponents, Leo and Erin respectively, it seemed as if the two were moving in slow-motion.
Meanwhile in Layla's match, Brandon didn't seem to be doing much of anything.
He didn't charge in, and he didn't attack.
All he did was avoid Layla's arrows.
It was as if his mind was focused on something else.
It was then that a noise was heard.
Fei was charging at Quinn.
Tsukuru noticed that Loop was giving him strange looks, as though this wasn't something Fei would normally do.
However, that was because it wasn't.
It was the signal for Brandon to attack.
Brandon then lifted his hand, and, at the right time, he shot a wind blast right at Quinn's back.
At the same time, Quinn saw Fei's blades and was ready to block him when he felt a strong force push him from behind.
It knocked him off balance, and at the same time, Fei's blades went right into his stomach.
Quinn felt a piercing pain, and a System massage appeared in front of him.
[-10 HP. HP: 10/20]
"You…Bastard…" Quinn groaned.