Hearing Shizuka's words, both Tsukuru and Raten stood up.
Looking up, they too saw what Shizuka did, the Harpie approaching their location with Brandon in tow.
The Harpie began to descend.
When she was a few feet above the ground, she released her grip, causing Brandon to fall like a stone.
Brandon screamed as he fell, until he collided with the ground.
"Ow!" Brandon yelled, complaining.
As he laid there, sprawled out on the ground, he saw a large shadow looming over him.
Looking up, he saw Raten standing above him, cracking his knuckles.
He had a predatory smirk on his face.
Looking at the boy's wristwatch, he saw an Ability Level of 5.
Brandon's eyes became pinpricks.
He instantly jumped to his feet, and tried to make a run for it.
A second later, he found his legs frozen in place.
Looking down, he saw that his feet up to his calves were encased in solid rock.
Looking over, he saw Sergeant Shizuka with her arm outstretched in his direction, her hand wide open.
"Aw, don't run." She cooed in a voice that made Brandon's blood run cold. "The party's just getting started."
Brandon gulped, as Shizuka and Raten approached him.
"I finally get to play." Raten said with a sneer.
As Raten proceeded to violently beat Brandon over and over again, the Harpie descended down to Tsukuru's location.
Tsukuru smiled up at her, but noticed she had a…concerned look on her face.
"Problems?" Tsukuru asked.
"Possibly, my liege." The Harpie said, with another curtsey. "I saw something in the dorm rooms while I was searching."
She then proceeded to tell him about how she had seen the skittish boy with brown hair and glasses being pulled out of the room by his shirt by an older boy with brown hair pulled into a ponytail.
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
From her description, he immediately knew that the two boys were his roommate, Peter, and that second-year student, Mono.
But it was their conversation that had him concerned.
Mono's words flashed through his head, as if he had actually heard them himself, and wasn't hearing them second-hand.
"We have some plans, and I think you might be the perfect person to help us."
Tsukuru grit his teeth.
"Mono…just what are you up to NOW?" He muttered.
He turned to the others.
"I think I'm gonna head back." He replied.
Raten momentarily stopped his beating, Brandon looking as if he had found himself on the wrong end of a bar fight.
"Something wrong?" He asked.
Tsukuru waved his hand dismissively.
"Nah, I'm just gonna head back to the dorm." He said, dismissing the Harpie.
Like with the Haunted Knight, she disappeared, breaking apart into pixels.
Tsukuru then turned around, and waved at Raten from behind.
"Besides, this way I can maintain plausible deniability." He said, looking back and smirking. "If anybody asks, I can just say 'He was alivethe last time I saw him'."
Raten's smirk widened.
As Tsukuru walked away, out of the woods and back towards the dorm rooms, his expression hardened.
Peter was a weak link among them.
He was the weakest out of the four of them by a sizable margin.
'Peter…' Tsukuru thought darkly. 'Don't make me have to do something I'll regret…'
Back on the school rooftop, Loop had just arrived to see his friend by what looked to him to be a humanoid creature.
Loop and Fei had agreed to meet on the roof to discuss which combat class they should change to, now that he and Brandon had been kicked out of the Beast Weapons Class.
It seemed that despite Loop not being banned, he would be changing to the new class to be with his 'friends'.
When Loop arrived at the roof, he was surprised to see his friend lying there, covered in blood.
It was so dark that it was hard to see clearly, but as the creature bit into Fei's neck, he could see glowing, red eyes.
As the "creature" put a full-head mask on his face that made his head look like a skull, Loop noticed that the so-called "creature" wore the same school uniform as them.
An object started to grow out of Loop's body.
It was a long, thin white piece of bone that looked the same size as a small sword.
He pulled it out, and threw it straight at Quinn.
The flying "bone sword" flew straight at Quinn, but he knocked it away with his hand.
With his now 20 points in Strength, it was as if he was swatting away a foam sword.
Almost straight after, another piece of bone came at him, and behind it was Loop running straight at him.
Loop held a white bone sword in each hand as he swung them both down on Quinn.
Using his impressive strength, Quinn managed to grab both bone swords with each hand.
Quinn tightened his grip, and tried to snap the two swords like twigs,
However, he only managed to crack them.
This was due to Loop being a Level 3 Ability user.
Despite Quinn wearing Intermediate-Tier Beast Gear and now having a Strength Stat of 20 due to his level up, due to Loop's high Ability Level, the "bone swords" his body produced were equivalent in strength to Advanced-Tier Beast Gear.
As the two were held in place, Quinn used his greater strength to push Loop back.
As he did, Loop took in a deep breath, and blew out.
Instantly, white bone spikes appeared all over his body.
The bone spikes managed to pierce Quinn's body in multiple locations.
Luckily, Quinn was able to avoid a blow to the head, and his hands were protected by the Intermediate-Tier Knight Gauntlets.
A System message appeared in front of Quinn.
[HP: 10/20]
Quinn grit his teeth.
The bone spikes had been a strong attack, and it had hurt Quinn badly.
Loop retracted the bone spikes back into his body, and was ready to perform the same attack again.
As he breathed in though, he saw Quinn swipe his hand like a claw.
Loop ducked down, and instead of hitting him, the attack continued past, the lines of red aura eventually fading away into nothingness.
"Let's see what you're hiding under that mask!" Loop shouted, as he stabbed one of the bone swords into Quinn's foot, and then lifted another towards Quinn's face.
However, Quinn had decided to use all his strength to pull his foot out from the sword.
The bone sword stuck in his foot had ripped though his skin, and tore through his shoes.
His foot was a mangled mess, but at least he was free.
Doing his best to ignore the pain, Quinn jumped back a few feet to create distance between him and Loop.
This was bad.
Not only did Loop have a strong Ability, but unlike all the people Quinn had fought up to this point, he actually knew how to fight.
It was the kind of person Quinn had worried about running into since the fight with Riley.
Quinn was a sloppy fighter.
Sure he was physically stronger than Loop, but that didn't mean anything if he couldn't hit him.
It was the same mindset to why Quinn had focused on using his Stat Points to increase his Agility.
A System screen appeared in front of Quinn.
[HP: 5/20
Blood Bank has been automatically activated
HP: 10/20.
Blood Bank: 90/100 ml]
Quinn thought about using his Blood Bank again, to refill the rest of his HP, and another System message appeared.
[Skill Blood Bank has been activated.
HP: 20/20
Blood Bank: 70/100 ml]
Quinn let out a sigh of relief.
With his new Skill, he could bridge the gap between him and Loop.
As long as Quinn didn't take a fatal blow to the head, he was sure the System would heal him in time.
This time, as Quinn rushed forward, he was no longer reserved about using his Skills, and he cast Blood Swipe after Blood Swipe, swinging his arms out wildly.
A series of overlapping System screens appeared in front of him.
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
[HP: 14/20]
Quinn had thrown out a series of six Blood Swipes in rapid succession.
They had all come out fast, and all Loop could do was to defend with his bones.
The first few attacks had been blocked, but Loop could feel how powerful they were.
Quinn let out another barrage of Blood Swipes.
When the last Blood Swipe left his hand, another System message appeared in front of Quinn.
[HP: 8/20]