As the group of Tsukuru, Erin, and Layla walked down the hallways leading away from the assembly hall and towards the Beast Weapons Hall, Tsukuru narrowed his eyes, deep in thought.
The end of the fight was still fresh in his mind, especially how Erin had defeated his Haunted Knight with a single strike, despite her not falling even when Erin had pried her head CLEAN OFF.
'System.' Tsukuru thought, glancing back. 'What happened in there?'
Instantly, the computerized, feminine voice of the System rang in his head.
A System screen popped up in front of him, which showed a written version of what the voice was saying.
[Your Elite Pawn Grade Haunted Knight's Soul Anchor was compromised.]
Tsukuru's face scrunched in confusion.
''Soul Anchor'?' he thought. 'What the hell's that?'
In response, a System screen popped up in front of him.
However, it didn't have any words.
Rather, it showed a full-body image of his Haunted Knight on the right-side of the screen.
A small version of his System's "vector" appeared on the knight's sternum, with a line attached that extended out to the left of the screen.
It attached the vector to a square on the left side of the screen.
The square had a close-up image of the spot on the back of the interior of the knight's chestpiece, slightly below the collar, the symbol being clearly visible.
The voice of the System rang in his head once again, and another, smaller, yet longer, System screen overlaid the first on its side, like a long, vertical rectangle.
[Your Haunted Knights are the restless souls of fallen warriors who serve their king even after death, their souls haunting the very Beast Armor they wore in life.
This is accomplished using a "binding ritual" that binds the knight's soul to the armor, which is done by drawing a glyph onto the armor using the knight's own blood.
This mark is called a "Soul Anchor".
Any damage or alteration to this mark will cause the "binding ritual" to come undone, separating the soul from the armor.
And without a material tether, the soul cannot remain in the world of the living.]
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
'In other words, Erin got lucky.' Tsukuru thought. 'If she had never pried her helmet off and saw the mark inside her armor, she wouldn't have defeated her so easily.'
As the three of them entered the Beast Weapons Hall, they saw the students all huddled around one general area, them all looking confused, not sure what to do.
Standing in front of them, in the same spot that Leo would normally stand, they saw Sergeant Shizuka.
Seeing her, the group of three all stopped.
Shizuka turned, and looked at them, her face developing a satisfied smile.
"Well, it appears that everyone is here and accounted for." She replied, before turning to address the whole group. "Listen up, everyone. In case you have haven't figured it out, Sergeant Leo is…indesposed…at the moment. However…" She replied, as she began reaching into her breast pocket.
"...He had a feeling that this would happen, so he left behind an audio recording."
Shizuka pulled out a black device from her pocket.
It looked like a miniature microphone.
She pressed a button on the side, and the device turned on.
Instantly, Leo's voice filled the room.
"Greetings, everyone." The voice replied, stunning everyone.
It sounded like Sergeant Leo was still standing in the room.
"If you are hearing this message, it means that I had to step aside to take care of another matter. Do not worry, for I shall be returning shortly."
The recording continued.
"Now, for today's lesson, we will be doing individual practice. You have fought for the last couple of days with your weapon. Now, you must learn how to get the hang of it, make it part of you. Maybe come up with unique ways to combine it with your Ability. Then, next week, you shall put your hard work into practice."
Everyone in the class had their eyes forward, listening intently to the recording.
"Follow these orders in my absence. I have arranged for a substitute teacher to watch over you while I am preoccupied. If any of you are caught slacking off or breaking the rules…well, you know the consequences."
Leo's words made everyone collectively nod.
The absence of Brandon, Fei, and Loop from the hall reminded them all of what had happened yesterday.
After Leo's recording concluded, everyone went into a separate space with their individual weapons.
A few of them sat down, thinking about how best to use their Abilities with their weapons.
One student covered her whip in flames, making a fire whip.
Another held up a shield, and was able to alter its shape, forming spikes.
Tsukuru put his hand under his chin, him in deep thought.
Suddenly, he snapped his fingers.
"I got it!" he replied.
Immediately, he activated his Ability.
A low, electronic hum began to emit from him and translucent pixels began to appear in the air under his hand.
The pixels clustered together into the form of a large circle, roughly three feet in diameter, with Tsukuru's hand near the top.
As the pixels solidified, Tsukuru instinctively gripped the top.
There was a flash of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru was holding a large black, white, and red targeting board.
People from a previous era would have been able to immediately recognize it as a "dart board".
It appeared to be constructed out of three parts.
It had a paper front, a thick, plastic frame, and the rest of it was made out of a soft foam.
Layla looked down at the targeting board, then looked up at him.
"Isn't it…kinda SMALL?" She asked.
In response, Tsukuru laughed nervously, and scratched the back of his head.
"Well…unfortunately…this is as big as I can make it with my current…Ability Level…" He replied. "But, hey, it's better than nothing, right?"
Layla didn't answer him.
Her attention was solely on Erin, who had suddenly begun walking forward without saying a word.
Once Erin was about ten feet away from the two, she bent down, and slammed her open palms on the floor.
Instantly, a cold breeze began to fill the room at her location.
Then, two large, thick pillars of ice shot up out of the ground in front of her, evenly spaced apart at a distance of around three feet.
The pillars reached a good six feet above the ground.
Seeing the display, both Tsukuru's and Layla's jaws dropped.
"Use those instead." Erin said, as she walked back to them.
They two stared at the ice pillars for a moment.
Then Tsukuru instinctively looked down at the tiny in comparison targeting board in his hand.
His eye began to twitch, as his little dartboard now felt woefully inadequate.
The next second, he let out an annoyed scream, before he flung it through the air like a frisbee.
The targeting board soared through the air, flying halfway across the room before clattering on the floor, almost hitting a girl in the face as it flew.
Seeing this, Shizuka let out an amused snort.
Tsukuru crossed his arms, and began muttering incoherently under his breath.
"It was…It was a nice attempt, Tsukuru." Layla said, patting him on the shoulder in an attempt to console him.
Tsukuru snorted, and snapped his head in the other direction.
"Whatever!" He shot, his sudden outburst making everyone around him instinctively jump back.
He brought his right arm out to his side.
The electronical hum returned, and three groups of pixels began to appear under his arms.
The pixels clustered together into the shape of large daggers with thick blades.
There was a flash of light.
When it faded, there were three identical copies of Tsukuru's Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Daggers floating at his side.
He then grabbed them with his Video Stasis Skill, causing an aura of glitching pixels to envelop each dagger.
"Let's just do this!"
Layla's face beamed, and she nodded.
She reached behind her back, and grabbed three arrows out of her quiver.
She loaded them into her bow, and pointed it towards the second ice pillar.
Tsukuru and Layla exchanged looks.
"Ready?" Tsukuru asked.
Layla smiled.
"Ready." She replied.
Tsukuru flung his hand forward.
At the same time, Layla let go of the drawstring, releasing the three arrows from her bow.
Meanwhile, back with Quinn and Leo, once the two men had grabbed them, they had been teleported to a small, square room.
There were no windows, and few lights above them.
It appeared to be some sort of an interrogation room.
Inside the room was a single table with a hooded female sitting at the far side.
There was an empty chair directly across from her on the side of the table facing Quinn.
Standing behind the female was a man who wore the rank of General on his clothing.
Quinn momentarily wondered why it wasn't Sergeant Shizuka who was in the chair instead of this random woman, seeing how this was her area of expertise.
Unbeknownst to Quinn, Shizuka normally would have been, however, she had been called away to act as a temporary supervisor of the Beast Weapons class.
"Please sit." The general said with a neutral tone.
Quinn did as he was told, and sat in the empty seat.
But with the tense atmosphere in the room, he couldn't help but be nervous.
Seeing this, the general snorted, and crossed his arms.
"Don't look so worried, boy." He replied nonchalantly. "As long as you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about."