Seeing the display, the first-years were all stunned into silence.
A wide smile crept across Tsukuru's face.
"Yes!" He shouted, clenching his fist. "Way to go, Quinn!"
Layla glanced over at him like he was crazy.
Instantly, Mono grit his teeth in anger.
He turned to the second-years surrounding him.
"What the HELL are you waiting for?!" He bellowed. "GET HIM!"
At Mono's orders, two of the Level 4 students on the platform behind Mono started to run down the stairs towards Quinn.
Quinn knew there wasn't much he could do against all the second-years, so he wanted to create as much HAVOC as possible.
Rather than running towards them, Quinn suddenly ran back towards the group of first-years behind him.
He bent down, and picked up two more of the Beast Stones on the ground, and started to head towards the line of second-years lining the east wall, him weaving between the first-year students in the process.
That's when he found his next targets.
There was a group of two Level 2 standing next to each other near the middle of the line of eight.
Once again, he activated the Beast Stones, and threw them out with all his might, aiming for the two weak Level 2s.
The Beast Stones hit them both square in the face, knocking them out.
Another System message appeared in front of Quinn.
[100 Exp awarded. Exp: 280/400]
This was Quinn's plan.
So far, every level up had given him a Skill.
He didn't know what it would be, but he hoped that it would allow him to win this fight.
And luckily for him, there were more than enough second-years here to cause him to level up.
Quinn went back into the crowd to pick up more Beast Stones, using the other students as cover.
Up on the platform, the vein on Mono's temple bulged, and he gritted his teeth in annoyance.
"What the hell are you ingrates doing?!" He snarled at the first-years. "GET him! Anyone who manages to hit or hell, capture him, will be free from any form of punishment!"
The first-years began to look at each other.
They didn't want to be involved in this in the first place.
They were unsure of what to do.
It was then that Layla spoke up.
"Why should we listen to you?!" She yelled. "A minute ago, you nearly beat one of us into UNCONSCIOUSNESS for just asking a question! We can't trust you!"
Tsukuru then spoke up.
"You think you're so superior to us 'lower-Levels'!" He spat in a condescending voice. "You 'get him'!"
Mono's eye began to twitch.
"Fine!" He yelled, before waving his hand. "If none of you want to help, you can all share in his punishment!"
He looked from side to side.
"Attack them all!"
Instantly, all the remaining second-years came rushing towards the group.
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes, and held his left arm out at his side, as he activated his Ability.
A set of three copies of his Black Obsidian Dagger appeared at his side under his arm.
He then noticed that there was a slender, feminine arm with its hand open outstretched from behind his right.
Looking over, he saw it was Erin.
He then saw a shadow to his left.
Looking over, he saw Layla with her bow out.
She loaded three arrows into it, and aimed it at the incoming second-years.
Tsukuru smirked.
It seemed like he and Quinn actually had allies in this fight.
However, at the same time, the girl Tsukuru had rescued ran behind Erin.
Due to her…"disfunctional" Ability, she was useless in a fight.
As the second-years rushed towards them, it seemed that they no longer cared about hurting the first-years, as they began activating their Abilities.
One of them swung his arm out, causing a large stream of water to shoot out.
However, before it could reach them, Erin shot out an ice ball directly in the path of the water stream.
When they collided, the ice ball froze the water in place, causing it to fall to the ground and shatter.
At the same time, Tsukuru and Layla simultaneously fired off their projectiles.
However, another student stomped his foot onto the ground.
A long, thick wall of earth rose from the ground in front of the second-years, completely hiding them behind it.
The arrows and the daggers embedded themselves in the earth wall.
The second-year then lowered the earth wall, causing it to crumble.
The ammunition clattered uselessly to the floor.
The second-year smirked at them.
"Ha!" He laughed. "Do you really think that two Level 2s and a SINGLE Level 5 can take on six Level 4s?" He sneered.
Tsukuru grit his teeth in annoyance.
"We won't know unless we try!" He muttered in defiance.
Meanwhile, over with Quinn, as he went to attack another group of Level 2s, a long, thin object came lashing out at him.
A System message then appeared.
[HP: 13/20]
'7 points of HP with just ONE attack?!' Quinn thought, astonished. "What was that?!" He gasped.
Quinn then heard footsteps approaching him.
Quinn turned towards the source of the noise, and saw Mono approaching him.
He held a Beast Weapon whip in his hand.
"You and that Hikiko brat have caused me so much trouble." Mono hissed. "I don't know HOW you activated the Beast Stone, and i'll admit, those surprise attacks of yours are effective, but once a weak Level 1, always a WEAK, LEVEL 1!"
Before Quinn could even get up, he was instantly surrounded by another six second-years.
Vorden, watching everything from his position on the board, could see everything. And he felt completely useless.
"I have to help him!" Vorden muttered. "He's only getting hurt because of ME! This is all my fault!"
In the dark space within his mind, Raten slammed his open palm on the side of the chair, making it shake.
Vorden jumped in surprise, and turned to him.
"If you want to help him, tag me in!" Raten yelled.
Back over with Tsukuru, Layla, and Erin's group, Tsukuru was getting madder and madder the more time passed by.
He, and Layla as a result, felt completely useless.
Every time they would launch a volley of projectiles, that same Earth wall would rise up and block them.
Tsukuru's eye began to twitch in annoyance.
'Of COURSE they have a high-Level Earth user!' He thought bitterly. 'That makes this nearly IMPOSSIBLE for me to do ANYTHING!'
It was that instant that Layla looked over, and her eyes widened.
"Tsukuru!" She yelled. "Behind you!"
Instantly, Tsukuru whipped his head around.
However, it was already too late.
He had been so distracted with the group of Level 4s in front of him that he had completely ignored his minimap, allowing one of them to sneak up behind him.
The Level 4 seemed to have the same Transformation Ability as Kyle Main, for his left hand was transformed into that of a tiger with sharp claws.
Before any of the three of them could act, the Level 4 swung his hand horizontally, hitting Tsukuru clean in the face.
Blood splattered everywhere, and the force sent Tsukuru flying through the air.
Tsukuru landed directly a few feet away from a group of Level 3 second-years.
He hit the floor with a thud.
He let out a groan of pain, his face feeling completely raw.
A puddle of blood began to pool around his face, blood dripping from the three slash marks on his face.
A System message popped up in front of him.
[-10 HP. HP: 10/20]
Tsukuru gritted his teeth in annoyance.
'Damn it!' He thought, irritated.
Meanwhile, one of the second-years sneered wickedly at the fallen boy.
They all knew that this kid was at the top of Mono's shit list.
Capturing him would reap a hefty reward.
The second-year walked up to Tsukuru, and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, holding the smaller boy up to his face with his right arm.
"Not so tough now, are you, punk?" The second-year sneered. "Now maybe you'll learn to respect your betters!"
Tsukuru looked up at the boy with a dark expression.
The next second, he swung his leg in an arc, crashing his leg into the boy's "family jewels".
Everyone who had seen his action, first-years and second-years alike, had their jaws dropped.
They couldn't believe that a first-year had actually done that to a second-year.