Inside the dark space of Vorden's mind, Raten was ecstatic.
"Hahahaha!" Raten laughed. "Man, maybe I shouldhave taken you up on that offer, Vorden! Did you see how strong that attack was?! I would have loved fighting him!"
Raten then turned to Vorden, and smirked.
"Although, you would have been killed in seconds!" He replied.
Even though Quinn was able to throw back one of the metal spikes, while in the air, he was unable to move. The other spikes had hit him dead-on, and had managed to pierce his now monstrous body. The spikes pierced right through him, essentially nailing him to the ceiling of the dome.
Another System message appeared in front of him.
[-10 HP. HP: 10/25]
Quinn no longer cared about the damage that Sil was doing to his body. He lifted up his legs against the ceiling, and pushed with all his might, pulling his body free.
However, the holes from the spikes that could be seen on his body quickly began to heal. It seemed that while his Blood Skills were off-limits while in his "Bloodsucker" form, Quinn's natural healing wasn't. Although he didn't seem to be regenerating his HP, it still let him fight as if he had never been hurt in the first place.
Quinn landed in the arena stands, causing a noticeable "bang", and causing the room to shake slightly. As soon as Quinn got back up on his feet, he began to rush forward towards Sil.
"Damn it!" Vorden replied in the dark room. "Why isn't this thing dead yet?!"
Sil turned a few more nearby chairs into spikes, and hurled them at Quinn, once again.
This time, Quinn continued to rush forward, and moved out of the way of each spike. It seemed that, despite Quinn's so-called "feral" state, there was still a brain in his head. Quinn's eyes were slowly adjusting to the dim light emitted from the Light Crystal in Sil's grasp, and he could now see each spike as Sil launched them towards him.
As soon as a spike left Sil's side, Quinn would react, and move out of the spike's path, causing it go right past him.
"Hey, is it just me, or did that thing get faster?!" Vorden asked.
Raten narrowed his eyes.
"This is bad." Raten replied. "Sil isn't at full strength. If only there were two more Ability Users nearby…"
Quinn continued to move forward towards Sil, dodging each and every metal spike Sil threw at him. Then, when he was close enough, Quinn swung out his claw.
Instantly, Sil brought the metal shield back up to defend himself.
But as Quinn's claw hit the shield, it completely shattered, rendering it completely unusable. Now, with no more metal around for Sil to use, Quinn was finally able to freely attack.
As he took a step forward, though, he felt something sharp pierce his foot. Looking down, Quinn saw another metal spike.
Quinn snapped his head off into the distance in the direction of where the attack had come from. There, he saw that Ian had managed to recover.
Ian had his hand out, and had thrown the metal spike into Quinn's leg.
A System message popped up in front of him.
[-3 HP. HP: 7/25]
Suddenly though, tears began to flow from Sil's face. Now that Quinn was close enough, the light from Sil's Light Crystal illuminated Quinn's face and clothes.
And while Quinn's face was barely recognizable, his military uniform was a dead giveaway of his identity.
After all, there was only three military students here, Quinn, Sil, and Tsukuru.
And despite Quinn's appearance having drastically changed due to his Bloodsucker transformation, Sil could still see the similar qualities on his face. Sil didn't know what had happened to turn Quinn into this monster, but he could just feel that the monster in front of him and Quinn were the same person.
"I've done it again!" Sil wailed, traumatic memories coming back and hitting him like a semitruck. "I've hurt another one!"
Meanwhile, Ian, completely unaware of the situation, turned to Sil.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" He yelled. "KILL IT!"
Ian then crumpled up another nearby metal chair into a spike, and threw it at Quinn, this time aiming for his head. It flew through the air, and was right of target to pierce Quinn's skull.
However, just as it was about to reach him, it stopped in mid-air, as if hitting an invisible force.
"No!" Sil yelled.
He moved his hands, using Ian's Ability to send Ian's metal spike flying off to the side, and then yanked the metal spike out of Quinn's leg.
Quinn was now free to move around.
It instantly locked-in on the last person who had attacked him, who, ironically enough, had been his initial target, Ian.
Quinn lunged in Ian's direction.
Ian was still slightly under the paralyzing effect of Quinn's bite when he had thrown that last metal spike. He had been aiming for Quinn's head, but had missed, hitting him in the leg, instead.
Seeing Quinn running towards him with every passing second, Ian panicked. He started to fling chair after chair at Quinn.
But due to his Bloodsucker transformation, Quinn was too strong. He simply knocked them away with his hands, sending them flying through the air.
Ian then pulled out his trusty dagger, ready to attack. However, when he looked back in front of him, Quinn had vanished. The next second, Ian was staring at the ceiling, with his back on the floor. As Ian looked down at his body, he saw that his legs were now completely detached from the rest of his body. Blood began gushing out of the two halves.
Quinn then began dragging the top half of Ian's body away, and down the hallway out of the arena, afraid that Sil might interrupt his meal.
***
On another side of the abandoned shelter, Tsukuru was stalking his way back in the way he left when he was foolishly following the stray Palewalker. He now felt like an idiot for mistaking it for a human. Whenever Tsukuru came across a Rattaclaw, he would simply just throw a Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Dagger into its head. Killing it instantly.
Despite the fact that Rattaclaws only granted him 100 XP, and he needed over 20,000 more to Level Up again, he was gathering up XP rather quickly due to the fact that the Rattaclaws hunted in packs
"Fucking pests." Tsukuru muttered, as he killed his now thirteenth Rattaclaw since coming back into the shelter.
A System message popped up in front of him.
[You have killed a Basic-Tier Rattaclaw. 100 XP received. XP: 5236/25600]
As Tsukuru continued walking, he soon came across something interesting. There was a tall building with two stories. However, what Tsukuru found strange was the fact that there were traces of black blood leading into the building.
Tsukuru quirked an eyebrow in interest.
"Well, well, well." He replied. "What do we have here?"
***
Back in the arena within the training center, Sil watched as Quinn dragged Ian's upper torso away, and down the hall.
A moment later, Sil collapsed to the ground, falling on his knees, and tearsrunning down his face. Inside the dark space of Vorden's mind, the other two boys just stood there behind the chair Sil was currently sitting in. They both had a dumbfounded look on their face, as they were trying to process what had just happened.
Finally, Vorden broke the silence.
"Was…Was that really Quinn?" He asked. "What happened to him? He looked so…"
Raten glanced over at Vorden.
"...Ugly?" He asked.
"Shut up!" Sil yelled, still crying.
Immediately, Sil left the chair, leaving it empty, and went back to his normal spot. Resuming his rocking once he arrived.
"I did it again!" Sil muttered. "I hurt another one!"
Without a word, Vorden sat back down in the now-empty seat. With him back in control, the main body stopped crying. He got up off of the floor, and started walking forward.
"He's gonna be like that for a while." Raten replied, glancing back at Sil. "You know that, right?"
Vorden let out a sigh, a very sorrowful sigh.
"I know." He replied. "But we have more pressing concerns right now. If that thing really is Quinn, then what happened? And how do we turn him back?"
***
Back with Tsukuru, he began to climb the stairs in the heavily-damaged building. As he did, he saw more and more black blood painting the floor and the walls up towards the second floor. Then, when he reached the second platform, his eyes widened. There, he saw the corpses of ten Rattaclaws littering the floor. Immediately, he ran over to examine them. Despite the fact that they had been ripped apart and their Beast Crystals removed, Tsukuru could still see numerous, small hole-shapedwounds covering their bodies.