Tsukuru swung his right arm out to his side, slashing the Black Obsidian Dagger in his right hand into Nill's chest, creating a horizontal slash wound.
Nill was sent flying backwards, and he landed on his back.
At the same time, his "Health Bar" in the "Battle Mode" of Tsukuru's System bottomed out.
A System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[50 XP received. XP: 50/8000]
Tsukuru looked around for another opponent.
A short distance away, he heard a voice that was a mix between a grunt and a scream of pain.
"Gah!"
Tsukuru snapped his head in the direction of the scream, and he saw that large, burly student with the axe who had challenged Erin on the first day of class. He currently had a Glathrium arrowpiercing his BICEP.
Standing in front of him was Layla. Looking quite proud of herself.
The next moment, Tsukuru and Layla both turned to each other. They both had no IDEA that they were fighting so close to each other.
Slowly, a smirk crept across Tsukuru's face.
'Looks like I found my next opponent,' he thought to himself.
The two soldiers teleported on the sides of the large student, each grabbing one of his shoulders. A moment later, all threeteleported away.
Layla and Tsukuru continued to stare.
"Hey," Tsukuru replied.
"Hey," Layla replied.
"So, you, uh…" Tsukuru started, trying to make small talk. "You ever get to have that match with Quinn yet?" he asked.
Upon hearing Tsukuru's words, Layla's face fell. She let out a sigh.
"I did," she replied, before then glancing away. "But I don't think Quinn enjoyed it very much."
Tsukuru raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Why, what happened?" he asked.
Layla sighed again.
"I let him win like I said I would," she replied. "But, after the fight, Quinn had this…unsatisfied look on his face. He looked almost…disappointed."
Tsukuru's face took on a puzzled look.
'Disappointed?' he thought. He'd have to ask Quinn about this later.
There was an awkward pause.
"You wanna spar?" Tsukuru finally asked.
A sad smile crept across Layla's face.
"Sure," she replied.
***
On the other side of the room, a boy went flying. In front of him, Erin slid her Intermediate-Tier Knight Sword back into its sheath.
'Damn it,' she thought, looking back and forth. 'Isn't there anyone worth my TIME here?'
She had a fire burning in her. Even more so than usual. She couldn't stop thinking about those daggers of Tsukuru. About that Passive Skill.
'That Skill…' she thought. 'It's almost perfectly designed to cripple trained fighters…' Her eyes then narrowed.
Her father's voice flashed in her head.
***
"I didn't want to tell you this before, but you're too weak!"
***
Erin bit her lip.
'If they had a weapon like that back then…would they still be alive?' she thought.
***
Back with Tsukuru and Layla, they had started their fight. Layla would rapidly fire her Glathrium arrows at Tsukuru, while he advanced towards her with his daggers at his sides.
Despite the fact that the two of them had never fought before, Tsukuru had plenty of practice from fighting the Dark Elves in the System's Battle Arena.
Tsukuru tilted his upper body slightly to the right, causing the arrow to whizz past him. He did the same when an arrow came towards his right, tilting his body to the left.
'It's almost amazing how fast and agile he is," Layla thought, as she reached her arm behind her to grab another arrow from her quiver.
Tsukuru had just about reached her. As Tsukuru crossed his right arm over to his left shoulder to initiate a swing, Layla's eyes widened as she saw something astounding happen.
One of the two arrows that had gone whizzing past Tsukuru began to turn around on its own. The arrow made a U-turn and slammed into Tsukuru's lower back.
Tsukuru felt a piercing pain just slightly above his sacroiliac joint, and a System message appeared.
[-20 HP. HP: 35/55]
He grit his teeth in pain and froze in place. It felt as if someone had just run him through the back with a sword.
Instantly, the eyes of all those sparring nearby snapped their heads towards Tsukuru. Their eyes were wide, and their jaws dropped at what they had just seen.
Layla's eyes widened as well. Instantly, her hands clapped over her mouth, a look of horror on her face.
Slowly, her hands lowered.
"Tsukuru…" she replied. "Tsukuru, are you alright?"
Tsukuru threw the dagger in his left hand down to the ground, and then reached back behind him. Finding the arrow, he violently ripped it out. Surprisingly, it had hurt even more coming out than it had going in.
A System message appeared.
[-10 HP. HP: 25/55]
Tsukuru brought the arrow back in front of him. Looking down at it, he could see it was soaked in blood and guts. An amused smirk crept across his face. He let out an amused laugh.
"Well…didn't seethat coming!" he chuckled, before throwing the arrow to the side.
He then retrieved a Health Potion from his System's Inventory.
Pixels started to appear in his still-empty right hand, which clustered together into the form of the potion's flask. There was a bright flash of light, and the potion fully manifested.
Tsukuru popped the cork off with his thumb and downed the potion. As he did, the warm sensation flooded his body, and he felt the wound healing.
A new System message appeared.
[30 HP restored. HP: 55/55]
Tsukuru then looked up to Layla.
She had a look of guilt on her face.
"That…That wasn't me," she replied. "It was…"
Tsukuru waved his hand dismissively.
"...the Starling Shot's Passive Skill," he replied. "Yeah, I know."
Layla's eyes widened.
'How does Tsukuru know about my weapon's Passive Skill?' she thought.
Tsukuru then imagined retrieving the Intermediate-Tier Elven Shortbow from his System's Weapons Tab.
Instantly, pixels began to appear in Tsukuru's hand. As the pixels clustered together, Layla's eyes widened, as she saw the pixels took on the shape of a bow. There was a bright flash of light. When it faded, Tsukuru was holding the bow. He looked down at it.
It looked to be of a somewhat higher quality than it had looked when it was only a Basic-Tier Beast Weapon. While the bow still looked to be carved out of the bones of a Beast, before, they had looked like old, yellowing bones. However, the bones now looked white and pristine. It was as if the animal the bones had come from had only recently died.
Tsukuru then walked up to Layla.
"How about you use this from now on in the Beast Weapon Hall so that Skill doesn't end up accidentally killing someone," he replied with a smile on his face. You wouldn't be able to tell that he had just had an arrow lodged in his back. "Save that bow for the Portal Outing next week.
Layla nodded.
She put the Starling Shot Bow back on her back and took the Intermediate-Tier Elven Shortbow. She looked down at it. It looked as if it were carved out of bone and was made of five sections fused together. There was the middle of the bow, where the grip and sight window were located. And then each end of the bow looked like two pieces put together. It was easy to tell where each segment ended, as the bones were sharpened to a point at the top edges.
'Why do I feel…even stronger when holding this than when I do with the Starling Shot?' Layla thought.
Unknown to Layla, this was due to the fact that the Stat boosts of the Elven Shortbow greatly outclassed those of the Starling Shot. Tsukuru had noticed that all of his Beast Gear connected to his Summons had a special perk to them. They seemed to possess higher Stat Boosts than normal gear of the same tier.
Additionally, the Stats of the Starling Shot were rather…lackluster. In fact, the bow's only saving grace was its Passive Skill.
The Starling Shot had only granted the wielder a measly "+4" to Agility, which was only slightly better than the "+3" Strength boost of Quinn's now-destroyed Basic-Tier Black Horned Gauntlets. The Elven Shortbow, on the other hand, granted a "+5" bonus to Strength and a "+7" bonus to Agility.
Layla looked up from the bow and noticed that Tsukuru was already halfway back to his original location.
Tsukuru picked up his Black Obsidian Dagger from the ground, placing it back in his right hand.
He then turned back around, facing Layla.
"Alright, let's just call that an unfortunate accident!" he replied with a smile. "C'mon, let's start over from where we left off!"
Layla smiled.
"Right!" she replied.
She reached back into her quiver and pulled out another Glathrium arrow. She loaded it in her bow and pointed it towards Tsukuru.
Tsukuru smirked and darted towards Layla.