Blood Queen Reborn

Ever since the rumors were dispelled about Erin’s ability, a weight was lifted off of her shoulders. Throughout the school day not a single person had bothered her, and the most people said were to not mess with Erin.

She wasn’t completely out of the clear, as this was something that she would need to figure out for the inter-base tournament, but they could figure that out later.

Once they started combat classes, the group were sparring together, and as they practiced their form, the topic of the inter-base tournament came up.

"I’m really nervous about the tournament," Layla said, then gestured to her watch, "I know there’s the obvious, but even if that wasn’t a problem, being a level 2 and competing against so many high levels would be...."

She didn’t know how to finish her thoughts, especially since there was something else on her mind, but the others understood. It was possible that Vorden would need to do the same thing he did with Erin, but at least there was less pressure to rely on Raten.

"You’re telling me," Fex said as he grabbed one of Layla’s arrows, "You gotta compete in this, man, or else how am I meant to be your replacement?"

He placed the feathered end in his mouth, and formed a taught string between his two hands. Then, he carefully attempted to place the arrow on the string to work as some sort of bow, but he fumbled the arrow, and it fell.

Erin stared at the arrow on the floor, then to Layla, "I’ve seen you. You can’t be nearly as bad as Fex’s attempt."

Fex wiped his mouth, and rolled his eyes, "Thanks, Erin."

"You’re welcome," Erin replied with a straight face.

The corners of Layla’s mouth curled, and she chuckled, "You know what? Maybe I won’t do so bad."

With the topic of the tournament coming up, Quinn had an idea.

"If you want to drop out, Erin, then I can take over for you."

Erin took out her rapier, and sighed.

That was another possibility for Erin. As much as Erin wanted to compete, it would mean that Vorden would have to help her fake the ice ability again. Since the stakes were higher, it was probably for the best if Quinn took her place.

"Fine," Erin relented.

Although it meant that Erin was going to miss out on potential EXP, it also meant that she was far less likely to get caught and imprisoned. She couldn’t kill the dalki if she was in a jail cell rotting away.

"Now that everyone has warmed up, it’s time to put our skills to the test," Leo instructed, "Would anyone like to volunteer for demonstration?"

This was a regular occurrence in Leo’s class where they had two students spar against each other without abilities. Most of the time, Erin’s group would avoid volunteering due to the fact that they were supernaturally strong, but Vorden was curious about something.

He was told that he had an unnaturally large amount of qi, more than the average person, so he raised his hand.

"I’d like to go up there."

Vorden got up on the platform, and not long after, another person joined him.

"Huh, he doesn’t normally volunteer for fights," Layla said out loud, "Out of all of us, he doesn’t really use beast weapons. If anything, he seems to avoid it."

Quinn was thinking the same thing, and was wondering how Vorden would fare without an ability. In the past, Vorden had used a few beast weapons when required for class, but never used them longer than a couple of minutes.

’Now that Layla’s mentioned it, why would he join a beast weapons class if he didn’t like using them?’

The person who volunteered was someone of similar stature to Vorden, only a little thinner as he wasn’t nearly as muscular. In his hands were a pair of kopeshes.

"Are you really going to fight me without a weapon?" The boy chided, "Don’t go crying when I, Sage, wipe you off the floor."

Despite the comment, Leo let it slide as he had faith in a particular person winning. Instead, he raised his hand up, and flung it down indicating the match was starting.

Sage charged at Vorden, one blade thrusted forward, but Vorden expertly ducked underneath, and stepped behind him.

’Nowhere near as fast as grandfather,’ Vorden thought.

Charging qi into his legs, Vorden kicked the arm holding the other kopesh, making Sage drop one of his weapons. Sage recovered, and spun around, shocked that Vorden moved so fast.

’Is he cheating?!’

Next, rolled over to the fallen weapon, and Vorden kicked it up, catching it midair. Sage watched his blade carefully for when Vorden would strike with it, leaving him blind to a low sweep kick.

Sage fell, and before he could recover, he looked up to see his own sword point at him.

"Vorden is the winner of this match!" Leo stated, "Now, how do you think these two students could’ve improved?

There was a bit to be said about the way Sage fought, but Quinn was more focused on Vorden’s sheer strength and speed.

’Is that the power of qi?’

Sage rubbed his legs, feeling a faint lingering tingling sensation. Unbeknownst to him, Vorden had used qi in that kick.

"Leo, he had to have used an ability!" Sage complained, "I’m sure he did something to my leg!"

"Must I remind you just what my ability is?" Leo slowly spoke, "There is a reason why I have you train your body before you train with your weapons. Vorden here is simply a good student and has followed my examples."

Sage grumbled and stormed off back to his friend group. This wasn’t the first time that people had complained about this very thing, but how could they argue against the war hero himself?

Once combat class officially ended, everyone prepared to leave, except for Erin and Vorden for their regular qi lessons. Before Quinn left, he stopped and looked at his hand.

He practised gaining qi with Vorden yesterday, but Vorden wasn’t the best teacher when it came to this kind of thing. For him, he had cultivated a lot of qi without knowing it, so trying to explain it to another person was like teaching someone how to breathe. Vorden just sorta... did it.

’Since I’m going to be competing against such strong students, I should gain as many tools in my arsenal as possible.’

Turning around, Quinn came up to Leo with a determined look to his eyes.

"Teach me qi."

—

While the others were still in the beast weapons class, Fex and Layla decided to do some accuracy training. It would help Layla quite a bit as she no longer had telekinesis, nor the starlingshot bow to help land her shots.

With the event so soon, there was something on Layla’s mind, ’I should make sure they haven’t left me any messages.’

"Before we head to the training center, can I drop by my room real quick?" Layla said, "I want to grab my food from Vorden first."

"Just don’t take too long," Fex smirked, then headed off.

’Alright, he doesn’t suspect a thing,’ Layla thought.

Layla didn’t need to eat human meat, as this was a lie she told to temporarily separate from Fex.

She left for her room, and glanced around to make sure no one was inside. By placing a chair on the door handle, it ensured that no one would visit unexpectedly, like Cia.

Removing a box from under her bed, she took off the lid revealing a black spherical object that had a light blue blinking light.

’I was right, they did leave me a message.’

Getting up, and double checking that there weren’t any recording devices in the room, she returned to the sphere, and pressed play.

A hologram recording of an agent of Pure appeared, and began stating Layla’s next mission.

"Agent 83, the Big Four leader, Jack Truedream, will be at the inter-base tournament. Your job is to drop out of your match as soon as possible, and work with another agent stationed nearby to head to the portal room. There, you are to hijack the portals, and ensure that Pure has access to the portals that lead to military base 1. Your partner will have the devices necessary to complete this task. Do not fail this task, and may Pure be with you."

The hologram repeated the same message, making sure that Layla knew what the plan was. This was because after the recording finished, it deleted itself in case the sphere was found.

Layla’s heart dropped. With such a high risk mission, this meant that if she were caught, then she had to get taken back to Pure, and never see Erin and the others again.

Or worse, if she got captured, then she’d have to take a capsule to silence herself... permanently.

’Please... Don’t make me choose between Pure and my friends.’