55 A fun one

The student who had been sitting up in the stands and watching the fight between Quinn and his friend was known as Nate Snell. He was a second-year from another academy and in his academy, he was well known for being one of the strongest second years.

Nate often played in the game to improve his fighting skills as this was important for him due to the fact it went hand in hand with his ability. He was obsessed with learning all different types of martial art skills.

There was one area in the game that it didn't allow you to improve on though. Even though the game allowed you to use abilities, it did not have the system in place to use soul weapons.

This would be an almost impossible task considering every person's soul weapon was different, even if they had the same ability.

With a keen eye for martial arts, the second Nate had seen Quinn perform his flash step, he needed to know who this person was. The footwork in the skill was so beautiful, so quick, that even he wasn't able to keep track of where Quinn had gone.

After asking Quinn for a battle he was overjoyed that he accepted. For the two of them to start their match they needed to add each other to their friend's list first.

< Hardsteely has sent you a friend request >

Quinn accepted the friend request and was happy to fight, honestly, Quinn wasn't too bothered who he went up against but after fighting against Nate's friend, he felt like he should have a good match coming up that would help him improve.

< Blood evolver has accepted your friend request >

"Blood evolver? Does his ability have something to do with blood, that would explain those red lines coming out from his hands but was their such an ability in the system?" Nate thought.

There were thousands of different abilities in the system, so Nate wasn't sure of all of them but he had fought many battles in the game and this was the first time seeing someone with this type of ability.

Before the match was about to begin, Nate had asked if he could speak to his friend Sam for a few moments. Quinn agreed as he wanted to check a few things out himself.

During the match when Quinn used his flash step, he was hoping his own system would show him something but nothing happened. Of course, this was because he was in the game, but he knew that the flash step felt like it had taken a significant amount of stamina from him.

His current stamina points where at a 12, if he was to make a rough guess, he would say that four strikes of blood swipe took down one stamina point. Meaning he would be able to perform around 48 blood swipes before running out of stamina. However, if he did this, he would reach 0 HP before even using up all his stamina.

But as the blonde man had said in the video, flash step took a considerable amount of stamina, at most Quinn knew he would currently only be able to produce it twice in one game. Meaning it took at least five points of stamina.

Quinn would have to think carefully when using this information in a match, at first he thought it wasn't so important increasing his stamina, as long as he was strong enough or fast enough he could win his fights, but in a prolonged battle and matches against multiple enemies, as soon as his stamina dropped to 0 he would be as good as dead.

Not only that but Quinn dreaded the thought of having to fight in the sunlight with these stats.

Over at the other end of the arena, Nate was busy talking to Sam about his match.

"You are such a fool," Nate said.

"I know, I'm sorry," Sam replied.

Nate looked at the flapping cape that Sam was wearing and started to shake his head. "We just got this incredible thing and you didn't even use it properly in the fight. When he went out from your view if you hadn't turned around your back it would have been protected. Or you could have turtled up with the cape."

"It's hard to get used to having something on your back, if someone vanishes in front of you and you know they're behind you, you naturally turn around. Wouldn't you?" Sam replied. Sam then started to look at the ground as he was saddened remembering how he had lost the match. "My win streak." Sam Cried.

Nate proceeded to pat Sam on the shoulder with pity before walking to his fighting spot. "You know the deal, if I win against him then that means I win our bet. And you'll owe me those credits."

As Sam headed back to the arena stands, he was praying for Quinn to kick his friend's ass. He had lost too many bets recently and was running low on credits.

"3…2…1…" And the match had begun.

Surprisingly, both of them at the same time had decided to charge in. Although Quinn didn't know his opponent's abilities, his attacks were more effective closer in range. If he was going up against an elemental user, then it was always better for him to get closer anyway.

And as soon as Quinn was within five meters, he threw out two blood swipes. Suddenly, Nat's speed dropped dramatically, his skin started to turn into a shiny material and his footsteps were heavy. As the blood swipes reached and hit his body, the sound of metal clanging against each other was heard.

For the first time when Quinn's attack had hit an opponent's body, it had done 0 damage whatsoever. The metal shine from Nate's body seemed to shift and now was concentrated in his arm. It allowed Nate to move a lot faster and close the distance.

He pushed his hand forward and out came a long metal silver pole. It was too fast for Quinn to react to and the pole dug into his stomach and continued to push him back. The attack was strong and Quinn had lost about ten percent of his health. The pole continued to grow and push him back and his health continued to fall.

Quinn then grabbed onto the pole with both hands and using all his strength, managed to stop it's momentum.

"Wow, looks like you're strong as well?" Nate said surprised, not only did his opponent have a ranged attack but seemed to have super strength now as well.

Quinn pushed the pole to the side and swung out his claws, this time firing four blood swipes. The pole then started to retract quicker than the blood swipes and absorbed back into Nate's body. He then put both of his hands together and the metal liquid started to form a large oval shape and eventually formed a shield.

Each strike hit the shield and there was no effect.

However, Quinn had expected this result, when Nate retracted the metal back into his body, Quinn was in front of him ready to strike, But Nate remained calm and shifted the metal over his body to the exact spot where Quinn was aiming for his head.

The punch landed but Nate's head didn't even move a single inch and again the game had recorded no such damage.

Nate then grabbed Quinn's fist and with his other hand formed the pole, whacking him to the ground.

"Come on, you should be better than this?" Nate said, the truth was Nate was purposely shifting the metal into a pole rather than a sword, this way the match would last longer.

It had been a while since Quinn felt like this, weak. There was only one thing left for him to try. Quinn lifted himself off the ground and started to breathe in, calming himself down. Anger would only distract him.

Then he was ready and Nate could see it too.

"Come on!" Nate said as he shifted the metal pole back into his body and into one of his fists.

Quinn once again charged forward and threw out a blood swipe, Nate blocked the attack easily lifting his arm and knocking it away but it was only meant to serve as a distraction in the first place.

When Quinn got close enough, Nate threw out his fist and at the same time, he responded with Flash step.

Avoiding the strike and appearing behind Nate.

"Too predictable," Nate had prepared for this after watching the last match and made sure his back was already fully covered in the metal like alloy.

Quinn then lifted his foot off the ground, let the energy go through from his toes up into his fist, as he stomped down with one foot, he pulled back one hand and let out another fist.

*Bang

The sound of too solid objects hitting each other sounded loudly in the distance. For a brief second the two of them was frozen in place and for the first time, Quinn was able to do damage and it was a lot.

Nate's eyes grew in shock as he saw the attack bring his health down by nearly half. Nate knew he was in danger and he could no longer take the fight as easy as he did before. He swung his body and at the same time had shifted a piece of metal into a sword.

But once again, Quinn had used the flash step to avoid the strike.

"Damn it, again, how is he so fast!" As Nate turned to look at where his opponent was, he was surprised to see Quinn collapsed on the ground.

Quinn was breathing in heavy, he could no longer move, the use of using flash step twice including the fact that he had used hammer strike, he had pushed his body way beyond its limits.

"Let's do this again sometime," Nate said as he stabbed Quinn on the ground ending the game.

Although the match had ended in Nate's victory, he was more excited than ever.

"Looks like the Military tournament is going to be a fun one this year."

****

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