Duke looked at the blood on the headband hanging down from Shizuka's hand, swinging like a pendulum.
Suddenly, his eyes widened in realization.
He whirled back around and looked at Mono's injured hand. The placement of the gashes on his hand matched the placement of the spikes on the headband exactly.
"You willingly punched THAT?" He roared, both in anger and surprise, as he pointed at the headband.
Mono's head snapped up towards him.
"He tricked me into it!" Mono yelled back, his anger making him forget all about the chain of command and showing respect.
Duke reached down and grabbed Mono by his collar, hoisting him into the air so they were face-to-face.
"You shouldn't have been trying to hit him to begin with!" Duke roared. "What part of 'Off-Limits'don't you understand?!"
Mono grit his teeth.
"I will not be talked back to by a Level 1!" Mono shot back.
A vein popped on Duke's face. His mind had defaulted into "damage control" mode. And he had to make a choice, him or Mono.
He chose to protect himself, while using Mono as a "sacrificial lamb" to quell Shizuka's wrath.
He spun around, still holding Mono and dropped him at Shizuku's feet, Mono falling hard on his ass. He let out a grunt of pain.
"Three hours detention for insubordination, boy!" Duke replied in an authoritative tone.
He looked at Shizuka.
"No lasting injuries."
A wicked, sadistic smirk crept across Shizuka's face. She reached down and grabbed Mono's collar and lifted him up. She swung him over her shoulder like a rucksack.
"My first victim of the year." Shizuka said with a delighted smirk, as she threw the bloodied headband toward Duke.
Duke caught it easily, due to multiple years of military training
"And a second-year no less. How fun!" She happily trotted back towards the first-year building.
She had registered a chamber in the base's dungeon was her personal torture chamber. And now she gets to break it in.
Back in the second-year doctor's office, Duke retrieved the loup from his chest pocket and examined the metal plate of the headband.
"That boy sure does love his glathrium." Duke replied, identifying the plate's metal as the same metal as the chunk Paul had shown off in the meeting last night.
He threw the headband to Sergeant Dillon, who also easily caught it.
"Have it melted down and added to our stockpiles!" He ordered, before grinning. "That kid's like a walking glathrium bank!" He muttered, as he began walking away.
Meanwhile, back at the first-year building, a group of students were standing in front of the staircase. Looking at their watches, these boys were revealed to be a group of Level 2s, with one of them being a Level 2.5.
"What are we going to do?" One of them asked. "Dan asked for 50 credits before the end of this week."
His friend next to him sighed.
"I don't know." He muttered. "It's not like we can resist him. He's just picking on us because we're weaker than him!"
The boy in the middle, whose watch showed him as the Level 2.5 Ability user, then looked up.
A group of two girls who had Ability Levels of 1, were walking towards the doors.
"Hey, you two!" He yelled at the girls. "Stop!"
The two girls stopped and looked at him. Seeing his high Ability Level, they began to shrink back.
"Y-Yes?" One of them asked.
Seeing their fear, he smiled wickedly.
"I think we just found the answer to our credit problem." He replied to the others, before returning his gaze to the girls. "10 credits to pass!"
The girl's eyes widened.
"B-But that's all we have!" One shouted in disbelief.
The boy scoffed.
"That's not MY problem!" He shot dismissively. "If I don't meet my deadline, then I'll be the one getting their ass beat! If you wanna complain, complain to the guy making me do this! Credits, NOW!"
The two girls exchanged looks.
There were both Level 1s. There was no way they could beat a Level 2.5. And even if they did, then his friends would just gang up on them and beat them up anyway.
Reluctantly, the two girls transferred their credits to the boy. In the end, he had 30 Credits, while the two girls had 0.
The group then let the girls past, who quickly scurried inside.
"Hey, that was a great idea, Riley!" One of the boys praised, putting his hand on Riley's shoulder. "We should stay out here and keep doing this! There's probably tons of Level 1s around here!"
The boys all smirked triumphantly. They continued to do this to student after student. They had quickly accumulated the 50 credits needed for Dan, and then some.
Riley smirked as he looked down at his watch, which displayed 70 credits.
One of the boys then narrowed his eyes, as he saw more people approaching.
"Hey, look!" He replied, pointing forward. "There's three more!"
Riley smirked, already visioning the group obtaining another easy 30 credits.
Unfortunately for them, this was the last group of students they should have ever tried this "toll booth" extortion trick on. For the group of three consisted of Quinn, Peter, and Tsukuru. And Tsukuru still wore a look of deep irritation from the group's confrontation with Mono, as well as the following "falling out" with Vorden. Tsukuru was furious, and looking for something to hit. And Riley had, unknowingly, just volunteered himself for tribute.
"Hey, stop right there, low-Levels!" Riley shouted, walking in front of them, his friends behind him forming a wall to block them. "It's 10 credits each to pass!"
Quinn and Peter both looked at the group in shock.
"What?!" Peter shrieked.
Tsukuru, however, looked up at Riley with a look that could extinguish a roaring wildfire.
"Move." He growled in a cold tone that made Quinn and Peter's blood freeze, as well as a majority of Riley's friends.
Riley, however, just smirked in amusement.
"Oh, yeah?" He asked, giving Tsukuru a hard shove, pushing him back and causing him to bump into Quinn and Peter. "And what is a weak, piece of Level 1 trash like you gonna do if I don't?!"
Without a word, Tsukuru slowly walked up to Riley until they were standing right in front of each other. Tsukuru looked up at Riley with that same cold stare of pure hatred.
However, Riley, blinded by his own arrogance and still on a power trip from how many credits he had extorted from the lower Levels, just smirked in amusement, the mere thought that a "Low-Level" student like Tsukuru could ever do ANYTHING to him, having never even crossed his mind.
A tense silence filled the air, as air, as Tsukuru and Riley continued their staredown.
As they did, a System screen appeared before both Quinn and Tsukuru.
[An enemy Ability User has been detected. You have received a Shared Quest: Help System-user Quinn Talen defeat the Level 2 Ability User Riley Dunbar
Reward: 25 XP
An Ability Level difference of 1 has been detected. Additional XP will be awarded.]
[An enemy Ability User has been detected. You have received a Shared Quest: Help System-user Hikiko Tsukuru defeat the Level 2 Ability User Riley Dunbar
Reward: 25 Exp
An Ability Level difference of 1 has been detected. Additional Exp will be awarded.]
Seeing the message made Tsukuru smirk.
A moment later, he acted. He opened his hand, and activated his Video Creation Skill. The sound of electronic interference filled the area, and pixels began to appear in Tsukuru's hands.
Instinctively, Riley's friends took a step forward, expecting a fight. The pixels clustered together into the form of Tsukuru's dagger. There was a flash of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru was holding a copy of his Black Obsidian Dagger, him having lost the original when he threw it earlier in class. Tsukuru glanced over at the dagger.
"How about a trade?" He asked Riley.
In response, Riley raised an eyebrow.
"I'm listening." He replied.
"This is a Basic-Tier Beast Weapon." Tsukuru explained, making the bullies' eyes all widen. "Even if you don't use it, you can sell it for quite a pretty penny. FAR more than the mere 30 credits you'd get from extorting credits from the three of us."
Hearing this, a wide grin split across Riley's face.
"Deal." He said, holding out his hand. "Hand it over."
Hearing this, an evil smirk crept across Tsukuru's face.
"If you insist." He replied.
Tsukuru then raised his arm up high in the air, and then slammed it down, stabbing the Black Obsidian Dagger into Riley's open palm, the blade piercing through to the other side.
There was a long pause, as everyone aside from Tsukuru just stared in shock.
Riley looked down at the blade buried in his hand, as if questioning if this was all just a dream.
Then, he felt the pain.
"AHH!!!" Riley let out a howling scream of pain.
He collapsed to the ground, holding his now injured hand with the other.
Tsukuru smirked down at him.
"There." He replied, causing Riley to glare up at him with fire in his eyes. "It's yours now."