Chapter 219: Improving Skill

Over in one of the training centers, Quinn and Vorden were sparring using the level 4 earth ability. By remembering Vorden’s words about the power, Quinn could feel himself at the cusp of the 5th level.

Vorden flung three earth walls his way, forcing Quinn to weave around two, and punch the 3rd into debris.

Quinn then closed his eyes, and dropped down to the floor, forming two large earth fists to rise beside him. Then, the giant fists flung themselves at Vorden.

Quickly making an earth wall, Vorden blocked the attack, the wall crumbling as it did.

However, before the wall fully fell, Quinn raised his hand with an earthen gauntlet, and fired it into Vorden’s gut.

Reacting fast, Vorden narrowly slowed down the trajectory of the fist, and flung it back around into Quinn.

Thankfully, Quinn shifted mud around his wrists to catch the attack, and threw it off to the side.

"Your moves are too sloppy! He’ll never improve at this rate," Raten yelled behind the chair.

Gritting his teeth, Vorden twisted his foot, and embedded Quinn 2 feet into the ground.

’At least I’m making sure I go too far,’ Vorden shot back.

Quinn thought it was a weird move to pull on someone who could use the same ability as him. That was until a second later, a knee was planted firmly into his face, thereby flinging him backwards.

Making sure he didn’t fall all the way, Quinn caught himself midair by jerking a bit of earth into his back.

’I’m getting close to leveling up,’ Quinn thought. Even though he hadn’t looked at his watch, he could feel it.

He couldn’t see behind his back, and he wasn’t making active contact with the ground, but he would know for sure once the earth he controlled was in the air without him looking.

Getting back on his feet, Quinn narrowly dodged as several spikes jutted his way, then destroyed a few as he blocked.

’Hold on, there’s something I can do with this...’

Lifting himself out of the ground, Quinn formed a giant wall of earth, then tipped it over. At the same time, he levitated a few rocks, having them hover. Vorden created two spikes to prevent the stone wall from crushing him, then broke it apart to appear on the other side.

Once he saw Vorden appear, Quinn lifted up several of the stones that fell behind Vorden, and threw two into his back.

’Damn, that hurts,’ Vorden thought.

"Must be one of our sore spots," Raten commented, thinking back to a few of the body’s scars.

Still, it made Vorden remember that he too should focus on building his qi control.

Sparring wasn’t the only thing they did. After a few minutes of sparring, they would sit down and meditate, focusing on their qi.

Quinn then jumped back, and covered himself in thick rock armor.

Raten eyed him through their shared vision, "that’ll only slow him down, what’s he up to?"

Quinn closed the armor around his face, obscuring his vision, and it was then that Vorden realized something was up.

Craining his head, Vorden saw several floating stones from the wall right above him. They lingered for a few seconds, then fell down.

Thinking fast, Vorden formed a curved earth wall, protecting himself as they crashed into it.

After a few seconds of silence, Quinn got out of his armor, and saw the wreckage that ensued. Vorden lifted himself out of the debris, covered in dust, and exhaled loudly.

"That was pretty strong, but don’t do that on me again," Vorden said, holding his arm.

Using qi to protect his body wasn’t something he had fully grasped just yet, but it meant that he wasn’t able to protect his arm from a giant rock from smacking it.

Quinn grimaced a little, "Crap, I didn’t mean to hurt you."

Vorden raised a hand, "It’s fine. I’ve been in worse practice fights. Let’s just head back to Hayley’s and call it a night."

They left the training center to get Vorden’s arm fixed, and on their way, the topic of sparring came up.

"So why do you like to practice fighting with me so much?" Vorden asked.

Even though there was an obvious practical reason behind it, Vorden did have some doubts that someone would genuinely want to hang out with him for him. Even though he had good looks, due to his scars, some people thought he was scary looking and avoided him.

"It’s because we’re more of an even match than everyone else in our friend group," Quinn replied, "Your level of control with the earth ability matches mine, and while you have more experience with the ability, I can use it in more versatile ways."

Vorden held a genuine smile for a second, then chuckled, "I must be really fun to fight against, because otherwise I don’t get why people like sparring."

"Speak for yourself," Raten commented inside of their head, "Fighting is exhilarating."

They arrived at the doctor’s office, and when they stepped inside, there weren’t nearly as many injured students as the beginning of the school year. It had came as a startling surprise to Quinn.

"I know its a no class day, but I haven’t seen it this empty in a long time," Quinn noted.

"Really? I won’t know, I’ve only gone to private schools," Vorden lied.

"Oh! Another student, come on in!" Hayley cheered from the side, "Come sit down, and I’ll have my assistant come check up on you two."

She seemed to smile much more brightly than before, and didn’t look nearly as exhausted.

"Assistant?" Quinn repeated.

"Does she not normally have one?" Vorden replied.

Just then, a girl with pink hair walked over wearing a medical student uniform. She was the same girl from the orange portal expedition, and the two recognized her immediately.

"Hello! My name is Rosario, and I’ll be helping you today," The girl said.

The two boys hadn’t really paid much attention to her before, but she had a warm, rosy colored afro with a minty green bandana keeping her hair out of her face. Her uniform matched her bandana, but unlike Hayley, she did not wear a lab coat.

They quickly told her about Vorden’s broken arm, and she got to work, healing it up in seconds with her ability.

"There we go!" Rosario smiled, "I actually wasn’t expecting to see you two again so soon. I was going to give him my thanks when class started again, but there’s no better time than the present."

"Thanks?" Vorden repeated.

"Of course! He helped save my friends the other day," Rosario gestured to Quinn, "When we saw those strange purple beasts, I thought we were all goners, but then you and two others jumped in to help save us, so when you fell victim to them, I was devastated. So imagine my surprise when you all came back at the shelter in one piece."

Quinn smiled a little hearing those words. He didn’t think much about the positive consequences of his actions, only that he was just doing what needed to be done.

She then held Quinn’s hand, and nodded, "After that day, I was thinking that I had to give back somehow, so I decided to volunteer for doctor Hayley. I only just started, but we’re making such a difference, don’t you think?"

Vorden whistled, "I bet, you’re here chatting with us instead of tending to the others.

Rosario laughed, embarrassed, "Ah, sorry about that, but it’s true.

She then took a glance at Quinn’s watch, then lifted it up to her own, "Oh hey, since when did we reach the same level as me?"

Quinn stared at the watch, similarly just as surprised. It had changed when he wasn’t looking, which meant it had happened sometime in their fight earlier. When recalling when it happened, Quinn concluded that it was when he caused the rocks to fall on Vorden right before he broke his arm.

Vorden chuckled, and patted Quinn’s back, "Hey, congrats, it’s not easy reaching a higher level without a book. You can be proud of yourself."

"Yeah," Quinn said with a smile.

—

Meanwhile, in Duke’s office, the man himself was working away on his computer, when he got a notification about something in his systems updating. Clicking on it, it revealed that a particular student’s watch number had updated to 5, and it had happened to a student he kept his eyes on for a bit of time now.

"To think you’d reach level 5 so soon into the school year," Duke muttered, "All that power and skill... Well, this just means that I’ll be calling Truederam soon."