When the question asking about their abilities arose, everyone in the circle was a bit hesitant to answer. After all, it was an awkward question due to it being quite personal. It was as if you’re revealing your weakness to another person. However, at the same time, it should be a given to know your teammates’ abilities.
Although, the main problem was that the school still didn’t know about Quinn’s ability. As for Peter, they assumed that he still had his duplication ability – The one that he most recently copied from someone else.
“I don’t have an ability.” Quinn quickly answered all the while he lifted up his wristwatch to show Cia that he was a level one. After seeing this, she quickly ignored him and moved onto the next person.
Quinn was fine with this since this expedition would be quite different. The whole class would be travelling together for the orange portal expedition. Thus, he would have to hide his abilities to the rest of the class. Hiding them from one more person wouldn’t hurt.
“I already know Layla’s, and most people learnt about that pretty boy after the event with the second years in the assembly hall. That means I just need to know yours.” Cia said as she looked towards Peter.
Peter then gave Cia a rather uncordial glance, since he wasn’t in a great mood. What annoyed him wasn’t Cia’s attitude towards him, but her disregard for Quinn, his master.
“I can show you first hand if you want,” Peter said, raising his fist.
“Peter!” Quinn snapped, so Peter immediately put his fist down and went back to his master’s side.
“What the hell was that all about?” Cia asked in bewilderment. She knew her teasing could piss off some people at times. Hence, because of this, she was usually quite cold at gauging people’s snapping points and when to stop. Still, Peter’s outburst seemed a little abrupt to her.
“Don’t you think you should tell us your ability first before asking for hours?��� Vorden questioned.
“Well, my ability will be a little hard to explain, so why don’t I just show you?” Cia looked at all the people in the group. At first, she would have tried using her ability against Peter. However, judging by how he acted, she didn’t want to do that now.
Out of all the people in the group, there seemed to be one target that stood out as the weakest.
As Cia lifted her hand, smoke gradually appeared on top of her palms – The smoke was coloured in the shade of blue that the skies had. It started to form a certain shape – its body was similarly hued to the smoke. After a brief window, a pointed blade emerged on one end of the fully formed thin rod. The final product was a short spear, spanning half of Cia’s height, made of animate smoke.
Without warning, she looked towards her target and threw the spear. It flew through the air and managed to hit Quinn dead in the chest. The spear had permeated his body, a part of it protruding on his back.
The others couldn’t believe that Quinn had just been attacked right in front of their eyes.
“Quinn!” Layla shouted. “Are you okay?”
When the spear had made contact with Quinn, he felt no pain. Although he could feel the object piercing him, it didn’t seem to have inflicted any physical damages – No bruises, scratches, or holes where blood could trickle.
Still and all, there was definitely an effect. Part of his energy felt like it was being absorbed by the weapon. It was a similar feeling of when he was out in the sun, only a lot weaker.
Finally, the notification sound was heard.
*Ding
[You have been affected by Spirit Spear]
[All stats have been reduced by 10 percent]
The sensation that Quinn had was just confirmed by the system message.
Peter was outraged, having the urge to lash out at Cia, but suddenly, he could feel an immense amount of pressure burning the side of his body – It was Quinn.
“What…did you do to me?!” Quinn said, his anger evident in his voice that became a bit deeper.
The others had never seen Quinn like this before, so they were stunned. Meanwhile, filled with rage, Quinn started to walk towards Cia. Right now, Quinn was unsure what Cia’s skill was. All he knew was it had reduced his stats by ten percent.
If this was a permanent effect, then he would have lost a lot of hard work.
‘Is this guy really a level one?’ Cia thought as she looked into the anger that was swimming in Quinn’s eyes. She wasn’t sure if she imagined it or not, but she thought she could see the colour of his eyes slowly starting to turn red.
“Hey Quinn, relax.” Fex said as he jumped in between the two of them before Quinn could even act. He then leaned forward and whispered to Quinn, making sure his body and head was blocking Cia from seeing him.
“Quinn, your eyes, they’re Red. You need to control your anger and calm down.” Fex advised.
However, as Quinn thought about how hard he had worked to gather those stat points and them going away just like that, his anger started to boil again.
[Spirit spear has worn off]
[Stats have returned to normal]
The spear that impaled his chest slowly dissipated into thin air and the energy seemed to return to his body. At the same time, his mind was suddenly cleared along with his anger.
“Hey, did you really think I would hurt you in front of all these teachers and students? It looks like I’ve joined a team of crazy people.” Cia complained.
“A support ability?” Vorden said.
Cia simply nodded as a response to Vorden’s query.
The reason Vorden hadn’t reacted the same way as the others were, was because he had seen this type of ability before.
“I’m guessing that it’s the spirit drain ability. Am I correct?” Vorden inquired further. “It allows the user to form spirit weapons in their mind. When this spirit hits its target, it can either act as a buff or debuff. There are different types of spirit abilities. If this is spirit drain, then this acts a debuff on the user. I don’t know the finer details about it though.”
“Thank you,” Cia said. “I knew someone on the team would have a brain. Like he said, my ability when it hits, it is able to debuff the target for five seconds and then the effect wears off. The good thing about it is that the spears can also stack up. In that time frame, the more spears impaled into the target’s body, the heavier the debuff. Because I’m only a level three though, the amount of time the spear lasts is only three seconds and the distance I can throw the spear is quite short.”
The others didn’t want to admit it, but having Cia in the team would be a great addition. Support type abilities were greatly sought after. The problem was that they were also very unpopular.
Usually, support abilities required one to work with a team. Without them, they were pretty much useless. Cia’s spears didn’t inflict much damage to its target. It would only drain their energy and stats. Meaning, while she was using her spears, it would be best if someone else dealt with the target.
For this reason, many people tend to overlook this ability whenever they’re about to pick, since it was hard to be defenceless in a battlefield. Although there were the plus sides, if one was to select a support ability, it meant that they would easily be able to join a faction in the future.
“Anyway, it looks like this group won’t amount to much.” Cia uttered.” So why don’t we just meet up on the day of the portal outing? There’s no point training together within the two days left prior to the expedition.”
“But…” Ahead of arguing her case, Quinn interrupted Layla’s speech.
“I agree. Why don’t we all do our own thing before the portal outing? It’s been a tiring week and I think some of us can do with some rest.” Quinn said.
Before the others could even say anything, Cia was already walking off. The assembly had ended and students were told that, until the portal outing, they would have the next two days off. This was to make up for the weekend that they would, most often than not, utilize to rest.
The idea was also to allow the students to focus on teamwork. It was a free period, still, the teachers encouraged the students to ask them for help and guidance.
Nevertheless, Quinn had his own ideas and plans ahead of the expedition.
While everyone was busy doing their own business, Quinn had arrived at the VR gaming room. With the Nano stick that had been given to him, he no longer needed to bug Logan. Accordingly, he headed to his room in order to use the private servers.
“Now, let’s see what you got.”
[Tutorial video for skill Phantom hit has begun]
****
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