552 I Control you

But he didn't want to rush things, he had learnt that when going to the vampire world unprepared, it could lead to dangerous things. He and his friends had almost died many times. He was going into the unknown there, and he would be doing the same here. He had learnt how important it was to learn things beforehand.

Back then, he was on a time frame, right now he wasn't. If anything the longer he took, the more time he would have to stay on earth and do his own research.

The fight with Nate and Paul had started, and on Paul's fists, he wore the clawed gloves that Quinn had gifted to him. Paul wasn't completely useless when it came to hand to hand combat, he had to learn it in the military after all, but it had been so long since he had used it.

He always had his ability before, what he was worried about was trying to hold back when attacking. Just like before, Nate seemed to be waiting there inviting Paul to take the first move.

'How the positions have changed.' Paul thought, looking at a student who had supposedly just graduated. Now he was the one being tested.

Pushing his past and pride to the side, Paul went forward pulling back his power as he threw his fist. The claws were about to reach Nate's head first, but he had raised his forearm to his side blocking the attack, and a clanging sound was heard as the metal claw clashed against Nate's hardened body.

"Come on, what was that?" Nate said, pushing the hand away. "Your punches are even weaker than that girl's kicks, are you even trying?"

Perhaps Paul had held back a bit too much when attacking. So he went again, striking harder this time but it still wasn't at a hundred percent.

"I know you have no ability, but you have to have more strength than this." Nate taunted again.

The others watching didn't know if Nate was just trying to encourage him, or if the attacks were really weak.

However, what he didn't realise was the taunts were actually working. Usually, things like this wouldn't annoy Paul. But he realised as time went on, he was frustrated with his position. Once at the top as one of the most vital ability users, and now, he had nothing. He was weak, and even this nobody student was calling him weak.

All these thoughts went through his head as he was striking harder and harder. The sound of metal hitting against metal was getting louder. But still, they were being blocked by Nate, and he hadn't moved from his original position.

When Nate used his Harding ability, it made his skin harder and made him significantly weigh more. 'He really was holding back.'

Without any break, another hit was coming from the other side.

Watching from the sides, Quinn could see and feel a slight pressure coming off from Kazz's body, and he wasn't so sure, but it looked like she was smiling, watching Paul act like this.

"Paul stop." Quinn whispered, hoping his sensitive ears would pick it up.

The strike hit again, moving Nate's body a few inches to the other side, and then another fist came.

"Paul stop!" Quinn said louder this time.

Suddenly, a strange feeling was felt in Paul's body. Like it had been taken over. His fist stopped midair, and Paul dropped to the ground on his knees.

'What the hell is this?' Paul thought. 'Is this what they meant when they said I have to listen to his orders. Am I being controlled by him?'

"It was a good thing you said stop." Sam hurriedly said. It looked like the others were wondering why Quinn had chosen to get involved. Sam didn't know either, but luckily he thought he could use Paul's situation to his advantage. "It looks like if he went further, he would have tired himself out."

Hearing this, Paul started to huff and pant, as if he was gasping for air, even though he wasn't tired. His mind had become a little clearer now.

"Good job." Nate said. "You didn't manage to hurt me or make a scratch on me. However, your punches definitely started to pack a punch."

After hearing what Sam had said, and that Nate's evaluation was basically over. Quinn and Linda decided to disregard him getting involved in the assessment. However, they did make a note of their relationship. Either Quinn deeply cared for his friends and could spot Paul getting tired, or the position of power wasn't with Paul after all.

Blip had assumed at first it was Pual, just because he looked the oldest, but after these assessments, it was clear he was the weakest out of all of them. So perhaps another one in the group was the actual leader.

Finally, it was time for the last assessment, which was Quinn's. For this, he had taken his gauntlets off, saying that they would only slow him down. He was an apparent speed user in this fight.

Linda had gotten up quickly and had gone to the warehouse's open area and stood opposite Quinn.

[New Quest received]

[Defeat the opponent in front of you to receive an instant level up!]

The Quest had come up, the same one that did when he was about to fight Nate, as well as Leo. This only came up a few times with certain individuals. Which meant she was strong.

Taking off her overcoat just as Blip did, she also revealed her beast armour underneath. It looked almost identical to Blip's, only hers was white in colour with a gold engraving of feathers all around.

"They have the same armour, are they a power couple or something?" Fex commented.

"No it's not that." Sam replied. "Both Blip and Linda were the founders of the Crow's. They're brother and sister."

[Inspect]

[Emperor tier chest piece]

[King tier shoulder pads]

[Emperor tier boots]

[King tier dagger x2]

Just like the equipment Blip was wearing, Linda's was of equal quality.

"Don't hold back." Linda said. "Because I'm not going to."

In an instant, she was by Quinn's side, and duking down, with an overhead punch, she had hit Quinn right in the face. Throwing him across the room and into one of the metal storage units. As his body hit the unit, he coughed out blood.

[80/100]

"So fast!" Fex said. "Does she have a speed ability as well?"

"No, she's not even using her ability." Sam replied.

"But then, how?"

"It's her boots, if I was to take a guess I would say they are at the emperor tier." Paul commented. "I guess you guys don't know much about beast gear, do you? There is a reason why the military split the ability level into eight different levels. Even though some have more MC cells, that would take them beyond that.

"Originally the system was actually based on the eight tier's of beast equipment. Let's use what we see in front of you as an example. If the boots enhancement type was speed, then a basic tier would give an ordinary person, as long as they could activate the beast gear, the same speed as a level one speed user.

"Intermediate tier speed boots enhancement would give someone the speed of a level two user, and it would continue as you went up. This follows true for the most part until you get to the very top of beast equipment. So right now, if her boots are based on enhancing one's speed at emperor tier, she would have the same speed as a level 5 speed user. This is why beast equipment is so necessary.

"Remember though, these rules don't apply to Demi-god and Demon tier equipment. They far surpass what we can even gauge as ordinary. Also, some equipment isn't designed to just enhance one area. Maybe the boots are partly power enhancers and don't fully focus on speed. So there are many variables."

Listing in, Blip was about to give an explanation to the students, but it seemed like he didn't have to. Paul had explained everything perfectly. His knowledge was excellent and accurate. It was expected for someone from Pure, who only relied on beast equipment.

At the same time, Fex was wondering if the vampires even knew about this. They only used beast crystals to power their items and such, there weren't many that used it for beast gear; they saw it as a sign of being weak, having to rely on equipment. According to the past, the only one that dabbled in beast gear a little was the old tenth leader.

Perhaps, this arrogance would one day, be the downfall of them.

"Weak," Linda said, starting to walk away. "The assessment is over."

"My arse the assessments over." Quinn said, standing up and wiping the blood from his mouth.

*****

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