Quinn accepted the Friend Request, and was happy to fight.
Honestly, Quinn wasn't too bothered with who he went to fight against after Nate's friend.
And considering that Nate's friend had called him "his senior", he felt like this would be a good match that would help him improve.
Instantly, a holographic screen popped up in front of Nate.
[User ID Blood Evolver has accepted your Friend Request.]
Seeing Quinn's User ID, Nate raised an eyebrow in confusion.
''Blood Evolver'?' He thought. 'Does that mean that his Ability has something to do with blood?' Nate glanced to the side. 'That would explain those red lines coming out of his hands, but isthere such an Ability in the game's system?'
There were thousands of different Abilities in the game, so Nate didn't know all of them.
But he had fought many battles in the game, and this was his first time seeing this type of Ability.
Before the match began, Nate turned to Quinn, and asked if he could speak with his friend, who Quinn learned was named Sam, for a few moments.
Not seeing a problem, Quinn agreed, as he too wanted to check a few things.
During the match when Quinn had used the Flash Step against Sam, he was hoping that his System would have shown him something.
But, nothing had appeared.
Of course, this was because Quinn was in the game.
But he somehow knew that using the Flash Step felt like it had taken up a significant amount of stamina from him.
Currently, his Stamina Stat was at 12.
If Quinn were to make a rough guess, he would assume that four uses of his Blood Swipe Skill would use up one point of Stamina.
This meant that he could use roughly 48 of them before running out of stamina.
However, this would be something that he could never do in the real world.
Even though he had just Leveled Up to Level 4, his current HP maximum was only at "25".
Seeing as how each Blood Swipe used up 1 HP, his HP would reach "0" before he even got close to reaching that number of uses.
From what the blonde-haired Vampire in the video had said, the Flash Step used up a considerable amount of Stamina.
At most, Quinn felt that he could only use it twice a match.
Realizing this made Quinn think back to something.
Back in the Assembly Hall, Tsukuru had used that strange "teleportation" Skill of his to teleport behind that blonde-haired girl, and save her from Mono's thrown Beast Stone.
He had then re-used the Skill to teleport them both back to his original position in-between Quinn and Layla.
However, when Tsukuru had returned, he had been noticeably winded.
Quinn remembered a conversation Tsukuru and Layla had after he had teleported back.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Using that Skill in quick succession just…takesup a lot of Stamina."
Quinn narrowed his eyes.
'That teleportation Skill and my Flash Step…are they…similar?' Quinn thought.
Seeing as how Quinn currently had 12 Stamina, and the fact that he could only use the Flash Step twice, that would mean that each usage would use up roughly five points of Stamina.
Quinn would have to think carefully when using this newfound information in a match.
At first, he thought that increasing his Stamina Stat wasn't a high priority, as he could always win as long as he was strong enough or fast enough.
But he now realized that, in a prolonged battle and matches against multiple opponents, as soon as his Stamina was depleted, he would be a sitting duck.
Quinn grit his teeth.
'Maybe I should ask Tsukuru some stuff when I get back later.' He thought. 'He always seems to be way better at understanding these things about the System…'
On the other side of the arena, Nate's friend Sam, was still sitting on the floor, his head slumped.
Suddenly, he felt a weight on his shoulder.
Looking up, he saw Nate standing over him, a gentle smile on his face.
"You're such a fool." He said with a smile.
In response, Sam looked away, looking dejected.
"Yeah, I know." He mumbled, before glancing back at Nate sheepishly. "I'm sorry."
Nate glanced at the flowing cape on Sam's back.
"We just got this amazing thing, and you didn't even use it properly." Nate replied. "When he went out of view, if you hadn't turned around, it would have protected you. Or, you could have turtled up using the cape."
Sam bit his lip in frustration.
"It's hard to get used to having something on your back!" Sam complained. "If someone vanishes right in front of you, and you know they're right BEHIND you, it's only natural to turn around! Wouldn't you do the same thing?"
Sam then looked at the ground, saddened that he had lost the match.
"My win streak…" He muttered in a dejected tone.
Nate patted Sam on the shoulder, before walking back over to Quinn.
"You know the deal." Nate said, looking back at Sam. "If I win against him, I win the bet. And you'll owe me those credits."
As Sam slumped towards the stands, he inwardly hoped that Quinn would beat Nate, as well.
Sam had lost too many bets recently, and was starting to run low on credits.
"3…2…1…Fight!" The computerized voice replied, followed by the beep.
Surprisingly, both Nate and Quinn had decided to charge in.
Although Quinn didn't know Nate's Ability, his abilities were more effective in close range.
If he was going up against an Elemental user, then it was always better for him to be closer, anyway.
As soon as Quinn was within the required 5 meters, he threw out two Blood Swipes.
Instantly, Nate's speed dropped dramatically, and his skin took on a shiny, metallic-silver sheen.
Additionally, his footsteps became noticeably louder, as if Nate's weight had drastically increased.
As the Blood Swipes reached Nate, the sound of metal clanging against metal was heard.
For the first time, Quinn's Blood Swipe had done nothing when it had hit an enemy.
Suddenly, the metallic sheen covering Nate's body began to recede, his body returning to normal.
However, Quinn noticed that Nate had kept one of his arms transformed.
This allowed Nate to move a lot faster, and close the distance.
He pushed his arm forward, and a metal pole came out of his open palm.
The movement was too fast for Quinn to react to.
The pole dug into his stomach, and pushed him back.
The attack was strong, causing Quinn's health bar to go down by roughly ten percent.
The pole increased in size, and continued to push Quinn back.
His health bar continued to decrease.
Quinn then grabbed the pole with both hands.
Using his full strength, he was able to stop its momentum.
"Wow, you're pretty strong as well, huh?" Nate asked in surprise.
Not only did his opponent have a ranged attack, but he also seemed to have super strength, as well.
Quinn pushed the pole to the side, and swung out his claws.
This time, he fired out four Blood Swipes.
Nate then quickly retracted the pole back into his body, the pole retracting at a speed faster than the Blood Swipes were traveling.
He then put both his open palms in front of him.
His hands became liquid metal, and melded together and grew, forming a large, oval-shaped shield directly in front of Nate.
Each Blood Swipe hit the shield.
Like before, the sound of clanging metal could be heard, and the Blood Swipes had no effect.
However, Quinn had expected this result.
When Nate retracted the liquid metal back into his hands, returning them to normal, Quinn was right in front of him, ready to strike.
Nate, however, remained calm.
He turned the part of his body that Quinn was aiming at into hardened steel, which turned out to be his head.
The punch landed, and a loud metal "clang" was heard.
Nate's head didn't even move a single inch, and the game recorded no damage being dealt.
Nate then grabbed Quinn's fist, and with his other arm, he formed another pole.
Nate swung his arm down, whacking Quinn with the pole.
"C'mon!" Nate replied. "You should be better than this!"
The truth was, the reason why Nate was forming poles and not swords was so the match would last longer.
It had been a while since Quinn had felt this weak.
There was only one thing left for Quinn to try.
Quinn lifted himself up off of the ground, and took a deep breath in to calm himself down.
Anger would only distract him.
Eventually, he was ready, and Nate could see it, too.
"C'mon then!" Nate replied, turning the pole back into liquid metal and shifting it back into his body, returning his fist to normal.
Quinn then once again charged forward, and threw out a Blood Swipe.
Nate simply hardened one of his hands into steel, and brought it up to block, knocking the Blood Swipe away.
However, this was merely a distraction.
When Quinn got close enough, Nate threw out a punch with his metal fist.
But at the same time, Quinn activated the Flash Step.
He avoided the attack, and appeared directly behind Nate, like he had done with Sam.
"Too predictable." Nate replied, as he hardened his back into steel the moment he could no longer see Quinn.
However, Quinn then lifted his foot off of the ground.
He let the energy go through from the bottom of his toes up his torso, down his arms, until it was in his fist.
He pulled his fist back.
He then stomped his foot onto the ground, and at the same time, he sent his fist outwards.
A loud "bang" like the sound of a gunshot echoed through the arena as Quinn's fist collided with Nate's steel back.
It was the sound of two solid, heavy objects hitting each other.