Blood Queen Reborn-Chapter 29: Human Strengths

As night began, and the students went to bed to rest, the same couldn’t be said for the academy leaders as they were busy having a meeting about what happened.

In the top floor of the military base was a large meeting hall with a massive table in the center of the room. The head of the table had four seats, with the largest one for the Head General, but it would remain empty for this meeting.

The other seats were for the other Generals of the school. Currently, there was Duke King, who sat there with his massive arms crossed, and Nathan who sat in the other seat opposite to him.

Compared to Duke’s massive build and well kept uniform, Nathan was the opposite of that. He was more spry, wore glasses, and barely followed the military staff’s dress code. In other words, he was casually dressed, which was uncharacteristic of a first-year Head General.

The third and final seat of the Generals was the head of the staff at the military base, but it too would remain empty for this meeting.

Nathan and Duke sat there in silence, waiting for the others to arrive. To pass the time, Nathan tapped his fingers on the table, which got a dirty look from Duke. The repetitive tapping was getting on his nerves.

Eventually, eight Sergeants entered the room, all wearing their military uniforms. Of the eight, there was Leo the beast weapons teacher, Faye the head of squad, and Hayley the school doctor.

Once everyone was sat down, Faye started the meeting.

"We are here today to conduct the meeting on what to do with the second-year students who were involved in the case involving the first-year student known as Erin Heley, and the students part of Del’s class and Leo’s beast weapons class." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Pressing a button on a small controller, a holographic device in the center of the room displayed a report of the incident.

"I believe you have all read the reports, but this is here just for your reference. I would like to ask your opinion on how these students should be punished, General Duke," Faye stated.

"Punished?" Duke said, "I see no reason for these students to be punished. If you look at the report, it seems to be another case where the students fight each other. This happens all the time, and we purposely ignore it for a reason."

"I do agree that we let the students fight each other all the time, but that’s for small scuffles. The second-years had gathered a group of first-years this time, and a lot of students got involved," Nathan replied, "It seems a little much, no?"

"Fine," Duke groaned, "Further restrictions will be put on the second-years and first-year students. They shall meet only when necessary. I will be in charge of issuing out the punishments to the second-year students involved. Is that okay with you, Nathan?"

Nathan shrugged, already fidgeting with the hems of his uniform, "Sure."

This argument was something he only made to annoy Duke, it wasn’t a matter he particularly cared for in the first place.

"If there’s no other matter to bring up, then I declare this meeting over," Faye stated.

—

The next day, things were surprisingly calm. Classes were canceled due to the assembly incident, and students were free to do whatever they wanted. They were treating the day as effectively another weekend day, but something was different as security around the school had tightened.

Quinn had gotten a message from Erin that morning saying to meet up at the gym. He changed into gym appropriate attire,and asked Fex to keep an eye on Peter. Fex didn’t look up from his vampire novel, giggling at something written inside, and nodded. At least, Quinn thought it was a vampire novel because of its cover.

There was a thought Quinn had that he hadn’t been spending as much time with Peter lately, but with Erin’s vampirism, he was busy. He made a mental note to meet up with Peter after class tomorrow.

—

Originally, Erin wanted to play power fighters to level up and increase her power that way, but after yesterday, she realized that was too slow. Leveling up had improved her health, but only gave her 1 stat point. Increasing her health was nice, but what would be the point of having a thousand HP if she couldn’t defend herself? Not only that, but the others helping her needed to improve too.

Erin and Layla traveled together to the gym, each bringing a bag with them. This time, Erin had managed to safely arrive at the gym. At least the improved security was doing something.

The gym itself was large and expansive with numerous forms of equipment inside including the ones used in the initial test. There was thankfully a roof overhead. It wasn’t the only one that they had on the school grounds, and the only other person inside was Quinn, who had sat on one of the benches waiting for the girls.

With Layla and Quinn both here, Erin began her speech.

"We’re all clearly too weak. Quinn, you were barely strong enough to free me, and you," Erin pointed to Layla, "You were struggling to fight opponents close up."

"It’s not like you were doing any better..." Layla mumbled as she crossed her arms.

Quinn bit his tongue. He didn’t like that Erin was calling them weak, and neither did Layla, but what Erin said next had surprised them.

With a sigh, Erin added, "... But I’m not doing much better either. I got captured in the first place. It’s clear that something needs to be done about this."

Erin crossed her arms before glancing around the gym, "I’m putting us all on a training routine, Every couple of days, we’re going to meet up and work out. It wasn’t fair what they did to us, and we will not lose in a fight again."

Quinn and Layla glanced at each other surprised. Somehow, Erin was being inspirational.

Layla walked over to the archery section of the gym and began stringing her bow, Erin grabbed her sword and began practice fighting against a target dummy, leaving Quinn not quite sure where to begin training.

"Quinn, try the weights," Layla said as soon as she was done preparing her bow.

Before Quinn could ask what she meant, Layla ran off to the jungle gym section of the archery area. She began climbing the walls, and shooting her bow at unusual positions using purely her legs to keep herself upright. Quinn thought that she must’ve had some good core and leg strength to be able to do these things.

Layla grabbed 5 arrows and quickly shot them all out. The arrows were then aimed at several moving targets close to her. She was using her telekinesis to try to redirect the arrows, and managed to hit 4 out of the 5 targets.

Quinn looked to the bench press, and grabbed a weight that was labeled 50 kilos.

’This isn’t too heavy right? I’m sure I’ve moved furniture heavier than this,’ Quinn thought.

Quinn got underneath the large weight and began lifting it, suddenly surprised by how much effort he had to put in. Grunting a little, he managed to start doing some reps.

"Layla!" Erin called out to her roommate, and Layla came over, still practicing her aiming.

"What is it?"

"How’s your blood collecting?" Erin casually said while she used nearly all of her strength doing a spin slash.

"It’s going fine but uh—" Layla let go of 3 arrows using her telekinesis to hit the furthest away target in the archery range, "I just talked to Hayley about volunteering last night. I still don’t have anything to show for it."

"Good enough," Erin said before running up to the practice dummy and slicing it in half.

Layla was in shock, those dummies were made out of metal and she sliced through it like it was butter. She couldn’t help but clap and be impressed.

Erin, however, didn’t look too amused.

"This isn’t enough, I was only able to do this by using a beast weapon," Erin muttered while looking at her sword.

"Well, I think it’s—" before Layla could finish her sentence, they both heard a large grunt come from Quinn.

They both immediately turned to look at him. His face was red, and was very visibly straining himself trying to lift the weight.

"Watch yourself—!" Erin yelled as she ran to his side, just barely catching the giant weight in time.

It didn’t feel too heavy to her, but Quinn’s arms flopped to the side as he began breathing very heavily.

"Don’t push yourself too much, or else you’re going to—"

Quinn couldn’t wait for Erin to finish her words as he rolled over to his side and let out a ’colorful’ display of his insides.

"....puke."

"Geez..." Layla whispered, disgusted by the sight.