KINETIC

Leo charged forward, placing his remaining 5 points of energy into a single strike. But this wasn't going to be like any other strike Leo had done before.

'I need to end this fight quickly, but I have to keep this one alive if possible. Damn, Im starting to black out from the blood loss... the only thing keeping me conscious is the pain.'

Leo placed his energy into his right fist, preparing to do something he's never tried before.

The intruder saw Leo charging towards them and after seeing what he had done to the others, they began to panic.

They placed their daggers away, pulled out 2 needles, and proceeded to throw them at Leo before turning around and attempting to run away.

Leo had already placed all his energy into his fist to attack, and so he had none spread through his body for defense. His body was in too much pain to try to dodge, and he couldn't afford to stop his charge, believing he would pass out if he did.

The needles hit Leo, one stabbing into the left side of his chest, and the other hitting his stomach on the right.

The pain gave Leo a small burst of adrenaline, allowing him to push himself harder for a few moments.

Leo jumped forwards at the intruder who's back was facing him, and threw out his fist. Leo's fist impacted right between their shoulder blades, but the energy did not release like it did for the others.

Leo had manipulated the energy when he made contact, forcing it to spread over the intruders entire back, from head to toe, so that the force would be spread out. Leo's hope was that this would still knock out the intruder, but hopefully keep them alive.

There was no crunching or cracking sound, only a short whelp from the intruder as the breathe was knocked from their lungs. The intruder went flying forwards into the hallway, slamming into the doorframe of Leo's room on the way out.

They landed on the floor and didn't get back up. "AAAAAHHHH!" The shriek of a woman could be heard coming from the hallway.

Leo, bloodied and bruised, walked out of his room and looked around the hallway. There were 3 female trainees standing in the hallway.

Leo looked at them and with his vision starting to blur he spoke, "Make sure... nobody kills him...when I wake up...I'm going... to question him myself..." Leo was coughing up blood while he was speaking, the floor was already covered in his blood.

Leo felt his vision turning black and his body felt very light. Leo fell to his knees and continued to fall over onto his back. The last thing Leo heard was one of the girls speaking, "Oh my gods, that's rank 1! Somebody get help, one of the rankers was attacked!" Leo's mind then faded into a state of unconsciousness.

***

A woman with blonde hair disappearing behind her back, with open arms inviting you in for an embrace.

This was the vision before Leo, a dream he had been seeing over and over. However, this time there were more details.

Her face was still obscured, and other than her hair, she was unrecognizable. The difference came when she began to speak.

The deep rumbling sound that usually replaces her voice was less intense, and Leo managed to hear just a single phrase right at the end.

"My son."

Leo awoke. His heart was beating rapidly and his breathing was heavy. He looked around him and saw he was in an empty room by himself.

The room had nothing except for the bed Leo was lying on. Leo looked down and could see that his entire body was covered in bandages.

'That was some fight... Who were those people, why were they in my room?' Leo questioned inwardly.

'They appeared to be looking for something when you arrived. Since everything you have is inside your ring, they obviously didn't find anything.' Dreifus said.

'I don't have anything that anyone would want, other than the ring itself, but that's always with me so there would be no reason to search my room. So what were they looking for?' Leo asked.

'...' Dreifus remained quiet.

Leo stood up and the first thing he noticed was that he didn't feel injured at all. In fact, he felt stronger. Leo started to unwrap the bandages on his body and sure enough, there were no injuries.

'How did I heal so fast? Have I been asleep for several days?' Leo asked in astonishment of how his body had healed already.

'Well, about that, you should check your system. Quite a few notifications appeared while you were passing out and fighting.' Dreifus said.

Leo opened up the system and went to the quests section. He remembered he had received a sudden quest but he didn't have a chance to look at it properly, and so he opened it now.

- Sudden quest

[Defeat the intruders] (Completed)

- Reward

+1 All stats

+5 Energy

Skill Unlocked: Regeneration

'These rewards are amazing, I even gained a skill.' Leo said with excitement. A large smile appeared on his face.

'That's not all, I know you didn't notice it during the fight but you should go check your level.' Dreifus suggested.

Leo did as he Dreifus said and the results shocked him.

- Level: 7 (3 700/19 200)

STATS

- Strength - 9

- Speed - 9

- Stamina - 11

- Agility - 9

- Intelligence - 12

- Perception - 9

- Mental Fortitude 10

- Energy - 0/25

- Unassigned points - 2

'I went up by 2 levels... Mental Fortitude was added? What's going on Dreifus?' Leo asked, feeling very confused.

'While you were fighting through the pain caused by your injuries, you gained the new stat. Your level went up because you received 5 000 XP for each of the intruders you killed, and 2 500 XP for the one you knocked out.' Dreifus explained.

'I get XP for killing people?' Leo asked with a tone of surprise.

'Looks that way.'

'Incredible...wait, you said I got half as much for the last because I only knocked him out. So that means he's still alive.'

'Yes, that's right. But before you go to question him, you should finish looking at the skill you recieved and let me explain what happened after you passed out.' Dreifus said.

'Hmm... Fine, but your story better be short and sweet, I want to know why I was attacked.' Leo said.