KINETIC

All of the rankers were sitting around the table looking at each other. Nobody had said anything for about 30 seconds.

With no reason to stay, Leo got up from his seat to leave, but Nila called out to him "Wait! Why are you leaving, there are things to discuss."

"Really? Such as?" Leo asked. "There may be rankers who wish to challenge each other. If you are not here then you can't be challenged. Also, we should talk about the core strengthening method. We may have information to share about it." Nila replied.

Leo looked at each of the rankers one by one, "All of us have only just heard of core strengthening, I for one would like to go to my room so that I can put the method into practice. We have nothing to share yet since none of us have tried it. If we do have information to share then I'll happily attend a meeting for it." Leo paused there for a moment.

Nobody was arguing with his words and only Nila seemed to oppose Leo, though she didnt say anything.

"Are any of you planning to challenge me right now?" Leo asked, but nobody said anything. "Then it's settled, if there's nothing else then I'll be leaving. If I need to officiate a duel between 2 of you then send someone to let me know." Leo walked out the meeting room and started heading back towards his own room.

There were several students that Leo walked by on his way, most of them avoided him. Leo could tell that they were scared of him, but he didn't mind it, 'I'd rather have them be scared of me than try to be my enemy.' Leo thought.

Leo finally reached his room, he opened the door and walked in. Cain and Clay were both sitting on their own beds but John was currently not there. 'That's strange, where would John have gone?' Leo thought.

"If you're wondering where John is, he said he was going to meet someone he had recently become friends with." Cain said. He then noticed the symbol of Leo's rank attached to his shoulder.

"Woah, what's that? Is that because you're a ranker?" Cain said excitedly while he ran up to Leo so he could see the badge better.

"I didn't know John had any friends besides us..." Leo replied to Cains statement about John. 'If any of us can even be considered friends.' Leo thought.

"Yes, this is given to each of the rankers with their own rank engraved on theirs." Leo said.

"What about the assistant badges, what do those look like?" Cain asked, still excited.

"How do you know about assistants?" Leo asked. "A Private came by our room and said that while the rankers were in the meeting having the information explained to them by the Lieutenant, each room was being told the same information." Clay answered, still on his bed.

'Then, was the only reason we had the meeting so that we could ask questions? Maybe he also wanted to tell us about vessel strengthening.' Leo thought.

Leo took the assistant badges out and gave one to Cain, he threw another one across the room to Clay. "Put them on." Leo said.

"What!? You want us to be your assistants?" Clay asked with a very surprised tone and expression. "Why us?"

"You are the only people I know here. Also, I consider you trustworthy. You're both the top 2 of class 2, so you're the closest to a ranker anyone can get without being one, so you definently have the strength. " Leo explained.

"This is... Thank you, Leofalor." Cain said.

"Yes, thank you. This means a lot." Clay added.

"Please, you can just call me Leo, my friends don't need to use my full name. It's strange hearing my full name all the time as well." Leo looked exasperated when he mentioned his name being said so much.

Cain and Clay both agreed to stop calling Leo by his full name, they then placed their new badges on their uniforms jacket.

​ "Oh, that's right. While you were in the meeting, the three of us told each other a bit about our abilities. I can change the weight of my body parts. Clay can change the size of his body parts, making him stronger as he gets bigger. While John can create barriers that block damage, as well as some other stuff, but he didn't say anything more." Cain said, excited about where the conversation was going.

"I see, that's interesting." Leo gave a short reply, not really knowing what else to say.

"Yeah, we were hoping you would..." Cain was interrupted by the door opening.

John walked in and when he saw Leo standing in the middle of the room talking to Cain, he felt very guilty.

"Catch." Leo told John. He then threw the last assistant badge over to him. John caught the badge and looked at it. It took a few seconds before John realized what it was and the surprise set in.

"Leofalor... Why would you..." John was teary eyed, but Leo interrupted him. "Because we are friends. Also, you can just call me Leo, all my friends do." Leo said with a soft smile.

John held the badge in his hands, not placing it on his uniform just yet, he then walked over to his bed and sat down.

"John, I've heard that you all spoke about your abilities. I'd very much like to see your barriers some day, I believe they will be very useful and I'm curious about how strong they are." Leo said.

John nodded "Okay..."

Cains eyes went wide as he remembered, "Oh, that's right. I was going to ask you if you'd be alright with sharing a bit about how your ability works or what that energy you use is?" Cain asked Leo.

'I don't really want to tell them, but it should be fine right? They all seem trustworthy and I've made them my assistants. If I'm going to tell someone, then it should be them.' Leo thought.

"Alright, I'll tell you about my ability, but I'm not going too much into detail." Leo replied.