Chapter 19 Running out of time!
Even though Quinn had lost 2/3 of his HP, it didn’t feel like he was hurt or dying. It wasn’t like when he was out in the sun when he felt week, instead, it felt like all his senses were on high alert.
"Hey Quinn, are you alright man?" Vorden asked seeing Quinn’s face in shock.
"Yeah, I just, got to go somewhere," Quinn said as he rushed out of the room, heading down to the canteen.
Everything that happened so far was a miscalculation on Quinn’s part. Although the system had told him he would lose 1 hp every hour, he didn’t expect his body to react like this. Originally, he only planned to sleep for five hours as he was too worn out after the fight yesterday.
That way he would still have at least ten hours and a few hours in the morning before classes started. Quinn started to calculate how much time he had left. Breakfast was a requirement which lasted from 8 till 9, then classes went on till 12 midday for lunch.
That meant there were four more hours where he was required to be somewhere in the school. Of course, there was always the option of skipping, but this wasn’t like regular school. The army would severely punish you and hunt you down if you did. But what did that matter if he was going to die anyway?
Quinn was currently in the canteen queue to be served some food. He was breathing in deep breaths and in and out slowly, it was helping him get the hang of his heightened senses. He could hear the conversation from the other side of the room.
Pots and pans clanging in the kitchen as if they were next to him. Slowly Quinn was figuring out how to ignore all these and it was making his mind think clearer.
Just then though, Rylee had entered the canteen. He had no markings on his body from the fight yesterday as he had managed to make a full recovery at the medical centre but he was in a terrible mood after what had happened yesterday.
As soon as he saw Quinn, he had found a target to take out all his pent-up frustration on. Rylee walked past all the level ones that were in the queue until he eventually reached the spot were Quinn was standing.
"Hey Pipsqueak, you got a problem if I cut Infront of you?" Rylee asked.
But Quinn was too busy trying to focus the sounds out from his mind.
"Are you ignoring me? Today is not the day to ignore me." Rylee looked at Quinn’s wristwatch seeing the number 1 shine bright on it. Immediately bad memories of yesterdays fight had come into his head and how all he wanted to do was kill the person but that would have to wait for now and Quinn would have to do.
"I said don’t ignore me?" Rylee said as he grabbed Quinn by the collar.
But in that instant, Rylee’s face was incredibly close to Quinn’s. Quinn could hear Rylee’s heartbeat. He could feel the blood flowing through his arm and muscles lifting his shirt.
Something had taken over Quinn’s body and he immediately hit Rylee’s arm away and pounced on him causing the two of them to fall to the ground.
Quinn was now on top of Rylee and had both his hands pinned down.
"Get off me you crazy animal!" Rylee said but when Rylee tried to overpower Quinn and lift his hands, it was impossible. Even his Ability was useless in this situation. His ability only hardened his skin, it didn’t make him any more powerful.
Then Quinn started to feel something growing in his mouth. Quinn placed his head just a few inches away from Rylee’s neck and was ready. Just as Quinn opened his mouth though, he felt someone pull him by the back of his collar and chucked him off Rylee towards the people in the queue.
"Don’t touch one of my boys," Dan said.
Dan was a large man for his age with a muscular build. He didn’t look like a teenage boy but more like a bald adult.
"Dan, thank you so much," Rylee said as he stood up from the ground sweating. "You’re dead now boy."
As soon as Dan took one step forward though, Vorden stepped Infront of Quinn with Peter.
"Do you really want to cause a problem," Vorden said lifting his arm to show the power level on his wristwatch.
The truth was, Vorden was only bluffing. Vorden’s power very much depended on what ability he copied and right now all he had was Peter’s level 1 earth ability. If they were to get into a fight here, there was no contest on who would win.
But Vorden’s plan seemed to work as Dan decided to back down and take Rylee with him but before Rylee walked off, he signalled to Quinn imitating someone cutting his head off.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, I can’t believe that worked," Peter said knowing Vorden’s secret.
After the canteen incident was over, something became clear to Quinn. That teaches wouldn’t step in no matter what happened. In the canteen there were many guards standing in each corner of the room but not once did they step in to help.
After the group finished eating it was time for them to go to their morning classes but Quinn was unable to concentrate on anything, all he could do was try to calm himself down while in the middle of class and watch his HP slowly tick away.
It was driving him insane seeing the number go down hour by hour and now wished he had just bitten into Rylee’s neck yesterday.
Then when it came to lunchtime, Quinn once again rushed off without Vorden and Peter this time to the library.
\u003c1/15 HP\u003e
"What the hell is happening to me?" Quinn said as his hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
Each time Quinn’s HP would go down, it was getting harder and harder to control his own body and sooner or later he would go crazy. During class, he had multiple visions of tearing the place apart and ripping out the blood from their necks.
Without realising where he was walking to, Quinn eventually ended up in the library. In the quiet corner of the library down one of the isles was the fiction section.
"Please have something I can use," Quinn said as he took out fantasy book after fantasy book about Vampires.
In some of the books, Vampires were able to live off animal blood, But Quinn’s system clearly stated he needed human blood. Not just that but it would be hard for him to find an animal in time. In other stories, there were talks of going to the hospital and raiding their supply but the hospital in the city was heavily guarded and he didn’t have time for that.
Finally, for the first time, Quinn could feel himself getting weaker. He sat on the floor and read one last book and found nothing of use. When he closed the book, he could see Layla standing there opposite him.
"Are you okay?" Layla asked concerned for Quinn as he was starting to look very pale.
Layla then bent down so she was at eye level with Quinn and placed her hand on his forehead to check his temperature.
"You’re so cold? Do you want me to take you to the nurse’s office?" Layla asked.
Quinn replied with one word.
"Sorry..."
He said as he pulled Layla’s arm bringing her close to him and bit into Layla’s neck.