"Tsukuru…" Vorden said, moving so he was between Tsukuru and Quinn. Blocking Tsukuru's line of sight.
There was the typical bright flash of light. When it faded, Vorden instantly relaxed. While he was indeed holding a handgun, it was obviously a fake one. The kind of thing a child would buy in a department store. In reality, it was just a thick piece of molded plastic, with a hole where the muzzle would be, as well as a simple, spring-loaded trigger.
Tsukuru looked down at the chunk of plastic and smirked. While creating an actual firearm was probably still too complex for him, or at least a modern one, this little toy was something he could create just fine.
Tsukuru then looked up. Seeing how Vorden had positioned himself between the toy boys, Tsukuru's face took on a deadpan expression.
"Oh, will you relax?!" He muttered, his shoulders slumpingin a look of annoyance. "I can't even makefirearms yet! And even if I could, you really think I would shoot Quinn?!"
Vorden stared at Tsukuru for another moment, a tense expression on his face. Then, he slowly made his way back to his spot across Quinn.
Tsukuru let out a sigh and held the gun out to his side.
"Alright, back in the old world, people used to use guns to signal the start of horse races." He explained. "This little novelty toy will serve the same purpose."
Quinn and Vorden got into fighting stances, as they prepared to fight.
"3…2…" Tsukuru counted down. Instead of saying one, he simply pulled the trigger. Immediately, a metal pole shot out of the muzzle. There was a long slit at the bottom of the pole, where a spring-loaded flag made of cheap paper shot out. Written on both sides of the flag was the word "BANG!" inside a cartoonish, art image imitating an explosion.
Seeing the flag, Quinn and Vorden didn't know if they should feel incredulous or amused. It was the type of "joke gun" used in old cartoons.
Vorden now felt a little embarrassed about his earlier action. Not using his full strength, he repelled one of the aluminum balls at Quinn. It traveled at a decent speed towards him.
Using Shadow Control, Quinn made his shadow rise up in FRONT of him. It erupted upwards, looking as though the top half of a large oval was emerging from the ground. However, due to the small size of his shadow, the top curve shadows only reached up to his nose, leaving his head and shoulders completely visible. Like before, the shadows took on a mist-like consistency, and swirled constantly like a whirlpool.
When Vorden's aluminum ball made contact with the shadow, something strange happened. Rather than the ball being deflected, or even being stopped by the shadows, the ball began to slowly pass through the wall. To Tsukuru and Vorden, it looked similar to when Quinn was putting something into his Shadow Space. However, the process was noticeably slow.
Soon, the start of the ball could be seen by Quinn, beginning to pass through to the other side. Quinn stared at the ball, as it traveled through the shadow at an unnaturally slow pace. It was as if Quinn was watching it in slow-motion. However, once the ball had completely passed through, it regained all its speed and momentum.
'Uh-oh.' Quinn thought, eyes widened, watching the ball surging towards him like an incoming cannonball. The ball slammed into Quinn's stomach, before falling to the ground.
"Ugh!" Quinn groaned and began to rub his stomach. If this had been a few decades earlier, Quinn would have compared this to getting hit by the type of foam balls that had been used for school dodgeball.
Though Tsukuru and Quinn couldn't see what was happening on the other side of the "shield", based on Quinn's sharp, shallow groan, they could imagine.
"Well, wasn't expecting that." Vorden muttered, before glancing back at Tsukuru. "Good call making those things out of aluminum."
Tsukuru lifted his hand in a "thumbs-up" pose.
Vorden then turned back to Quinn.
"Hey, Quinn, you good?" He asked.
On the other side of the shadow wall, the slight sting on his stomach was starting to fade.
"Yeah." He replied with a noticeable strained sharpness in his voice. "Let's keep going."
Vorden shrugged, and this time launched two of the balls at the wall of shadow. Like before, they began to move through the wall. On the other side, Quinn had learned from his mistakes. This time instead of just staring at the balls as they passed through, he ducked down just as they were about to pass through. The two balls shot out like cannonballs, soaring over Quinn's head. The two balls kept going until they crashed into the arena wall, creating a low "bang".
"Hmm…" Vorden muttered before glancing back at Tsukuru. "I want to see how physical attacks work."
Tsukuru nodded. He held out his hand, and activated his Ability. The sound of electronic interference could be heard. As the pixels appeared in his hand, they clustered into the shape of a baseball bat. There was a bright flash of light. Once it faded, Tsukuru was holding an aluminum bat in his hand.
"Here ya go." Tsukuru replied, tossing the bat gently in the air. Vorden's hand lashed out and grabbed the bat by its handle. As he did, the remaining three aluminum balls fell to the floor, Vorden no longer using his Ability to keep them airborne.
Vorden rushed towards Quinn, now armed with the bat. Once he reached the wall of shadows, Vorden swung the bat out.
Like before, the bat began to sink into the shadows. However, Vorden was easily able to pull the bat out before it sank in too far. He then attacked a different section of the wall, with the expected result occurring. Noting how much of Quinn's upper body was exposed, Vorden immediately realized that the shadow wall wasn't big enough to go behind his back. He saw the two balls on the floor against the wall a fair distance away.
'If I attract one of those balls towards me, I could probably attack Quinn from behind.' Vorden thought, before going back to attacking the shadows with his bat.
As Vorden continued his onslaught, Quinn started to realize something. Every time something started to pass through his shadow, his MC would take a hit. And every time Vorden smacked his bat into the wall of shadows, a System message appeared.
[-20 MC. MC: 44/100]
[-20 MC. MC: 24/100]
[-20 MC. MC: 4/100]
[-20 MC. MC: 0/100]
Just as Vorden pulled back for another swing, his eyes widened. He saw the wall of shadows instantlydrop back down to the ground. Quinn had run out of MC.
"Wait, Vorden!" Quinn shouted, afraid that Vorden was about to swing again. He waved his hands frantically in front of him. "Stop!"
Hearing Quinn's words, and more importantly, seeing the wall of shadows fall to the ground. Vorden relaxed his posture. He brought the bat down to his side.
Meanwhile, in front of him, Quinn was processing what he had just learned from this fight. Despite the Shadow acting like a type of shield, it wasn't solid enough to block attacks. It only slowed them down. Additionally, the strongerthe object being affected by his shadow, the more MC he lost.
Tsukuru walked over to Quinn with an MC Potion in his hand. As he held it out, Quinn took it. Quinn popped the lid off and slowly drank the potion. Quinn felt the liquid run down his throat, and his body felt more energized. A System message popped up in front of him.
[You have consumed an MC Potion. 50 MC restored. MC: 50/100]
It wasn't enough to fully restore Quinn's MC, but it was a significant bump.
***
Deep within the System, the blonde-haired man's eyes widened slightly after seeing Quinn instantly regain half his MC from drinking that strange "potion". Then his eyes narrowed. As far as he knew, such a "potion" didn't exist.
He also thought back to how he had seen that "Tsukuru" boy activating his Ability.
'Being able to create objects out of nothingness…' He thought. 'That almost sounds like…'
He looked down at his own hands.
"How muchstronger have humans becomesince my departure…?" He muttered. If a human like him had existed back in his time, he would have definitely caught the ATTENTION of…them.