Back in the dorms, Leo walked in on an arm-wrestling match between Patrick and a short, muscular red-head guy. A crowd had surrounded the two as Patrick slowly overpowered the red-head. Cheers for both were roaring, some even praying for their champion to win.

  ‘What did I even walk in on…?’

  He could feel his head already starting to hurt upon seeing the sight.

  Looking at the crowd, he noticed a few exchanges going around. It seemed Patrick had ended up in the middle of a bet.

  “C’mon Patrick! You’ve got this! This is nothing, c’mon!”

  “Let’s go Oliver you got this! Beat this pompous bastard!”

  The crowd kept yelling words of encouragement at their moneymaker, hoping for a big earning of whatever they were getting.

  Slowly, Oliver’s hand finally gave out. It was Patrick’s victory. At the win, he raised his hand in a fist, causing a roar of victory as well as cries of sorrow. After that small celebration, everybody dispersed while Patrick and Oliver fist bumped before leaving.

  As he left, he saw Leo by the doorway.

  “Leo! Get over here!”

  Leo shook his head as he sighed, dragging his bandaged feet over to Patrick. “Congrats on the win.”

  Patrick bear hugged him, lifting him up off the ground. Too tired, he simply went limp as he was lifted up knowing he couldn’t escape anyway. Although some of his breath did get squeezed out in the middle of it.

  Released, he plopped to the floor looking deathly, coughing as he gasped for air.

  “Oops, sorry.”

  Patrick awkwardly chuckled as he patted Leo’s back, helping him through the coughs.

  Behind him, Oliver budged into the two.

  “Don’t think he’s stronger just because of that!” He quickly flexed his biceps. “Just look at them! Absolutely beautiful!”

  Patrick retorted in outrage. “You wanna go again then, huh? I’ll mop the floor with you!”

  A middle-aged man looking roughly in his forties broke through the crowd and quickly came to get Oliver, his brunette hair ruffled from the crowd’s excitement.

  “Sorry about the sore loser here, I’ll get him out of the way!”

  Pushing him back to the crowd, Leo could hear Oliver fighting to come back.

  “Oi! Stop pushing me, Joshua! I need to reclaim my honor!”

  Patrick rolled his eyes.

  “Ignore him, that was his seventh loss in a row. He ain’t beating this!” He flexed his biceps like Oliver, his muscles slightly larger. “But hey! I heard you got a Refraction! Well done!” Patrick cheerfully gave Leo a nudgy, his head feeling slightly burned.

  Waving him off, Leo chuckled with a jovial smile. “Yeah. You best believe it, I’m not the same as I was before!” He puffed his chest out, mimicking Patrick’s usual gimmicks.

  Patrick motioned to the empty chair where his opponent had sat. Sitting down, Patrick had a look a kid would have when looking at a new toy. “C’mon, tell me! What’s the Refraction! I’m dying to know.”

  Leo sighed. On one hand, he didn’t think Patrick would use the information against, or at least not if he didn’t have to. But on the other hand, it was equally likely for him to blurt it out by accident.

  But if he were to have his trust, he’d have to tell him some stuff, no?

  At this point, Leo had at least some trust in Patrick having spent most of his free time with him. And from what he saw, Patrick was probably the most honest person he’s seen so far. Additionally, he could hold his tongue when need be, so maybe the chance of his Refraction being leaked could be slightly lowered?

  Now that he thought about it, wasn’t Patrick a perfect option for helping with his Refraction?

  After much consideration, Leo decided to tell Patrick. “From what I understood, my Refraction is creating shockwaves in places I touch. The power of the shockwave can be a light tickle or strong enough to cause the ground to disperse. And the shockwave stays after I release my touch, continuously vibrating on that spot.”

  Patrick excitedly threw his head up and down, satisfied with this new information. “I see, so that’s how you won…”

  His face suddenly turned serious. “But I can assure you, the amount of power you displayed in the match yesterday is probably not going to be seen for a while.”

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  “What, why?”

  “When a person awakens into an Unchained, their mind receives an enlightenment that allows them to use more power than they can, exceeding their limits for a small amount of time. But now that it has worn off, you’ll probably struggle to even make a tickling sensation.” He brought his hand onto the table. “Here, try making me tickled.”

  “Bu-”

  “Just do it.”

  His eyes were steady, filled with unwavering confidence. Taking a deep breath, Leo punched his hand, trying to get a shockwave to form. But nothing happened. Patrick’s hand remained unfazed by anything.

  “What…”

  Patrick brought back his hand. “I told you, now is the hard part for a Smogborn. Figuring out how to use your Refraction. And that, I cannot tell you because it’s unique for the individual.”

  Leo, confused, shook his head as he clenched his hands. “So how do I figure that out, exactly?”

  Patrick closed his eyes for a bit before opening them back up again, as if he had made a decision. “I’ll act as your sandbag. You just punch me, trying to make that shockwave again. C’mon, we’ll go to my room.”

  Following him in, Leo entered to see a bunk bed rather than separate beds. The table remained but the wall was grey. It was surprisingly tidy, with books even stacked nicely on the table. Wait, books?!

  “Um, where’d you get these books from?”

  “Huh? Oh, Connie just shows up with them sometimes.”

  ‘Just shows up…’

  He looked back to how Connie appeared and disappeared from his talk with her earlier.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask, is she a Smogborn?”

  Patrick shrugged. “No clue. Ask her yourself.”

  Looks like Patrick really doesn’t talk to her much. But Leo could guess she had something to do with phasing in and out of something. The question was what she phased out of.

  Patrick suddenly spun around to face Leo, kicking the table towards the bed to make room for the practice. He then smacked his chest with his hands.

  “Alright, hit on!”

  Teddy, still exhausted from yesterday, moved down the hall until he stood in front of a wooden door next to his room. He knocked twice and waited.

  “Come in!”

  Opening the door, his gaze met Amanda sitting at a table filled with all kinds of flowers, her hair ruffled from digging her hands into her hair. It seemed the constant chatter of the flowers had brought new heights to her stress. And judging from the dark bags under her eyes, they didn’t let her sleep much either.

  “How’s the training going?”

  She weakly lifted her head up from the desk and looked up to Teddy. With a voice laced with sarcasm, she replied, “It’s going astounding. Never better!”

  “May I?” Teddy gestured to a nearby chair.

  She waved him off as she went back to talking with the flowers, prompting him to sit down.

  “Leo’s left Medbay now. Just thought you should know.”

  Amanda paused, the flowers seemingly going silent as well as they shrunk back. “He’s doing fine…?”

  “As best as he could be.”

  Amanda thought back to the horrendous fight Leo had between that monster. She had watched from the booth high above the roaring crowds alongside the Lieutenant. She had been worried throughout the fight, and almost stepped in after Leo had been grabbed by the throat. Never did she imagine that he would become an Unchained like her, let alone with such a destructive Refraction.

  What made her truly enraged were the actions made after Leo had fallen unconscious.

  She turned to Teddy, her eyes filled with heartfelt gratitude. “I want to thank you again for stepping in. And I apologize for what happened to your body.”

  Teddy chuckled, rubbing his arm. “It was nothing. I couldn’t let such interference occur.”

  After Leo had fallen, Teddy saw as the ghostly lady that had moved Amanda before appeared before Leo. Wary, he excused himself from the booth and, in the nick of time, blocked her attack on Leo with his katana at the cost of an arm. With a dangerous glint, he warned her of the rules, his hand on the katana ready to strike.

  Luckily the pale lady wordlessly walked off as if nothing had happened. Relieved, he had gone to pick up Leo and Anthony. But after picking up Leo, Anthony had gotten up and brushed the sand off himself. Strangely enough, his wounds had healed almost completely, his head still leaking a slight bit.

  Afterward, he wordlessly left the stadium, only taking a small glimpse at Leo’s unconscious body, his right eye looking as if it were shattered glass, while the left had a new green lighting to the pupils.

  Remembering this, Teddy made sure Leo became wary of Anthony as he wasn’t as he appeared to be.

  Amanda had seen this display as well, making her conflicted on what had happened to Anthony. It was as if she was looking at a completely different person. “What happened to Anthony, Lieutenant…?”

  “I don’t know.” He truly didn’t know what had happened. But whatever it was, it wasn’t just a mental problem.

  “I’ll have to call a Mindtap for this.”

  Amanda looked confused. “A Mindtap?”

  But he quickly left, not hearing the question. Time was of the essence if it was what he thinks it was.

  Mindtap? The word echoed through Amanda’s head, leaving her unsettled. What could Anthony have done?