Bill's eyes rolled so far back from the shock that he felt he could see his brain behind the eyes.
"SINCE WHEN DID YOU HAVE AN ABILITY?!!" Bill shouted as he demanded an answer from Mako who couldn't stop grinning as he had envisioned this moment countless times in his dreams, but never did he think that he would show off his power in a friendly match.
"I may have betted on myself during our match where all the odds were stacked against me," Mako spoke while still teasing Bill with his aura that was matching his in terms of level.
Bill was left speechless as he just stared at Mako who began emitting small wisps of fire from his hand.
"You have improved from last time, but I got to ask, what was that phasing move that you used on me during our match?" Bill asked in curiosity.
Mako said nothing as he just grinned and took the same stance he took when fighting against Bill last time.
"That is a secret, but you are happy to debunk it if you think you are capable of learning my secrets." Mako taunted Bill again, which made Bill more determined to get to the truth.
"Oh, I'll do more than just try," Bill shouted before he also took a stance although it was different from last time as it was a lot better and had much fewer weak points than before.
*DING!*
"Huh?"
Taking their respective stances, Bill charged in at Mako, without holding anything back.
Bill conjured up his Earth club again, but this time Bill had a trick up his sleeve that would give him the edge over Mako this time around, and that was the gauntlets that he stole from the warehouse were still in good condition.
'According to Albert, These gauntlets can cut down the cost of energy for all of my Earth moves by half, so I should be able to fight a lot longer than before.' Bill thought as he went in for the first strike.
Activating Phantom Step, Mako phased out of the range of the strike and started to conjure a small fireball in his hands. A second later, a basketball-sized fireball was headed straight for Bill.
Bill wasn't phased by this at all as he had faced fire ability users before and he countered it by raising a small wall of earth using his elemental control to block the attack.
The wall easily blocked Mako's fireball, but in the process kicked up a lot of dust and created a type of smokescreen.
Using this to his advantage, Mako rushed in to use his perception to try and hit Bill as many times as possible. Bill; however, saw through Mako's plan, and instead of blindly trying to defend himself in the smokescreen, he activated another skill, and a moment later small blunt earth spikes came out of the ground all around him and acted as a shield pushing Mako away from wherever he wanted to attack from.
Mako landed on his feet a few feet away from the earth spikes which also helped clear out a lot of the dust and Bill was visible again.
Bill jumped from the center of the earth spikes using his elemental control, he manipulated the ground beneath to give him a boost causing him to jump 20 feet in the air, and he also made a smooth landing by softening the ground where he would land.
Charging in, Bill had his club in hand and was making a horizontal slash at mako so that it would cover all 180 degrees and that would be able to counter the weird phasing move that he was so fond of using.
Mako saw that he had no chance to escape using Phantom Step so instead, he planted his feet firmly on the ground and started to rotate his hands in a horizontal motion.
[Flame Wheel has been activated]
Fire erupted from Mako's hands as he created a wheel of fire in his hands that started to grow outwards.
Bill started to feel the heat and immediately brought his club in front of him to block the flames from actually hurting him.
Bill skidded back a few inches while the flames from the flame wheel extended out to their limit and disappeared in thin air, leaving Bill and Mako staring at each other for a few moments.
"I gotta say, Bill, you are very talented but that raises the question. Why did you lose to me so easily during our duel at school." Mako asked in a very curious tone.
If Bill was able to counter him and fight him on equal terms even after Mako had his attributes improved and learned a level 3 ability. It was quite intriguing as to why Bill lost the match that he could still easily win.
Bill looked uneasy as Mako asked him this question and after a few moments he let out a big sigh as he made eye contact with Mako again.
"The reason for that is because I never imagined you to be as strong as you were during our fight and I wasn't on the top of my game as I had participated in a raid for El-Diablo the previous night."
"After we were successful, the other guys and I decided to attend an illegal fighting event and party because of our success. I was already tired before and the party also sapped my energy, but I wasn't worried because I intended to just finish you off quickly and take the rest of the day off to relax."
Bill paused for a few moments and then said," Well, you know the rest."
Mako thought at that time that just a week and a half's training would be enough for him to defeat a level 3 ability user, but it turns out that he had just been extremely lucky as he would have been destroyed otherwise.
There was an awkward silence between the two boys as they were both recalling all the events that led them to this path. Both of them looked at each other and saw how much karma had affected their lives but there was no coming back as they could only learn from their mistakes and move forward forging the best path they can from now on.
They continued their training battle with each other, but toned down the ability use and mostly fought using hand-to-hand combat until they were exhausted. It was dusk when the two new friends made their way back home and freshened up.
*DING!*
[Quest completed]
[Train against a strong opponent for 3 hours]
[Reward: 500 EXP, 2 Attribute Points]
Mako was cooking the both of them dinner while Bill decided to take a quick nap as he was completely exhausted from training with Mako, and was surprised by the fact that he still had the energy to cook a delicious meal. Mako had been taught about all types of cuisines by Sir Derek so Mako was not only a great pastry chef but a good regular cook as well.
Munching on some boneless teriyaki chicken, Bill discussed his plan for the coming days.
Bill explained that during the night he would go back to the school, and retrieve all his personal belongings that he stashed there due to them being all gang-related.
Mako asked what were the contents of the things he was going to retrieve, to which Bill explained that it had a few regular weapons, a money card with all of his earnings as a gang member as well as a few personal items.
Bill further explained that he couldn't go back to school because El-Diablo would have most likely planted spies there to report to him as soon as they saw him which would not be good, so he would just have to stay put until the military instructor arrived to take the trials for military school by which time El-Diablo would be too late to do anything.
Mako nodded along while Bill explained his plan to him and once he was done, Mako asked him about all those students that he used to hang around with and whether they were also part of the gang or not.
"No, none of those guys knew I was part of any gang as they just followed whatever I ordered them to do because they didn't want to be the ones that I target as well," Bill explained in a rather embarrassed tone.
"Well it doesn't matter anyway, we just have to be prepared enough to be able to join the military school by the time the instructor comes for the test in the 6-7 weeks," Mako stated as he picked up some of the dishes and carried them to the sink to wash and Bill followed with the rest.
"What do you mean? We are both level 3 ability users and if we work together we can crush anyone." Bill exclaimed.
It didn't take long for Bill to understand that he was wrong as Mako's sarcastic sigh while washing the dishes put the nail in the coffin.
"Have you never done any kind of research on how these recruitment operations are conducted?" Mako asked Bill in annoyance to which Bill just lowered his gaze in shame.
"We have a long road ahead of us." Mako said as he patted Bill on his back while walking back to the living room.