Quin’s plan was successful and the trio’s previous confidence disappeared. Hesitation, mixed with anger appeared in their eyes instead, as they were not so sure anymore that they did the right thing. However they would lose a lot of face if they were to chicken out, so they had no way out.

The youth with the water element finally gathered his courage and let out a ‘hmph’ sound, after which he attacked immediately by throwing out a couple of water balls.

Seems like I guessed it right, his control over his element isn’t so good and he is also quite slow with it. He smirked as he evaded those attacks, seemingly easily.

Although due to the lack of Lightning Qi, he could not merge with his element anymore and thus acquire his previous inhuman reflexes and reaction time, his body was still in a good shape. Thanks to the properties of the lightning element, over the years his body had developed by a great degree and so even without his qi, he still had some strength left. Besides, during the previous month -- excluding his right arm -- he managed to almost fully recover.

The entire situation would be very different if he fought against someone who used the fast attacks of the air element, however facing against these slow water balls? Quin did not have much trouble at dodging them.

“So is this really all you’ve got?” Quin asked him.

Seeing that ranged attacks did not work, he decided to switch to close combat and that had been exactly Quin’s aim. He could evade the attacks for some time, but his stamina could not compare to his enemy’s, which meant that a prolonged fight would be disadvantageous for him.

His opponent leaped toward him and tried to attack with a kick at Quin’s face, however Quin had already expected this. Just when his enemy started his attack, Quin sidestepped and threw out a punch, with all the strength he could muster at his head, while at the same time planting one of his legs behind the youth’s leg.

Quin felt as the force behind his punch was partly dissipated -- one of the properties of someone who merged with the water element --, but not entirely. His opponent was putting all of his weight on only one of his legs, which was obstructed by Quin’s and so, in the end, he fell on the ground.

This was the opportunity Quin had been waiting for and started wildly jumping on his chest a couple of times. It may look a bit too fierce, but his enemy was merged with the water element, thus the force of Quin’s attacks was significantly reduced.

Seeing that he was out for good, Quin stepped back and looked at the other two with a grin and asked, “So who’s the next?”

Unfortunately for him, things did not turn out as he wanted to, as after some hesitation the remaining two youths merged with their elements and decided to attack him.

Crap! And here I thought that this would be enough to scare them off! What can I do now? He looked down to the water element user he has just defeated. Well, maybe that’ll work...

Quin lifted his defeated opponent up and threw him at one of them with full force. His target reacted too slow and got knocked to the ground. That’s one out for good, and another one disabled temporarily, which only leaves me with just a single one. He sighed. And that guy has to be an earth element user. That’s just my luck!

Quin did not have any choice, though, so be it an earth element user or not, he decided to attack, hoping that he could use the element of surprise.

Quin started with a kick on his opponent’s left knee, and even though he was not able to react in time, nothing happened. Earth element was the best for taking hits and retaining stability, so an unpowered attack would barely faze its user.

His opponent answered with his own attacks as well. They were even slower than the water balls from before, but due to the wider area of the attacks, they were harder to evade as well.

Quin repeatedly kicked his left knee whenever he could, but that was not an easy feat and soon his own legs started to feel numb.

After some time his opponent started to finally have some trouble standing on his left leg, however the other one -- at whom Quin had thrown the water element user -- got up as well, intent on joining the fight.

Guess that’s it, and I’ll have to go beaten down to home.

However, it turned out that Quin still had some luck at his side, as they were shot in the face by two streams of water. Thanks the heaven, you arrived just at the right time Leyn! he thought.

“Hey, what are you doing, interfering in our fight?” the earth element user asked annoyed. “Hmph, you’re years older than us, it’s not fair!”

“And attacking someone three-on-one is? Furthermore, he can’t even use his cultivation! Are you really that low?” Leyn yelled at them, filled with anger. Looking at Quin he noticed a few things, though. She had worked as a healer for years now, so even just by looking at somebody -- especially who she has known for a long time -- she could guess the condition of their bodies. Thus she was aware that Quin’s body was not in a good shape at all after the fight, however he was still putting up a strong front, acting like he would have been perfectly fine even without her help. This prompted an idea to her. “Well, comparing how you three are and how he’s doing,” she said while scratching her ears, “Probably it’s you three, who should be grateful to me for ending this fight prematurely and not letting you to humiliate yourself even more. You can imagine what your schoolmates would think of you after hearing that someone without a cultivation beat all three of you to a pulp,” she said a bit louder -- just to make sure that the crowd gathered around the school’s entrance would hear it clear.

Deception and lying was usually quite out of her character, however she did not lack any smarts and could easily see what this kind of situation could result in. She could not always be there to save him and there were several people in the school who did not have a good opinion of him at all. She thought that it would just be easier to frighten them right at the start.

Leyn stayed there for another couple of moments and after seeing that there would be no problems, she left.

Quin looked at the trio, and snorted in contempt, then went to grab his stuff that he left in their classroom. When he walked out, he was still the center of attention, but this time, nobody tried to attack him, so he could leave in peace.

Shit! My stomach started to act up again. Calm down, take a deep breath and everything will be alright. It’ll pass... It’ll just pass... Quin decided to visit Leyn at first, as -- although thanks to his long sleeved shirt it could not be seen -- his whole body was filled with injuries and bruises. However when he was just halfway, his main Core started to pulsate with pain once again and even though it was a significantly weaker one, he still clearly remembered the previous one with dread. Having been through that kind of unearthly pain, he never ever wanted to experience it again. There were only a few things he was honestly afraid of, and that was one of them.

Quin quickened his steps, to be able to reach her house faster, as she may have had a solution for it.

As soon as Leyn let him inside, he dropped down on their sofa, in pain.

“Hey, are you alright? What is it? Is it because of the fight?” she asked with a worried face.

“No, I only received bruises from that,” he answered and he felt as if he was starting to drown. “It’s my stomach... My main Core.” He was now wildly gasping for air.

She quickly sat down next to him and placed her hand on his chest. Quin felt as a warm sensation filled his body and calmed him down. It was only then, when he realized that although his stomach did hurt, it was not anything extraordinary. He lay there for some time though, as that warm, healing Water Qi felt very relaxing and comfortable.

“What happened?” Leyn asked him, with her hands still on him.

“I... It happened first at two weeks ago, sometime in the afternoon, when I completely exhausted my body and afterward my main Core started pulsating with an unimaginable pain. It lasted for the whole night and was simply terrible... I’ve never ever felt something like that, but it did pass eventually and I thought it was just something random. However, some time after the fight today, it started again and I, I think I just panicked,” he admitted embarrassedly. “It didn’t hurt that much, but as pathetic as it sounds I was so terrified that I’ll have to experience it another time.”

“Hey, you shouldn’t feel that way. If it was so much pain even for you, then anyone else would have borne it even worse,” she consoled him. “There’s no such thing that absolute pain tolerance.”

“Thanks,” he said.

“By the way, I think you should visit the hospital because this might mean that there’s a problem with you main Core,” she suggested.

“Yeah, maybe I’ll pay them a visit.” He sighed. Or I may not, he thought. He had enough of that place for a lifetime. “Oh, and thanks for saying those things at the school. Honestly, you arrived just at the right time,” he said laughing.

“It was nothing.” She smiled at him. “But you should avoid these situations, alright?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got no intention of fighting, however, there was no way out of this one.”