The boost of agility provided by that leg armor was no joke as even though Leon wasn't using his top speed at the moment while racing up the mountain, he was still running faster than he had ever been.
However, Leon wasn't the only one that had received an upgrade because Mako could still catch up to him by using a combination of his own agility and his Dash skill.
Mako was closely followed by Erin who had eyes glowing white again, but this time they were quite faint as compared to other times since nobody including Erin even noticed the fact that her eyes were glowing, so it didn't even matter.
In reality, Erin had subconsciously activated her mutant ice gene again while feeling the excitement of competing amongst friends in a friendly race but since she had also recently activated it during her fight against Haruto, she hasn't recovered at all and that was why her eyes were dimmer than before; it was because she was running on fumes at this point.
However, that didn't matter much to Erin who had no idea what she was even doing as all she wanted to do was to compete and she was quite competitive when it came to that as she had almost caught up to Mako.
All three of them were neck a neck with Leon still in the lead. They would perform cool flips and do stunts over the same obstacle and see who could do it better as they ran as a bonus competition in the already intense competition.
Bill and Iris were running far behind everyone else as their specialty didn't focus on the aspect of speed nor did they have mutant genes or fictional systems to aid them. Bill was still quite decent in terms of speed and he could absolutely smoke Iris if he wanted to as she was the one who was actually struggling to keep up.
However, Bill didn't feel like being a jerk and leaving her behind in last place, so he purposefully reduced his speed too so that now both he and Iris were dead last but at least they were running together.
Bill tried to smile and start a conversation with Iris while they ran but his mind was focused on something entirely different.
"You seem concerned about something? What's wrong?" Iris asked as she quickly picked up Bill's mood.
Shocked by her quick and accurate judgment, Bill said in a rather surprised tone," How did you know?"
"Eh... you could say that I have a knack for figuring out a person's mood," Iris replied with a playful smile but also raised her eyebrows gesturing for Bill to spill the beans and tell her what was on his mind.
"Alright... Alright... You got me. It is actually about Mako," Bill said with a semi-serious expression.
"Hmm? What about him?" Iris asked.
"Well... It's just that I am just so amazed by his rate of growth. It was only a month ago when I could fight and race him on equal terms, but now he has grown so much that I can't seem to keep up with him. I just can't stop thinking about it because this was the same weak and frail boy who didn't have any abilities up until two months ago." Bill said with a slightly saddened tone.
Iris had completely come to a halt as soon as she heard Bill's last words. She and Bill were running at the same pace so Bill ended up running past her. The stop was so sudden that it caught Bill off guard and he quickly tried to stop as well but that resulted in him losing his step and tumbling forward on the ground.
"Oh, my God! Bill! I am so sorry, I didn't mean to stop so suddenly," Iris said as she quickly run up to Bill who was holding the top of his head.
"Oww... Don't worry, Iris. It was not your fault, I just lost my footing." Bill reassured Iris as he quickly got back up from the ground and dusted himself.
"...But why did you stop so suddenly?" Bill asked Iris as he dusted himself.
"Well... I didn't mean to. I just misheard you saying two months and I was so shocked that my legs just stopped working as my mind processed that information." Iris said with an embarrassed look on her face that made her cheeks glow slightly red.
"No that is exactly what I said, two months," Bill responded instantly without even showing the slightest hint of emotion regarding what he had just said as this was just a basic fact for him.
Everything in the vicinity stopped for Iris as she slowly turned to face Bill again.
"W... Wh... What di... did you just... say?" Iris asked once again to make sure that her ears weren't playing tricks on her.
Bill repeated his statement once again with no emotion again except slight concern toward how Iris was acting.
"HOW THE F*** DID HE DO THAT!!" Iris screamed as she couldn't contain her emotions any longer. The scream was so loud that even some of the birds that were resting on the tree branches flew away from the fear of the sudden loud noise.
Bill had to cover his ears in order to protect them as Iris quickly began babbling on as she went over all the scenarios that had happened ever since she had met Mako. She was beyond embarrassed, shocked, and scared by the fact that even though she was an ability user for so much longer than Mako, she was significantly weaker; she was the weakest out of the five with her only worth being her healing capabilities.
Bill slowly tried to calm her down but she wouldn't let it as the shock was too powerful to bear.
"How are you okay with this? Can't you see that he is a monster?! I mean, who becomes this strong in just two months?!" Iris asked Bill.
"Umm... I guess it really didn't bother me too much since I was able to be on his level for the majority of the time and I got my level 3 Earth ability about 4-5 months ago." Bill replied.
Iris went into another panic attack after Bill uttered those words as she couldn't even fathom Bill's rate of growth, let alone Mako's.
The truth was that Bill didn't really train or grow his strength before he was mistreated by El Diablo. Bill always used his superior physique and genetics combined with his basic ability to overpower anyone including his classmates.
Emerald High School wasn't one of those schools where fighters were trained and raised as almost all of the students were from rich backgrounds and they wanted to pursue other fields that provided soft cushiony jobs.
This was the reason that Bill was able to easily dominate other students even though he wasn't particularly stronger than him. If two or three students of similar skill levels were to pile up on him, he would've had a hard time, but since almost all the students either didn't care or were too soft, he got away with bullying easily, plus his façade of military background also helped to keep them in line.
It was only after, Mako had forgiven him and allowed him to stay with him, that he felt the need to train and become stronger. Bill would observe Mako do weird training regimes every single day and each day they were different and had no link with each other.
Bill would find this quite weird but because of his pride he didn't have it in his heart to ask Mako for training help and so he would do his regular training while he was with him and when he was alone, he would do the training that he saw Mako do that day.
In a matter of weeks, Bill's growth in power had also increased significantly, and even though Mako was climbing at an insane rate, he could always manage to keep up with him. It was only after the test had started that he felt that he was lacking because of all that had happened to him while Mako was improving fast using the experiences of the test to improve further.
**************
Iris had calmed down after a while and the two of them decided that running wasn't quite their forte so instead they just decided to just walk the rest of the way and continue talking.
Bill narrated all of his previous thoughts to Iris as they walked and slowly she began to understand the reason why they were so strong.
It wasn't like she hadn't been training to get strong, but she now understood that the level of training that was given to her by a coach who couldn't even buckle his belt properly was the reason for all her anger and frustration.
When it came to in terms of ability, Iris was basically given everything on a plate and she didn't really have to work hard to achieve what she had, and that was why she was so weak.
When Iris had conversed with Mako, he had always been a bit hesitant to talk about specific things from his past which Iris did find a bit odd but she respected his privacy and didn't focus on the subject.
However, Bill explained to her exactly why that was the case. He narrated a summary of both his and Mako's stories and Iris was left speechless as she learned about both of their hardships, experiences, and struggles.
Bill wasn't really comfortable talking about his past but he knew that for him to move forward he had to leave his past behind and that was exactly what he was doing here. He didn't mind sharing these things with Iris anymore because he knew that she was a true friend that wouldn't betray them and personally he thought that he had also formed a good bond with her.
"Please don't tell Mako that I told you all this. He is still a bit sensitive with topics about his past so let's just keep this between us, okay?" Bill said to Iris as they continued to walk back to the shelter.
"Of course, I wouldn't want to cause unnecessary problems," Iris replied reassuring Bill.
Deep down, Iris was frustrated at this moment because she knew she was nothing compared to Bill and Mako. She hadn't been given the best life but she was still living it quite easily while people like Mako and Bill were moving through hard times and becoming strong.
'I need to become strong too or else they will all leave me behind,' Iris told herself with determination as she steeled her resolve to not be left behind by her new group of friends.
