Chapter 83 Your Choice Layla having witnessed the whole thing was amazed, she knew Erin’s strength, especially after training with her and seeing her fight before but it always seemed like whoever she went up against, was no match for her. Although she had a power level of five, she seemed to be much stronger than that. Layla had seen a couple of level five users before but they weren’t this skilful in using their abilities. Erin then started to walk up to one of the students whose legs were frozen. It was the man who had let his tongue slip earlier and Earl had given him a scolding. She placed her hand on his shoulder and slowly the ice from his legs started to rise and cover his body. "Wait, I’ll tell you everything, I don’t know where Peter is, he was meant to meet us here a while ago but he never showed up." "Why is peter hiding?" Layla asked. "Don’t tell them Ben!" Earl shouted still stuck on the machine. "If you do, you’re out of the gang!" Erin then gathered another ice spear in her hand and threw it once again, this time aiming for Earl’s leg. It seemed like she had thrown the spear with more force, as the spear stuck into his leg, Earl screamed in pain and the numbers once again started to rise on the machine. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶 This time the numbers went beyond twenty and rose up to thirty. The commotion was starting to cause the attention of other students who were busy practising away in the arena as well. "Thirty, I’ve never got a number that high just how strong is she?" But Layla knew this wasn’t her full strength, at the test site her strength alone had reached up to the number fifty, she was still going easy on these students. Erin then looked at Ben and started to form another spear. "The next one goes in one of your holes and I still need the one your speaking from." Crazy was the only thought Ben had, who cares if he was no longer apart of Earl’s gang. As long as he worked hard in school, he could slowly move his way up the ladder. This was not worth the pain. "Wait, please. Peter, we’re not sure exactly what happened but we heard he pushed Vorden into a portal, that’s all we know, we don’t know why Quinn is missing as well." Of course, Earl was the one who was behind everything, he and his group had given Peter the instructions to push Vorden into the portal. When they had heard the news that two students were missing and confirmed Vorden was one of them. They though Peter had done what he asked. Unknown to them, Peter hadn’t actually pushed Vorden but Quinn instead. After hearing their answers Erin did as she said and walked away from the group. "Wait, aren’t you going to free us!" Ben shouted. "The ice will melt in a couple of hours, or maybe someone in the room with an ability can help you. That’s your punishment for making me wait instead of telling this girl what she wanted straight away." As Erin walked off exiting out of the training centre, Layla quickly followed behind her. "Thanks for that." "That wasn’t for you, I just hate it when guys think they’re better than us, better show people like that their place." Although Layla didn’t completely agree with Erin’s methods. She knew she wasn’t the type to abuse her power to those who were weaker than her. But Layla had something else on her mind. Did Peter really push Vorden into the portal and if Quinn was missing as well did that mean he went in after them? She dreaded the thought that there was the chance that the two of them could have ended up on some unknown planet. Even worse, she feared that Quinn might have grown too hungry and had no choice but to dine in on his friend. Just then though, as the two of them were about to exit through the doors. The door opened inward and a familiar face was seen. It was Peter. Immediately seeing Layla standing there, Peter went running off But Erin had reached out and grabbed him by the collar pulling him back. She then slammed him up against the wall. Before he could even think about running away again. She placed her hands on his and started to freeze him. He was now held up in place on the wall. Seeing Peter here must have meant he was planning to meet up with Earl and the others and judging by his strange actions, what they had said might have been true, but Layla needed to hear it from his own mouth. "Peter tell us the truth, did you really push Vorden into the portal?" She asked. "What are you going to do hit me?" Peter replied, "because trust me I have already had my fair share of pain. Whatever you plan to do to me, go ahead. I guarantee you I have already experienced any pain you can think off." Erin then started to form a small little needle-shaped ice pick in her hand. "Really, I’m sure there are a few places I could stick this in which would leave you wishing you’d kill yourself." Layla then motioned for her to put the ice pick down and was starting to think Erin had other problems. "Peter I thought they were your friends, you know, every day Quinn would ask about how you were to me. He told me that if I ever saw anything strange to come back to him. Why didn’t you just tell him, or even just tell us what was happening." "You don’t know, what would happen if I told you guys? You’d go beat them up, then what? They would just come back for revenge but do you think they would go after you, Erin or Vorden. No of course not, they would go after me. So you say you can protect me but for how long? Could you keep an eye on me twenty-four hours of the day and then what happens when I leave this academy and you guys aren’t there. My whole life has already been decided for me even before I arrived here." Peter then started to break down into tears. "I didn’t want to do it, I didn’t have a choice." Layla had clenched her fist and was ready to punch Peter in the face. She couldn’t believe after all Quinn had done for Peter behind the scenes and all though she didn’t like Vorden. She knew Vorden cared for him too. Seeing Peter’s tearful face, she dropped her hand down to her side. "You’re not even worth hitting Peter, you disgust me." She then turned and walked off and had one last word. "You always have a choice."