"You son of a bitch!!!" Azek cursed when he saw his own blood. Azek clearly had underestimated; he didn't consider Ed to be stronger than him. The best he expected was for Ed to be his equal or below. Now Azek's expression bore rage, and he was Ready to go all out.
But in that moment, a crushing pressure on his left shoulder descended without warning.
"AAgghh!" Crushing pressure made Azek kneel as he screamed in agony.
"Ed, I think you need some help here." Someone spoke. He had sky-blue hair, A serpent carving on his arm, it was Evans. Azek was hardly in a position to make any movement. The strength Evans wielded was no joke, and he was a mage, not a physical fighter. That's what made Evans a monster; he wasn't even using half of his actual strength. Without a doubt, the strength he exerted was an A-ranked.
"Evans…" Ed said.
"Am I interfering here? Is that brat troubling you~" Evans laughed as he intensified the pressure.
'This lunatic is going to kill him if I don't do anything!' Ed concluded after observing Evans.
"Evans its alright, it was just an argument, nothing serious," Ed spoke as he stepped forward.
"Argument, you say?" Evans filtered his face as he removed his arms from Azek.
'Well i can't really say he was going to hit our dorm-mate, haha.'
"Let's forget all this, let's head to the main hall and fill out forms regarding the class we'd like to take, shall we?" Ed said as he was about to walk, but stopped. "Oh, Jin, you come too."
Azek was in a bad shapeand his lackeys? Well, in the middle of the clash between Ed and Azek, they slipped away.
-
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They had filled the form and were heading to their rooms, but Ed stayed behind.
'Its a loss, hope the side-quest is still there though."
Ed thought of opening his quest interface in his head, and it appeared.
-Side Quest: Defeat Azek
-Reward: 80 Xp
- - -
"Great its still there, I must go find Azek, I doubt by morning the quest would still linger though," Ed muttered as stroded in the hallway. But he was nowhere to be found; he had gone to the library, training facility, science lab, except for the weaponry.
From the weaponry, a strange light illuminated; it was of a slight blue hue.
"Azek, what the hell are you doing?" Ed asked. Azek was bare-chested, and he had carved some strange symbol with his own blood. The markings resembled more an ancient language than symbols, and to top it off, it glowed in a blue hue. His skin was now pale, drained of life itself.
"Orves, you were lucky that Evans happened to be around," Azek spoke as if he was in a daze.
"Well…I'm grateful for that; it seems I underestimated you back there, but fear not, this time you're not leaving in one piece."
"What the hell are you about? You sure you're ok in the head?" Ed said sarcastically
Fwasssh!
Without warning, Azek struck, but Ed was faster, yet the strike grazed his cheeks, drawing actual blood. Azek held a rapier. It had the same carving as his body, and the aura around Azek was ominous.
"As fast as ever, huh. But speed won't save you, Ed!" Azek struck the blade, but this time he embedded his flames. Ed had no time to dodge, and he was sent flying, crashing against the glass, shattering them. The broken glasses struck Ed, making his body appear bloody. Clearly, Azek overwhelmed Ed.
'What's going on? Is he really an F-rank???' Ed stood up immediately, panting.
'This Morning he was beneath me, and I have SSS+ Spirit Energy reserve, you gotta be kidding me?' Azek threw a fast-paced punch. The punch was stronger than the previous it was as if he was becoming more powerful with each strike.
[demonic energy in the atmosphere detected!!!] With red letters, the system window appeared unlike anything before. Unlike before, the side quest was in complete blue, not red.
[Quest updating…]
-Quest: Devour the foreign soul invading Azek's body
-Reward: 2000 XP
-Difficulty: C-rank
- - -
The system re-evaluated the quest and revealed a new section, the difficulty, meaning it was the real deal.
"WHAT C-RANK??" Ed shot back at the system as he dodged the incoming strike from Azek.
[Azek has become stronger than before because of the foreign soul invading, but he's not stronger than E-rank now. His body is the same its one of a F-rank]
The system clarified, relieving Ed that he wasn't in an impossible situation.
'This time I can't avoid using 'Blood Torment' Its do or die!'
'Blood torment,' Ed muttered and closed his eyes and opened them. His vision became otherworldly he could perceive the souls of all things. Ed was like an X-ray machine deciphering souls.
When he looked at Azek, he could see two souls on his left chest, a blue soul, his own, and on the right, another much denser and vast in size, which had a black color.
Azek's body started to glow more intensely, and two dark violet wings of spiritual energy appeared.
Azek slashed arcs of violet flames horizontally.y
Ed ducked and threw his own spiritual energy-packed fist. On contact, Ed felt like he was striking a solid wall.
'Oh right, I still have a soul I can burn!'
[Atmosphereric Soul]
In an instant, strength rushed into Ed's body. He felt much lighter and stronger.
Azek slashed vertically. Ed countered with his Soul fist. Ed's ed now burned with white condensed spirit energy.
Demonic Energy clashed against Soul energy.
Metal and fist clashed.
"Soul severance!" Ed embedded his whole body with the remaining Soul energy he had, gambling to sever the soul from inside instead of Azek's solid body.
In an instant, Ed struck with everything he had, gambling on this strike.
Azek, at the same time, struck with his rapier.
Ed was faster, his fist impaled through Azek's torso in that instant, and strange Violet spiritual energy entered Ed's Body.
Azek was dead. The strike had ended his friendship with Ed.
'That was the last thing I didn't want to do?' Ed's expression was grim.
[Quest Complete]
-+2000 XP
-First Blood +5000Xp
[Level up]
[Level up]
[Level up]
[Level up]
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[You have reached level 8]
[Gained Soul Slash]
[Soul manipulation]
The system flooded Ed with endless messages.
'I think…that was the last one.' Ed's eyes felt heavy, and he lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a white space—a dimension with nothing but white as far as the eyes could see.
In that white space, there was a chair, and a man was seated with his head down.