*Outside the Ground*
Cressida was watching everything. She had seen Chlevern fall from an attack, which made her worry. But soon enough, she felt a strong Killing Intent, it almost made her tremble in fear, so ferocious, so powerful. She managed to keep herself steady and then she looked at Chlevern's direction. She could clearly feel the strong presence in the Playing Ground, almost similar to her master, Artendo Sadistor's killing intent, which he displayed quite often whenever anyone in the clan would not obey him, misbehave or didn't follow the rules of the clan. She had felt the same pressure when Artendo held her in the air by the collar, when he interrupted her and Chlevern's fight. Though, the one she was feeling right now was not on the same level as her master's, not even close, but it was still a bit terrifying.
'Wait, didn't he say that he became Mr. Kingspeare's disciple just recently? yet, how is he able to unleash such a fierce bloodlust?!', was what Cressida thought for a second.
She turned to see Chlevern and the sight had her little shocked. She could see Chlevern get up from the ground as if the attack he received moments ago never impacted him. She could see how Chlevern's aura was getting dark as he stood up. He stood there for a while and then, he disappeared from his place. He was so fast that not even Cressida could keep up with his movements.
'Wait. Did he just speed up even more? He's even faster than how he was before. Is this feat even achievable?! I mean, I achieved it but it took me a while to better and master my speed, but this feat is impressive.', thought Cressida, trying hard to keep up with Chlevern.
*Back to the Playing Ground*
Chlevern was leaking with bloodlust. His speed was even faster and his reflexes & senses were improved to an extent as a result of his skill, BloodBath. He looked like a demon, a good one though.
Chlevern launched from his position with a God-like speed and began destroying the shadows, either one by one or wiping an entire group of them. He looked like a 'Killing Machine'. Suddenly, Chlevern took a glance on the screen above and it showed,
| 00:55:24 DuQuints left |
'Fuck, I have wasted too much time on these goofballs of darkness. I must end this once and for all and hurry towards the exit as quick as possible.', thought Chlevern, with bloodlust still leaking from his body.
Chlevern, now with a single swing of his kick, sent a shock wave straight towards the direction of the exit and wiped out the tens of shadows approaching him to grab the ball of darkness. He then took a stance and with a blink of an eye said,
"Activate ability, Light as Quill..."
He said this softly but loud enough for the system to understand his command, and the screen to appear in front of him saying,
[Ability, Light as Quill has activated]
*SWOOSH~~*
Chlevern was now feeling light on his feet, thanks to his ability, but there was still something bothering him which was, the ball was still as heavy. But this posed no issue since the ability, Light as Quill only made the body light but, it didn't affect the strength which the body possessed.
Soon enough, Chlevern gathered all the strength in his legs and leaped in front of him like a grasshopper leaps from grass to grass. The leap was not a very strong one, but thanks to the effect of Light as Quill, Chlevern reached a greater distance ahead.
The shadows were still spawning with no end to them, and with every summon, they were growing stronger and stronger. Now, the shadow soldiers, which were almost same height as Chlevern, started to look more and more bulkier and taller. Chlevern noticed this, but he had no time to figure out and fight every shadow. He was dashing towards the exit, occasionally jumping, sprinting and stopping to fend off the shadows but the shadows met no end.
This was becoming tiresome for Chlevern but then, suddenly something happened.
The skill, Speed was deactivated and Chlevern felt his body slowly come to a halt.
'Huh! What the fuck?!!', thought Chlevern as he bent with one knee on the ground.
As he was trying to figure out what had happened, the system screen popped in front of him,
[WARNING!
Your muscles are sore from the fatigue,
To prevent permanent damage to the muscles,
Skill Speed is temporarily locked.
However, other skills and abilities are still available.
Lock Timer: 3 hours:00 minutes:00 seconds]
*~~SWOOSH~~*
It disappeared. Thankfully, being a bit far from the shadows, Chlevern had some time to breathe and think of what he should do next.
'Shit, just when I needed Speed the most, it had to deactivate. I never thought that the system could auto-lock skills. But it never happened before. None of my skill was locked before, even when I fought in the School Arena and against Thomas. So why now?'
Just as he wondered, the shadows closed in the distance and tried to grab the shadow ball. Chlevern was holding the ball in his hands as it was too heavy to be kept in his pocket. But no sooner did the shadows tried to grab the ball, than they were hit with a kick on the head by Chlevern.
'Tsk, they got too close.', thought Chlevern.
He had already sensed danger and instantly activated his skill BloodBath to exert the fierce aura which prevented the shadows from approaching too close.
'Since I couldn't use my speed, I must to resort to brute force.'
He saw that the path ahead of him, was now hoarded by more shadows and the distance to the end was nearly a kilometer away. Chlevern quickly stretched his legs and lunged forward in the direction of the shadows. The lunge was not that effective as it was when he used his speed, but thanks to his ability Light as Quill, he leaped pretty far. There were too many shadows summoned in front of him and the ball too got a bit heavier. Chlevern used his skill BloodBath and instantly wiped out the five shadows surrounding him. Just as he annihilated the shadows, a message popped up,
[Message:
You have been using the skill BloodBath Lvl. 15 for a while,
Using it more will level it up.
Skill: BloodBath Lvl. 15 –―> BloodBath Lvl. 20]
*~~SWOOSH~~*
And the screen went off.
Chlevern was fighting with all his might. As he defeated a few shadows, he looked up to the timer above.
| 00:31:57 DuQuints Left |
He didn't have enough time by his hands. Time was of the essence and Chlevern was having a pretty hard time dealing with the shadows now. Even though, he was using the Skill BloodBath, the shadows too had gotten stronger. All of a sudden, Chlevern felt a giant fist coming towards him. He was busy fending off other shadows and the attack was quite fast.
He thought, 'Shit I can't dodge it in time. I have to take it on.'
As Chlevern was thinking, the sudden attack on him knocked him over a few metres to the side and he was bashed down with the force of the attack. He spat blood as he held on his abdomen, panting.
*Outside the Ground*
Cressida was watching all this from above. The way Chlevern was dodging, the way he attacked and how he was getting attacked and overthrown by numbers of the shadows. She felt quite helpless and somewhat worried. This was the first time she was worrying about someone.
Cressida was not the emotional kind of girl. The feelings of anxiety, worry, love were far away from her. The only feelings she truly knew were fear and a sense of superiority. Quite the opposite of each other. The fear she had of her master, and the superiority she had when she fought someone weaker than her. Not to mention, 'Rage', the emotion which she developed unconsciously were the only true feelings she had. Artendo, had known pretty well of her 'Rage' and so when she was being trained, he made her rage over small things which just increased her strength and stats. But every great power comes with a price. Every time Cressida was in 'Rage' mode, she would lose a little bit of her soul and her emotional balance would tear down slowly. Of course Artendo knew this, but did he care?
NO!
Afterall he was a demon, he made Cressida use 'Rage' to make her stronger in exchange of her, losing a part of her precious soul and emotional balance.
What did he do this for?
So Cressida could grow strong? Well kind of.
But his main reason was sadistic pleasure. He was a sadist as his name suggested, who liked watching people suffer, be it his own people. He would dispose them off once they served their purpose, which is what he did to Lilith, the Queen of Succubus'. Though Lilith was disposed off, she had a strong will and this led her to become what she was today.
But now it was different. For the first time in a while, Cressida was feeling anxious and worried for a certain someone, whom she hardly knew. She couldn't explain it herself. Why was she acting this way?
Well, the reason was simple. Chlevern had shown her genuine feelings. He jumped for her in the Punishment Chamber, protected her while she was out cold, and gave her a sense of faith she could have in him. The first time someone cared for her feelings and not just to take the advantage of the situation.
Cressida's heart was like an iceberg. But the ice was slowly melting from the warmth of an unknown feeling. Cressida watched as Chlevern was hit by a shadow and how he coughed up blood. This made her heart ache.
"OH SHIT, ARE YOU FINE??!", Cressida leaned over the barrier as she looked down on the ground.
Suddenly they again heard the voice,
"OH MY, IS THE PRETTY LADY WORRIED? HEHE, DO NOT WORRY 'MY' LADY, ONCE THIS IS ALL OVER WE COULD CHAT AS I WOULD KEEP YOU COMPANY AS THE BOY HERE DIES. HAHAHA!!!", the voice was now somewhat distorted.
Cressida felt a sense of unease and was now feeling something even more, which was a sense of being humiliated and yet couldn't be able to do anything.
*Inside the Ground*
Chlevern had heard everything that the voice said. But this time something awoke inside Chlevern. His face was now dark and the aura around him began to change. The atmosphere on the ground felt heavy and suddenly a huge wave of Bloodlust hit the entire chamber.
'WHAT DID HE SAY?! HE WILL NOT TOUCH CRESSIDA AT ANY COST!!!', was the thought Chlevern had and soon his bloodlust exploded beyond limit.
Cressida was now taken back the tremendous amount of bloodlust, so much that she almost fell from the immense pressure.
'OH MY DEMON, I-I-IS THIS EVEN R-REAL!? HIS BLOODLUST IS EVEN STRONGER THAN BEFORE. HOW IS ABLE TO MANAGE THIS AMOUNT OF BLOODLUST??!!!', Cressida was shocked beyond extent.
Suddenly, the screen popped in front of Chlevern,
[WARNING:
THE SYSTEM IS SENSING IMMENSE LOAD FROM THE USER,
THE SKILL: BLOODBATH LVL.15 WILL FORCE LEVEL UP!
SKILL: BLOODBATH LVL. 15 HAS FORCED LEVEL UP!
SKILL: BLOODBATH LVL. 15 ――> BLOODBATH LVL. 25]
And the screen went off. Suddenly the ground started shaking a bit. Small tremors could be felt by Cressida, even though she was high up.
All of a sudden, Cressida saw that the barrier surrounding her was shaking. It was struggling to keep up with the immense force, there was even a minute crack which was too faint for her to notice.
In a flash, Cressida heard a huge explosion from the ground. She looked down to the site of explosion and she saw that Chlevern was covered in a thick red aura and he was pacing towards the end. Every step he took formed a small crack on the ground and the shadows, which attacked Chlevern tirelessly were moving a bit away from him. All of a sudden the voice was heard again,
"HOW?? H-HOW CAN A MERE HUMAN EXERT THIS MUCH AURA!!? YOU COULD NOT BE A MERE HUMAN, YOU MUST BE A &%^$#!?"
The part at the end of the sentence was forcefully glitched. Cressida didn't get what the voice was trying to say, but she, who could sense one's emotions, could conclude one thing from the voice's voice, what he wanted to say isn't supposed to be said!
Cressida looked down again, but this time the sight below her gave a little bit of joy. Chlevern was almost over at the end of the ground with the ball safe in his hands.
Cressida was hoping this to end soon and before she could react, she was back on the ground with the block coming down. The barrier around her started to disappear and she only thought of one thing.
'WE WON!!!!'
The End.