William jumped forward, his hands coated in a faint golden layer of vibrating Vitin that helped him fend off Braun's goons. Meanwhile, Luciferis was trying his best not to get crippled fighting against the much more powerful man, who was now enraged.
"Leonidas! I'll have your head on a pike!"
'This stupid meatball, he thinks he'll get away with killing a noble?!'
Luciferis knew that Braun's brain wasn't being used anymore, yet Luciferis couldn't get distracted, or else he wouldn't be able to defend against Braun.
Luciferis was trying his best, using the environment to his advantage, jumping across tables and throwing chairs and trays. But they did nothing to Braun, who continued his charge, punching Luciferis whenever the boy let his guard down.
"William! A little help here?!" Luciferis blocked another one of Braun's punches; he felt the force go across his whole body, almost cracking the bones of his forearm.
But William himself was far too busy handling his own opponent, a slender man who was using the metal trays as darts.
"No can do, Leonidas!"
He shouted as he tackled Braun's friend onto a table, slamming his elbow again and again onto the man's face, who was desperately trying to fight back.
'I swear to god... Trouble follows Leonidas wherever he goes.'
Luciferis shifted his gaze back at Braun, who picked up a large burning log for the fireplace. The smoke was almost burning the hair inside Luciferis' nose.
'Oh hell no.'
Luciferis sprinted forward, his eyes widening as he just barely managed to dodge the log which Braun had thrown.
'Crazy bastard!'
Luciferis jumped up, his heel connecting with Braun's temple like a hammer as the larger man almost collapsed from the impact.
Even without Vitin, the Hero could see that his attacks were starting to take their toll on Braun's body.
But before Luciferis could land on the ground, Braun caught him by the head.
"You slippery brat." Braun's grip tightened around Luciferis's head; it felt like it could be crushed at any moment.
Thankfully, before Braun could do any significant damage, William jumped into the fray, punching his liver with all his strength as Braun collapsed to the ground, the wind knocked out of him.
"You're like honey for these stupid idiots..."
Luciferis breathed heavily as he sat down on the ground, looking over his shoulder to glare at the people who were initially shouting at Braun to 'get him,' were suddenly all quiet.
"Submissive dogs..."
William raised an eyebrow, both amused and surprised by the harsh words coming out of Luciferis' mouth.
"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" He taunted slightly, putting his hand forward for Luciferis.
"Shut up..." Luciferis grinned, accepting William's hand to use as support to stand up. "I don't know why he even picked a fight with me in the first place..."
William shrugged; he was also dumbstruck. Braun wasn't the type of guy to actively abandon reason and to pick a fight.
"I guess he's just really mad? Let's just go back to the tent. I mean, weren't you going to the lake?"
Luciferis' eyes widened as he immediately bolted towards the door. Surprising, even William with his speed.
'He wasn't even moving half that fast against Braun...'
(...)
Alize was impatiently standing at the riverbed. She had been waiting for her student for the past few minutes and was tempted to bash his head if he was even a bit more late.
Finally, Luciferis arrived out of breath, with his sword on his hip.
"I'm sorry for being late... It's just that I got into a fight."
Alize was about to strike the top of her student's head, but as she heard that Luciferis got into a fight. She raised an eyebrow, her hand returning to her side.
"A fight? With who? And, did you win?"
Luciferis breathed a sigh of relief; thankfully, he didn't have to get another beating today.
"Well, Braun's brothers were killed because my father sent them to fight against a group of monsters. And he wanted to take revenge by harming me... And I think I won? I fought dirty, though."
"Okay then. You won. That's all I care about. And did William help you?"
"Yep," Luciferis mumbled slightly bashfully. He was feeling a bit indebted to his fellow trainee. "If it wasn't for him, I would've been dead meat."
Alize held back a smirk as she leaned against a tree. Her eyes had that same mischief in them.
"I see... Well, just get into the river. I've cleaned it up this time as a reward. Do it like we normally do."
"I noticed." He bowed down, checking the water. While it was still mostly murky ice, it was a lot cleaner; it seems like his master really did put some thought into this.
(...)
Luciferis took a few deep breaths; the cold had become a lot more bearable all of a sudden.
'Considering the color of my Vitin, and the fact that I'm becoming more and more resistant to the cold. My previous Element of Light is going to be replaced with a Cold Element.'
He sighed deeply. There were 4 Groups of Elements: Formless, Hot, Cold, Metallic. And he had the most useless one ever.
'Cold Elements are really strong, but they're hard to learn and consume too much Vitin... I always mocked them in my previous life. Seems like karma really does exist.'
Luciferis grunted. It seems that Alize was purposefully trying to make him cold so he could have a better understanding of his Elemental Group.
"Alright, now let's do something different. Right now, half your body is above the water." Alize smirked, putting her boot on top of her student's head and pushing down on it.
"Now, time for a few minutes inside, eh?"
Luciferis gritted his teeth, pushing Alize's foot away, but he reluctantly obliged, submerging his body in the cold, icy water.
He held his breath as he slowly realized what Alize was trying to make him do.
'My body is refusing to get a breakthrough. So she's gonna take this much of a drastic measure, huh?'
On the surface, Alize looked down at her student's figure inside the water with a frown.
'I haven't told him this, but Vilkens is getting pretty impatient since the Noble Hunting Ceremony will start soon as well. So this method is necessary, forcing his body to use Vitin in order to survive.'
Luciferis wanted to surface; he wanted to take a breath of air, but he forced himself to stay underwater, yet his heartbeat didn't slow down. Instead, it became faster and faster until it suddenly stopped.
'So this was enough for a breakthrough, huh?'
His thoughts drifted off, his eyes closing as he felt a sudden freezing sensation take hold inside his body.
The vibrating cold sensation slowly made its way from the centre of his heart to the rest of his body. Before, it felt like his muscles, his bones, and even his hair had become solid ice.
(...)
Luciferis was standing on top of an island, floating on black waters, the red snow crunching beneath his feet. The weather was cold, but he was unfazed; instead, his entire focus was directed towards a mountain where a pack of wolves was.
They were terrifying, twisted, mangled, even demonic to some degree, with their red eyes staring back at Luciferis.
'Starting from Rank IV, to climb up the Ranks. We have to go through a test. Most of them are mental or test willpower, but this one seems to want me to kill these mutts.'
The wolves slid down the mountain, their howls and growls getting louder and louder as Luciferis simply held his hand out, a sword appearing in it instantly.
"Well, it's been a while since I've fought monsters like these. I'm gonna have fun."
He clenched his sword tightly as a few of the faster wolves came into view. His lips quirked upwards before he lunged forward, killing one of the wolves in a single strike.
"These guys are probably Tier 3 in strength... But considering they're damaged and distorted as hell, they're way too weak to challenge me right now."
Luciferis' eyes glowed with a cold blue light, his breath turning into mist. The wolves almost cowered as their eyes locked onto his.
'If they are this weak, there might be an Alpha wolf coming here. That's gonna be a bit of a problem. But I just have to survive until the clock runs out.'
His eyes narrowed at a golden hourglass floating in the sky, the sand inside falling at a sluggish pace.
'Looks like I'm here for half an hour. Until then.'
He swung his sword, the blood flying off as once again, he jumped forward, facing the wolves head-on.
'Until then, these guys are my prey.'
(...)
Luciferis stood in the middle of the corpses of the wolves; they seemed to be never-ending. It had been almost 10 minutes, and he had killed at least 40 of them already.
Just then, a howl, as Luciferis saw the day change to night almost instantly, the golden moon covering most of the horizon, so close that he could see each individual crater.
His eyes turned towards the forest where a werewolf walked out from, its fur black as the night and its eyes were blue like sapphires.
'Seeing as how it's somewhat humanoid and isn't attacking me, I can guess that it has a consciousness.'
Luciferis cleared his throat, taking a step towards the werewolf whose claws suddenly became sharper, like it was preparing to fight.
"Well. Can you understand me?"
"Does it matter? You'll kill me anyway." The werewolf's voice was heavy, filled with resentment and anger. It seemed like it was trapped here for a while.
"Let me guess. You got cursed by some Orchel in your life? Because you're permanently stuck here."
The werewolf raised one of its eyebrows. That didn't make sense to it.
"Yes, I was cursed, but how did that make me a slave used for awakening Orchels?"
"That I'll explain if you become my Familiar." Luciferis extended his hand forward, a smirk on his face.
"Your Familiar, huh?" The werewolf repeated sarcastically as it slowly approached.
"I'd rather die than serve the Orchels again."