YM778.TV Chapter 37: Unto the next!
He flung himself forward and shifted his hand into a sword; he cut down sharply and sent an arc of Unholy magic at the beast-man, who slid away, the attack only grazing him but leaving a scorching mark on the platform.
The beastman laughed. "Do you think I will attack you without first watching you? I\'ve watched how you fight. You can change your hand into tentacles and then fold it into a punch or a wing-like something with lots of fangs that you use as a sword.
"And then that last attack of covering it with green fire and sending it out. You are a fool to fight the Orcs like that where everyone can watch. Now everyone have seen you fight."
Jael didn\'t change his hand from a sword, even though it dripped blood like a spoilt tap. He was already feeling it, losing that much blood was making his head light. And his heart beating faster didn\'t help either. "You have shown me what you can do."
He wanted to keep talking so he might be able to catch him off-guard but the problem was that the beastman is too fast on his feet.
"But I haven\'t shown you all I can do."
"And you think I have?"
"Yes, and that is why you are stalling, but forget it. I\'m faster than the average Iron Awakeners. You can\'t catch me unaware."
\'Yes,\' Jael thought. \'He\'s right. I\'m currently putting all of Hermit\'s power into strength. I\'m only as fast as an average Iron now\'
Jael straightened. "So you\'re not here to kill me but to find a way to put me under your control."
The beastman smiled. "That is my way of fighting you. It\'s so much fun when I see them struggle under the contract, and I watch them break slowly."
Jael watched him flatly, and then he brought out a sword from his ring. A real sword, the one he bought some time ago. He ignored the beastman and crouched, he put the sword down and turned the sharp side upward.
Then he shifted Hermit into a single thick tentacle, he lifted the wounded tip. He mentally sent some words to Hermit, \'Sorry but I\'m going to have to cut you again, I\'ll give you delicious monster cores later\'
With time, Hermit can regenerate amputated limbs.
"Don\'t tell me." The bestman\'s face widens in horror.
He removed all the strength in Hermit and converted it to speed; then he brought his hand down on the sword, muscles and bones was cut off cleanly below the knife wound.
At first, he didn\'t feel pain, he felt a mild shocking sting, but then the pain hit, and he sucked in a sharp breath. He gripped the stump and groaned, clenching his teeth hard on the scream that threatened to explode out of his mouth.
The beastman watched in fascinated dark glee as Jael struggled and beat back a whimper \'I want him! I must have him\' he giggled and began walking forward, his dagger cutting the air casually. "Will you also cut off your head when I make it bleed?"
Jael breathed deeply in; his hand was throbbing in time with his heart, and he channeled it into anger. His eyes blazed and aura surrounded him, covering his body in Unholy smoke. "You\'ll die if you come closer." His voice is calm but colder than ice.
The beastman stooped, almost instinctively and he tilted his head at the human. How can he put so much threat and warning in that word? His body listened even before he knew. "You think you can kill me....!!"
The sky lit up with a blue flashing light, and a number–5– hung in the air; it began to count down. The beastman leaped at his platform. "Get out! Jump into the water!"
The two humans jolted and jerked; their eyes widening as their bodies obeyed without their consent. They jumped into the sea. "I will remember you, human!"
\'And I will.\' Jael watched him till blue light surrounded him, and he disappeared.
*****
It was the day after the test, and Jael was still on floor 102. He wore a green jacket that Litha had teased him on that he wore because it matched the color of his eyes. Litha wore a brown oversized shirt and baggy trousers, while Temur wore his usual with the white fur cloak.
"So this is the portal gate." Jael looked at it; this was the first time he had seen one. "It\'s impressive." The gate is a massive thing of blue light that stretches up into the heavens without end.
Out of the fifty thousand of group A, about three thousand of them survived, and some couldn\'t even go to the next floor immediately because they were wounded.
Jael wasn\'t fully healed and he wasn\'t the only one. Temur has even more wounds than him. Litha was relatively free from anything like that, and she didn\'t let them know the end of it.
"It is right? And this portal only allows upward climb; if you\'re coming down, then it\'s another one." Litha hadn\'t seen such a concentration of mana before, layered and weaved in such a complicated manner that looking at it directly gave her headaches.
"Wow."
The GUV officials surrounded the area. These are guards who wore weapons and looked at every Awakener as a potential criminal. They would check the small red crystal necklace–the mark of passing the floor test– around their neck before allowing them in.
They are not Ascendant but some of them are silver ranks that have climbed as high as their power reached. Jael and the others stayed clear of those especially when they felt their auras.
Finally, they reached their turn in the long queue that stretched long. Jael breathed long and hard. "So it begins."