--3rd Person POV--
"Hello", Noah said to Ray with a bright smile on his face. But for Ray, Noah's smile looked like the evil smirk of a demon who is here to ask for his soul. Even the thought of it sent shivers down his spine.
Multiple thoughts ran through Ray's mind about what made Noah come to him and say hello. Neither do they knew each other nor have they met before. He was confused by the sudden appearance of the main character.
Since Ray had read [ The Third Calamity ] he knew very well that Noah doesn't introduce himself to random people until and unless they have piqued his interest.
While Ray was busy in his thoughts, Noah scanned Ray from top to bottom to see any differences. This act of Noah wasn't caught by Ray as he was too busy thinking.
The reason why Noah scanned Ray's body was because he thinks that Ray is a demon or has made a pact with a demon.
Making a pact with a demon makes humans stronger as the demons give a part of their mana to human beings while making a pact which makes them stronger.
The amount of power received by humans from forming pacts depends on two factors. First is the rank of the demon, if a demon's rank is A then the power provided by it will be more than the power provided by a B-rank demon.
The second factor is the amount of impure mana a human body can hold. Impure mana is the mana that is tainted and is very hard to control. This is the reason why most of the lower-ranking demons have no intelligence and they attack on impulse.
A human with a stronger body can hold a lot more impure mana making them comparatively stronger to a human who can store less impure mana in their body.
Making a pact with a demon has its perks, but it also has flaws to it. That too very grave flaws.
The person in the pact with the demon becomes the slave of the demon. The demon could easily kill the human with a flick of his finger and the said person won't be able to do a thing about it.
Similarly, if a person loses control over the impure mana then they will become a mindless killing machine unable to differentiate between a friend and a foe. Then the only way to stop them would be to kill them.
The reason why Noah thinks that Ray has made a pact with a demon is his skills with the spear. When he saw him practice last night, he was clumsy as fuck. Someone shouldn't be able to enter Avalon with such skills. Even though it's a hunch of Noah, he thinks it's better to be safe than sorry.
The humans who have made a pact with the demons are called denizens.
--Ray's Pov--
"Hi" I replied to Noah after thinking for a few seconds.
"Would you like to have a quick spar with me?"
Noah asked me. When I heard this I wanted to run as far as possible. 'Oh god, what did I do to deserve this?' I thought while looking up at the sky.
"Sure, but please go easy on me," I said after thinking for a while. Running away right now won't benefit me in the long term. Fighting with Noah right will make me understand the gap between us properly.
"Let's head to the sparring area," Noah said to me with a grin on his face. The sparring area was located on the other side of the training facility so it took us good five minutes to reach there.
It was a square arena that was covered by a protection field on all four sides. The protection field was there to prevent long-range attacks from hurting anyone.
There was a medical room at the right of the fighting arena. It was for the treatment of the people if they get injured while sparring.
We made our way towards one of the arenas and activated the barrier so that our attacks don't go out of the arena.
A large crowd has been gathered around us. Since Avalon's Newbie 1st rank was going to fight a nobody, word spread about it quickly.
People were looking at me with pity in their eyes. Some were talking about how the 1st rank was bullying a nobody.
Ignoring them I took my spear out and got into a fighting position. Noah was standing at his place as if he was standing in a line to get some food. No tension or worry was on his face, the only thing visible on his face right now was his smug smile.
I knew Noah wasn't taking me seriously. Catching him off guard right now was my only chance at winning. After thinking for a while I threw my spear aside and dashed towards him.
For others, it might seem like I have given up on the match but I knew, this was my only chance at winning. As soon as I was an arm's distance away from Noah I made an ice spike and threw it towards Noah's legs.
But before the ice spike could hit his leg he dodged it and said,
"I call upon you
Sword of the fire God
Igris
Burn everything in your way and help me
forge a path of my own."
As soon as he said that a sword started materialising out of thin air. It was reddish-yellow in colour and was exerting a large amount of heat. The heat was so strong that it started melting the iron in the arena.
I quickly grabbed my spear and swung it aiming for Noah's neck. But before my spear could reach anywhere close to his neck, Noah's changed the direction of the sword and aiming for my face. I tried to avoid it by bending my body to the right but was knocked out by the strike. I was too slow.
The last thing I saw before fainting was the disappointment in Noah's eyes.
--Noah's Pov--
'Why did this fucker get knocked out so soon? I thought he was a denizen, tch.' I said to myself while gripping my fist. The fainted boy was lying in front of me.
Who would have thought that he had an ice ability. He doesn't seem to have made a pact with a demon but it might be interesting to keep him around in the future.
While I was lost in thoughts Hannah came to me and said, "You jackass why did you challenge a no-name like him. Don't you care about your reputation?"
"I thought he was a denizen so I challenged him to check it," I replied to her.
"Are you sure?" she asked in a surprised tone.
While we both were talking Luke and Alice had also arrived and were listening to our conversation.
"Don't worry it seems my hunch was wrong," I said to Hannah trying to make her calm down.
"Why don't you challenge me Noah? I think I am a denizen, pretty sure," Luke said to me in a mocking tone.
"Nah, you are too weak for it," I said to him and started walking out of the training facility.
---
While all this was happening, Ray was sleeping a peaceful sleep in the medical room not knowing that he won't get any sleep in the future.
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