Closing his eyes regretting all the things he couldn't or didn't accomplish, Astrick was finally prepared to die and see the end to all his suffering, he was finally ready to meet his end.
But even after a few seconds of waiting the pain he was expecting never came...
Opening his eyes slowly Astrick saw a shadowy figure of a man holding a black sword with a surprised look on his face as if he can't believe what he just did...
Following his line of sight Astrick could see the guy responsible for his current state.
Down on the dojo's floor, Conor's body was just lying there lifeless with no sign of movement of any type.
Astrick got his eyes back up towards Karl as he asked,
"Is he...? "
But before he could finish off his question Karl decided to answer it immediately and assure his doubts,
"Just unconscious... He'll live, but we'll need to fix his arm problem, he's losing a lot of blood too fast..."
Karl's words made Astrick sigh in comfort, after all, he knew that Conor wasn't in his right mind and was just unable to control his bloodshed, and it wasn't like he had any personal vendetta against him.
As for how Karl was able to knock Conor out unconscious, Astrick could tell that he took him by surprise as he was charging towards him.
Anyway, Astrick didn't think he bled for nothing as he couldn't wait to ask Conor how he did it, because Astrick was completely sure that Conor was a completely normal human.
But yet somehow he was able to fight and even beat someone in the mid-stage demonic rank like him.
A mid-demonic rank... !!
It's worth noting that the demonic rank is on a completely another level, and ranking up from there takes much more time and effort than the ranks before, in fact, some might get stuck in that rank for years despite their talent, after all, the amount of hard work it needs is not something to be joked about.
And what makes each rank after breaking through the demonic rank more important than all the previous ranks is the fact that with each breakthrough there is a chance the person awakens a new skill for the ability.
Though it's not that high of a chance, it's still very important and valuable to awaken another skill as in some cases it might be equivalent to having an entirely different ability.
Another important fact is that in the same stage and rank the power levels are completely different from one person to another, as there are many people in the same rank but yet some of them are much stronger than the others.
It is also worth knowing that fighting equally and beating someone who's one small rank higher than you is nearly impossible, so beating someone that is three main ranks higher than you is something no one should be able to do even if they sacrificed their lives for it.
Which is why Astrick couldn't understand how Conor was somehow able to beat him...
But Astrick didn't want to waste any more time thinking about this stuff as every second wasted meant less chance of being able to save Conor.
And so after that, he with Karl took Conor to the military doctors, they also partially explained the situation to the people and officers responsible for the order inside the base.
After checking a few things to make sure the two aren't making things up, the officers left the two to do their things, Karl told Astrick that he'll stay to check Conor's condition and if anything happens to him, he also told him he can use the dojo freely to train till Conor is awake, which Astrick gladly accepted as he immediately went there afterwards.
...
Two days later, Astrick's body was swimming in sweat as he kept hitting the same wooden dummy Conor was training with when they first met, surprisingly, this tool was so strong it could take Astrick full-strength punches without breaking or having a single crack in it.
Astrick was punching the wooden dummy so hard that a person might mistake it for his archenemy, his hands were bleeding but it didn't stop him from striking the dummy as strongly as he could, he had an angry look on his face as he kept on hitting the dummy with his full force.
"Huff... Huff... "
Astrick sat on his back gasping for air as if his lungs can't get enough of it, he was so tired as he has been punching that dummy over and over again since this morning...
He was hoping that striking it might somehow cure his frustration but unfortunately, all it did was remind him about it...
Lying on the ground with his arms spread he recalled what happened when he was fighting Conor, remembering what happened made an ugly expression appear on his face, he wasn't angry because he lost to a normal human as he considered Conor to be one of the strongest people he had ever fought or met.
What made him angry was his incapability to do anything in front of Conor killing intent at the end and how he fell to his back like a scared cat, he was angry at himself for being this pathetic and recalling this moment just made a bitter feeling arise inside of him as he thought to himself.
'Stronger... I need to become much stronger... '
With this newfound determination, he went back to training ignoring his current state as he made a promise to himself to become as strong as possible.