"Can you stop gawking, you've seen me naked before haven't you?" A heavy voice filled the room.
Whisper didn't answer but she looked away trying to hide the embarrassment evident on her face.
Her heart was beating quickly and it seemed as though she had been caught performing a mischievous act.
Suddenly she noticed that Aiden had walked towards her, he had abandoned his workout.
Climbing onto the bed Aiden leaned closer to her, his chiseled form revealed in detail.
Whisper froze as a masculine scent invaded her nostrils tempting her senses, she didn't know how to react so she closed her eyes.
She just met this man two days ago, but technically she'd worked with him for a long time.
A myriad of thoughts ran through her mind and she couldn't help but play with the notion, "If this man tried anything with me would I resist?"
Suddenly "gulp, gulp," the sound of gulping sounded out, prompting Whisper to open her eyes.
As she opened her eyes she found out that Aiden was drinking water, and this made her briefly confused.
Suddenly it clicked, Aiden was just leaning over to grab the bottle of water on the shelf.
"But he should have just asked me to get it," Whisper thought begrudgingly.
The following turns of events were normal and mundane, with Aiden and Whisper taking turns to use the bathroom and freshen up.
Packing their bags they checked out of the motel, and they strolled out leisurely, "Where are we going next?" Whisper couldn't help but ask.
Thinking about it for a bit Aiden didn't know what to say.
If he wanted to become stronger as soon as possible he had to eliminate all distractions.
Although he had a lot to achieve he didn't have the discipline to stick to his stick routine, with this in mind Aiden thought for a while.
Weighing his options he said, "Where going back to where we came from."
"The woods?" Whisper asked, in intrigue not knowing why Aiden would want to go back.
"Hmm," Aiden nodded, before darting in, "but first I want to meet an old friend."
As they walked Landon's voice sounded out on Aiden's head, "Aiden, I think you should take a look at your abilities."
Aiden was a little surprised to hear Landon's voice, the guy hadn't spoken all morning and Aiden had almost forgotten about him.
But upon hearing Landon's words Aiden nodded.
"I'll do that in a bit," he responded as he flagged a taxi.
Before long they boarded a taxi and Aiden relaxed a bit, opening the window Aiden summoned the book of souls and a dark floating book appeared in front of him, he wanted to see what Landon was so impatient about.
Name: Aiden
Race: Human (Advanced)
Level: First Gate (5%)
Strength: 4
Speed: 7
Stamina: 6
Agility: 3
Perception: 18
Soul energy: 5 (100%)
Temporary points:
"Wow," Aiden thought as he looked at the numbers, his strength and soul energy had increased by one point.
Although he didn't feel any different, this was proof that his workout had paid off.
"Say Landon if I recall correctly someone said I was wrong and that my idea would never work," Aiden gloated.
Hearing Aiden's words Landon was silent for a while before saying, "Yeah I guess I was wrong, I'll remind you every day and make this a part of your routine."
Hearing how serious Landon sounded Aiden just smiled as he said in his head, "There's no need to worry about that stuff, and you couldn't possibly know everything right?"
Whisper on the other hand was staring at Aiden from the corner of her eyes.
She saw him smiling, and she found this behavior odd, Aiden could sometimes be seen smiling or frowning to himself.
Sometimes he even looked at thin air and muttered to himself as if contemplating something, he seemed like a crazy person.
"It's rude to stare," Aiden suddenly said with a smile.
********
Meanwhile, in a twilight city's resident college Professor Smith stood in front of the music class
His unruly hair resembled a symphony of its own; he held a conductor's baton as if it were a magic wand, ready to weave musical spells.
Professor Smith had a mischievous grin on his face, the kind that seemed as though he could prepare a test at any moment.
But that was beside the point, with a wave of his baton he spoke, "All right class, today we're diving into the world of rhythm, remember it's all about keeping time, imagine your metronome is your new best friend."
Amanda a star student in his class raised her hand looking perplexed, "But professor, my metronome has abandonment issues, it keeps running away." She joked.
The class burst into laughter, and Professor Smith couldn't help but chuckle a bit, "Ah, Amanda, we'll work on your metronome's attachment problems, now, watch closely." He said.
With that he started tapping his foot in rhythm, conducting an invisible orchestra with his baton, "this is how you keep time, steady, like a caffeinated penguin on an ice rink." He said.
Hearing what the professor just said Amanda and her friends couldn't help but giggle at the image, professor Smith could be said to be the best music teacher on campus and Amanda enjoyed his classes.
After a few hours, the lesson was finally over, and the professor rounded up.
Amanda and her friends, Sarah, Mark, and Edward, strolled down the tree-lined path from their music class, their laughter filling the warm, late afternoon air.
At the same time, the sun painted the sky in shades of orange and pink casting a soothing glow over the college campus.
As they traveled through this tree-lined path the ground talked about the excitement of graduation.
"Hey Amanda, how's your older brother doing, did he tell you anything about the Silence yet," Sarah asked.
Amanda's older brother Bruce had finally passed the first and second rounds of selection last year and had come out as the best candidate of last year's selections.
As the best of last year's candidates, he was awarded a large cash prize as a reward, and because of this Amanda lived a comfortable life without the need to worry about her finances any time soon.
Hearing Sarah's voice Amanda replied, "No he doesn't tell me anything," she sulked, before adding in, "but he comes over every weekend, and I'm satisfied with that, after all, I can't keep my nice brother from fulfilling his dream."
"NICE?" Edward suddenly exclaimed as he darted in, "Your brother is scary," Edward shivered.
"That's not true," Amanda defended herself, as she continued, "and besides you're my boyfriend you're supposed to fear my brother."
"You guys should let the single breathe will you," Mark said with a sigh
"You're just jealous, you should hurry and ask Sarah out," Edward said to Mark.
"I'm right here," Sarah said with a frown shutting the two men down.
As the group neared the school gate they laughed while strolling among other students from different departments.
Suddenly Amanda noticed something in the distance, the air seemed to be distorting, as it wined and twisted.
Rapidly the distortion grew and in seconds it was visible to everyone, "A-A RIFT!" someone shouted, and just like that the students scattered in different directions running away from the school gates.
Edward, Sarah, and Mark were quick on their feet running back towards the academy building, meanwhile, Amanda who had been one of the first to notice was quickly overtaken by the crowd of students.
It was shocking how such a peaceful atmosphere could turn into one of panic and fear so quickly.
Meanwhile, the retreating students bumped into Amanda as they ran for their lives causing her to trip and fall.
She wasn't the only one who fell as a few students behind her had also fallen.
Suddenly something flashed out of the rift and before Amanda knew it "Ahhhhh!" she heard a miserable scream behind her.
Slowly she looked back and what she saw terrified her, standing nine feet tall was a being that looked like a bamboo stick.
But only its main body resembled this green plant, as the rest of it looked more like an insect, it had a thick base with four long limbs keeping it standing firmly on the ground.
Somehow it had a similar build to a praying mantis.
The only difference was its size and its similarity to bamboo.
On its upper body, it also had limbs, four extremely long razor-sharp limbs that looked like four thin spikes with saw-like edges.
These long limbs had a single joint in the middle, similar to the legs of a spider, right now this demon had pierced four different students at once with those limbs
Instantly killing them as they wiggled away the final bits of life present in them.
"Ahh, please, please," a girl at the side screamed as she tried to run, she was the closest to the demon.
The look in her eyes would make any human feel pity but demons were anything but forgiving.
"Pierce!"
A long limb pierced through her chest, and as she stared on with wide eyes, the girl felt as though she had been struck by lightning as she felt a mountain-like force briefly push her against the ground before effortlessly going through her body.
This girl wasn't the only one, as the demon quickly finished off all the students around it.
As the demon finished killing all the humans behind Amanda you could immediately tell who was next.
"Shit, Shit," Amanda couldn't help but curse, surprisingly she didn't freeze like normal citizens, instead she closed her eyes and ran away.
"Pierce," the limb scratched the side of her shoulder leaving a deep gash, "Ahhhhh," Amanda screamed miserably as the pain overwhelmed her senses.
The demon who didn't expect its prey to move missed its first attack.
Amanda opened her eyes only to see that the demon had raised another limb, swiftly its claw came down descending towards her at frightening speeds.
"Amandaaaaaaa!"
A voice yelled from the school building, she could tell it was Edwards's voice, and in her final moments she couldn't help but hate him, she knew she was being irrational right now but how could he abandon her?
But something was wrong, she didn't feel the pain of being impaled even though she had already closed her eyes.
Instead, she felt a shadow loom over her, encouraging Amanda to open her eyes and in that moment she saw something amazing.
A dark-haired woman with a purple glow in the depths of her eyes could be seen, she held onto the limb of the demon as her hand trembled a bit.
That saw-like limb that could cut and pierce through flesh like butter seemed like paper to this woman, though her hand was bleeding she managed to stop the demon.
"We should keep our distance," the woman suddenly said as she lifted Amanda like a baby while letting go of the demon.
"whoosh!"
Another limb pierced the spot where the woman was before but before then the woman had already disappeared as she moved from the spot.
Amanda felt her world spin, and the way this woman moved startled her, "Who are you, are you going to kill the demon?" She couldn't help but ask.
"I would have liked to, but someone wants to use it to train," the woman replied while looking towards the distance.
Feeling perplexed Amanda looked towards the gate and her eyes widened.
Towards the entrance, you could see a good-looking man walk through the gate leisurely strolling towards the demon, his uncaring composure an abnormality in this situation.
This man was closer to the demon so he naturally gained its attention.
"Landon, what are my chances," Aiden asked feeling an unusual amount of anger brew within his stomach.
Chuckling Landon said, "This demon is an infant demon a Woodiando, so it's not too strong, a bit faster than you Aiden, but I'd say you have a chance, its limbs though sharp are frail, and as a plus, you land a good blow on its main body it'll die."
Aiden didn't waste time, "Whoosh," a sharp green-colored limb pierced towards him, it was fast, but Aiden could follow it without even having to look.
His perception was quite high after all, he rolled to the side, and the limb pierced the floor.
"Bam!"
But Aiden didn't stop there, before the demon could retrieve its limb Aiden held onto it, "bang," he stomped on it with all the force he could muster as if trying to break a stick.
Though described slowly Aiden did this extremely quickly, and even though this demon was fast at striking it was slower when it came to retrieving its limb a disadvantage of the longer body part.
With the force of Aiden's strick the limb broke, and "Shirkkkkkk," an abysmal shriek sounded out but the sound didn't even make Aiden flinch, this demon was much weaker than the demons he had faced in that place.
"I guess that's the disadvantage of having pole-like limbs," Aiden thought as he looked at the broken limb in his hand.
But he didn't have time to ponder, in the next moment his instinct picked up the danger, "bam, bam, bam," three limbs hit the spot where Aiden stood previously."
Aiden had long since sensed the demon's attack, since it was too fast for him to dodge individually he just made some distance between him and the demon, and he jumped back.
Aiden wanted to close in and deliver more damage but he remembered something, "all I have to do is attack its body right?" he thought as he looked at the dark green limb in hand.
His right arm bulged as black veins pulsating with energy could be seen in them, "it's not quite a throwing knife but-"
"Whoosh!"
Aiden threw the knife in one smooth motion with so much force that the wind tore and the knife hissed as it tore through the air.
"Pierce!"
"Shirkkkkkk!"
Another abyssal shriek sounded out, the demon was impaled in its main body by its own limb.
"Now you know how it feels," Aiden muttered as he walked towards it.
With its main body pierced the demon couldn't stay alive and even though it struggled the demon collapsed before Aiden could even reach it.
Aiden didn't say much but he briefly froze as an intoxicating smell reached his nose.
He was so angry that he didn't pay attention to his surroundings, but how couldn't he, that demon had almost ended the life of someone Aiden considered as family.
Now that the fight had finished he could perceive the souls around him and he couldn't help but gulp, a sudden sense of longing drowned his senses, making him feel an inexplicable sensation of hunger.
Noticing Aiden's abnormality Landon chuckled, "It seems you're already getting addicted, you have to curb your hunger Aiden," he said.
Aiden agreed with Landon, compared to the souls of animals and demons human souls emitted a difficult aroma, the smell was so invigorating that Aiden felt his self-awareness slip a bit.
Landon was grim, "does it affect him this much? No I can't let Aiden consume these souls now," he thought before saying.
"Aiden last time I checked you have a skill called soul storage, I recommend you store the souls for the time being," Landon suggested.
Listening to Landon's suggestion Aiden agreed, he did have a skill called soul storage, but he didn't pay it any mind because he didn't know what it was used for.
Aiden felt like slapping his forehead, the name in itself was already self-explanatory.
Grabbing the soul Aiden didn't eat it like usual, instead, he thought of the skill soul storage.
"Whoosh!"
The soul vanished, feeling excited Aiden walked towards the other two souls and performed the same act.
"Tap, tap, tap," suddenly Aiden's ears picked up the sound of hurried footsteps, someone was approached him.
looking up Aiden was shocked to find a girl running towards him with widened eyes, this person was a girl that Aiden would never forget.
"Bam!"
She ran into him violently hugging him, "Brother Aiden," she sobbed, before darting in.
"Y-you're alive," she cried, Aiden didn't know what to say.
"You still recognize me?" He asked with a chuckle to which Amanda replied by sobbing harder.
As this happened a few people approached Aiden as well, these people consisted of a large group of students and staff with Amanda's friends being at the front of the group.
Looking at the Edwards one would notice that he was with a First Aid box his hands shaking slightly from the lingering fear.
Feeling Amanda's arms around his neck Aiden smiled, "You can let go of me, first let's treat that nasty wound on your shoulder and I'll tell you everything that happened," he said, to which Amanda nodded.
Looking at her friends she noticed that their eyes were all red from crying and Sarah was even shaking a bit, without exception all of them looked worried.
Amanda suddenly felt bad for hating them, they didn't abandon her, they were powerless and only ran for their lives as it was a normal human response to danger.
"Owch!"
She groaned as Edward applied disinfectants to the wound, "are you ok?" Edward asked immediately looking towards Amanda with even more worry.
Seeing how worried Edwards looked Amanda felt that he looked more cute all of a sudden, "hey Edward," she called out.
"What?" Edward removed his attention from her wound and looked towards her.
"Peck!"
The sound of a light peck sounded out as she kissed him on the lips, giving him a pleasant surprise.
Edward was happy at first until he felt a chill run down his spine.
He looked above Amanda's shoulder and saw the good-looking Contractor who just killed a demon staring at him with a frown.
"I'm dead," Edward thought.