"well if it isn't Zen, well at least i think you're Zen. Quite a nice surprise" said Crowley with a wicked grin
Zen turned around to face the person who was only a few meters behind him and Jade.
The moment Crowley saw his face his smile grew wider and he said
"Yep you're Zen alright. How's it been, i hear that this lame academy gives out abilities for free, I wonder if you took one, however seeing as the other guy isn't jumping for joy right about now, I'd guess you didn't.
"What do you want Crowley?"
Crowley chuckled and shook his head slightly
"Oh, you know i can't do that. Plus, I'm pretty sure you guessed it already, which means you know i have to kill you and that girl"
Zen didn't bother wasting more time with Crowley. He wasn't at all worried about Crowley's threat to kill him but he knew he had to get out of here fast because if Crowley was here for the reason he thought,the rest couldn't be far behind.
Jade who was next to him was utterly confused as she looked at this person who looked to be around her's and Zen's age, and seemed to know Zen. She had no idea what was going on. Did these two know each other? And if so, how.
Zen on the other hand was completely focused. He knew what kind of threat Crowley posed and wasn't about to take any chances
The moment he felt his presence he had already opened the system screen, and in front of him was his best chance of doing so
[Bloodline burst](ULTIMATE)
without any hesitation, Zen selected the skill and the next second, something unexpected happened
His eyes suddenly turned into slits as an immense predatory aura was released from his body at full power, releasing a wave of pure energy as he suddenly let out a booming bestial roar from his mouth which acted as a sonic attack, striking both Crowley and Jade, but where Crowley was only forced a few steps back, Jade had been knocked unconscious and blasted away like a ragdoll
Jade flew through the air unconscious and was hurled towards an area filled with ice spikes that would no doubt skewer her if she reached them
As Jade was only a few inches away from getting skewered, there was suddenly a silver flash and she suddenly disappeared from there.
A few meters away she reappeared still unconscious, and in the arms of a silver humanoid silhouette that looked like a person in sleek silver full body armour that covered everywhere.
The figure looked at the delicate unconscious green haired girl in its arms. It hadn't actually teleported to save her, it had simply moved so fast that only a silver flash of light could be seen.
Coincidentally it had landed in front of the raging beast that Zen and Jade had revealed.
Quite unlucky.
The beast roared, infuriated and tried to slam its huge fist into them but the figure had simply slashed forward with its hands in a leisurely manner.
The beast suddenly stopped moving. Two seconds later the beast that had seemed so dangerous suddenly fell apart into dozens of immaculate neatly sliced pieces and a pile of blood
A small glowing crystal suddenly and something else suddenly fell to the ground, noticing it, the figure picked both up. It had actually done all that while protecting Jade in its arms and while keeping her in a comfortable position at that. It had protected her both from the beast and the blood that splattered everywhere which it had somehow avoided completely, and without moving too, leaving its pure white and silver armour spotless
Looking towards Zen and Crowley who were now definitely going to fight,it sighed and thought
"There at it again.
Looking closely at Zen it noticed a peculiarity
"Hmmm, that's new"
A million thoughts were suddenly going through Crowley's mind as he looked at Zen's current state.
A visible white aura had completely encapsulated Zen, blowing his clothes and hair around violently, revealing his second eye which turned out to be a deep dark purple or violet.
Both his sclerae(the white in his eyes) had turned a deep blue. The most striking change however was the good quarter of the hair on his head that had turned completely white.
Looking at this Crowley was shocked
"Wait..... isn't that..."
A memory from his past suddenly flashed through Crowley's mind
«Flashback»
In an unknown place surrounded completely by darkness but was somehow able to be seen with a degree of clarity despite the lack of any illumination
Everywhere was filled with bloodshed and darkness, resembling a warzone. Even more horrific was that every single dead body was that of a child, with none of them looking to be older than ten years old and each and every one of them seemed to have been killed in the most brutal way possible.
Somewhere in this darkness was a certain boy. His clothes and hair were ragged and bloody. The strange darkness accentuated his glowing dual coloured eyes with blue sclerae. His raven black and snow white hair was blown around wildly by the visible wild white aura erupting from within him as the young boy's face contorted into one of rage and bloodlust which would have been thought to be impossible to see on a child so young.
The young boy suddenly let out a terrifying roar which was accompanied by a shockwave in all directions.
«End of flashback»
Crowley quickly snapped out of his thoughts and raised his hands to block the chilling cold winds in the dungeon that had been riled up by Zen's shockwave attack
"Looks like you still have some fire after all. I guess that time when we were kids wasn't a fluke or you cheating after all "
Zen ignored this statement, he had other things to think about now, like the system notifications
[Used ULTIMATE skill: Bloodline burst]
[All stats temporarily boosted]
[All elemental affinity temporarily boosted]
[All elemental resistances temporarily boosted]
[Special affinityDetected]
[Ice, darkness and??? elemental affinity further boosted]
[Due to certain circumstances, stats have been further boosted]
[Bloodline... Error. Error. Error]
[New quest received]
[Defeat Crowley]
[Reward:???]
Zen completely ignored these messages and didn't even bother looking at his stats
He knew Crowley well enough to know why he was here but that didn't mean he was going to hold back
Looking at Crowley, this time with both of his dual coloured eyes and decided to temporarily stop "that" as it would have little to no effect with Crowley
His presence seemed to flicker in and out before stabilizing abruptly. When it did,he seemed to look different but at the same time completely the same
Noticing this Crowley couldn't help but talk with a smile on his face
"Here i was thinking you'd changed. Guess you really are Zen"
The next second,they were both charging at each other fists first as they prepared to fight. Things like sizing each other up and stuff like that were pointless when it was these two fighting each other so they both simply went all in
As soon as they were both close enough, Crowley immediately took the initiative and launched the first attack, throwing his fist straight towards Zen's head, planning to deal a critical first strike
As Crowley had expected, the attack didn't connect as Zen slightly tilted his head to the side, causing the fist to go flying by just a centimeter from his head before he suddenly grabbed his fist , Zen suddenly turned around and the next second, with Crowley's arm over his shoulder, he flipped him over his head, planning to slam him into the ground.
Crowley's brows raised in surprise, but he wasn't about to get outdone. While in mid-air,he suddenly freed himself from Zen's grip and somehow did another flip mid-air, landing safely on his feet a few feet away from Zen.
Landing safely, Crowley suddenly smiled, but it wasn't a normal smile. His lips were curved to look like a smile but there was only bloodlust in his eyes which didn't match the rest of his expression
"Looks like you've gotten stronger. Well i suppose it makes sense. Unlike everyone else, who had to train abilities in conjunction with everything else, you only had one thing to worry about "
Although he said this, Crowley knew just how much harder than everyone else the person in front of him had worked. He'd constantly be trying to learn as much as possible about everything he could get his hands on, books, theories, weapons and even abilities which he didn't even have . He trained with every weapon or technique he could find and aced every simulation he could get his hands on. This made him a jack of all trades and master of none as he constantly learned bits and pieces of everything he could get his hands on, however due to his learning material and talent,a jack of all trades was enough,at least for the known world. That was the way he managed to survive in "The playground" for so many years without an ability, anyone who had survived had found their own way to do so, even Crowley and Raven, and this was Zen's way. That was the reason he had so many skills and also why none of them exceeded level 5 .
Crowley could still how he met the boy he'd later come to know as Zen all those years ago, although back then he wasn't known as Crowley.
He could still remember waking up in the morning much earlier than would be advised for a child his age so he could train and end up finding that someone had already been there for hours and was covered head to toe in sweat but still working like his very life depended on it. After a while he had realized that this kid spent more than half the entire day just training with any weapon he could get his hands on. He eventually asked his sister about him and she told him she had known him for a while now and even knew his number and ID. She told him that every morning she would wake up as early as possible just to watch him do what he did for as long as possible before going to do her own thing. With this info, he had ended up approaching Zen with his sister.
This was how Crowley, Raven and Zen had met, although back then they weren't known by those names
_____________________________________________
Crowley quickly stopped all his unnecessary thoughts and once again placed all his focus and attention on Zen as they both closely watched each other.
Zen could feel Crowley's judgemental gaze on him but didn't act on it. He knew Crowley had the right to judge him just as he had the right to put on airs in a fight against him, but that was only while he was using his ability, something which he hadn't done so far.
Freya who had been silent, suddenly spoke up
"Are you sure you want to do this Zen?"
She didn't like the idea of distracting Zen while he was in a fight but she just couldn't help it
Zen didn't reply. He very well knew that by now they would have surrounded this entire dungeon. He could already feel them all around him including from Crowley. Although he was almost a hundred percent sure they weren't here as hostiles, he couldn't exactly trust them.
Crowley suddenly dashed forward and with his left leg tornado kicked at Zen who had expected this and managed to grab his leg and without a second thought sent Crowley flying into a wall of ice
"He's fast" grimaced Crowley
With a grunt he was about to move but suddenly widened his eyes as he only barely saw a fist moving towards him before it slammed into his face and pushed his head harder against the ice wall
The next second punches started raining down on Crowley's head but he had managed to bring his arms up to block the barrage. Normally he would have hesitated to do this against another arcane as it left him open but he was betting on Zen's lack of an ability to help him survive. This however didn't mean he underestimated Zen, he never has,his current situation was proof that he shouldn't , so with some willpower and a fair bit of calculation he timed it right and grabbed both of Zen's fists in his hands.
Little did he know he made a big mistake
The moment he caught Zen's fists, his foot had made its way to Crowley's chest and immediately, Zen kicked off of Crowley's chest, putting some distance between him and Crowley who at this point was a little bit dazed.