Duncan glared right at Nikolas, who was just over Cade's shoulder in his view, and then charged ahead with a shout.
He slammed into the tall fighter and wrestled with him wildly. Their auras clashed in this slam, then he got hit by another bolt of lightning, right to his stomach.
The lightning bolt cut through his abdomen and dropped him right to his knees. The shear agony from having his dantian targeted made him cough blood, while placing his hand on the ground. (choose whether to keep dantian pain attack thing)
"I told you that you're not getting past me." Cade stated.
"He's... he's going to kill him!" Duncan shouted up to him, holding his stomach with bloodshot eyes.
He was shaking just kneeling there, struggling to try and raise up. However, the pain was too great. He had been weakened quite substantially and couldn't get back up.
Zeke just stood back, frightened from the whole commotion. His body just trembled as he stood there, watching this strong fighter blocking him off.
Nikolas hit Abel with a sudden, powerful punch, then grabbed onto his waist. Taking out one of his legs, he drove downward and managed to slam Abel into the ground.
Roughly dropping to the ground, he hastily got a better grip on the knife in his hand.
Abel just looked at this blade, frozen. It was almost like he couldn't believe the situation he was in. He'd almost zoned out for the past minute or so fighting this person, and had now snapped back into reality.
'A knife? He isn't trying to stab me with that, is he? He could kill me.' Abel thought to himself.
Thinking this thought, he was suddenly fuelled by his desire to survive. He wrestled with Nikolas fiercely, trying to free himself but there was nothing he could do. Orange qi enveloped his blade, and he thrusted his arm down.
STAB!
Slicing right through his armoured vest, the blade dug deep into his flesh and impaled his heart.
In the same motion, Abel punched Nikolas in the face repeatedly, but he was willing to take these hits.
Blood now dripped from his nose and mouth more profusely, and he just gave off a maniacal smile.
"Die, weakling." He uttered, looking down on Abel.
Abel took a wide gasp, upon feeling the agony within his chest from taking a breath.
As he gaped open his mouth, a few drops of blood from Nikolas' nose dripped down into his mouth. Instinctively swallowing, he didn't even have the energy to cough in reaction.
He was seemingly seconds from death and could feel the peripherals of his vision getting darker.
'This is it? Really? Before I even got to have a dantian?' He pondered, looking at his darkening vision.
All he could see was the smiling face of Nikolas looking at him. His arms dropped down to his sides, and his eye lids finally closed.
"NO!!!" Duncan roared, watching this happen.
In this sudden feeling of rage, he raised back up only to cough up more blood before he could act. Zeke was totally horrified, still frozen from Nikolas' sinister actions.
He just couldn't believe that this was really happening.
His friend, that he had known for many years, was now gone. Gone for good.
As Abel's eyes were closed, dark black veins started to scurry out from his eyes. Nikolas retreated right away, lifting onto his feet as he saw this.
Abel's eyes opened wide, and he grabbed onto the dagger in his chest to rip it right out.
In a flash, he was right back onto his feet and gave Nikolas a glare of fury and bloodlust. He had long, razor sharp fangs with his top two fangs being significantly larger than his bottom two fangs.
Black veins, scurrying out from the bottom of his eyes, covered his cheeks. His sclera were now a midnight black, and his eyes glowed a brighter amber-gold.
He had long, sharp claws and in a flash, charged right at his target.
Nikolas couldn't even properly react, before getting slashed across his face.
Cade turned to look at the sight of this ungodly beast. Taking only a quick glance, he charged in a random direction, and was gone in less than a second.
Nikolas received deep cuts across his face, before receiving such a strong punch to his stomach that he dropped to his knees.
"No..." Zeke whispered, watching this happen.
With another punch, Nikolas was thrown onto the ground, with a bloodied face. Blood flowed out from his nose and mouth, while slashes were present across his face.
Pow! Pow!
Abel rained down with savage slashes and punches onto his body. Each attack possessed such speed that Duncan could barely even perceive them.
Alarming amounts of blood could be seen around Nikolas' fallen body, and Abel growled with every attack that he threw.
Nikolas wailed and bellowed in pain upon taking these attacks and was horrified by the demonic face that looked down at him. He couldn't help but look away from the terrifying face, but this didn't do anything to help him.
Landing a heavy hitting downwards punch onto his chest, Nikolas stopped moving entirely. His arms fell totally limp, and his aura of qi disintegrated into nothing. His eyes lifelessly looked above him to the sky, and Abel just looked over him, heavily breathing.
He clenched his fists, and he was then grabbed by Duncan.
"We have to get out of here now, Abel. We have to go!" Duncan shouted, with Zeke there to assist him.
Abel continued to look down at his defeated enemy, as the black veins on his face retreated back to his eyes.
What he was glued to, though, was the blood covering his body. As he was pulled away by Duncan, he had this sweet, caramel-like aftertaste in his mouth and couldn't think of why this was happening or what could've caused it.
'Wait, the blood. It's the blood, but why does it taste so good?' He wondered, while running away from the scene.
As they ran off, though, Zeke just kept his eyes glued on Abel that was beside him.
A few hours passed, and the students were all called in back to the city. However, as the masters repeatedly performed head counts on them, they saw that they were one student down.
"Go and find him or retrieve his body if he is dead." The old master Klemens ordered.
Just with the pointing of a finger, numerous robed masters rushed into the forests, and did so even without armour or weaponry.
Their bodies engulfed in colourful auras of qi, and the students could barely see them after they only ran for a handful of seconds.
"Return to the academy with me and the remaining masters. I think we should call this day off early due to what's happened. In seven days, we will be going to a tougher zone adjacent to this one. It should've been on your maps and only contains beasts of the feral beast rank and above." Master Klemens ordered.
The students were forced to give their masters the crystals that they had attained. On one hand, they were being trained by taking down these beasts, but the city required a lot of crystals to keep itself running. Items like elixirs, enchanted armour and weaponry, these things required the crystals of beasts to work.
Just as they ordered, Abel and his friends left the academy, which left Abel on his signature lone walk through the city of Fragan.
He ended up in the ghetto-like quarters of the city left for the poorest of the poor and headed to his homeowner's restaurant to complete a shift.
The following days passed by, and Abel continued his training.
What he soon found was that his durability had taken a huge leap, and he had this new form of energy. It felt darker, but more intense.
It was hard for him to explain, but he could feel this latent energy inside him grow during nighttime. He attributed it to what happened after killing Nikolas.
The image of his blood popped up in his mind constantly, and he almost couldn't keep it out. After 3 days, he was starting to go through some very weird changes.
When he'd hand out with his friends, he could smell their blood within their bodies and hear their bodies pulsating. Sensing this, he felt a growing desire to drink such blood. In his head, it was revolting but he was still drawn to it, nonetheless.
Walking home from his shift, he traversed the dark streets of Fragan. The sky was covered in milky dots of white stars, and a bright, illuminating crescent moon. There were also golden lanterns, that enchanted the eastern buildings of the street.
A lone man, who looked to be in his twenties, walked past him. He was wearing the clothing of a commoner, and he could tell that he was no cultivator. Cultivators were given exclusive robes of a higher quality silk material.
Mortal, weak beings with only slithers of qi weren't given the privilege of wearing these clothes.
Trip!
The man fell over, then cutting his hand on of the rocks laid on the street.