But as Max was ready to speak when he noticed a volley of pink fireballs hurtling at him. They were so swift that he couldn't evade them all. So he had to settle for the next best alternative. He was able to avoid some of them, but others struck him, nevertheless, because they were not demon flames, they did not burn indefinitely.
After avoiding the last one, Max attempted to call lightning to hit Fey, but she was already behind him, preparing to punch him. He ducked and summoned his lightning sword from before.
But she grabbed it. Normally, any regular interaction with it should leave you stunned. So, how could she just hang on to it?
"I knew something was wrong, there wouldn't just be a kid with dark matter. It makes sense that you were a vessel, and why my dragon reacted so strongly to you."
'How do you even know its genuine name? I hadn't previously. And don't blame me for not informing you since you didn't either.'
"Everyone knows that, it's written in every book about me."
Max was a little humiliated, but he didn't show it.
Instead, he let go of the blade, letting it vanish in the air before summoning it with his left hand. However, it got intersected by Fay's blade. Since when did she have that? Max was so focused on the clashing that he missed the kick creeping in on his torso.
But he did sense the agony that accompanied it. He coughed blood, how did a kick penetrate his dark matter pillow?
"I believe I am going overboard."
Her eyes then returned to normal.
"Do you even know how you defeated Isaac? I'll tell you right away that it's not because you're so powerful."
Man chuckled while recovering from his agony.
'It doesn't matter how I defeated a lieutenant, it indicates I'm one of the strongest on the continent, right?'
"Normally, but with the multipliers and Isaac's restrictions, it doesn't."
'Restrictions? Multipliers? These seem like excuses to me.'
"Do you know what day it is? Today the sky is the darkest, and there is also a thunderstorm. Your drives were powered by an outside source as well as your soul."
Max appeared uninterested, for him, a win was a win regardless of how or why.
Her tone began to rise, she was definitely angry.
"And, due to your lack of understanding, you are probably unaware that everyone in the guild main house is required to wear a restriction outside of battle. So you were battling a weaker lieutenant at the peak of your powers, with the first phase of your dragon vessel powers activated."
First phase? There were more than the eyes? But Max wasn't bothered by it.
'It is not my fault that I lack the knowledge that others have, do you know how difficult it was to keep hoping for my powers to appear as a child? Do you think I desired to be a dragon vessel? Meanwhile, you're friends or something with yours, mine want to scarf down on my mind and take over my body. This dragon has only given me problems. If he or she, whatever it is, hadn't been here, I would have been able to use my drive, I would have been loved, and I would have been remembered as the first male in a long time to be strong in the Rose family!'
She scoffed.
"Do you realize how difficult these weeks have been for me? I wanted to believe you hadn't done it, but all evidence pointed to the contrary. How difficult it was to explain to your sisters why you were in jail? "You know they've always wanted a brother."
'What about these weeks? My life was never simple in the first place, it has always been difficult, I've been playing on hard mode while everyone else was on normal, and people like you on easy!'
The words stopped, instead clashing came. This time Max was doing better, but that didn't mean anything to him, after all, if Fay wanted to beat him she could just activate her dragon powers. Damn it, why couldn't he get a nice dragon? His was probably messing with his thoughts and emotions while he spoke.
From all the clashes Max noticed a pattern.
But when he tried to use his knowledge, she did something different, with Max's mistake she was able to put him to the ground.
"You feel for that trick? You truly are a dark silver class."
'Dark silver... could you please tell me all of this information at once, not later? It's wonderful to know something from the start.'
She sighed.
"I did it for your own good. I doubt someone like you could absorb everything at once."
'Perhaps I wouldn't. But it doesn't matter.'
"As you know there are then tiers to someone's soul class, each of these has three variants, dark, standard, and light variant."
Fay then let go of Max.
Max looked confused at her, was this a trap? No, it didn't look like it, after all, he was able to see some tears coming out of her eyes.
"Just leave and don't come back to this continent. Go before I change my mind."
She didn't have to say that twice. But after he was about to step out of the prison he heard something.
"You should know, if you take that step you won't be considered human anymore, but a monster. And also... you won't be part of the Rose family anymore"
Were they really lowering him that down, monsters are species that have such low dominance that they are just put in a group with others like them. That is what a monster was, a less fortunate species.
But no. They weren't lowering him, he was always at that level, he was never truly considered human by others. And he couldn't care less about leaving the Rose family again.
The silence was broken by a single step.
...
Some days later, Fay was at a funeral, a funeral for everyone who was captive in that hellhole.
People were crying left and right, some could only curse Max.
The place was full, people came because of their loved ones' deaths but also to show respect.
A man approached Fay and handed her a card.
It was an adventure card.
***
Name-Max.
Class- Swordsman.
Style- Augmenter.
Soul capacity- DD Rank.
Drives- Blue Lightning and Dark Matter.
Species- Dragon Vessel.
Guild's titles- The Dark Dragons Vessel,
People's title- none.
Soul class- Dark Silver.
Final ranking- D Rank.
***