"Hmm..."
Kaelen tilted his head slightly forward and allowed his arms to sway by his hip as though numb, the intensity in his eyes like the fierce burning of lithium salts.
"Didn't you say you wanted to take her from me? Why are you backing off?"
As he asked that question, his gaze never shifted from Thyra's frame even once.
[I can't keep allowing them to look down on me like this...]
[First it was the glares, now they're even bold enough to step up to me?]
Kaelen straightened his spine and arrested the swaying motion of his arms, his chin now tilted up and his eyes almost looking down on Thyra who was a short distance away.
[Right here, right now, with all the other Captains watching... I'll beat it into him that he's nowhere near as strong as me.]
In doing so, Kaelen wanted to fill them with the despair that he was much, much stronger than them, so that they can abandon all thoughts of competing with him.
This way, they won't cause trouble for him in the future.
[And besides... I can't let them take her.]
[I know she's creepy and all but...]
He glanced back at Veylith who wore her usual blank expression, the crimson tips of her snow-white hair cascading down to her brows.
<□ Veylith — LV. 7
Archetype: Executioner LV. 4 □>
[This monster...]
A cold sweat trickled down the right side of his temple as his eye beheld the writing hovering above her head.
[... She's too valuable.]
[Not only does she have the highest level among us, she doesn't have an ordinary class...]
Archetypes are classes that don't conform to the general norm, these are classes that are unique to a specific individual based on their initial actions.
For example, Kaelen merely had to wield and fell an opponent with a spear in order to be eligible of awakening his current class.
[Awakening the Executioner class is a bit...]
As he thought about the requirements to awaken to that class, Kaelen couldn't help but feel bad for the Homunculi who died by Veylith's hands on the day of the culling.
He did not dwell on the matter for too long though and reached into his pocket dimension, retrieving his spear, which was now completely made of steel, including its shaft.
[Magic Swordsman huh...]
He glared at Thyra.
[I guess he's already manifested Mana, and his class level is higher than mine, but...]
Crackle!
He imbued and concentrated the tip of his spear with his cherry blossom Mana, the air around him rippling with the energy he radiated.
[I am the superior combatant when it comes to Mana and it's utilization.]
He mused, and as if to prove his point...
Crackle!
Thyra coated his sword in Mana, but it was not condensed as Kaelen's, but rather, it burned on the surface of his blade like a dying flame.
"If I win this duel, will you give her to me?"
Thyra did not seem like he would back down, he would stop at nothing to have Veylith as his subordinate.
"Sure..."
Ta! Ta!
Kaelen charged, and he moved so fast that he left a pink blur in his wake, the tip of his spear slicing through the air, causing a strange whistling sound.
Ta! Ta!
Thyra grinned at this, and he too charged, leaving an azure-blue blur in his wake, his blade chiming as it tore through the air.
As they drew closer to one another, Thyra clenched tightly to the hilt of his sword and swung it from his right ankle in a wide arc, aiming to disarm Kaelen by striking the tip of his spear.
[I can see it... The path of his sword.]
Due to his passive skill, Mana Sensitivity, Kaelen could clearly see the path of Thyra's swing, from where it would begin, to where its wide arc would end.
It honestly would have been better for Thyra had he not imbued his sword with Mana at all.
Fwosh!
Kaelen calmly took a step back, and his opponent's blazing sword whizzed by his face, not even claiming a single strand of his hair.
Step!
Thyra used the momentum he gained from his wide swing and pivoted his ankles, generating even more momentum by rotating his body, unleashing a horizontal swing.
[Sigh... I guess I didn't need to draw Mana.]
He mused, unfazed even as Thyra's blade threatened to slice-open his abdomen and spill his guts on the floor.
Fwosh!
He calmly jumped to evade, and...
[!!]
Pow!
"Urgh!"
... He extended his knee, which connected squarely with Thyra's nosebridge.
"..."
Thyra staggered back a short distance, but his grip on his sword did not relent, only his left hand was raised to investigate the extent of his injury.
"You..."
He uttered that single word through gritted teeth, the tips of his fingers drenched with blood.
Crackle!!
The intensity of Thyra's Mana was raised, in fact, the plasma of energy not only covered his blade anymore, but the entirety of his body as well.
Ta! Ta! Ta!
This magnified his speed, strength, durability and agility.
But...
Fwosh! Fwish! Fwosh!
No matter how many times he swung his sword, he simply couldn't touch Kaelen. What made matters worse was the simplicity and ease at which his swinging blade was being evaded.
He felt like he was running amidst a heavy downpour whilst attempting not to get wet.
"No! No! This can't be!"
Roared the Homunculus named Thyra as he expressed an intense emotion, which was something rare for his kind.
[The gap between us can't be this much!]
[Were we not made by the same being?!
Fwish! Fwish!
"Aaah!!!"
Three bulging veins divided Thyra's frontal lobe and he desperately continued thrusting his sword.
"... What's the matter?"
A cold voice that dragged him deeper into the depths of despair seeped into his ears, and glancing at its source, he found the indifferent expression of his pink-eyed kin.
"Is it that hard for you to accept that I'm stronger than you? Better than you?"
Those words stung Thyra's heart, and he was frozen in place, his bright green eyes trembling with a concoction of emotions — again, an unusual phenomenon for a Homunculus.
"Sigh... I've had enough of this."
He slumped his shoulders, his boredom-filled expression worsening. He looked over to the other Captains who'd been watching their duel in silence.
"I know you all want a piece of me, for whatever reason."
"Maybe you too want Veylith, or maybe you want to prove to our Master that you're better than me..."
"It doesn't matter your reason..."
CRACKLE!
[!!],[!!]
Kaelen drew vast amounts of his Mana and coated the entirety of his being with it, the entire assembly hall was terrorized by the gusts of wind that his Mana generated, as well as the dense magicules it scattered all throughout.
"I want you all to come at me, so that I can prove once and for all that I am the ultimate Specimen and our creator's masterpiece!!"
In that moment, as he boldly uttered those words whilst engulfed by the bright pink plasma, his eyes shone brighter than ever before, and he exuded an intense bloodlust like that of a wild beast.
The four Captains had different reactions to this:
Thyra, feeling humiliated and utterly helpless, collapsed to his rear, and vowed to become stronger.
Sylas, the golden-eyed Homunculus with feminine features had a wide grin on his face, his entire body trembling as though he wanted nothing more than to lunge at Kaelen.
Ivar, the towering Homunculus, just stood there with a stoic expression, his bulky arms folded on his chest.
Draven, the one Homunculus who was without bright eyes, smiled eerily and his pitch-black eyes seemed to swallow the light from Kaelen's Mana.
Despite their different reactions, they all had one thing in common: none of them dared to step forward and challenge Kaelen.
Clap! Clap!
[!!]
"Now, now, settle down children."
A voice that instantly caught everyone's attention echoed throughout the assembly hall.
Turning their attention there, everyone saw the familiar gentlemanly roach standing at the center of the wide hall.
[... I couldn't sense him at all.]
Kaelen withdrew his Mana and noticed that even his eye could not discern the writing that hovered above the Roach's head.
[This must be due to the level disparity.]
[Well, it's not like I need it... I already know everything about him.]
He discarded his spear into his pocket dimension and they all neatly gathered infront of the Roach, each Decadon standing at attention behind their respective Captains.
"It is good that you're all in such high spirits, because today is a special day..."
Although the Roach had no lips, Kaelen could somehow tell that he was smirking.
"Lord Charymos and Lord Honyopi have come to an agreement..."
"Therefore, you're all embarking on a trip to first floor."
[Ah... Finally, could it be?]
Kaelen felt his heart begin to pump with excitement, sending jitters all over his body.
"... You're all going hunting."
The Roach concluded his brief, his words confirming Kaelen's guess, and with that, his excitement skyrocketed.