Spirit Soul

While sizing up the young man called Melin, Kyle was not sure how to feel right now.

On one side, he was eager to fight, but on the other hand, everything was, once again, weird.

Since they had left the flying island, every single encounter with some sort of intelligent lifeform had been odd, and if possible, he would love to go back to the same old 'hack n slash' with other beasts.

The current situation where Kyle was forced to stay formal and to pay attention to how he behaved, was not his cup of tea.

He just wanted to cultivate, become stronger, and fight against others using his entire strength without anybody's interruption.

However, reality was different, and it was important for him to figure out a better way to solve his issues.

During the last few weeks, he had avoided fights, but now this was different.

Yet, even though he was allowed to fight, it was not of his own accord.

Instead, it had been forced upon him, which was frustrating.

As such, the accumulated tension and frustration within him were about to be finally unleashed.

Beatrice had sensed that Kyle's mood had worsened during the last few weeks, which was one more reason for her to believe that he wouldn't hold back even the slightest bit in the fight against Lyon's direct disciple.

Rather, she was sure that even if Kyle was about to lose, he would never give up, and that he would accept being severely injured as long as it meant that he wouldn't lose.

This was something Beatrice was sure of since the day she had witnessed a single tear trickle down Kyle's cheek, as the emotions of his past had resurfaced in a moment of despair.

On this day, her life had changed because she got to know that Kyle was the one she had been waiting for since her birth.

Nevertheless, she couldn't help but feel a little bit frustrated by the thought that he would continue fighting even if he was clearly losing.

At this thought, she shook her head, calling herself stupid for thinking that Kyle might lose.

'Even Yasmine thinks that he will win, and she doesn't even know Kyle!!"

Looking at Yasmine, who was standing next to her mother, Beatrice could clearly see the glint in her eyes.

However, oddly enough this didn't bother Beatrice as Yasmine averted her gaze from Kyle to her with the same brightly gleaming eyes as before.

'Just what does she want?'

It was not difficult to figure out what Yasmine wanted, but at the same time, it was too easy to notice that it was unlikely to be the truth.

As such, Beatrice couldn't help but be confused.

Yet, instead of paying this any more attention, she turned towards Kyle, who had already entered the combat arena.

He was still wearing the same clothes as before because the worn out leather armor was what protected him the best.

Holding the silver serpent spear in his hands, Kyle changed his stance before deeply staring into Melin's eyes that traveled from his feet to head, sizing him up in a nonchalant manner.

From the looks of it Melin didn't think highly of him, but Kyle was not concerned about that.

Rather, it was good for him.

Acting as if he was a worthless opponent, Kyle let Melin think of him as a  pushover and the battle started.

The moment the battle had begun, a faint projection of enormous wings sprouted out of Melin's back, making it seem as if his physical wings were just a pair of two sets of wings and the weaker part at that.

Flapping his wings once, Melin crossed the distance of more than ten meters in an instant, clearly showing the tremendous speed he was able to reach from faraway.

Manifesting two fireballs in his hand, he threw them towards Kyle.

On the other hand, Kyle had yet to move and was circulating Soul force through his body, strengthening everything equally.

When the battle started, he was ready to release his energy explosively which would have allowed him to be catapulted towards Melin.

However, that wouldn't have been to his advantage because he could only roughly gauge the combat awareness of his opponent.

Thus, the first thing Kyle did was to figure out how strong the special trait and the fire affinity of the young man were.

Before, he had assumed that it would take a bit longer for him to do this. But from the looks of it, Melin didn't seem to have changed his tactic and wasn't holding back. It was contrary to the way he had looked at him beforehand.

After all, Melin was unbothered by Kyle and didn't think highly of him.

Perceiving that the young man didn't hold back was a clear indicator about the lessons he had received, and to never hold back even if your opponent might look weak.

This was what Kyle had hoped to happen, but to his misfortune, he was not underestimated.

Yet, rather than seeing this as a downside, Kyle couldn't help but smile in excitement.

He was ready to put a good fight because Melin seemed to be much stronger than he initially expected.

Because of that, Kyle released faint traces of the wind affinity which he used in order to increase the velocity of his spear's movements.

Through this, it was not a problem to stay on the same spot as he was right now before he cut through the fireballs that flew towards him.

Once he had cut through them, they exploded and created a cloud of smoke.

It was an unexpected outcome, and something Melin had learned to do from a young age.

His comprehension of the fire affinity seed was great, but at the same time, it barely allowed him to create unique types of attacks, which were the smoke-filled fireballs.

Having expected Kyle to cut through the fireballs that didn't have much firepower, to begin with, Melin shot through the smoke, his face shielded by a faint layer of mana to prevent smoke from entering his eyes.

He knew where his opponent had been standing before the fireballs exploded, and he had also been aware of the fact that the fireballs would create a cloud of smoke, which shouldn't be the case for Kyle.

As such, the moment he advanced through the suddenly emerged smoke, Melin had hoped to face an astonished Kyle.

Yet, contrary to his expectations, Kyle was neither astonished, nor at the same spot as before.

Instead, he was standing right in front of Melin and thrust out with the Silver serpent spear, aiming straight at his chest.

There was no hesitation in the faintly gleaming emerald eyes of Kyle, and by using faint traces of the wind affinity, his thrust had reached a shocking velocity.

Because he had exerted the Swift Steps movement technique the moment the smoke had emerged, followed by being able to see Melin's hue owing to the Nurture ability, it had been possible for him to make use of the surprise attack.

Now the tables had turned and Kyle surprised Melin with his sudden attack. This forced him to release a large amount of mana to manifest a head-sized fireball in the trajectory of the Silver serpent spear's thrust so as to block it.

Upon coming in contact with each other, the fireball exploded, forcefully halting the spear thrust's advance, and ended Kyle's attack.

Before Melin could counterattack, he jumped back and was able to evade the sudden slash of a dagger that seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

Moving quickly while thinking on his feet, Melin flapped his two sets of wings once again before he advanced towards Kyle.

Two daggers had suddenly emerged in his hands, and one of them was already slick with blood.

When Kyle saw this, he felt a sudden sting around his shoulder area.

A moment later his leather armor came off, revealing his soiled and crumpled clothes.

Now he was completely exposed, but even if that was not something to be happy about, Kyle couldn't pay any attention to it.

Melin was already in front of him, using all kinds of exotic movement sequences in order to injure him with the set of daggers he used.

However, every single time, the daggers were close to injuring him, Melin missed him as Kyle made use of the fact that he cultivated with Soul force.

His innate physique was stronger than Melin's even if he was at a slightly higher cultivation base.

As such, the special trait of the young man was his only means to exceed Kyle's speed.

Fortunately, that was not enough to injure him over and over again.

And, it was only when Melin slashed at him a few more times that Kyle felt that he finally got the hang of it.

While fighting against Melin, he recalled the wind currents of Horice. They had been imprinted in his mind, and it was only now that he was free of any other thoughts to distract him.

The timing was the worst, but somehow, his mind didn't want to allow him to focus solely on the fight.

As such, he was struggling to deflect Melin's attack, which was extremely difficult given his distracted mind.

Furthermore, Melin had enveloped the daggers he wielded with a layer of flames.

This made them more lethal and increased the lethality of his attacks.

To Kyle's fortune, he had finally comprehended something when the onslaught of fire enveloped daggers struck him.

Owing to this, Kyle's entire body was suddenly releasing strong wind currents, altering the trajectory of Melin's attack.

Before Melin could counter the wind, Kyle brandished the Silver serpent spear to collide with one of the daggers.

With great force and velocity, Kyle thrust the spear forward, forcing Melin to loosen his grasp around the dagger.

Had he not done so, he would have been left with several broken fingers, or even a broken wrist.

Through this Melin realized that Kyle's physical strength was higher and it had been a mistake to take him lightly.

Melin seemed to be at a disadvantage because the emerald-colored youth's combat awareness was probably even higher than his own.

He didn't expect this to be the case, at all, but what could be considered even worse was the fact that Kyle's cultivation energy was extremely weird.

Not only was it extremely powerful, but it had other traits intertwined in the energy he released.

These traits caused Kyle's exerted technique to be extremely strong, while the same applied to his wind affinity that was oddly powerful.

However, what Melin couldn't understand was how Kyle was able to release enough energy to envelop his entire body and still have enough to enhance the velocity at which he thrust the Silver serpent spear, several times in a row at that.

The required amount of energy should have been enormous, but Kyle didn't even break a sweat.

Meanwhile, Melin had already used half of his stored mana.

This was bad, and if he were to know that Kyle was actively replenishing a tremendous amount of Soul force with the help of Arashi, he would probably fight using a completely different tactic.

After all, Kyle's tactic was to wear down his opponent with the use of his own Soul force, and that of his dear Spirit Soul stored inside his body.

Arashi was always ready to help Kyle at a moment's notice. But from the looks of it, it didn't even look like it was necessary which caused both of them to be a little bit disappointed.

Their expectations had been high from Melin to be a strong opponent, and after comprehending something about the essence of the wind, it would be a shame to just give up!

Seeing the trace of disappointment in Kyle's face that had replaced his earlier excitement, not only Lyon could tell that the fight was going on differently than he had previously assumed, but Melin realized the same.

'Fuck this shit!'  He cursed in his mind, feeling humiliated to see Kyle throw him a disappointed look before he threw a glance towards his master, who nodded his head.

Having received the approval of his master, Melin couldn't suppress his emotions anymore as he unleashed the true form of his special trait.

Using up tremendous amounts of mana that empowered his fire affinity, Melin's wings began to merge with the projection behind them.

It looked like they were burning and that the wings had received a faint halo.

Yet, it was only a moment later that they truly caught fire, erupting into ginormous flames. The fiery wings flapped once, catapulting Melin up in the air.

Witnessing this, Kyle couldn't help but feel that the sight in front of him looked almost as if a Phoenix was ascending from his ashes!