Silas marched over to the middle of their little battlefield. It was simply an empty ground in the village that spanned about 40 meters in diameter. The ground below them was clearly sandstone, with very little vegetation growing in it in the form of a few weeds here and there.

Nymira began to walk away, but before she could, Silas gestured for her training sword.

*Sniff*

Nymira instantly scrunched her nose. No… She looked oddly pale.

‘He smells like blood… A lot of blood. He smells like a walking ocean of blood. It feels supressed though… Why didn’t it smell like this last time? Was it because of how many people were around?’

Pausing, she looked at the floor, her breathing and heart rate reaching levels of height that would have made anyone who could see it raise a brow at her state.

However, after a few seconds of this, she kept her head down and simply walked away, not allowing anyone to look her in the eyes until she calmed herself down.

‘What’s wrong with her?’ Silas thought before throwing that thought to the back of his mind and looking forward.

“Are you ready kid? Just a spar. I’m a lot older than you so don’t be too mad if you lose, alright?” The man grinned.

‘Let’s hope you don’t faint on me.’ Silas snorted.

Several hundred meters away, two people stood on a roof and watched the entire situation unfold.

“I can’t feel his presence at all… Is he that weak?” The woman spoke.

“Heh… He’s Keira’s grandson. You’ve seen the kind of monster she is on the battlefield.

Rhea didn’t take that trait from her, but you’ve seen Keira’s other daughters. If that boy is anything like Keira, I doubt he is as simple as he seems.” The burly man scratched his beard with a grimace.

He already had Syra to deal with, so he really hoped that the boy wouldn’t be as much of an eyesore. Unfortunately, Nymira’s sense of smell tended to be right about everything.

“Do you think he has a blessing?” The woman asked.

“No… But he might have something else.” He narrowed his eyes.

Back at the spar, Silas and the 19-year-old kid stared at one another while slowly circling around one another.

‘Alright… Just think of killing him… That’s how it works, right?’ Silas closed his eyes and tried to muster it, but killing intent felt more like an instinctual thing.

‘Just think of someone you hate… Someone you truly hate from the bottom of your heart… Someone…’ Silas grimaced as a face appeared in his mind.

It was someone from his previous life. It was one of the first times Silas ever felt true hatred for someone, and when he did, nothing could stop him from absolutely destroying that man for what he had done.

Silas gritted his teeth and opened his eyes.

*SWOOSH*

For a second, everyone’s vision became red. For a second, it looked like the ground was covered in blood… No, it wasn’t just to ground…

When they looked at their hands, they were covered in blood too.

Corpses covered their entire town, yet despite how long that second seemed, none of them looked at Silas.

No one except the boy before him.

But then the second was over, and everything had returned back to how it was before…

But despite this, the eyes of the boy before him remained dull before eventually being replaced by another emotion.

“Monster…” He muttered with pure terror on his face.

*SWOOSH*

A torrent of toki suddenly covered him and his wooden blade. Silas had no idea what had happened. It was hard to feel one’s own killing intent, so Silas had no idea what kind of effect it might have had on anyone around him, let alone the person who looked into his eyes.

“MONSTER!” A fanatical light appeared in his eyes, making Silas widen his eyes before stepping back and instinctively raising his hand toward the boy.

“I suggest you stay back…” Silas warned, but the boy didn’t listen. To be fair, he didn’t seem like he was in the right mental state to listen either way.

‘Oh wait, I can’t use magic… Uhm. What to do, what to do? Well, I’ve disabled many people in the past… This should be easy!’ Silas smiled with confidence even though he was slightly nervous. At the same time, his mood was foul due to the memory he forcefully resurfaced.

From the amount of toki the boy used, he could see that he was at least stronger than the man who had attacked their home 4 years ago. From the amount of toki the boy used, he could see that he was at least stronger than the man who had attacked their home 4 years ago. However, Silas was much stronger than back then; plus, he had elemental fusion on his side.

The boy was still a few meters away, but he was closing the distance at a very quick pace.

Silas’ eyes turned a strange shade of green as he threw the sword at the boy without a moment’s hesitation.

Having already infused his body with mana, Silas used 50% of his strength, causing the blade to shoot right through the air, breaking the winds with a power that made them howl at the sword’s presence.

‘Did he just copy my move.’ Nymira widened her eyes before a grin tugged at the corners of her lips.

He had taken a page right out of Nymira’s book. Sure, Silas felt like he was cursed to never be good at swordsmanship, but even in his past life, he always adapted.

Now that he had an evolution blessing, that adaption increased several folds.

As the sword neared, the blood eyes boy threw a panicked slash at the sword, but that was part of Silas’ plan.

Infusing himself with the water element, Silas dashed forward with moderate speed. The boy saw this and tried to slash down at the incoming green-eyed child, but the sword didn’t reach its mark, simply hitting thin air.

Silas moved with the flow of a river, and the precision of a surgeon.

Stepping to the side with minimal movement, Silas’ hand slashed through the air and chopped at the opponent’s tight to pelvis joint.

The attack wasn’t strong, but it was decisive. Anyone in their right mind would have been capable of seeing such a thing. Fortunately, Silas’ opponent was far from being in the right mind.

The boy slashed at Silas with the intention of decapitating him, and Silas was worried that it might have actually had the ability to do such a thing since it was covered in a large amount of toki.

Yet, Silas dodged again without much thought before lightly kicking the boy’s calf.

He continued dodging the attack, moving like a ballerina, dancing around his opponent while throwing decisive strikes at certain body parts.

After the calf, he went for the ankle, then the lower forearm, lower bicep, a kick to the knee, a kick to the side of the knee, and several more.

They were only 10 seconds into the fight, yet Silas’ opponent had slowed down significantly, and the pain shooting through his body gave him a sense of clarity. Yet, clarity does not make a foolish man wise. It simply makes their foolishness clearer.

“He’s a monster… HE’S A MONSTER! I SAW IT IN HIS EYES! HE’S A KILLER. HE KILLS HUMANS FOR FUN. HE’S CRAZY!” He screamed as agony shot through his body once again. However, he didn’t stop attacking though. Actually, Silas could see that the toki covering him had become more ferocious than ever before.

“Last warning. I suggest you stand down.” Silas warned. His guard was no longer up, but somehow he seemed deadlier than ever.

Maybe it was the gaze in his eyes. Not even Silas knew since he was too busy thinking about everything else.

“AHHHH.” The roar left the boy’s mouth as his swung his wooden blade, but even though his toki looked like it intended to kill Silas, the boy’s condition held him back.

“I warned you.” Silas sighed and circulated earth fusion through his body.

Stretching out his hand, Silas grabbed the sword between his fingers and thumb.

The moment he stopped it in its place, the toki around it dispersed… No. The right word would have been disappeared.

It had been his plan from the start. Silas had always wondered what would happen if he simply absorbed the mana a toki user used, and he had gotten his answer.

If he did it while attacking them, his attacks would pack more of a punch even when he’s using less power.

Sure, they would simply take control of more ambient mana and convert it into toki.

Unlike mages, who were confined to a certain amount of mana, toki users were confined to the amount of mana they could control at one time, while their power depended on how they well they controlled that toki.

By absorbing their toki into his mana core, not only did he increase his vitality, for a moment, he also reduced the amount of toki they were controlling, allowing him to attack again and hit them even harder than before.

However, when he absorbed the toki from a weapon as weak as a wooden sword, it would lose its ability to support the power of its user, and since the wooden sword didn’t count as part of their body, they would have to coat it again using the toki that coated their bodies.

And that was exactly what the boy did.

“You should have retreated.” Silas spoke, the fire element suddenly coursing through his body and firing up his muscles.

Tensing up his hand, Silas turned the blade into splinters as an explosive power shot into his fingers.

At the same time, Silas coursed this explosive burst of power into his other arm, reeling it back and slamming it into the boy’s solar plexus with so much power that the boy instantly puked out the contents of his stomach.

However, before the boy could fly off, Silas grabbed his hair and threw a devastating uppercut infused with the explosive power of the fire element to shatter the boy’s jaw.

It had been a little more than a minute since the battle had begun, yet for those watching, it felt like it had ended just as fast as it had begun.

Everyone watched on in stunned silence, yet only a few could understand even a fraction of Silas’ lethality.

At the boy collapsed to the floor with his jaw still shattered into a million pieces; Silas walked away from the body and gently took his sister’s hand before walking away.

As he passed Nymira, he could see a dangerous flame ignite in her eyes. However, no matter how fanatic the gleam in her eyes seemed…

‘Show me what you’re made of, kid…’ Silas grinned as he passed her.

‘I knew he was different.’ Nymira smiled from ear to ear as excitement boiled deep in her soul, to the point that the bloody smell no longer repelled her, but instead, it made her feel alive…

Because for the first time in her life, she found a rival.

——————

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