SPIRIT SOUL

Upon seeing the ginormous wings that were burning in blazing flames, Kyle couldn't help but stare at them in awe.

But that was nothing compared to what he saw right now.

His first impression of the wings dispersed into thousand fragments as the faint image of a sun manifested between the wings.

This image vanished only seconds later, but Kyle was sure that the blazing wings of Melin represented the heat of the sun.

His past memories allowed him to instinctively connect it to another mythology than that of the Phoenix.

However, before he could make sense of the changes Melin was undergoing, the young man had already appeared in front of him, leaving behind a trail of flames.

Slashing out the dagger he was holding, Melin's speed exceeded that of Kyle's by several times right now.

This prevented Kyle from evading the dagger slash that inflicted a deep cut just below his rib cage.

Clenching his jaw, he endured the pain that made him wince.

At the same time, he witnessed Melin's hand release small searing hot flames that shot towards him. These flames continued to enlarge as Melin supplied them with a tremendous amount of mana.

The moment the flames came in contact with his clothes they burned in a matter of seconds.

Having reduced his clothes into flakes of charred fabric, the fire began to singe the outer layer of his skin.

Gritting his teeth, Kyle could only bear with the pain as he stared into the depths of Melin's eyes that seemed to be changing their color too.

It almost looked like miniature suns were igniting within his eyes almost as if they could burn everything they looked at.

This made Kyle understand why Lyon, and most likely, even Yelene had accepted Melin as their direct disciple.

'He is also a Phoenix…or maybe a –' He was dragged out of his thoughts when the burns left behind by the flames began to grow too painful.

Yet, it was exactly this pain, which allowed his mind to be crystal clear as he used the entire Soul force Arashi had accumulated.

Releasing it at once, the Soul force was turned to four crescent blades that manifested around Melin's hand, surrounding it from all four directions.

Without hesitation Kyle ordered them to shoot towards his hand, aiming at the exact same point from all four sides.

Under a minute, the wind crescent blades pierced through the searing hot flames, swiftly consuming the Soul force that had been used to maintain the highly compressed crescent blades.

Roaring out in pain, Kyle felt as if his mind was on fire as well.

And, after sensing the severe pain caused by the fire and the smell of his flesh getting charred hitting his nostrils, he didn't hesitate to injure his opponent heavily too.

After all, he had been holding back in order to prevent inflicting any lethal injuries on Melin before.

? This was perfectly normal because they were just sparring, and not about to fight a life-and-death battle.

However, that might only be something that he was adhering to.

Melin didn't seem to bother about preventing injuring him severely at all.

With that in mind, Kyle let go of the Silver serpent spear as the weapon was rendered useless in the face of opponents that were only a few centimeters away from him.

It was not an ideal weapon for close combat fight either way.

Thus, being weaponless only left him with the option of using his fists, and try to take is opponent down with brute force. Meanwhile, Melin was wielding a dagger in one hand, while the other hand was enveloped by searing hot flames.

While the burning was something he could still bear with, somehow, the dagger was the biggest problem as it soared towards his neck.

This clearly showed that Melin was ready to kill him.

As a reaction, a switch in Kyle's mind turned off and his eyes turned serious as battle intent leaked from his entire body.

Following that, the crescent blades were suddenly becoming stronger as they cut through the fire and reached Melin's wrist.

The sharp blades were cut into his wrist, slicing it from all four directions at the point which the compressed wind crescent blades had pressed on it.

They were razor-sharp, and now that Kyle wasn't reluctant to cripple Melin, they cut deeper into the young man's wrist.

At the same time, Kyle lifted his left arm to deflect the dagger that advanced towards him at a rapid velocity, using his hand as a shield to protect himself.

Having no weapon that could be properly used in close combat, even the spear wouldn't have been able to save him right now, if he were to use it.

As such, Kyle didn't hesitate to use his own arm as a means to protect himself, even if he just witnessed the shocking scene of the dagger slicing through his hand.

At first, he didn't sense any pain and could only see blood trickling down the sharp dagger blade.

However, it was only a few moments later that he felt a light sting that became more painful with each passing second.

Within a minute, the intensity of the pain turned into an unbearable feeling.

His hand began to twitch, and perceiving how his own blood splattered on his face, Kyle began to lose his sense of reasoning.

This only increased when he felt every single part of his upper body writhing in pain. The pain of his abdomen being burned, the deep cut on his rib cage, and now his hand being punctured by the dagger that was still stuck in it made him feel numb and dizzy.

Luckily, he managed to subconsciously release his Soul force at once, while the surrounding energies were suctioned towards him. These energies were immediately converted into Soul force before Kyle made use of the annexed energy.

Fuming in rage, Arashi had entered a state at which he could momentarily enhance the speed at which he absorbed and converted energy Soul force.

Using his rage to fuel his attacks, Kyle didn't notice his Spirit Soul's thoughts, nor the fact that he was affected by the beast's wild instincts.

Owing to this, the rational part of his mind had been shut off. Thus, Kyle couldn't bother to think about the fact that using unannexed Soul force was extremely dangerous.

After transmuting the unannexed Soul force with the use of his ability, the winds around him kept growing stronger to the extent at which they extinguished the flames that burned his abdomen.

Through this, Melin's entire arm was exposed from under the charred clothes just before a loud crack resounded in the entire arena.

A shocked expression could be seen on the face of everyone who watched the battle because nobody had expected the situation to escalate like this.

Even Lyon, who knew what Melin was capable of couldn't help but show a worried expression since the moment he attacked Kyle.

Killing intent had radiated from his direct disciple, and Lyon had been about to intervene, only to witness Kyle's counterattack.

The strong wind currents were not something a being at the Initial phase of the Vitae stage should be able to control. But, that was not what astonished Lyon when he heard the sudden crack.

As the spectators of the fight along with Melin stared in shock, his hand that had been enveloped in searing hot flames a moment ago, detached from his arm.

Thick drops of blood splattered on the ground before the cut-off hand fell to the ground with a smack.

Some drops of blood splashed on the compressed wind blades but they continued their advance before they stopped spinning and shot into the ground, ceiling, and walls all around the arena.

Their velocity and prowess had been extremely strong, but all of this didn't matter as he saw how his disciple had just been crippled.

But now it was no use to intervene, knowing that his disciple had already lost his sense of reasoning.

He believed that must be the case with Kyle too, whose left arm was already smeared in blood.

The pain he had been feeling just a moment ago disappeared, replaced with the sole desire to defeat Melin, whose eyes were focused on him, the miniature sun within them burning brightly.

He was not ready to lose either, but he was unable to move his right arm that was holding onto the dagger.

Not without losing the advantage, he was holding over his opponent. Melin's mind was rattling as he perceived that his hand had just been amputated and that his hand stopped releasing blazing flames!

This realization confused him for a moment, but it was already too late for him to move and do something.

Kyle's right hand thrust forward with compressed wind currents that enveloped it tightly. They formed a claw that was ready to rip open Melin's throat, causing his eyes to widen.

It was almost as if the death reaper was holding his scythe as Melin's neck when Kyle held his hand barely millimeters away from his throat.

He couldn't breathe, and goosebumps sprang upon his entire body upon seeing the dead-serious eyes of Kyle.

Clearly, these were the eyes of someone who didn't hold back from killing someone if it was necessary.

Yet, Kyle had halted in his tracks, suppressing the urge to kill Melin that cost him a great deal of effort and determination.

Panting and taking deep breaths, he allowed the wind currents all around him to disperse.

Continuing to take deep breaths, he used his right hand to loosen Melin's grasp around the dagger that was still lodged in his hand before pulling it out.

This caused him to wince as pain shot up from the wound.

Standing in front of him, Melin could only blink as his mind blanked out.

Meanwhile, the others were just staring at the battle, utterly dumbfounded.

Only Yelene and Lyon had been ready to intervene at any moment from the time they noticed that Melin lost his reasoning.

Yet, the battle had ended differently than everyone presumed.

It had become much more brutal, and fueled with the intent of both participants to kill each other!

This was unexpected, but neither of the two powerhouses had made a move when Kyle was about to kill Melin, perceiving that his battle intent and the intention to kill had vanished.

As such, they weren't worried.

Instead, they looked at Kyle, who was pulling the dagger out of his hand.

The moment the battle was over, his body that had been holding itself up with sheer willpower began to remind him of the pain in every single cell.

The adrenaline rush was now replaced by slowly creeping pain that spread through his muscles and bones like cobwebs, making it hard for him to think straight.

Feeling as if his entire body was bleeding profusely, he was not sure what he should do right now, even less when he looked at Melin.

The young man was lying on the ground, and the blazing flames around his wings had long since dispersed. What was left behind were the smaller black wings with red outlines.

Now that his weak side was revealed, Melin seemed to be in a pitiful state, and Kyle couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty.

Yet, sensing the pain that coursed through his body, this guilt vanished.

Trying to access his spatial ring, he looked for a potion, only to feel a light breeze brush past him as Yelene had appeared next to him.

It was almost as if she had teleported herself because she had been standing next to Yasmine only a moment ago.

However, that was not something Kyle could be bothered about right now.

Instead, he saw her holding out a vial with a crimson red serum inside, which Kyle accepted muttering a faint "thanks".

Gulping down the contents in one go, he felt a burning sensation spreading through his entire body before a soothing feeling replaced the burning.

Sighing in relief, he closed his eyes while using his Nurture ability every single time a little bit of his Soul force was replenished by Arashi.

The pain gradually ebbed, allowing him to feel close to no pain in a matter of minutes.

While slowly opening his eyes once again, he had already noticed that Beatrice was standing next to him.

She took a look at his burned and singed skin while tending to the other wounds.

Her eyes were gleaming brightly, showing her desire to suck his blood, but she suppressed her urges.

Kyle was not in a state to feed her, yet, when he noticed her eyes, his action was different than expected.

"Use your Spirit force and suck some of my blood. I need to enhance the circulation speed of my Soul force, so I can heal myself faster."

While Beatrice wanted to wait before requesting to drink his blood, Kyle wanted the opposite.

However, recalling the blood draining effect, she quickly paid heed to his request and sank her fangs into his skin.

She kept sucking his blood until her entire Spirit force was used up, empowering the blood draining effect.

Feeling drowsy, and void of energy, Kyle staggered back a little.

Ignoring the lack of blood, he pulled the three energies from his surroundings towards him.

Quickly getting absorbed and converted, the energies empowered the Nurture ability with much more Soul force that was replenished and used up in a rapid succession.

Thus, he was able to get back on his feet after a short while, feeling invigorated instead of exhausted.

Beatrice had already bandaged his wounds after cleaning them to prevent infections.

Her skills were relatively good considering that she had never done something like bandaging someone.

After all, she had been surrounded by Undeads.

Yet, this was not something Kyle paid too much attention to because Melin had also gotten up.

Shooting towards him, the young man with black wings quickly apologized,

"Fuck, sorry, I lost my reasoning when I released my bloodline… Sorry…" Melin said while holding his arm, seemingly unbothered by the fact that he had just lost a hand.

This caused Kyle, whose hand was bleeding severely to stare at the young man, confused whether Melin was insane, smart, or simply oblivious to the fact that he had just been crippled.

Yet, instead of letting thi thought bother him, Kyle had one question he was curious about.

"You are a three-legged crow, aren't you?"