44 perfection
"Remember, we are not killing this time. We will be using stealth and silence to approach, and dark resonance to observe. We need to make these as natural as breathing. The first to be caught will have to spend the entire day naked."
Floe glared at Ash as the words were spoken. "I'm not falling for that again, last time we made that bet I had to enter that village naked. I can still feel the gazes from those perverted men"
Ash laughed loudly "It's not my fault you suck so bad at being stealthy, how do you expect to get better if you don't push yourself to improve. Besides you didn't seem to care that Dark saw EVERYTHING"
Floe blushed. "He doesn't count. All I am is a walking corpse to him, though for all the reaction he gave to me I would think he was the corpse"
"Enough" Dark's soft voice instantly quieting the girls. His calm was rather unnerving as he coldly observed the valley bellow him. The valley was filled with demonic creatures that resembled dinosaurs. Their levels varied from 4 to 8. "These creatures are far stronger than we are, and we have no chance of victory if they see us. Failure means death. Nothing more. Nothing less."
Lily was standing behind him. A worried look in her eyes as she observed the scene in front of her. Dark had changed, for the last month he had not stopped using his blood lust ability. He had become cold, detached. He began taking increasingly large risks in his attempt to gain strength. Below them was the primordial valley, filled with dinosaur like demonic beasts. Even the weakest of them could kill the squad easily.
Dark advanced towards the valley, his image disappearing as he entered stealth. He claimed that he was near perfection in his ability, and that this pressure would push him over the edge. But the girls couldn't heal like he could. Lily had witnessed Dark's right arm being cut off, and he simply shrugged as he regrow another one. That was from a Level 3 demonic tiger. Its core now laid in one of his pouches. Along with hundreds more.
Occasionally Ares would try to approach him, but his eyes were dead as he looked at his familiar. There was no sense of emotion, no love, no hate, just cold apathy. He did not care if the girls followed him or not, he could feel the faint pulsing of Lily and Ash's hearts in his skeletal hand. They were alive. That's all that mattered.
The girls watched as a stream of blood suddenly surged from a large dinosaur. A pain filled screech echoing through the land. A blur of a figure could barely be seen jumping onto it's head as a crimson necklace appeared on the beast. Its head falling lifelessly to the ground.
Darks blurry figure disappeared as the creature fell. Likely moving to the next target.
"This can't go on" Lily suddenly exclaimed as she watched the slow slaughter in front of her. Her heart aching as the man she loved sat in his pit of despair.
Ash nodded her eyes not leaving the spider king as he cast his web, trapping his enemies. "A king can't carry all of the burdens himself, that is why he has a queen."
Floe looked at the two as she rolled her eyes "you too are hopeless you know that? We've had this same conversation every day for a week and yet we do nothing but watch him slaughter. What would Instructor Asura have done?"
The girls went count at the name. Each of them deep in thought. They had been prepared to accept her as a sister, if It would have saved her life. And it almost did. But she was gone now. And it hurt. A lot. But nothing compared to what Dark was feeling. He had literally had her stolen from him, and felt her heart stop beating. It was not a lie to say a part of him had died along with her. Each time he gave his blood to someone he literally gave a part of himself away. The two girls could feel him, just as he could feel them. The difference was they did not have the numbness of Blood Lust to push it away. They could feel a portion the heartbreak that awaited him as soon as he let the skill go.
"Maybe he just wants to die" Floe whispered.
Far away, in a plane the girls could never hope to visit Lady Lucia watched the scene. Her skeletal hand cupping her face. "It is far to late for that I'm afraid"
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I reached up to my shoulder, pulling out a large tooth that had been embedded there. A smile crossing my face as I looked at the notifications before me.
+10 speed. The user makes no sound when he makes any sort of movement. The user ignores the resistance of the air, moving silently and at great speed. Permanent loss of 15% essence.
The user is undetectable when moving or still, as long as his perception is higher than his opponents.
Uses hidden telekinetic waves to create a perfect map of the surroundings. Distance is equal to perception.
Finally I had perfected the skills of an Assassin that master had said were necessary. All that was left was my sword. I had to reach perfection with it. But that would take time. Much more time than I had.
Slowly I let go of Blood Lust. My grief, my anger, my fear and loss they all came crashing back into me. Tears again welled up in my eyes as I thought about that night. About how the gods had stolen her from me. The only semblance of a family that I had.
Family. I looked up at the girls on the ridge who were watching me. No, I still have family. Perhaps it was time to go see them.
Blood Drinker disappeared as I dropped it, I stumbled through the valley filled with corpses. It was time to go back. Back to see my family.