First All Out Battle

Ever since he became a Pseudo Adept, Greem had never gone all out. He hadn't truly tested his limits. 

Oh he knew exactly what kind of feats he could achieve where his Physique and Spirit were concerned. The Hercules Method and numerous magic tomes on the subject made him supremely aware of this. 

He'd just never had the chance to confirm those things without drawing undue attention. Hence, his first time doing so against someone who could actually kill him if he wasn't careful proved to be enlightening in many ways.

After waiting until the fallen apprentice was fully inside the cavern, Greem commanded the Alligator golem he'd hidden under the tunnel to collapse it, locking them both in.

That left him facing the Pseudo Adept and Mary facing the Advanced Apprentice. 

In the brief period the wind focused apprentice shifted his focus to the obviously deliberate cave-in, Greem, who'd hidden himself in the cave's dark shadows, erupted from his position.

There was no more use hiding since the enemy could likely sense the wind elementium enshrouding and lightening his body.

Greem didn't use his alchemical bomb arrows or any weapons. He just overclocked every muscle in his body and shot forward like a spring, the compression and explosion of life energy beneath his feet boosting his inhuman speed to blinding levels.

The thirty meter distance between him and the distracted apprentice shrunk immediately, his supercharged fist tearing through the latter's light green elementium forcefield like paper. 

He missed however, his attack clipping the apprentice in the rib cage instead of his chest like he intended. This was of no surprise to him. The apprentice knew where he was the whole time and reacted the same moment he struck. 

The horrified apprentice zoomed away from his original position and reappeared at the cavern's far end, his back pressed against the wall as he painfully favored his left side.

That graze against his ribs had fractured two of them and sent a deluge of hostile energy into his body. It was as though someone had given his lungs and diaphragm a rough squeeze. 

The one responsible for this wasn't satisfied with just this level of damage though. That's why he rounded up on his target's new location before vanishing again.

Panic and confusion coloring his thoughts and expression, the apprentice fired a few quick cast wind bullets in the area in front of himself and yanked himself away with the shroud of wind elementium he just finished patching up. 

A split-second later, Greem reappeared there with a loud boom, his fist cratering the wall as dust and debris fell from the ceiling.

There were a few concentric cuts on the torso area of his jacket. 

Unable to feel the pain and discomfort of the attack and uneager to give the enemy a chance to gather his wits, he disappeared again and closed in on the slippery apprentice. 

At least he tried to.

Having learnt his lesson the first two times, the wind Pseudo Adept controlled the elementium shroud he wore and lifted himself into the air, holding himself aloft as his lips and hands frantically chanted and wove a spell. 

Keeping himself mobile, Greem sensed the surrounding wind elementium rush towards his opponent in response and quickly came up with his own response.

He stopped at the spot right beneath the apprentice, completed the 5 second long chant of Levitate again, and jumped, tapping his storage belt and summoning an arrow.

He soared into the air and matched his opponent's new height, the latter dragging his airborne self back to avoid him. 

Shooting him a mocking, "I've got you" smile, the apprentice ended his own chant and pushed his arms forward, sending the roiling, violent mass of cyan wind he gathered and compressed shooting towards the "helpless" Greem.

In a move that quickened and further worsened the Pseudo Adept's confusion and panic, Greem, who was supposed to succumb to gravity and the attack, rather juked to the side like a puppet with its strings yanked and avoided the turbulent ball of wind.

Taking advantage again of the brief distraction his out-of-the-blue actions caused, he flicked his hand towards the stunned apprentice, sending the primed explosive arrow towards the latter's outstretched hands. 

BOOM!

Two explosions went off at the same time; the apprentice's attack striking the cavern wall far behind Greem while the latter's explosive arrow detonated and subsumed the apprentice in a flash of cyan and orange light. 

Yanking himself forward with the pseudo flight he'd fashioned from Levitate and his potent Spirit, Greem rushed into the dark and confusing mess of smoke, his opponent's coughs and cries of pain, his five senses, and Meat Vision serving as precise guidance.

Aware that he lacked leverage due to being airborne, he didn't engage all his muscles to attack, just those of his right arm.

He filled the clenched fist till it was bursting with life force and punched downward at a seemingly random point. 

A loud "bam!" and a series of cracks cut out the cries of pain, the smoke around him and the wind apprentice parting concentrically as the latter plummeted and slammed on the ground like a sack, unmoving.

He followed soon after, his Spirit leaving him to drop as he spread it out to encompass the surroundings and his fallen opponent, who seemed to have departed the land of the living before hitting the ground. 

He walked up to the body and confirmed as much with Meat Vision, the ability revealing the gruesome sight that had become the apprentice's innards.

As he crouched near the guy and started to strip him of his valuables, the only description he could come up with for the sight was if someone had pulled the pin of a grenade and forced it down the guy's throat somehow.

Except in this case, the grenade, or Greem's life force to be exact, was so perfectly controlled that the only thing to show for its detonation was a rough, uneven torso that had become a canvas of nasty bruises.

His actions robotic and methodical, Greem noticed his distinct lack of guilt, shame, or apprehension as he gathered and stored everything that could possibly be of value.

Nothing. Even when extracted all the blood from the dead apprentice and grabbed him by the hair to decapitate him, nothing inside him screamed in protest. He was completely at ease. 

Surprised at how well he was taking things, he shrugged internally and hastened his movements. 

Potent and compressed life force wreathed his hand before it swept past the dead guy's neck, leaving a detached head in hand and the body to drop listlessly.

He stood up and called for the Giant Alligator to return, his lips chanting and free hand weaving some signs alongside.

When he dropped the last chant and sign, thin wispy, smoke emanated from the brows of wind guy's head and dissipated into nothing.

Nodding his head at the sight, he stored the decapitated body part in a sack and climbed aboard the waist high earth golem, pausing his movements to look at the 3 meter wide crater the apprentice's wind ball had left in the far wall. 

If it had hit him, he would have lost all of his clothes most likely and ended up with body-wide lacerations, broken bones, and ruptured tissues. Even his brain might have been affected, and he needed to think to use his method abilities after all.

If that had happened, he would have lost and ended up with his soul destroyed.

Further assured of his recent actions, Greem lay completely flat on the giant, alligator shaped piece of earth.

With a simple mental command, the solid and compacted clay shifted and swallowed him. Once he was completely out of sight, the golem itself sank into the earth and swam to where Mary was having her battle. 

He hoped she was okay.

Upon arrival and a quick survey of the environment, a smile graced his features and he commanded the golem to go up.

The fallen female apprentice had become a shriveled, naked corpse, her head and belongings in the hands of the battered vampire.

Smiling brightly despite the deplorable state of her torn and acid eaten clothing, Mary strode towards the golem and climbed it, joining and huddling tightly against Greem within its massive form.

Two pairs of eyes, one green and one black, locked onto each other as the golem silently sunk into the earth and disappeared without a trace.

It could have been excitement, adrenaline, happiness, or sheer exhaustion, but being so close—feeling each other's quickening breaths and hearing each other's rapidly intensifying heartbeats—set something off between the two victorious apprentices.

One moment they were staring at each other; the next, they were locked in a tight embrace, their lips crashing together as hands roamed over warm, smooth skin, and legs tangled around each other.

 ☀☀☀

The journey back to the break off point proved uneventful. 

Safe within the bowels of the earth, Greem and Mary indulged in each other's perfect bodies, their tongues stuck in a blissful war as they groped and felt up each other. 

This had to be the 10th or 20th—they'd both lost track—time they were making out. They only stopped from time to time to talk about their respective battles or organize the loot, all at Greem's insistence. 

Mary didn't care at all. She'd found a new source of pleasure that wasn't blood and wanted to drown herself in it.

After convincing her of the importance of how they presented themselves and their cover story, Mary acquiesced and removed her hesitant hands from under Greem's shirt and out of his pants to help him sort out their gains.

It also helped that the latter promised her a good drink of his blood in their next make out session. 

Greem had no need for sustenance and Mary was a vampire. She only needed blood. Air was not a necessity for both of them.

When they finished sorting out everything that needed sorting, Greem removed and stored his jacket and undershirt before pressing the blushing and excited vampire against his large chest.

She responded by latching her fangs on his thick, vascular neck and pushed down, drawing in that sweet tasting blood. 

Greem didn't purge his body of the pleasure venom that accompanied the bite and let himself bask in the throes of ecstasy, storing his pants when a part of him stood firmly at attention. 

Sharing his rapidly growing arousal, Mary made no protest as big meaty hands pawed at what remained of her ruined clothes and tore them off her, her sole focus on the divine ichor rushing into her in spades.

Deep within the bowels of the earth, the two forgot everything as they lost their virginities to each other, their intrepid physiques and inhuman stamina allowing them to bask in the throes of fervent passion for hours…

 ☀☀☀

When they finally arrived at their destination, the duo were already dressed and cleaned up, though the unconcealable signs of their recent activities were on display for all to see. 

Out of the tunnel they ventured into at the start, Greem and Mary exited huddled close to each other, the latter's thin arm wrapped around the former's tree sized one, their faces all smiles.

A group of four were already present, their collective faces lighting up in delight at the duo's presence and assumed success. 

Dark shadows immediately dimmed these lights when they noticed their strange behavior and the telltale signs that their teammates had engaged in…

Marcus, the only Pseudo Adept out of the four present, was about to voice his complaints about them not taking the mission seriously when he noticed the bloody bags hanging from both of their waists.

Currently, the duo sat huddled together on a shaved stalagmite, communicating through spiritual whisper and sharing the occasional, laughing glance.

Tired of the lovey dovey display, Marcus exercised his "authority" as the only senior apprentice present and stepped forward, gesturing at the bags.

"What's in them?"

He had an idea of what. He just didn't want to believe it. 

Mary scowled at the interruption and shot him a glare while Greem simply maintained his smile and answered the man.

"Heads."

Unconsciously raising his eyebrows, Marcus pressed for more answers, his sensibilities attacked. "Advanced or Pseudo Adept," he asked, nearly whispering the last part. 

Not taking his eyes off Mary's hands as he rubbed and enjoyed their smoothness, Greem responded with, "Both."

The expression of the Pseudo Adept went stiff like a board as he took in the implications behind what he'd just heard. 

A pair of Advanced Apprentices, one of which was a Body-Refiner, had successfully killed not just one Advanced Apprentice, but a Pseudo Adept as well.

Didn't that mean they could kill him if they banded together?

Utterly oblivious to how wrong his assumption was, Marcus glanced at the lovebirds ignoring him entirely and went back to where he originally stood and resumed his wait.