Running through rough terrain, Ernes, being in the spiritual space, watched 5 small spheres of blue light hovering in front of him.

 

Stream 1 "From what Annie said, there are more than a hundred people on this test. Surely there will be conflicts between the groups, and the total number will decrease. So I need to hurry up, the data I gathered from the previous battle will be enough to determine the average level of people's strength."

 

Stream 2. "This soul-absorbing tool will save me quite a lot of time. After Annie takes me to the grand master, it will be necessary for him to start developing a similar item, but with a large scale absorption of pure spiritual energy."

 

The item Ernes created was called the soul needle. Quite precious and rare materials were used in its creation. The rod was created from a crystal tree, which were a precious treasure of the forest people. Its peculiarity was the ability to contain the souls of creatures for a short time.

 

The tip and the walls of the rod were covered with white ernial, which differed from the usual not only in color, but also in the ability to increase the effectiveness of other ingredients and enhance the conductivity of energy. Unfortunately, the disadvantage of this metal was its fragility under heavy and frequent loads, which excluded its use in the creation of cold weapons. Most often, it acted as a conductor of energy in group subjects, but it can also be used in one-person ones.    

 

 A replaceable, high-quality storing gemstone was built into the rod from above, which is capable of storing various types of rashu. But in order to fill and drain energy from it, special means are needed. In this case, there was an aggressive rashu in the gem, similar to the one that destroyed most of the personal information of Franz's soul.

 

The needle of the soul works in a rather simple way, it withdraws pure spiritual energy from the corpse before it dissolves into the universe. After that, when the energy has gathered in the rod, the owner of the item gives a command and a small amount of rashu is released from the crystal with an aggressive rashu, which will be enough to destroy most of the personality in pure spiritual energy.

 

Also, this item has a small feature. Practically no one except Ernes is unable to take full advantage of it. Due to the lack of will invested in its creation, all processes must be carried out by the user with the help of spiritual energy.

 

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Running through the trees, Ernes noticed something and dived sharply to the side. A moment later, in the place where he was running, an arrow flew by, which, missing the target, flew several meters, crashed into the trunk of a tree, entering it by half. After assessing the trajectory of the arrow, Ernes rushed to the place where it came from.  

 

At the same time, there were three people and one humanoid in a white mud-stained uniform on the other side. The three people looked quite aggressive and unflattering. Two held machetes in their hands, and the third, sticking the tip of a rather heavy two-handed sword into the ground and leaning on it, watched the boy approaching rapidly with a grin. 

 

The last one was a humanoid with a rather thin build and greenish skin. His face was elongated and had large black eyes with a green pupil. Dark marsh-colored hair was in disarray. He, holding a bow in his hands and seeing the approach of the boy, moved back a little behind the prisoners.

 

At this time, the man with the two-handed sword was greedily looking with his reddish eyes at the precious objects on the child. Licking the corners of his lips and looking at the two unpleasant people standing in front of him, he said in a rather rude and hoarse voice.   

 

- You two, take care of him. Can you even kill a child?

 

Hearing the command and mockery, the faces of the two prisoners distorted, but without saying anything, they walked a little forward. By this time, Ernes was already quite close and one of the prisoners opened his mouth with a dismissive look.

 

- Baby, let's solve this quickly.…

 

But before he could finish, he had to dodge a small and sharp blade thrown in his direction. Seeing this, the second prisoner immediately became alert and stood in a fighting stance.

 

Ernes wasted no time approaching the pair and, drawing his rapier, jumped up, delivering a vertical blow towards the already prepared prisoner. The latter, seeing the approaching blow, blocked it with the flat side of the machete. But because of the force of the blow, he had to put his other hand to support the blade.

 

At this moment, Ernes, who was in the air, exerted more force and using a machete as a platform, quickly jumped over the enemy, throwing a new blade at him.  Surprised by the maneuver, the prisoner only managed to remove his head from under the trajectory of the blade.

 

Unfortunately for him, the blade hit his right shoulder at full speed, causing severe pain. Ernes landed and already wanted to stab in the back, noticed that the second prisoner was already waiting for him.

 

Swinging, he hit from above to the bottom aiming at the head. Calm, Ernes, seeing the approach of the blade, stretched out his free hand to meet him, and with the other, struck a cutting blow to the lower part of the body of the already wounded prisoner. 

 

At the moment of the collision of the machete blade and the glove, the latter flashed with light and barely noticeable silver lines appeared on it. The sound of metal colliding with metal was heard and the shocked prisoner, whose blow was blocked by  hand, watched as the rapiers easily passed through his partner's body, cutting off legs.

 

A cry of agony rang out in the neighborhood, Ernes, not paying attention, squeezed the blade of the machete in his hand and turned around, swung at the shocked prisoner. Seeing the approaching attack, the prisoner came to his senses a little and realizing that there was no time to release the machete, he released her by jumping back. 

 

The blade of the sword flew a few centimeters from his body. When he was about to turn around and retreat to his teammates, a machete left by him flew into his leg. Once in the leg, it stuck exactly in the shin and without touching the bone, the blade peeked out from the other side.

 

When Ernes was about to cut off the prisoner's legs, he had to dodge an arrow fired in his direction, flying at an incredible speed. Immediately after dodging, he, not paying attention to the approaching prisoner with a two-handed sword, he approached the man who had already regained consciousness and was about to get the of the machete out of leg. Waving the rapier, another cry of agony rang out again.

 

Immediately after that, Ernes turned around and blocked the two-handed blade approaching him. There was a screech of metal and sparks, realizing that the continuation of the attack was unprofitable, the prisoner jumped back a few meters. Looking with a frowning and angry face at the boy in front of him, he said.

 

- I didn't expect that such a baby would be able to get rid of two reinforced people in such a short time. Well, I was in a hurry and underestimated you, so I'll have to work harder now. 

 

Ernes in the spiritual space, looking at the lying and bleeding bodies, thought.

 

"Some people like to say things that don't fit the situation. There's about a minute left before these two die. There's no time, we'll have to hurry."

 

At that moment, Ernes' blue eyes lit up a little and began to exude coldness. The prisoner, who was already preparing to attack, felt as if his soul began to tremble a little, and what surprised him even more was the previously felt sense of danger from the boy, strangely completely disappeared.