“Nothin personal, lasses,” the bedraggled man said gruffly, standing in the pool of blood under the corpse of a man clad in black, “but imma need them swords ye got there, before more o’ em come ‘ere.”

 

“Why should we?” Aurora asked, frowning.

 

“O’ I forgot somethin lasses, ‘ere.” The man said, fishing some sort of metal thingy from his pocket, which was somehow perfectly intact, unlike literally every other portion of his clothes. Holding it in his hand, he gently tossed it towards Aurora. Stepping out of the path of the little piece of metal, Aurora watched as it clattered against the stone floor. And then she and Skadi both just, well, stood there.

 

“Ye gonna at least look at me badge?” The man said, a tad bit impatient. With a brief moment of hesitation, Skadi bent down to pick it up. Staring at the piece of metal, her face went pale.

 

“A-Aurora, you could c-c-convince this p-peak E grade like y-yourself t-to l-leave us alone, r-right?” Skadi stammered, her knees visibly quaking. “B-because I-I’m afraid I c-can’t give him t-this sword, it was a g-gift from my g-great grandma.”

 

“Don’ try n fool me, lassie.” The man said, nervously glancing back at the corridor behind him. “I can see clear a’ the rising sun that neither of ye got a class yet, tis a skill o’ mine.”

 

“Y-y-you don’t have a c-class yet, A-Aurora?” Skadi asked, the trembling of her legs intensifying even further. “I-I thought I g-gave enough to s-summon a p-p-peak E grade… just g-give him your sword.” She said, slowly unbuckling her sword in its sheath from her waist. Somehow, she managed to set it on the ground, despite her legs making it seem like there was an earthquake. And then she backed away.

 

If this was before Aurora became a Void Horror, she would have certainly obliged. Her life was more valuable than a sword, and she could always get a new one. Even after becoming a Void Horror, she still fully intended to hand it over; it’s just foolish to fight someone an entire rank above you. The problem is that, well, her sword is literally made of Void, and the man probably wouldn’t exactly find that very pleasing. The fact that her sword was a part of her body now is important, although less crucial to the matter at hand. If he kept her sword, she could just dissolve and reform it when they were a safe distance away.

 

“I’m sorry, sir, but my sword is a bit… well, unique. I can give it to you, but it likely won’t help very much.”

 

The man chuckled, his eyes swiftly flicking back to the corridor behind him as one of the torches spewed some sparks. “No can-do lass, that there trick ain’t gonna work on me. Imma still need ye sword, in case yer lady friend’s breaks. I don’ wanna hurt ye, but imma need that sword, now.”

 

Aurora sighed, unsheathed her sword, and flipped it around, gripping it by the blade. She held the pitch-black blade out for him, hilt first. “Okay, but you probably won’t like it.”

 

Grinning, the man stretched out his blood-covered hand to grip the inky black katana. “Thank ye, lass.” But the moment he gripped the hilt of the katana, the man immediately dropped the sword on the ground, looking at it like a venomous snake.

 

“Sorry, sir, but that’s a trait of my sword. Would it be possible for my friend here and I to continue on our way, and leave you with our swords?”

 

The man frowned. “Lass, ye didn’ hand me ye sword, ye attacked me.” The man said, gripping his half-melted broadsword with both hands, Skadi’s sword still lying on the ground beside Aurora. “If ye wanna die so badly, I can indulge ya.”

 

“What have you done…” Skadi said, falling to her knees as tears began forming in her eyes. Dribbling off her cheeks, they froze into ice droplets before shattering on the ground.

 

Aurora had no confidence in maneuvering past an E-grade such as him without draining a significant amount of energy, namely her entire corrupted illusion mana pool with the only gain being getting her sword back. Sure, dismissing her sword would leave her weaponless for a while, and drain most of both pools, but she would still have options to trick the man.

 

Then, just like when she had previously dissolved a finger in one of her many experiments in the Void, Aurora hastily withdrew her essence from her sword, changing it from a stable part of her energy body into a volatile mass of both Void and corrupted illusion energies. The moment Aurora did that, she immediately began funneling her mana pools into the sheath around her waist, so that the sword would begin reforming. 

 

Awkwardly leveling his broadsword, the man took a step forward. It was so fast that Aurora didn’t even notice his first movement… right to where Aurora’s sword, which still lay on the ground, was positioned directly in between his legs. 

 

Something Aurora wasn’t anticipating, however, was what exactly would happen to that large quantity of volatile energies after she dismissed them. She expected it to just kinda fade away, like her finger did in the Void, surrounded by even stronger energies. Without that sort of containment field, and instead being surrounded by things it would love to consume, her sword blew up like a grenade. The man, who was literally standing on top of the sword, had absolutely no opportunity to react, at all. As his eyes widened, fragments of rapidly decomposing energy flew out from it in all directions. The man's legs were instantly shredded by the fragments, looking like a pile of red jello that a kid poked way too many times with a fork. 

 

Looking at him, even the man’s essence was wounded from that blast; the condensed mass of force Aurora saw seemed far shakier and more unstable than it did just moments ago. The rest of the energy fragments sliced through the surrounding walls and the floor like butter. Luckily, those that hit Aurora were simply absorbed, helping refill her mana pools which were rapidly being drained to reform her sword. A few of the fragments unfortunately… or fortunately? made contact with the man’s more sensitive regions, and immediately collapsed to the ground.

 

While Aurora couldn’t see it, Skadi was positioned just behind Aurora, sobbing on the ground. Only one energy fragment managed to graze her shoulder, but it left a gash thrice the size of the largest one on the man.

 

Aurora didn’t talk or hope that she could now reason with the man, it was unlikely to work after he already attacked her, even if he was already severely wounded. Moving partly on instinct, but mostly based on her parent’s teachings, Aurora dashed forward, feet slapping against the cold stone floor.

 

Swiftly crossing the short distance between them, Aurora grabbed him by the neck with a hand and immediately began pulling at every fiber of the man’s being. Aurora pulled on his essence with as much force as possible, but despite his wounded state, it barely budged. Only a slight trickle of his essence flowed into her body, being redistributed throughout various parts of her and her mana pools. And then the man spasmed. With that motion, an invisible mass of force shot out in all directions from his body. Aurora was catapulted away from the man, slamming into the closest stone wall, literally forming and getting stuck in an indentation.

 

Cracks spread through most of the hallway, and as every surrounding torch was snuffed out, the hallway fell into darkness, the only illumination coming from beyond where the hallway turned in the distance. Even Skadi didn’t walk away unscathed; she was hurled back as well, though luckily with less force than Aurora. If Aurora still had bones, most of them would probably have been completely shattered. Though, the energy composing her body felt less… consistent after the impact. 

 

The man shakily stood up in front of her, a few gray hairs now visible in his beard, where there weren’t any previously. And even after being flung away, Skadi was frozen like a deer in headlights. She didn’t even grab her sword, which was literally laying right next to her. 

 

Quickly peeling herself away from the wall, Aurora left a kitsune-shaped hole behind. Seeing the man release his broadsword with one hand and clench the other into a fist, Aurora immediately began composing a spell in her mind, as well as unsheathing her sword. It had partially finished reforming, or, at least the top of the blade looked like it’s to its new, pitch-black self. The hilt and the entire lower half of the blade were transparent, however, and Aurora’s fingers sank halfway through the hilt before they grasped something. She stopped channeling her mana into the sword; it had already drained a ton of her mana, but it was usable now.

 

“Skadi, help!” Aurora shouted as she ran back towards the man, who still knelt on the ground. His legs were nonfunctional from the previous fight against whoever the man clad in black was, combined with what was essentially an antimatter grenade going off in between his legs. This time, though, he was further away, and he punched the air in front of him with his fist, which was now glowing a vibrant white, before placing both hands back on his sword. 

 

Literally throwing herself out of the way as she saw his fist blur, Aurora watched as a huge crater appeared in the wall. The kitsune-shaped indentation was replaced with a circular crater, but the only damage she took was some of her tails being whacked back, slowly drifting back to their previous position after, despite looking less distinct again. Yay for no bones!

 

And then she finished her spell, which drained almost all of the i*?u$i•n mana she had remaining, and quickly pushed herself off the ground. Praying it would still work like when she practiced with her parents, Aurora forced it into existence. The spell took far more will to conjure than normal, though, as Aurora stepped to the left. And an i*?u$i•n clone stepped to the right, which looked and hopefully felt exactly like her. And yes, it looked like her current form, not her previous one. Bless her mom for teaching her how to have it form based on your body, rather than a mental image.

 

As both Aurora and her clone separated, they sprinted towards the man, black swords in hand. The man swung his sword, glowing a vibrant white. A gaping slash of force flew out from it and made contact with the Aurora on the right, her clone. That Aurora was bisected, instantly dissolving back into mana.

 

With Aurora reached the man, he grinned. Alarm flashed across Aurora’s face as the man’s sword burst into white light more vibrant than she had seen from anything he used previously, and swung towards Aurora far faster than what the man’s eyes could follow; much less Aurora’s. Aurora didn’t even have time to block before his blade slammed into hers with so much force that her sword shattered, fragmenting back into mana. Continued unhindered, his blade bit into Aurora, and then she also shattered into mana. And then the real Aurora stabbed the man straight through the back of his head, with as much force as she could muster. 

 

Hands reaching up, the man let out a chortled gasp as he touched his forehead; Aurora’s sword only stabbed about halfway through his head, not close to making its way fully through. If he was an F-grade as well, the damage to his brain would have skilled him on the spot. But, as an E-grade, his soul could help supplement a portion of the lost bodily functions.

 

Slowly falling over, he landed on the floor face first, as Aurora kept her grip on the sword. She began pulling from the man, and his essence slowly trickled into her sword, though significantly faster than the previous time. With her other hand, Aurora began conjuring an energy ball of Void, pouring about a third of her remaining Void mana into it, her i*?u$i•n mana almost depleted. Thank the progenitor that the fragments of her old sword restored her mana, otherwise she would have run out of both pools by now.

 

[*ding!* Level up! Level 4 -> Level 5!]

A notification flashed in front of her, but Aurora hurriedly dismissed it without even reading it. When her spell finished forming, she forced it into existence, and then hurled it at the man, who was limp on the ground. And then his entire body flashed white for a moment, as he was flung off to the side, the energy ball barely brushing him. After slamming into a nearby stone wall, he hurriedly reached back and yanked the sword, which was still slowly eating into his head, out with his left hand. Panting heavily, the man shakily pushed himself up with his left arm; his right arm dangled limply, and the right side of his face sagged downwards, paralyzed. Blood from his wounds poured onto the floor, forming a puddle rivaling that from the person he previously killed.

 

Aurora was staring at the man, who was losing even more blood by the second, and then noticed that Skadi was standing behind her, sword in hand, her face wet from crying. She was only part way to Aurora, despite having stood up the moment Aurora stabbed the man.

 

Aurora hastily composed an energy slash with just about all of her Void mana, only a sliver remaining unused. Swinging her sword towards the man, the energy slash was emitted from her blade. It was moving pretty slowly for someone of such a higher level though and would easily be dodgeable. Unless they couldn’t move without draining the last of their mana. On the ground, his body broken and battered, the man smirked. The beat-up sword that lay beside him flashed white, with a glimmering outline surrounding it, and rocketed towards Skadi, at the same time that Aurora’s energy slash bit a third of the way through his chest before it dissipated. Before Skadi could even react, the flat tip of the crumbled blade slammed into her stomach. Flying backwards, Skadi slammed into the stone wall, blood flying from her mouth as she went limp.

 

The man, on the other hand, began falling to the ground, his eyes slowly closing. The crumpled body of the man let out one last shaky breath before he stilled. Aurora noticed that his essence flowed into her with his death, leaving only a vibrant husk behind, similar to the flower she drained earlier. She was more focused on the issue of Skadi though, and began shambling towards her after a notification appeared, confirming the kill. 

 

[*ding!* You have slain Force Swordsman - Level 49!]

[*ding!* Level up! Level 5 -> Level 13!]

 

Skadi was crumpled against the stone wall, blood leaking from the corners of her mouth. Kneeling down beside her, Aurora was about to check her condition. And then a group of three stormed out from the corridor Aurora and Skadi originally came from.