Scarlet

We both open our mouths to speak, only to instead be flooded with people who are struggling to reach us first to challenge us while I’m still hearing the earpiece mention me getting three points. And right before one of them does succeed in challenging me, I notice the guy mouthing ‘later’ to me.

I nod my head right before accepting the challenge and ending up in another magical reality. This one being some sort of dark grassy plains during the night. And the one who challenged me this time is a girl around the same age as me. Although with a lower degree of mana, meaning she’s either not a magical stat focused Guardian, or is a lower level than me.

The girl also looks like she’s from the far East as well, seeing as she has slightly sharper facial features and is wearing the factory made magi-tech armor of the people over there known as Samurai. People who are rather stuck in the old ways and very obsessive about defending their people. To the point of sacrificing their own lives just to save a random civilian. And her bowing to me makes it pretty obvious as well that she’s a samurai, since they’re quite big on honor.

Out of respect, I bow back to her before rising back to my full height again, seemingly pleasantly surprising her in the process, considering the thin smile that appears on her face.

I kind of like their people, to be honest. Because they’re the only people in the world who actually treats their orphans respectfully. Even if there are still bad apples amongst them that don’t.

We wait for the countdown to reach zero before I immediately shift my arm again, the magical reality earlier ending having canceled it as my artificial copy came to an end. Then I take advantage of my mana being reset to quickly begin burning my blood for a boost in strength, having realized just how helpful this might be in a magical reality after the last battle.

After all, I’m fully reset for every battle, so burning my blood is only a temporary issue in the match. As long as I can end it before it drags out too long that is.

Hot red steam begins to leak from my pores before I get a good grip on the ground with my feet and shoot off straight towards her, startling her in the process as my feet physically tear away parts of the grass and ground from my force. And by the time she brings up a sword to defend herself, I’m already directly in front of her with my claws coated in blood and going straight for her side, underneath the sword.

She swings the blade – which I believe is called a katana – at me, only for me to barely avoid it with it passing only inches from my face as my claws dig straight into her side. Then the rest of the force of my blow strikes her, sending her flying for a few meters where she ends up rolling for a couple more meters, still gripping her blade tightly enough her fingers are paling.

I narrow my eyes, blood dripping from my claws as I begin to run up to her again. But by the time I clear half the distance, she’s already climbing back to her feet, one hand covering the claw wound on her side and the other gripping her sword.

Now this is a proper hunt!

I can’t help the grin that spreads across my face as I burn even more of my blood, completely ignoring the pain that comes along with it to focus on boiling her blood and draining her life energy to restore my blood loss. Which only serves to make her stagger right when I arrive, giving me the opening to smack the sword straight out of her hand with my non-shifted hand and then grab her throat with my shifted one, raising her slightly into the air as I try to crush her throat.

And this time, I don’t let the act of killing another human get in my way. Since this is just a magical reality after all, and that’s that.

Out of the corner of my eye, I find the sword flying straight towards me from where it was knocked out of her hand, making me realize she can apparently manipulate it at a range. So I simply move her in the way of the sword, making her impale herself before I burn even more blood to get the strength to crush her throat.

Then I find myself back in the dome with a lot less people around me now.

[Three points have been awarded for winning a duel. You now have a total of 6 points.]

My face returns to my neutral look as I look around, wondering just why no one is trying to challenge me anymore.

“You just tore a girl’s throat out for everyone to see,” Tar says as if the answer were obvious. “A girl that shouldn’t be that much weaker than you in their eyes.”

Oh. Well, it’s not my fault humans are wea-

I blink in surprise at the thought.

Huh.

“Yeah, humans are weaker than demons,” Tar finishes my thoughts, ignoring the fact that I was about to refer to humans as if I wasn’t one myself, “especially a type of demon that’s practically considered royalty.”

Yeah, but the fact that I’m not entirely associating myself with humans anymore…

“I think that’s a good thing,” Tar says, claiming my attention as I continue looking around only to fail to find anyone currently in the dome willing to challenge me. So I raise my gaze to the screens to focus on some of the larger video feeds. “Because even if we succeed in keeping you partially human, you will only be a tiny fraction human, with the rest still being blood lycan.”

Hmm. Guess you’re right.

“Your instincts are probably helping you adjust as well,” Tar continues, but I ignore him as I put my hands in my jacket pockets and focus on the battle between two guys who both appear to be at least a few years older than me and are wearing unique looking magi-tech armor. One wearing some sort of battle robe with ocean blue and vibrant purple colors all over it and a pair of purple gloves on his hands, and the other wearing what honestly looks like a simple t-shirt and shorts, both glowing with a faint black and purple light.

If no one will challenge me now, I might as well watch this battle.

Then I can try the random challenge out.