"Anytime you're ready"
Johan calmed himself, taking slow steps.
'Come on, you can do this. I'll end this in one strike, just like practiced'
He inhaled, steadied himself as a silent pressure descended.
"Oh?" Ezra expressed his surprise.
"You'll regret this!"
Johan sprinted forward, reaching Ezra in an instant as he brought his swords down.
Ezra just stared, dropping his staff the moment Johan reached him.
'Huh?'
Johan was flabbergasted, but he couldn't stop the charge, and instead added even more power.
"You have good skills" Ezra acknowledged.
"But you're still too green to get the best of me"
Ezra delivered five punches while Johan moved to cut him down, and as if time was previously frozen, it defroze.
*Clang*Clang*
The twin sabers fell to the floor as Johan collapsed soon after.
He began twitching, muttering incomprehensible words.
"H-How…di…n-o-t…poeiible"
The rest were speechless.
'I knew he'd lose…but not this badly!'
'Damn'
Simultaneously, they put themselves in Johan's shoes.
'If it had been me…'
They gulped.
The atmosphere of confidence receded in an instant.
Johan felt like crying.
'Dammit! This b#stard grew even stronger!'
Where was the fairness in the world?!
Ezra starred.
"Right now, your limbs are paralysed. They will remain so for the next seven days"
Johan grew alarmed, muffling incessantly.
Ezra patted his head.
"Calm down, I'll undo it in a minute. Good job growing stronger, but, you're still far off from touching a hair on my head"
Ezra undid the paralysis and looked to others…
"Anyone else?"
The siblings stole glances at each other before shaking their heads simultaneously.
Back to normal, Johan slammed his fists.
"How? How? How?! I practiced all day! This isn't fair"
To his tantrum, Ezra giggled.
"Practiced all day? Just that?"
Johan popped a nerve.
"Yeah. What would you know about it? I bet you didn't need to practice much to get this good!"
Ezra huffed, registering Johan's stupidity, but, well, he was just a kid.
"How long do you sleep?"
It caught Johan off guard.
"Huh? What does that matter?"
"Answer the question"
"Uhh…"
He counted fingers.
"…Ten to seven hours a day"
"You want to know why I'm so much stronger than you, right?"
He nodded.
"Out of 24. I sleep for no more than four hours, and most times just three"
"You don't expect me to believe that, do you?"
"Doesn't matter"
"It's impossible"
"There's rarely anything that's actually impossible. Just depends on how far you're willing to go for it"
Theron interjected…
"And? What's yours? Why are you going this far?"
Ezra froze, his lips curling upwards.
"I don't expect you to understand, but I've got some people to kill"
Everyone shuddered as Theron stepped back.
Ezra's expression spoke of madness and hatred, the likes of which they'd never seen.
His grin was wicked and creepy, and above all else, was his gaze.
The next moment, his face melded back to normal, taking a lotus posture.
"Alright, sit and let's get this done"
Now sitting, Ezra handed each one a vial of refined blood.
"Let's start with the boys first. Theron, come sit"
Slowly, he sat in a lotus position backed to Ezra.
Ezra's gaze peruses all five.
"I'm going to change your lives. It's going to painful, but at the end of it, you'd be far stronger than you should be"
Their ears perked up.
"Take off your shirt"
"What?"
"Take off your shirt. It won't be effective anyhow else"
Ezra looked to Johan.
"Interrupt me, and your brother could die. No matter what happens, you must not act"
"Ugh!"
The effect was immediate with Theron's veins popping, outlined with a red hue and emanating heat while producing beads of sweat.
"Calm yourself"
Ezra's voice was like a sudden pour of ice, stabilizing his pounding heart, but the pain was still much.
The siblings were fearful, rightfully so.
Johan clenched his fists while the girls took three steps back.
Theron felt his blood spiral out of control, and started muttering a few words.
"I told you that this-"
"Hold on"
Ezra placed his left palm on Theron's back.
Concentrating, his palm lit up with blue light, releasing mana into Theron's back.
"Ah!" its quality was higher than any Theron had felt.
"Absorb it. Leave nothing to waste"
As mana permeated his internals, the pain subsided drastically. The blood stopped spiraling and began melding.
A minute passed and Theron calmed down.
"How do you feel?" Ezra probed.
"I-I feel great!"
"Hmm. Give me a minute"
Ezra stood up, turned around, removed a mana stone from his storage ring, and plopped it into his mouth, making sure to not swallow it.
Touching it with his tongue, mana surged like a tidal wave.
His cheeks puffed, glowing blue.
An urge of regurgitation hit him, but he held it in.
His vassals wondered what was going on, but he stretched his palm to keep them abay.
'Come on, come on'
With his mouth closed, the mana, far too much of it, surged down his throat uncontrollably.
His stomach began swelling.
If he didn't expunge the mana soon, he would die!
With few alternatives, he deflated his cheeks, exhaling mana, and quickly sat cross legged, placing his right hand below Theron's neck.
With so much mana within him, releasing it acted like a dam breakage.
"Ah" Theron moaned at the familiar sensation, but it quickly turned into something else.
"It's too...much! AH!"
Theron started screaming, but Ezra didn't stop, but watched closely as Theron expunged his impurities in the form of a black liquid, and thereafter, his pores began spewing blood.
He couldn't and didn't want to absorb the mana anymore, wasting much of it in the process.
'He's going to kill him!'
Johan wanted to rush in at this point, but Ashton blocked him.
Two minutes in, Theron started bleeding even more.
Ezra had it worse, being the primary recipient of the massive surge of energy.
His eyes grew fuzzy, blurring soon after, with a pool of blood thicker than Theron's lying at his feet.
'I can't push it more than this'
Mustering strength, he took his arm off Theron's back, encased his mouth with his hands and spat out the mana stone.
The moment he grabbed it, he sucked it into his space ring, fainting thereafter.
Ezra woke up, his sight still blurry. He tried to make sense of his surroundings, feeling a murky substance as he pulled himself up.
Next, his nose awoke to a foul smell that wiped away his sleepiness.
"He's awake!"
A familiar voice rang loud.
Then his eyes cleared up.
Looking around, he laid in a pool of his own - poisoned - blood as his vassals approached.
"What happened?" his mind was a mess.
Before they could begin explaining, Ezra suddenly wanted to vomit.
'How can something smell so bad!'
He held his nose and stood up.
Now understanding why his vassals held their noses as well.
"We thought you died" said Velora.
"But we couldn't check because of your poisoned blood"
Ezra looked around.
"Where's Theron?"
"Back in his room, resting. Johan's attending to him"
"We'll hold off your advancements until he wakes. Go back to your training, you may leave"
"Yes"
They exited swiftly, leaving Ezra and his putrid smell.
'Now…'
He looked at the puddle beneath his feet.
"Where do I even start?"
The hourglass indicated that it was quarter past noon.
Staring at the puddle, Ezra felt enthralled.
Touching it, he realized why.
'But of course, blood'
It was his affinity at work.
Sinking his hand into the puddle, he shut his eyes, steadied his breath and concentrated.
Ripples formed, with the puddle seemingly coming to life.
Ezra could feel himself on the cusp of a breakthrough, so he focused.
He raised his arm, and blood floated to it.
He inhaled and exhaled, holding an image within as he bent blood to his will.
Opening his eyes minutes later, a short sword lay in his palm, one made of blood.
"Hoo" Ezra was astonished.
'I guess A-rank affinity isn't for show'
He then thought…
'Can't I make it a bit bigger?'
Imagining a longsword this time, he tried to adjust it.
The result? *Splat*, the short sword dissolved.
'Well, I guess it's not that easy'
That said, he'd just found an easier way to clear out the puddle.
He suddenly quivered, his eyes blurred and an intense headache came upon him.
Feeling light-headed, he washed the puddle away with water, and poured neutral fragrances to wipe the lingering odor.
Thereafter, he cleaned up, succumbing to sleep soon after.
Elsewhere, Fredrick shadowed the guilds operations, surveying the guild's overall growth for the past year.
With the resources available, its rise was an event set in stone.
'Hmm' yet Fredrick's frown only worsened.
No, the guild's growth was not in the negative, but it didn't surpass the estimated positive, and that was a big problem.
With only nine years left, it was paramount that he understood why the guild hadn't grown up to its potential.
Black Jaws had grown to more than three thousand members.
The worst among the initial slum dwellers was now F-rank, many others being E-rank, with the top few being D-rank members.
Everyday, they were sent to hunt and, on any hunt, a minimum of eleven died.
Having bought half of Kingsmere's businesses, money was flowing in, being used to pay for the reconstruction of Traxfords slum and the smooth running of Black Silence.
All seemed fine and dandy, yet they failed to surpass the estimated result?
'I'll have to check on this myself'
Like so, he got to work.
