The Astral soul system-Chapter 185: She’s strong

"So... why didn’t you tell her?"

"..."

"I didn’t mean the thing about her mom"

"..."

"The sword"

Theia clarified although she knew he already understood

Zen was still ignoring her so Theia snapped her fingers and the system screen showed up.

[Glacier’s edge(superior grade rank 5)]

[Str: +25]

[Agi: +60]

[Sta: +20]

[Def: +10]

[Skills]

[Passive skills]

Reduce enemy speed by two percent every time the blade makes contact (stackable).]

Heart of winter: creates an aura of frost that slowly covers the wielder in icy wind. Once it’s active form is triggered,it acts as a weak elemental barrier(increases defense stat of weapon to twenty)

Predator focus: An acute sense of danger complimented with beastly reflexes and induced hyperfocus (Randomly boosts agility in a dire situation)

Predator mark: Leaves an invisible frost mark on an opponent every time a direct consecutive strike is made, with a limit of seven. Every mark gives a small increase in stats and frost aura . Lasts ten seconds

[Active skills]

Snowball strike(10% chance to activate): Activated once you hit the limit of predator mark and delivers 200%-500% of base damage at the cost of a massive stamina loss.

[System evaluation: S class]

Inside the soul realm, Zaine and Zyro were stunned, they hadn’t seen the stats before so they’d just assumed it was a decent sword, but this...

Zaine sat up straight on the couch he’d made in the middle of the throne room, a glimmer of acknowledgement.

Zyro temporarily stopped circulating the seven deadly sins technique and took a brief glance as well as Theia made separate screens for them as well.

"This is..."

"What the hell?!"

Zen tilted his head, replying in his mind

’I don’t understand ’

"Why would you give something like this to that kid?" Zaine asked, sounding irritated. Glacier’s edge was easily stronger than anything they or any first year had currently, excluding dawn and dusk

’It belonged to her. The crystal that was used to craft the weapon was obtained and gifted to Jade by Beatrix ’

Zen answered, remembering the massive ice tiger.

"After you refused it"

Theia pointed out

Strangely though, Zaine didn’t take this chance to antagonize Zen and asked.

"Who the fuck is Beatrix?"

’Chelsea’s little sister’

Hearing that seemed to have struck a chord as Zyro and Zaine immediately paused for a second.

"She has a name...?"

"That means... she survived "

Thinking back, distaste filled both of them as they remembered the rite of passage every child in the arcade had to pass through to earn a name and a mark.

"How is she?"

Zyro asked.

"..."

"Answer him Damnit!"

Zaine spat.

"... She’s not yet out of the woods... but she’s doing better than Azrael was. She’s strong"

"Looks like there’s a lot i still don’t know about you guys "

Theia mused

Zyro had immediately focused back on the weapon screen showing glacier’s edge and muttered.

"What a dangerous active skill"

"..."

"What is it?" Zaine asked to which Zen replied.

"I specifically picked that weapon for Jade, and if my hunch is right, the passive skill is the most dangerous weapon in her arsenal"

************

Sable turned around to see the multiple robots that had surrounded her without her while she was dealing with the big one.

Groaning, she picked up the hilt of her broken katana and faced them

Right now she had no visible injuries and her breathing was still relatively stable,a quirk of her new body she’d come to learn of was her durability and stamina. She probably would’ve collapsed already if it was before.

"I hear a beating heart..."

Sable suddenly pointed out.

"And...blood. but it’s strange"

"Sable Vladimir,Surrender"

Sable suddenly heard a voice that had been altered with technology so it couldn’t be recognized.

"Finally. Someone speaks"

She completely ignored the demand for surrender and asked her own question.

"What do you want from me?"

The voice was absent for a few seconds before it rang out again.

"Surrender"

Sable raised a brow,more annoyed than intimidated.

"What are you? Dense? Or can you not hear me under that dome"

Sable heard a sigh that sounded something like irritation.

She suddenly recieved a message on her watch from an unknown number.

<We’ve been watching you, and according to our files you have reached your limit. Stop playing tough and surrender,or die>

Sable stared blankly at her wrist, not sure what to think of this.

First of all it seemed that this was an attack that had been carefully planned. They’d somehow gotten her physical information and determined that she’d be far too exhausted to fight by now, which would’ve been true if it wasn’t for one thing.

The information they, the academy,and even her own family had on her, was gravely inaccurate.

She tried her best to keep her mind off the sound of a heartbeat she couldn’t yet pinpoint and asked.

"Is this because of my family?"

She asked, still sounding unimpressed.

"You do know they give out loans, right? Or is this not a poor people thing?"

Silence

Sable wasn’t sure if her attempt had succeeded but she gripped the hilt of her broken blade either way.

<Very well. You will die, arrogant child,and thanks to that one,all of earth will watch helplessly>

Sable tilted her head and immediately every single robot started charging up their ranged attacks.

’Hmmm? Is it just me or are these ones... slower?’

Sable suddenly dashed forward, thrusting the broken sword and before the robot’s could react she’d stabbed it into the chest of one of them.

’They ARE slower... and weaker too’

She pushed even harder, pushing the entire broken sword in along with the hilt before kicking it right in the chest and sending it flying.

’So the first one really was to tire me out, and make me unable to fight. I’m still outnumbered though...’

She quickly moved away from her current location, dodging the ranged attacks before striking out with the whip and wrapping it around one of their feet before releasing the spikes and pulling as hard as she could and dragging it towards her before flinging it into a tree, knocking it down.

She immediately took a leap, going about twenty feet high into a tree before kicking off and launching herself into them,her whip finding one of their necks and throwing it into the forest.

She followed up with a punch, feeling the metal frame crack under her fists and launching it into the air.

She caught another attack and lifting it over her head, she slammed it into the ground before dashing back before they could touch her and immediately dodged another barrage of ranged attacks.

"Tsk! I can’t get a foothold"

She jumped into another tree, bouncing from place to place .

’Damnit! One of these things is alive. I just can’t tell which. And I don’t have a ranged attack or a way to get more blood either ’

She groaned in annoyance. No matter how she saw it, the only way to do this was the difficult way.

Breaking into a sprint, she jumped in again, throwing punches left and right. She’d taken out majority of the robots when she suddenly heard a whirring sound behind her

Rolling to the side, she barely dodge and looked up to see a robot that resembles the first one she’d taken down, and if her instincts were right,it would be as dangerous as the first.

Sable sucked in a cold breath. This was bad. She didn’t even have a weapon and it seemed like these people had an infinit robot army. Did she really have to retreat?

On the other side of the battlefield, unknown to Sable,her enemies were also having doubts.

What in the world is going on? This is Sable Vladimir, isn’t it? According to our data she should have collapsed three times over by now. Yet she isn’t even sweating yet. She’s also much stronger and faster than estimated, even without a weapon. There have been no errors in the data so far,so why now?

At most she only seemed annoyed and slightly exhausted.

Sable obviously didn’t know about this. She wasn’t injured but she was loosing power, and was desperatly thinking of a plan. She could really use a....

Something snapped in her head at that thought and she immediately pulled out something out of her ring. It was a hand.

"I have no idea if this is going to work"

Without hesitation, she sunk her teeth into it and immediately she noticed a difference.

Maybe it was because the same blood was already inside her or maybe because Zen wasn’t human, but it didn’t have the same taste as human blood, neither did she feel attracted to it.

She felt energy. It wasn’t the same she used to heal and attack. This energy didn’t bind itself to her essence the moment she absorbed it,it was pure,refined... different.

It was like aether but better.

A few seconds later, the hand seemed to disappear into thin air

She immediately felt invigorated, but something wasn’t right. This energy...it was destructive, devouring. It wasn’t hers and she knew it.

The miniscule amount wasn’t enough to harm her but it gave her a new perspective on the way she was using her own power.

She subtly remembered all the times she’d seen him using that ranged energy attack and how she’d punched the first robot. The energy coating her own hand. She seemed to have grasped something but not fully comprehended.

Her breathing slowed even more than usual as she jumped and ran across the battlefield.

She suddenly looked at her hand and saw what looked like crimson swirling smoke rising out of her clenched fist

The robot charged at her, aiming for a physical strike and Sable met it head on.

Crouching slightly to avoid getting hit before throwing her fist directly into its chest , the swirling red smoke following her attack

*Boom!*

The robot’s chest caved in almost immediately and it was hurled flying. Slamming into a tree, the robot was sent flying for multiple meters before crashing into the ground, motionless.

Breathing heavily, Sable looked at her hand. The red smoke had disappeared but that wasn’t her biggest concern.

"Blood"

She glanced at the destroyed robot and noticed a red liquid seeping out of the crack in its chest.

"Gotcha"