18 God dammit Ezra!

While the four generals were traversing the silent desert in search of troops to fill their lords army, Azazel himself was busy contemplating his next action.

"I need to get stronger." He spoke out loud to no one in particular, thinking back to everything he has done to get to his current stage. "My current options are limited, they are to travel far from here in search of new enemies, or to train my skills here using the Mana pool."

While Azazel was busy contemplating which path would be the best to take, which one would allow him to grow strong enough to be the final victor of that giant shadows' trials, he suddenly had a thought, 'If only I could gain experience and train my skills at once... but the minor ghosts are now too weak to give me both efficiently'.

*DING* Host has bound a Death Crystal, the system has determined it to have been a remnant of a demons body from the great war. While you have bound the Crystal to you, it still has it's own consciousness and will continuously wish to regain its freedom.

By allowing the crystal to absorb some of the Mana within the pool as well as some of the deathly lightning from above, it may allow the crystal to form a body reminiscent of its past self, with its strength dependant on the amount of mana you inject into it.

"Oh! I didn't know that was possible, if I can change its strength then I can increase it to constantly push myself." Azazel replied in delight at having found an easy way to train himself without having to leave his base.

Having decided his next action Azazel moved towards the deathly green pool of Mana before staring down into its depths, where a slightly glowing green orb lay dormant at the bottom, so still and silent as if it has always been that way and will forever continue to be.

"Let's do this." He declared with the determination to get stronger practically oozing from his eyes in the form of crimson flames.

Raising his arms above his head towards the flickering lightning in the sky, Azazel roared out while pulling the energy from both within the storm clouds and from within the Mana pool into a pulsating green ball of ethereal mist.

"Guuaarrgghh!" Roaring out Azazel compressed the energy ball into a cylindrical shape, more and more he ground it down until the mist practically became a solid bar, then pulling the tip forward and elongating it outwards the solid rod became a spear made of pure death Mana.

*Fwoosh* Suddenly Azazel shot the spear into the Mana pool, deeper and deeper it flew, straight towards the Death crystal. As it travelled through the Mana pool however it seemed to suck in the death Mana from its surroundings, turning the originally spectral green pool into a shade of deep black, almost reminiscent of the night sky.

From an outsiders perspective when looking into the pool it appeared as if a small green shooting star was flying defiantly towards a giant green sun, as if to challenge its prestige.

"Oh crap... I might've messed up." Azazels' originally white face became an even paler shade of porcelain white when he realised he forgot to account for the Mana spear absorbing more energy on the way to the Death Crystal.

His original goal was to put slightly less energy into the spear than his own maximum, enough for a challenge but not quite enough to create a threat. However it looks like Azazel bit off more than he can chew.

Faster and faster the spear flew, slowly beginning to rotate as it descended further into the darkness of the pools depths. With every passing second the spear grew slightly larger in diameter, the energy level reaching 100%, 110%, 120% of Azazels' maximum strength and continuing to rise.

'Do I run or fight?' Azazel thought, worrying about whether or not he will ever have a chance against this foe he rashly decided to create. "Shit! I'm not running from anyone or anything! If I die then I'm gonna haunt you forever Ezra!" he roared out in anger, not realising he forgot to ask for details from Ezra before attempting to create a training partner.

*DING* Noted.

*Crack*

...

...

...

Suddenly the sound of glass cracking resounded across the plateau, seemingly quieting all sound, whether the gusts of Mana in the air or the Constant thunderstorm up above, all became still.

"ROOOAAAARRR!!" A muffled roar suddenly sounded out, causing Azazel to shake in fear, however unnoticed to Azazel he was also shaking in excitement at a finally worthy fight, a grin slowly forming on his face with his eyes turning into crescents as he squinted towards the enemy he felt below.

"Ezra, how strong is it... also what the hell is that thing?" Azazel asked while never letting his eyes leave the grotesque creature slowly floating upwards towards him.

With a masculine grey coloured humanoid body standing at 7 feet tall, bulging muscles seemingly made of iron fibers twisted around a bar of metal rather than bone, grotesquely pulsating and squirming. However despite its human like appearance it was far from being one, random curved bones jutted out from its major joints and all along its spine, with bone claws shooting out from its fingers and perhaps most unnerving of all was its face, it had a perfectly smooth head without any features other than one large eye glowing in a green light which never once left Azazel.

*DING* Analysing the creature... it will take the system a while to come to a conclusion.

'Great' thought Azazel once again blaming Ezra for this situation. "Hey... welcome back to the land of the living... kinda." Azazel tried to joke to keep himself calm, the pressure emanating from the creature practically crushing him, he had no doubt that if he was human his bones would be crushed with sweat pouring from his body, and blood leaking from his orifices.

Silence... a deathly silence was the only response, until the unknown creature raised its hands and grabbed both the top of its head and it's jaw and pulling harshly, it literally tore a hole where a mouth would usually sit on a face, with blood leaking from the wound.

'What!' thought Azazel in alarm at the grotesque scene occuring in front of him.

"Haaah" The sound of a subtle breath slowly escaped the creatures new mouth, along with the stench of a decaying body. "Hello 'Master'." The creature mocked while forming a toothless grin.

Slowly cracking all the joints in its body the creature sounded as if a bag of popcorn was thrown into a roaring fire. While unsure of what was coming next all Azazel could do was maintain his vigilance, however no matter how much he strained his senses, when the creature slowly raised its foot before disappearing he was thrown off.

'Where'd he go?' Azazel thought before suddenly recieving a kick to his left side, with the bones jutting out of the creatures foot ripping a part of Azazel from his body. "Argh!" he cried out before turning in mid air and trying to glimspe the creature, only to see nothing before recieving a swipe from its claws to the back of his head, ripping the black smoke from his face revealing what was underneath.

Unlike Azazels previous blank face it now held features, not fully formed but more prominent the stronger he gets. If you were to squint then they would seem slightly similar to his previous human face with the exception of red eyes and a more mature look to his gaze.

Turning to the monster and finding it standing there with a smirk so wide it practically split his face, Azazel felt anger rising in his body, the Shade struggling to unleash itself and sink its fangs into the hideous face of the taunting creature.

"How dare you harm your creator you trash! Didn't you learn basic manners from your mother or was she too busy whoring herself out!" Azazel roared out releasing a smirk of his own.

The green glow of the creatures eye flickered strongly for a few seconds at that moment, its smirk leaving its face to be replaced by a scowl filled with malice.

"I will enjoy tearing you apart." It spoke out calmly, imagining the pleasure it will gain from devouring the puny thing which binds its true body.

*DING* Creature analysed, strength currently at 400% of hosts, species determined to be of the Fey variety, specifically a Bone Fey

Estimated threat level... death imminent.