Easy or not?

"I think I would have preferred breaking off the wings of butterflies," Hillary whispered to Max while holding tightly onto her sword. The grub moths who had stepped forward moved to stand in front of Max, totally ignoring the girl beside him.

"You look familiar. Have I seen you somewhere? It's been a while since I've been to the outside world. Being locked up in this stupid place just to play stupid games with you stupid humans only to respawn every time we are killed, still trapped in here," The grub moth sneered with a look of disgust on his face.

"I'm sorry but we have never met," Max said looking at the creature that was obviously much taller than he was.

"Fine," The grub moth shrugged before stepping backwards into the group of creatures.

And with that, the others started rushing towards Max and Hillary.

"Fury of a thousand blades!" Max's voice thundered.

Suddenly, six big black holes opened right above the creatures.

"Huh?" The grub moths were dazed at the holes hovering in the sky above them.

"This power..." The leader of the creatures whispered to himself as if trying to remember something. Then he said to the others, "Get him and don't get hit by whatever comes out from those holes!"

Max scoffed and spread his arms apart.

"Unleash!"

A sudden rain of blades appeared from the holes and began traveling downwards with the aim of striking whatever was underneath the black holes.

As quick as lightening, the blades struck and pierced through the bodies of the creatures. Hillary whom had already set her mind on fighting the creatures head on stared at the serious faced boy beside her in admiration and awe. The holes continued raining swords till there were no more grub moths in sight except one.

"Close," Max said and the black holes immediately disappeared.

Tentacles which were earlier not on his back, extended from them which were now seen wrapped around three dead grub moths with deep wounds all over their bodies. They had obviously died from being used as shields. The tentacles on the back of the leader of the grub moths, released the bodies from it's grasp before retracting into his back.

"Why did you spare me? You know you could have still been able to kill me if you hadn't closed your portals," He said in a tone of mockery.

"Because I wanted to fight you head on without interruptions," Max replied, casually swinging the Lunar blades.

"Ooh, I love brave little humans," The grub moth smirked.

In the least of anyone's expectations, a swift back flip kick was sent into Max's stomach, causing him to crash into the ground at a distance. Without a word, the creature began running towards Max with the aim of another attack but Max was already up on his feet and charged his blades at the grub moth. The creature swiftly dodged the attack as his wings flapped and he rose from the ground. Quickly, he grabbed the boy by the shirt and flung him across the grass.

"You look familiar but your skills without power is definitely not one I would associate myself with," The grub moth scoffed.

"Oh really," Max spat out blood and wiped his lips with the back of his palm before standing up.

"Most definitely."

"Hmph." Max smirked.

Holding each Lunar blade in either hand, he said two words.

"Fire Aura!"

A blast of furnace rose out from underneath his feet till his whole body was enveloped in flames.

"A weakling such as yourself possess such heavenly gifts. I can't believe this," The grub moth shook his head.

Max ignored him and charged forward. With every step he took, a fairly long trail of flame travelled behind him. On seeing how serious the boy had gotten, the grub moth returned to the ground and also made his way towards the boy as a blue spear with a little shade of purple, the same colour as that of his wings appeared in his right hand.

The weapon clashed. The clash continued with neither of them ready to give up and the pace at which they attacked each other took to a drastic increase.

Hillary watched on with her mouth left agape. Even though Max's skills were average, the fact he was determined to defeat the beast was what left her mesmerized.

"Holy cow," She finally found herself saying.

"Give up already boy! You're not strong enough to defeat me!" The grub moth shouted, slowly getting frustrated that the attacks from his spear were always blocked by Max's blades. The flames that engulfed the boy's body seemed to strengthen his physique. Someone as ordinary and weak as he was possessed abilities far stronger than his current level. It was certainly unheard of.

"Just die already!" Max's flame eyes widened and his forehead creased. Almost like a stroke of lightening, Max appeared behind him and with a push from his feet, the grub moth fell backwards.

"Fury of a thousand blades!"

"Single black hole unleash!"

As quick as Max spoke, a single black hole hovered above the grub moth and a heavy rain of blades came upon the beast even before he could think of reacting. Max had saved the skill for the last as he had wanted to beat the beast to his satisfaction before he would kill him off.

About 20 blades struck the beast till it lost every bit of life it hosted. Satisfied with the outcome, the blades retracted into the black hole before it closed on Max's command.

"W...wow," Hillary could do nothing but applaud the scene she had just witnessed.

The fire aura all over Max slowly dispersed as he moved towards the lifeless body of the grub moth before it would disappear after 30 seconds as the others had earlier done.

[ ...Scanning for core location... ]

&# Core located &#

[ Core location : At the nape ]

Max used one of his blades to make a clean open cut at the nape of the beast where the beast core laid. He dug his hand into the cut and took out the blue crystal that glowed with a rush of energy going through it.

[ Do you wish to absorb the Grub moth's core?]

' No,' Max simply declined. There wasn't anything special he had witnessed from the grub moth's ability. He would only absorb cores of beasts that would be of help to him in the game. The grub moth's core would be better off given to someone who had just a skill.

"Here," He walked up to Hillary and handed the core over to her. "You can have it."

"But..." Hillary was running out of words.

"I don't need it so why not?" Max shrugged.

"Thank you so much," Hillary smiled and held it a little above the device on her wrist. A wave of energy seeped out from the device and hovered around the crystal, dissolving it into energy before retracting with the energy that surrounded it back into the device.

[ You have successfully absorbed the Grub moth's core ]

A pair of butterfly wings with a mixture of blue and purple shades sprouted on her back. Max was in awe. Her hair which was tied in a loose bun with a few strands falling on to either sides of her face and her new wings complemented her looks so well.

' If fairies existed, they would certainly look like this,' Max thought. She was damn prettier with those butterfly wings.

"Wow," Hillary was filled with excitement at the sight of her wings.

Just then, the voice from earlier echoed in their ears.

[ Congratulations, you have successfully cleared level 1 ]

[ You are now being transported to Area 2 ]

White lights traveling down from the sky engulfed them and soon after disappeared with them.

The duo soon found themselves in a place, much more different from the previous one. The area appeared to be filled with rocks, the grounds were rocky and not even soil could be seen yet huge and tall trees were seen in different directions. The skies were grey and it looked like it was going to rain but nothing of such was forthcoming.

[ Game will begin in 10 seconds ]

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[ Game has begun ]

[ Level 2 ]

[ Mode : Normal ]

[ Time limit : 2:00:00 ]