A Troublesome Sun
Noah was stunned absolutely silly as he felt the sharp pain coursing through his skin. What the fuck! Since when could the sun deal soul damage?! There was something seriously wrong with this world! But then he calmed down to think. It was impossible that the sun of Maest could actually deal damage, after all nothing unusual happened before today. Unless...
He glanced up from the cave where they rested and took a quick glance outside. Immediately, a biting pain was felt through his soul and Noah hissed as he moved backwards in pain. "It's an artificial sun." He was stunned as he came to this conclusion, the sun was way closer to the Earth from how he looked at it. They were really lucky that they had been dropped rather closely to the edge of the desert and could quickly reach the forest area located at its west region.
"It is the Palace master's Intent." It was the girl named Alyssa that spoke. Hearing this, understanding appeared in his mind. Intent was something every Battlesoul master gained upon breaking through to the Exalt Stage. It was an elusive factor that increased one's strength and it differed from person to person even if they had the same affinity. For example, if a Fire type Battlesoul master possessed the Destruction Intent, his flames would possess extra combustible strength while if another Fire type Battlesoul master possessed the Restriction Intent, his flames would be geared around binding more than attacking.
Hearing this, Noah immediately understood. The Palace master's strength was at the Grandmaster Stage, one step away from becoming an Overlord Stage Battlesoul master. At that stage, Intent would evolve into Will!
The difference between Intent and Will was that Intent could only affect the surrounding through the Essence in one's body, which meant via one's attacks. But Will could directly affect the world around you! It could manifest itself into the world!
Obviously the Battlesoul master was attempting to breakthrough to the Overlord Stage and had half succeeded. He was probably a Fire type Battlesoul master whose Intent was geared towards Soul damage. But somehow he still failed in the end and died. Yet, for some unknown reason, his Pseudo-Will still existed, floating up above in this mystery land.
The two stayed within the cave as they waited for night to come, but they also knew night would be the most dangerous time as all the beasts in hiding would come out to hunt! This was one of the times Noah appreciated the other party's silence as he took his time to think about his current predicament and heal his wounded soul.
Finally, they watched as the sun's rays grew weaker as it reached the edge of the sky. It was at this moment the silent Alyssa voiced her thoughts once more. "I propose that we work together."
He rose his brow as he heard her. "Work together? For someone of your strength, I'm barely of any use to you. This wouldn't be working together but you protecting me."
She looked at him with a strange expression as normally, any sensible person would immediately reply yes but the boy before her rejected her with very much distrust in his eyes. "I feel it's better to move together instead of individually."
Noah paused as he stared at her. Indeed, it was better to move together. And although he didn't say it, he barely had any chances of getting out of this place alive with just Novice Stage strength. To the paranoia he had towards her, he could only smile wryly. The coldness exuded from her figure was merely as a result of the loneliness she had probably suffered as a child. To be frank, she possessed zero social skills, making her awkwardly displaced when around people so she probably created a cold personality for herself until it integrated with her very self.
Noah's cold personality, on the other hand, was born from the multiple hatred and betrayal brought from his past life. His paranoia towards human beings was cranked to the very max.
But in the end, he could only agree. He wasn't stupid, going into that open land alone was nothing short of stupidity.
Seeing him agree, Alyssa gave a small smile. After all, it didn't hurt to bring him along. The possibility of him betraying her was also little as he was in the same situation as her and he could have done it by leaving her behind when the sun was up while she was disoriented. She considered this returning a favor. "I guess we must familiarize ourselves with each other then. I have the Dark type Night Phoenix Battlesoul and I'm an Assault type Battlesoul master with the strength of Level 2 Adept Stage."
"Hmm." Noah nodded and then gestured as if she could continue but he was stunned to see that she was just staring at the floor in a peculiar way. Dumbfounded, he realized this was as far as she could converse! And probably she had learnt it so she could be part of Mercenary groups. She didn't mention her strengths or weaknesses or even how she fought! 'Damn since when has this girl been living alone.' But then, recalling his family, he realized he would actually choose being alone than being with them.
As for Alyssa, she blushed red in embarrassment as she watched Noah dumbly staring at her. "I... I come from the Soaring Star Academy so my strength is great for an Adept Stage Battlesoul master."
Noah's eyes widened. It now made sense how a girl, 14 years of age could reach the Adept Stage. It would make sense if she was from there. "What year are you?"
She was stunned to see that he wasn't addressing her poor social skills but still answered. "I'm a second year."
Again, her answer was concise and on point. Anybody else might have found talking with her as a pain but not Noah, he too didn't wish to talk much, so it suited him that she never bothered to start a conversation.
He then sighed as he spoke. "I have Gravity and Space types Battlesouls. And I'm at Level 7 of the Novice Stage."
Seeing the sun finally setting allowing darkness reign once more, Noah sighed in relief. He would rather face the Essence beasts than to face that sun, after all soul damage was considered the most painful force there is as there's no way to counter it other than having a strong soul or being incredibly strong. Both choices were, sadly, unavailable to him.
He searched his World ring and summoned the Rank 3 weapons he had taken. He passed some to Alyssa before wearing the ones he chose for himself. Feeling the extra strength and defense given to him by the armor and swords, he calmed a bit. "We'll scour the area first. The first 6 hours will be for finding another suitable place to rest, the remaining time we'll return to see how long night lasts over here."
Hearing this, the girl nodded. The both inhaled as they cautiously walked out to see the clearing before them.
They didn't need to walk far to find faint cracks in the ground and powerful Essence residue. Obviously, after a long time of waiting for the troublesome sun to disappear, the beasts had come out to hunt.
"Above!" Suddenly, Alyssa yelled. Noah's body tensed, his figure flashed away as he executed Flicker to disappear. A few mater's away, he finally noticed his assailant.
It was a small sized beast. Well, it could be considered small when compared to most beasts but the hulking body that stood at 2 meters tall was pretty large for Noah. It possessed a lithe body frame, with its green eyes shining with slight cunning and intelligence. Obviously, this beast was an assassin type. If Noah was a normal mercenary without the Void Steps, even if he were at the Intermediate Stage, he would be heavily injured if not dead by now.
Alyssa jumped into the air with her sword pointed at the beast. On her back, were a pair of marvelous dark feathered wings that spanned about 3 meters boosting her speed and lethality. Behind her was the image of a dark feathered Phoenix that radiated with magnificence. Obviously, as someone with an Emperor Grade Battlesoul, she could manifest it at the beginning of her cultivation. With an Adept Stage strength, it could manifest even more.
Dark Angel Sword: Dark Radiance!
A line of dark essence left her sword and charged with overwhelming strength to pierce a hole into the beast's head.
Looking at this, Noah sighed in sorrow. What bullshit talent, it was all useless if he couldn't find a nice Battle technique to practice. Looking at his only Dragonified arm, he could only smile wryly.
Shaking his head, he chose to forget the matter and walked up to the beast. His sword quickly found its abdomen area and brought forth an Essence core, of course the beast was only at the Intermediate Stage so its core was of the lower grade but to Noah meat, no matter how small, is still meat. He stuffed it in his World ring without any shame of stealing his partner's gains.
Alyssa, on the other hand, didn't give a shit. Such cores were truly beneath her. Their first encounter with the enemy went well, but they both knew that the night had just begun!