The Battle Part: 1 (2000 Words)

*Started to write next chapter, realized I forgot 2 release this, Sorry <3

Now, it was only two days before the ice finally broke. A couple more skirmishes broke out, but noone died. In the end, almost a hundred people stood around the ice encased book, waiting for the day it would appear.

Every group slept in alternating sceduals so noone could kill them whilst they slept.

As for Basmon's small group, they just slept normally, as Basmon didn't need to sleep and could just keep watch.

Actually, alot of people thought that their little group looked wierd, and they ended up becoming the most talked about group, as a glowing purple man holding a bow with a minotaur and a human male looks kind of wierd.

On the night before the ice would finally melt, someone attacked the trio.

The women was clothed in all black, with only two holes for eyes. She was about 5'6 and was pretty skinny.

The women slowly krept up on Vatue, her dagers in hand. Basmon slowly watched her, waiting for the perfect time to shoot a poisen arrow right at her heart.

She jumped.

Her daggers fell down towards the sleeping Vatue.

And a poisen arrow hit her in the chest, knocking her backwards a couple feet.

Basmon had shot a poisen arrow (200 Mana) along with power shot to knock her back (50 mana). He had 110 mana left (110/360)

"Ughhhh!!!" The women exclaimed, trying to get up.

The poisen quickly corroded her body, and her veins buldged quickly.

Her body started to contrast, and shake violently.

She screamed constantly, waking the rest of the camp near them. Most people were near them, by the Ice sculpture.

Soon, people started to ask what happened. The girl was dead on the floor, foaming at the mouth. Small lines of green had started to appear on her body.

<Hidden Quest Completed: Defend agianst an assasin: Reward: Skill: Detect Danger>

<Hidden Quest Complete: Kill a human: Reward: Skill: Communication>

'Oh? How conviniant. I can understand the skills just from the name,' Basmon thought, asking the system for the information on them.

<Skill: Detect Danger(Passive): Alerts you to any danger within 20 meters>

<Skill: Communication(Passive: Allows you to comunicate (Talking) whilst spectral body is summoned>

'Oh wow... I don't think I have any passive skills, how conviniant,' Basmon thought, looking around at the people gathering. He looked like a calm, undesterbed cultivater, his aura shining.

The people around him started to question him.

"What happened? Why did you kill this girl?" They questioned, some of them starting to close in. Danger sense went off repeatedly, marking about 6 of them in his vision.

'Thats great, it points them out to me!' Basmon thought happily.

"She tried to kill my teamate, so I killed her." Basmon responded, his calmness shocking the rest of them. 'Actually, System... I feel like I should feel something more... Why don't I?' Basmon questioned the system

<Note: System has suppresed emotions, especially when summonded here. Almost all negative emotions were suppresed, but at some point they will be released once more, causing an explosion. Once you finish getting this skill I recommend releasing them when you are alone> The system informed him.

'Oh... I guess that confirms my suspicions...' Basmon thought, as he had been confused as to why he had adapted to being a bow so quickly. Now, back to the real world.

"So you just killed her..." The people looked at the still convulsing body in shock.

Inside, they were all thinking the same thing, 'How... How is he so calm??? What a monster... I had better not bother him...'

Well, except one person, 'Wow... I like him! I should recruit him to our party!' A young women in her early 20's said. She was one of the strongest people on this mountain, rank B, along with being quite pretty. Her power was similar to Basmon's, even though he was only Rank C, because of the amount of skills Basmon had. Even the strongest of people, Rank A, only have 10 skills.

One other weakness of humans is the fact that their mana does not just go up with each rank up. After all, rankups are just a human idea, which his own system decided to use to it's advantage.

Of course, some people have more, if they use skill books. Sadly, only the rich use those, and they generally arn't amazing skills. The truly amazing skills you cannot buy with money, like this skill book here 'Ice Tsunami'.

After a while, the people that had gathered went back to sleep, all of them checking over their shoulder more cautiously.

The next day, 12 people didn't wake up.

The people around them, even though all of them knew they would end up fighting later, held a funeral for everyone assasinated, wether by the girl or someone else.

The body's were buried, and a small bronze wire raised.

'Actually, system... Why do they raise a bronze wire? Is it like some cultural thing, like the cross, from Jesus of the Christians?' Basmon wondered.

<In anciant days, they would slice of heads in an execution of royals with a bronze wire, as a symbol of respect, even if they should die. It was to show even in deatht the royals were better than commoners. Somehow that became a tradition here>

The system's response shocked Basmon. Such a gross thing had become normal? Did they even know what it originally ment?

After a bit, he decided to ask someone.

He grabbed someone to the side, and whsipered to them useing 'Communication'.

"Psst... Why are they raising a copper wire in respect of the dead?" Basmon whispered to someone.

"Umm... I'm actually not sure... Just a tradition, I guess?" The person responded, walking off.

'Ick... I guess that kinda makes sense though, if they don't know what it came from...' Basmon thought.

<Note: Zocu +20% Loyalty 70% (Will not betray, but still might leave the group)>

'Hmm... I wonder why that went up...' Basmon thought, but then went on with what they had planned for the day.

All that day, after the funeral, Basmon and Vatue, along with Zocu, prepared for the next day. They trained and practiced for a while, and fought a bit.

Basmon Vs. Vatue and Zocu. There where hundreds of spectators, but none of the three cared. After all, none of them would reveal their trump cards, and they needed to intimidate the rest of the lot not to fight them.

The rules of the fight were: If an arrow landed on either one of the 2, they lost. If Basmon got touched at all, he lost.

Immediantly, Vatue flew towards Basmon, who immidiantly shot an arrow high into the air, in Zocu's direction, but aimed a tid bit above him.

Basmon had actually gotten the arrow from summoned to shot in under 2 seconds. It seems he had been practicing alot.

Zocu had jumped back, and brought out two daggers. However, unexpected to Basmon and the crowd, he started to chant some type of magic.

'He was a royal mage? What?' Basmon thought in shock. The crowd also gasped, as only royal mages could manipulate mana like that, unless they had a super strong item. And the daggers in his hand looked like low tier, Common daggers, maybe ranked D at best.

Vatue's double axes slammed down towards Basmon, who, just in the nick of time, teleported away. He was behind Zocu by a bit, but Basmon already had an arrow drawn.

The arrow flew right towards Zocu's back.

"Slam!" The arrow hit Zocu's dagger, not in the slighest interupting his casting.

Vatue had already caught back up to Basmon, who released an arrow in the oppisite direction once more, but this time, instead of teleporting TO it, he teleported it behind Vatue.

He immediantly used 'Arrow Bounce' and bounced it back at Vatue, hitting him in the back.

"WHAT!!! No fair! I didn't even get to use aura suppresion yet!" Vatue complained loudly.

Zocu, on the other hand, had already completed his spell, and was dashing towards Basmon.

Basmon pulled back another arrow, and shot it high into the air, just in case. He then shot another arrow towards Zocu, right before he reached him, causing Zocu to roll to the side.

<200/320 Mana>

Zocu jumped back towards Basmon, who teleported to his arrow, which had just reached it's peak.

He immediantly used 'Arrow Bounce,' using it to jump off of, then used 'Flight'.

Whilst in the air, using Spectral Body and Flight, he pulled back another arrow.

To his supprise, and the crowds, Angelic wings sprouted on Zocus back, and he flew faster than Basmon could even react to it.

"Tap." Zocu's dagger tapped Basmon's body, taking away 1 HP.

<-1 HP, Spectral Body (1/2)>

"I WON!!!" Zocu shouted excitedly.

'Wow... He was so fast, I barly saw it... I guess I still need to become stronger, especially for mages like him who can cast such random, unpredictable magic...I guess my sole counter to that is Aura Suppresion, but if he has higher aura im screwed...' Basmon thought, fortifing his goal to get stronger.

The crowd cheered, some of them still in shock and Zocu's speed.

After a while, the crowd dispersed, going to do whatever they so pleased.

"Great job, Zocu, Vaute. You both did wonderful." Basmon told the two proudly.

"I did nothing... How could I die to such a feint..." Vatue moaned.

"Thanks!" Zocu said happily.

Soon, the next day had arrived. Basmon, Vatue, and Zocu had all rested up.

It was the day of the ice breaking. Noone had died last night, to everyone's supprise.

At about noon, when the sun was at it's highest, the ice started to shake, then shattered. Basmon already had an arrow there, which he had placed secretly last night, along with another arrow with Vatue.

One sad thing he had learned whilst thinking of ideas for this was that if you try to teleport more than 10 miles, it starts to double the mana cost every 2x. So at 20 miles, it would cost 2x more, then at 40 4x more than the last. So it would go 80 at 10 Miles, 160 at 20 miles, and 640 mana at 40 miles.

The final thing he learned was that an arrow cannot stay summoned for more than 12 hours, an at every hour it costs 5 mana. Before, he had apparenlty just naturally unsummonded them.

Suddenly, the ice shook, then fell to the ground, melting almost immediantly. The book rose into the air, shining brightly. Everyone close to the book got shoved back, ending up with a large circle around it.

Immediantly, almost everyone charged forward at the book, hoping to grab it.

Basmon teleported to the book, ad grabbed it using spectral body. Last night, once he had gotten back his mana, he had added a ton of health to his spectral body, so it was now at thirteen health.

Immediantly, people jumped at him in supprise.

Vatue chucked the arrow he had towards the distance, and started running away from the chaos with Zocu.

Basmon teleported to it the moment hit the top of its flight, then used Arrow Bounce to jump towards the ground. His leg hit an air shield, and he quickly jumped down. Behind them, hundreds of projectiles came towards them, whether arrows or fireballs.

"Quick! Follow them! The're getting away!" Someone yelled, and everyone started to chase after them. Apparently, teleportation skills were quite rare, as noone teleported to them as Vatue and Zocu had expected.

Basmon already knew that because the system had told him.

*Somewhere else, with Vasil.

"Quick! The book should have been summonded by now! If only we didn't have to fight those bandits! Quickly! We need to get the book!" Vasil yelled, spuring on his men.

They ran towards the center mountain, hoping with all their might they could get the book.

They had been attacked by Bandits, and it had slowed them a couple days. They had, of corse, easily taken care of them. The problem was the amount and when they attacked. The would just send troops in waves, at night whilst sleeping or during the day whilst traveling quickly.