Boom Goes Your Life

As the spirit feigned ignorance, they moved closer and closer. And as they did that, the more the spirit focused on them, ignoring the feminine creature.

And the more it became more aware of its soroundings. Time felt like it slowed down to it. It could see everything with clarity.

The coming pebbles from above.

The worried feminine creature before it.

And the sneaky masculine creature behind it.

And most importantly, the red glint it saw within the hands of the latter. The spirit felt like that was their hope, their, only, hope.

Therefore, when that thing, the red glint within the masculine creature's hands, was thrown, it focused on it completely.

It saw as the object bounced off the ground to gather more momentum, as it flew through the air like a red bullet at sound speed.

The spirit could have just dodged the object, and turned around to burn the creature there and then. But it did not.

The masculine creature was fast.

Hence if it turned, the prey could run away once again. So instead, the spirit had an even more devious plan in mind.

Shattering their hope.

Every tiny bit of it.

It did not turn around to respond to the prey, and just extinguished the fireball within its right hand. And as instantly as that occurred, it reached out to grab the red glinted object.

Such an action gave out the impression that it was more than aware of the prey's actions. And that their schemes were useless.

It slowly turned around to face the masculine creature with a smile. Indeed. It's plan payed off, as the prey slumped their shoulders and sighed in 'defeat'.

The spirit laughed to itself at first, then it's laugh slower grew louder and livelier. At the end, the heat within the lava was climbing up due to its joy alone.

The feminine creature stopped throwing her pebbles, and slumped down in defeat. She was terrified, and pale stricken.

"How...?" She questioned in defeat, as the spirit continued its laughter of triumph.

While the masculine creature smiled. Yes, he smiled. And not a smile of defeat.

Wait, what?

Smiled? The spirit paused.

"..."

It then suddenly stopped laughing and slightly frowned. Death was right at their doorstep, yet the prey was laughing? Had they gone crazy?

Or... was it tricked again?

It thought, and slowly turned to look at the red glinted object within its hands. Once identified, it was struck with stupor and confusion. And most importantly, realization.

It's gaze became blank.

Time seemed to have stopped flowing.

"..."

The spirit recognized the object. It was a demon's core.

A source of energy. A pure source of condensed energy that was sensitive to external stimuli. In simple terms, easily combustible.

And as a demon core, it was more sensitive to fire and heat, and the likes of such nature. And the spirit was of a pure fire attribute. It was also located within a lake of lava.

"..."

The more it thought about this, the more it resigned to its fate. Not even a second had yet to pass, yet it was aware of its fate.

Death.

As for why it thought as such? Demon cores were the hearts of demons. They contained the souls of the demons.

Once a demon dies, that soul partially becomes pure energy of the element the demon represented. Red here signifying fire, as the Hammer Fist Demon was fire attributed.

But that was not all.

To better make it more deadly, it needed kinetic energy. The particles within, the more they collided with each other, the more power and force they contained.

It bouncing on the floor, and it's sonic speed, generated the required energy for the particles to greatly interact. At vast velocity at that.

Then the spirit's flames, and the extreme heat triggered due to its excitement, just gave the hyper energetic particles the get go. The permission to...

Explode.

BOOOOM!!!

A sudden explosion kicked up a terrifying cloud of dust, and debris. Time flowed once more, as everything was just too sudden and uncalled for.

The spirit just exploded out into nothingness.

"...???"

Juliette was shocked and speechless. She could not understand a thing that happened. Everything just made no sense at first.

'Wha... What?' She thought, as she stared at the powerful explosion, and the cloud of dust it kicked up. It shook the boulders that she was standing on, making her lose her balance.

Hence no wonder she was surprised.

'Where did big brother Damien get that weapon? Is it some future gear or something?' The young maiden thought, as her nerves calmed down.

She was happy to have survived a calamity. Anything else would be solved simply by reuniting with Damien. And that was what happened.

Meanwhile, Damien also sighed in relief as he walked towards the explosion site. The cloud of dust was still slowly settling itself.

Everything went as perfectly as he had thought. Yes, that was so. Everything, except Juliette's actions, were according to his plans.

She just made them more easier.

His slow, deliberate actions when confronting the Hammer Fist Demon. His reveal of noteworthy battle awareness and instincts.

Him showing his worth and threat. His brutality when fighting the demon. They were all to instill the fear, and caution within the next coming target.

After all, the spirit was long there, within the lava, just watching. Damien knew because he was counting the time.

It only appeared a few seconds after the three minute count down. But nonetheless, it still had enough time to determine his threat level.

Then him unleashing his true speed, also made it more cautious and threatened. And when he threw that rock, it was both a signal and a test.

If the spirit ignored it, then he still needed to implant more fear into it. But if it reacted to the decoy, just as it did, it meant that his actions were not for naught.

Even when he came out of hiding. He knew that it was well aware of him. Hence why he just sneaked around, and did not even try to be stealthy.

How could he fail at assassination, when his mother was a literal professional? The best of the best at that.

"..."

And yes. One could say that, either than Juliette, Damien actually knew the next step the spirit would take. It was just dancing on his palm at that point.

He chuckled to himself and walked away. That was that. And that was over. Now onto the current, and coming events.

Thus he walked towards Juliette.

While he walked, notifications bombarded his consciousness. Alerting him of yet another easy kill that they had achieved.

[ Your have killed the Lvl 1 Fireborne Spirit, Norde. You have obtained 15 units of Life Essece ]

[ Bonus effect has been applied. You and your partner have individually obtained 30 units of Life Essence ]

Meanwhile, Juliette also received the same notifications, with more to add on. As this was her trial, she obtained the rewards from killing the Fireborne Spirit.

[ Your partner has killed the Lvl 1 Fireborn Spirit, Norde. You have obtained 15 units of Life Essece ]

[ Bonus effect has been applied. You and your partner have individually obtained 30 units of Life Essence ]

[ Congratulations. You've obtained the following resources: Tier 1 Spirit Shard(Impure), Bracelet of Norde(Superior) ]

[ For defeating a trial opponent, you have obtained the following rewards: Extra Ability(×1), Tier 1 Random Treasure Chest(×1), Spirit Fragment(1/4) ]

[ Would you like to equip the Ability? ]

Juliette was surprised by the newly arrived information, and did not recklessly accept. She first jumped off the boulder, and rushed towards Damien.

Meanwhile, Damien watched the site of explosion. There was no sign of a spirit, or it's remains here.

Nor was there a lava lake anymore.

There was just a five meter deep, ten meter wide gouge left. The gouge was breathing out white vapor from the lava being evaporated at the insane heat of the explosion.

He stared at it for a while and sighed. Only a couple of seconds till another opponent arrives.

But before that, "Big brother Damien, something has occurred. Look, look." The youthful Juliette ran besides him, and tried to show him her notifications.

Of course, such an action was impossible for the current her, but Damien knew what she wanted to show him. And he became thoughtful.

Juliette of the future had a few Extra Abilities, which helped her a lot. And they became her defining feature at the early stages.

Thus, he could let her take this Ability. And the more coming. It would also make the coming battles more easier for them.

But then again, Unique Abilities were better. They gave the user an edge at the early stages, and then even at the middle stages.

They were literally cheat codes. Plus, Juliette of the future failed to match up to the real 'genuises' back then, due to her lack of a Unique Ability at the beginning stage.

But now, he would make that different.

Since he was aiming for an exclusive class for her, then she just had to have a Unique Ability to better make her stand out.