Warrior crests

"Huh..."

Erica, Emily, and Mary reacted after seeing Mai's enthusiasm to fight them.

Erica and Mary stepped backward, saying,

"We are both healers. Emily is good at combat. She'll fight you, Miss Mai."

"Hey!"

Emily yelled as she understood that they were making her bait.

Sigh!

Mai sighed for some unknown reason, then snapped her right-hand fingers and three blades appeared on the ground in front of the girls.

"Hmm?"

They reacted as they saw the blades.

"Remember that. It doesn't matter whether you learn anything or not, but as it goes for sword art, then it's necessary as a warrior. Now grab your blades and come at me together."

Since they had to follow Mai's instructions, they picked up the blade and then looked at each other.

"Hmm."

With determined expressions on their faces, they nodded, then turned toward Mai and ran toward her while roaring.

"Haaaaaaa!!!"

"Heh!"

A smile formed on Mai's face as she found it so easy to beat them.

"Hiyaaa!"

Erica launched a swung attack while Mary and Emily launched a slice attack on Mai.

Mai dodged Erica's attack and kicked at her back. While dodging Mary's and Emily's attacks, she elbowed at Mary's belly while thrusting the handle of her blade at Emily's back.

THUD!

They all fell to the ground while gasping.

"Th-that's insane..."

Emily commented.

"How...were you able to do that, Miss Mai?"

While gasping, Erica asked.

Mai defeated them within five seconds, even though they attacked her together.

A smile formed on Mai's face. She commented,

"Listen, in combat, speed matters a lot. However, learning about your opponent's moves is also necessary. Make your body flexible for every moment. Flexibility matters in combat."

"...."

They were gasping, but they did understand Mai's words.

They nodded slowly.

Mai smiled at them and turned her head to the left, pondering,

'I wonder how they were doing their training?'

***

"....."

Kashi was gazing at Ary. He glimpsed the increment in Ary's energy.

"...?!"

Mike was gawking at Ary with a stunning look.

He pondered,

'Is Bro some kind of power bank or something? How can he become so utterly strong all of a sudden?'

While Ary took a deep breath while closing his eyes.

He felt a burning sensation on the back of his right hand.

He opened his eyes and looked at the back of his right hand.

He saw that his warrior crest, which had a hexagonal-shaped red-colored ferocious structure, had changed into an octagonal-shaped mark. It was emitting a bright red glow.

"Ding!"

Almita made a dinging sound, reporting,

<Every skill has levelled up to LVL 7.>

<Congrats, master.>

Ary smiled at Almita and said,

"It's all thanks to you."

"Ary."

"Hmm?"

Ary reacted as he heard a familiar voice.

He shifted to his left and saw Kashi and Mike coming toward him.

"Senior."

Ary smiled after seeing Kashi.

Kashi arrived then and looked at Ary's warrior crest, saying,

"So, you have achieved the 'Crest of Destruction'. That's good."

"Eh?"

Mike and Ary responded.

They didn't know the types of crests.

After seeing their reaction, Kashi's face shaped into a bewildered expression, and he asked,

"Don't tell me that you two don't know about it."

They both diverted their eyes, saying,

"Well..."

"Not really..."

Sigh!

Kashi sighed as he understood that they truly didn't know about it.

"Fine. Listen then."

Kashi said and started to clarify.

"There are a total of nine crests."

Mike and Ary listened to Kashi's words by nodding as Kashi continued clarifying,

"The first four crests are normal that any warrior can get. They were the 'First Crest,' the 'Second Crest,' the 'Third Crest,' and the 'Fourth Crest.' They aren't any special. That's why they have names like this. The first crest has a spherical shape, the second one has a rectangular shape, the third one has a triangular shape, and the fourth has a hexagonal shape. They are the crests that almost every ordinary warrior has."

Then, his gaze shifted to Mike. He asked,

"Mike, show us your Crest."

"Ah, okay."

Mike said as he closed his eyes and raised his left palm, calling,

"Warrior Crest."

Then, a triangular-shaped crest appeared at the back of his left palm.

"Hmm. It looks like you have the third crest. Not bad."

Kashi commented, then he began explaining.

"Now, go for other crests."

He raised his right arm, saying,

"The crest that Ary just achieved is the fifth crest, known as the 'Crest of Destruction.' It helped in enhancing the Warriors' speed and the agility of their attacks."

"Senior, Senior."

Mike raised his hand to ask something.

"Yes, Mike."

Kashi said.

While showing his third crest to Kashi, Mike asked,

"What improvement did my crest provide?"

Kashi showed a pitiful smile to Mike, saying,

"Unfortunately, the first four crests only help you not to die early in the battle or nothing else."

Mike's enthusiastic face turned sullen as he lowered his head, saying,

"Oh, I get it. I'm useless as always. Haha."

He sounded depressed.

Ary showed a fake smile to Mike, then shifted his attention to Kashi, asking,

"And what are the remaining crests, Senior?"

Kashi folded his hand and began explaining,

"The sixth crest was an octagonal crest with a hexagon inside of it. It's the 'Crest of Extinction.'

It helped the warriors to survive and enhanced their every ability to survive in combat. You know, Mai has this crest."

"Wow...that's great."

Ary reacted with a surprising look.

"Well, then comes the seventh crest, 'The Crest of Slayers.' The crest that boosted the slashing skill that helped you kill a Demon."

Kashi said as he made a fist of his left palm, saying,

"Warrior mark."

Then a sign that had both fire and water in it appeared on Kashi's back side of the palm as he said,

"This is the seventh crest. The Crest of Slayers."

"Wow..."

Ary was left amazed while Mike was gazing at the mark with a dumbfounded look.

Cough!

Kashi coughed and lowered his hand, saying,

"Unfortunately, I'm not trained enough to use the power of my crest yet. Well, now, there's only one crest left to know."

"Hmm? No, senior. There are two."

Ary interrupted.

"Ah, yeah. I know. But I only know about eight of them. I'm not sure what the ninth one is."

Kashi commented as he clarified.

"The eighth one is the 'Crest of Deity.' The Warrior Mark that every warrior desires to have. A mark that granted you the power of a Heavenly Warrior. Unfortunately, it's not necessarily that every Heavenly Warrior has this sign. There has only been one warrior with that warrior sign until now. That one was a mystery, though. He's a heavenly warrior, but no one knows much about him."

"I see..."

Ary said, as he began to understand it. However, there was still confusion left in his mind.

His eyes fell on Kashi. He asked,

"But I'm still curious to know about the ninth crest. Did no one have that crest till now?"

Sigh!

After seeing Ary's curiosity, Kashi sighed and then looked at him, saying,

"I don't know much about it. But...I think your ancestor had that sign."

".....?!"

Ary widened his eyes as he understood what Kashi was trying to say.

"Hmm?"

Mike reacted.

He gazed at Ary, saying,

"Bro's...ancestor?"

"Wait a minute, are you—"

Ary asked, but before he could continue, Kashi smiled at him, and while folding his arms, he commented,

"Yes, your ancestor... the first warrior, had that sign."