Midnight (5)— Azure Burst.

{Congratulations to the host; You have created a new skill. Please, give your new skill a name}.

The cool breeze of the night was a complete contrast to what Cain felt on the inside.

'Hot... It feels so hot!'

The currents of mana flowing within him generated so much heat, his very sweat was evaporating off his body.

The ocean blue aura was his mana flowing out of his body at high speeds. It covered him like a flame and extended out from the soles of his feet to the tip of his hair.

Cain could feel the heat travel from his heart to his lungs, his head, his feet... Every single part of his body felt like it was on fire, and not the good kind.

He looked at his hands and realized that the hairs on his hands were being singed by his intense internal temperature. He was scared that if he didn't let this heat out, it would completely devour him.

So, that's what he did...

Cain let it all out...

"Azure Burst... I'll name it Azure Burst!"

{Congratulations to the host for creating the skills, Azure Burst}.

{+30 to agility stat}.

{+15 to magic stat}.

{+10 to Stamina}.

Name: {Cain Lenosi}

Level: 17.

Strength: 82. (30).

Agility: 141. (20).

Stamina: 10/66.

Vitality: 34.

Defense: 24. (-5).

Control: 3.7. (0.2).

Perception: 2.7.

HP: 1,520/3,200.

MP: 300/2,100.

Magic: 64.

Resistance: Poison- 5%.

Skills: Golden blood, Mana Blade, Lightening Edge, Blade Mastery Lvl. 2, Burst Step, Metal Creation Lvl.2, Golden Severance, Metal Manipulation, *Fear, *Bloodthirsty, Blood Ingestion Regeneration, Azure Burst.

Titles: Champion of Ashur (locked).

Free attribute points: 20.

System points: 2,000.

{Inventory}. {Shop}.

{Golden blood level.1}: Upon activation, multiply all physical stats by 2. Consumes 100 MP, and costs 1 point of stamina per second to maintain. Puts the body of the user under great strain. (1000/10000 SP). This is an internal skill, hence, it can be upgraded.

{Mana Blade}: Coat the surface of your blade with destructive mana to deal an extra 200% damage when attacking. It Consumes 5MP per second to sustain. Note:This is an external active skill, and cannot be upgraded.

{Lightening Edge: Increase attack speed by 100%. Critical rate increases by 5% when the skill is used. Cost 100MP to activate.

Cooldown: 1 minute.

{Blade Mastery lvl. 2.} (passive): Increases attack power and speed with bladed weapons by 30%. Increases critical chance and rate by 5%. (500/9,000SP).

{Burst Step}: Expell mana from beneath the feet, creating propulsion that allows the host to change trajectory abruptly when in motion. Increases movement speed by 30%.

Costs 5MP per activation. No cooldown.}

{Metal Creation Lvl 2.}: Gather the Metal elemental attribute mana to create constructs of metal. The effects of the skill are influenced by the host's magic and control stats, as well as imagination. (0/10,000SP).

{Golden Severance}: Condense an immense amount of metal attribute elemental mana into a concentrated beam of world light, capable of splitting anything it comes in contact with only for a single attack, and increases attack power by 500%. The attack consumes 500MP upon usage.

Cooldown: 5 minutes.

{Metal Manipulation}: Grants the ability to freely control metal of weight that does not exceed 1 ton. Skill is leveled up simultaneously with the {Metal Creation} skill.

{Fear} (passive): Release a malevolent aura akin to a devil, inflicting fear onto your opponent. Decreases opponent movement and attack speed by 5%.

{Bloodthirsty} (passive): Consume the blood and flesh of fallen enemies to increase the power of the Devil's broken claw. For every 100 enemies slain and absorbed, attack speed and attack power increase by 1%.

{Blood Ingestion Regeneration} (passive): Grants the ability to safely ingest the blood of mutant beasts without any adverse effects. Consuming the blood and flesh of mutant beasts grants passive Stamina, Vitality, and Mana regeneration. For every 0.1 liters of blood, or 100 grams of flesh consumed, 100HP, 50MP, and 1 stamina point are regenerated.

{Azure Burst}: Rapidly burn out internal mana in a single burst to produce enough heat and energy to burn the surrounding mana. These flames greatly increase the attack and movement speed of the host by 300%. Attack damage increases by 50%. Critical rate and damage increased by 10%.

Costs 500MP to activate, and the skill only lasts for 10 seconds.

Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Note: This is an external active skill, and cannot be upgraded.

There was a brief moment of silence before the deafening sound struck...

BOOM!

Like a bolt of lightning, Cain's body became the embodiment of speed. The air surrounding him instantly ignited with a blue flame, forming a beautiful streak of destruction. Flashes of blue electricity were also apparent within the blue blaze.

Before the second could elapse, his blade came crashing down upon the {Devil-eyed White Primate}.

The already enlarged whites of its eyes expanded even further, as the beast once again activated all its skills in an attempt to escape from Cain's attack.

The same dazzling white radiance burst out from the eyes of the beast once again as its body became ethereal once again, before vanishing.

Normally, Cain wouldn't have been able to see what had happened, but now that he was in this state, he was able to see exactly what had happened...

***

There were rules to the way skills worked. A skill could either be formed through elemental mastery, or mana control.

For elemental mastery, most of the time, these types of skills could only be gotten from elemental mana shards or Devil orbs. Only extremely rare geniuses could comprehend them without a base.

As for mana control, these were skills that were created or gotten over the manipulation of mana through a certain series of actions. These sets of actions could be anything. From running to swinging a sword, hammering a nail, or to even cooking a dish. As long as mana was incorporated into the action, there was a small probability it would birth a skill.

This way of attaining skills were limited to just humans and a few other species, however...

Mutant beasts and Devils were higher up the totem pole than humans. It was easier for them to attain skills, mostly elemental-related skills because they had a higher affinity towards the elements. That was why they could form a mana shard, which could later evolve into a mana core.

But humans didn't have that sort of physiology. With the inception of God Ash onto the planet Urbus, humans, plants and beasts alike had gained the ability to ingest and control mana for their use, mana that could be used to do the impossible.

Humans could get stronger only by attaining new skills and stats by leveling up and killing mutants, or each other...

The beast relied on mana to evolve, and humans required mana to grow stronger. Whichever group could realize their potential the soonest, had one the battle for dominance.

The {Devil-eyed White Primate} was a fiend, mainly because of its abnormally high magic stat and its incredibly deep pool of mana. It was able to spam its skills a lot faster than Cain expected. This was because having a higher magic stat enabled the cooldown of skills to reduce.

The thing that was common between all skills, was as they all needed to follow a certain rule. This rule required them to possess a command prompt. His command prompt could come in various forms such as a word, chant, or perhaps, even an action...

***

It was in the eyes...

The eyes of the {Devil-eyed White Primate} were what initiated the skill that let it avoid Cain's deadly {Golden Severance} before.

He knew what skill it was as well...

'Devil eyes...'

He knew the skill, but he had little to no information on what the skill did, but he had finally come up with a way to counter it.

Speed!

As simple as that...

Although all his battles up to date were high-speed battles, skills still required time to activate. Take his {Golden Severance} skill as an example. That skill of his required a bit of time to build up by gathering metal elemental attribute mana from the atmosphere, before the skill could be executed.

For some skills, it was long, and for others, it wasn't...

The {Devil Eye} skill fell into the latter group.

It took the {Devil-eyed White Primate} less than half a second for it to activate the skill.

What this meant for Cain, was that to beat the skills, he had to be able to do two things. One stops the beast from activating the skill, and two make sure it was unable to activate it again.

***

It was as though time had slowed down...

Cain was already before the mutant, his body in midair, and his blade pointed at it. The mutant, on the other hand, was already prepared to use its life-saving skill...

"Grrr!"

A thick growl of strain escaped from Cain's throat as he pushed himself to his limits in a final burst of mind-blowing speed. The mana boiling within his body seeped out from his palms, onto his blade, flowing from the hilt, all the way to the tip.

"Roar!"

With a roar, Cain stabbed forward.

"Lightening Edge."

SPLURT!

AOOOOW!

The ocean blue glow surrounded him and his blade allowed him to cut through the air like a hot knife through butter. Before the {Devil-eyed White Primate} had a chance to even breathe, the tip of Cain's blade had penetrated one of its eyeballs.

His forward momentum allowed his blade to completely bury his blade down to the hilt, into the head of the {Devil-eyed White Primate}.

GRAAA!

The blade had penetrated its brain, but it still wasn't enough to put it down. The creature had a surprisingly strong vitality. He had wounded it gravely, but it still wasn't enough to kill it.

'Tch!'

With his new powers taking it down would be a piece of cake. He could finally counter its speed. All he needed to do now, was to-

"Ahhhhhh!"

Cain yelled in pain, as the golden glow that had been the source of his mighty strength, suddenly vanished. His stats were no longer being multiplied, and the exhaustion from his drained stamina hit him like a bullet train.

The ocean blue glow of {Azure Burst} stuck to his body, but he was no longer able to speak, not to talk of swinging his blade to defend himself. He could still feel the mana swiftly burning away in his body, but he was unable to do anything at all, as his body just wouldn't listen to him.

'Fuck! Get up!

His body fell to the ground...

His hands held on steadfastly to his blade, regardless of the pain and exhaustion he was experiencing. He could not afford to lose his blade as well, or he would be giving his life up.

Cain and the {Devil-eyed White Primate} lay on the ground.

The first to recover would be the one who took the other life.

"Ha... Ha... Ha..."

Sounds of heavy panting came from the {Devil-eyed White Primate}, as it slowly stood to its feet.

'I lose...'