Ch11: Yami

3rd Pov

Unlike what Kaiser had thought, the fight against Yami didn't go as well as he planned.

He expected Yami to only use his sword like how his fight with Yoriichi went.

Alas, luck wasn't with him this time and he found out why Yami was a stronger opponent for him.

During this fight, Kaiser had decided to finish the fight against Yami as fast as he could and thus had tried to sneak on Yami while also concealing his presence.

But, as if Yami still could sense him, he had moved from his place before Kaiser could even use His cursed technique.

The next thing he knew was that the world had turned upside down and then he crashed to the ground.

The moment he met the hard floor, something cracked and he found out that the bones in his spine were injured and some of them had been broken.

Kaiser tried to yell from pain but he couldn't as it wasn't the time to dive in sorrow.

Using magic to strengthen his body and standing up in pain, he set his eyes on his enemy.

Looking at Yami he found out that he was only met with a simple punch of him.

No, it was far more than a simple punch, he could feel the mana around Yami's skin strengthening him.

If it weren't for the mana that was helping him to stand, he would have already conceded.

The pain he felt was agonizing but it wasn't on par with the pain he felt when he died and lost everything he had that night.

Gritting his teeth through pain he had to come up with a way to make Yami show at least one of his skills so he could evade it in their next fight.

If he couldn't then this was a total loss and he had wasted one of his entries for Yami's Character trial.

'Fighting against him in close range is a no go so the best move is to bombard him with spells as much as possible.' Kaiser thought to himself.

Manipulating the mana he had and exhausting all his reserves, Kaiser unleashed dozens and hundreds of magic projectiles with different elements.

He could have gone for a larger attack but decided to go with numbers, simply because of two reasons.

The first one was that faced with that number of attacks, Yami either had to dodge them all hence showing him a skill related to utility, or he had to overpower all of them hence showing a powerful and destructive attack from his skills.

The second reason was to distract Yami. If he could be occupied with the attack he had launched, he could try to use Hachi and damage Yami, fulfilling the requirement to complete his trial.

Yami looked at the coming attack with an eased expression as if it couldn't harm him.

Then, a black grimoire with a three-leaf clover on it appeared afloat beside him.

The grimoire then opened itself and went through pages till it stopped at a certain page.

Then Yami readied his sword and while whispering, he swung his sword.

"Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Avidya Slash"

From his sword, a crescent black slash was sent towards Kaiser, devouring any magic projectile in its way.

Before Kaiser could process what happened, his stomach was slashed open and blood was pouring out of it.

Kaiser then fell to the ground, a puddle of blood emerging under him.

As the light in Kaiser's eyes faded, the space around him shattered and he came back to real life.

Opening his eyes he saw that any wounds that he had suffered had disappeared along with the trial location.

Taking a deep breath and releasing it in relief, Kaiser looked at the system screen.

'So I won't die for real if I die in the trial, similar to how the training space given by the system works.'

'Alright let's do it again. I still have forty-nine tries left. One loss isn't that bad.'

Kaiser's figure disappeared as he entered the trial zone again, only for him to come back to real life in a few minutes again.

"Damn it." Kaiser cursed as he was defeated once again by Yami.

This time, he immediately used his cursed technique to finish the goal of trial without having to go through the fight again, but Yami had an ability that let him feel his attack coming, making it easy for him to dodge.

It was the first time he had seen someone dodging his cursed technique, which made him realize that he might have been using the technique in a way that might not have been right to release its full potential.

thinking about it now, he indeed had become comfortable with having a great skill as Hachi in his skills, not even exploring the ways the technique could be used.

Sighing and standing, Kaiser once again entered the trail zone.

He was met with the figure that had killed him twice at the moment, which would probably grow more in the future.

Till now because of the strength of his opponents, he had only used once at a time and it proved to be enough.

But in front of a powerhouse like Yami who could detect his attacks even if he concealed his mana, he needed more.

The moment that his eyes met with Yami, Kaiser used his cursed technique not once, twice, but as much as he could till his mana was depleted.

His goal wasn't hurting Yami at the moment, it was to use his Cursed technique as much as possible so it could level up and grow stronger.

This time, Yami walked through the barrage of attacks like a boss, because of the amount of Cleaves Kaiser was using, there wasn't that much power behind them to be able to cut through Yami's Mana skin.

Yami kept on walking through the attacks while Kaiser also kept on generating more and more attacks.

'Damn it, damn it, why is this guy so strong?' Kaiser questioned particularly no one.

It was then that he saw that he couldn't use his cursed technique anymore. His mana had already been used to the brink.

Standing face to face with Yami and looking him in the eye, he sighed and closed his eyes while waiting for Yami to kill him again.

He could feel Yami's hand getting closer and closer to his head as if he wanted to crush it.

But unlike what he expected, Yami's grip on his head wasn't too forceful for him to feel any pain.

"Good job kid. Your attacks are something, if it was used against someone that doesn't know mana skin they would have already been shredded to pieces."

"Huh!?"

Kaiser was completely awe-struck at what had Yami said. More about the fact that he could talk.

"You can talk!??" Kaiser asked confused.

Shouldn't Yami just be a copy and fragment of what he was?

"Of course, I can talk, you little brat, what makes you think I can't?" Yami asked while his grip got tighter.

He then sighed and released his grip, allowing Kaiser to drop to the ground.

"But if you can talk why didn't you say anything instead of killing me?" Kaiser refuted.

"I would like any normal person, but not when I appear in a random place with no way of going out. Not without force that is. Also, it was you who sneaked on me, not the other way around." Yami said with a somewhat annoyed tone.

Thinking about what Yami had said, it did make sense. But it also raised a question, then could Yoriichi also talk and communicate with him and have said nothing just because he attacked him first? He had to find out about that later.

"So brat tell me how did we end up here and why did you attack me?"

"About that... You see I have this ability that lets me fight strong people and if I manage to fulfill certain conditions, I can also use their skills." Answered Kaiser truthfully, as there was no use lying to Yami.

"I see... So what was the condition of getting one of my skills?"

"Ah well, I had to land a hit on you successfully."

"Just that?"

"Yes, obviously because you are so strong that even doing that is considered a feat for my ability to give me an award."

"So if I let you hit me once, we'll be done with this?"

"Yes."

"Alright then go on."

"..."

[...]

Even the system was surprised at what Yami had suggested. Getting the award easily like that certainly was in a way cheating.

[Outer gods desire the host to win the fight with his own strength and not out of pity of his opponent.]

'Definitely not. What's the use of honor if I'm going to get gutted by my opponent?'

Kaiser then looked at Yamk and bowed to him, showing him respect.

"Thanks for your understanding."

"No need to thank me brat, let's just finish this quickly. I can hear the toilet calling for me to take a big dump."

Ignoring the last remark, Kaiser used Hachi and made a small cut on Yami's arm.

[Host has successfully wounded (Yami Sukehiro) and fulfilled the condition of the trial.]

[One skill from the character (Yami Sukehiro) skill set can be chosen by the host.]

[Due to finishing the trial under ten tries, the character (Yami Sukehiro) can be summoned In the training room at the host's wish.]

Sighing in relief Kaiser looked at Yami who was already turning into particles and disappearing.

Yami looked at him "Can't say it was nice meeting you but I have to say for your age you do have quite a power. What a shame you can't join my squad."

"About that... You wouldn't mind if I summon you again right?"

Yami released an annoyed sigh "What is it this time, you have to kill me to copy more of my abilities?"

"No no, I just wanted to see if you are willing to teach me."

'And it's not like he can reject it, I can just summon him and with nothing to do, he might consider teaching me.' Kaiser thought.

Pondering about it for a moment Yami answered "Alright, you do have the potential but do know that I'll make sure you go beyond your limits."

And with that, he disappeared, which also made Kaiser return to the real world.

Looking around and seeing it was still midnight, Kaiser was sure that the time in real life would be stopped when he entered a character's trial.

Giving him an idea of escaping from dangerous situations that he might face one day.

"Alright now I can choose one skill from Yami's skilset too, tho I should talk with him and ask for his opinion on what I should pick."

Using the system and entering the training room for the first time, he was shocked to see the same white room that the trials were held in.

But it had one big difference, a big disadvantage to the trial zone.

Unlike the white room in the trial zone that had the function to stop time in real life, the training zone one didn't have that ability. meaning that if he was busy here for a long time, he might put his client's lives in danger.

'Then again, I can just kill myself and go back in time if something happens, so there's no need to be worried about it.'

While he was nonchalant about the idea of killing himself, he had only used this skill once, and that wasn't on a memorable occasion.

"Let's just get this done and return to the real world. System summon Yami Sukehiro."

Like before, particles gathered and from the Yami appeared.

"Oi brat, I did tell you that you can summon me but I didn't mean that as soon as you got the chance to do so." Yami said with a grumpy tone.

"I'm sorry but it was an emergency."

"Haa... Fine but next time be sure to bring a pack of cigarettes for me."

"I don't think shops are willing to sell a person as young as me cigarettes but sure."

"Now tell me what this is about."

"I was wondering what skill or ability I should copy from you, I don't know anything about you so I was wondering if you could help me with that."

"Sure thing tell me the choices you have."

'System show me the suggested skills from Yami Sukehiro's skillset.'

[1. Dark Magic (Bc) (Comes with a grimoire):

A rare magic attribute that generates and manipulates the element of darkness.Can also be used to channel dark magic into weapons, mainly swords. This magic can draw in and absorb other forms of magic into the darkness and can even affect the other world.]

Just reading the description, Kaiser could feel the phantom pain from the time he was cut by Yami's attack.

[2. Ki: A principle originating from Yami's homeland, this skill allows the user to use a sixth sense to perceive and react to unseen attacks and persons.]

'Ah, so it was this skill that allowed him to sense my cursed technique...'

[3. Mana Zone: The user can control all the mana in an area around him to increase his spells' power and range, and to stand and maneuver in midair.]

'So an area of effect skill that can give a huge boost to my spells, and also gives me the ability to somewhat fly.'

"The skills it suggests are Dark magic, Ki, and lastly Mana zone."

"Pick Dark Magic. I can teach you the other two."

"Alright." he then selected the Dark magic. The moment he touched the Dark magic option, a grimoire appeared in front of him that looked similar to the one that Yami had.

"So you even got the grimoire..." Yami then started laughing "Good good, this means you can also make your own spells related to dark magic."

Kaiser without wasting any second grabbed the grimoire and opened it, skimming through the grimoire to see what it contained, much to his expectations, all the pages were blank and empty.

Looking at Kaiser's sore expression, Yami laughed loudly "Brat, when a person gets a grimoire, it always is empty. You need to learn and discover spells by yourself because every grimoire is unique to its user."

"..."

"No need to be sad about it, we have the same magic which means if you learn from me, you can get my spells. But don't get comfortable with this and try making your own spells. Tell me do you even have a technique that is yours and you have made it yourself?"

"No..."

"Which means till now you were merely a copycat. Well, it's going to change now."

"What do you mean?"

"You're not going to leave here till you make at least one unique spell that is yours. A person's true strength shouldn't lay in others' power, but rather himself. If you rely on others' techniques, then all of your life you would just be a mimic that doesn't have something to call his own."

Pondering about what Yami said and looking back to what he has gained till now, all of it was from others. He didn't have a single thing unique to him. Not even a single spell.

He knew that for a while but didn't have a problem with it, because his goal was to get revenge.

But what happens after that? After he gets his revenge, what will he do?

Would he still be satisfied with just being the best at copying others?

He truthfully didn't know, but he had the desire to get stronger. And for that, having a unique ability surely would help him get stronger.

"You are right, please help and teach me to not only learn what you know but to also develop my own skill, something that can be my weapon."

"Haha that's the spirit." he then smirked "Be ready to surpass your limits, right here, right now."

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Hi, it's me again. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter because I did while writing it.

I have nothing much to say so see you guys on the next chapter.

Word count:2702