Chapter 15 - Hurt and Stubborn

"Who do you think I am? Of course, I can," exclaimed Ashe proudly, as she started to stand straight wanting to show that she was in a good condition.

'Who does she think she fooling? I just stole five years of your Lifespan, there's no way that you're fine,' thought Darius as he continued to analyze her physical state.

And from a simple glance, he had already caught signs that she was falling apart. Her knees were shaking, her chest kept coming up and down as if her breath was irregular.

Those were the things he had noticed by glancing at her, there were sure to be more of them.

Darius who was already feeling bad about what he had just done didn't want to push her. She had already helped him quite a lot today as he had obtained years of Lifespan which was something that he hadn't thought would happen at all.

'Yeah, I think resting for the rest of the day should be fine,' thought Darius, as he knew that he had achieved a lot today.

Killing a stronger beast could always be delayed to another day as he still had seven days left before heading toward the Avalon Empire.

Darius had to admit that he was anticipating that moment more and more, especially now that he had five years of Lifespan. He wanted to learn more about the world that was surrounding him and he knew that the Royal Academy was the best place to do so.

Because inside the academy, it would be a lot easier for Darius to ask questions about specific subjects and even if he couldn't.

He would be able to go read about the history of the world that he had reincarnated into as they would surely be a library in such a prestigious academy.

"Um, no I think we should rest, we can go ahead and fight that monster tomorrow," answered Darius as he knew that Ashe wasn't at the peak of her abilities.

He didn't want to risk getting hurt, but he, especially, didn't want to see himself hurt and possibly die because of the state that she was in.

However, he was even more confused when he heard the anger in Ashe's tone.

"Are you taking pity on me? I'm fine, I just told you. Now, follow me," she said as she started to run in the same direction as earlier before Darius had stopped her to test his skill.

"No, I'll stay here. I don't care about that monster anymore," exclaimed Darius as he could see that Ashe really wasn't in good shape as she had trouble running at a regular speed.

She wasn't even going fast she had almost fallen two times now.

Ashe, however, was quite the stubborn person as she turned her back toward Darius shouting something at him.

"Don't worry about me and follow me," she said as she continued running.

But then, something which Darius had sort of expected happened. She had just fallen face-first on the ground.

Darius seeing this quickly ran up to her, wondering whether or not she was okay.

But as he arrived close to her, all he could hear was a small whisper.

"Sure, let's go back home and rest," whispered Ashe, knowing that she was in absolutely no condition to fight anyone at the moment.

'It really took a toll on her this is crazy,' thought Darius as he helped her by putting her arm around his neck and walking with her.

Ashe who was currently being supported only had one thing on her mind.

'What the hell did he do to me?' she thought, not understanding how any of this was even possible.

She was a B-Rank Awakened, someone who had a B-Rank System, she also had it for a lot longer than Darius, so it made no sense for her to fell this way.

She knew that Supreme Systems were special, however, this was simply too much. She had five times his strength and possibly even more, but here she was being supported by someone who she considered much weaker than her.

Ashe couldn't help but have many questions pop up inside her mind as she remembered how she felt herself being drained of strength when Darius started to touch her blood.

'Does he have some sort of bloodsucking skill?'

That was basically the only idea that she had at the moment as she knew that he needed access to her blood to activate his skill.

'Maybe he can absorb people's stats by touching their blood,' she thought, as she quickly opened her system wanting to see if any of her hard-earned stats had changed.

However, seeing that nothing had changed, she realized that she was wrong about that part. However, she didn't card him as having a bloodsucking skill.

She didn't know what it was, but she knew that it had to be related to someone's vitality or something like that as her physical state simply made no sense at the moment.

Then, as she continued thinking about all that stuff about his system and potential skill. She heard his voice and she made realize that she was still walking with her arm around his neck.

"Um, are you okay now? Could we go maybe a little bit faster?" asked Darius as he knew that if they went at their current pace then they would arrive hours from now at the little shack which Ashe called home.

Embarrassed that she was still being helped by someone so weak, she quickly removed her arm from around his neck as her face held a tinge of redness.

"Y-yeah, let's go a little bit faster," she said as she started walking in front of him.

Even if she felt some pain in her legs she still walked keeping up the same exact pace as Aiden as she didn't want to show that she was inferior to him.

It seemed like she really was one hell of a stubborn girl.

But then, as the two of them continued walking in the direction of the cabin, Darius heard a monster make a noise nearby.

*ROAR*