A decision
At the cave—
Ruby was currently drenched in buckets of sweat with a greatsword in his grasp.
Opposite him was Sera, who had no single trace of sweat. But if one looked closer, one could see little beads of sweat on his forehead.
'This mortal just keeps on surprising me! If it continues like this, I wonder what he will become in the future!" Sera thought as he stared at Ruby, who was panting while clutching his ribs.
It has been 2 days since he summoned Sera, and during these days, Ruby has been training vigorously.
After his fight with Hades, he developed a sort of competitive side that would force him to train harder.
Maybe it was the feeling of not being in control during that fight.
*Sneeze* Ruby suddenly sneezed. "Someone is talking about me." He said as he took a firm grip on his sword again.
"Come on, let's go again! I promise this time I'll take you out once and for all!" Ruby gritted his teeth and stood straight with his feet planted on the ground.
"Says the one who is sweating and looks like he will pass out anytime soon!" Sera said, a smirk playing on his features.
"Yeah, yeah, talk all you want!" Ruby knew it would be hard to beat Sera in a fight, but the aim was not actually to beat him; rather, he was trying to train himself.
However, for the last 2 hours, he had been tossed around like a rag doll. Luckily, all the injuries he got weren't serious.
Ruby shook off all this thought as he bolted towards Sera again.
'If I want to at least land a hit on him, I'll have to do it swiftly without him catching my movement, but that's impossible because this big guy seems to follow all my movements.'
Anytime he appeared at a spot, Sera would be waiting for him there, so he decided to toss out his teleportation for the time being since it wasn't useful in this situation.
Ruby leaped into the air and did a series of savage slashes at Sera without giving the letter a chance to breathe. The sword suddenly disappeared from his grasp, and the dual daggers appeared.
Using the daggers, he promptly thrust the sword into Sera's chest. However, the latter just swatted it away with his hands.
'I know he'll do that.' Ruby had confirmed what he wanted to do now.
He used the blade and went for a lethal slash at Sera's lower abdomen. Sensing the blade, Sera directed his gaze to his abdomen. At the same time, using the other dagger, Ruby slashed the latter's exposed chest, and blood oozed out.
[«Quest: land a one-hit on Sera Complete»]
[»1000 experiences have been rewarded»]
Ruby finally collapsed to the floor as he heard the system's voice.
"That was so tiresome." Fighting back-to-back with a god wasn't easy. Sometime later, he got up and made his way to the bathroom.
He glanced back at Sera, whose shoulder was already healing. Ruby didn't know why Sera was healing since there wasn't such skill in his attributes, but he took it as something only gods could do.
After taking his bath, he strolled through the cave tunnel. He soon arrived at one of the colossal rooms he had built for training.
The sounds of heavy breathing reverberated from the room. Hearing the sound, Ruby opened the door and glimpsed Natasha and Muna in training.
'Why do I get the feeling that this is not just any training.' Ruby thought as he watched the fight.
All their moves seem like they want to hurt each other. It appeared as though they were in a real fight.
'I wonder why Javi is being tight-lipped about all this.' With those thoughts, he made his way to his lab.
Sometime later, he arrived at his lab. The lab had advanced mechanical glass shelves. Inside the shelves were guns, daggers, and greatswords with blue energy surging through their hilts.
It would seem strange for a sword to be among these weapons in an era filled with guns and superpowers, but these swords were not ordinary.
These swords have been made with special material that accelerates the user's speed and can be used as a counter for most superpowers.
Well, Ruby has always had a soft spot for the sword, but he wasn't here for the sword.
He was here for the crystal the witch, Emerald, gave him.
He started approaching a metal safe, and after hitting some buttons, followed by unlocking mechanical sounds, the safe sprang open.
He snatched the clear green crystal and brought it closer to his face. He had kept it inside the safe, thinking it was some sort of tracker, because the safe would make any tracking device useless.
However, for the past two days, he scanned and studied it and found out there was no tracker built on it. This made him believe the witch's words about him gaining 'Magic.'
"Well, I guess I'll have to contact her. It won't hurt much to have extra powers. After all, that would only help me finish my quest much easier."
Ruby rummaged around the crystal for the button the witch talked about.
After a while, he found it, but he didn't contact her yet. He wanted to do it outside the cave, just for security measures.
He approached the door and left.
Sometime later—
Ruby was standing in what appeared to be a forest with towering trees that made him look like a dwarf. He could hear the creaking noise of the frogs at a nearby pond.
The night itself was a bit chilly as Ruby placed his hands into his baggy pocket and waited for Emerald. He had hit the button, so he just waited.
'This is for the best, Ruby. It's not like you're about to sell your soul or something.' Ruby chuckled as he thought about that last line.
Sometime later, the space around him started to fluctuate as an intense green flame blazed and started swirling around, then Emerald emerged. Her long emerald hair flowed behind her, and her gold eyes sparkled as she approached Ruby.
'Here she is.'
Ruby swallowed. For some reason, Emerald looked more beautiful than before when he meant her, or are his eyes playing tricks on him?
"You're late! What took you so long?" Ruby asked when she had closed the distance between them.
"Sorry, just some witch business. I take it you're here because of what we spoke about the other time?"
"Yeah, I've made up my mind. I want to practice dark magic."
*********