Late chapter today. I am so tired. All that candy and doughnuts was worth it though. I'm almost done with chapter 19, and there's a little something that I need to look over again. I've already re-written it once and I may have to do it again. Oh well.

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The edges of Rose's lips curved up slightly. She bent her face down and pressed her lips against Kyte's.

Kyte felt Rose's moist, warm lips press against his. Her scent filled his lungs and just from that alone he was almost losing focus. Then, he felt a warm fleshy thing enter his mouth. The sensation of Rose's tongue swirling around his made him almost lose the last thread of rationality.

Kyte wrapped his arms around Rose's back and hugged her tightly against his body. Feeling her warmth against him, Kyte couldn't help but kiss Rose even deeper. Both of their breathing became a little rougher, and Rose grip on Kyte's shoulder tightened a little more. This is the first time Kyte has ever felt something like this, and Rose being a mature woman makes it even harder for Kyte to control what he's doing...although that's pretty much out the of the window now.

After several seconds had passed, Kyte felt a weird energy transfer from Rose's mouth to his. Right when that energy entered his body, all of the black light that he had absorbed instantly jumped to that energy and instantaneously devoured it before spreading out through his body once again. After that black light had spread through his body, it also ate the red energy that Kyte's body absorbed from Rose.

As if it was awakened, that black light completely devoured all of the energy that Rose gave to Kyte. Due to that, that hot feeling in his chest and stomach gradually faded.

Feeling himself come back into focus, Kyte stared wide-eyed. He still had his arms around Rose's back and his lips pressed against hers. Rose was currently sucking on his tongue, and feeling something amiss, she opened her eyes...

Slowly parting away from Kyte's face, Rose realized that her energy was completely gone from Kyte's body. She was quite surprised, but then she remembered what had happened a few seconds earlier. She got really into 'it', but she clearly remembers the moment Kyte's black light devoured her red energy.

Looking down at Kyte, Rose slowly licked her lips.

"I didn't expect you to be so interesting...Hopefully you don't disappoint me."

After climbing off of Kyte, Rose lightly kissed his cheek and said:

"I'll be looking forward to next time."

A small playful laugh escaped her mouth as she left the room. Kyte stayed lying on the floor, looking up at the ceiling.

I...I feel so violated!

When he raised his right hand to touch his cheek, he noticed that he was slightly shaking. He wasn't shaking from fear or disgust, but excitement. Experiencing that type of thing between a woman for the first time left him in quite a daze. Mostly because of the situation he was in, and he was basically seduced too. That didn't make him feel too well, but he could still feel the leftover excitement from it.

He moved his hand and touched his lips, remembering the soft, moist and warm texture of Rose's lips against his. Along with her sweet tongue, Kyte felt a little spark of warmth suddenly appear. It wasn't warmth that belonged to love, but rather the other category...

Kyte shook his head to get rid of the thoughts. Thinking back, he faintly remembered the black light he absorbed moving at its own will. He remembered that at that moment, the energy he felt that came from Rose had mysteriously disappeared.

What the heck is this stuff anyway? I never did analyze it.

Looking at his disheveled appearance, Kyte awkwardly smiled. Peeking out the door, he noticed Rose's door was shut and the light was on. Seeing that, Kyte quickly entered the bathroom to take a shower. He placed an alert formation on the door and pulled out some drawers that were placed next to the door.

After showering with no interruptions, Kyte felt quite relaxed. He quickly exited the bathroom and entered his own bedroom where he drifted off to sleep.

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The next day, everyone headed out to Lakewood Forest. They didn't use their abilities but instead used normal transportation by car. They used a large van and Dan was driving while Akina was in the passenger seat.

Kyte felt a little awkward around Rose, and when they made eye contact Rose just playfully smiled and walked right up to him. Not only that but she also held on to his arm like it was a natural thing to do. Kyte desperately tried to get away, but since Rose was still stronger than him, he couldn't get away from her. Thus, they ended up sitting next to each other as well.

When Dan and Akina saw them being so close, they had a weird expression on their faces. Dan's expression was especially serious after seeing Rose cling to Kyte. The one rule he forgot to tell Kyte was no sexual relations, and to Dan, this felt like a major blunder. Dan thought that, considering how Rose is, Rose most likely seduced Kyte into doing the do. Dan's face went pale after thinking that, and he desperately wanted that thought gone.

Of course, that never even happened. The most they did was twirl their tongues together, but that was mostly against Kyte's will in the first place. Although he was partly to blame, his own power wasn't sufficient enough to battle against Rose's red energy. If the mysterious black light didn't suddenly act on its own will to devour that red energy, well...Kyte felt a little scared as to what could've happened.

The twins and Jol didn't even think anything of it. In fact, they were making jokes about Kyte and Rose sticking so close together. They purposefully let Rose get close to Kyte in the van as well, thinking that it would be funny. Well, truthfully it was only Light and Jol that felt that way. Shadow could care less about what Rose and Kyte did and are doing, and he looked like he was about to fall asleep.

The only reason why Shadow came along with them was mainly for safety reasons. Akina felt a little bad to leave him alone as well so she decided to bring him with everyone else.

After they arrived at Lakewood Forest, Kyte led them to the area that he used the day before. The large area was the same as it was when he had left. His alert formations were still there, however, without Kyte there to proved Spirit energy, they were merely pieces of paper with a weird drawing on them.

After Kyte opened up an entrance to the large area, everyone entered.

"This is where I situated myself yesterday. As you can see, it's not much..."

"What were those pieces of paper lying around?"

"Alert formations. If someone crosses over them, I'll immediately be alerted. They're quite easy to make."

Jol and Light began to walk around the edges of the large area while Shadow and Lucy began to study the alert formations together. The other three were with Kyte as he told them about the area around the location.

"Before I created this yesterday, I looked around the whole area and found that there's plenty of space. However, I didn't want to make this circle too big. There's a lot more space around here for you guys to go."

"Yea, that makes sense. By the way, do you really need this much space?"

Dan asked as he walked forward and looked around at the tall plant walls.

"To be honest with you, I don't really know. However, there's one thing that I do practice that could be a threat to you guys."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm able to absorb this type of energy that's present in this world. However, when I absorb it, a vortex of wind appears around me. At first it was pretty big but then I figured out how to shrink it down. The bad thing is that the smaller vortex is at least ten times more powerful than the larger one. I'm able to keep the wind within my immediate vicinity, but I don't want to take any chances."

"It would definitely be bad if you accidentally killed one of us. I doubt that you could injure me though. I would like to see you try, however..."

"Actually, Dan, I was thinking of training with you. You see, I don't have much experience with fighting or weapons. Since I can't really go out and hunt Guardians, I was thinking that maybe I could fight against you? Just as practice."

"Hahaha! That's a good idea. I won't deny your request. Besides, my defense with only increase if I get hit, so it's beneficial to me as well. However! That woman needs to go."

"What?! Why can't I stay?"

"Because you're not a Special Gifted!"

"All the more reason I should stay."

"It's all the more reason you should leave!"

"I can just watch, come on!"

"No! I don't even want to see your face inside this circle!"

"Hmph, watching is fine right? Right, Akina?"

"Don't bring me into this. It doesn't really matter in the first place anyway."

"See? She said I could stayyy."

"No she didn't-"

Kyte face-palmed long ago, and when he lifted his face he said:

"Dan, just let it go. It won't cause any problems."

"Kyte, you too?!...Fine. But she stays off at the edge!"

"Hehe, that's fine with me."

Afterward, Akina called the others together.

"Alright everyone. Dan, Kyte, and Rose will be staying in this area. Everyone else will follow me. Kyte, the alert formations."

"Right. I've made more alert formations and I've already imbued my energy into them. Once you get into your area, just lay them around the perimeter and I'll activate them when they're ready. I programmed the formations to alert anyone inside the wall if something significant crosses over the wall and it will also alert me. Do you guys understand?"

"Of course! Super easy!!"

Kyte handed the alert formations over to Akina before she left with the other four to look for a different area. Akina would signal Kyte and then he would activate the formations, thus creating a wall of Spirit energy around wherever they were located. Of course, they didn't know that it was the energy from Kyte's soul. How could they in the first place?

Now it was only Dan and Kyte that were standing in the middle of the circle. Rose was standing off on one side, though she looked like she would need a chair in a few minutes.

"Now, let's get started. Take out your weapon!"

"Hmm, well first off I want to see how well you fare against one my skills."

"Alright, take your best shot then."

Kyte created an energy sword in his hand with the full power of its dread aura surrounding it. The aura spread out into the surroundings and the pressure it gave off was enough to suffocate a normal person.

Dan, feeling that dread aura, was instantly shocked. The last time he felt the aura from Kyte's sword was when Kyte was in the Spirit stage. Not even high Spirit stage! The difference between the two auras was enormous.

"I can definitely see that your power has drastically improved. Here, attack this."

Dan said as he created a wall of white mist in-front of Kyte.

"I'm using my half of my power with this wall, so try breaking it."

Kyte swung the energy sword down onto the white wall. When the sword made contact, Kyte felt like the sword slammed against a steel wall. His arms felt numb like they received a shock of electricity through them.

"Come on, you can do better than that!"

Frowning, Kyte wove Spirit energy into the energy weapon. The sword faintly shined and the dread aura greatly increased.

"That's more like it."

Kyte lifted his arms up and swung down. However, he stopped mid-swing. He put his arms down and transformed the energy sword into large sledgehammer. Then, he took another swing.

The sledgehammer smashed into the wall, creating several cracks around the impact point. Kyte still felt that numbing feeling in his arms but he definitely did a lot more damage than last time.

"Ohhh, that's what I wanted to see! Not only did you somehow increase your weapon's power, but you also changed it into a more suitable weapon. That skill of yours is quite versatile."

"Heh, thanks. I haven't really tested all of my skills out to the point of perfection though. I still have things to learn about all of them. I also have three other skills that I need to learn."

"So many?"

"It's a long story. Short of it is, I have many skills that I need to learn and practice. I just can't learn all of them at once."

"Ah, that makes sense. Biting off too much will backfire. Plus, you have lots of time to train your skills. Don't rush it."

"Yea, yea, I know. Anyway, let's continue."

"Of course!"

Dan coached Kyte during his training, and Rose was still off to the side just watching. She eventually brought a chair as well.

Kyte trained Iron Body and Sonic Blade during the time he was training with Dan. Of course, he also absorbed the world energy and the black light. When Dan and Rose saw that, they were completely dumbfounded. Especially Rose, since she actually experienced a part of the black light first-hand.

When asked about it, Kyte said he didn't even know what it was. Truthfully, he really didn't know. He did know that it was a very condensed version of the world energy, but other than that, he had no clue as to what it was. The more black light he absorbed, the more weird he started to feel. He felt as if he was no longer practicing the Bloodrage technique, but a whole different practice altogether...

However, Kyte didn't pay much mind to it. He was gaining a lot more energy from the black light than he would normally obtain from regular world energy, so he was happy about that.

Dan also helped Kyte with his sword techniques. Although Dan didn't know any sword techniques himself, just him fighting against Kyte was doing more good than bad. By relying on his natural instincts, Kyte was able to greatly improve with the sword. He also used other weapons aside from the sword, however, the weapon he used most was a sword. Mostly because Heavy Air is also a sword, but also because he had a feeling that the more powerful weapons that were currently locked inside the storage necklace are most probably swords.

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And like this, two months passed.

During the two months, normal people would sometimes come close to their area of practice so Kyte would just use his Spirit energy to ward them off. His Spirit energy didn't harm any of them, Kyte only used it to put an invisible pressure on them. That resulted in every person wanting to get away from that area as quickly as possible.

-BOOM-

"Kgh!"

Dan's wall of mist shattered and a crimson sledgehammer flew into his vision. He put up his hand and covered it with powerful mist and blocked the blow from the hammer. The hammer smashed against his hand, flinging Dan back several feet. A shock-wave emanated out from the impact of his hand and the hammer as it visibly rippled through the air.

"Kid, you're a lot better than you were two months ago."

"Heh, you should be telling yourself that, old man."

Both Dan and Kyte smiled as they walked toward each other. Suddenly, Kyte transformed the hammer into a great-sword and swung horizontally with both hands. A small sonic boom exploded outward as a crescent-shaped wave of energy rolled out from the sword.

Dan exploded his fist forward, exuding white mist around it like waves. The two collided, creating a large explosion that burnt the ground around it to a crisp.

Kyte split the great-sword in half, creating two smaller swords for both of his hands. This time, however, he wove some of his Spirit energy into the swords. Using Windwalker, Kyte disappeared and re-appeared behind Dan. He ruthlessly stabbed forward with both swords, but he met resistance as a white wall appeared just before the swords were going to pierce Dan's flesh.

Dan whipped around with his leg moving at fast speeds. Kyte, seeing the incoming attack, changed his right sword into a shield while applying Iron Body to it as well. Dan's foot smashed against Kyte's shield, blasting Kyte back several feet.

After transforming the shield into a whip, Kyte flipped his wrist and the whip sped toward Dan's head. Dan grabbed the whip with his hand and pulled on it, but before Kyte was pulled toward him, the whip dissipated into nothingness. Kyte shot several Raging Palms which shook the air as they sped toward Dan.

The palms of energy smashed against a white wall, causing several cracks to spread out. Then, Dan covered his body in white mist, creating small spikes all around his body. The spikes on his knuckles were at least two times larger than the others. He jumped toward Kyte who was caught by surprise at the sudden charge.

Seeing Dan jumping toward him, Kyte sliced his hand open and let the blood flow out of it. Controlling the blood, he rotated it around himself while spilling his Spirit and Internal energy inside of it. The blood revolving around Kyte shined with a crimson light before he absorbed the blood back into his body. His body then shined with the same crimson color, and his Internal energy rose by a significant amount.

Kyte also covered his body in energy, instantly weaving Spirit energy together with it. He took out Heavy Air and changed its weight to one ton while also charging it with energy. Blasting toward Dan, Kyte swung his sword.

Likewise, Dan shot his fist forward to meet with Kyte's sword. Dan's white armor around his fist shattered, leaving it wide open for Kyte's sword to slash through. Which it did. Kyte sliced Dan's arm right down the middle before lifting his leg and smashing his foot against his stomach.

A blood trail left Dan's arm and Kyte quickly absorbed it for himself. Taking the life force directly out of the blood, Kyte applied it to Heavy Air before once again leaping toward Dan.

Dan was completely shocked at Kyte's unwavering conviction. He could feel the small killing intent emanating from Kyte's dark eyes. He quickly used his full power to cover his body with white mist before creating a sword and shield out of white mist.

Kyte struck out with several Sonic Blades, all aiming for Dan's injured arm. Dan raised his shield and blocked the Sonic Blades, and when he looked toward Kyte's direction, he noticed that he was gone.

Dan felt something smash against his back, but luckily this time he wasn't holding back. Kyte's sword made a small scratch against Dan's armor, but the force behind his attack made Dan take huge steps forward.

"What, I didn't expect you to be so slow! What happened?!"

Kyte's crimson-covered face evilly smiled as he pointed the blood-red Heavy Air toward Dan.

"Kid, you have too many self-buffing skills. You didn't even use all of them and you still hurt me to this extent."

"Heh, that's just because I'm testing how much power I have with each new upgrade in power. My power was originally low on the offensive side, so to make up for that, I have quite a few buffs available to me."

"Plus, you didn't have to slice my arm in half, did you?"

"Ah, yea...about that...ahaha...here."

Kyte threw a small red pill toward Dan. He caught it and quickly popped it into his mouth. His arm quickly healed back to normal without a scar leftover.

"I have to say...you're just getting more mysterious the more I know you. You gain power so quickly...the only Special Gifted I've seen like this are in the Core Leagues of GG. I find it quite hard to believe that you weren't recruited by them."

"Don't worry about it, old man. Even if they did come to get me, I wouldn't go with them."

"Hahaha! I like that about you, kid. Well, you're going to have to go sooner or later."

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't told you since it wasn't close, but now that it's getting close to the end of the year, I should tell you."

"Yea, it is already November."

"Anyway, every three years, each League has their own rank-up test. Basically it's where GG members go to try to get a higher rank. Branch Leaders stay within their assigned locations, since their rank-up tests are at a different date. Once we get back to the apartment, Akina will tell you in more detail."

"I see. I always wondered how you guys got your ranks. I'll be looking forward to that. But, now I have to absorb world energy and then we'll go back."

"Ah, go ahead. I'll start heading back right now. What about you, Rose?"

"I'll go back with Kyyyte!"

"Ugh..."

"Haaaa, you have it hard, kid. I was just like you back in the day. Except I had four girls instead of one! And thanks to that I...ah, forget it. I'm too old to brood over it now."

Old man was such a player?!...I just don't get this guy.

"Anyway, I'm going to take Lucy and head back. Akina and the other three will most likely be waiting for you."

"Alright, take care old man."

Over the course of these two months, Dan and Kyte had formed a deep bond. It wasn't a type of friendship that's created over two months of talking or meeting with each other. It was the type of bond that's created from fighting each other with brutal attacks and techniques. At first, Dan thought of Kyte as an immature little brat, but after sparring with him for two months, that image was gone. For the most part at least.

Kyte sat down and began to create the black light to absorb. Kyte had broken through into the Champion stage long ago, and now he was in the high Champion stage. However, this was the last stage that Kyte knew of so far. Plus, with the addition of the black light, Kyte didn't know if he was going to continue with the traditional Bloodrage Technique or somehow create a new path. He feels like the answer is within reach, but there's something blocking him from getting there. He doesn't know what it is so he can only hope for some type of enlightenment.

The good thing is that there's no limit to how much black light he can absorb. At least, as far he knows right now. The more he absorbs, the more powerful his Internal energy gets. However, he's already began to feel a sort of boundary around his body, as if he's a bubble ready to pop. Although he can still absorb the black light, Kyte has a little bad feeling about it.