《Life Hunter》28. ''Madman?''
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One day later, around two hundred miles away from the Lilin town.
Lanya was desperately fighting a huge goat-like monster with a rapier. Even though monsters could be civilized, a lot of them still lived mindlessly in the wilderness so Lanya had to fight endlessly since the beginning and was quite tired. This monster looked like a goat on its two hind legs. He had some horns and was around three meters tall.
"Your breathing is too hectic. Slow down your footwork. Your steps are too far apart. You wanted to use a rapier so stop trying to slash with it, fall back and pierce. Your magic is light, use it to confuse your enemy in close combat. If you are far away, use magic before trying to rush at the opponent…" Night instructed without any wasted breath.
While Lanya was struggling, Night just kept reprimanding her. There was always something wrong. She also had chosen to use a rapier as a weapon so Arima took out a random one from his storage, surprisingly it was of great quality. His storage already contained too many things. A rapier was just at the top of the pile.
While Night was taking his role of master, Arima was behind, sitting down on the back of a big lion he had invoked. He was silently working on his bullets. This time, he was directly engraving on the bullets to enchant them.
Meanwhile, Lanya finally pierced the head of the seventh level monster and fell on the ground panting. She was full of injuries but she was healing quickly. Actually, at this level, her inheritance only gave her a healing ability, a slightly better physique, and the power of light.
"We'll take a break," Night said after looking at Lanya. She breathed in relief and took out some food from her own storage and began to eat.
Night walked toward Arima and called him, "Arima, can you help me a bit?"
Arima took his eyes off the bullets he was engraving. "For what?"
"I want to try to awaken her inheritance but I think I need your help for that."
Arima smiled. "What do you want me to do?"
"When I was training with Jorga, he told me that to awaken an inheritance, one needs either time or talent. But he said there was a quicker approach. If the person is in a situation where the inheritance sleeping inside their body is shaken by a strong external force, then it will react."
"Oh, Jorga told you that? Fine I can do it."
Night nodded. "Then, you can do it in an hour or so," he said and began to eat with Lanya. Arima observed the scene and smiled before going back to his work.
One hour later, Arima approached Lanya. "You'll spar with me now. It's a suggestion from your master."
Lanya slowly nodded without saying anything. The two readied themselves a hundred meters apart. Night created a small and weak fireball and threw it upward.
"When it touches the ground…" he stated and Lanya nodded while Arima squinted his eyes.
When the fireball exploded on the ground, Lanya took the initiative and kicked the ground. But she froze in her tracks when she was about fifty meters away from her opponent. Arima had just released his aura in its full potential. The sky was already darkening and Lanya couldn't move under the pressure.
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Night frowned at the sight but he didn't say anything to stop them. If Arima said that he'd do it then it was already the same as done.
Arima didn't move but released his second spiritual force, his mana pool. He discharged it, just in a two hundred meters' radius, but it could still be seen by people outside. The release of the mana pool usually creates a sort of smoke around the user. Arima's pool was colossal. It was even enough for gods to sweat.
Most monsters who saw the extremely dense mana pool of Arima didn't flee but immediately kneeled and stopped moving altogether while the stronger ones just avoided that zone or just ran in the opposite direction.
It was the same for Lanya, she fell on her knees helplessly. Her body and mind were already being crushed by the aura, now it was her spirit. Seeing that mana pool, she felt like an insect.
When she heard why Night didn't want to go inside Arima's soul, she couldn't understand. But now, she perfectly realized why. Arima clearly didn’t have any problem releasing his spiritual forces but she already felt like she was going to fall unconscious at any moment.
"It's not the end. Hold tight on your spirit. Don't let it go. This is my only warning."
Lanya barely heard him and braced herself. Then, for the first time since he came to this world, Arima released his killing intent.
***
In a creepy castle, the wealthy vampire from before suddenly stood up and had disbelief written all over his face.
"Your Highness…?" A maid in the same room muttered weakly whilst trembling.
"It's impossible! That’s not killing intent anymore! What the hell is this!?" The vampire shouted as his eyes glowed fiercely.
***
In the beast territory, a land dragon opened his eyes and solemnly stared in the distance.
Not far from him, a strange beast had the same kind of reaction.
***
In the human country, a man calmly visiting the guild quarters stopped moving. Around him, a handful of A rank and above mercs were also shocked.
"This is too dense to be called killing intent," a calm old man commented and everyone looked at him. He was one of the strongest beings on this continent. The only SSS rank, the Archmage.
***
Inside an elven temple, a young woman was silently meditating until her face abnormally paled.
"Priestess!" An elder elf barged into the room with a panicked countenance.
The 'priestess' waved her hand to calm him down. "…It would be a slur to call it killing intent," she uttered and stood up.
She walked to the elder. "This is bloodlust. Massive and pure. I don't know anything about the person capable of releasing something like this," she paused. "But I'm sure he's terrifying enough to have a mindset capable of hating and slaughtering the entire world," she bypassed the elder and left the room.
"That's just… irrational," she added before leaving the temple.
***
Arima's bloodlust spread around the whole continent. Every person on the continent shivered in fear. Even if they weren't strong enough to actually sense it, they would still be struck by a sudden and unknown fear.
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The elders to the babies, every single one of them felt it. The children would cry for no reason and the animals would hide in fear.
For the first time, and maybe also the last time, every single person in the continent was awake at the same time. They shared a common emotion, without exception; fear. It was like there was a blade pressed against their neck, forcing their instinct of survival to wake up.
But the most affected were Night and Lanya. Night was right next to the source but he was still fine, he was born from Arima's soul after all.
But Lanya felt extreme fear, extreme weakness, extreme fatigue, and extreme pain. She instantly fainted. She collapsed and Night was about to go help her when Arima stopped him. His eyes were filled with curiosity and even a little bit of awe. Soon after, Layla’s body moved by itself, although her mind was not there, and stood up.
Her eyes turned into silver lights and the same glow began to light up every part of her body. Her body began to transform, she became taller and her hair grew. Sparkling silver scales formed on her body until the neck, some even appeared around her eyes. She grew a silver tail and a pair of wings of the same color.
It resembled Arima’s resonance but basically in a different color. When she finished her transformation, she stared at him with her draconic pupils. But her look was way too sharp, and Arima immediately noticed it wasn’t really her at the commands.
"…Human, you're dangerous. You aren’t strong or invincible, you just are something that can only be considered as an anomaly," the voice that left Lanya's mouth sounded like an old man’s.
'Lanya' pointed at Arima. “In other words, you're a madman.”
Arima was stunned at first, but he followed with a chuckle and then started laughing.
"Me? A madman?" He grinned. "No, you got it wrong. Didn't you say so yourself just now? I'm an anomaly. I'm not a madman. I'm just different. Since I was born, since I was able to think by myself until today, I've never changed my beliefs even once."
He shrugged. "I was born like this. I was more than a madman already in the first fifty years of my life, I worked hard to be like what you're seeing right now, you know?"
'Lanya' furrowed her brows. "Then aren't you just faking your own personality?"
Arima smirked. "No, not even a single one of my emotions is fake. I just make them appear at will when I require them. If I think that I need compassion, I will be kind. If I think that I need cruelty, I will be ruthless. If I think that I need love, I will be caring. I’m the literal description of logical thinking."
'Lanya' and Arima stared at each other for a long time.
"I know it will happen, so I'll tell you right now. You're doomed to be chased by Gods, Earthen Gods and Heavenly Gods alike," 'Lanya' declared and the silver light vanished. The transformation ended and what was left was a beautiful silver-haired woman lying on the ground.
"That's an interesting advice," Arima said after the silver light completely dispersed.
He had already stopped his spiritual forces from going wild and everyone on the continent breathed out in relief.
"I’m not sure, so I'll ask. How am I supposed to react?" Night deadpanned.
"Don't react. That's always the less energy-consuming way to react," Arima lazily replied and Night sighed.
Arima walked toward Lanya, healed her and woke her up. When she saw him in front of her, she shivered and urgently retreated but she lost her balance because of her new body and fell again.
"It will take some time for you to get used to that change," Arima said to her. "And also, you should take this," he threw her a new set of clothes. Of course, because the clothes she wore before were now too small, and kind of failed to do their job.
When Lanya realized in what state she was in, she was stunned for a while. Embarrassment started to accumulate as she blushed. When she still had her mouth open to breathe in, Arima conjured a black box around her that blocked the sound and image coming from inside.
"She'll be even angrier if you make her shout for nothing," Night commented.
"I'll be annoyed if someone shouts at me for something that isn't my fault," Arima retorted, he jumped on his lion's back and resumed his work.
A minute after, Lanya got out of the box wearing a sort of gray magic armor and a black skirt. She glared at Arima. "You could have killed me with that," she didn't raise her voice that much but she was visibly furious. Her voice also sounded a lot less childish than before; soothing and soft.
"That's why I warned you before doing it," Arima replied whilst working. "In any case, if you had really died, I would have revived you in time. You don't need to worry."
"Sorry?" Night exclaimed and Lanya was speechless.
"As long as your soul isn't destroyed, or maybe already harvested by the Owl's, I can revive anyone as long as I do it in less than ten minutes after death. I tested it once. It takes ten minutes on average for a soul to degrade and disappear," he explained indifferently.
"…what the heck is an Owl?" Night asked after a moment of silence and Lanya continued to stare blankly.
"'Original World Law'. That’s what he said at least. Anyway, we'll depart in one hour. Make sure she can use her new power by then."
Night groaned. "Sure…"
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