Point-of-View: Ilex Sarralot

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"Hahaha! Behold, the form of my Contract! Is it not magnificent!?" Exclaimed my opponent, dark grey fur having sprouted across his body, his limbs having grown longer and more limber, and his face had stretched out forward, looking like a wolf.

"Honestly? You just look like a random Monster, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference if I hadn’t seen you transform," I shrugged dryly.

"How dare you speak to me that way! I’ll make you eat those words and learn your place, Commoner scum!" He snapped, swinging his right arm across and whipping the chain attached to his right wrist in my direction, the sickle blade at the end of it slicing through the air rapidly towards the side of my neck.

I swiftly ducked under it to evade it, before my eyes widened slightly as he raced towards me with immense speed, closing in on me in a matter of seconds. Hm, he’s pretty fast, the Contract has given him a pretty significant boost.

I kept low and sprang forward as he closed in, forming a Mana blade out of my Soul Weapon as he abruptly halted in alarm, not expecting me to charge at him.

He quickly turned his body across as I slashed at his stomach, yelping in pain as my Mana blade cut across his left side, before snarling and swiping his claws at me as I shot past him, grazing my shoulder as he cut through the fabric and nicked my skin with his claws. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

As I shot past him, I swiftly spun around and fired out several Mana bullets at him, which he mostly managed to evade, grimacing in pain as one of my bullets struck his right elbow, puncturing the skin and drawing our several trails of blood, matting into his fur as he swung one of his sickle blades at me with an enraged roar.

But in his anger, his aim was a bit off, allowing me to easily dodge his attack and counter with a powerful Mana beam aimed at his chest, which struck the top of his left shoulder as he turned his body across to try and dodge it, eliciting a sharp cry of pain from him, his body trembling in pain and rage as blood trickled down his shoulder and seeped into his fur.

I formed another Mana blade and shot towards him, ducking under the slash of his claws before swinging my blade up at his chest. He sprang back with a stifled hiss of pain as the end of my Mana blade cut into the right side of his chest and slashed up across to his shoulder, drawing out more blood before I leapt off to the side as he yanked his right arm back with a snarl, rapidly pulling one of his sickle blades this way as he sharply tugged on the chain.

I grimaced as the blade grazed the side of my right forearm, cutting through my sleeve and leaving a shallow cut across the middle of my forearm, before I formed a shield of Mana with my Soul Weapon as a couple of swirling fireballs came shooting towards me.

I managed to block the flames, before springing back as he swung one of his sickle blades across towards my head, the tip of the blade nicking the bridge of my nose and drawing out a trickle of blood.

I’m definitely more skilled than he is, but with his current speed, this has become something of a stalemate, he’s mostly bridged the gap between our skill levels with his sheer speed...how annoying.

I’ve been trying to use Shadow Bind this whole time, but whenever I close in on him, he doesn’t stay still long enough for me to activate the Skill. I doubt he’s aware of the fact that I possess the Shadow Bind Skill, which makes this all the more annoying.

I was hoping I could defeat him in my base form in order to conserve energy and save some power for any stronger opponents that might be around, but letting this fight drag on any longer will be a problem.

"You should feel honored, asshole...you’ve forced me to take this more seriously than I wanted to," I sighed, cracking my neck before meeting his gaze.

"Huh? The hell are you implying, you can’t possibly-...," He began to scoff.

"Soul Weapon Ascension: Mana Armament Level 4 - Double Amplifier!" I chanted, before zipping forward as my Soul Weapon split into two and changed form, giving me a drastic boost in speed and power, as I closed in on him before he could react and placed one weapon against his throat and the other over his heart as I turned their dials upto x5, rapidly charging them up as I met his gaze and uttered, "Die."

"W-wait-...!" He began to cry out, before his voice was drowned out as I pulled the triggers, blasting a massive hole through the left side of his chest and vaporizing his neck and the lower half of his head.

I stepped back as his body went limp and collapsed onto the ground, the top half of his head hitting the ground with a thud and bouncing away as blood poured out and formed a dark red puddle around his body as he reverted to his normal form, the effects of the Contract wearing off.

I then reverted my Soul Weapon back to its base form, after looking around to make sure there weren’t any other enemies lurking about nearby.

Looks like the coast is clear. I’m not hearing much noise anymore, I hope that means most of the enemies have been defeated. I’ll go look for Lynks and Mysst, though I can’t imagine they’re having too much trouble against opponents of this low a calibre...

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