-----


    Esmond Oswalt was your typical young brat, although he was already 17, he was still rather immature, and liked to go around with girls that sucked up to him due to his strong Abilities.


    He was not from any important family, to say the least, but was lucky to have been given a strong Ability when he awakened and having acquired a few useful ones when he explored F-Rank Dungeons.


    He liked to make fun of others and badmouth them, although he usually did not engage in physical bullying, he liked tough and insult Noah, Iris, and even Arthur sometimes, despite Arthur being from a rather rich family, he was very confident in his strength and talent to the point where he didn''t need to worry.


    "Have you gone insane, useless? Do you want to get killed or something? I am surprised that you have survived up to this point in here, to be honest. Now, give them to me if you do not want to really experience what hell truly is," said Esmond rather smugly.


    "Hm. You''re right… Sorry for being so disrespectful, Esmond…" muttered Noah rather shyly, as he slowly walked towards Esmond while grabbing his backpack!


    "What? Noah, what are you doing?! Don''t give them to him!" said Arthur.


    "Sorry, Arthur… but he is way too strong… But we cannot possibly win… It is better to remain alive than to court death…" said Noah, as he nced at Esmond with fear in his eyes.


    "Yeah, that''s the expression I like from the trash like you-"


    sh.


    "Eh?"


    Esmond extended his arms towards Noah to grab the backpack, but in less than a second, he felt like something very sharp prated his chest.


    He red down below, seeing arge de made of a red crystal puncturing his chest and crossing through his spine, blood gushing out.


    "W-What…. Buuggahh…!"


    Esmond vomited a mouthful of blood, as he fell to the ground!


    "Eh?"


    "Ah?"


    "Huh?"


    "What… Eh?"


    The four other girls at Esmond''s side were just as shocked.


    For a moment, they thought that this was some kind of optical illusion or something.


    They could not have possibly seen Noah generate a crimson de out of thin air to stab Esmond''s chest, right?


    No, how could the Useless Noah even do such a thing!


    He did not even have an Ability nor the System!


    …Right?


    Well, it seemed that the truth was different than what their minds had fabricated, as Esmond finally came to his senses, the sharp pain was still there, as he nced above him as Noah''s hair turned white and his eyes crimson red.


    "I was waiting for someone to show up, I was growing rather thirsty," he said.


    "Impossible… You cannot… how?! You awakened an Ability and kept it… secret?!" asked Esmond, barely managing to muster words while vomiting blood constantly… if he continued like this, he would die soon after!


    "Surprise, surprise," said Noah, as he noticed Esmond slowly gathering his Ability on his arms, as a sudden coverage of solid rock emerged, using it as a shield and a weapon, and trying to attack Noah so he could run away and heal in time!


    "Oh no, you''re not going anywhere!"ughed Noah, evading Esmond''s lethargic punches and kicking him into the face!


    sh!


    "Unngggoooohhh…!"


    "Blood Spear," said Noah, walking slowly towards Esmond.


    "Wait… you can''t possibly… you will… really kill me?! Are you are insane or something?! That''s… murder! You will be a criminal!" roared Esmond, as he covered his chest and around his body with more rocks, and then, pointing his hands towards Noah, firing small rock bullets from his hands!


    Noah evaded some and destroyed others with his Blood ws, the speed of the attacks was not evenparable to the Shadow Lynxes Shadow Bullets, mostly because Esmond was weakened due to therge wound on his chest and also because such long-ranged attacks spent a lot of energy that he was trying to save.


    sh! sh! sh!


    "A Murderer? Didn''t you say that if we resisted you would have killed us? Oh? Maybe you were not actually going to kill us…? Oh my, maybe I misunderstood you!" said Noah as heughed and reached to Esmond, using the Blood Spear to prate through his rock exterior, into his stomach!


    sh!


    "Gyaaaaaggghh…!"


    Esmond roared in agony as he vomited another mouthful of blood!


    "Quite the resilient guy, you''re really a Tank ss Hunter are you?"ughed Noah.


    "Stop… Stop!!!" roared one of the girls that came with Esmond, with white hair and ck eyes, she suddenly generated a ck arrow out of thin air, pointing it at Noah!


    The other three girls quickly followed her, conjuring their own attacks, a freezing wind, a lightning spark, and a fireball!


    "How about we cut off your ankles?"ughed Iris, running towards the four girls at an immense speed while being enhanced with Demon Phantom Fox and Rage Mode, extending her ck nails and shing the four girls ankles in a single slice!


    sh!


    "Eh?!"


    "Gyaaaah!"


    "Unnggaah…!"


    "M-My ANKLES!"


    The four girls quickly fell to the ground almost as if they were synchronized.


    Arthur, Jon, and Timassa were still in shock by seeing this unfold.


    "S-Stop… Please, Noah, Iris, stop! It''s wrong… you shouldn''t… Kill other people! We are growing stronger so we can… protect them!" said Arthur.


    "Are you kidding me, Arthur? You are crippled and this bastard still dared to fuck with you. Do you think he has any respect for what you believe or about what you are? He''s trash, and I love to take out the trash," said Noah.


    "B-But he is our ssmate!" said Arthur.


    "Arthur-sama…" muttered Timassa, she was still doubting what to do, while Jon only watched at Iris and Noah with fascination.


    "ssmate or not, don''t you realize how wicked this whole test is? It was made so conflicts like these urred, this is what our school wants us to do. They want us to kill each other so the strongest and most suitable for their interest surges," said Noah.


    "That''s… no… it can''t be…" muttered Arthur, as a giant fireball was suddenlyunched towards him!


    "I am going to kill you all!!!" roared one of the girls, in anger and pain over her ankles being sliced off, she fired a giant fireball towards Arthur!


    "Ah!" cried Arthur in surprise, as the heat neared him!


    "Bolt Arrow!" said Timassa, generating a bolt of lightning shaped into an arrow, and firing it towards the fireball, stopping it on its tracks as it exploded!


    BOOM!


    Iris evaded the attacks of the four girls, as she made her way towards the redhead capable ofunching fireballs!


    "What a cute neck you get there, care if I slice it?" asked Iris, as she evaded the fireballing to her, nearing her sharp nails towards the redhead''s tender neck!


    "G-Get away from meee!!!" cried the redhead girl, firing several fireballs and expending all of her Mana!


    "RAAAH!"


    Iris roared savagely, unleashing a barrage of slicing attacks and destroying a few fireballs while evading others, although some impacted her and burned her face and chest, she slowly began to recover those wounds, ignoring the pain!


    "W-What? You took my fireballs into the face and you are still alive?! What kind of… monster are you…?! You are… You''re a monster, you fucking pig-"


    SLASH!


    Iris did not let the girl finish her words as her head was sliced off her neck in an instant.


    She manipted the flood of blood and drank a bit while saving the rest in her Blood Sphere, while also grabbing the head of the girl with its hair, which was still convulsing.


    The three girls and Esmond who was barely tanking Noah''s attacks nced at the scene.


    "E-Eh?! N-No way…! You… actually killed her!!!" cried one of the girls.


    "Amandaaaaaaa!!!"


    "You murderers!"


    "Kill them, kill them!"


    "N-No way… this must be a bad dream… there is possibly no… way…" muttered Esmond, as Noah stood at his side.


    "Believe it or not, this is reality, Esmond," said Noah.


    -----