Monday October 9th, 2018.

  In a flash of light and with a brief gust of wind Akira, Graham, Ria and sixty-five students appear outside of the familiar set of buildings. Rising in the air from the center of the cluster is a large, glorious tree. Its branches reach over the town like a protective embrace.

  All of the students find themselves relaxing and all the stress draining from their bodies as the aura of the tree comforts them. Hinata’s party is even better off, for them this is their second home. They lived under that tree for months while they trained with the Kashiwagi’s. For Hinata, she feels the same only so much more. She was raised under the branches of that tree.

  The tier 3 young World Tree is a seed taken by their ancestors from the great tree Yggdrasil. When they came to Earth, they were given a seed to cultivate. That tree has seeded many other trees, like the one near the Brightmoon clan, or the tree at the center of Mayor Eliana’s town.

  A lot of the students stare in awe as they stand at the heart of the Kashiwagi Clan. Akira doesn’t even have to say anything; Kristin appears and moments later a contingent of maids and servants exit the buildings and lead the rattled students toward a guest house to relax.

  At the same time Eriana is summoned, and the old peak tier 2 Healer takes Rurgrim and Aiko away.

  Akira and Graham lead their daughters to the central house that stands below the young World Tree. “Are you all okay?” Akira asks as he stands beside Hinata.

  Hinata takes a shaky breath, but after a second, she nods. “Yeah, that was just a lot.”

  “Tell me about it. I thought we were dead, twice over.” Gabi mumbles, she is basically staggering behind Alli with a blank look in her eyes.

  As everyone enters the Japanese style tower next to the young World Tree, they all fall into random seats with no idea what to do.

  Ten minutes later it is Helo that stirs first. Looking around he can see Graham, Akira, and even Yuki. “Where is Micah?” He asks.

  “Shit. Fuck. Shit.” Micah shouts as he dances and weaves between Leo’s aggressive attacks. To make matters worse, the two men Leo told to stay out of the fight decided to take potshots at him from over a thousand feet away.

  Erupting every spear projection he generated at the same time, Micah manages to jump back and make space. Looking at his status, he is happy by what he sees.

  Name: Micah

  Bloodline: Moonlight Wolf-Kin. (Rare)

  Tier 3

  Class: Celestial Spear Master

  Level: 170

  Class: Beast-kin War Leader

  Level: 119

  Stats: 3152

  Skills: One-Thousand Moonlight Thust (Epic), Silver Light Dance (Epic), War Howl (Epic)…

  Since the last time they fought Micah has been able to upgrade two more skills to epic rarity. He was hopeful it would make his victory even more obvious. He hoped to soon; he isn’t the only person that has been advancing.

  “Hahaha! I can tell you have grown.” Leo laughs with a smile on his face.

  It is always a little unnerving to Micah that Leo can go from overflowing with fury into complete joy once a fight starts. It goes to show just how unhinged the self-proclaimed Archon of Mankind is.

  “You do know… SHIT.” Micah’s tier 3 semi-sentient soul bound spear spins itself within his hands, narrowly deflecting a charge from Leo. It is always a toss-up on how Leo will attack. He doesn’t have the same level of mastery as Micah. But he is skilled in multiple forms of combat. What skill he lacks, he makes up with versatility.

  The fist goes wide just as an explosion of fire and mana rockets past Micah’s ear. Mentally berating himself for getting distracted, Micah lets go of his spear and it spins behind him. Due to his spear related aura, and the spear’s semi-sentience Micah’s control has reached unprecedented heights.

  Rolling back, he dives between his spear’s spins and catches it in one hand. Pulsing his mana a spear projection is made in an instant. Then with a flick of his spear and a minor flex of aura, it is launched at Leo.

  Leo scoffs as the projection comes for his throat. Catching the energy projection in his mana-clad hand he laughs. “HA! Do you really…”

  “BOOM!” The projection explodes in waves of light and sound. It is nowhere near enough to blind or deafen Leo. But it does obscure his sense for a moment.

  Lunging forward in a textbook thrust. Micah’s entire body is behind his spear, all that force, will and mana. It all gets concentrated on the tip of his spear. The spear’s blade starts to shine with a radiant light; the feeling of danger and sharpness starts to increase as it narrows in on Leo.

  Leo was too distracted by his own amusement, then the explosion to dodge properly. Leo takes control of the dissipating mana. It washes away with a wave of his hand, just as Leo can see, the spear tip is almost stabbing into his chest.

  Reacting in an instant due to a hundred years of constant combat. Leo activates his strongest defensive skill. ‘Unyielding Body’. This is an upgrade to a racial skill. His High Human race increases everything about him compared to a human. His senses, skin, bones, even his magic.

  Humans might not have a powerful bloodline that makes them masters of an element. But they have a great affinity for change and to become what they put their minds too.

  Leo just brings all of that to another level. At the same time that his vitality, mana, and will harden to increase his resistance. Leo’s storage ring flashes and a shield appears in his hand.

  The spear tip contacts the skin in the center of his chest. A whining hum is heard for but a moment. The next, the hum is turned into a piercing scream as reality itself is torn. The spear tip couldn’t pierce deeper than a centimeter into Leo’s chest. But it exploded outward in a silver beam of energy.

  The beam carries itself up and over the island of Sicily. Leo is carried with the beam almost seventy-five miles over the island and into the Tyrrhenian Sea.

  As the silver light fades Micah is standing on the twice-glassed ground panting. His spear is clutch in his hands with the butt planted into the ground. He is doing his best to stay on his feet, but each second is a toss up if Micah will fall or pull himself up.

  The two men that came with Leo find their leader gone but their enemy weakened. With extreme glee the two men start to launch ranged attacks at Micah. With causal ease Enzo steps up to Micah and deflects the attacks.

  Looking down at the weakened man Enzo considers finishing him off. They will be enemies a few years from now, they might be fighting one another. But at the same time Enzo grew up with Micah and Graham. The two men were respectful when his own brother used to beat and mock him.

  With a sigh Enzo says. “You put me in a tough position.”

  Micah looks up from between where his hands are clutching his spear. He gives Enzo a small smirk. “Sucks to be you, eh. Kah. Kah.” Micah coughs up some blood onto the glassed ground. He might be the better fighter, but he is far more carefree than his serious brother.

  “Kuh.” Enzo scoffs and with a wave of his hand the two men that sent attacks at Micah fall unconscious.

  “Well now what. My brother will be back soon and he WILL try to kill you.” Enzo says.

  Crouching down with his head on his spear Micah takes some deep breaths. “I only need a moment to pull my spirit back together.” The attack that Micah used was similar to the one he showed Helo months ago.

  Mixing his strongest spear skill with his techniques and aura, he can condense all that energy into one spear. The spear is so long and so wide that it looks like some kind of beam attack. The problem is that attacking like that not only strains his body to the extreme. It also requires so much focus and will that Micah feels like an overclocked computer.

  The only part of him that doesn’t require help is his mana pool. It is close to empty, but he is still fine on that front. Not that his strained channels could use mana. After another thirty seconds of breathing Micah manages to stand without looking like a stiff breeze would knock him over.

  “Thanks.” Micah says sincerely to Enzo.

  “Yeah whatever. Just get out of here.” Enzo says with a wave of his hand.

  Micah looks between Enzo, his teleporting mage, then back to Enzo. Not receiving any kind of response Micah looks from the island and out to sea. Then with a heavy sigh he starts to swim.

  With Maria as their nominal leader the rest of their field trip group all make their way into one of the guest houses at the Kashiwagi main residence. The tower that they are led to is large enough so that everyone has to share a room, but they can all fit.

  The bottom floor is an open concept with a large sitting area. There many of the students find themselves. Some are crying as they are overwhelmed by the sudden shift from certain death to safety. Others are angry at what happened, wanting justice for the students that were killed.

  Maria is sitting on the first floor with her own party around her. The other students in hearing range are listening to their conversation as they speculate about what happened.

  “That man was Italian. It had to have been a set up.” Laura says. She still has her bow in her hand and has yet to set it down, but if you look closely, you can see her bow shaking.

  “I don’t know…” Ana says quietly. “It just feels too obvious.”

  “Unless they were expecting all of us to be dead.” Helena says stoically. Out of her entire party she is the one that is least affected.

  The other girls all nod in silent acceptance. She has a good point. That bomb would have easily killed them all if Ria wasn’t there. Not many students were able to come back from being tossed quick enough to see Ria holding back the flames, but some did. Those same students are also talking about how Helo stepped up and saved them.

  “We will hopefully find out when Alli knows something.” Maria says to her group.

  This causes Jorden to snort. “Kuh.” Everyone looks at her in question. “Oh well, like, Alli just loves to talk. Sooo… she will defiantly tell us.”

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  The next day comes by quickly for all the students. Most slept extremely deeply due to exhaustion. But there are a few who had trouble sleeping. After talking with their daughters Graham and Akira had a lot to discuss. So Alli, the rest of her party went across the courtyard to the house that they lived in for half a year. It is Hinata’s residence on her clan’s grounds.

  Waking up the next morning everyone is gathered in the courtyard underneath the World Tree. There Akira steps up to speak to everyone. For almost everyone this is the first time they have seen the leader of the Kashiwagi clan.

  “I didn’t think he would be so cute.” One girl whispers to another.

  “He looks really cool.” A guy says to his buddy.

  Akira can easily hear whispers and sighs internally. At least wait until I am out of earshot before you start talking about me. He thinks.

  “Ahem. You all went through a terrible ordeal yesterday. But you can rest easy, you’re safe here. I have already reached out to the school; you will be staying here until Friday.” Most of the students look happy at the news.

  But one kid, the one that is smart, but too impatient to wait for the speaker to finish before asking questions that are already going to be covered speaks up. “But. What about leveling?”

  Everyone turns to look at the dumb kid who just cut off one of the sixteen most powerful people on earth. With a gulp he ducks his head and tries to hide from Akira’s annoyed gaze. “We already have that covered. Extra tier 1 rifts will be generated, and you all should be able to enter at least one a day. Moving on.”

  Akira looks at the kid, as he does one of his maids sends him a telepathic message. “His name is Jake, sir.” “Jake, will that be all.” Akira asks Jake a question like it is Jake that is in charge.

  Jake in turn ducks even lower and starts to spiral. How does he know my name. I’m so dead.

  “We have people looking into what went wrong. It was a tragedy that never should have happened. Your classmates lost their lives, and we will try and seek justice. Unfortunately, on the clan level, Italy has stopped all communications. So, figuring out what happened might take some time.” Akira says a few more things, mostly inviting the students to explore but to be respectful. He also mentioned that the group that was scheduled to be in Japan is set up at Mayor Eliana’s town.

  As everyone starts to spread out to explore the courtyard, different buildings, and nature Helo makes his way to Akira. “Clan Leader?”

  Akira keeps walking but he looks at Helo from the corner of his eye. Then he raises his brow.

  “I mean, Akira.” Helo corrects himself but he does look around at everyone that is staring for a moment. He isn’t one to stand on precedent. But he has been taking classes about etiquette, and he has a lot of respect for Akira. He and Yuki really made him feel at home. Plus, Akira helped him push his bloodline further.

  “What happened to Micah? From what I say we left him alone in Italy. Also, how is Rurgrim?” Helo asks with a worried tone.

  “Ah. Don’t worry about him. He can take Leo, and Enzo is more of a friend than an enemy.” Akira says without showing any of the worry he feels about the situation. As they left Micah, he had no compunctions about it. But after twelve hours of not receiving a response. He is starting to worry. “And Rurgrim is going to be fine, he just needs some rest.”

  Helo is about to step away, but before he can Akira’s hand lands on his shoulder. “In a few hours, come find me.”

  Helo nods and heads back to his party.

  “PHHHUT!” Micah spits out a stream of salt water after finally making it to shore. Worried about the return of Leo, he stayed underwater for the entire swim. That isn’t a huge issue for a powerful tier 3 like him. But his underwater fighting skills are severely lacking.

  His movement skill would barely activate and when it did the eruption of water into the air due to his movement made it a glaring “Hey this is where I am.” For anyone looking. So, he was forced to swim over one-hundred miles to the coast of Tunisia.

  Not to mention that he is still feeling the effects of using so many skill at the same time, in a way that they weren’t meant to be used. His entire body feels sore; he would be surprised if he had cracks running across his body.

  Laying on his back and staring up at the cloudless blue sky, Micah starts to wonder why he convinced his brother that it was for the best to leave him. Taking deep breaths, Micah’s eyes start too slowly close. The gentle lapping of the waves on his body and the sound of the ocean rock him into a peaceful sleep.

  “Dammit!” Graham shouts as he looks at the reports from his people. The only report that they seem to agree on is that his brother used the technique that he was ‘theorizing’ and ‘wouldn’t use until it was perfected’. The same technique that by his own words is ‘far to draining to use in combat’.

  Before he can throw his very expensive and very limited tablet at the wall his wife’s hands reach over his chest and slowly push his arm down. “Sweetie, we both know that the tablet will just go through your wall and end up embedded somewhere in the valley’s edge.”

  Graham lets himself relax and chuckles slightly. “Yeah. These things are nigh indestructible.”

  “Yes. So, his Micah.” Cheyenne says in a sweet tone. “I know you feel responsible for him. He was supposed to be the clan leader. But after what happened to his wife and child… I can see why he relinquished his position and decided to become your guardian.”

  Cheyenne starts to rub Graham’s shoulders with her hands. “But you need to trust him. He can fend off Leo, and I don’t see Enzo attacking Micah without reason.”

  Graham sighs and slumps down fulling in his chair. “Yeah, I know.”

  The students fall into an easy rhythm in Japan. With the entire Fuji Mountain range to explore, most find themselves enjoying the outdoors and relaxing. At tier 1 the rifts only take a short time. For most of the students it is enough to gain a level.

  Their classes are only common rank, and they don’t have powerful bloodlines to deal with. While Helo needed a million experience to gain a level, they only need about ten-thousand experience. But, at the same time, Helo could effortlessly clear the rifts they are in, while their teams of six are struggling by the end.

  When Helo went to meet Akira. He found that the clan leader wanted to give Helo a chance to gain some levels. Akira and Graham are aware of Helo’s leveling issues. So, they had their Dungeon Masters create special areas where Helo can let loose. These areas are filled with fresh tier 2 monsters that are in some kind of pack.

  This means that Helo can kill them easily. He can also get injured due to his low endurance, but he is pretty good at not getting hurt, and his own regeneration is extremely high.

  You have killed a Death Omen Crow.

  Your gain extra experience for killing a creature above your level.

  You gain extra experience for killing a creature above your tier.

  You gain extra experience for killing a higher leveled creature solo.

  Due to you title ‘Nature’s Alpha’ you gain extra experience for killing a creature in a pack.

  The crows are black as night. Their feathers give off a similar visual effect as Helo. They look oddly similar as the flock attacks the lone predator. As the crows fly they leave behind residual energy that dissipates into whisps. With ‘Bloodline Awakening’ active Helo also trails a dark shadowy energy behind him.

  There are two main differences between Helo and the crows. Helo himself glows with radiant golden energy, at the same time the more crows he kills the more golden energy follows behind him like a wraith made from a golden cloud filled with streams and arcs of energy. While the crows’ feathers glisten like they were dipped into a vat of ink mixed with a bubbling green energy.

  The second difference is the feeling. Helo’s own dark energy came from a curse that was placed on his mother. He has no idea what the curse might be. But one thing he does know is that it changed him and made it so that he has a natural nullifying effect on energy around him. The crows on the other hand are made of a different kind of dark energy. Their energy is sickly and for every crow he kills more of the energy seeps into his body and tries to eat away at his flesh.

  After killing his two-hundredth crow he realized that they are intentionally dying. The flock is so large that this is how they fight. They aren’t trying to overwhelm him with their claws and beaks. No, they want to die, so that whatever energy they release on death will enter him and weaken him.

  The only issue they have is that with every crow he kills more vitality is released into the air. With each bit of golden energy, he is able to resist the effects of the energy even better.

  For the twentieth time Helo uses his internal energy to start to fill his kukri with energy. It didn’t take him long to realize that his skills like ‘Dark Blade’, ‘Negative Weakening’ and ‘Dark Hand’ have very little effect on the crows.

  So, Helo is forced to fight using cold steel, and the extremely taxing enchantment within one of his blades. This entire fight is turning into a slug fest. A complete and total battle of attrition. But at the same time, Helo is racking up experience faster than he ever has before.

  Each crow gives close to the least amount of experience that a tier 2 creature can. It is less than a powerful tier 1. But at the same time, there are thousands of crows, and each one is easy to kill.

  But that same ease at which he kills the crows is also part of the problem. Helo was so sure of himself when he started the fight. That smug smirking bastard, he knew what he was doing.

  Thirty Minutes Earlier.

  “Wait? Your saying this rift is filled with dark affinity crows?” Helo asks with a small smile. To him this just sounds like shooting fish in a barrel. He is extremely thankful to Akira. Having the chance to gain some easy experience is a great boon.

  Akira smirks at Helo, but to Helo it seems reassuring. Like they both are in on the joke against the world. The world wants to hold Helo down, but he and Akira will stick one too it.

  Thanking Akira again, Helo steps into the rift. The first thing he notices is that the rift seems to be a massive expanse of completely flat and arid cracked ground. There are patches of trees all around, but each one is thin and sickly, with jagged branches sticking out every which way.

  There is no clear light in the rift. But he can make out shadows going away from him. Turning around Helo can see a large moon in the sky, only this moon doesn’t look normal. It is a completely black expanse that is covered in sickly grey and green lines.

  Looking back farther into the rift Helo can see that each patch of tree are filled to the brim with crows. Every branch, every inch covered in the creatures. No matter where he looks, each one is looking right at him. Even if he peers are far as he can, looking as deep into the dark rift as he can. They are all staring.

  This causes Helo to shiver slightly, but he pushes it away. They have the same affinity as me. I’ll be fine. He has no idea just how wrong that assumption is. The only dark aligned affinity he has come across is shadow. An affinity that is part of the same branch as his, only lower on the complexity scale.

  Looking up at the closest crow Helo uses ‘Detect Weakness’.

  Death Omen Crow

  Crows that are born from a collection of death and dark mana. They attack as large flocks and harass their prey endlessly.

  Weakness: END.

  That weakness makes Helo feel another wave of confidence. Akira told him that the crows are weak for tier 2. Having their weakest stat be endurance is another boon; he should be able to tear through them. Taking one last look at the hundreds of patches of trees, and the thousands of crows. Helo takes a deep breath and decides to get to work.

  Wanting to start off with a big strike, Helo pulls out his Kukri and starts to channel his energy into the blade. As he stalks forward, he wraps himself within his aura, only for the bird to still be able to track him easily.

  In the next few seconds multiple things happen at once. Helo reaches the first patch of trees and releases the energy that was building within his blade. Instead of dodging, the birds all stay in place and let themselves be turned into charred husks.

  Helo stares in silent confusion as he kills almost twenty crows in a single blast. But before he can celebrate too much, each of the corpses release a mix of black and green energy. That energy appears to be reminiscent of the golden cloud that followed him when he saved Maria. Only this cloud isn’t made of vibrant arcs of golden vitality but roiling black and bursting green.

  Attempting to dodge the energy that is trying to enter his body Helo rolls back. The energy follows his roll, and he quickly dives left to get away. Just as he gets to his feet. A single ‘Caw’ can be heard over his head. That single call turns into two, then five, then ten. Then every crow that is nearby.

  All at once each crow spreads its wings and takes to the air with a cacophony of flapping wings and piercing cries. Looking up at the crows overheard and feeling the horrible energy from behind Helo has just a moment to think, Shit. Then all hell brakes loose.

  With each crow he kills the amount of horribly roiling energy following him grows. At the same time his aura is only so effective at weaking an energy that is so close to his own. The only bright side is that the crows are weak. Much weaker than he expected, but with each death more horrible energy flows into the air and follows after him.

  Looking back at the mess of black and sickly green energy, Helo can feel a sense of foreboding. He has no idea what it does, and with each kill it only grows more powerful.

  Using large amounts of his own energy Helo continually charges his dagger and sends out arcs of fire. Unless he wants to kill them all one by one, this is the only way he can do some real damage to the large flock.

  It takes him almost thirty minutes to clear away the crows. By the time he is done the energy chasing him is truly dangerous. At first it was a wisp, but now it is the size of his body and crackles with danger.

  On the bright side as each of the crow bodies start to release their stored energy. The vitality that was in their bodies starts to gather within his aura. This is the effect of his second aura that he has yet to truly get a skill for.

  As the pure vitality and horrific energy meet in the air, they seem to cancel one another out. This has Helo breathing easy. All he has to do is wait for more vitality to gather. But before he can relax. Another noise catches his attention. “CAW!”

  Looking out from the patch of trees that he is constantly weaving through to avoid the horrible energy; Helo can see crows from each and every tree in the rift start to take to the air.

  They all fly up into the sky and meet in a mass of black feathered bodies. Then all at once the crows dive down in a swirling mass and head for Helo. Staring up at what appears to be a horrible death, Helo momentary forgets about the energy he is fleeing from.

  He still has no idea what it is, or what it will do to him. Just before the energy can touch his body Helo’s instincts activate due to the danger. Flinching at how close the horrific energy got to his body; the smallest wisp reaches his form.

  Recoiling as his flesh starts to decay on his very body, Helo stumbles as a pain he has never experienced racks his body. This stumble gives the rest of the energy just enough time to reach him.

  The black and green energy enters his body, and Helo can feel as his vitality withers away and his body starts to decay. Just before the last of his vitality is going to be snuffed out, the golden cloud that followed the green one reaches Helo.

  Each bit of vitality that enters his body awakens his own overwhelming resistance. By now Helo guesses that he is dealing with death energy. From what little he has learned about it, it seeks to snuff out any vitality that it touches. But thankfully when Helo absorbs external vitality, his own regeneration grows to something that is truly overwhelming.

  Within his body Helo can feel as a war is waged, but he has faith that his bloodline and the vitality that is still draining from the crows around him will prevail. Looking up, the mass of black feathers is only a few feet from reaching him. With a sneer Helo thinks, This is going to suck.