After training his flame shapes for so long, Sirus was pretty exhausted. Because he no longer had a mana pool, his sword skills took from his stamina, making training loads more tiring, but somewhat more efficient as stamina lasted a lot longer than mana.

Deciding to stop training for today he went back to the cave. Upon arriving he found Riria sitting up against the wall staring at his form while he entered.

"I couldn't sleep," She said.

"..." Sirus gave her a flat look. Riria looked completely fine, not showing any signs of exhaustion such as the telltale 'bags under the eyes' or 'drooping eyelids'.

"Whaaat?" She said innocently.

He sighed and unbuckled his sword, and slumped down against the wall close to Riria and closed his eyes.

Suddenly he felt a weight on his outstretched legs. "Hey, I let you sleep in my lap, now its only fair you let me do the same!"

Despite implying that she was only going to 'sleep in his lap' she fully climbed onto him and sat down on his thighs. "Besides, it's kind of cold too..." Sirus usually went to sleep after training with his flames so he didn't really notice the temperature in the cave.

Again, sighing heavily he said "Fine."

Groaning softly in response to his unenthusiastic reply she quickly snuggled close to him, resting her head on his shoulders and closing her eyes slowly. It really was comfortable, especially with her warm breasts pushing against his chest.

His face slightly reddened at the thought but he pushed away the rogue thought and focused on his thoughts.

'It's hard... It really is, training at every available moment. Pushing for advancement at every available opportunity, facing terrible monsters every day. It's a lonely path, but perhaps with Riria I may find company on my road to nowhere.'

He let out a deep breath and placed his calloused hand on her back, slowly moving it up and down her spine while she let out a soft moan. 'Any longer without meeting another person, and everything that happened to me would have quickly added up and slowly cracked my mind. Even with Riria I slightly feel the urge to kill, and that's after she saved my life. I fear with others I won't be able to restrain myself.'

He eyed his sword on the floor across the cave and his face formed into a snarl. 'Why should I care about them? Let them die. They are merely pebbles along my path, their deaths are of no consequence to me. Although I do wonder what I should do after that damned kingdom is burnt to a crisp.'

Someone looking from far away would marvel at the contrasting change in expression Sirus just experienced. His slightly sad smile had now curved into a wicked grin reflecting the dying embers of the campfire. 'That's right, I don't need to do anything. Who will stop me after I take my revenge!? I can do anything and everything I want! My road may lead to nowhere but that doesn't mean it doesn't encounter anything on the way!'

A fit of maniacal laughter surged through him whilst the flames of his socket burned brighter than ever before. His voice turned cold. "They can take anything from me, but nothing can stop me!"

Riria let out a drowsy groan, disturbed by the quick rising and falling of his chest.

His smile turned instantly warm. 'Well, perhaps there is one thing I cannot let them take.'

---

The next morning Sirus found himself in an uncomfortable situation. Upon waking up he found Riria was now completely on top of him, with her head so close to his that he could feel her hot breath blowing on his ears.

The problem was that he needed to go train more of his sword skills, but he felt wrong waking her up from such a peaceful sleep. Even so he slowly tried to disentangle himself from her without waking her up.

"Mmmm" His attempt was unsuccessful and she woke up along with him.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She slowly lifted herself off him. Her messy black hair somehow making her look even more beautiful than before. "Awake already?" she said sleepily.

"Yeah.." He said reluctantly "I have to go train."

She nodded her assent and slowly got up with him. "I'm going to get myself presentable, and then I'll come watch, 'kay?" she said and started walking out of the cave.

Her eyes lightened up mischievously. "Oh, one more thing." She changed directions and walked up to him, giving him a small peck on the cheek.

While Sirus was still stunned she quickly ran out of the cave, he finally regained his senses a few moments later and sported a red face and an embarrassed smile.

---

Now at his usual spot Sirus wanted to create some new skills to go with Wrath Painting and create a series. 'Wrath Painting is my only long-range move at this point, so it could be a good idea to work on another one... Wrath Painting is awfully flexible though, so there really wouldn't be much point in creating another long range move as of now.'

He felt slightly odd just standing there and thinking but continued on anyways. 'My close-range moves are already fine because I can just use Wrath Manipulation to coat my sword in flames... Then I'll work on a medium-range move.'

Suddenly an idea came to him and his mouth stretched into a vicious grin.

-Around a week later-

[Skill Created: Flame Dragon's Maw

Description: Upon activation a dragon composed of your wrath will burst out of tip of your blade. The dragon will then follow the tip of the blade and incinerate everything it hits.

Grade: B+]

[Skill Created: Incendiary Flash

Description: Flash forward around 10 meters in a horizontal typhoon of flames.

Grade: B]

[Skill Created: Meteoric Fall

Description: When activated in the air, accumulate a growing meteor of flames below you to destroy any enemies below. The higher up this skill is activated, the bigger the meteor will be.

Grade: A]

[Skill Created: Circle of Flames

Description: Slice in a flame circle around you, when the circle is completed the any previously created flames still around will detonate will extreme force.

Grade: B+]

Sirus grinned, and activated his Series Creation skill.

[Create Series?

Y/N]

He clicked yes.

[Series Created: Wrathful Blade Series

Included Skills: {Flame Dragon's Maw},{Incendiary Flash},{Meteoric Fall},{Circle of Flames}

All Included skills effects' will be boosted by a small amount.]

"Yes!" He now had all of his weaknesses covered up, and with these multitude of skills he could now create devestating chain attacks to absolutely devastate an enemy.

"What's the commotion?" Riria who was watching him from some distance away said.

He replied "I finally created a new Series, and with this we should be able to get out of this place anytime now!"

"What's a series?" She asked.

He grinned "Follow me."

---

He led her back to where his first camp location was. And after some sniffing around, he found what he was looking for.

[Name: Bat-Rock Elemental Assassin

Level: 121

Description: ???]

This disgusting creature was what had taken his left eye and forced him to endure days of endless misery in that Health Potion pool. He didn't have the strength to fight it back then, but now?

He loudly unsheathed his sword and alerted it to his presence.

"Wrathful Sword Series: Incendiary Flash" He instantly appeared behind the Elemental whilst it screamed in agony, already being affected by his flames.

"I'm not done with you yet." He revealed a vicious smile and manipulated a ball of flame beneath his feet and exploded it, launching him around 20 meters up right above the Elemental and close to the roof of the cavern.

"Meteoric Fall" A small ball of flames appeared beneath his feet again, but this one rapidly grew as he fell. Just before he hit the ground where the Elemental was, the ball of flames was now 20 feet wide, worthy of being called a meteor.

He, along with the meteor, hit the ground.

A massive explosion rumbled throughout the entirety of the cave system.

But he had to make sure it was dead didn't he?

"Wrathful Sword Series: Circle of Flames"

The flames created by the skill and the flames still around from the meteor falling instantly flashed brighter and detonated. The entire cavern was filled with flames.

Sirus waited for the fire to die down and check if the Elemental was still alive, but it seemed even its ashes had turned to ashes.

He turned to the direction he had told Risia to wait and saw her tiny figure far away in the distance.

"That is a series." He shouted in her direction and ran towards her, upon reaching her she instantly pouted her lips and said with indignance "I think I got burnt!"

He chuckled.

"You think I'm joking!? I'll show you!" She ran towards him and started repeatedly banging her fists into his chest. "It burns!"

"Yeah, yeah. I have some Health Potion back at camp, c'mon."