Upon learning about what he called kill value, a thought occurred upon jean

what If I could revive that Bernard guy and fight him again?

Jean didn't know why he had that idea, however, his eyes were shining in anticipation of what was to come.

He felt a sense of awe for the power granted upon him. In a sense, he could fight infinitely. At least that's what he thought.

He then looked at the girl who was a couple of meters away from the fight, she, at least, what remained of her was a mess of blood and gut. One of her arms was missing and the other one was torn into shreds. Her hand was missing and her lower arm looked like it went through a Shredder, her legendary sword was completely gone and her upper arm was a mess of exposed bones and bloodied flesh. Her armor couldn't even be called white anymore, most of it was dyed red from her own blood. Looking at her stomach, it appeared like her intestine was visible. Her head was surprisingly still intact, but her platinum blond hair was stained red.

it's a shame she died so quickly, she would've been more enjoyable to fight than that weird guy and his undead.

He then looked at John. Who was panting while leaning on a tree. His medieval style tunic was slightly damaged, but it was nothing unfixable.

Jean felt that he and John did a good job at teaming up, considering it was their first real fight together.

"What is it boss? You're looking at me kinda weirdly.

startled by john's comment, Jean retorted:

"I expected you to be worse than that at teaming up, you seem like the assassin, or maybe even the spy type."

At the words, John flinched slightly. However he still rebutted.

"I was part of a bandit gang, the only thing we're good at is teaming up"

Jean still appeared to be doubtful. He knew how despicable bandits, or to be precise, criminals acted. He'd been exposed to cartels His whole life. He knew what they we're capable of and the lines they crossed, and he knew that his subordinate didn't cross those lines. That's why he was doubting John's real identity.

Welp it doesn't matter, I'll find out eventually anyway.

He then turned towards Bernard's remains. strangely he had turned into ash. Jean widened his eyes. That was impossible, or at least it should be. For the sake of his own sanity, Jean ceased from doubting reality any further. Somehow, while looking around, John also noticed this change and pointed out that all of the undead had turned into dust.

that's strange, I still feel their scattered souls around me, however it would be difficult to revive them. What a bother! I thought I should take on both the girl and the weird guy. At least they'd both put an enjoyable fight.

While jean was conspiring with an idiotic smile on his tanned face, John went looking around the area, a heavily damaged carriage stood there, in front of it, sat a flipped over magic cart. it had most likely flipped over during the battle. John questioned the Republic's tastes that prioritized gaudiness over efficiency, he thought that it would have been more efficient to simply make the car's frame larger to contain more passengers and to discard the need for a carriage. Nevertheless, he knew that that republican nobles preferred to show wealth than arranging convenient transportation. In a way, it was obvious as the knight lying over there had an armor that clearly put her at disadvantage. Had fighting her been possible, Jean would have asked her to discard her cape before the battle begun.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He then looked around the camp. John noticed that they only planned to stay overnight. they had set up temporary equipment and had hunted only for one meal. Observing that, somehow they seemed in a hurry. a hurry that would have been justifiable had there not been traitors on board. He also agreed that the battle thirsted jean was a potential hazard. He was in the opinion that Jean's tendencies would only prompt him to get stronger. in the beginning, it would be fine, as his battle would bring no harm to weak, innocent bystanders, but he had a feeling that once he got much stronger, he would endanger innocent bystanders around him. Yet he did not care in the slightest. He had swore his loyalty to his boss and had decided that he would follow him to the end no matter what absurdities may happen in the future.

Jean, out of his stupor, glanced at the fallen knight. He wondered how many kills it would cost to revive her and looked forward to the fight. He took a few steps and knelt down facing the corpse. an horrid scent wafted towards him has the wind decided to do him no grace. He had always hated the stench of corpses and spilled organs as it reminded him of unhappy memories. Pinching his nose, Jean extended his had towards the girl and sacrificed ten kills.

[27]>[17]

Jean was surprised when he felt something ethereal descending towards the girl, while his mana was sapped away, he could feel it, the scattered soul coming back to a whole, a somewhat whitish green coming out of its blurry form. He had guessed that it was the appearance of the girl's mana that had taken a visible form. he could also see diverse currents of energy circulating through the world around him. He could ear much more clearly, he was hearing the tinkling of crystal leaves, the buzzing of insects, John's breathing and many more things. He decided to call this sense "mana sight". while in mana sight, he could see the intricate patterns of mana that revitalized Aria's body. He thought that maybe he could perform such a thing on living beings or maybe even himself for the prospect of enjoying fights longer. Jean the peeked at his hand, black energy was oozing out of his fingers and nails.

"fucking disgusting" observed John before turning his gaze towards the phenomenon of revival. He couldn't fathom how that was even possible as it defied all common sense. John observed how the disgusting energy left Jean's hand to permeate into Aria.

Is this how he made me unable to attack him? Will this barf inducing black thing kill me if I try?

Jean couldn't care less, he observed his second reanimation, slowly closing the blond girl's wounds and that black mana seeping into them. Jean speculated that the black mana would open her wounds if she tried to attack him, truly nasty, even by his standards.

whoever made this ability, he and I think alike.

"what the....? AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" , Upon witnessing Jean, Aria, newly healed passed out, convulsing and her mouth foaming, the source of her terror was right before her and she couldn't help but be absolutely horrified. Jean on the other hand couldn't conceive why she had such a reaction, nevertheless, John could.

"Boss, she's terrified of your aura". John stated without care and that made Jean question his choices.

having known she was this fainthearted, I would not have pursued her and would have gone towards a village.

Having lost the majority of his interest into Aria, Jean suppressed his aura and waited for her to wake. When she eventually did, he and John explained their encounter, the destruction of the bandit camp and their intentions to fight Aria. They described what the scene looked like at their arrival and the fight against Bernard.

"I see....I honorably thank you for aiding me and putting my disturbed "uncle" to rest." she declared still slightly shivering from Jean's earlier appearance.

John, noticing her unease, pointed out: "He may look scary but he won't eat you, I swear he's as civilized as everyone else"

Jean having taken this as a provocation responded with "you wanna fight? Remember how I killed you with a pebble?" A provocation that fell on deaf ears.

Aria observed the two and was still shocked, she couldn't shake off the cold and eerie feeling that Jean emitted earlier, nonetheless she was ready to put up with it until they reach some form of civilization. Although it was debatable if it was a good idea to expose other people to him.