Now we're catching up to where I left off. It takes one day to a few days to write a chapter, but there's still 5 more chapters until I actually catch up.

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-BOOM-

After being blasted back by a surge of energy, Akina crashed against the ground and skipped across it while making indents each time she hit the earth. Lifting her head, she looked at the metallic figure roughly fifty meters away from her.

Even if Dan was here...there's no way we could win..

The metallic figure's body shuddered before disappearing and re-appearing in-front of Akina. It raised its foot and smashed it down onto Akina's back. Giant cracks rolled out from underneath her body, and she spat out a mouth full of blood.

Looking over to the side, she saw Shadow lying on the ground in a puddle of blood.

Damn it...hopefully the second branch gets here in time.

During the time when Akina was still battling with the Guardian, Kyte was quickly searching through the city to try to find her and Shadow.

He had been searching for about ten minutes before he expanded his search perimeter. He had spread out his Spirit energy to the maximum, which encompassed a range of two miles. He could sense everything within his Spirit energy, so that saved a lot of time. However, he was unable to find them.

After another ten minutes, Kyte decided to search on the outskirts of the town. Besides, if Akina and Shadow were having trouble or were in a long-lasting battle, they would mostly likely not be fighting within the inner city.

As he drew closer to the city borders, Kyte decided to to his right and searched around the perimeter. Although this may seem slow, Kyte right now has a surplus supply of pills in the storage necklace. The pills and medicine from earlier stages have no effect on him now, however, he'd rather not throw those away just in case. Anyway, Kyte is traveling at full speed which consumes quite a bit of Internal energy. Therefore, because of the pills, he's able to keep going his max speed.

Still, the city is pretty large with a population of about eight-hundred thousand. It would take him a good two hours at max speed to circle the entire city if he wanted to. However, Kyte was determined to find Akina and Shadow. Even if Akina was being beaten, he hoped there was something he could do.

After thirty minutes of traveling, Kyte felt a huge pulse of energy enter the range of his Spirit energy. It was so much greater than rank C or D Guardians, and it made Kyte flinch out of surprise. 

The pulse of energy came from his left, outside of the city. Kyte quickly changed his course of travel and headed toward the source of the energy. As he got closer, he could hear the sounds of explosions and the visible shock-waves emanating from the battle. 

The battle was in a large field behind a farm. Well, what was left of the farm anyway. Kyte landed by the farm and hid himself near the piles of rubble everywhere. From there, he could see the battle unfolding. He also noticed...this was the farm that he first went to when he slaughtered all that livestock.

It's Akina!...but where's Shadow?

Currently, Akina was dodging with all her might. The speed of the attacks from the Guardian she was battling was insanely fast. Kyte could only see blurs moving back and forth in a type of slow-motion, however, it wasn't actually slow-motion at all. The Guardian was moving so fast that Kyte's eyes just couldn't register everything that was happening.

Away from the battle, Kyte saw two destroyed Guardians. They were crimson in color and were destroyed to such a state that Kyte wasn't able to get a clear distinction of their body measurements. However, they were definitely not B ranks or lower. The one fighting Akina is pure white in color, and if that one is able to push Akina back...

Those crimson ones must be A rank Guardians, then if that's the case then...that white one is an S rank?!

Kyte watched the battle unfold. Every time the Guardian would swing its arm a small crack would appear on the ground. Akina didn't even have time to attack back as the Guardian's speed was far above her own. The only thing she could do was defend. She was using a thin black sword that almost looked like a rapier, but it was still able to slice through the ground like butter.

Shock-waves would roll out and almost blast Kyte backwards. Pieces of rubble were constantly being blown back by the exchanges between the Guardian and Akina. Then suddenly, the Guardian landed a direct blow against her stomach. She was blasted back several meters, and every time she would collide with the ground it would indent and several cracks would role out.

Before Kyte could react, the Guardian disappeared for a split second before re-appearing in-front of Akina. It smashed its foot down onto her back, sending out a loud bang, with deep cracks surrounding the two of them.

Kyte took out Heavy Air and immediately used Energy Manipulation with the energy formation of the blade to increase its offense by at least two times. Equipping Shadow Twins and using both left and right gauntlets, his offense rose even further. He wove Spirit energy into both of them, increasing their offense bonuses by at least two times as well. 

Using Windwalker, Kyte blasted toward the Guardian with the full power of his Internal energy being displayed. A huge wave of crimson-colored energy spilled all around him, and the dread aura surrounding Heavy Air was four times greater than normal. However, the dread aura seemed to have no effect on the Guardian, probably since it's not even a living thing.

Slashing toward the Guardian's head, Kyte brought his arms down with all of his strength. In fact, Kyte was actually a little taller than the Guardian, making it a bit easier to swing down.

However, to Kyte's horror...

The Guardian effortlessly blocked Kyte's sword with its arm!

The terrifying power transferred from Kyte's sword onto the Guardian, smashing it down into the ground a full two feet which also greatly damaged the surrounding earth. This was Kyte's ultimate attack with all of his available power put into one strike, and it was only able to do this much damage to the surroundings...the Guardian and Akina were creating several cracks by just swinging their arms. Compared them, Kyte was definitely much weaker.

Once the great pressure from Kyte's attack disappeared, the Guardian's arm transformed into a blade. Before Kyte could react, the blade had slashed all the way from his shoulder to the bottom of his spine, almost cutting him in half. The blade was stopped by Kyte's skeleton near the end of his spine, however, the 'bones' in that area were broken into small fragments. Due to this, Kyte lost all feeling in his body.

The blade was so far in his body that it actually propped it up. The Guardian lifted its arm higher, lifting Kyte's body with it. Suddenly slicing its arm out the same way it slashed in, Kyte's body was suspended in air just long enough for the Guardian to lift its leg and smash its foot into his stomach. Kyte was kicked into several piles of rubble, skipping several times before coming to a stop.

With his spine completely shattered, Kyte couldn't move his body, or even feel it, at all. A huge puddle of blood spread out from his body. Kyte desperately tried to take it all back in it, but for some reason he was unable to. Feeling panicked for the first time since he got his new power, Kyte quickly began to think of what to do.

Meanwhile, the Guardian turned back to Akina. It quickly transformed its blade into a spear-like weapon which looked more like a drill than anything else. It stabbed its arm through Akina's body. It slashed its arm out through her side, spilling guts and blood out with it. Akina clenched her jaw down and desperately tried to endure. 

A split second after it sliced through her side, the Guardian stabbed her again before sliced through the other side. Akina was almost completely cut in half by the Guardian's weapon. Akina's body lay in a large pool of blood, and her consciousness was ever so slowly drifting away.

Kyte found out that by using his Spirit energy, he could pull out anything he wanted, within his unlocked items, anywhere within the range of his Spirit energy. He quickly used it to put a pill in his mouth which he swallowed immediately. He felt a small surge of power that accompanied a large wave of relaxing heat. His spine started to repair itself, however, it was quite slow. It had repaired enough for Kyte to move his head and look toward Akina, and what he saw horrified him.

The terrible state that Akina was in made Kyte almost want to look away. But, he couldn't. He was determined to help her as much as he could. He reached a thin stream of his Spirit energy into her mouth, and suddenly a small white pill appeared on her tongue.

After she felt a small amount of weight enter her mouth, Akina was at first confused. However, seeing Kyte staring at her with determination in his eyes, she quickly understood what that pill was. She let her body absorb its healing properties, however, the pill wasn't strong enough to do any real good to her. The pill was meant for Kyte at the Sentinel stage, only the fifth stage. As for Akina, she was at the seventh stage in terms of power. Two whole stages are between Kyte and Akina, and that weak pill was only able to keep Akina alive for a little while longer.

However, that little amount of time was crucial. Just a few seconds later, a large yellow light flashed in the area. Suddenly, the Guardian that was about to stab Akina for a third time had an almost golden-like spear through its chest.

Another golden spear pierced through the Guardian's chest. The spears were very fast, clearly faster than the Guardian could react. To Kyte, the spears just suddenly appeared they were going so fast.

That's....definitely one of us.

The Guardian ripped the spears out of its chest, and gave out a very low roar. The air visibly shook as the sound waves pierced through it. The sound was so loud and low that it was like having a gigantic speaker at full volume blasting in your ear. Except, the earth shaking and cracking under the pressure was a reality.

Before the Guardian let out that low roar, a golden translucent barrier appeared around Akina. The sound waves hit it but luckily only small cracks appeared across it. When the Guardian stopped, the barrier quickly repaired itself.

As for Kyte, he had to take on the full brunt of the sound wave. He was several meters away, however, the sound waves were just too strong. They passed through his body and shook it to such a degree that his insides began to melt under the pressure. His ears drums immediately exploded and blood dribbled down from his ears. His eyes began to droop down out of his eye sockets as blood was being emitted from his skin.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

By forsaking his flesh to defend his skeleton, Kyte miraculously survived. If Kyte was still at the Spirit stage, he would've been crushed into a meat paste. Luckily, his Internal and Spirit energy were just powerful enough to keep his skeleton safe. Thanks to that, he would be able to slowly regenerate his flesh. Although it would be a lot slower than if he was healing a severed arm or leg, or maybe a huge hole in his chest, he was still alive. Even if most of his flesh had slipped off of his bones, it was slowly being brought back together. 

When Kyte looked up toward Akina, he saw an older man standing in-front of her. The Guardian was currently repairing the holes in its chest as it sent out a very powerful pulse of energy. The older man quickly created a large golden barrier around the entire field which blocked the energy pulse, making it bounce back toward the Guardian.

The older man quickly flipped his hands several times to which several golden spears pierced through the Guardian. It arms and legs were ripped off, it's torso and head fell to the ground with a thud. The man flickered, appearing in-front of the Guardian and creating a large golden cube. He smashed the cube down onto the Guardian, completely destroying it. When the cube disappeared, all that was left was what looked like scrap metal in a pool of green liquid.

The man turned around and appeared back in-front of Akina. By now, her sides were almost healed. She was standing straight, but with great difficulty. 

"Seeker, sir, I..."

"Shut up!"

The man slapped Akina in the face, making her fall down onto the ground.

"You think that just because you reached Gold A rank, you can defeat S rank Guardians?! How delusional are you? I had to come all the way from Lailer City. You know how far that is?! If I was even a second too late, you would be dead right now!"

"I...I didn't know an S rank was going to appear-"

"'Didn't know' my ass! If you still want your position as a Branch Leader, then start acting like one! If not...then you're going to end up just like your previous Branch Leader."

"......Yes sir."

"Hmph. If this happens again, you'll be transferred."

The man only evilly smiled as he looked down on Akina. Then, he rose into the air, with small golden lights emitting from his feet, and sped off in the direction he came.

Akina spit out a bit of blood and afterward she wiped her mouth with her hand. She turned her head toward Shadow and quickly moved to his side. She opened his mouth and put a small orange pill inside and helped him swallow. A faint orange radiance spread out from his body, and his pale face quickly regained color.

Akina breathed out a low sigh of relief. She lightly smiled and quickly turned around to arrive at Kyte's side, about forty meters away.

"You crazy kid, what the Hell do you think you were doing?"

When Akina saw Kyte's bones with his flesh barely hanging on, she was a bit worried. She could even see inside Kyte's back, where his lungs, heart, liver, stomach...all laid bare. Of course, a layer of melted skin and red muscle was around there too.

Kyte could only awkwardly turn his head toward Akina as he gave a weird smile.

"I get it, you can't even speak right now. Here, take this."

Akina put an orange pill into Kyte's mouth, and he instantly felt the power within it. The pill dissipated and orange light traveled throughout his body. His flesh completely absorbed that orange light, which increased its healing rate by about three times.

If she had this pill, why didn't she use it?...

About fifteen minutes later, Kyte's flesh had almost completely healed. He sat up with little difficulty, although he still felt pain. 

"Thanks for that pill."

"No problem, I got tons of them in my space ring."

"Your what?"

"Uh...nothing."

"...So, that was an S rank Guardian huh?"

"Yea. I didn't expect one to show up after I destroyed those A rankers."

"I see. Well, we should get going before more show up. I'll get Shadow."

"Wait."

Before Kyte could leave, Akina grabbed his sleeve.

"Thanks for trying to save me, and also..thanks for giving me that pill."

Akina look downward after saying that, so even when Kyte looked down at her, he couldn't see her expression. He could definitely see that her beauty was immeasurable, and her snow-white hair only amplified that. Aside from that, her clothes were all ripped up so it revealed some of her soft, beautiful skin. Although some of her body was revealed like that, Kyte wasn't really moved by it. However, just catching a small glimpse randomly like this made him swallow his saliva.

"Yea. No problem."

After that, Akina released Kyte. Then, Kyte grabbed Shadow and they traveled back to the apartment. Also, before they left, Akina went over to the piles of metal on the ground and picked everything up in her space ring. Kyte was some-what confused by that, but he didn't question it.

Back at the apartment, when Light saw Shadow unconscious, he almost broke down in tears. Kyte brought him to his bed and laid him down, putting a soft pillow underneath his head.

Akina brought everyone else into the room. Except Dan and Lucy who were at their own apartment.

"Alright everyone, this time I had committed a major blunder. An S rank Guardian appeared."

"What? S rank?"

"Holy crap an S rank, did it look cool?"

Only Rose and Kyte didn't speak, and Jol looked at Akina with curious eyes.

"This isn't the time for the questions, Jol. Me, Shadow, and Kyte were almost killed by it. Luckily, Seeker from the Lailer Branch arrived. If he was a little slower, us three would have never come back."

Jol immediately shut his mouth and looked at Akina seriously. Light did the same, but he had a bit of fear in his eyes.

"We need to be extra careful. The reports I received did not include information about an S rank, so we don't know if one will show up or not. Make sure to immediately leave after finishing a mission, understood?"

""""Yes.""""

"Now, I will go to Dan and Lucy's place to tell them the same. Since it's pretty late, I think you should go all go to sleep. Starting tomorrow, we have a small break from missions. So I think we'll go into Lakewood Forest. Kyte, did you have any improvements while you there?"

"Yea. I discovered something about this...well, never mind. None of you will understand even if I explained it. Anyway, it's helped me a lot and I was going to go back to Lakewood tomorrow. So, I'm fine with everyone else going too."

"Good. Lakewood Forest is gigantic, and there are many places big enough for all of us. We just need to pick the right location."

"The place I chose as my spot was quite secluded from other people, and it was pretty large as well. There was a lot more space around my area too. I think that could be a nice place to begin."

"Good! Then, everyone be ready to go to Lakewood tomorrow. I'll being going now."

""Cya.""

"Bye!"

"Byyyyye Akinaa!"

After Akina left, Jol turned to Light.

"Light, want to continue our game?"

"Ha, of course! You never beat me though, so it's getting a little boring."

"What?! I'm not that bad! I've won a couple times..."

"Yea, like two weeks ago?"

"Huh?! Yea right! Watch, I'll beat you right now!"

"You're on then, pipsqueak!"

The two rushed toward their room, leaving behind Kyte and Rose.

Rose was currently looking at Kyte with a weird expression. Kyte could see a faint red glow from her eyes...

"Hey, could you stop looking inside my body?"

"Hmmm, why should I? Your body is so interesting, I've never seen anything like it. Just yesterday your aura was different than it is today....I can see a very small energy flowing through you. It's so faint that it took me several seconds just to realize that I wasn't just seeing something."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, I've never seen it before."

"Well, I don't really know how to explain it, since I don't know what it is either-"

Rose pounced onto Kyte's body, knocking him off of his chair to fall on the ground.

Ow!

"Your body is so weird. It's as if it shouldn't belong here, in this world...really, where did you come from?"

"H, how would I know? I was b, born here..."

"Hmmm?"

Rose moved her face to Kyte's right ear, and she breathed out a warm breath...

"Ahhh..."

Feeling that warm breath, that didn't smell bad in the slightest, made Kyte stiffen his body. Rose's right hand reached into his shirt and softly moved around Kyte's left side while she rested on her left arm and began to lightly kiss and lick the side of his neck.

Her soft voluptuous breasts pressed against the side of Kyte's chest, fully revealing their smooth texture. Her curvy hips rotated, with both her legs wrapped around his right leg. Her left hand softly gripped Kyte's right shoulder, and pressed down lightly. The scent from Rose's body wafted around them, and Kyte fully breathed it in every time he breathed in and out. 

Rose's right hand felt some-what ticklish against his side, and Kyte was being overwhelmed by Rose's actions. Especially when a faint red glow appeared on her body, which transferred over to Kyte. That red glow was like a contagious disease, and it quickly went into Kyte's body.

Kyte immediately felt a wave of heat rise up in his chest and stomach, which even made his usually expression-free face blush a little. He wasn't able to fight back against that red energy at all. It was as if it bypassed all of his defenses and easily made its way through his body.

Rose lifted her face above Kyte's, just an inch away from his.

"Hey...want to kiss?"

Kyte's mind went completely blank. The situation he was in was just too overwhelming. He felt as if he lost control of his body. He didn't move away in the slightest, and actually, he didn't move at all. He was so overwhelmed that he was frozen in place.