Today was going to be a horrible day. The group work was after classes and both Johan and Adrian were going to meet up with Hwaa. She had to force herself not to do something stupid. Her father was awaiting her to get married to Johan.

"Hey Hwaa, you're already here."

Johan and Adrian entered the classroom. It was empty other than Hwaa and them. The whiteboard had slides open with their task questions. Hwaa was typing things on a tablet, giving the boys no attention.

"Heeeey! Can't you hear us?" Adrian exclaimed sarcastically.

Looking at him she answered with an annoyed voice: "Sit down. Let's get through this quickly."

She gave both of them tablets. On them were notes written by her which were about todays topic.

"Go through them and try to memorize as much as possible. We will present it tomorrow."

About ten minutes later they were going over the presentations and giving each other roles. It went pretty smooth up until the end when Johan asked her about the deal.

"Hmm? What deal?"

"No way. Don't tell me you forgot what we talked about the other day."

"Look, I don't have time for this crap. Just rehearse what we've talked about and don't ruin anything tomorrow."

Johan looked at her mockingly.

"Yeah, is that what is going to happen? Well, if you're not going to hold your end of the deal, then I won't either. Adrian let's leave. I've never seen somebody this ungrateful before."

Both of them acted like they were leaving when she got her ego down and said: "Wait! I... What do you want?"

"A fight."

"Hmm?" Hwaa looked dumbfounded.

"I want a fight with you. Right now. Let's go to the training facility. Don't worry I won't hurt you too much. I'm a gentleman after all."

"Youu...", Hwa said as her eyes started glowing red, "don't know what you're asking for."

She looked at him with anger not even a cuck would show after his wife cheated on him in his room.

"I do. Now let's go. It seems like you're a busy person."

...

In the facility a teacher was training with his students. They asked for permission to use the dual room. It was specially designed for duels between students. Not only did it have timers and damage reducers installed but it also showed the participants end results. So in a case of a draw they could count points like in the UFCCC.

"Let's get ready."

They put on combat suits and went into the ring. Hwaa looked at Johan with slight nervousness in her eyes. She didn't know how she would fight him.

"Hwaa, fight me with all you got. Don't hold back even a bit or else you will get hurt."

"Are you stupid? This is ju-"

"Psssshht!"

He concentrated on his core and brought forth his sword. He applied Mana and Aether on it. The colour of it became golden.

With an Mana boost he dashed forward. His eyes focused on her. Hwaa was surprised by the sudden attack. She immediately took out two dagger and threw one of them towards him.

Barely evading her attack, he jumped up and slashed down onto her. Her dagger was too small to parry his sword so she made a little flame and flashed him with it. Johan didn't budge. He activated a defense skill which let him be immune to the fire for a second. That was enough to not get any real damage from the attack. Hwaa almost got hit. She rolled under him and threw her dagger directly into his back.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The dagger slashed his rips. His sword landed on the ground.

‘She’s quite agile. I didn’t think that she would evade this easily. I have to be more precise.’

He grabbed his sword tighter. Fuelling it with Mana he started running towards. But there was nobody there. All of a sudden Hwaa appeared behind him. Striking with a Fire Fist she hit his back again.

Boom!

Johan flew into the wall before landing on the ground.

“Aargh!”

‘Sh#t! I didn’t even notice her.’

“Where is all of the confidence that you had earlier, huh?”

She grinned. Anticipating that she destroyed his ego and that he won’t do nothing, she walked over to him with fire coming out of her hands. Her eyes started glowing red. Her hair slowly became red and little flames burned on her hair tips.

“Let’s end this. I’m quite disappointed in you.”

Putting her hands together she formed a Kamehameha and a giant flame ball engulfed. Aiming at him she almost let it go at him, when arrows from above shot at her. Dozen of Mana arrows scratched her and some even penetrated her suit.

“Ouuch! Huh?”

She immediately dispelled the fire ball and went into defense. Johan took the sword and slashed at her again. This time he hit her but she used a another flame to counterattack the moment he hit.

Both of them flew away from each other. Hwaa was lying on the ground while holding her stomach. On the other side Johan barely stood up. He had used his last Mana to make a shield. Holding onto his sword he walked over to her.

“All of that ending speech but know you can’t even get up.”

He slowly moved towards her. He used abit of his other systems ability to make a golden hue around him. He looked like royalty for a moment. Like celestial knight.

“Any last words?”

She still couldn’t move. The sword might not have penetrated her but it hit quite hard.

Standing over her he wanted swung his sword over his head.

“Wa-wait! Ahem ahem.”

She put her arm up.

“I- I give up.”

Johan stopped midair.

“Good decision.”

He sunk his sword and went down to help her up. Blood was dripping out of some wounds. He pulled her arm over his shoulder and brought her over to a table. Laying her down he used his healing abilities to ease her pain. She was unconscious meanwhile.

After healing her he left the facility. He was in a gloomy mood. Even though he won the fight he knew that it was close. Not only did she have a lot more experience than him but also her Rank was lower.

DON’T WORRY. THIS IS JUST HOW EVERYONE FEELS WHEN THEY START WITH SOMETHING. WE’RE GOING TO THE GATE SOON. THERE YOU WILL GAIN A LOT OF EXPERIENCE.

‘I know. Still feels like sh#t.’

“Let’s go to the cafeteria.”

“Sure.” Adrian was still with him. He was amazed by their fight. Especially Hwaa who had almost transformed into a phoenix.

…

"Massage the shoulders as well."

"Yes, Lord Johan."

Johan was getting a back massage from Videl. The fight had left his back in pain. Even after healing it the pain still remained to a certain degree. Bahamut had told him that it was because of the element.

If a Ranker had an element other than Aether then the damage dealt to Ranker with other elements increased or decreased. For instance Light made more damage to Darkness Rankers but therefore it had less base stats, whereas Rankers with Fire element did more damage to Earth Rankers. Earth Rankers did more damage to Water Rankers and they did more damage to Fire Rankers. There were more elements and they all had some sort of quirk that was either an advantage or disadvantage. The only element that remained neutral was Aether.

In this case the Fire element was different because the Ranker, Hwaa, had her element from another Bloodline. The reason for the advantage over the Light element perhaps came from the fact that the Bloodline is extremely strong in that element.

In this world certain families had the same element for millennia and they passed down the best genes on. So for instance the first generation produced great fighters which made their own families and then intermarried. In this way down hundreds and thousands of years the Bloodline became stronger and stronger. Such families practically ruled the world. One of them might be the Lee family, who knows?

"Nice, that's enough. You did great. Bring me something to drink."

When Videl left the room, Johan immediately checked the message he had received earlier.

Blood detected!

Shadow Slave position available.

Does user want to use one place?

It was the same message from yesterday. The difference was that the Shadow Slave spot was for Hwaa. He took some blood earlier and licked it. That way it entered his body as well.

'Yes, use the place.'

Blood bound. New Shadow Slave: Hwaa von Parseval (Lee)

'Now let's check this out.'

'Hwaa, come to (location) tonight. Bring with you training tools. You'll be teaching the maids how to fight.'

'Huh? Who are... you?'

'Your master. Johan von Parseval. Now be quick. It's almost night.'

'...Yessir,'

"Lord Johan, here is your drink."

"Thanks, Videl. Now get the girls ready. We're going over to the training facility."

...