Laika and her friends went for a night drive. On the way they stopped at a forest to get some fresh air. Walking through they got lost and ended up going deeper and deeper until one of them noticed something.

"How long until we see some moonlight?"

"Bro, I ain't got no idea."

"Guys just keep walking. At some point we will come out."

"That's what you hav-"

The girl stopped talking. Her gaze was directed into a specific direction. Something was leaning against a tree.

"What happened? Why did you stop walking?"

"Ah... look over there. Isn't that... a person?"

"Hmm?"

Laika looked over to where the girl was pointing to.

"Wait, you're right. Is... the person sleeping in a forest?"

One of the guys slowly went over and took a closer look. It was young guy just like them. Heseemed to be alive but there were bandages all over him.

"Still alive."

"Of course, he's still alive!! Stupid idiot. People don't just die like that in a forest."

The girl did not take another step towards the guy. She was still scared, especially after one of her friends said that the guy is still alive.

'As if something like that would ever happen in real life.'

"Buuuhh!"

"Iieeekk!"

The girl almost fell to the ground. She instinctively pulled her arms in front her face.

"Hahahahahahaha, I'm just playing with you."

"Laika! Stop it! You..."

"Guys stop playing around. The guy here seems to be injured. This is serious."

Now even the girls came over to the tree to look at what their friends were showing them.

"Look at all those bandages. Perhaps he just wanted to take a rest after getting lost just like us. Laika use your flashlight. Let's see what he looks like."

She went ahead and pulled out her phone. Lighting on the person all of them looked shocked.

"Doesn't he seem kind of familiar?"

"Yeah, he's the guy from the 'Scumbag Begger' incident. That would also explain the bandages."

"Damn. Crazy that he survived this."

The group became silent for a moment, not knowing what to do.

"I think we should wake him up. Let's give him a bit of water and then leave. He deserves to be alone."

shake

shake

No reaction came from scumbag begger. They shook him a couple of times but to no avail.

"He seems out cold."

Laika put her finger on his eyelid and pulled it up.

"Huhh?!"

The eye was purple.

"What's this?"

"A purple eye, clearly."

"Yeah, I can see that but why?"

"Hmmmp, well it could be poison. Perhaps somebody took revenge for the girl and ended up finishing him up."

All of them started thinking about what the next step should be. While they were there none of them noticed the sleeping guy slowly gaining consciousness.

...

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"You're here, Johan."

Reece winked him over. He had his friends with him.

"Hey Reece. You're already here. Am I late?"

"Nah, don't worry about it."

The room was equipped with fighting machines and gym equipment. It seemed like they were thoroughly prepared for training.

"First things first. Put on your training suit. We're gonna go right at it. I wanna see what you're made of."

"Yessir."

Changing clothes Johan immediately went into combat mode. Reece himself got ready and moved vis-à-vis Johan. Looking at him with a condescending smile he commanded him to start.

"Don't be nervous. I will only use my left arm. Come at me full throttle."

"...Yes."

He wasn't sure if he should do that. He wasn't planning on showing everybody his abilities right of the bat. In this situation though he had no choice. In the end he owed him and not the other way around.

Johan took out a fence and implemented Mana on it. This time around he would use everything he had learnt over the past few days. He jumped in front of Reece with a burst and stabbed him multiple times. Surprised by the speed of his attacks Reece only took a couple of hits and backed away.

"Woah! That was unexpected. You're quite good."

He raised his hand and called him over. Johan again dashed forward and stabbed a couple of times but this time he summoned arrows which flew from behind and aimed at Reece's back. Noticing it right away he dodged the stabs and kicked Johan away. He turned around and dissipated each and every arrow into the wall.

"UUuuuuhhh! Johan, you're amazing. This is actually warming me up. Let's step it up a notch."

This time Reece attacked first. He didn't use any weapons instead he powered up his fist which illuminated purple light. He didn't run towards Johan but rather pulled him over to himself. He held his hand up while slowly squeezing it together. Johan didn't know what was happening to him. His body acted weird and because of that he couldn't use it properly. After a couple of seconds he flew over and while mid air, Reece jumped up and slammed him into the ground.

Boom

Johan didn't react. He couldn't fathom what just happened. It wasn't even close. The way he pulled him over and then finished him off with one blow was beyond his imagination.

"Uggh."

"Uff, did I go too hard on you? It seems like I overestimated your abilities. What a pity."

"Huff, huff. Wait... I can do more."

"Ooooh. Wow still not down."

Johan slowly stood up. He had used his Healing ability to at least get up. His entire body ached after the impact it had experienced a moment ago.

RELAX. YOU'RE FIGHTING AGAINST A TOP RANKER. IF YOU YOURSELF WERE A REGULAR RANKER THIS MIGHT'VE BEEN YOUR END. FOCUS ON MANA POSITIONING. POUR MORE TOWARDS THE TIP OF THE FENCE SO THE IMPACT WITH HIS BODY DOES MORE DAMAGE. ALSO BE MORE NIMBLE. HE IS A TANKY CHARACTER. HIS MOVEMENTS ARE GOING TO BE MORE ROUGH AS WELL.

He took his fence and did what Bahamut had told him. This time he waited for a while before he attacked. Moving slightly right and faking his first attack, his fence landed a hit on Reece's leg. It was the first time Johan actually landed a formidable hit.

"Ohohohooo! It's getting even better."

"Well... I'm fighting against the best, so... I have to give it my best."

Thrusting his fence forward he stopped just right before Reece's chest. Using a burst under his feet, he jumped up in the air and used his fence like a sword. Slamming it down on his head, he got stopped mid air. Reece again used his ability to this time push away Johan. Contrary to his knowledge, Johan already had anticipated something similar, so he used the rest of his Mana to shoot a couple of arrows from behind, which landed on Reece's back. He knew that if Reece turned around and defended the arrows, he himself would attack instead. It was a pick of the lesser evil.

Johan was still in the air, when he saw a wicked smile on Reece's face. He had the look of a killer. Using his ability his slammed him into the ground again but this time he didn't stop doing it.

BOOM BOOM

"Arrggh! Sto-"

Boom

MY LORD SHOULD I COME OUT. AT THIS RATE YOU MIGHT DIE.

"Hmpf."

Blood started gushing out from the entire body.

"Ahahahahaha, Die! Die!"

"Hey, Reece! We can't do it yet."

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, you're right. Master might be angry again. Especially with a strong one like this."

He stopped mid air and threw him against the wall. Johan coughed up blood and used his last power to heal as much as possible. To no avail he slowly started losing consciousness. The world slowly turned black.

"Hey, wake up... wake up I said!"

Johan couldn't hear him anymore.

MASTER I'M LEAVING YOUR BODY. THEY ARE CLEARLY UP TO NOTHING GOOD.

He still couldn't answer. His attention went somewhere else. He was standing in a black room. There was nothing there. He couldn't see or hear anything. Looking around he started walking ahead. After a while a small light appeared. With time it grew bigger and bigger up until a person could be identified.

A man in a robe stopped in front of him.

"Johan. It's our first time meeting. I'm Aal, the prince of Aria."

He was bright. He looked like he was made out of light. The colour of his eyes was a bright gold.

"Don't worry. You're not dead. Well, at least not yet... You have been granted the power of Light. It comes through the system that you got a while ago. I'll show you how to use it properly. This situation shouldn't even have happened in the first place. Now focus on your core."

Johan followed his command as he didn't know what else to do. After a while his body started heating up. Energy started gathering there until his muscles buckled up.

"Good. Try to take Light from me. Bring it over to your core."

He looked at Aal and took his Light powers. Bit by bit he managed to bring it over to his core while also focusing on his Aether distribution. His body started elevating.

"It takes a while until you've grasped it but since you'll be using it more often you'll gradually get the grasp of it. Now last but not least, use your Healing ability."

Giving it his all he did just that. A couple seconds later he woke up and saw Reece screaming at him. Using his newly learnt powers he slowly stood up and looked Reece deep in the eyes.

"Ey you piece of s#it! It took you so long to stand up. Now do us a favour and do what we-"

Boom

Johan punched him in the stomach.

"Urgggh!"

Reece immediately grabbed his stomach.

"F#ck!!... What was that?"

Johan didn't stop there. He continued using his ability until Reece fell down the first time. Even his friends ended up running after him. Even them he easily demolished. He felt like he was a thousand fold stronger.

...