Carpy didn’t live by human standards. He was a fish, and fish couldn’t even cry.

He didn’t like humans, but he had learned from master Kon not to waste time on things like hate.

Kon was always peaceful and concentrated on improving himself instead of worrying about how fast others improved. Everyone moved at their own pace. So one shouldn't worry about winning or losing.

No!

Carpy couldn't accept this reality. He rejected the notion! A world where master Kon lost wasn't a world worth existing!

The inner energy inside Carpy revolted as if screaming at the world itself.

By himself, Carpy was a weakling; only due to master Kon's energy could he move such vast amounts of water.

‘Damn it! If master Kon had that energy, he wouldn’t have been injured! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it all!’ Deep down, he felt like taking that energy caused master Kon to get injured.

The guilt gnawed at Carpy!

Carpy opened his mouth, and an ancient spirit's deep, growling voice emerged. “My weakness.”

Gem also stumbled when he heard that. "The fish spoke?!"

Bets' eyes widened, and beads of sweat rolled down his face. “He looks more like a snake with a fish’s head.”

"My weakness, I reject it!" Carpy rejected a world where he was too weak to do anything, even when master Kon was injured.

It was right then and there that Carpy felt something inside himself snap. It was like he had unlocked a door.

No, not unlocked; more like smashed apart.

Carpy's body twitched, and he noticed that his scales started glistening, his bones cracked, and he elongated like an eel.

A newfound power burst inside of Carpy; it felt like he had an infinite pool of energy!

He felt things he had never felt before, smelled scents he had never smelled before, and a power inside of him he had never imagined was possible! He sensed the water around them, and every small fish and insect had their pool of life.

He instinctively grasped things that seemed impossible before.

Even if a low class demon trained, there was a wall they couldn't surpass. A change occurred in both the quantity and quality of power.

Carpy utilized the water around and formed a pointy shell around his body, with tendrils of water that expanded over twenty meters.

He looked like an eel trapped inside an octopus's body.

Carpy grabbed onto the trees and shot toward where he sensed the enemy team. He swung from one tree branch to another, moving at rapid speeds.

'One day, you will become a dragon.'

Those words rang through Carpy's mind in repeat. But every time he thought of them, next came the sight of Kon getting slashed by a scythe.

Then the memory of his family and everyone he knew getting decapitated on that chopping block brought despair within Carpy.

He wouldn't allow Kon to end up like that! Never! Not in a million years! He won't let Kon die!

Kon was his savior! He was family! The only person to ever believe in him!

"I will become a dragon! I will become a dragon! I will become a dragon! I will become a dragon! I will become a dragon! I will become a dragon!" Carpy muttered like a madman as he rushed through the forest.

He could still sense the water of life inside those who had attacked Kon. He wanted to kill them all!

It took a little while for him to catch up with them. The whole team was conversing amongst themselves with smiles on their faces.

"As expected, these scythes are really useful. The weight makes them-"

The delinquent stopped speaking, and all three humans' pupils dilated. Then they turned and stared at Carpy.

"What the fuck is that?!" Exclaimed the golden-toothed man.

The only woman on their team winced. She was wearing only a bikini and took a talisman from her bra. "Nika! Protect us!"

A demon rose from a tree nearby, looking like an ugly humanoid demon twice the size of a human. From the energy it released, it was around middle class.

The demon charged and roared at Carpy.

If this were a typical fight, they would have been equal.

Carpy should have been disadvantaged since he had just awakened as a middle class, and fish demons didn’t live on land.

But reality was often strange. Outliers existed even within the same classification, and Carpy was one of them.

The Ord that Kon had imbued was still inside Carpy. He called upon the massive energy that had accumulated over months.

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When the demon was within ten meters, Carpy sent dozens of water blades as thin as a strand of hair.

At first, the demon kept charging toward him. But mid-way, the creature's body broke down into chunks of meat; each slice was no bigger than a human fist.

Carpy turned his gaze toward the humans.

Master Kon was a kind man. That was how Carpy was blessed and taken in by him. Who else would take in a fish that was about to be butchered?

With master Kon around, Carpy was rational and made sure not to cause any trouble for him.

But there was one thing about Carpy that he had never shown to the world.

He absolutely hated humans!

He hadn't forgotten when the butcher slaughtered his whole family and mercilessly pulled their guts out.

"Show me your guts!" Carpy roared.

"Fuck! This one has awakened its intelligence!" The bikini-wearing woman had a panicked face. "Be careful! Demons who have awakened their conscious minds are trickier to deal with than normal ones."

"Are you sure this is even middle class? It killed Niku so fast! We can’t deal with a high class demon!"

The delinquent man who had injured master Kon seemed cautious. He still had the blue ribbon he had taken from master Kon wrapped around his wrist.

That just brought out a rampant rage from Carpy. He roared at them.

"He's looking at the ribbon! Give it the damn thing! We can find another one!" The golden-toothed man yelled out.

The delinquent sneered but did as they told him, putting the blue ribbon on the ground. "Okay, big guy. How about we walk away from each other?"

‘Why are they acting as if they can appeal to my feelings? Don’t they recognize me?’ Carpy wondered. No matter what they said, even if they begged for their lives, he wouldn’t have any mercy on them.

Carpy grabbed the ribbon using a water tendril and put it in a water bubble for safekeeping.

"You will let us go, right?" The delinquent pleaded.

"Yes," Carpy agreed. That was what master Kon would have done.

But as soon as the other team breathed in relief, Carpy sent a water blade their way.

Master Kon might have forgiven them, but Carpy wouldn't. They could never beat master Kon in a fight! So they used dirty tactics. He was just giving them a taste of their own medicine.

"Shit!" Yelled out the delinquent and used a coin in his hand. "Scythe! Now!"

The delinquent used the scythe to try and block the water blade. But the water blade cut through the scythe and the delinquent's shoulder.

“Aghhh!” The delinquent screamed in pain, as his arm plopped to the ground.

The two other team members froze, their eyes widened, panic and despair was written on their faces.

'The scythe didn't stop my attack. But it changed its trajectory enough where it didn't kill him.'

Blood burst out of the stump. The team froze in shock.

Carpy shot out a dozen more water blades. This time he had the intention to kill them all at once.

But the golden-toothed man was the first to come to his senses; he gritted his teeth, and the color of his hair started changing from dark to white.

"{Death Razor Edge!}"

A coin turned into a scythe bigger than any before, with white skulls engraved over its blade. The skulls looked like screaming souls.

There was a scary feeling from the scythe that even Carpy felt threatened by.

The scythe broke the water blades with several swings. But the golden-toothed man breathed heavily and looked like he hadn’t slept for days.

"Bertolt!" The golden-toothed man called out what seemed to be the delinquent's name. "Get out of here! With your ability-"

Whatever he was about to say, Carpy didn't let him finish and shot dozens of water blades.

The golden-toothed man swung his scythe; even Carpy was surprised by how fast he could move that giant weapon.

Maybe the scythe was the kind of item that increased the user’s physical strength?

"No, we can still fight!" The bikini girl refused and took out a knife. "With my special ability, the enemy's power doesn't matter!"

She stabbed herself in the wrist and dragged the knife all the way to her elbow. She started crying, but it wasn’t because of the pain.

"Lia! This isn't the time!"

Lia glanced at her teammate, who had a missing arm. Even with her bikini drenched in blood, she didn’t care. "My special ability can turn the blood inside my body into a poisonous substance. The less blood I have, the stronger the poison becomes."

As soon as she said that, her Aura intensified. She likely fulfilled some kind of condition by explaining her ability.

She smeared her blood against the blade of the scythe golden-toothed guy was using and glared at Carpy with a hateful gaze.

Carpy guessed the poison was potent enough to be dangerous, even against demons. But since he had stayed by Kon’s side for a long time, silently observing, he had learned a lot of things. Amongst those things was the reason why Kon only used paralytic poison on his blades and not some fast-acting lethal poison.

Fwish!... The golden-toothed guy swung his scythe at Carpy’s head.

Carpy used the tendrils of water to maneuver himself out of the attack’s trajectory. The scythe easily cut through the water barrier he left behind. But Carpy wasn’t going to let an opportunity like this slip away.

“He used the water to clean my blood off the blade!” Lia pointed out.

“Ow!” The golden-toothed man winced in pain and looked down. A reddish needle of water pierced his heel.

Carpy had controlled the bloody water to move under the dirt and stab his feet.

“N -No… I-” The man’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, his knees buckled, and he fell to the ground.

“That’s quite the effective poison you have there,” Carpy sent a water blade and decapitated the scythe-wielder.

“No!! No! This can’t be happening!” Lia cried out in despair.

This was why having dangerous poison on your person wasn’t just dangerous for the enemy. But even more dangerous for yourself and your teammates too.

Carpy launched more water blades at the two remaining exorcists, but before they could reach them, the delinquent with the missing arm conjured a knife in his hand and threw it away. The delinquent had white hair and wrinkles around his eyes. It seemed like he had aged decades in a second.

He put his arm around the bloody girl.

“No! My poison will be absorbed through your skin!” She yelled at him to stop. But it was too late as both of them teleported away quite far. Almost outside of Carpy’s sensory abilities.

Now Carpy had to make a choice.

Should he follow and hunt the girl down or return to master Kon’s side?

If he left to hunt down the girl, master Kon would end up outside Carpy’s sensory range. If any other team were to attack, it would be bad news.

But when thinking of the humans who killed those he cared about, unbridled hate filled Carpy’s heart!