Spirit Soul

Sensing the special arrows before they had been even shot at him was probably what saved Kyle's life.

He received the opportunity to prepare himself mentally, even if it was barely a moment.

Thus, he instinctively enveloped his entire body in a strong gust of wind, letting the wind propel him ahead at a much faster rate.

This was something Kyle had learned to do with the precision of the wind affinity he had attained.

As such, the moment the three special arrows were shot at him, one after another, Kyle's reflexes and movements were much faster than under normal circumstances.

His eyesight enhanced owing to the empowered Nurture ability, his eyes gleamed full of vigor as he adjusted his current stance.

Without thinking about it, Kyle had already created a total of four crescent wind blades which he shot at the arrow that was the closest to him.

However, to his misfortune, the attempt to slow down the velocity of the closest special arrow failed miserably.

The crescent wind blades had simply disintegrated and were discarded into wind currents that were extremely difficult to control the moment they neared the arrow.

This caused Kyle to furrow his eyebrows, only to perceive that the runes on the special arrow that was the closest to him began to shine brightly the moment the wind blades inched closer.

In fact, it was almost as if every single particle of mana around the arrow was decaying.

Under normal circumstances, this would have shocked Kyle extremely, but oddly enough his mind was eerily calm.

The situation demanded his complete focus, and Kyle, who had realized this, was not even aware of the fact that his breath had hitched.

Kyle's mind seemed to be working several times faster than usual as he half-closed his eyes, and focused on the arrows ahead of him.

They were barely fast enough to prevent him from moving too far away, but too slow to not be seen by his eyesight.

As such, he figured out the tactic of the attack at once.

'An Anti-mana arrow followed by two arrows that are supposed to kill me, and to make sure that they don't miss the mark?'

Nodding to himself, Kyle became certain that this tactic was quite decent.

Yet, while going up against him an anti-mana arrow was exactly not the way to go.

Thus, he was confident in himself.

With confidence spreading through his entire being, the corners of his lips curled upwards in a sly smile before he manifested a dozen wind blades at once.

At that moment, the closest arrow had already reached him.

However, owing to his great comprehension of the wind affinity, he had manifested the wind blade just before the arrow had pierced through them.

In the end, the arrow didn't even have to touch the wind blades before they scattered into countless wind currents, and simply gave way for the arrow to advance further.

As such, it would certainly hit him just a moment later.

But that was not something he was afraid of because the anti-mana arrows were just that; arrows that decayed mana!

This was a great weapon to use against other Aldra or those that used affinities in order to fight their opponents.

Yet, against Kyle, whose Soul force was composed of all three cultivation energies, this was not as effective as he had figured out the solution to deal with the loss of mana in his Soul force.

In fact, only the traits of mana were dispelled from his Soul force, which made it more difficult to maintain a specific shape.

Nevertheless, it was still possible, which was what Kyle did after the compressed crescent wind blades had been scattered into strong gusts of wind.

Using the momentum that had been gained by the scattered winds, Kyle maintained absolute control over the surrounding winds.

Furthermore, he strengthened the surrounding winds, throwing them against the tip of the anti-mana arrow, followed by its sides that all collided with it in rapid succession.

With strong wind currents shooting at the anti-mana arrow, it rapidly lost its momentum, while the strength of his Soul force was gradually weakening.

However, this was something he had already expected as even the smallest trace of mana was decayed.

Thus while he made use of his Soul force, it lost some of its potency, making things much more difficult than they were under normal circumstances.

Despite all of this, Kyle could evade the slowed down arrow owing to his enhanced speed, and movements that were much more refined.

It still managed to injure him as the sharp tip tore through his robe, scratching him before advancing ahead.

Even the strong wind currents had not been enough to stop the special arrow.

Because of that, Kyle clearly understood that the attackers were certainly not just any Tom, Dick, and Harry.

Fortunately, the Aldra prodigies that attacked him mercilessly were still far from him, otherwise, the first arrow would have already been enough to kill Kyle, quite easily at that.

He had not expected the special arrows to be so powerful!

Yet, considering the price of one of such special arrows, Kyle couldn't help but feel an uneasy feeling crawl all over his body.

The scratch on his arm burned, and he got the weird feeling that the attack was not as simple as it had appeared at first.

After all, the second and third arrows that followed suit had almost been delayed by an entire second.

And this had been longer than the time which the anti-mana arrow had required to reach him after being released!

However, owing to the simultaneous attacks, Kyle didn't notice this at first as he had thought that the three arrows had been shot one after another.

Having perceived the situation wrongly, Kyle had long since shot his wind blades towards said special arrows that were barely released.

His reaction and reflexes had been much faster than the Aldra prodigies had expected them to be.

Thus, they could only witness how the second arrow that had been shot out moments after they realized that the anti-mana arrow hadn't been enough was destroyed.

While Kyle had shot out the wind blades after being scratched by the anti-mana arrow, he noticed that something was wrong with him.

There hadn't been any visible traces of poison on the arrow, but his control over Soul force began to waver.

Because of that, Kyle began to struggle with the control of his wind blades as they collided with the second arrow that exploded all of a sudden, destroying the surrounding trees while causing a huge fire.

The grasses and bushes in the surrounding area turned into ash, while the trees that hadn't been hit by the explosion soon caught on the rapidly spreading fire and began to burn brightly.

This was more than enough of a distraction to drag Kyle out of his confused state as he looked at the scenario in front of him.

A heavy downpour doused the fire before it could cause any more damage as the flames were burning brightly only to extinguish seconds later.

But this was not something Kyle was able to notice as the third special arrow that had been shot towards him didn't collide with the wind blades he threw towards it.

His control over the crescent wind blades had suffered quite a lot, and he noticed that the fault was his loss of control over himself.

Right from his control over Soul force, to a numbing sensation of his Soul vein, alongwith the incapability to control the wind blades, everything had started from scratch.

It made Kyle believe that the arrow had not just been a simple anti-mana arrow, but something even more dangerous.

As such, it made much more sense for the young prodigies of the Aldra race to fire only one of the special arrows at a time.

After all, the price of a single arrow might as well be several times higher than what Kyle had first imagined.

However, this also meant that the Aldra race wanted to get rid of him by all means.

Yet, instead of being able to give himself a moment to digest the information, Kyle was forced to face the last of the three arrows he had perceived earlier.

His condition had worsened to such an extent that he was not even able to tell left from right.

In fact, Kyle's sight had blurred, and his senses stopped responding to him.

Unable to smell, hear, see, and sense things, every single normal being would turn desperate, and Kyle was no exception to this. He thus lost focus on evading the mysterious special arrow that shot towards him.

Maybe someone in place of Kyle would throw himself to a specific side, or simply to the ground, but that would save them from dying, not with the special arrow that was flying towards Kyle.

While crossing a distance of approximately four hundred meters, the arrow had lost some of its momentum.

However, this was perfectly normal, and something the Aldra prodigies had expected to happen.

After all, they had to use their own physical strength in order to pull back the bow's string in order to shoot the arrow.

Due to the unique type of bow they used, it was not all that difficult and allowed them to give the arrow a much higher velocity than it should be the case.

Yet, even with the numerous treasures and highly effective weapons they had received from their master in order to kill Kyle, they had wasted a total of two special arrows!

They had been told to use the arrows, but after leaving for the Brawl, the three prodigies had mutually decided to only use one arrow to kill Kyle.

With the other arrows, they had wanted to hunt some of the most powerful Krysal stage beasts in order to show how capable they were to the other participants and induce fear in them.

That was how powerful these arrows were!!

Little did they know that their behavior had saved Kyle's life while being the cause of their own death.

After all, they completely undermined Kyle's strength, underestimating him in every possible aspect.

And this was even more so the case when they noticed that the Anti-mana arrow had scratched Kyle, making them rejoice.

Unfortunately, the situation had changed drastically afterward, and they had to use the remaining arrows, only to witness the last, and most powerful arrow soaring through the air, advancing straight through the forest.

They were sure of their victory, and despite the loss of two special arrows which they had wanted to preserve, the young prodigies couldn't help but smile brightly when they looked at the arrow they had shot.

With gleaming eyes, they saw how its effect unfolded the moment it flew through the thicket of the surrounding trees cutting through them with the speed of lightning.

Releasing strong energy currents owing to the runes that began to gleam brightly, the entire arrow was suddenly enveloped in a thick, whitish membrane.

It hid the appearance of the arrow, and the membrane was vibrating as if it had a pulse.

Moments later, the membrane suddenly enlarged to a radius of more than two meters before starting to transform.

As the changes were still underway the arrow continued to advance, and a huge membrane of energy enveloped it, only to retract, and unveiled what had been hidden from the sight of nearly everyone.

The single arrow, enveloped by the energy membrane, had divided itself to form a total of 20 arrows!

They were made of the energy membrane, and duplicated the shape of the original arrow, turning it into a barrage of arrows that shot toward the unsuspecting Kyle.

While the arrow was advancing toward him, Kyle didn't remain idle either. He had transferred a large amount of Soul energy from the Soul storage medallion to his body.

By empowering the Nurture ability, he tended to his issue with a rapid speed.

This drained an enormous amount of energy from him, but it was definitely required.

After all, Kyle's entire being was currently screaming at him, urging him to be careful about what was going to happen at any moment, or face death.

Little did he know that there was nothing more truthful than what his instincts just told him!

Upon regaining his senses, Kyle could barely see clearly once again, only for his eyes to widen as countless arrows had reached him already.

A single word escaped his lips that described how he felt, and his situation, perfectly!

"Fuck!"

Just at this moment, the arrow turned into dozens of arrows cut through the robes, piercing into flesh as blood spurted out of the robes that began to turn bright red.