7 The Fight III

"HAAAAA-ouch, PISS OFF"

*Jump*

Estelle was losing her advantage in the battle really quickly. Although her agile combat style was more suited towards places with lots of obstacles and objects she could easily maneuver through, a place like a train coach which was full of enemies and civilians was really difficult for her to work with.

She supposed there would be a slight chance of victory if Remus wasn't being held hostage right now, and if they worked together they might have been able to win this, however, even that would be a slim chance, considering how easily he got overpowered by their Ring Leader.

She was starting to get anxious.

"BASTARD."

*punch*

Her father was a Ranker, in fact, she came from a Ranker family. Both her parents were top-class rankers, and her grandparents were international businessmen and the owners and the CEOs of a global conglomerate.

And so, the pressure put on her and her brother was high ever since they were young. She had always grown up trying her best to please them in everything she did and worked especially hard in training since their goals aligned with her aspirations to become strong.

One might wonder why she needed strength, she could just take over the position of the company rather than working to become a fighter, which was an extremely difficult lifestyle. But to her, it wasn't about the difficulty, that was never part of the equation, anything was possible, what Estelle truly wanted was freedom.

She wasn't egotistical to the point of hating her parents, she was able to understand, although they barely expressed it, they worried for her, and to an extent, cared about her. However, it was like there was a communication barrier between them, and their cold faces made her thoughts more unsure by the day.

"DAMMIT."

*Jab*

She had long since realized that her family had other things to worry about, not including her, and had grown up practically being more of a parent-figure to herself and Remus than her actual parents, and the same went for Remus.

She understood the type of world this was, and the responsibility placed on people like her, who were given an advantage from birth. Although the crowds would practically do anything to gain what she has, they didn't get it. The pain, not physical pain, of course, though that was part of the problem, it was the pain of being restricted.

Of being told when to do and when to do it, and if you disobeyed, you were an ungrateful piece of filth, that couldn't do anything on their own and were useless.

The people who wished to be in her position never really took a look at the thorns hidden inside the crown, so to speak.

Her mental stability was never high, she spent every day stressing about the future, although no one knew that, not even Remus. She wished she could be like him, although he was really nice to her, and was the best friend and family she'd ever had, he and she were fundamentally different from birth.

He was male, he was born with what she could only wish for, he was born with an affinity for fighting, although he spent most of his time with her, and not training, he was pretty much almost as strong as her, if they were to fight, even though she spent so long training she got 4 hours of sleep every day.

Although she knew it was petty, she hated him, well- not Remus in general, she loved him and was glad he was there for her as a reliable friend, she didn't know what would've happened to her without his support. But she did hate the advantages given to him at birth, she hated that even though they were born the exact same way, he was given more priority as the 'Official Heir' to the Aurelia Family and she was cast off to the side.

Only after training for so long, had she finally gained her family's attention, and that too was minimal, after a couple of words of praise, she was thrown to the side. Apparently, it was where she belonged.

Ever since then, she stopped caring about her family's opinions. She wanted to be free, she wanted to do whatever she wanted, she wasn't important in the family, so there shouldn't have been any problem if she left, except…

{"If you're going, I'm coming with you too, Sis."}

Remus had decided he wanted to come along with her. And so, together, they managed to get their family's approval, although that was mostly Remus's doing, to train in the Academy, something that wasn't initially planned for her to do.

But all that hard work and effort, and everything she had gone through so far seemed to be useless when paired against just a couple dozen big men, with no proper fighting technique, not to mention their leader, who was even stronger.

"YOU FUCKE-"

She kept cursing them out loud, the more the situation went against her, but even then, every single time she did so, she was struck.

This time was no exception.

*THUD*

She had finally fallen. Her face was stuck on the floor, she was smashed on the jaw by one of them. Her ears were ringing, and her tears could no longer stay contained, they stained the metallic floor, which was stained with a little of her blood as well.

Clenching her fists in anger, and grinding her teeth, she was starting to feel hopeless. Even though she felt like she was mistreated, she had still trained under the tutelage of her parents for years, with specialized guidance, some even from other rankers and influential figures. They were raised to be competent in every field, but most importantly, their already incredulous talent for combat was polished with the best education imaginable.

And yet, after all of this, she was losing to some mere bandits?

"DAMMIT."

*sniff*

Gasping for breath, she wiped off some sweat dripping from her forehead. Her normally elegant state was now left to nothing more than tatters. Her clothes were ripped up in multiple places, blood was dripping from the multiple scratches and bruises on her body.

'Dammit.'

Her eyes were starting to close, and she was losing her visibility. 'It sucks, all of it.'

She hated everything, she couldn't even bear to turn her head to look at Remus, she wouldn't be able to handle looking at his condition. She thought about what her parents would think after this mess, and her probably getting kidnapped.

She wanted to kill herself. All of her emotions just collapsed onto one thought, and she wasn't thinking fully straight. There was a broken piece of glass on the ground next to her.

*Stretch*

She pushed her hand to it and grabbed it, hard.

*Squish*

Her already injured muscles easily tore and blood was visible all over her hand, she opened her eyes for one last time when she suddenly saw a glint on the glass she was holding.

Something was...flying? It was approaching really quickly.

That was when she abruptly jerked her head to the right. And there she saw it. It was the boy from earlier, the one she had woken up. He was flying? No, he was just airborne from a movement. She just watched him fly close to her.

'What the h-'

She didn't even get enough time to finish her thought.

The boy dashed past her. Just like her, everybody on the entire train was watching him, a little baffled. The boy had dashed so fast, air currents flew everywhere.

Considering the speed at which he just leaped, he was obviously strong, but how? When she had looked at him earlier, she had seen his muscular body figure, however, that was the extent of it. There were barely any signs of a single scar, scratch, or even blemish on his pearly white skin, which made her come to the conclusion that he wasn't a fighter.

She immediately dropped the glass she was holding and tried to get up, but slipped and fell down.

He must have just run in seeing her in danger, this made her heart melt for him even more. Estelle tried to stop him, "NOO, STOOP! It's dangerous!"

Of course, Magnus had no idea what she was thinking, in fact, he hadn't even heard what Estelle was saying. He felt incredible, he had tried this once before

Before jumping, Magnus had already formed a plan. He decided that the best course of action would be to rush towards the ring leader. Obviously, it wasn't the safest option, however, if he took the time to deal with each and every one of the thugs, too much time would get wasted, and he wouldn't be able to guarantee the safety of Estella, Remus, or any of the civilians.

Therefore, he decided that his best bet was to rush and surprise attack their Ring Leader. That was the only proper tactic he knew anyway.

That's why Magnus focused all of his current prowess on his legs and leaped. He flew all the way to the center of the coach where the Ring Leader.

Magnus decided after looking at the Ring Leader's stats, that he would give it his all in fighting him. That included the use of his Aether in order to defeat him, no matter the effect, if the Ring Leader wanted to kill, he had to be ready to be killed. While he was midair, Aether began to form on his right fist. He mustered up all of his Aether, something he had never done before, as he was scared of the effects, and focused all of it on his fist. At first, the air around his fist started to turn blue.

However, after reaching maximum capacity, his tightly clenched fist started to develop a blue, Aura-like structure that formed around it. His fist felt so much more powerful after it appeared.

"HUUUAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Magnus let out a scream, and the momentum of his leap helped him reach the Ring Leader in one go, and concentrated all of his stats, especially his Strength, Vitality, and Energy, into pummelling the Leader with one punch, he wanted to get as much damage done as possible, as this would be his only chance at a sneak attack.

The Ring Leader was around 2 meters in height. He was practically a giant, so to speak. He had heard Magnus scream and threw Remus to the side, before turning around. What greeted his eyes was a fist covered in a blue fire-like aura 10 centimeters away from his face.

He didn't even get time to react before he was blown away by Magnus' punch.

Although Magnus expected to do quite a bit of damage, he never expected the Ring Leader to show an absurd reaction like the one he did.

He could feel his fist literally go through the Ring Leader's head, through his skull, brain, and out the other end, he probably would've thrown up if he had actually seen any of that, but it had all been burnt away by the Aether, which he was glad for.

Smoke literally blocked the visibility of the entire area, it had appeared from Magnus's punch and when it cleared away, the thugs waiting for the result of the sneak attack, shivered in their boots, and goosebumps covered all of their bodies.

The Ring Leader's skull was literally bent into 2 pieces, and his head was twisted in an angle it definitely normally couldn't, his entire face was shriveling up at a visibly fast rate, it wasn't long before his entire body disintegrated.

Although Magnus had expected a lot of scenarios, him being able to one-shot the leader of these thugs was not one of them. He was expecting a lot harder of a fight.

And due to the fact that he used his Aether, the ring leader's body was starting to decay into ashes at an absurd rate.

Magnus was genuinely scared, he thought he was seeing this at first.

'But. But how? His stats were really high, and his strength was even higher than mine, have I gotten that strong? Or perhaps it was due to me using all of my energy stat onto the Aether.'

As if confirming his thoughts, the system's messages appeared.

<Congratulations to the Host for your first kill.>

[Growth Function of the System is officially activated.]

[For the first kill, growth is increased by a small percentage.]

[Host's Strength Stat has increased by 11.]

[Host's Spirit Stat has increased by 7.]

[Host has gained the trait 'Skin Of Stone'.]

[Trait 'Skin of Stone' has fused with the trait 'Aether Physique'.]

'What? What's the Growth Function system? My stats can increase like that as well?'

<Responding to the Host, the Growth Function of the system is a dormant function that activates when The Host gets his first kill.>

<If the Host kills someone, the Host gains more stats, skills, and traits, accordingly. Of course, this cannot be exploited by the Host, one of the many requirements is the strength difference.>

<If the Host is much stronger than the target, there's a very high chance the Host will not receive any reward, while similar levels in strength would result in a moderate increase, just like the Host has experienced now.>

<However, when faced against a much stronger opponent, if the Host manages to succeed in killing them, the Host's growth potential will be immense. Additionally, the method of fighting is measured as well, for example, secretly poisoning an enemy wouldn't result in as much growth as fighting to the death with the Host's life on the line.>

'Hmm, alright, fair enough.'

Even though there were restrictions, it still meant Magnus was able to easily grow if he fought and sneak attack and kill people around his skill level, or maybe a big higher in strength as well. Of course, Magnus wasn't the type of person to go around killing people just for the minor increase in strength, but it was always a possibility.

'Speaking of which, that was the first time I've ever killed a person, I knew it'd happen one day but... it's that easy? I expected to be overcome with guilt or throw up or something.'

He couldn't tell whether it was due to the system, his traits, or he was just messed up in the head,

'Haaaah, I really am a masochist or something aren't I?'

(Author's Note: As shown earlier, Magnus still doesn't know the meaning of the word yet XD. Once again, kids, don't worry over what it means.)

Magnus marveled at how overpowered the system was, but he had more important things to focus on right now.

He looked over at Remus lying down on the floor. He was unconscious and was covered in bruises. The Ring Leader must have beat him up even more.

"Siiigh."

Magnus picked him up and placed him over his shoulder. He wanted to keep him somewhere safe, but there was still work to do, and it wouldn't be safe if any of the thugs approached his body. Therefore, he decided it would be best to carry Remus with him.

Magnus gained a little confidence boost by easily defeating the ringleader of these thugs, but on the other hand, the thugs were speechless after seeing a mere boy defeat their leader, who seemed undefeatable in their eyes. They even believed that their leader could even fight the top of the top, 'The Rankers', by how easily he toyed with people like the offspring of said Rankers.

And yet, this black-haired, weak-looking kid came along and... killed their boss. In one punch. They were scared shitless and didn't know what to do. They had forgotten all about Estelle, who was lying on the ground, watching him, eyes open wide in disbelief, before they finally closed.

All the thugs kept backing away, as Magnus suddenly turned around and faced them.

[Quest Completed.]

[Host has unlocked the System's Combat Function]

It seemed like the system decided that these cowardly shitbags that were so scared after their boss dying, were not even holding up the quest over.

Magnus lightly chuckled to himself, before asking,

'So System, what exactly is the 'Combat Function'?'

<The Combat Function of the System grants the host an immense advantage in battle. The System provides the Host with the ability to see the weak points and vulnerabilities in the opponent highlighting them along with any flaws, gaps, and shortcomings to their abilities. The system also displays the best possible movement and actions, both offensive and defensive, along with combinations for techniques for the Host to perform.>

"Umm, I think I get it, but can you explain it a bit simpler, just for reference, cuz I wanna use it here to train against these scumbags."

<To summarize it simply, with the help of the Combat Function, the Host can easily attack the weak points of the enemy, while exploiting any gaps in their stances, and any flaws in their technique. Along with the abilities to see their flaws and shortcomings, the Host can then execute the ideal attack pattern exhibited by the System.> Although this might confuse the Host, the Host will automatically be able to use it perfectly due to the assimilation of the System.>

"Ah, that makes it much better, thanks!"

At first, Magnus wasn't sure what to do with the spineless thugs that were still running away. Considering he didn't feel any different after killing the leader, he wondered if he should just kill all those thugs, and get this over with, possibly saving lives they might harass in the future.

*Siiigh*

Frankly speaking, he didn't want to play some 'Hero' bullshit and spare them just because he felt sympathy for them or something like that. In all honesty, he didn't. He pondered over what would be a good idea, as he picked up the now unconscious Estelle and kept her body along with Remus's on a comfortable, empty compartment, spreading their bodies.

He confirmed that even though their bodies were in a bad condition, it wasn't fatal or too serious. That gave him an idea;

Since he was going to practice fighting with the combat function on them anyway, he wouldn't kill them.

His eyes filled up with determination and slight excitement, as he made up his mind, he grinned from ear to ear, which scared the thugs who were running away across the coaches, even more.

He wouldn't kill them…

he would just beat them to the point that they wished for death.