Scarlet

[You have killed the student known as Caleb Gold. One fifth of his points have now been transferred to you. Your total points now equal 713 points.]

Okay. That was a pretty good number of points. Looks like he gave me 64 points total.

“Your last one gave more though,” Tar suddenly chimes in, and I can’t help but nod my head in agreement.

The last one gave almost a hundred points.

I continue running through the forest until I get closer to my next target, which, judging by the way they’re talking to themselves, is very clearly a student. And after getting close enough to see them, confirming that, I find it to be a girl about my age wearing some sort of magi-tech armor in the form of a dress ending in a skirt at about mid thighs. Which has me frowning, since it really isn’t something a girl should be fighting in.

But instead of questioning it or waiting around to judge her, I just run up and jump straight through the air, startling her in the process before I shatter whatever flimsy shield she makes in the process, showing that she’s a lower level than me as I tear my claws straight across her throat. Of course, I avoid her dress because that’d just be rude.

“You’re talking about it being rude to expose her even when there are censors in place to censor the exposure while you’re killing her?” Tar mutters, apparently baffled by my line of thought.

Yeah, of course. I know that Belle would absolutely verbally flay me if I destroyed any of her dresses, even if they would just be repaired. Especially if it was being recorded as I know these tournaments often are.

The girl in question dies while I answer Tar before I continue rushing forwards.

Tar doesn’t say anything for a few seconds before muttering, “Females are strange…”

I raise an eyebrow at that as I run.

You do realize you’re talking to one, right?

“Yeah, but you aren’t obsessed with clothes or fashion,” he says, making a very good point even if it doesn’t change the fact that I am still female. “Not to mention that you do have a rather demonic choice in colors.”

That almost has me stopping mid-run, but I continue running despite it.

By the way, that’s been eating at me for a while. Is there a reason so many demons are black and red in color?

“That… is a question for the ages,” Tar answers after a brief pause, making me raise an eyebrow again. “No one actually knows why. So I really can’t answer that.”

Oh. Odd, but I don’t really mind it in the end. They are my favorite colors after all.

Just kind of expected a real reason for it.

Anyways, I continue rushing through the forest, killing any student I come across until I finally find one who is worth a challenge.

A very familiar one at that.

“Ya know, we seem to be meeting a lot lately, don’t ya think?” Necro says, making me frown in the process as he stands next to the corpse of a demon that is quite literally dissolving into dust.

“We’ve met twice now,” I bluntly retort before rushing at him with my claws raised, not wanting to waste the stacks I currently have built up. Which surprises him to the point of suddenly using that very same skill he used before then quite literally running away.

My mouth drops open in surprise before I shout, “Are you seriously running?!”

The bastard just raises his hand and waves without pausing in his run. And if I’m being honest, I can tell that even with my stacks, I can’t catch up to him. Not sure why, since I’m pretty sure I would’ve before.

“He probably has some other skill active right now to raise his speed so that he can escape,” Tar says, making sense.

Damnit. That guy probably would’ve given me a lot of points too…

Whatever.

I turn around and begin running off in another direction, towards the next person I hear.

But when I actually reach that other person, I realize that they’re not someone I recognize despite obviously being a combat category student. Meaning they’re most likely not a first year.

I can’t help the grin that finds its way onto my face as I speed up towards them right as they drop a demon to the ground with some sort of skill that had it floating in the air for a moment.

“Be careful,” Tar suddenly says, “this one looks like they may be a mental stat user.”

My eyes narrow at that.

That’s not good.

“Yes, but it’ll be good practice,” Tar says, “and I think – judging by what we just saw – they’re probably a telekinesis user. Which doesn’t directly attack the mind of others.”

Okay, so I should be safe then. Or, safer than if they had a skill to attack my mind or something.

“Right,” Tar says as I burst out into the clearing the guy is in. “But be careful still. They’ve been a Guardian for longer than you have by at least a year, so they probably have a lot more skills.”

The student looks up in surprise before frowning and raising his hand, making the corpse of the demon along with several downed branches float up into the air. And right when he throws them all at me with his telekinesis, I notice him drawing several strange needles from his pocket, which immediately send chills down my spine as I try to dodge all of the stuff he threw.

He has personalized magi-tech weapons?! That has to have cost a damned fortune!! Even if they are only needles.

After dodging the branches and corpse, I lock my eyes on the needles, sure to keep them in sight as I slow down my approach out of caution.

This will be a challenge, that’s for sure.