Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"Come on, I know you two can do a lot better than that," Smirked Aster, as he blocked an incoming blast of purple flames to his right, before raising his left arm and firing out a telekinetic blast as a rapid explosive projectile came shooting in towards him, a fierce explosion bursting out a few meters away to his left as his blast struck the projectile well before it could reach him.

He then swung his black blade across as Raven zipped up and swooped down towards him, coating his claws in lightning and swinging across at Aster's head, who deflected the slash with his blade, cutting off one of Raven's claws and cracking another.

As Raven's eyes began glowing, Aster swiftly swung his right foot up, slamming it onto Raven's stomach and unleashing a telekinetic burst upon impact, sending Raven hurtling through the air, his beams shooting up into the sky, before Aster quickly spun around Celia zipped up behind him.

She unleashed a couple of swift jabs, which he deflected by striking the sides of her wrists with the flat of his blades, before unleashing a telekinetic shockwave to knock her back several meters.

He then swiftly raced across as a swirling sphere of purple flames came plummeting down towards him, crashing onto the ground and charring the dirt black as Raven rapidly swooped down towards Aster, who then came to a halt and assumed a defensive stance.

As Raven closed in on Aster, his hands crackling with lightning, Raven suddenly raised his right hand, his index finger and thumb pressed together as he concentrated lightning into that spot before abruptly releasing it, unleashing an electric, blinding flash of purple light.

Aster let out a startled cry as his eyes were inadvertently forced shot, before Raven swiftly wrapped his tail around Aster's neck and began to lift him up, before his tail was suddenly forced off as Aster activated his Telekinetic Zone and plummeted back down, letting out a sigh of relief as his feet hit the ground with a slight thud.

"Hey, I thought you said you wouldn't use that Spell," Frowned Raven indignantly.

"Sorry, instinct took over, my bad...what were you planning to do with that last move, by the way?" Inquired Aster, as his eyes slowly opened back up.

"Oh, I was going to fly around in circles at full speed while strangling you with my tail, until you passed out."

"...okay, glad I didn't let you do that," Muttered Aster warily, as he thought to himself, "Holy crap, talk about scary."

"Hey, how much longer do we have to stay up here?" Inquired Celia with a grimace, as she walked over with a weary look on her face.

"Not too much longer, I can tell that progress is starting to slow, we've all grown accustomed to the conditions up here at this point. Maybe a few more months or so," Replied Aster after mulling it over.

About a year and a half or so had gone by since they began their training, and about ten months ago, Aster and Tacitus had joined as well. They took a few days off every month to go survey the movements of the Knights, in order to avoid missing any new developments, but for the most part, they were spending the majority of their time up on the mountains with the others.

They'd been conducting a lot of sparring sessions at high intensity, in order to get used to fighting to incapacitate instead of kill, an area that Aster was determined to improve in.

And to mix things up, they kept switching up the match-ups and scenarios; one-on-one battles, group battles, pair battles, five against one, battle royales and so on.

Today, they had decided to go with two-on-one bouts, with Aster sparring against Celia and Raven, and Tacitus sparring against Colt and Lexia.

"...please tell me you're not keeping us up here just to get to the two-year mark," Frowned Celia as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"What? No, of course not!" He responded indignantly, before thinking to himself, "Probably shouldn't mention that I thought we might as well continue on to the two-year mark since we've been up here for this long."

"Hm...I don't think he's being totally honest, I could sense a hint of deceit in his response," Remarked Raven after staring at Aster for a moment, narrowing his eyes at him with a frown.

"H-hold on, that's not true! I-I mean, you're still working on honing your senses, so you can't yet detect deceit and stuff like that with much accuracy, right!?"

"Actually, we tested that a few days ago, and he got everything right," Chimed in Celia dryly.

"Alright, alright, we'll continue for a few more days, maybe a couple of weeks at most, and then wrap up the training, okay?" Relented Aster with a sigh.

"Unbelievable...were you seriously planning on keeping us up here for another six whole months just to make it an even two years?" Inquired Raven incredulously.

"You make it sound worse than it is, it's not like I was scheming about it or whatever, I didn't really put much thought into it, if I'm being honest," He responded sheepishly.

"That's worse!" The pair shot back in indignant unison.

"A-anyway, uh...let's get back to the sparring, shall we? Seems the others are ramping things up over there," Remarked Aster, as loud crashes rang out in the distance.

Meanwhile, not too far away...

"Woah!" Exclaimed Lexia in alarm, as she narrowly evaded the swing of Tacitus's sword before quickly backing away and getting some distance.

Tacitus then glanced back as Colt came charging in from behind, leaping forward and swinging his dagger at Tacitus.

Tacitus swiftly raised his sword, easily blocked the slash before pushing Colt back with a firm swing of his arm, batting him away before tilting his head across Colt flung the dagger towards him.

Lexia zipped forward and caught the dagger as it shot past Tacitus, before leaping towards him and slashing at his upper back.

He swiftly ducked below her slash before whipping his sword up towards her, her eyes widening in alarm before she quickly raised the dagger, blocking the swing before the force upon impact sent her flying back several meters.

Her feet skidded back along the dirt as they hit the ground, before she leapt off to her right as he sprang towards her and swung his sword down, slamming it onto the ground as she narrowly evaded it.

As Lexia backed away, Tacitus's gaze darted about as he looked for Colt, before his eyes widened in alarm as he spotted a rapid, drilling blast of blood shooting towards him.

He had his Nullification Zone Spell active, and while any Magic that enters its range would immediately dissipate, there was a way around it; a loophole of sorts.

While Tacitus's attention was focused on Lexia, Colt was quick to make his way out of the Spell's range, which was a fifty meter radius, and began charging up a powerful new Spell, Blood Drill.

Colt's Magic used his actual blood to fuel his Spells, and that wasn't something that Tacitus could nullify. With all the regular Magic Classes, the Spells are purely fueled by Mana...for instance, with the Elemental Attack Magic Classes, the user's Mana is converted into the corresponding element.

But Colt's Blood Magic was different, it didn't covert Mana into blood, but rather, used Mana to manipulate and direct blood.

As Colt's Spell closed in on Tacitus, he quickly raised his sword up in front of himself defensively, grimacing as the Spell slammed onto his blade with immense force, the impact jarring his arms as his feet skidded back a few paces.

Lexia swiftly shot towards Tacitus as the Spell began to lose momentum, getting low and slashing at his knee as she closed in.

Tacitus quickly sprang off to his left, the blade cutting through the fabric of his trousers and grazing his skin, drawing out a trickle of blood. Tacitus's vision blurred slightly as a small amount of poison got injected into his body from the dagger, before Lexia leapt forward and thrust the dagger at his side.

He quickly angled his sword over that spot, just in time as the tip of the dagger collided against the face of his blade with a sharp clang.

She then swiftly backed away as he swung his right foot out towards her, evading it and getting some distance, before Tacitus turned his gaze back towards Colt, who was lingering outside the range of his Nullification Zone.

"What the...?" Tacitus blurted out in disbelief, his gaze trailing up as Colt raised a massive, towering blade of blood above himself.

"Not a very Assassin-like Spell, but hey, there's no harm in having some extra options...[Giant Blood Blade]!" Exclaimed Colt, before rapidly swinging the large blade straight down towards Tacitus.

As the blade entered his Nullification Zone, it began to lose its shape, the Mana holding it together getting nullified, but it hardly mattered with the speed it was plunging down with, as the blade zipped down and closed in on Tacitus in the blink of an eye.

He quickly raised his sword above himself defensively, his knees buckling as the massive blade of blood slammed onto the middle of his sword with a crushing impact, blood splattering all across the ground as the blood blade fell apart, before Tacitus turned his gaze to the right as Lexia came charging in swiftly.

She suddenly flung out several bone daggers at him, which he deflected with a swift swing of his sword, before raising his blade as she began to close in on him.

She swiftly kicked at a puddle of blood as she got near him, Tacitus quickly took one hand off his sword handle and raised it over his eyes before the blood could splatter across them, before he leapt back as Lexia closed in on him and slashed at his stomach, cutting through his shirt and inflicting a shallow cut across his skin.

He grimaced in pain before swinging his sword down at full force, Lexia's eyes widening in alarm as she quickly halted and sprang back, the blade slamming onto the ground with immense force, a deafening crash ringing out as deep cracks spread out from the point of impact, clouds of dust rising around Tacitus as he lifted his blade up and swung it across.

"You two work well together, your teamwork has improved...in which case, I'll turn things up a notch," Declared Tacitus, as he tilted his head across and cracked his neck...