The Gamer’s POV

"I don't like this…" Yami muttered to himself as he watched the hollow dominants he had summoned get killed off one by one.

His face was an expression of sheer disbelief and anger because he definitely had not expected this outcome from such a small group of dominants.

Normally, he would have waited until a party were either at their breaking point or they had dropped their guard before trying to kill them.

However, this party had been wary of him with no intention of trusting him, especially their leader, and so he had to forcefully move his plans along. No matter how strong this party of first-years was supposed to be, they should not have been able to completely overwhelm his summons the way they were doing right now.

Of course he had more hollow dominants in his soul's inner sanctuary to call out, but the idea of damaging any more of the dominants he worked so hard to collect just to deal with four cadets didn't sit well with him.

"This is not the way it should have gone."

His gaze shifted from Cedric, to Evelyn, and then to Celeste who had been fighting Micheal.

A few more tense moments passed, and before long, his frustration and anger were slowly replaced with greed. If he could have this particular group in his collection, oh, what a prize that would be.

***

Cedric's POV

——

After Aika reformed herself as a wakizashi in my arm, I looked around the battlefield until my gaze locked onto Yami in the distance. Around where he stood, the bubbling darkness on the ground kept spreading like a small pool around him. And behind him, the massive frame of the soul eater loomed, thrashing and straining against the air as if trying to free itself from the chains binding it.

Several meters beside him, a hollow dominant stood with his hands together. He was dressed as a monk with a shaven head and large beads wrapped around his hands. He wasn't too far away from Yami, just enough to not stand near the soul eater or the pool of darkness on the floor. His eyes were closed, and his lips moved in a silent, rhythmic prayer: "Amitābha... Amitābha..."

'I have to kill him!' I thought, piercing Yami with a murderous gaze.

From the moment I first realized that it was Yami, to the moment he attacked my party, I had made my mind that I would kill him.

It was now just question of how.

Raising my right arm, I pointed the blade of my katana at him and immediately activated the flames of decay.

A large black magic circle began to form at the tip of the blade, its dark edges swirling with a corrosive energy. Shortly after, eleven more magic circles began to form around me, hovering in the air as they pulsed in sync with the first.

I could see Yami slowly turn his gaze to my direction and barely a second after, the boy beside him began chanting a bit louder than before:

"Amitābha… Namo amitābha…"

I ignored him because at that moment, my skill was ready. Upon command, long projectiles of black flame like spears shot out from the magic circles, streaking across the battlefield towards center of the dark pool where Yami stood.

But before the projectiles could reach him, a loud bell echo rang out across the clearing, followed by a blinding flash of light. And then, all of a sudden, the spears of flame vanished into nothingness, as if they had never existed at all.

'Huh?'

[The character Kaizen has activated the exclusive skill: Buddha's Protection.]

'What the…'

I immediately adjusted my stance, raising my wakizashi while shifting my katana to point directly at the monk. With my weapons split, I kept the katana locked on the monk and the wakizashi aimed at Yami. Then, in the very next second, I gave the command again.

Long projectiles of black flame shot out from the magic circles once more, streaking across the battlefield towards both Yami and Kaizen at the same time.

Gong!

The loud bell echoed again and a blinding flash of light flashed across the clearing. Since I was paying attention this time, during the brief flash of light, I was sure I could see a brief spectral image of a thousand-armed Buddha.

Then just like before, all the projectiles vanished instantly, leaving nothing behind but the faint, lingering hum of the bell and the boy's chants:

"Namo Amitābha."

I arched a brow. 'What the hell kind of skill is that? Is that some kind of magic protection?'

At that moment, I saw the monk lower his right hand, while also whispering: "Bhumisparsha…"

Almost instantly, another notification popped up.

[The character Kaizen has activated the exclusive skill: Buddha's Protection.]

Then, another bell echoed across the clearing.

My mind began to race as I tried to anticipate what sort of skill would follow, but I didn't have to wonder for long because in the next second, a massive hand glowing with a faint, golden light, descended from directly above me with blinding speed.

Fortunately for me, I had been sharing my vision all this while with two of my ravens that were hovering not too high above the battlefield and so I could see the hand descending from above on time.

However, I couldn't swap places with my raven as my cooldown timer still had a few minutes left to run.

But then, in the brief second before I was smashed flat, Aika quickly activated the skill intead.

My form erupted into a flurry of feathers and I quickly swapped places with one of my ravens. The massive hand slammed into the earth exactly where I had been standing, the force of the impact sending a tremor through the ground and carving a deep crater.

After my form solidified, shifting from the feathers back into my own body in the air, I suddenly felt a bit lightheaded and drained. The sudden drain on my energy made the world tilt for a moment. Then Aika's voice echoed in my head.

'We need to watch out for your mana, Ced.'~~