The Warlord's Carnal System

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Thanks for the golden ticket, Draigo1113. Your support is much appreciated!

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[By the way Rune, you didn't cash in the rewards from your last quest.]

I barely read what Nexar wrote before sparks flew past my eyes, as I parried Lydia's dagger making it miss my neck by an inch and burry itself deep into a tree beside me.

Damn it, she used her aura.

"Hey! I told you! No aura!" I shouted, scanning the forest around me. She was moving fast, hidden among the trees.

"And I said we train for real!" Lydia's voice came from everywhere at once. Her Phantom Cloak(S) was distorting her location.

'Did she really say that?'

[Nope, she just made that up.]

Figures.

A sharp whistle cut the air as a water shuriken flew toward me from the right.

I swung my sword through the air, and a black arc of energy intercepted it mid-flight. The explosion filled the forest with steam, heat prickling my skin.

(115 → 90)

Ugh... without circles, even a basic mana slash eats 25 MP. That's a total ripoff.

'You didn't generate the quest last time though,' I asked Nexar, stepping back to readjust my stance.

[I did, when you were unconscious. It was a 4-star quest. The objective was to capture Drane. Lydia fulfilled it when she knocked him out after interrogation.]

"Great," I muttered. My eyes narrowed as I spread my aura around me, tiny red sparks crackling off the trees.

Novice aura couldn't increase perception, but I could still sense her movement if her aura move past my red sparks.

I was dumb to spar with an assassin in a forest full of cover.

'But Lydia isn't part of my crew yet. Does that still count as completed?'

There! A flicker of purple aura behind me. I jumped sideways, kicking off a tree. Her aura brushed against mine, crackling red against violet.

I sent a blind mana slash toward the source, the darkness tore through the trees until it hit a water bomb, flooding the area with fog.

"She's got way too many tricks…" I muttered.

[The system calculates your credit when the objective is met. If it's enough, I can count it as a completed quest.]

I barely finished reading Nexar's words which were hanging around in air when Lydia's voice echoed again, sharp and teasing, "You had time to talk to Nexar? How arrogant."

Her voice surrounded me. I caught a faint silhouette through the fog and swung my katana with full force, but instead of her, I hit something solid.

When I pulled back, a wooden log was stuck to the blade.

A water spear shot through the mist right after, I twisted my body, but it grazed past my shoulder, tearing my shirt.

'No way... are all four-star quests this easy?'

[No. The difficulty depends on your crew's combat strength. Since your team has Sera and a nobody with novice aura, the system marked it as 4-star. If Lydia was officially part of your crew, it'd drop to 2.5 or 3.]

'...That nobody part is really unnecessary.'

"Hey! Getting distracted in a fight is rude!" Lydia shouted.

I sighed. She couldn't see Nexar's interface, but she can sense when I was reading it, and she was nice enough to wait.

"Sorry, sorry," I said, twirling the katana in my hand. "Let's do this seriously now."

'We'll talk about the rewards later,' I told Nexar, lowering my stance. 'Though I'm really curious what a 4-star quest could earn me.'

Then I closed my eyes, letting my instincts take over.

I jumped from tree to tree, keeping myself on the move. Staying still in this fog was asking to die early.

Purple flashes zipped around me, Lydia's aura flickered from one tree to another like lightning. Damn, she was fast.

I hurled a mana slash toward the spot I thought she'd land, but she changed direction midair.

Shit!

The next instant, she was right in front of me. Her long dagger came swinging down, wrapped in her violet aura. My crimson aura flared to meet it, Bloodraven rising in time to block.

Clang!

The impact rang through my arm. My mana slash hit an empty tree somewhere behind her, splitting it in half.

I twisted my wrist, sliding Bloodraven sideways to turn the block into a parry.

Sparks exploded between our blades, steel grinding against steel, and the force of her own blow threw her forward.

That's the purpose of parry. You relieve some of the weight of your opponent's blow sideways and make the rest throw your opponent towards you.

Of course, if not used properly, one might fracture their wrist.

She lost balance for half a second. I spun my katana, its edge now facing upward, and swung in a rising vertical slash aimed for her shoulder.

But she wasn't there anymore. Purple sparks burst from her feet as she kicked off the branch we stood on, making it explode in splinters. My blade sliced through empty air.

We both landed on separate branches a few meters apart, eyes locked on each other through the haze.

"May I know why you aren't using Aqua Regia Armor?" I asked, deliberately formal.

If she used it, it would give her a big edge in close combat. No one likes fighting while worrying about being melted alive.

"I don't want to risk melting you," she said with a sly smirk.

"Damn, that's more arrogant than reading system text mid-fight," I muttered.

"Well," she said, raising her hand, "I might as well use it now."

A blue, slimy sheen spread across her clothes and arms, glistening like liquid glass.

"Your mastery in close-range combat is frightening," she said, her tone calm but focused.

"Flattery won't make me go easy on you," I replied, matching her smirk.

"Glad to hear that."

And in the next blink, she was gone, purple afterimages flashing between the trees.

The fight was just getting started.

Multiple water spears appeared all around me, front, back, sides, above, ike they'd spawned straight from the mist itself.

"Damn, that many?" I muttered as they all shot toward me at once.

Aura flared around my legs, and I dashed from one tree branch to another. Each time I jumped, a spear hit the spot I'd just left, splashing acid over bark and leaves.

The air hissed around me, the water wasn't normal. The pant leg near my ankle was already melting away, and the soles of my boots were softening, eaten through by the acidic droplets.

Some of the spears that didn't hit the ground changed course midair and followed me. They were tracking me on their own.

These are… more advanced than Sera's frost spears.

Makes sense. Sera's still a beginner… and Lydia's already on the second circle.

I was blurring through the forest, leaving crimson streaks behind me, but the damn spears still kept coming.

That meant Lydia had already released control, they were fully autonomous now. She could attack freely while these hunted me down.

I skidded on a branch and turned sharply, slicing through a spear that nearly skewered me. The water from the cut exploded in a spray. I jumped back instantly, but a few drops still landed on my arm and shirt.

"Ow,ow!" I hissed as it burned.

That's when my instincts screamed. A purple flash burst past my side. Lydia. I twisted just in time to dodge her dagger. The blade grazed my cheek as she slid past.

She landed behind me, smirking wide as droplets of my blood floated in the air.

"Hehe~ finally!" she said, teasing like always.

I touched my cheek, feeling the sting. My fingers came away wet and warm with blood.

"Huh?" she muttered, as I looked at her.

Her smirk faltered. Her eyes widened, fear flickering for the first time. She stepped back slightly, like something in me had startled her.

"What?" I asked, blinking.

"N-nothing…" she stammered, forcing a shaky smile. "You just looked… different for a second."

I frowned, brushing it off.

Whatever. she pissed me off with that one.

My smirk returned. "Get ready, Lydia."

"Oh~?" she teased, grinning again.

"I'll be using my new combo," I said, tightening my grip on Bloodraven.

"Like I'd let you!" she shouted, charging in.

She was fast, but I was faster this time. I slid past her slash, my feet moving instinctively across the branch. Flowing like a dance move on the branch.

"Huh?" she breathed, confused.

Before she could react, I stabbed Bloodraven into the tree beside me and fired a dark beam from my free hand.

She dodged effortlessly, the beam blasting holes clean through the trees behind her.

"Is that your new technique?" she teased, though there was a faint flicker of disappointment in her eyes that she tried to hide.

(115 → 85)

"You judge too fast," I replied with a grin.

The tree Bloodraven was buried in began to wither as I drew in its life essence. Energy flowed into me, my vitality, mana, and stamina shooting back up.

(85 → 115)

"Run like hell," I warned, feeling the air twist around me.

A crack opened in front of me, a tear in space.

(115 → 43 → 110)

Then another. And another. The air around us shattered into dozens of small black holes, swirling like miniature voids.

(110 → 38 → 99 → 27)

I yanked Bloodraven out of the dying tree and plunged it into another one, draining it instantly as more rifts appeared.

Lydia just stared, her eyes wide in awe at the black dots in the sky.

"What… are those?"

"RUN!" I shouted.

Her body moved on instinct, aura flaring as she jumped back.

"Dark Beam," I said.

The beam I fired shot into the nearest rift and from there, hundreds of them came bursting out of the others, zigzagging through the air like black lightning.

They struck from every direction. A storm of destruction aimed at Lydia.

She blocked some with her daggers, deflected others with aura, and even summoned water shurikens and spears to counter. But not all.

A few beams tore through her armor, one piercing her shoulder.

"Ughh..!" she gasped, staggering.

Then her eyes darted to Bloodraven, still stabbed into the tree.

"No, no, no!" I shouted, realizing her plan.

She must've thought I didn't want her to pull it out.

That removing it would stop the spell.

She dashed for it, grabbed the hilt.

And Bloodraven hummed.

The chain on its guard lashed out, hitting her straight in the solar plexus.

"Ghhhkk!" she coughed, blood spilling from her mouth as her knees buckled.

"It's over," I said, catching her by the waist before she fell.

She winced, but before I could get burned again, she quickly absorbed her acid armor back into herself.

I pulled her upright, steadying her.

Through the pain, she managed a small, proud smile.

"Good work," she said softly.

The gap between a novice and an intermediate was closed by the S+ rank artifact, Blood Raven.

With Blood Raven in my hand, the weapon I've used for over a century, I could even stand against Tugnier for about twenty minutes.

That's how well I've mastered it.

"Are you going to your room?" Lydia asked as I helped her walk, my arm around her waist and hers around my shoulder. She leaned closer, her breasts pressing softly against me as we moved.

She doesn't seem to mind it though..

"Yeah," I said, glancing at the fading dusk light. It would be night soon... another night with Sera.

The thought made my heart flutter slightly, but I pushed it down. I needed to stay focused. We had to cultivate with etherium.

These four days decide the fate of Lydia, Quinn and Tugnier.