Debauchery of a Soul-Eating Wraith

While Zayda got right back in combat with Veron the Beast from the Abyss, Evian and the rest of the Squad were alerted to danger coming close and leaped away right before Angus\' fist struck the ground mightily.

"Kakakaka! Here I thought you would take the chance to run as far away as you can but you\'re back here... How daring! How foolish!"

As the Baron spoke, his spatial ring flashed and a large double-bladed Axe appeared in his hold. With his muscles bulging, the Baron swung mightily causing a wave of wind compressed with mighty spiritual pressure to slam and push the Knight Squad back.

"Damn! He\'s still on us." Gryon said as he and the others got into battle stances.

"Keep him busy," Evian said.

"What?" Ember asked with her eyes wide at what she felt was going to be a difficult task.

When the crew had faced the Baron before, it was only to create enough disturbance to rescue Evian and while their moves had been nicely synchronized and they succeeded in their task, what Evian was asking of them now was even more difficult since the Baron now had full use of both his hands and had even equipped a weapon that, from the looks of things, was of much better quality than the ones they had.

"This won\'t end until Karenssa\'s dead and if he sees me going after her, he\'ll stop me. Just keep his attention until I can take the Witch down!" Evian implored earnestly.

The longer he stayed facing the Baron, the closer Zayda got to killing Karenssa with hardly a gain for him. He hoped the Crew would be safe in keeping the Baron bush but felt it was important for his grand goal of Soul-Eating Decadence-increase.

"Go, we\'ll cover you," Gillert said, and, exuding a commanding air, he went at the Baron first, managing to dodge an Axe swing before attempting a jab. Angus leaped back to avoid getting stabbed and he had a confident grin on his face only to have that grin slip when he felt a presence converging on him.

Gryon, again, landed a blow, and when Angus swung his Axe at him, Carleine and Ember succeeded in stabbing and slashing him respectively.

"Go!" Carleine.

"Yeah, we\'ve got this!" Gryon said, slamming a fist into his palm. In reality, they did not \'have this\' but that confidence of his words certainly fuelled them all to surpass their fears and face an enemy their combined strengths could not vanquish. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Meanwhile, Zayda made due on her promise.

Two minutes...

That was all it took for her to absolutely brutalize Veron. You see, Veron was incredibly easy to read for a Knight who had been trained in the Martial Temple like Zayda. The Beast\'s tactics never changed and whenever it got angry, the tactics became even more simple.

Two times she had vanquished the Beast already and not once had it learned so why should now be any different? With a pressure that appeared heightened by her superb confidence, Zayda cut the Beast down, and with a final swing, she decapitated it causing it to flake into the Eldritch mist and flake into the Abyss.

"Noooooooo!" Karenssa yelled.

Zayda charged at her again and the Witch slammed her palms together to cast a powerful spell but Zayda simply smirked as her running speed hiked up a good few notches so that even when her pattern changed into a haphazard zig-zag, she was still too fast for Karenssa\'s eyes to follow.

The Squad Commander finally showed the Witch the difference in levels between the Sixth Order and the Fifth Circle.

*Swish* *Swish*

Zayda\'s sword flashed and she cut off Karenssa\'s arms after which she condensed Spiritual energy and used it to pull the Witch out of the Baron\'s high-backed chair.

"Arrrrggggghhhhhh!!!"

Karenssa\'s eyes were rolled into the back of her head at the almost simultaneous loss of two of her limbs and her painful shriek was so powerful that the non-combatant Kalkao family members in the hall, who spectated it all, fell to their knees, clutching their chest as they wheezed in pain. And then, right when Zayda drew back her sword to deliver the final strike before Karenssa had a chance to run, she heard something tear through the air from behind her.

*Spf!*

The sound was silent but no less powerful and the Squad Commander just watched, almost dumbfounded as a Spear charged and sank its spearhead into Karenssa\'s head with a force so powerful it not only split her head open, it also knocked it back and forcefully snapped her neck!

The painful yell was instantly shut up and death was instantaneous.

With her Sporitual-Energy-hold of Karenssa\'s body slacking, Zayda looked back at Evian to see his hand still outstretched with veins popping out of his arm in a show of just how much power he had put into that spear throw.

"Huh," Evian said as he felt rather than saw his attack be successful and he was overcome with a weakness that caused him to seat his ass on the ground with a smile on his face.

Zayda cocked her head to the side at what she felt was a fascinating expression for Evian to have. He didn\'t just look happy to have put an end to a threat, he looked absolutely ecstatic and the look in his eyes was wickedly focused and hungry.

At that moment, Evian\'s gaze was not on Zayda or even Karenssa\'s body but rather on the soul that was pulling itself free from its mortal cage. Karenssa\'s soul looked confused. As though its death had been sudden and it was still sure it still lived. It raised its hands to to the front of its ghostly face and when it saw that it was translucent, it looked around in shock before seeing Evian stretch out a crooked finger and gesture that she come closer.

"Now this, this right here is how I like you," Evian said with a malevolent chuckle.

The Soul\'s pale eyes widened in the realization of the fate that approached it and its mouth opened in a silent scream while it tried its absolute hardest to resist the force that pulled it over. Alas, Resistance was futile. There was a contract between a Wraith and its prey. Evian had satisfied his side of the contract by dealing the killing blow and it was the Soul\'s turn to allow itself to be consumed.

[+ 16,000 Soul Points]

As Evian reveled in the taste, his eyes widened at the sight of the notification flashing before his eyes.

\'Hold up, 16,000?\' he asked his Assistant immediately.

[As you are already aware, the Souls of Arcanists possess higher quality because of a greater Spiritual enlightenment that must be met before every advancement.

And so, The Eldritch Witch, who was at the Fifth Circle and was an Arcanist, gives an additional 5000 Soul Points to the 10,000 that is the Norm of this level.

The Extra 1000 is because of the Eldritch Essence she possessed. It might have been impure but it still counts towards your total tally.]

Evian actually understood why it should have been 15,000. It was the extra 1000 he actually had questions about.

\'So Eldritch Essence gives bonuses.\'

[Well, of course. If you manage to subdue and absorb the Souls or Essence of beings made up of Eldritch energy, you stand to gain more than you would from Spiritual practitioners of this world.

Take the Beast, Veron, for instance; Had you been the one to kill it, you would have gained a massive whopping sum of Soul Points.]

\'I see,\' Evian thought and then he had a lightbulb moment, \'Wait, Veron could have kept coming back. So I would just keep on killing it and sending it back to the Abyss while getting myself a great amount of Soul Points every time.

That would be massive!\'

[It would also be cheating which is precisely why it doesn\'t work that way.]

\'Damn,\' Evian said, immediately brought down from his happy high.

[That Knight, Zayda, never actually killed Veron. She only kept sending him into the Abyss. Even now, Veron is back in the Abyss either already devoured or seeking another contract with a mortal to bring it back to a mortal world.

There are two ways to truly \'kill\' a Beast from the Abyss;

One would be to completely obliterate its essence with Spiritual energy which will likely come naturally to an Arcanist because, as you now know, they are very happy to \'exorcise\' creatures that are \'not of this world\'.

The other way would be to absorb its essence like you would have had to do naturally had you been the one to defeat it.

Had any of those two things been done, Veron would have been completely erased from existence.]

\'Interesting,\' Evian said and then jolted when a hand was placed on his shoulder.

He looked up and was staring into Zayda\'s face,

"Hey, you haven\'t moved since," she said with concern while eyeing his many wounds, "Are you alright?"

Evian flashed her a smile, ever-charming despite the blood running down the side of his face,

"Absolutely."