章 50: Cloudlet
Blood's body hit the stone pole behind him, splitting it in half. The stone crumbled and crashed down on top of the boy and fluffy ball. A cloud of dust invaded their environment from the collapse of the stone pole.
Emile stood just outside of the dust cloud.
"Blood!" He called out.
Then something split the dust cloud as it shot up into the air. The white ball flew into another pole and bounced off it, launching itself to another pole and then another pole. The bird ricocheted around the room, jumping between the poles that surrounded Emile and Blood.
The dust settled and Blood re-emerged clutching his ribs, a streak of blood ran down his forehead.
"The little—Spright! Cut yourself!" Blood shouted as he threw his dagger over.
"I'd probably say something else, but you do you I guess." Emile said while sliding the blade across his arm.
Blood spun the blood in the air, forming one giant orb. Then the orb split in two and the two orbs after split again, like a cell multiplying Blood created a swarm of bullet sized blood pellets.
Meanwhile, the white ball continued to blast around the room; it looked like it was getting faster. Blood tried to follow it with his eyes, but the bird's shape morphed into a blur a while ago.
"Spright, get behind a pole!" Blood yelled.
Then he clenched his fist and the hundreds of blood pellets exploded into the arena. Waves of stone poles cracked and collapsed. Dust filled the room making it hard to breathe.
Emile stood up and peered through the dust. A shadow quickly moved in the distance. The bird survived and was barreling towards them.
The fluff ball hit Blood again, knocking him to the ground then quickly returned to bouncing between remaining poles. Emile tightened his grip around the dagger and waited for the angry bird to plummet towards him.
Since Breath of Life was active at all times, Emile's ability to perceive his environment was extraordinary. This allowed him to follow the bird much better than Blood ever could.
Its trajectory changed and the creature exploded towards Emile. He raised the dagger and spread his legs, giving him more center of gravity.
He could see the bird, but stopping it was a whole other conversation. Emile pushed his body forward, putting all of his body weight behind the blade.
The creature slammed into Emile and the two flew back. Emile's back slid across the ground until he hit a pole. His body began healing and Emile heard a faint croak coming from around him.
Still holding onto the dagger, Emile looked over and the white, fluffy bird had been run through by the blade. Its fur transitioned from pure white to a rose pink, then crimson red.
The bird twitched one last time and then turned into a cloud of essence that floated into Emile. Then, suddenly, his soul reached out.
[Chosen Cloudlet Slain]
[Relic Obtained]
Emile let out a sigh of relief. The second trial, or whatever they're doing, was complete and Emile and Blood were far less injured this time around compared to the last battle.
Also, Emile was incredibly gleeful to have received his first relic. He called upon his soul to check the relic:
[Soul Rank: Chosen]
[Soul Saturation: 7/1000]
[Soul Essence: 74/100
[Gift: Breath of Life]
[Description: Accelerate cell growth and division]
[Enhancement: Breath of Life is applied to self]
[Relic: Enlightened Nimbus Charm]
[Enlightened Nimbus Charm Description: "Long ago, xxxxx created birds and gave them a voice of song to spread joyful smiles among her people, but one day a bird flew into xxxxx's domain. xxxxx was enraged at the blatant disrespect and called upon all the clouds in all the skies and struck the bird with an enormous bolt of lightning. Thus, the Cloudlet was born."]
[Enlightened Nimbus Charm Enhancement: Greatly boost wielders speed for a short duration]
Emile carefully observed his soul, he checked the relics description multiple times, but it never made any more sense.
'Why are their names redacted?'
'How long is long ago?'
'Why didn't the bird die?'
These were the questions running through Emile's brain. The info dump completely drained Emile's original anticipation and excitement for the relic itself.
Additionally, Emile was growing rather frustrated at his soul's inability to be clear and precise. Everything seems to be a "greater boost" and they last for "short durations."
Emile wished his soul told him exactly how much faster he'd be and how long it would last, but instead he's sentenced to trial and error the answers himself.
The dust finally settled and Blood approached Emile.
"What happened to the ball?" Blood asked.
"I killed it." Emile responded, "Even got a relic, the Nimbus Charm." Emile added as he summoned the charm.
The charm appeared in his hand. It was a small silver cloud attached to a necklace. At the center of the cloud sparked a dark gemstone with occasional bolts of light, like a thunderstorm was trapped in the gem itself.
"Wow—" Blood commented, "I can't believe you already got a relic. What's it do?"
"It increases my speed, I don't know by how much though."
"Well try it out!" Blood encouraged.
Blood grabbed Emile's hand and pulled him up. Putting the necklace over his head, Emile focused on the stone dome in the distance.
Since the charm said it boosted its wielder's overall speed, Emile assumed he had to already be in motion for the effect to work. He couldn't just stand still, activate the charm, and suddenly move really fast somewhere. It wasn't teleportation.
So Emile started running towards the dome and then poured his essence into the charm. The gemstone flashed white and the world around Emile blurred.
Within an instant, Emile crashed into the dome, hitting it with so much force he left an imprint in the stone. Emile collapsed to the ground, a severe headache encroaching in his mind.
He checked his soul essence and it had completely drained. Using the charm for just a second, probably even less than a second drained all his remaining essence.
But it also launched him incredibly fast. So fast that Emile's eyes couldn't process the world around him turning it to visual mush.
Overall, the charm was spectacular. Emile could use it to cover a great distance in a short amount of time. He could use it to dodge an incoming attack or launch a ranged attack himself.
The greatest drawback, however, was Emile's inability to keep up with the charm. Because the charm made Emile move faster than his brain could register it was practically unusable in active combat.
Emile couldn't use it to get behind someone, he couldn't use it to bob in between an onslaught of projectiles, he could realistically only use it in a straight line.
But even so, the charm gave him a much needed escape and vastly improved his mobility. He was grateful the relic had any combat application at all.
"Damn—" Blood said while standing above Emile, "that really was fast."
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