บท 22: Overcoming burning rage

The duo was a man and a woman, and their dark-purple and sky-blue Wave Cloaks revealed the Path of Power they had taken.

"Oh, I am sorry for those wounds. I did not see you. Luckily you were able to react to my Shadow Blades."

Cain saw the woman smiling toward him, but the evident disdain in her eyes told him all he needed to know. He felt his rage growing stronger and was doing all he could to stop himself from lunging toward them.

Without saying a word, Cain raised the Hell Devil by the neck and calmly began walking toward the cave's entrance.

Although Cain's composure surprised the duo, they never cared about his response. What mattered to them was the dying Hell Devil in his hands and the Wave Artifact.

"Filthy commoner, how dare you to ignore Lady Nira, a member of the Viscount Kilor's Household." The man roared, showing a righteous expression as if they were doing Cain a favor by talking to him.

Nira's smile vanished as she saw Cain's coldness, but she remained calm. The Hell Devil was mortally wounded, but if they wanted the Imperial Military Credits for her death, they needed to be the ones that gave the final blow.

If they charged toward Cain, this one might break the Hell Devil's neck before escaping, which was not good.

"Hand over the Hell Devil and the Wave Artifact you stole, and we will let you leave unharmed." Nira's words were harsh and seemed not to leave room for discussion. She never considered the Wave Artifact as Cain's property, as a commoner could not possess something like that in her mind.

Cain felt his rage soaring without control as he heard how those two spoke to him. It reached the point he had to bite his tongue to remain calm.

Luckily Cain did not have to endure for long since once he reached a specific point, he activated Wave Burst.

Nira and the man thought Cain wanted to fight and sneered since not only did they outnumber him, they were both Level 2 Wave Warriors.

However, instead of attacking, Cain used his enhanced strength to break the Hell Devil's neck and bury his hand in her stomach.

Cain's coldness and savagery surprised the duo, giving him enough time to extract the Wave Artifact and run away.

"You dare to run!" The man roared as he saw Cain escaping and immediately chased. Sadly, he walked over a magic matrix, which triggered an explosion.

"James!" Nira had just started to charge her spell when she saw the blast.

While the explosion seemed mighty, spells engraved on the ground in the form of magic matrices were not particularly strong, so James was only sent flying away with some burn mark over his body.

Nira walked over to James and helped him stand up. Both of them could still fight, but Cain had already vanished.

"Filthy commoner!" James roared in rage as he felt his skin burning.

"It is not worth bothering with him. Let's explore the zone and see if we find something valuable." Nira was also furious, but since Cain had already vanished from their sight, it would be almost impossible to track him down now.

---

Cain ran through the forest for more than an hour before stopping. His face twisted due to the immense rage that filled him. It was as if his blood was burning, demanding him to fight.

The way the duo looked at him as if he was a mere insect that should happily bow down to them sickened him.

He rose to a tree and adopted a meditative position, focusing on resting and calming his fury. It took him a while, but as night fell, he finally relaxed.

'That woman's shadows. Not only did it hide the presence, it even covered the scent.' Cain was able to quickly deduct how the duo was able to get so near without him noticing them.

As for how they located him? That had many answers, with one being pure bad luck. They might happen to stumble upon him by chance.

The truth was that the reason did not matter. Those Shadow Blades almost killed him, and Cain was not the forgiving type.

'According to the scan I did before entering the trial, they were both Level 2 Wave Warriors, with the man having advanced recently.'

Fighting a single Level 2 Wave Warrior almost cost him his life and was when he had a plan and was able to set an ambush. Fighting the duo with his current strength was suicidal.

Cain shook his head as he threw away the notion of fighting the duo inside the Military Academy Secret Trial. He could not win in a direct battle, and unlike Nira and James, he was not willing to break the rules about killing other humans and infuriate Vice-Captain Josef.

He took out a Wave Beast's heart and Soldier Drugs, and after a session of cultivation and healing, he focused on the Wave Artifact taken out of the Hell Devil.

[Wave Artifact branded through A.I. Chip Module.

Displaying information.

---

Name: Fire Sword

Grade: High Bronze

Details: Artifact meant for Essence Wave Warriors. Able to enhance spells with fire attributes.

Active Ability:

-Fire Burst: Once you charge enough Essence Wave, it can fire a two-meter tall arc of fire capable of crossing one hundred meters in three seconds.]

Cain was surprised by the Wave Artifact's information. Not only about its power, but the fact that Essence Warriors would use something like swords.

"It is more common than you might think."

Apex's voice surprised Cain. The System Spirit usually spent all his time using the [Basic Hacking] tool to gather information, so they have not talked a lot recently.

"Can you elaborate?" Although all the information Apex obtained was at his disposal, Cain would prefer not to go through millions of files right now.

Luckily for Cain, Apex did not leave him in suspense.

"Essence Wave Cultivators are not the typical mages of your fairy tales. If that were the case, their usefulness on the battlefield would be limited.

Although Essence Wave Warriors do focus on long-range attacks, they can deploy impressive mele skills, especially those that train some auxiliary body refinement techniques."

Cain nodded to Apex's words and proceeded to save the white orb in his backpack. Using the sword without proper skills was useless, especially since the damage he could do with his fists was higher.