The Reverse Mana System

The stream of fire was so fast that Dirren had no chance of dodging it and was hit at the side of his chest. Dirren was surrounded in a pool of flames which were much stronger than Alex's fireball. He could barely get up on his feet after the impact, but collapsed again.

"How can a carriage beast u...se magical atta....attacks? Doesn't....cough...doesn't the contract for carriage..bea..st....." Dirren collapsed with an expression of disbelief on his face.

Alex knew where he was coming from though. After all he himself was quite shocked when his Flame winged horse had first used a magic attack on the Poison fang Hyenas in the forest after entering a contract with him.

Alex turned around to see that Sheri and Thomas had stopped fighting temporarily. They had also sensed that Dirren was dead, but Alex couldn't see much of a reaction from Thomas, whereas Sheri was a bit shaken. It was her first time being a part of a fight leading to the death of another person.

He on the other hand wasn't much affected. He didn't feel any guilt or other emotions. It was like this was just another daily activity, he didn't face any mental trauma like he had read in all those stories. He didn't feel...anything at all.

After a brief pause, Sheri and Thomas continued their fight. Although Thomas remained calm on the outside, his attacks had gotten more reckless and fierce. He was affected by his lackey's death, but he was trying his best to keep his cool.

Alex watched the ongoing fight from a safe distance and smiled. Despite his permission to go all out, Sheri was still limiting her power to the lower tier 3, the same as her opponent.

Although Sheri was being dominated in the fight, Alex could see her slowly reducing the pressure of Thomas's attacks, that was to say that she was slowly adapting and improving herself while fighting.

Alex looked at Lucas who wasn't much far from him and sighed. If only this guy could also learn a thing or two from Sheri....sigh!

Thomas could feel that Sheri was slowly gaining a stable footing in their fight. At first, he was a bit surprised with her sudden rise in power, but it didn't take him long to come to terms with it, but now she was beginning to match him.

If this went on, he was sure that he wouldn't be able to last long. Now that Dirren was dead, he was at a numerical disadvantage.

Thomas, who had already tagged Sheri as his belonging, was determined to get her no matter what, so he immediately changed his target to Sheri's companions. He would eliminate anyone close to her until he was the only one left.

Thomas charged towards Alex. As far as he could tell, Alex was only tier 1, the weakest of them all.

Thomas swung his sword. Alex was barely able to dodge using speed enhancement. He stepped back a few meters and dodged the sword, but a kick landed on his stomach.

Crackk!

Alex collided against a tree and an intense pain from his ribs invaded his senses.

Thomas was going to continue attacking Alex, but a strong sense of danger took over him and he immediately moved away.

Sheri's spear pierced the ground just in front of the place he was standing, if Thomas had taken even a step forward, he would have been impaled by the spear.

The aura around Sheri began changing and her level grew at an unbelievable pace. Thomas was taken aback and immediately tried to pull back, but to no avail. Sheri followed him while repeatedly thrusting her spear at his vitals.

Thomas was overwhelmed by the onslaught of Sheri who was now using her full power without any restrain.

Thomas's expression changed for the first time and a tint of nervousness mixed with fear appeared on his face.

"You can't hurt my friends." Sheri cried as her spear pierced Thomas's stomach.

Enduring the pain, Thomas tried to swing his sword towards Sheri, but his sword only cut through empty air. Sheri kicked him away from the side and immediately followed him.

Once again, she followed him while stabbing him repeatedly Thomas was overwhelmed and could only use his sword to protect his vitals while staggering back.

Sheri's hands were shaking, but she continued attacking without relenting. Thomas saw this and the only possibility to escape came to his mind.

"Hahaha! So that's how this is. I thought that you were just some regular person, but who knew that it was all a disguise to lure people into your trap and satisfy your twisted desires. You murderer!!! ....B*tch! You'd better hope that you kill me here or I will let the world know about your true face. Hahahahaha....!"

Thomas glanced at Sheri and continued laughing. It really was working! Sheri was staring at him blankly, but her attacks had stopped. He could even see traces of tears in Sheri's eyes.

Sheri was in a daze. She knew that Thomas himself didn't have any good intentions for approaching them and he would only stab them back if she let him go, but 'should' she kill him, no 'could' she kill him.

Seeing confusion on Sheri's face, Thomas immediately picked up his sword and slashed towards Sheri's hand. If he could stop her from fighting, he would definitely be able to defeat Alex and Lucas.

Then everything would be as he wanted, he could take away Sheri and rob them of their carriage, mana stones and belongings. He would get his revenge on Alex and he could force Sheri into submitting to him once he took her back to Lightwell city.

Thomas's eyes shone with ambition as his sword cut through air to move towards Sheri's hand.

Sheri was still confused on what to do when suddenly Thomas swung his sword towards her. She was caught off guard and couldn't react in time. She stepped back knowing that she would have to sacrifice her arm to save her life.

Sheri closed her eyes in anticipation of the pain, but it never came.

A grin appeared on Thomas's face. He had succeeded. Sheri couldn't dodge in time and would definitely lose her arm. Thinking this, a smile appeared on his face, but it was rather short-lived.

Suddenly an intense pain emerged from his hand.

Clank!

Sound of metal hitting the ground came to his ears and blood began spilling out from what used to be his left hand just a few seconds ago.

"Didn't I mention? I am the killer, murderer and all that." Alex's calm voice rang like thunder in Thomas's ears and before he could react, a sword was stabbed deep into his heart.

"Cough! Cough! You murderer. Do you think that you will be able to lead a peaceful life after killing me? My family won't let you go. You still have a chance to redeem yourself, pull out your sword and heal me, otherwise my family will make sure that you and your friends rot in hell. I will also forgive you and act like this never....." Before Thomas could finish, Alex's sword pierced his open mouth and emerged from the other side of his skull.

Blood splattered on the ground as Thomas's eyes lost signs of life.

Bang!

Sheri fell down on her back. Her entire body was shaking and she seemed to have lost all her power. Tears began flooding out of her eyes and she choked on her breath.

Alex knew that this would be a big psychological trauma to someone like Sheri. Unlike him, killing humans and killing mana beasts were two completely different things for her. If not handled properly, this may even cause a severe impact on her psychology.

Alex quietly walked to her and supported her in standing up.

"You didn't kill anyone and neither are you the victim or someone related to the victim, so why are you crying?" Alex said in a soothing voice.

Sheri looked at Alex and began crying even louder.

" Alex..sob...I-I...I ki..lled someone." Sheri's voice was so weak that it hardly registered in Alex's ears.

"You didn't kill anyone. You just fought him and won. From what I know, it was my sword that stabbed his heart and head. I killed him, not you. So don't cry. We still have our first mission to do."

Alex replied and began walking Sheri towards their carriage.

He knew that one day Sheri would have to accept the fact that she had killed a human but as of right now, she wasn't ready for it. At least not until she grew up mentally. It would only affect her negatively if she was exposed to this guilt presently.

The dead bodies were burnt by the flames of the flame winged horse until they were reduced to ashes and Alex collected those ashes and dumped them in the portal.

Since the events that transpired here had to be kept a secret, Alex also decided to abandon the meat of barrier hounds and drove away the carriage.

The silent carriage arrived at a different portal which was present at a different location which was nearby the previous portal.

This was the mission that Alex had registered with the United Adventurers Association. The previous portal was only to collect barrier hound mana cores which happened to be a raw material for his weapon. This was a portal that was inhabited by tier 1 mana beasts Inferno Growler which Alex had already fought once before at the village.

Alex, Sheri and Lucas returned back to the city in the evening and submitted five mana cores each to the adventurers association.

Finally, they were officially entered in the list of bronze ranked andenturers and could enter all portals that were publicly available under the name of the association.

At the same time, there was a storm brewing in a house in the inner region of the city.. In a large mansion, a woman's screams could be heard, cursing the unknown murderer of her son.