I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

Akira POV

---

Breathing was hard, his palms were sweaty under the leather gloves. And now with the silvery gauntlets, it was only turning worse.

He felt like the sword would slip at any second, the only thing keeping it in her hands was the effect of one of his few [Divine Skills] that he had managed to awaken.

If not for the help of the skill he probably wouldn't be able to stand against the [Villain] that was smirking at him.

From the moment he saw her, he knew she was problems. At first, he only thought that she was one of the grindstones the gods had aligned for him.

Even after Rena had insisted that girl was the stuck-up Elizabeth he only dismissed it at first. But after thinking he thought it would be a good way to test his mettle against a grindstone early on.

So he challenged her.

She was a fine grindstone since the gauntlets and boots were proof that another of his skill was awakening too.

First, his [Blessing of might] had awoken, then the next one was [Armory of the gods].

If only he gave a little push...

But alas, it came too late said push.

Since the craven witch had taken his childhood friend as a hostage!

She was even mocking him for it!

But even after the esteemed trainer called the end she didn't back down!

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Was all that he could muster to say.

But the witch came saying something that didn't quite register to him...

She claimed a Hero's fight is always fair?

But she wasn't a hero!

She was acting like a [Villain]!

She was mocking all that made one a [Hero]!

Besides...Akira was the only hero in this world!

All the other wannabes were only that, pretenders!

Why couldn't they see it?

That was all that was going around in the mind of the young male while witnessing the spectacle in front of him.

But since the match didn't end as per the wish of [Shadow Empress]

He only could grind his teeth and suck it up.

But it was in the middle of that rage, that feeling of despair that another of his [Skills] woke up!

"AAAAAAAAH!!!" Screamed to the heavens the young [Hero] " COME! PARAGON OF JUSTICE!" And in a blinding show of light, a silver armor-covered the black coat of Akira.

He had awoken his second subset skill!

Even if he used the wrong name (Again).

From where he stood he could see how the Shadows recoiled and ran away from his mere holy presence!

"YOU WILL FALL [Villain]!" Said the young hero while going after the evil witch.

He could feel his dwindling mana coursing through his veins and going directly into his [Mana Core] something that this world didn't know about too.

He fed his mana into it to activate his sleeping blessing activating it at once again and receiving an increase in his status.

That girl might very well be a [Final Boss] so, he wanted to end her right now.

After the deed was done they could investigate her and probably find enough evidence about her wrong doings it anyway.

He had done that plenty of times in the other world and everything always turned out fine.

So for now he would focus on the fight and end that woman in one sweep move!

He still couldn't call his favorite sword from the armory, but he wouldn't be stopped by that!

The world counted on him to be the hero they didn't know they needed!

So furthering the power earned by his skills and focusing it into enhancing his might he attacked with all his spirit!

Screaming with all his soul " AAAAAH!!! HERO'S DIVINE SMITE!" And funneling more power into his sword.

The crowd could see his shining form crashing into the villain even.

He was focusing all his power, his strength, his mind, and his body, he didn't need fancy moves like Rena, so he also sacrificed his speed even!

After all, that speed Rena was so proud of couldn't save her from the clutches of the villain.

So he closed his eyes and trusted the power of the gods that dwell within his soul to guide his attack.

Everything would be okay after this...

And maybe after this, he should search for the mage and healer of his party... He couldn't quite remember their faces or names, but they should be around...

Rena had come to this world with him somehow, so why couldn't they be here?

He hadn't seen them in the powered class yet though...

Another thought for his after-victory parade!

---

Elizabeth's POV

---

She...Wasn't sure what to think of this.

First of all, Akira was mumbling and rambling like a madman.

Also, she was quite sure something was going on in how he was talking half the time.

"WHAT IS THIS?!? THE [Warden of Justice] JUST EARNED HIMSELF ANOTHER SUBSET SKILL!" Said the announcer.

Yeah, that was also weird.

Somehow she could tell they were speaking differently at some points, but couldn't pinpoint it exactly how.

Akira for once said one thing while using his skills, but those weren't the right names.

Her [Identify] didn't lie, the skills he used weren't 'Blessings' nor stuff like that.

It was [Infuse] and [Hero's Armory].

She wanted to [Identify] them but would save it for later since Akira had finished powering himself up.

Why did she allow that?

Well...First of all, the crazy old man was glaring daggers at her when she tried to move.

Also, he was using his [Skill] to somehow stop her from moving.

She at least got a promise out of him of keeping Rena out of the fight for that though.

How did they get that?

Well, she wrote that in shadows in front of him and he answered by writing on the Arena floor in front of her, out of the sight of Akira & Rena.

That meant that he indeed could control somehow what happened in the arena...

Dammed old man with broken skills.

So she allowed the power up...

And lo and behold, that brat's skill was as broken as a [Hero from another world] should be!

He somehow earned himself 40 extra status points!

From where did they come?

The hell if she knew!

'Hello? I would like to make a complaint!' Thought the armored girl inwardly.

She didn't think something would come out of that.

"If you somehow defeat him I will update your previous [Identify] when you get to level 10." But that answer came into her ear.

She almost screamed out of surprise since it was the voice of the blonde asshole.

"Where..." Mumbled to herself the armored girl, but couldn't think too much of it since Akira was already dashing towards her!

At least he had wasted half his stamina & mana using those big skills.

That would make it easier to deal with since he had already low mana and stamina from the earlier fight.

But that wasn't what surprised her, she could see how the extra stats that were equally divided among Strength & Agility that he was focusing on were draining and disappearing.

The armored girl couldn't help but be grateful for that, since she hadn't seen nor could react before Akira was in front of her starting the motion for his attack.

But now that his status was back to more normal she could react once again!

So first...She inwardly cursed at the blonde asshole for surprising her and making her yelp.

That was important.

Secondly, the focused inwardly into her [Soulscape].

Both Akira and Rena had awoken subset skills in this fight, why couldn't she?

She gave herself a few moments to try and prod at the half that reigned her use of [Skills]...

And with renewed vigor, she called into it for something to happen!

She felt herself being covered in shadows and...She got yanked sideways.

Maybe she focused too much on moving away from this spot that her [Skill] shoved her sideways?

Or perhaps that was her new subset skill?

Shadow relocation?

No wait, it would be S[h]ado[w R]el[o]catio[n.]?

Somehow that didn't feel like she had said that right...Even if she was only musing inwardly while her shadows danced around taunting the young Hero Wannabe.

"VILE...." Started saying Akira before coughing, his stamina was getting dangerously low...

While she was still above half of hers.

"Stop running away and fight me you son of a B#tch!" Cried the black-haired kid.

A silence instantly enveloped the arena.

Only for a sudden rise in laughs came from the crowd.

This of course only served to embarrass the kid who in a bright flash of light summoned himself a closed helmet and said nothing.

"That was quite rude." Said the armored girl. "I will have you know Mother takes that kind of insult with extreme prejudice. She is quite the delicate lady after all." Finished saying the armored girl.

That was obviously a lie, if Mother was seeing this she would be rolling on the floor laughing her ass off.

Father on the other hand...Might as well choose to send this brat into orbit. If he was lucky he could get away with a punch to the face...

Wonder how many zeroes does Father have in strength...

Either way, Akira didn't say a thing after donning that helmet.

She did notice how his stats started returning to the more monstrous amounts from before though.

"Around 40 extra stats huh..." Mumbled to herself the armored girl.

She was being sorely tempted about trying to chanteless cast some buffing magic to increase her power too.

But the memory of the crazy old man saying that there wasn't magic in play stopped her in her tracks.

The [Skill] she was using right now wasn't magic per se. But so long the spells didn't get converted into skills...She didn't want to risk it.

And so she just braced herself.

And almost got slashed in half!

The black-haired brat didn't even say a thing before he dashed forwards and tried another downward slash on her!

"AAAAAND THE [Warden of Justice] IS LOOKING FOR BLOOD!" Said the crazy old man announcer. "COULD THIS MEAN THE END OF THE REIGN OF THE EMPRESS?!?"

She hastily raised shadows from her body and at the same time that he build a web to try and stop and if not stop slow the attack she jumped backward away from the attack.

She almost got cleaved in two and that old man only cares for bad puns?!?

"I see someone grew a pair when he put on a helmet." Mocked the armored girl.

And only got a kick in her abdomen for it.

Akira didn't even stoped after discarding that sword that was now entangled in shadows and directly kicked her in the abdomen, sending her flying a few meters backward.

She lost almost a quarter of her hp on that!

And the black-haired brat still didn't answer.

Was that helmet-blocking sound or something?

Either way, she couldn't tank many of those attacks, she somehow doubted they were of a strength of 40.

So she changed the form of her shadows and created a sturdy shield and prepared herself.

"Come at me you [Hero Wannabe]" Oh, and that came quite well. It felt right somehow.

Akira for his part didn't answer again and only dashed, she was paying attention to the [Status] displayed in her sight.

So even if she didn't see how he moved, she saw the change in the status.

That stupid brat was moving his status points around!

He shoved the 40 extra points into Agility to get a burst of almost 60 in there in short distances, then when he was right in front of her. He shoved those same 40 points into strength.

And then if that wasn't enough he raised his Agility to 30. And then he moved every other status besides Agility into Dexterity.

So all his attacks had a Strenght of 70, Agility of 30, and Dexterity of 56.

So while he had the same Agility as Elizabeth, he had higher Dexterity and Strenght.

A higher Dexterity meant Elizabeth couldn't outspeed nor outmaneuver him.

Lower Strength meant that she was weaker physically than him. And while Akira might end at a Constitution of 1 in a short burst. Since she had to shield herself to protect herself from critical damage.

She couldn't use those chances to attack.

And besides, the weapon of choice that this brat had used was starting to be better.

Case in point, previously he was using only swords, so a shield would suffice.

But right now?

Right now the little bastard was using a Warhammer.

And those...Well...

Those were the right weapon of choice to deal with armor and shields.

So she decided to let go of her Shadow Shield and try to jump backward.

Her shield was big enough that it could hide her, and since it was made of shadows, she could manipulate it to hide her escape.

So while Akira smashed her shield into oblivion she was safe and away from that psycho!

Besides, something was going on. He wasn't smart enough to use the right weapon in these circumstances.

Also, she noticed something extra.

His Wisdom & intelligence were permanently at 1. And during brief moments they even turned into 0 before returning to 1...

Perhaps something was going on?

A quick [Identify] to his general status brought her the answer.

"Well...Shit." Said the armored girl.

While wondering how to deal with this.

For one, she couldn't defeat him, not anymore. Not after...That.

Before when he was just wasting the extra stats? Yeah sure, he was dumb about how he was going at it.

All strength and no speed to keep up with her?

All speed and no dexterity to keep up with her maneuvers?

Easy.

And even if he managed to match her. She still could provoke him into wasting attacks and dodge to counter-sucker punch him. With a sword, a very pointy sword.

But now?

Yeah, he had just enough dexterity that he could match her and more speed and strength.

And more importantly, he wasn't listening or failing for her provocations.

So wondering how to deal with this while the berserker tried to untangle his warhammer from his shadows...

Wait...Why was he trying to untangle himself instead of summoning a new weapon?

A closer look into his current status brought the answer.

He had less than one-quarter of his stamina. That skill took half when he used to summon the armor, then he wasted extra stamina running around and doing all those movements.

Perhaps he didn't have enough to summon a new weapon?

That would explain it since the other sword was still tangled in shadows.

Perfect.

A plan was being hatched in her mind.

She slowly started bringing Rena towards her, while taking care of not making a ruckus and keeping her outside of the line of sight of Akira.

And she also focused on tangling him in shadows, making new as needed or more like sending those that she had previously summoned to cover the arena, and that was then moved away when Akira started his light show.

As mother used to say, want not, waste not.

When she had the red-haired girl right behind her she started the second stage of the plan.

She coiled shadows around her armor and made a tether to the other side of the arena. Where she built herself a spring-loaded shadow rope reel.

With that ready she said to Akira "Hey dumb dumb, betcha you can't hit me without that stupid hammer!" and then prepared herself.

She would only have one chance at this...

And it might be a low blow, but a girl can't choose how to win, only how to survive, and somehow she doubted the Arena's shield could deal with that many status points.

Akira for his part didn't say a thing, it only looked at his hammer further getting entangled in shadows that regenerated apparently without end (Even if Elizabeth's mana was nearing dangerous levels), and then proceeded do discard said Warhammer.

Predictably he made a running dash towards her, she didn't even bother in trying to follow his run, just waited for the moment his agility dropped to her levels in her status.

And then when the moment he started his punching motion...She activated her shadow rope reel!

Yeeting herself to safety!

She even laughed when Akira followed her with his head and didn't stop his attack motion, after all...

Why would he waste strength on such a thing?

It was all going according to her plan...Her Evil Plan.

---

Akira's POV 2, Electric Bogaloo

---

He was standing in a white room, fog in his mind.

 

He had forgotten about the stupid skill imbued into the helmet that would activate when he put the full set.

 

At least he managed to target the armored girl as a target, so she would be dead soon enough.

 

This armor was supposed to be a final desperate card to put when he couldn't move because he was tired, or when he was in danger of mind control.

 

It wasn't supposed to be used like this.

 

Still, it was good enough to deal with that annoyed [Villain].

 

He just regretted not enjoying defeating her.

 

But for now, he would wait here...

 

He should have asked for a TV or something if he knew he would be using the skill, he didn't need to use it in the other world, so this was a first.

 

He should have listened to the mage in his party and tested the skill when he could still get it altered...

 

How was he called again?

 

M something... Wait...was he, male?

 

Why would he be male?

 

Everyone knows that a good [Hero Party] doesn't have males!

 

Maybe she was a tomboy mage?

 

Yeah, that was probably right.

 

Either way, something distracted him from his musing while he waited for the [Blessing] from the armor to end.

 

To be precise he coughed blood.

 

"Wha...?" Said to himself while looking at the white room.

 

Did it start...to break?

 

Somehow it started to crack as if it was under the pressure of a higher power.

 

Had that armored girl signed a deal with a demon or something?

 

How could she have the power to do that?

 

"...ake...." Heard in the distance, like someone calling him.

 

But he couldn't pay attention to it as his body started to bleed all over.

 

It looked like his muscles were being torn apart from overworking or something.

 

"hah...ah....hah...." He could vaguely hear the voice of the armored girl laughing in the distance.

 

Had she done something?

 

Suddenly he started bleeding once again all over and then...He saw the loss of a shining light.

 

And the world got turned over.

-------------------

 

He woke up held in place by something in the arena once again.

 

His body ached all over and he was bleeding, his helmet lay cracked in the side too.

 

In the back, he could see the armored girl smiling mockingly at him, but he couldn't pay much attention to her, for the instructor was right in front of him.

 

And his eyes were serious.

 

Not the joke serious he used while training them, nor the stern seriousness he used on the first day of class.

 

No...This was the 'I will murder you if you lie to me' serious that the older paladins in the other world used.

 

"I will ask this only once. If you lie, you are dead, if you omit something, you are dead. If I think you are being a smart ass...You guessed it, you are dead." Said the instructor, and he could feel the oppressing feeling weighing him down once again.

 

"Did you sign a contract with a demon?" Asked the old man.

 

He noticed two things, first of all, before he asked that question a force washed over him and ejected motes of shadows from his clothes.

 

Huh?

 

That girl had sneaked something on him? Or were these remnants from an attack?

 

That wasn't the problem, he noticed how this felt like an [Isolation Barrier]. High-ranking mages liked these to discuss secret stuff.

 

And by the looks of the armored girl, as she looked annoyed, it seems that it had the same effect.

 

"No sir." But enough about musings, he needed to answer. "Sir, that [Villain].." Started saying Akira before being shut down by another question.

 

"Second question. Did you promise to do anything to anyone in this world before getting granted that power?"... That was a dangerous one.

 

If he had didn't added 'This world' he would have to come clean with his divine mission.

 

"No sir." Answered Akira, while using his right hand to clean the sweat on his forehead.

 

Only to find...Blood...

 

So much blood...

 

"What?" He looked at the armored girl, she didn't look wounded.

 

He looked at his arm while taking off his gloves. He wasn't wounded.

 

He looked at the instructor, he wasn't paying attention anymore, he just walked away before dismissing the barrier.

 

The armored girl pointed to her left with his chin.

 

And then...

 

He saw it.

 

The body of his childhood friend being treated by [Healers], powered healers.

 

And a track of blood that ended in him.

 

He would remember the smell of the blood in his hand forever.

 

Looking at the billboard it read made it so much more real too.

 

He had lost...

 

Somehow the [Blessing] had hurt his childhood friend, and so he was disqualified.

 

This...This must be wrong!

 

THAT BITCH MUST HAVE DONE SOMETHING TO HIS BLESSING!

 

He was a [Hero], a [Divine one], he didn't make mistakes!

 

Something...Something must be wrong with this!

 

He would see the video of that fight.

 

All those looks he was getting must be something engineered by that girl!

 

STOP LOOKING AT ME!

 

And so, Akira, The Hero that ran away...Loss conscious in the arena.