RE: The Extra's Dominance-Chapter 15 - Awkward Timing

(Ruby's POV)

I was shocked at what I just witnessed.

Looking at Raven who was casually exiting the arena and Velcro who is being taken away by the staff because he needs healing.

I recalled their fight just now. I was almost sure that Velcro would win the fight, and even if Raven did, he would most likely be battered up.

But contrary to my prediction, Raven won, and he's fine—based on his appearance, I presume—but what I mean is that he won without receiving a direct hit from Velcro!

Even though his rank and stats were restrained, he has more experience in combat than Raven based on my information about him—no, Raven is a non-combatant to begin with... So him winning is really a surprise.

But throughout the duel, Raven's movements were calm and efficient. He seemed to use a lot of artifacts, but the way he utilized them was incredible to begin with.

It's no use having a lot of artifacts if you can't properly use them.

And at the ending part of the duel, when Velcro slashed downwards at the rushing bull-like Raven, I was sure that Raven wouldn't be able to dodge the attack.

But when Velcro's sword was just a few meters away from Raven's head, I felt a sudden burst of mana from Raven's body.

It was only for a split second that I wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn't paying attention carefully.

The next thing I saw after that was Raven's figure in the air with black wings keeping him from falling, and Velcro's sword hitting nothing but air and ground.

Then after a while of silence—Raven shot down toward Velcro and finished with a drop axe kick.

That last move was nothing but clever—Raven used the force of his speed and the momentum of his flip to amplify the kick's power.

And though only a few noticed, including me, I saw a cotton-like thing appear near Raven. Then not long after, the mana around him started to move weirdly, like it was being sucked into something.

"Interesting..."

I got curious about the person named 'Raven Obadiah' after witnessing his prowess.

Although the fighters were both low ranks, the duel was engraved in everyone's memory who witnessed it—especially Raven's performance.

I know the other spectators will agree with me.

Anyway...

I stood up from my seat and headed to where I assumed Raven would be.

*****

Upon arriving at the waiting room—

I saw Raven staggering, his calm and collected figure was nowhere to be seen.

He was frowning while pressing his temples and struggling to stand up.

Then... He started to fall. I rushed to his side immediately and supported his body.

He's so hot—I mean, high in temperature. His face is also red, not from being flustered, and his breathing was ragged like he has a fever.

-Kyuuu!

I heard a bird and then saw a familiar cotton flying toward me. It was like a cute cotton ball bird!

The bird landed on my shoulder and pointed at Raven with its wing.

-Kyu! Kyu!

If I'm not just imagining things, the bird's tweeting sounded worried and desperate.

It was then Raven raised his head and looked at me. He looked at me for a while as if trying to identify me.

And after maybe confirming who I was, he smiled.

I don't know what's with me, but I think he was really attractive when I saw that.

"Oh... Please take good care of me for a while."

Snapping me out of silly thoughts were Raven's words. And after that, he hung his head down and lost consciousness.

My eyes widened but checking his pulse, he was only sleeping.

"He just fell asleep. From mana exhaustion and overwork, maybe?"

I mumbled.

Anyway, I thought I had nothing to worry about his condition now...

But that was until Raven's body suddenly got smaller and smaller and black furs grew all over his body!

His body became small enough to slip from my grasp. He's now lying on the cold floor!

And after just some seconds... Raven turned into a cat with shiny black furs.

"Umm... What?"

I was so dumbfounded at what I just witnessed that I just stared at the cat—I mean Raven.

-Kyuu!

Snapping me out of confusion was the cotton bird on my shoulder that I assumed was Raven's pet. It was looking at me while pointing at Raven—the cat, to be precise.

Vaguely understanding what the cotton wants, I picked up the cat... Raven.

I know the cat is probably Raven, but I can't help but just call it 'cat'.

-Kyuu!

The cotton sounded grateful so I patted it... It's cute.

Anyway, not wasting any more time—I started heading back to my office.

I unconsciously smiled when I thought of how cute the cotton bird on my shoulder and the Raven cat in my hands were.

*****

[You received 1200 CP. The transcendent beings want to send you their congrats. They also said your performance was splendid.]

The first thing Raven saw after opening his eyes was the system.

Though it's annoying, he noticed that the reward he got was a lot more than what they previously said.

[They gave you a bonus for the show.]

'I see.'

Raven replied telepathically and closed his eyes again. He was exhausted, mentally and physically—his head and body aching.

The only good thing is that when he checked his CP balance, he now possessed [3552] CP.

'Comfy.'

Raven's expression turned soft as he felt the softness of what he was lying on. It also smells good around him that he became sleepy again.

'Looks like I'm on a premium bed... Thanks, Ruby.'

"Huaaah."

"Oh, you're awake!"

Raven yawned and was about to fall asleep again when he heard a familiar alluring voice—not from his sides, but above him!

And of course, he got startled and immediately looked up!

There—

Raven saw Ruby smiling mischievously while looking down at him.

His eyes widened after meeting her gaze. He realized he was currently resting on her lap and not on some premium bed! And based on the surroundings, Raven assumed that he was inside Ruby's bedroom!

And that he was also in his cat form!

Raven quickly jumped away from Ruby. But unfortunately for him, Ruby, who is several times faster than him—caught him mid-air. Then as if she was trying to humiliate him, Ruby held Raven in her arms like she would hold a baby.

Raven knew he couldn't win against Ruby in any aspect of stats, so all he could do was talk with a frown.

"Put me down."

Ruby got surprised after knowing that Raven could talk normally in that form and her eyes widened, though it was short-lived as soon a teasing smile rose on her face.

"You're lucky, you know? Normally you'd only get a lap pillow, but you got a lap bed! And from a beautiful woman like me on top of that."

"Well, yeah, thanks for taking care of me. Now you can put me down."

Raven didn't deny that he's indeed lucky, though he wanted to get out of his embarrassing position fast.

Ruby didn't reply to Raven but instead just started caressing his fur.

'It feels so good... Fuck.'

Raven thought with a frown. He was being aroused.

"You have a cute side too, huh?"

Ruby mumbled, looking at the frowning but clearly enjoying Raven teasingly.

Raven knew Ruby wouldn't listen to him any time soon—so his pettiness activated.

And while he was in Ruby's arms... He transformed back into his human form.

SWOOSH!

A satisfied smile appeared on Raven's face seeing Ruby startled and her eyes widened.

Being back in his human form, Raven was now sitting on Ruby's lap, and her arms were wrapped around his waist.

Raven then wrapped his arms around Ruby's shoulders and slouched to her left ear.

Their faces were so close to each other. Ruby's sweet fragrance entered Raven's nose.

"Let me go."

He softly whispered with a sweet voice.

Ruby immediately covered her ear and looked at Raven with disbelief at what he just did. She seemed pretty flustered at the situation—her ears were a bit red too.

"You have a cute side too, huh."

Raven returned Ruby's earlier words back at her by whispering in her other ear with a seductive voice.

Now Raven knew that Ruby's ears were sensitive.

Ruby's face became more red that now it was quite visible to Raven.

She could easily throw Raven off her lap, but because she was surprised at his advances, she forgot that fact. Also, her pride was instantly telling her that if she let go of him, she would lose.

Creak—

"Master, here's your wi—"

And as Raven and Ruby were in that position, the door opened and a woman in her early 30s in a maid dress entered.

The maid saw them...

And they saw the maid too.

"..."

"..."

"..."

An awkward silence engulfed the room. The three of them looked at each other.

Then the maid grinned.

"Sorry for disturbing."

She slowly backed away while still looking at Ruby and Raven, blushing.

Click—

Then she left the room and closed the door. She even locked it.

Raven immediately broke free from Ruby's arms after that and stood up. Ruby's hands loosened when she saw the maid looking at them earlier, so Raven got out effortlessly.

"Ehem..."

Raven faked a cough and looked at Ruby.

"Sorry I got carried away."

He then apologized to her.

"No, I got carried away too."

Ruby did the same.

The atmosphere became pretty awkward. Luckily for them, someone broke that awkwardness.

-Kyuu!

Yuki, who seemed to have just woken up from Ruby's bed, flew immediately to Raven.

Raven smiled and embraced Yuki when she reached him.

"What's that cotton, by the way?"

Ruby asked, pointing at Yuki.

"Her name is Yuki, she's my familiar."

Raven answered, patting Yuki's head.

Yuki was pleased as she just let Raven pat her.

"You're popular with girls, huh."

Ruby said, looking at the two.

'Raven identified the cotton as a "her," and its name is Yuki... I knew it, it's a girl.'

Ruby thought.

Meanwhile, Raven just shrugged as a reply to her statement just now.

Anyway... He started recalling his fight with Velcro.

Then, he remembered some kind of light engulfing his body and power surging through him after that.

'At that moment, my body became light and energy filled me... I didn't notice the others, but I'm sure there are more effects I received that moment.'

Raven thought as he recalled the unknown power.

'If not for that power, I would have lost to Velcro and died that time.'

As his curiosity peaked, Raven opened his status.

=====

[STATUS]

Name: Raven Obadiah

Rank: F+

Mana Control: E-

Strength: F

Agility: F+

Stamina: F

Intelligence: E-

Luck: E-

Charm: E-

[SKILLS]

[TRAITS]

=====

Raven's eyes widened upon seeing some changes in his status window.

His mana control rose by 2 ranks.

He could also feel that he was on the verge of ranking up!

Raven checked his stats again and again to make sure he wasn't just seeing things.

His eyes finally landed on his new trait. — Raven had no idea what the hell that was. He tried pressing it to read its description, but nothing happened... No transparent window with the explanation of the trait appeared before him.

So in the end—he just asked for the system's help.

'System, what's this trait about?'

[I don't really know. The Higher Being is stopping me from acquiring any information about it. They also said it's a surprise you acquired it immediately and even by yourself, even though you can't use it yet.]

'What are those shits on about now?'

Raven was frustrated. He hated it when someone knew the answer but revealed things slowly like a teaser.

[I don't know either, so don't snap at me. Anyway, they told you: "Discover things by yourself, it wouldn't be fun if I, or we, revealed everything to you now."]

'Those pieces of shit!'

Raven frowned but didn't pry any more about the trait. He knew he wouldn't get an answer anyway.

'I need to discover things myself, huh...'

He was at a loss at the moment, but there was one thing he was sure of.

'The unknown power that I used against Velcro is connected to this shit.'

Raven started to rack his brain for a while, but then gave up not long after.

'My stats increased and I'm near ranking up. Let's not stress out on unanswerable problems for now and just focus on the good things.'

Looking at Ruby again, Raven asked her.

"What happened to that Velcro guy?"

"He's unconscious. Your last attack damaged him greatly."

She casually answered.

Raven was actually relieved knowing that. He wasn't ready to kill a person yet.

He knew he would eventually need to kill someone, but for him, Raven would only kill if the situation called for it, or if someone didn't deserve to live.

Velcro and Raven only had a small beef because of Velcro's stupid brain and jealousy.

For him, that's not enough reason to kill. Though Velcro did try to kill him, But Raven let it go because he knew it was the result of his bluffing. He also got stronger because of it, so he wasn't really angry at Velcro.

"Anyway, that guy is pretty stupid, huh."

Raven said, to which Ruby smiled and nodded in reply.

"So you noticed. Yeah, he's stupid."

"The first time I saw him, I already knew he was stupid."

'Though Velcro is a looker, he gives off an aura of someone dumb.'

Raven thought.

But after fighting Velcro, Raven noticed that Velcro didn't have any technique. He just fought using his brute strength.

"But he's E-rank..."

Raven muttered in wonder.

"Velcro reached that rank by consuming medicine and herbs. And when raiding dungeons, he's like a meat shield that fights back."

Ruby said, having heard his words.

"Oh, that makes more sense."

Raven said. Glancing at Ruby, he saw her staring at him.

"What?"

He asked.

Ruby pointed her beautiful and slender finger at Raven and spoke.

"Your fighting style is weird. It's messy and clean at the same time."

Raven tilted his head at her words.

Ruby sighed and started to explain.

"You fight in close-quarter combat using a long-ranged weapon—that's just pure shit. But your actions are efficient and always produce the best results they can."

After looking at Raven briefly to see if he was still listening, she continued.

"You're always calm, which is good. Your fighting sense is top notch."

Ruby's tone and voice were serious and convincing, so Raven listened to them as he took note of everything she said.

"If you hone your style, you will be much stronger."

"Let's just say, you're a diamond in the rough."

Ruby noticed Raven was listening seriously as he occasionally nodded his head.

A silly thought entered her mind as the corner of her lips rose and formed a sly smile.

"You know, you look so hot while fighting."

Ruby said. Her silly thought really worked as it made Raven's serious expression crumble into a frown.

He was too tired to exchange silly words with Ruby anymore, so he instead looked at the time.

<6:37 PM>

Though it only made him frown deeper.

"You slept for 8 hours."

Ruby's words entered his ear as if she predicted his worry.

"I need to go."

Raven immediately grabbed what was his and hurriedly walked to the door.

"Wait!"

Raven was about to open the door when Ruby caught his wrist.

Turning his head to her, he opened his mouth.

"What?"

Ruby's brows knitted together—she was contemplating something.

Raven didn't wait long because a mischievous smile appeared on Ruby's face. Raven felt chills seeing that.

Ruby shook her head and let go of Raven's wrist.

"It's nothing."

Raven frowned but just proceeded to open the door.

Creak—

"See you soon!"

Ruby's sweet words reached Raven's ears.

Raven looked back one more time and saw Ruby waving her hand goodbye, smiling like an idiot.

"We won't see each other for a while. I have to attend the academy."

Raven said seriously.

"I know."

Ruby replied.

Raven frowned as he felt something was definitely off, though because he was in a hurry, he ignored such a feeling and closed the door.

Click—