The Astral soul system-Chapter 165: One shot

"Hey,Z. I think I found something over here"

Zyro looked towards the origin of the voice and ran towards it to see what she was so excited about.

"Look"

"That’s...a rock"

Jade seemed surprised.

"Seriously? Wow, different planets are weird"

She said, looking at the odd misshapes thing on the ground. She couldn’t even think of a way to accurately describe it.

"I’m surprised you’re not more used to this. You spent a whole month on another planet before"

Zyro said , walking away

"Yeah, but I couldn’t really focus on sightseeing "

"Yeah i guess that-"

Zyro’s eyes suddenly shrunk to the size of pins as he suddenly looked in a certain direction.

"You hear that?"

Jade tried listening and although she didn’t find it as quickly as Zyro, after about a minute, she asked.

"It sounds like the ground over there is shaking "

Zyro nodded

"Let’s check it out "

Zyro himself could already tell it was a fight,most likely between students and some sort of beast. He wanted to check if he could see anything interesting,after all,he wasn’t just sightseeing.

Zyro looked out of the corner of his eyes, discreetly checking behind him

’That’s right, keep following me. Just know it won’t do you any good ’

Jade and Zyro headed towards where the sounds were coming from, making sure to be as quiet as possible.

The sounds of battle grew louder and louder with each step , echoing throughout the woods that surrounded the area.

Jumping onto a relatively large boulder, Zyro looked down to see a valley beneath where he was currently standing, about fifty feet down.

Looking somewhere across the edge he could notice a group of three students surrounding a large wolf like beast.

Before he could get any closer,he heard a groan come from his side. He looked next to him to see Jade had a frown on her face

"What’s wrong?"

"I have a tummy ache all of a sudden"

Zyro noticed her frown was directed at the beast and almost laughed. It seemed she’d gotten an aversion to wolves after what happened last time. It made sense since for a whole month, other than each other, the only living things they’d made contact with in that desolate wasteland were those damned wolves.

"Just try to breeze through it, okay? Try focusing on something else,analyze what’s going on, we’re not here to fight, just watch"

Jade nodded, already used to being asked that. A few minutes passed idly as the group battled fiercely, unaware of their audience, they eventually managed to kill it. Zyro and Jade didn’t move throughout the fight and even after, letting the group leave.

"So,any questions?"

"Actually, yeah"

Zyro was pleasantly surprised,he stood upright, ready to answer

"About the fight?"

"No"

"?"

Jade seemed to be pondering something deeply as she spoke

"Well,there are a total of ten ability levels, right?"

Zyro nodded

"And your level is shown by the number of stars on your watch?"

"That’s how it works "

"But,i just noticed something. Ever since coming to school,i have barely seen anyone other than the teachers with more than five stars"

"Hmm?"

Zyro was a bit stunned, not expecting that question, however he was also impressed she noticed.

"Well if i want to say it as simply as possible, it’s because the military and the government are...a bit stingy"

"..."

"You see, the big families, the military and the government all have one thing in common, they create the either circuits that give people abilities,or rather they create replicas from studying the original circuits they possess. Then they distribute them to the public. So in order to keep the power level of the general populace relatively manageable, they only distribute up to level five, and keep the rest for soldiers, government agents and their family members"

"So that’s how they do it. Zen already told me about how the military and families trap students, that’s why it’s so hard to get out . That’s probably why Gary is a level six"

She suddenly looked like she realized something.

"Wait, doesn’t that mean most of the teachers are actually... Well i guess that explains why they all seem so unhappy "

Zyro nodded.

"Even miss Aurora?"

Zyro thought for a while.

"I’m not sure, she doesn’t act like the other teachers "

Zyro suddenly jumped off the rock

"Okay, let’s leave "

Jade still seemed conflicted

"Z? How would someone get a high level ability without joining the government or the military "

Zyro took a second before answering, not because he couldn’t, but because she might not like the answer.

"Well the first and easiest way would be to buy one off the dark web, but you’d need lots and lots of money for that, and I mean more than either of us has."

"Oh "

Jade muttered, looking a bit disappointed.

Zyro chuckled, creeping closer with his hands up like he was trying to grab her as he spoke in a creepy voice.

"Or... you could join a dark organization. There are almost a dozen so called terrorist organizations that want to take down the government, join one and prove your loyalty and you’ll gain power. If you’re willing... I’d be more than happy to -"

"Oh,stop it already "

Jade said, already leaning away from him, not willing to admit he actually had her scared.

"Besides, it’s not like you can help me like that anymore,the arcade’s already gone"

Jade tried to make it sound like she hadn’t even considered the option, but the way her eyes dilated and her words slipped out made Zyro believe otherwise.

’is she that desperate?’

"It’s no good anyway, it’d just be another version of what the government’s already doing . And even if you did manage to get it done, the moment you were found of getting an ability through any other channel, you’d be given anything from the life to death penalty "

"So there’s really no way "

Zyro once again failed to place the origin of the dissonance in her facial expression

"Why are you so curious about this "

Jade suddenly broke out into a nervous sweat.

"I mean,why else does anyone want power, right? To be powerful "

Zyro nodded despite not believing it for a second

"I guess you’re right "

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Anyway, let’s g-"

They both suddenly heard a furious roar coming from the valley below .

They both immediately look back down to see what was going on and saw a new beast emerge from the forest. It was a large brown bear with razor sharp claws and a mouth filled with rows and rows of deadly jaws.

The group of students had no choice but to fight and although they were of decent strength, they were already tired and wounded from their previous battle and it was clear they were going to lose.

"Shouldn’t we do something? They might die"

Jade asked

"Calm down. The second years and teachers are everywhere,the moment something goes very very VERY wrong,one of them will step in, they won’t let them die though"

The fight went on for a few more minutes and they were still on the back foot,in fact,things had gotten worse.

Zyro’s facial expression didn’t show it, but he was puzzled.

’is he really planning on doing nothing?’

He asked himself, discreetly looking behind him.

"Um,Z?"

Jade called, getting more concerned

"Yeah,i know. They aren’t going to make it, and i don’t think they even have enough time to use their sos"

"We should do something"

"Well go ahead"

Jade was a bit stunned before she realized he was serious.

Although a bit hesitant, she didn’t think much, and with a deep breath, she stood from where they were crouching, taking her bow from her back and nocking it,her fingers steadily pulling the bowstring to it’s limit as her emerald eyes stared at the beast.

It was relatively large, making it an easy target but she wanted to get this in one shot, otherwise there’d be trouble for both her and Zyro, meaning she had to go for the head.

At this point, the students were close to collapsing, they couldn’t even call for help at this point and were just backing away slowly while threatening the beast with their broken weapons.

The seconds seemed to pass much slower for Jade as everything slowed down

’wait for it ’

’wait for it’

The beast raised its claw and swiped down for one final strike,it was all over,or it would have been. A strange spinning projectile flew through the air at irregular angles, twisting and turning before slashing across the bears face, leaving a large gash and blinding one of its eyes before flying away, and before the beast could react, it’s wound was suddenly set ablaze, sending pain straight to it’s core as the embers ate away at it’s face.

It shook and trembled, howling in pain as it tried to put out the fire,it angrily looked up, seeing the flying projectile fly back towards a specific location over the valley with it’s one good eye.

A portal suddenly opened

"Now"

The beast’s mouth opened but before it could roar, the sharp sound of something tearing through the air silenced it. For a second,that sound seemed to be the loudest thing in the entire forest despite being as loud as a whisper, the entire valley stood still as it disappeared, especially the bear that stood for a surprising amount of time before dropping lifelessly to the ground,dead in less than a second.

The falling of the beast seemed to unpause time as the sound of bugs and the wind return to the valley.

Jade dropped her hand, still firmly gripping the bow.

"Thank-"

Zyro suddenly cut her off

"All i did was give you a clear shot. You killed it"

He said nonchalantly, spinning the shuriken on his index finger.

"Stil-"

"It’s fine, you’re welcome"

Jade nodded.

"Can we go check on them,they seem really banged up"

Zyro shrugged

"Fine but I’m not climbing or walking down"

He said suddenly pulling Jade into a princess carry"

"Whoa! Z!"

"Hold on"

Zyro said, retrieving his shield and throwing it to his feet.

"Lucky it’s a slope and not completely vertical, right?"

He didn’t wait for a response before stepping onto it and pushing himself off the edge.

The shield accelerated rather quickly and after a few seconds they were already moving very fast. Jade screamed, clinging to Zyro as he expertly leaned, steering the sheild that seemingly doubled as a surfboard . Their decent was although a bit bumpy, actually seemed too smooth, like whoever had built Zyro’s shield had designed it with this use in mind.

In less than a minute,they arrived at the bottom. Jade hopped off immediately, out of breath from screaming all the way down while Zyro just chuckled and picked up his shield.

" Sorry, should have given you a heads-up. You okay?"

Jade spent a few minutes catching her breath before giving him a shaky thumbs up

Noticing the three students beaten up and bruised, Jade immediately tried to approach them, not noticing, Zyro try to stop her.

The moment she took a step forward, they instinctively backed away, still clutching their weapons.

"..."

Jade’s mind blanked at the hostility, suprised by their reaction. She tried once again but they still backed away.

,"Yeah,i thought so"

Zyro muttered.

The students didn’t even look at the face of Jade herself,if they did, they might have noticed the expression on her face was that of someone who was there to save them, but instead their eyes were glued to the bow in her hands,alternating between it and the dead beast that had been killed instantly.

Terrifyingly enough, the arrow that had been fired had made it completely into the beast’s head, and had pierced the back as well, peeking out the back and making the sight even more horrific.

"Wait!"

Jade raised her voice but it had the opposite effect to what she wanted. The one in the middle suddenly took out a beast crystal. It was the one they’d gotten from the wolf they’d killed before.

Before Jade could say anything,he threw it on the floor towards her.

"I’m not asking for -"

Before anymore could be said, a voice suddenly echoed from behind them.

"What’s going on here?"

Everyone looked to see where the voice had come from, and surprisingly it was the teacher that had scolded Zyro and Sable earlier.

"I received an SOS from a student here"

It was him

Zyro pointed to a specific male student in the back.

"He just hit it a few seconds ago so I’m guessing you were really close by"

Berny snorted but didn’t reply. He looked at the first group,they were all beaten up and only two of them could even walk,he then looked at Jade and Zyro who didn’t even have a scratch on them. His eyes fell on the beast crystal and beast corpse on the ground and a strange glint appeared in his eyes.

Zyro didn’t need the seven deadly sins cultivation technique or his soul eyes to know what it was. Greed.

"Alright, I see what’s going on. You three are in no shape to keep fighting. You’re to return with me to the base "

He walked closer to where the core from the wolf was and bent to pick it up.

"As for this, since there’s no clear way for me to determine who it belongs to...then i have no choice but to-"

The crystal suddenly escaped his grasp as someone else picked it up.

Annoyed, Berny looked up to see the crystal in a boy’s hand. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Hmm. I like this,i think I’ll keep it"

The boy said.

"Hey you brat! I said-"

"Said what,Fatass?!"

The boy challenged, his blazing red eye boring into the depths of Berny’s soul