‘Why’s there an old lady roaming the streets at this time?’ Adonis narrowed his gaze as he identified the other two figures, a man and a women; both seeming much healthier than the other residence of the god forsaken neighbourhood (although that isn’t saying much.)

  “Drop me.” Soaring less than a hundred meters above ground, Adonis sharpened his resolve.

  “Ksk ksk?” The beast asked concernerdly.

  “I’ll be fi-”

  Before the boy could finish reassuring his companion, Minnie mercilessly let him go and flapped his wings eagerly.

  ‘How sassy.’ Adonis shook his head in disapprova, coating his entire body in Earthly Aura.

  Reinforced by the supernatural energy Adonis crashed into the unkept pavement, shattering its fragile tiles into dust before he sent forth two columns of ivory flames towards the assailants.

  “Inferno magic: Hell’s streaks.” He muttered.

  “What?!” Being the more physically capable of the two, the women covered in filth dashed to the side to avoid the boy’s sudden spell.

  “Argh!” The less fortunate of the two, the man wasn’t fast enough to react to the boy’s spell and had his arm destroyed by the ivory flames.

  ‘Magic?!’

  “Leave!”

  “Who are you?” Ignoring the magic knight in training’s command, the woman lunged towards him with her blade swinging.

  “You’re committing a crime, surrender.” Having summoned his chokuto from the depths of his spatial ring, Adonis blocked her attack using his sword’s sheath.

  “Who are you to command me!” She spat.

  “I hate repeating myself.” Pivoting his body on his weaker leg, Adonis flung his right foot at the woman’s solar plexus.

  “ Too slow, boy!” Despite her fatigued state, the female knight easily sidestepped the boy’s attack and countered with her own.

  Utilizing the same manuevar as before, Adonis used the sheath of his weapon to clash with the knight’s much inferior and rusted armament.

  ‘He must be a magic knight, either a third year or second year… I must end this quickly.’ Acknowledging the boy’s might, she swung again; although this time her speed approached that of sound and aimed at the boy’s throat.

  {You’re lucky she’s not at full strength.} The Devil God teased.

  ‘...’

  Reinforcing his sword’s sheath with Earhtly Aura, Adonis parried the knight’s attack away.

  “You’re mocking me!” As if she was reading his mind, the woman pulled her sword back almost immediately and slashed at the boy’s mid torso.

  “...” Rather than engaging in some mid-battle banter, the silver eyed youth rammed the sheathed chokuto into the woman’s blade thus causing their weapons to violently rub against eachother, both of them trying to overcome the other.

  “Ya’ll are all the same, you sit in ye big ass mansions and preach ethics while not knowing a single thing about the real world. Come spend a day in these streets and you’ll see that justice, hope and good all mean nothing!” As her sombre brown eyes met the boy’s dull silver, the struggling knight scowled.

  “Real world…”

  “Yes, you don’t know nothin’. So go back to your fancy school and keep eating the shit they feed you.” The knight slid her blade along the boy’s sheath upwards, quickly approaching his hands.

  {We actually eat really well.} The Devil God chuckled.

  Ignoring the Devil God’s mockery, Adonis held the bottom of the sheath with his left hand and used his right to reveal the beautiful blade.

  Flipping to reverse grip in the same hand, Adonis casually blocked the knight’s attack and slashed at her legs.

  “Hah!” Deeming the strike too slow, the intermediate knight leapt into the air.

  {There’s nowhere to escape to in the air.}

  Having came to the same conclusion as the Devil God, Adonis pulled his arm back before releasing all his might into a single thrust aimed at her throat.

  “Shit!” Defending just in the nick of time, the knight brought her gladius forward to block the attack.

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  “ARGH!” Propelled backwards by the overwhelming force, the intermediate knight was forced leave a trail of scarlet in her flight.

  “Inferno Magic: Hell’s tears.” Following the boy’s solemn commandment, five magic circles bombarded the knight with ivory flames.

  “Have you made your decision, will you retreat or join her in the afterlife?” Turning his attention to the wounded magic knight, Adonis stared blankly.

  “I surrender.” Wincing from the sharp throbbing in what’s left of his right arm, the man dropped his head in defeat.

  {What a waste of a magic knight.}

  “Thank you.” As his whisper of relief was carried away with the wind, the boy’s eyes got brighter and he tossed the man a health potion.

  “It won’t get you your arm back but it’ll make the pain better.”

  ‘It’s yer fault I feel pain!’ The man caught the potion and greedily drank it.

  “Thank you.” He muttered.

  {The old hag has ran away.}

  ‘She was scared.’ The boy empathized.

  “Why were you attacked an old lady?” Ignoring the glaring of the fresh new spirit, Adonis stared blankly at the man on the floor.

  “I-I don’t have money for food.” He replied.

  “You’re a Tier 8 magic knight, you should be more than able to find a stable job, whether it’s legal or not.” Adonis narrowed his eyes.

  ‘How did he know I’m Tier 8?’

  “...”

  “At a first glance you and your late partner are suffering from signs of starvation, but superhumans don’t succumb to such physical conditions as easily and even when that is the case their strength doesn’t drop by magnitude your partner’s did. So I’ll ask you again, why were you robbing an old lady?” Adonis asked irritably.

  “Shed-two.” He whispered.

  “What?”

  “Shed-two!” He repeated louder.

  {Shed-two?} The Devil God asked confusedly.

  “It’s a drug.” Adonis explained.

  “I know…” The man tilted his head at the teenager.

  ‘Shed-zero was a project to create a enhancement potion that temporarily boosted the user’s capabilities by a whole tier, unfortunately due to the high cost it took to produce said drug and it’s dangerous side effects, all the Empire’s agreed to never revive the project again.’

  ‘Shed-zero was shut down two hundred years ago, and secretly Shed-one began production.’

  ‘After Grandpa and I effectively shut down Shed-one we found out about them…’ The boy’s expression soured.

  “What is Shed-two?” This being the first time of him hearing about this new variation, Adonis scowled.

  “You’s don’t know what Shed is?” The drug-addicted man titled his head confusedly.

  “I know about Shed-one.”

  “Is Shed-one better?” The mage squealed excitedly.

  {What’s wrong with this mortal?}

  ‘It seems this new variation has become more commercially available.’

  “Just tell me what you know about it.” The boy said irritably.

  “...It’s better if I show you’s.” With a scheme brewing in his degraded brain, the magic knight smirked excitedly.

  ***

  20 minutes later.

  Deeper in the slums

  {I doubt following this one is wise, mortal.}

  ‘Minnie is following above if we need to get out of here.’ Adonis said confidently.

  After leading the boy deeper into the district for twenty minutes, the magic knight suddenly stopped and hid behind a building.

  “Do you’s have five brown ones?” He asked.

  “Don’t tell me you’re trying to rob me.” Adonis stared at the man blankly.

  “No sir, I’d never!” Feeling what’s left of his right arm throb the man panicked.

  “See’s that man right there?” The older magic knight pointed at a cloaked man standing outside a convenience store.

  “He’s sells ‘Asch’ for five coins.” He continued.

  “Asch?” Adonis frowned.

  “A powder version of Shed-twos.” He explained.

  “I see, so you’re getting me a sample.” Adonis nodded and summoned five bronze coins.

  “Y-yes sir.” The mage took the boy’s coins and happily skipped to the drug dealer.

  “Back already?” The cloaked man smiled at the drug addict.

  “Just licked my biggest score this week from some rando’ hag.” The magic knight smirked arrogantly.

  “Hehe, same as last time?” The drug dealer nodded approvingly.

  “Yer, gimme a fiver.”

  {He’s gonna run.} The Devil God predicted.

  “Definitely.” Adonis sighed.

  On receiving the small bag of powder, the magic knight summoned a cloud of mist.

  “What the hell man?!” The drug dealer shook his fist angrily.

  “Sorry Dan, you’s been overcharging me for a while now. Keep the kid busy would ya.” Randy, the magic knight disappeared with the fog.

  {Tsk Tsk Tsk, I told you.}

  “Minnie, fetch Randy. I have a few questions for Dan.” Using the fog to his advantage, Adonis kicked the drug dealer square in his chest.

  “What do you think you’re doing kid?” Unbothered by Adonis’s assault, the magic knight drug dealer merely stared at the teenager infront of him.

  {He’s a Tier 8 magic knight that hasn’t been weakened by drugs.}

  {You may have bitten off more than you can chew, mortal.} The Devil God chuckled.

  “It was obvious you’d be strong, you wouldn’t want people stealing from you and your organization now would you?” Adonis retracted his leg and dashed backwards.

  ‘ “Organization?” is he an agent? No, he looks to young… But he might be some kind of intern, but then he’d be accompanied by some-’

  “I’m alone… That’s what you’re wondering right? I’m alone, and I’m not an agent for the police force… I guess you could call me some kind of a vigilante.” Adonis chuckled.

  “Vigilante? Hahaha. You think you’re some kind of hero?!” The drug dealer clutched his stomach and bellowed loudly.

  “Just give me all the Shed you have and answer all my questions, then I promise not to hurt you.” Adonis shrugged.

  “Hurt me?” Dan straightened his posture and stared at the boy before him, his eye twitching involuntarily.

  “Yeah, I doubt dealing drugs is your passion. So you wouldn’t want to get hurt over it, would you?”

  “Who the fuck do you think you are, brat?!” The man extended his arm and summoned a gladius from his spatial ring.

  “We don’t have to fight, I’m asking you poli-”

  While the boy dissappointedly shook his head; the magic knight was already before him and swinging his blade violently.

  ‘Let’s do it your way.’

  “Inferno magic: Hell’s armament.” At the last second, Adonis ignited his right hand with the ivory flames of hell and destroyed the drug dealer’s blade.

  “What the hell?!” Now only holding the hilt of his gladius, Dan took two rapid steps backwards and scowled.

  ‘My sword can withstand Blaze Magic from a Tier 7, how the hell did he just destroy it?!’

  While the man tried to evaluate what happened to his sword, Adonis summoned his chokuto and took three strides forward to confront him.

  “?!”

  The silver-eyed youth vertically swung his sheathed sword at the man’s torso, tearing through the air in its path.

  ‘He didn’t even unsheathe his blade!’ Further infuriated by the boy’s disrespect, Dan discarded the sword’s hilt and brought his hands forward and caught Adonis’s chokuto.

  As the man moved how he’d predicted, Adonis pulled the the handle of his blade backwards to unsheath it before thrusting the blade toward the man’s throat.

  “Huh!” Unlike he had expected, the man felt no pain in his neck or even anywhere else in his body, all he was left with was the chilling sensation of the flat side of Adonis’s blade resting against his throat.

  “You lose…” Ready to decapitate the man at any moment, Adonis stared at Dan coldly.

  “H-how… You’re just a kid, I’m a magic knight! I outrank you!”

  ‘A full fledged magic knight working as a drug dealer is demeaning, atleast to one who had high aspirations. Every magic knight that enters an academy are either nobles who see themselves as above everyone else or someone who thinks they are destined for greatness, so for them to fall to this kind of position would mean they are doing whatever they can to survive and have discarded their previous lifestyle and goals. A person like that has no more fighting spirit left.’

  “Without a strong spirit you are weak, not just figuratively, but physically… A degrading spirit weakens the body and soul, it wouldn’t matter whether you were a Tier 1 or a Tier 8, I’d never lose to someone like that.”

  “Surrender.” Adonis commanded.