For I Am A Side Character - 97: Against Class-A - Part 2

‘N-no way…’

As Jason was found lying on the ground, he witnessed the sight of Audrey Yagami…the very definition of a “Swift Blade”, be utterly defeated in the small and short effort of one person.

‘I barely was even able to follow through with her lightning blade dance…and yet, S-Soril was easily able to overwhelm her just like that? Does that even make sense for someone our age?!’

To Jason, he was put in a place filled pressure.

At first, when he was with Jessabelle and Audrey, he thought that he would be able to confidently test Soril’s skill altogether…but witnessing the effect of his sole strength, where he tore off every attack they sent him, and now that he has eliminated Audrey…one of the people Jason solely relied on in this duel…Jason found himself breathing heavily.

At the sight of his skill alone…Jason was put in a state of confusion…

‘H-how? How can someone his age be this strong?…that seems too unbelievable to even consider.’

In that moment, Jason saw Soril’s strength and existence as a sheer mystery…a wall that felt indomitably impossible to overcome.

It even made him consider that Soril was an adult in disguise.

All of his confidence was lost the moment Audrey lost against Soril that easily.

As his chest was healed by Jessabelle, he found himself standing back up to face Soril head on. But as he fully rose from his position, he noticed Jessabelle holding on to the edge of his clothes…and the sheer fear she showed simply told him that his actions might be pointless.

“…I have to go.” he said silently close to her.

Despite the wall of uncertainty put in front of him, he had no choice to move forward.

“…” Jessabelle couldn’t say anything as Jason moved on ahead.

“Assist me when you have the chance.” said Jason as looked ahead with a determined face.

‘…It doesn’t matter if I fail today…or if I don’t win at all…right now, what matters is that I have the heart to not run away.’

‘Just like how Audrey did her best against him, I’ll give it my all just to grow in this situation…this is a chance, and I’m not throwing it away!’

The moment he said this, he ran up to Soril with his sword gripped tight.

[Arcane Sword Arts: 1^st Blooming Sword]

Activating the skill which enlightens his mind with the use of the sword, an ounce of bravery was added in his heart…and in result, his pace in moving forward hastened.

And the moment he was in reach of Soril’s body, he gave it his all and didn’t hold back at all.

[Arcane Sword Arts: 2^nd Bloom: Crashing Petals]

That moment, two simultaneous forms of cut were making its way to Soril, but he simply made due in protecting himself by the force of his swing.

[Heavy Slash]

To his counter to Jason’s attack, the force of his swing was so powerful, it nullified Jason’s skill yet again.

In return, Jason clicked his tongue but that didn’t stop Jason from moving forward again.

As Soril and Jason kept countering each other’s attack, Jessabelle in the sidelines couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by it all.

‘W-was he always this strong?’

The sheer strength that Soril presented in that moment made Jessabelle remember of her father. The strength her father presented when she would sometimes spar with him one in a while, showed that his experience and power was far superior that her…and in this moment, she was feeling that sense of acknowledgement towards Soril, and his sole identity.

But asking questions altogether wouldn’t help in this moment.

From the distance, she can see that Jason was struggling to penetrate pass Soril’s defenses. She noticed that out of every action, Soril had not once taken the initiative to attack. He was simply keeping his pace and position by always defending himself.

‘…He’s not even taking us seriously.’ she said as she felt annoyed by his actions.

‘…if that’s the case, we have to go all out…I have to go all out just like Audrey did.’

And to her decision, she was able to pull out something from her pocket.

It was a glass filled with a mana infused flame. And although it was warm to its touch, Jessabelle was nervously contemplating on whether or not she should do this.

But seeing how Jason was barely keeping himself together in the fight, she had no choice.

‘…I have to go all out!’ she thought to herself.

And to no hesitation, she drank the bottle on her hand…which in turn activated the very form which was said to be mystery to activate.

In the second that she drank the bottle’s contents, her body started turning into flames and soon bursted like a dynamite that had no limit of control.

“Kyaahh!!!” her scream was enveloped in the fire, as well as her skin and eyes.

And altogether, she was now shown in her Birth skill form.

[Birth Skill Activated: Fallen Phoenix feather]

and to her activation of such a skill, it didn’t go unnoticed by Soril.

“…?!” in fact, Soril was quite shocked to see her activate such a skill.

‘I only have five minutes to keep this form running…after that, I’m out.’ she thought to herself as she remembered back to the first time she used this skill, her father warned her that she should only use the skill when necessary.

And now, this was a perfect time to test her skill…

With her father being able to fully study his daughter’s birth skill, he was able to create an item solely for the activation of her daughter’s birth skill. One bottle would cost over a half a million, and its creation takes time, knowledge and effort that only her father can create. No one else knew how it was made but it was made solely to have Jessabelle learn the properties of her own Birth Skill.

Once she learns the feeling of having to use the birth skill, her father hoped that she would slowly grow to activate it simply by command. Birth skills were hard to master or even activate by itself normally, but it was still a skill blessed deep into a hunter’s body. In time, one can master such a skill.

So without wasting any time, Jessabelle who was now levitating in the air due to how she was made of flames, she flew to Soril’s direction and she blasted Soril with a fire equivalent to that of a dragon’s breath.

*BOOOOSSSHHH!!!*

In the area of her attacks, Jason was nearly swallowed by the flames, but luckily he escaped in time.

As For Soril, he noticed that the hairs on his skin were actually burned. Thankfully, Jessica has yet to fully bring out her abilities as the incarnation of a phoenix’s feather, right now…her attacks were equivalent to that of an A-rank attack, but since Soril had the Body of the Dark mended into his skin, he barely took any damage, apart from his hair which was slightly burned.

Seeing that he might go bald at this rate, he decided to point all of his attention to Jessabelle first.

[Steps of the Emissary Ghost.]

In as quick as a flash, he disappeared from where he stood.

And the next thing Jessabelle noticed was how she saw a shadow behind her. When she turned to look, she saw that Soril was seen raising his leg to kick her in her chest, but the moment he did, something surprising happened.

*Fwoosh*

“!?” Soril’s legs went pass through Jessabelle’s body, and in his powerful kic, he saw the flames completely mended as if she was fire itself.

After his kick, he fell and landed to the floor and decided to back away.

‘.…” that one kick was all he needed to know that physical attacks weren’t going to be effective against her…but what about magic?

Having that thought, he raised his hand and he conquered a simple large mana spear. And along with it, he formed the mana spear to spiral itself into a drill, making it more deadly.

As he fired, Jessabelle simply countered it with a less damaging mana spear that simply broke Soril’s attack midair.

‘…’ it wasn’t going to be easy fighting a genius of a mage using magic himself, so seeing as how he didn’t really waned to waste anymore time, he decided to point all of hi attention to Jason.

Sure he could easily take Jessabelle down using God’s will, but it’s a risk that he knows doesn’t benefit him in the slightest. So as he turned his attention to Jason, Jessabelle was surprised to see his decision altogether.

“!?”

For some reason, she was mad.

Despite how it goes…the moment she activated her birth skill, she was excited to see that Soril had his eyes on her, and in that moment she thought that she could probably use this attention as a way to get herself close to him. In their last ecounter, she had already proposed to him that they were friends…maybe this moment was a chance for her to climb that social ladder even more so.

Seeing how Soril seems like a person who enjoys sparring, maybe this was the chance she needed to show some kind of compatibility.

“…” but having seen that his attention was on Jason, she felt annoyed. Despite the effort she put to show her true potential in front of her crush, but Soril didn’t had the time to waste on her…

Sadly, it wasn’t a day where he was interested.

So with that said, she turned to Jason and simply said what was in her mind.

“Hoy Jason! Don’t you fucking touch him! He’s mine! You hear me!!” she said angrily.

“.…Eh?” and hearing Jessabelle’s mad rage, Jason quickly took notice of her intentions.

So he gave her a nervous thumbs up and decided not to engage in battle with Soril who also heard Jessabelle’s shout.

With that said, Jessabelle willingly landed down to the floor and she approached Soril with a rather nervous smile.

“…Y-yo!” she said as she was seen blushing in front of him.

“…” but Soril remained silent and decided to hear her out. He was cautious that she might attack then and there.

“Y-you really changed huh. Since the last time we meet, you weren’t this strong.” she said as she tried to look harmless in front of him.

”…You grew as well. With how you’re able to use your birth skill this freely, I’m really impressed.” said Soril as he decided to engage in conversation.

“R-really? Well, its not a big deal. Hehe.”

“So you wanted to deal with me on your own?” he asked.

“…” seeing as how Soril was straightforward, she couldn’t really take the chance to talk more.

Hearing that, she felt a bit hurt inside…

As a teenage girl, not getting the attention she wanted from the boy who she had a crush on really stings her heart…

“…Neh, I was thinking…If…if its possible, if I can hit you just one time, can I ask for a favor from you?” she asked as her eyes turned serious.

“…What?”

“…I mean, you’re fast enough to dodge Audrey’s blade, do you really think I can hit you with me being as a mage?” she asked.

“…Why are you asking me this?” asked Soril.

“There’s no hidden meaning behind it, I’m just putting some kind of incentive on my part, so you know, to make things interesting.” she said.

“…Fine.” Soril agreed.

He agreed because he saw that for some reason, Jessabelle was showing him an expression of growth. Here in this moment, it seems like she was going all out and it was a chance for her to grow…meaning, it was a chance for her to gain a sense of development in a way that could benefit the story.

She was one of the main characters of the story…if she grows well, then this world had a better chance in the future.

The moment Soril agreed, Jessabelle smiled slyly and she attacked head on.

[Flamestral Fire Feather]

In a quick second, Jessabelle grew wings made of fire…

And in her form, behind her was the sight of a small ball made of fire that somehow resembled that of a sun.

[Sun’s birth]

With just one swipe of her finger, the ball of fire slowly fell from the air and into the floor.

The moment the ball of fire touched the floor….everything was torn apart.

A blast radius of 50 meters enveloped the entire dungeon. From the C-ranked boss room and every other monster nearby, not a single living should have survived…including that of her classmates found unconscious on the floor.

She didn’t have the mind to think of them that forward.

Only after she did released her skill,did she remember that there were other people in the room.

When she turned to them, she found that they were no longer in the same place, and instead…she heard a call from somewhere on the side..

“Oy, weren’t you being a bit reckless?” asked Soril as he stood near a ruined dungeon tunnel. And beside him was the unconscious sight of the Class-A group. It was Audrey and the other four nameless students.

“…Y-you saved them?” asked Jessabelle who was a bit taken aback.

“Yep…if I hadn’t, some of them wouldn’t have survived.” he said.

Meanwhile, Jason was found nervously standing on another side of a dungeon’s tunnel, nervously breathing as he was shocked to experience the power that Jessabelle presented.

‘A-are you serious?!’ he thought.

“…?” seeing as how Soril saved the others, Jessabelle noticed that Soril’s right arm was slightly burned. It must have been affected during him saving the class-A group.

“…”

“…I guess I can consider this a hit.” said Soril as he noticed Jessabelle looking at his arm.

“..Ah…no, it seems unfair.” she said.

“…”

“!?” as Jessabelle admitted that it wasn’t fair-play, she suddenly felt an unusual pain occur in her entire body. Not long after, she lost her wings and she fell down, but before she could touch the floor, Soril caught her.

“What’s wrong?” asked Soril as he held her close to his chest.

“…!?” Jessabelle was quite taken aback by his action, but soon enough she explained her situation.

“My body still can’t fully manage the birth skill…this is just the after-effect.” she said.

“…I’ll put you close with the others.” said Soril as he carried Jessbelle next ot Audrey and the rest of the Class-A group.

“…” in that time she was being carried, she savored every moment…at one point, before she was put down, she took a long deep sniff on his armor…inside it, she could smell a feint of his sweat.

‘…Hmm, worth it.’ she said.

***

Seeing as how it was only Jason left, Soril finally took this chance to engage him seriously.

As a way to show that he was serious, Soril took of the sheath from his sword.

“…?!” And seeing that, Jason had no choice but to take this to heart.

“You’re the only one left.” said Soril.

“…”

“I’m not going to be holding back this time.” he said.

“…” Jason could only grip his sword tight…

And no words were said after that…

What only stood in that moment, was the decision to take the first step forward.

Soril who was calmly observing Jason, waited for him to take the first move, while Jason who was a nervous boy, couldn’t help but hear his own heart beat in the nervousness of it all.

He sweated like a pig…

But the moment his sweat dropped to the floor, he initiated.

And so did Soril.