The Astral soul system

Chapter 270: Thief

Zaine crashed to the ground, breathing heavily. His wings had closed up again somewhere during the journey. Luckily he hadn’t been flung somewhere else.

He groaned, his clothes glowing before disappearing back into a card, dropping to the ground in front of him and leaving him in his academy uniform.

If he hadn’t strategically placed Moirai on the other side of the portal he’d have been doubly screwed.

He didn’t have enough energy to do anything right now. Zephyr had had to force open the shadow dimension himself and pulled him to a random location. Safe to say the ride was anything but comfortable.

He felt like he’d been shot from a slingshot through a blender. That plus his regular injuries were just a huge pain altogether.

He looked at his hands that were slowly healing after being mutilated by the elemental, sighing and falling back onto the ground.

"You okay?"

"..."

"Yeah I thought it might be like that. On the bright side you got a mid to high rank fire elemental core,at least compared to the other ones"

That was true. It wasn’t just its power that proved that but its intelligence. Usually elementals just mimicked what they saw, like parrots. They weren’t very smart,but the one that attacked him actually seemed angry,or at least agitated when things started to fall apart, and it used an attack of its own making instead of just copying him which required some degree of intelligence,both emotionally and psychologically.

Of course it wasn’t like it mattered. There wasn’t much he could do with this thing. No blacksmith with half a brain would work on an elemental core that could reform at any moment,or at least no blacksmith he could find with his current resources and circumstances, and the system shop after being limited didn’t have anything he could make with a fire elemental core

Feeling she hadn’t cheered him up much she tried again.

"That new move was cool. Never seen you do that before"

Ironically it was Zen’s move. Or at least the concept was something Zen had created based off the ability of someone they’d met before. They were basically throwing knives made of energy.

He looked at the core that had shredded his hands and back at his hands that were still healing very slowly

He could vaguely see traces of his astral form as it healed, finding it interesting he made a mental note.

’So that’s three ways astrals can be identified by humans. The eyes with no pupils, the lack of a shadow, and the split second during healing when their true form is visible ’

Luckily humans were rather oblivious of their surroundings and most didn’t pay attention to the little things like that,so he and Jade had kept their identities just fine, mostly without even meaning to.

He took a quick look around to find out where he was.

Luckily it seemed it was still somewhere in the city . He had to get back to the academy as quickly as possible. If his absence was noticed he’d have a problem on his hands.

He heard a chime and looked up to see Moirai floating right above him.

"Hey there"

He suddenly looked at where the voice came from and saw a little girl standing right in front of him,her eyes switching between him on the ground and Moirai in the sky.

"Is that your pet?"

"..."

"Oh,shit"

Theia mumbled, disappearing into the system.

He looked at her for a few seconds and slowly got up from the ground.

"Your hands, they’re hurt."

He looked down at his hands and sighed, quickly taking a fresh pair of gloves from his ring and putting them on.

Her eyes widened, seeing him bring two things out of such a tiny ring.

"Whoa. Cool"

She suddenly squinted, noticing the ink on the back of his hand right as he covered it.

"You have a tattoo? What is it?"

"If i told you I’d have to kill you"

Hearing that she frowned but didn’t ask again.

He held his hand out and the card lifted up into the ground flew into it.

A black tendril darted out from his sleeve, wrapping around the crystal on the ground and bringing it into his hand .

He slid it into his pocket and started walking away.

"Wait up!"

He heard the girl call out behind him as she quickly caught up.

"My name’s Iris"

He didn’t reply and kept walking. He wasn’t sure exactly where he was but it wasn’t a good idea to stay in one place for too long.

"You’re from the academy, right?"

He was wearing his uniform so he wasn’t surprised she recognized it. Still he didn’t acknowledge her presence.

She went silent for a bit, looking at his hand and suddenly reached for it, holding it.

"Do you need help? You were bleeding"

"Get off me"

He snapped, yanking his hand away

"Ok,ok. Sorry"

She said, waving her hands as she apologized.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and scoffed but didn’t say anything else.

"Ok. I guess I’ll leave you alone the-"

Before she left he suddenly grabbed her hands, lifting her off the ground with one hand so her face was at his level.

"Not so fast, give me back my crystal. Now"

"Woah. Buddy,chill, she’s a kid,and we’re in public"

He took a cursory look around and the few people who were around acted like they didn’t see anything.

Even the kid herself didn’t bother crying or asking for help.

She squirmed in his grip but didn’t get any less stuck.

"Okay, okay. I’m sorry"

She squeaked

"You can have it back"

He didn’t say anything and just let Black take it from her pocket.

"Okay, now let me go"

"Not so fast"

His grip on her hands tightened.

"Give me one reason not to break your hands, thief"

Hearing that she started panicking, trying to free herself but it was pointless.

"Woah, buddy,maybe tone it down a bit. Don’t you think that’s a bit rash "

Theia’s voice rang in the back of his mind but he just tuned her out

"I’m sorry, okay? P-please don’t hurt me. I...I can get you another one"

"What?"

"I know where there’s another one like this. I’ll show you where it is"

It didn’t take a genius to know she was either lying or didn’t tell him the full story. Still, for some reason he dropped her.

"Fine, show me "

He was working on being more greedy anyway. Might as well.

"This way"

She said, leading him in another direction. He didn’t say anything and followed behind her

The two walked for a few blocks, making a couple turns along the way. As they di, Zaine got to see more of this area. It was messy and dilapidated, with few people on the streets. He started to suspect he knew where he was.

They took another turn and walked for a few feet when Zaine suddenly heard something behind them. Turning around he saw five guys in messy matching clothes blocking off the way they came.

He turned back to the front and saw Iris running ahead

"Over here!"

She yelled, attracting more attention before diving headfirst into a tiny crack in the wall that could only fit her , shuffling her way through to the other side

He watched her run, his facial expression not changing his facial expression at all. He could’ve grabbed her any time but he didn’t, letting her get away and letting himself get surrounded .

He didn’t even need the system to tell him these were low level thugs, completely powerless. Even with almost no Astra and his hands still injured he wasn’t worried in the slightest

He looked around. There were about fourteen of them.

"Hey punk. You blind or something? You walked right onto our turf"

"..."

He was starting to understand why Zen kept quiet so much. Seriously this dialogue felt like it came from a crappy arcade game.

"Oh come on. Look at those threads, he must be new here. He probably hasn’t been properly shown around"

The one that was talking stepped forward,a metal bat in his hand.

"Don’t worry kid, we’ll educate you properly on how things work around here"

"..."

"By the time we’re done with you, you’ll be on your knees thanking me"

"Funny, that’s the same thing I said to your mom"

Eyes widening in rage, he suddenly lifted the bat, swinging it right at Zaine’s neck.

He didn’t move and watched as the bat slammed into his neck, bending against it.

Sighing he grabbed him by his neck, lifting him into the air and throwing him into a wall.

The rest charged at him with varying weapons but it didn’t matter. They all bounced off him leaving barely a scratch and in a matter of minutes they were all on the ground, whether they were still alive or not,he honestly didn’t care