"Don't even think of trying to weasel your way out of this," Gilim scoffed. "You brought this upon yourself and your family when you decided to overstep your limits for some… dalliance." He said that last part with a disgusted expression aimed at Ihasu.

Profound Toxin rumbled forth with a humble request to please, please end the life of this defective little existence and Eik did everything he could to refuse. It seemed they would soon get the pleasure of beating him half to death if this apparent duel actually happened.

Before being introduce to the members of the Ougi clan, Eik had certainly expected to experience considerable backlash and quiet whispers about status and worth, and there had been plenty of that to be sure. But the direct and open contempt from Gilim and a few others had taken him by surprise.

It felt less like some noble political intrigue and more like a clear declaration of hostile intent.

But he wasn't so afraid of the Ougi clan. Clan Leader Gul was well aware that Eik was the inventor of the Legendary Mystery Medicine and that made him a valuable asset if nothing else. The old man's orange eyes had also nearly popped out of his head when Eik had first showed up at their estate, maskless and holding the hand of his favorite granddaughter. Eik still chuckled at that memory.

Naturally, he had long since told Ihasu the truth as well. She had taken it well, thankfully.

Hopefully they would change their tunes as well once Eik revealed his identity as a revolutionary alchemist, not to mention hammer the snot out of one of the proudest young Awakened.

"I would never even dream of weaseling out. I sincerely hope that the same can be said for you," Eik replied with a cheeky grin.

Gilim looked like he wanted to say something but finally turned around and marched up to the dragon. "Start it!" he snapped angrily at the test supervisor.

The whole crowd was silent now that an Ougi clan member had stepped onto the stage. It wasn't every day that one got to experience one of the prominent young lords test their mettle in a high rank Crucible test.

Many of the peripheral members as well as the main family members related to Gilim had come to watch his performance, wearing facial expressions mixed between eager expectation and dark envy. It was no mystery from where he had learned his disdainful and arrogant ways. While not nearly as vocal, his parents had also long since made it clear how they felt about Eik's presence in their clan home, even if neither he nor Ihasu lived there.

Gilim's mother was the daughter of Clan Leader Gul and his father was the son of some somewhat important someone from some somewhat important family. Eik honestly couldn't be bothered to give a rat's ass about any of them.

The mother had gone to the clan leader several times to petition for Eik's expulsion from their midst since he had first shown his face.

Obviously, that had not worked. But unlike Gilim himself, his father and mother hadn't taken their displeasure further than that. That wasn't to say that they didn't quietly approve of his behavior, judging by their expressions any time their son attempted to push Eik's buttons.

Now they were watching their son whale on the gigantic dragon with all of his might. If anybody called Gilim weak or unskilled for his power rank, they would be lying. He was powerful. Incredibly so. There was no way around that. Ever since he could walk, he had been showered with skilled instructors, potions, elixirs, and secret techniques, perfect training scenarios, a safe and competitive environment to grow in, and the general support of one of the most powerful clans within the Nidafjeld Alliance.

The metal from which the wicked blade of his spear was forged shone a dull red that exuded deadly potential. It was a stupidly expensive weapon in the hands of a stupidly expensive warrior. And it showed.

While some of his attacks bounced off the extremely hard scales, most of them expertly sunk deeply into the more vulnerable flesh in the gaps between, drawing bloody gashes all along its belly. Even while it was caught in a powerful stasis, the dragon was clearly still an S-rank monster, because it twitched ever so slightly at the bodily harm, its tail flicking almost imperceptibly.

At the sight of the dreadful beast, even in this sorry state, Eik felt that undeniable blood lust well up in him like a glass keeping water from overflowing with nothing but surface tension. His entire body was tense as he desperately held himself back from leaping in there and surrendering his sanity to the thrill of the carnage. Surprisingly, the past two years had only earned him greater control, not relief from the urges themselves, unfortunately…

Just a little more, then he could let loose. And let loose his would.

At this point he had a solid support network, quite a prominent position in society which would be elevated to an insane degree once he revealed himself as the only manufacturer of Eik's Legendary Mystery Medicine, not to mention considerable personal power, as he would prove here today.

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It would be safer to show just how dangerous it would be to come after him with ill intentions. And he didn't even have to worry about being suspected of being a Worldbreaker, since he could write off his power level as a result of daily consumption of the Legendary Mystery Medicine. Nobody except him even knew what the compounding effect of such excessive consumption was. It was perfect.

Eik watched Gilim fire off one skill after the other as he used a potent movement skill to flit about the dragon's body, opening wounds all over. He must have had some sort of passive hemorrhaging effect either as an enchantment on the red spear or as a personal ability, because every cut seemed to bleed excessively, bright yellow blood pooling viscously on the flagstones.

Although the man sent out numerous rapidly traveling slashes of pure energy, but when it quickly proved difficult to penetrate the scales like that, he limited himself to the more accurate direct cuts.

Besides himself, Eik had truthfully not witnessed many A-rankers fight seriously so he wasn't quite sure what to think of the show Gilim was putting on. It did look kind of impressive, he supposed. Intellectually, he knew the arrogant bastard was at a high level, but… was this really all there was to him?

It was certainly flashy, and the variety of skills on display proved his power rank if nothing else. It just felt so lacking. Perhaps Eik's perspective had simply been tilted by his own might.

Olivia had hit A-rank pretty recently and the fight with Gih the Madman was still pretty fresh in his memory, but he usually hunted on his own at this point. Now that he was here at the Crucible, Eik found himself completely unable to imagine was his score would be.

"So my score was 203,543 back when I last took a test at D-rank. Masakir Hahakan was the previous record holder before I came into the picture. Is it still him here at A-rank?" Eik asked.

"No," Ihasu answered with a shake of her head as she handed one half of an apple she had cut to Eik's father and bit into the other. "He fell off the top spot at C-rank."

"And what is the current record for A-rank, then?"

"17,240,888," she said. "The second place is 14,645,924, so the first place is quite a bit ahead as you can tell."

"You talked about my memory," Michael broke in, dumbfounded. "You just delivered those two eight digit numbers like you were remembering your own age."

"I took a look as we went through the lobby, Mike," she laughed, her orange eyes gleaming with mirth.

"Oh, right," he chuckled. "I forgot to do that."

"How's your cousin doing, you reckon?" Eik asked, his eyes never leaving the haughty spear-wielder.

She scratched her neck as she mulled it over. "Pretty good. He's definitely strong, but he lacks the power to get at its vitals. Even with a spear, he's keeping it too shallow. The dragon is just too tough for him to really get at it in only one minute."

"You really know his skills well, don't you?" Heath said.

"I was always dragged along to watch stuff like this, for all the kids in the clan. Gilim is smart enough to realize that, rather than spending all of his time trying to get a single deep strike, he's better off leveraging the hemorrhaging effects of his spear, Bloodletter, and earn points through blood loss."

"Hm," Eik mumbled to himself, paying only peripheral attention. As Gilim's attempt was coming to an end, his vision seemed to blur and ignore anything that wasn't the S-ranked creature lying on the platform. The raging thirst for violence that had been close to overpowering him until now quietly became replaced by a deadly calm.

His friends and family noticed that something in him had changed and took a few steps away from him, Rasmus pulling little Bin back behind himself. They all knew that dangerous accidents where Eik lost control like the ones that had happened in the past were history, but one could never be too careful.

When the end of Gilim's one minute attempt was finally called, he whipped his red spear through the air to clear the blade of yellow blood as the test supervisor calculated the score based on several different measurements running simultaneously. After about fifteen seconds, he raised his hand high for attention and announced the score with an artificially raised voice.

"A-ranker Gilim Ougi of the Ougi clan. A score of… 12,950,877 points!"

Even after hearing the two high scores, the only thing that really gave the Earthlings an idea of how good that was were the cheers erupting from the crowd at the announcement. They were going wild.

Confident smirk glued to his lips, Gilim descended the stairs and walked closely by Eik, whose eyes still hadn't left the dragon. "It's already too late for you to run away, you insect. I am a warrior of the Ougi clan. I even have three doses of Legendary Mystery Medicine coursing through my veins," he spat.

Only when Heath gave him a push toward the steps did Eik snap out of it. "Huh…? Oh, yeah, sure. Can I go now?" he asked Ihasu, seeming to not even realize that Gilim was still right next to him and waiting for a response. She nodded, gaze shifting between the two of them.

Good mood ruined, Gilim made his way back to his friends and parents. Staring up at Eik's back, Bin accidentally stood in his way but the spear wielder didn't even bother to stop or step around her, knocking her to the ground with a hard knee as he walked through.

Strong as she was, she didn't cry outright, but for the second time that day her face showed fear. Ihasu, Rasmus, Olivia, and Heath were there immediately, and the rest of her protectors followed right after. Only the fact that they were all there already allowed Eik to keep himself from flying at the fucker right then and there.

Rage coursing through his entire body like searing magma, Eik stepped up to the dragon, its tranquil form a stark contrast to what was about to happen.

"Test taker, A-ranker Eik Magnasen. Get ready!" the supervisor shouted with his amplified voice.

Practically exploding from his body, aura of deep turquoise jetted out like mist, imparting on everyone standing along the edges of the arena, exactly what Eik had been holding in. One of he new skills, Armor of the Scourge fell into place along his body like beautifully carved, crystalline plate.

His eyes were like flames of cyan as Backflow switched into high gear.

A magnificent crown of pure, brilliant blue above his head signified the arrival of the Worldbreaker.

What the spectators were witnessing today was no mere A-ranker.

This was the Prince of Toxin.

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