Scarlet

“Fuckin’ hell…” I mutter after landing on the ground before quickly climbing to my feet, wincing as my arm moves in ways it isn’t supposed to. And when I reach my full height, I find Shifter staring at me from several meters away, a very faint frown on his face as he sniffs at the air.

We then just stare at each other for a few seconds, his gaze just running over me from head to toe before focusing on my injured arm, and lastly, my face.

“You smell,” he says, making my mouth drop open in shock.

“Excuse me?” I ask, hoping that I heard him wrong.

He takes a step forward while sniffing once and then repeating himself, “You smell strange.”

I hold myself back from sniffing myself. Barely.

Thankfully the man finally clarifies himself when he takes another step forward and says, “You smell like trees and ash with a hint of metallic blood.”

Oh.

“What the fuck? Does this guy have Tier A perception or something?!” Tar asks, sounding shocked.

What’s so wrong with smelling like blood? I use blood magic after all. So it makes sense.

“That’s not what he’s smelling,” Tar says, sounding rushed, “this guy is smelling the natural scent you give off as a half blood lycan!”

Oh. Shit. That’s not good.

“I don’t think he will be able to link the two though, since he’s never seen a blood lycan or smelled one before,” Tar says, sounding like he’s calming down again.

That’s good… what’s this about a scent again though? I think you mentioned it before.

“Right, well every demon has a scent, just like a human has a scent,” he says, which does make sense. “But a demon’s scent is more of a magical thing tied to their planet, so only someone with incredibly high perception and a skill based on perception should be able to even notice it.”

Interesting.

“I smelled your scent almost the moment the tournament began, and it’s been the only thing on my mind for the entire tournament,” he says in a rather creepy manner, simply staring at me without really expressing any emotion on his face. Not that I’m one to talk about not expressing emotions. “It’s unique. And I like it.”

He says this last bit while stepping forward again.

Okay, this is getting creepy.

“Yeah, not really the type of reaction I was expecting when someone noticed it…” Tar mutters.

Well, the bright side is that him being creepy is saving me time for my arm to heal. Because it is starting to close up the worst of the wound. The parts where it’s quite literally detached from my torso.

Wait, aren’t we being broadcast for basically the whole world to hear? Won’t people who have met blood lycans have heard his description of my scent?

Tar doesn’t say anything for several seconds as the man in front of me just continues sniffing like a dog.

Then he mutters, “Well, shit.”

That’s not a good sign.

“It shouldn’t be too big a problem because the only ones who would know what a blood lycan smells like are those with a magical perception based skill that have fought against blood lycans, and I’m pretty sure those only number amongst the Knights,” Tar says, sounding only a little bit worried despite his initial reaction. “And the Knights already know who and what you are thanks to your mother, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

You don’t sound very certain. Also, it makes sense that the other Knights would know about me since White is my mother and Blue my uncle. Not that I’d ever call that psychopath that.

He almost killed me after all.

Suddenly Shifter’s eyes clear up and he narrows them at me as he says, “Meet up with me outside of the tournament.”

I raise a brow at that and ask, “Why?”

He doesn’t say anything.

Ooookaaay… I do remember hearing that Shifter was a very quiet and stoic guy who barely ever speaks, but this… wow.

Judging by his mannerisms and rather emotionless voice, I don’t think this is him having romantic interest in me – thankfully. I honestly think he just likes my scent.

Which is kind of creepy.

Neither of us say anything for a few seconds before he suddenly flexes his bear claws and says, “I will contact you after the tournament. Now get ready to fight.”

Then he jumps towards me with his bear claw raised, making me almost stumble backwards from surprise. But I don’t let the suddenness get to me and instead jump forwards after a very brief moment of pause, my own shifted right arm raised to strike back.

Good thing it was my non-dominant arm that was almost cut off.

The moment our claws clash though has me gritting my teeth as I’m sent backwards, having lost the exchange by a little. He then grips onto my hand and sends a punch with his non-shifted fist straight at my face, knocking me back about a meter as blood begins to drip down my nose.

My eyes narrow as I look at his hand which is still gripping my own. But I quickly use blood sacrifice, feeling my exhaustion growing worse in the process thanks to my lack of blood from my wound. It gives me the push I need though and lets me tear my hand out of his before his follow-up punch arrives.

I jump back a couple of meters, wondering how the heck I’m gonna beat him with my arm still this badly wounded and massive blood loss making fighting hard.

“Looks like you might actually die for a first…” Tar mutters, sounding like it’s not the end of the world. Which kind of grates on my nerves, but I get he’s just trying to break any arrogance I may have gotten. “No, not really. You aren’t actually arrogant. You’re calm and analytical. What I’m not fine with is how you came to accept your death those few times when you almost died when you should’ve continued fighting even if it was impossible. Because the System may just reward that. And I’m hoping dying once here might remedy that a bit.”

Huh. I didn’t know the System might reward fighting to the bitter end… that’s rather interesting.

Shifter suddenly rushes towards me, his bear claw raised to strike again, and right when I’m about to meet it with my own shifted claw, not sure what else to do with my other arm so badly injured, he vanishes without a trace. Then I hear an announcement echoing across the magical reality.

[The core belonging to team Ace and Spades from Aquatic Pride Guardians University has been shattered, thereby disqualifying the one remaining member of the team.]

My fist ends up hitting nothing as I stagger forward, all the force in my attack becoming useless in the process.

I stare in front of me at where the man was just standing, blinking once, then twice in confusion.

Huh.

I kind of forgot Emily was climbing the stairs to the fifth floor when Shifter arrived. Looks like she broke their core in our fight.

“Now you just have to deal with him trying to contact you later,” Tar says, reminding me of the problem I’ve just gained.

Well, whatever. It’s a problem for future me to deal with.

I collapse onto the ground flat on my back.

Now I can rest for a short while.

Just till Emily gets back down here.