The air whistled as the bladed tail whipped at him, and Jason ducked as it tore through the air above him with a shrill sound.

It took the moment when he slowed down to duck, to dash at him, its claws extended.

It froze for a split second, its claws poised to savage his chest as it stood right in front of him. Jason smirked as he activated his skill and ability.

Jason’s body was filled with power, which he guided to his right arm, and the air howled as he sliced straight through the devil’s chest, managing a lucky strike between its ribcage where his skill vaguely told him he could attack.

It roared in pain as blood red mist cascaded out of the wound. His efforts did not go unpunished, however, as its tail dragged across his back, its blades shredding his flesh and muscles. “Ghhh!”

Jason gritted his teeth, as he felt his arms weaken from torn muscles. Nonetheless, he used his abilities once more.

He coughed out iron grey mist as a clawed hand punched into his stomach, managing to dig into his protective skin and muscles.

It jumped back, using its long tail to whip him again. The edge of the tail caught his shoulder, nicking it and digging out a chunk of misty flesh.

He whipped around to face it, but it nimbly dodged to the side, slicing his leg with its tail.

He gasped as he fell on one knee. A leg and an arm was impaired. His irises narrowed to pinpoint dots as he realized, he was losing, that he really was going to die this time.

‘A strategy. I need a strategy. Play dead? N-‘ He grunted as the devil nicked the same leg again. ‘No, it can sense my soul. Maybe it cannot sense if I die, but I cannot risk it. I need to lower its guard.’

He wailed in pain as he dropped down on his hands and knees, limbs shaking from agony and exhaustion.

It did not stop its relentless assault, as it continuously whipped at his body from a distance, nimbly dodging from side to side as cuts appeared one by one on his body. Jason cried out in pain each time, stumbling like a befuddled beast unable to keep track of the agile devil.

Eventually, when Jason’s body was riddled with cuts, it slowed down for a moment, stepping closer to him. It raised its tail to give him the final blow, but then Jason’s head shot up, his cold and piercing eyes staring straight at its own.

It froze up again, its tail raised to give the final blow. Jason activated his skill once more, and he pushed it, attempting to draw more of the mysterious power that seemingly appeared from nowhere.

This time, there was enough power to fill both arms, and he swept both his hands across its neck.

*Shlick!*

Its head flew in the air, fear and shock still in its eyes as its body collapsed, red mist gushing out of its neck.

Jason dropped on his knees, truly in pain this time, as a piercing headache and tiredness filled him like never before. Only the pain of the system loading the first time could compare to it.

He screamed as he rolled around on the ground, clutching his head.

[ a being. +5 Essence of Sin.

Skill learned. ]

The piercing agony in his head lessened ever so slightly, as he found himself able to form somewhat coherent thoughts. ‘The core! I must get it!’

He slowly crawled to the corpse, leaving behind a trail of grey mist leaking from his wounds.

After what felt like an eternity, he reached the corpse. It took far longer than usual to form his claws, the concentration causing the pain to flare up. Locating the core was even harder, having to dig around for its heart, blindly clawing for the core.

When he finally felt a solid object touch his claws, he scrambled to quickly dig it out and immediately swallowed it.

[Grant to a being. +100 Essence of Sin.

Ability unlocked

Skill upgraded to Grade 2]

He sighed in relief as the now familiar power flow into his body, healing it and restoring whatever he used to activate abilities. The piercing pain faded to a dull buzz, and the weeping cuts all over his body slowly healed.

He noted that his wounds did not completely disappear though, but instead suppressed them. Should he engage in battle, they would open up again.

He sighed exasperatedly. ‘Honestly, can I win one battle without nearly dying and relying on an item to barely survive?’

He checked his status to see his spoils of battle.

[Name: Jason Mendalez

Bloodline: Drenam Shapeshifter Devil

Rank: Esquire

Abilities:

Form Claws: Grade 5 Induce Fear: Grade 3 Form Blades: Grade 3 Heavy Strike: Grade 2

Skills:

Dissection: Grade 2 Focus: Grade 1

Soul Power: 103

Essence of Sin: 335]

‘My soul power went up by 2? So that myst devil was much stronger than the previous, slenderman-looking one.’

After lying down for a while, he finally stood up and went to the myst devil.

Its body lay on the ground lifelessly, while its head was further ahead. He tried out his newly upgraded skill, pleased to find that the general sense of where to cut was now more refined, turning from a vague idea to cut somewhere in a wide area, to a smaller area, as well as a guess to what direction he should cut in.

He tested out the skill on the corpse, now managing to cut properly more often than not. Which was, to say, about 6 out of 10 times, but it was far better than before.

He finished cleaning up the corpse, taking only the still formed claws and blades from it. It was curious, though, that the body was made of mist, but the mist was in a sort-of solid state, its organs and flesh shifting and transforming, only sticking to a rough outline.

As he ate its flesh, he saw that the outline of the body was slowly disappearing, the semi-solid mist slowly collapsing and evaporating into the air.

He then thought back to the battle. He had been thoroughly outclassed this time. Not just by physical power and abilities, but by technique.

Jason’s eyes narrowed as he replayed the experience in his mind.

‘Hmmph. It appears that I am still not using my new body well enough.’ He stared at his tail, and used his new skill.

Blades slowly formed along his tail, flat and wide like the devil’s. It took far longer, he noted. And the blades weren’t as numerous, nor as big as the devil’s.

‘My human mindset is still holding me back. My tail is as much as part of me as my arms or legs, and I need to learn to use it properly.’

He tried to flick it like a whip, like the devil did. Unfortunately, his control of it was still clumsy and unbalanced, only managing to sweep it in front of him. And he cut a gash on his arm as he retracted his tail.

He sighed and tried again, more carefully. This time, he managed to sweep it in front of him without maiming himself. It was still a long way from flicking it accurately like a whip, but it was progress. He smiled, the giddy, euphoric feeling of seeing his own improvement filling him.

After hours of practicing, he finally learned to use his tail to whip the rock in front of him without the blades smacking him in the face. At this point, the exertion had opened his wounds again, but he did not care.

He laughed as he managed to do it again, the edge of his tail cutting a small groove in the rock. It was nowhere near as accurate as the devil, but he had did it.

He decided that that was enough for the day, and decided to search for a safe place to rest. He picked up his unsightly handbag packed with his things, and set off towards the giant pillar in the distance, slightly closer now.

After some hours of trekking through the rocky terrain and practicing using his tail for fighting, he came across a rather large hill with a cave on its side.

He put down his bag, formed his claws and blades, and carefully approached the cave. As he neared the entrance, he sensed a soul rapidly approach him, and a red-skinned canine came barreling out the entrance.

Instantly, he used his ability, freezing its movements. Unfortunately, its momentum carried it forward, and it stumbled as Jason struck it with a powered tail.

His tail whipped its back, taking out a sizable chunk of flesh. It growled as it resumed its mad rush towards him.

It clawed at his chest, but this time Jason blocked with one arm overhead, pushing his arm upwards and lifting the devil as he used his other arm to punch his claws into its underbelly. It whined in pain as its paws scrabbled all over him, digging into his arm and chest, but he gritted his teeth, the pain suddenly dulling and his mind clearing from his new skill.

He wrapped his bladed tail around its chest, and pulled.

*Shrrk*

The blades on his tail shredded the devil in half, cutting all the way to its spine.

It howled in pain, paws tearing into his face and digging a claw into an eye, before it went limp.

[ a being. +5 Essence of Sin.]

“Arghh!” Jason stumbled as he felt one eye go blind, but he could not help but grin as he saw it die. This time, he had managed to kill a devil without nearly dying.

Trying to ignore the pain, he dug into the devil (Hellhound?)’s body, trying to search for its core. Yet he found none.

Using his soul sense, he found the devil’s soul and devoured it, sighing in relief as the pain faded.

[Grant to a being. +100 Essence of Sin. ]

‘Hm? For this one, there was no core, but a soul? With the devils that had a core, I could not find its soul, but the notification for true death appeared when I consumed the core . . . So it seems that for weaker devils, they have a soul that is not attached to anything, and when devils evolve like I did, the soul is somehow attached to a core? That would explain a lot. Either way, my soul power still increased by 1 when I devoured it, so it should be fine.’

Thankfully, his eye recovered after he consumed the soul, although he noticed that the energy that filled him was less than with consuming a core.

Shaking his head, he dissected the devil, more easily as his familiarity with the Dissection skill increased.

After eating some of the flesh, he scoped out the cave, and finding nothing, he piled some rocks at the entrance of the cave. Hopefully, nothing would get through that. And with that done, Jason laid down on the hard, stony ground, and went to sleep.