'What is that!? A rank 1 spell can't break my defenses so quickly!'
Phoebe was terrified.
Noah's attacks were directly clashing with her spear, transmitting the entirety of their power to her.
She took large steps back, enduring the pain that her movements caused.
Yet, the black smoke began to affect her robe, slowly consuming it and reducing its power.
Also, Noah never stopped pressing her, no matter how much she retreated, he was always in front of her.
Then, her back hit the wall of the underground room, preventing her from retreating.
Noah's assault became even more violent at that moment.
Phoebe struggled to block the attacks but, without the effect of her martial art, she could not defend as well as before.
Many cuts appeared on her robe and wounds began to accumulate on her body, Noah had finally managed to make her bleed!
Also, the black smoke accumulated around her figure, continuously consuming her robe and skin.
'Will I die here?'
She couldn't see any way out of that situation and ultimately began to consider that option.
'What can I do? What can I do?'
She began to panic, committing some mistakes in the execution of her forms which were promptly exploited by Noah.
Two of his attacks stabbed her on the waist, putting an end to her struggles for survival.
"Why? I didn't deserve this."
Phoebe's soft voice resounded in the room as she lost her strength and let go of her weapon.
Noah's eyes became dark after hearing her words but he didn't stop his offensive and stabbed her chest to inflict a fatal wound.
Her skin was hard and rough, it resembled a rock, yet it couldn't stop Noah's blows when he used his full strength.
Life left Phoebe right in front of Noah's eyes.
Another noble had died because of him.
Noah didn't waste time and gathered her belongings, hurriedly taking her body to where he had left Manuel's one.
Then, he covered the area with the black smoke and waited for every trace of them to disappear.
'Next, the battlefield.'
Noah used the toxic smoke to erase every trace of the battle from the underground room, destroying the bloodied terrain and covering the traces of cuts from the walls.
'This should do.'
Noah thought after another inspection of the room.
He took out a couple of potions and immediately drank them.
The battle had revealed itself quite challenging and Noah wanted to return at his peak form as fast as he could before the wave of worms arrived.
'She was strong, without my spell, it would have taken a lot to defeat her.'
Noah judged in his mind as he sat on the ground to rest.
Then, her last words resounded in his head and made him fall deep in thought.
'How many of those that die really deserve it?'
Noah remembered all the experiences of both his lives.
'In my previous world, poor people were exploited till they died of hunger. Wars were everywhere and the powerful men were only concerned about their personal gains, the weaklings were always discarded.'
'Here is the same with the exception that a single man can become a powerful entity, so powerful that rules and ethics have to bow to him. That's why the means for power are controlled so strictly and the nobles manage to always accumulate more power over time. Good and evil are human ideas after all, they are not absolute in their meaning.'
That was a conclusion that he had already reached in his previous life.
However, in his previous world, humans could not escape those rules.
They were bound to the meaning that the few powerful men decided, they were forced to work to buy their freedom, they were puppets in the scary monster that society was.
Noah had lost any attachment to life there, he only wanted to spend the rest of his life in solitude, doing the few things that he liked at his own terms.
In that new world though, humans could rise in the sky and destroy mountains, they could become gods and reach for the stars with just their thoughts.
Noah had finally found something that surpassed any rule or ethic, something above the vague meaning of good and evil, something that made him want to live again.
Yet, humans acted always in the same way.
His cultivation journey was obstructed by his status and by those that wanted to control him, in the eyes of the nobles, he was just a pawn that had to be restricted and used.
'Tell me, my disciple, what can you do against a faster, stronger opponent that you can't outsmart?'
William's words from his first training session resounded in his mind.
Noah had understood the meaning behind that teaching long ago.
The world was unfair.
Giving up on your ambition was the key to survival if you didn't have a lofty status.
'Is that even life? A life of compromises can only lead to a life of regrets. Death does not scare me, what I'm afraid of is living another pitiful life and abandoning the very reason that keeps me alive. I simply can't do that.'
Noah had already reached that conclusion long ago but Phoebe's words had reminded him of those old doubts.
A crawling sound sounded in the room, it seemed that the magical beasts had arrived just as Noah had predicted.
Noah sighed and stood up, he knew that he could not rest anymore.
'There is another answer to his question.'
He smiled a little thinking about his Master back in Balvan mansion.
'If my opponent is faster than me, I will lay a trap and prevent him from escaping; if my opponent is stronger than me, I will escape his grasp until he is exhausted; if my opponent is smarter than me, I will sever his limbs and render him unable to take any action; if he is all three of them...'
A hundred or so magical beasts came out of the tunnels of the room.
That time, there weren't only rank 3 magical beasts but even their weaker versions.
'If he is all three of them, I will become a monster and do all it takes to defeat him.'