Awakened: SSS Ranked Soul king

"There, behind that rock….uhh I don't know how you'll hit it, but that's where it is"

Atop a massive tree looming over the outpost, Guilliman's voice sounded as he pointed out a particular spot in the outpost.

-wang

All of a sudden, an arrow shot out from a black bow moving in a straight line. It shot through a vine stalk beast and rammed into a rock piercing both the rock and the black behind it with absolute precision.

"Ahh," Guilliman smiled and looked at Jemie who was leaning on the tree trunk next to him with his bow nocked.

"I hate to admit it, but you're really good at this… such precision, are you sure you're meant to be a swordsman?" Guilliman mused, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Keep your suggestions to yourself, shorty" Jemie sneered, nocking his bow once more before sending another arrow out.

"So aggressive…" Guilliman smiled, then looked down at Victoria who was randomly standing at the base of the tree with her silver hair floating in the wind.

He had to admit also that this girl was beautiful, not just her appearance, the way she moved, fought, and even her gaze was enticing. To the average man at least, but couple all that with this strange indomitable will of hers….it could fell any extraordinary man.

"Is something going on between you and Victoria?"

All of a sudden as his gaze was fixed on her, he heard Jemie's voice beside him.

"Huh? Victoria? Of course not," Guilliman was a bit taken aback. He respected her, thought she was a good fighter and would achieve great things someday, but to have anything to do with her romantically?

That sounded strange.

"Hmm, could have fooled me," Jemie smirked and pulled his bow once more before sending another arrow out.

Victoria and Guilliman had become too close these couple of weeks. 'Practicing swordsmanship' and the likes, laughing like kids. They were telltale signs of something deeper.

"Ahh…wait do you have a crush on her?" Taken aback by Jemie's comment, Guilliman seemed to realize something and asked with a look of shock.

From the very first day he met Victoria, he had always felt a piercing gaze from Jemie whenever he looked in her general direction. At first he thought it was caution, but now…too many remarks like this were becoming obvious.

"Wait what? No!!" Jemie's voice sounded, even echoing downwards and causing Victoria to look up in panic.

Had they been attacked or was something wrong?

"It's nothing, lady Victoria, we are just talking," hurriedly speaking as if in a panic, Jemie explained to Victoria.

"Ohh, okay" Victoria nodded all of a sudden, dismissing the sword echo that had formed in her hand a second ago. She then walked a few meters forwards and picked up a flower from the ground.

…

"Phew!!" Sighing in relief, Jemie looked back at Guilliman and said.

"I don't have a crush on her….she's my benefactor" Jemie said quite firmly without a hint of hesitation.

The predicament he was in, starving on the streets nowhere to go, was well known by everyone in the cohort. However, they didn't know the truth as to why he became homeless.

The situation in their family branch had gotten so bad after his father's death that they couldn't make ends meet; he had even been forced into slavery at some point by his uncles.

It was a shameful existence that he willingly went along with because of his mother. It was so bad that after losing her to death's grip….he felt relieved.

Losing the one person he had left in his life made him feel relieved. That was how bad his condition was.

But Victoria saved him, she cleaned him up and sent him to a training center. He owed her his life, not some form of romance.

Such a thing had never crossed his mind when thinking of her.

"I see," Guilliman smirked, for some reason he believed him.

It seemed like everyone in this cohort owed Victoria in one way or another….aside from him though, he didn't feel like that at all.

He would have solved the problems he had himself in all honesty so he wasn't in any way indebted to her.

After a few more hours, the night reached them. Luckily, by then they had picked off all the poison lilies and were now fully ready to raid the second gate.

But before that, they needed sleep. So they packed up and headed towards the right gate and directly toward the opposite hall.

As they entered, the hall fell silent. A few of them stealing glances from her in a tense and rather calm way.

She had clearly blown a gasket early in the day; now she was back with a look of calm on her face as if nothing had happened. She didn't even speak to anyone, going to a makeshift tent and sleeping off.

It was extremely awkward.

The next day, they woke up to screeching from the monsters in the left gate. They woke up to see that all the members of Victoria's cohort were gone, that's when it struck them.

That crazy girl, she wanted to slay all the beasts in the left gate with only her men? That was crazy!!

No planning whatsoever? I mean, just yesterday they had been planning to leave the entire place, now she was attacking the left gate the following day?

Some wanted to go help, but Cyrus stopped them citing that he would not be responsible if any of them died. So they stayed indoors.

When night came around, though, the doors of the hall were pushed open as a cohort of people entered, stained with blood and a burning heat.

None of them died. In fact, two of them seemed to have entered a higher level.

Yes, after attacking the left gate, both Guilliman and Jemie had entered level 7.

It was inspiring at the same time embarrassing; they had watched their allies go into battle without backup and not only did they survive, they came back stronger.

Of course, they couldn't be as embarrassed as Cyrus himself, who was seated in one corner fuming with anger.

Victoria was making him look bad.