Absolute Soul
100. Strength Risk

"What are you using?!" Verna exclaimed loudly hearing the reason behind Haikal's condition that was currently lying helplessly on the ground putting on a wry smile.

"Calm down, Verna. Haikal also knew of his condition, he must have understood the consequences." Cecil tried to calm Verna, who was holding back from hitting Haikal's head without breaking her concentration on the healing flames, trying to ease Haikal's condition.

Unfortunately not calm, Verna actually stomped her feet firmly before leaving Cecil and Haikal while exclaiming, "If she understood she wouldn't use such a reckless technique!"

Cecil and Haikal who saw it laughed awkwardly did not know how to respond to Verna's attitude, but both understood the girl's anger was reasonable and not unnatural.

"Sorry Cecil, you have to take care of me once again." Haikal tried to melt the atmosphere after witnessing Verna's anger.

Cecil shook his head slowly in response to Haikal's words and put on a faint smile, "No need to apologize, it's my job to heal your injuries given that Jade Phoenix's main strength lies in its healing."

"Thank you then." Haikal breathed a sigh of relief to see that Cecil was not too concerned about his condition, but there were not two seconds after Cecil raised a voice regarding the Black Karma technique used by Haikal.

"Haikal, you know the soul energy concentration technique should only be used on Soul Arc, right?" Cecil asked without letting out his smile, making Haikal's back shed a cold sweat.

Cecil is rarely or even almost never seen angry or emotional, but that does not mean he can not feel it. Different from the blatant Verna, Cecil channeled his feelings through a gentle smile that did not look like it at all and that was what made Haikal break out in cold sweat.

Haikal averted his gaze not daring to look directly into Cecil's eyes, "Yes, I know."

"You already know that, then why are you using it on your own body?" Cecil's smile grew longer, making Haikal more depressed.

"Well, the situation is pushy," Haikal replied with a smile trying to look calm but still did not dare to look at Cecil directly while screaming inwardly, "Scary! Cecil is furious creepy! Heru help me!"

Haikal glanced at Heru who was sitting resting not far from him, asking for help telepathically, but all he could was Heru grinning widely at him as if to say, "Campus!"

"Fucking hippo warts!" Haikal cursed Heru inwardly.

The Black Karma that Haikal used against Shear before was none other than the soul energy concentration technique that Verna did when she competed with Salvia in the final round, it's just that Haikal uses this technique a little differently.

The soul energy concentration technique was one that required a Blazer to manipulate and concentrate a large amount of his soul energy at one point independently, however this soul energy concentration point was none other than and was not not a Soul Arc user.

By concentrating a large amount of soul energy on the Soul Arc, a Blazer was able to increase his strength and abilities to a certain degree within a short period of time with the cost of using soul energy directly proportional.

That was the concept behind the widely known soul energy concentration technique, but what if a Blazer without a Soul Arc performed a similar technique?

Right, that's what's happening to Haikal right now. Haikal's entire body suffered a minor injury, each cell screaming in pain as if it was hit by a very heavy burden.

Haikal's Black Karma is a soul energy concentration technique that is applied directly to the user's body without the Soul Arc. Haikal was able to increase his physical strength to close to a Master level Blazer in a short period of time, but once the technique was released then his body would scream in pain just like now.

Soul energy concentration techniques are actually known to have no risk other than the power of his soul energy consumption skyrocketing, but other stories if not using Soul Arc as an intermediary.

Unlike Soul Arc, the physical body of a human is fragile and easily destroyed, while the soul energy itself is a force that if not controlled properly can become a double-edged sword for its user.

This is what worries Verna and Cecil. If only Haikal's soul energy control was low then he could have just finished.

The reason behind Haikal's body being able to withstand the immense concentration of soul energy directly was the result of the inhumane exercises he had been doing all along. His body was no longer a normal human being.

Cecil let out a long sigh realizing Haikal was begging for mercy through his heartwarming expression, "I know you've trained your body so hard in order to be able to fight without having to rely on the Soul Arc, but remember your body is not something that can be used and thrown away."

"Don't overuse this technique or your body will be overwhelmed in the long run" Cecil added.

"I know." Haikal nodded slowly and then got up after feeling better thanks to Cecil's treatment, "Thank you, Cecil."

"No problem." Cecil smiled slightly as he patted Haikal on the shoulder before stepping closer to Verna who still looked angry towards Haikal.

Haikal smiled wryly looking at Verna from a distance, he could do nothing but wait for Verna's mood to improve by itself, without realizing someone approached her from behind and said, "You okay?"

"Yeah!" Haikal screamed until he jumped, he suddenly took a big step forward and turned to the source of the voice, "Salvia! Don't surprise me like that!"

"Ah, sorry." Salvia put on a flat face that was not in line with her words, "Omong-by the way, your body is no longer in trouble?"

Haikal made some light movements through the arms ensuring his body condition before nodding, "It still hurts a bit but I guess I can still fight as long as I don't use Black Karma."

Dahi Salvia puckered for a moment hearing 'Black Karma', she then looked at Haikal with a sharp gaze that made the young man misbehave, "Haikal, since when are you able to use this Black Karma technique? How many times have you used it? Who taught you?"

Haikal initially wanted to immediately answer those questions, but Salvia's cold gaze managed to shrink his guts. He averted a look of daring to look into Salvia's eyes directly before explaining in succession.

"The technique you just mastered about a week ago has you used in a life-and-death fight like this?" Salvia glared violently at Haikal's answer to tell the young man given the risk was not trivial, but successfully detained.

"If I don't use the possibility of us beating that guy is very small." Haikal points to Shear being healed to the stage of not endangering his life by Cecil in a condition tied to Jack's magic chain.

Haikal also added that he managed to defeat several Verg and Blackout members who roamed around the academy thanks to this technique as well but on a smaller scale and did not cause pain as severe as earlier.

Salvia wanted to say something to refute Haikal's words, but she, Verna, and Cecil were facing Verg who had arrived at Jack's direction at the time and could not help Haikal. He felt he had no right to protest Haikal's decision given he himself had not witnessed how powerful Shear really was.

After accepting Haikal's reasoning, Salvia then asked one more thing, "When you fought Jack before, why didn't you use this technique? Your situation at that time can be said to be cornered, right?"

"That's because before I had time to use it he had already beaten me all out, how could I concentrate my soul energy?" Haikal scratched his cheek in embarrassment over the matter, claiming to be too careless and underestimating the power of Jack's Forbidden Magic Card.

Salvia let out a long sigh no longer questioning Haikal's decision regarding the use of Black Karma, but he reminded Haikal not to use the double-edged technique too often.

In the end Haikal could only nod softly not daring to refute Salvia.