Akira Minamoto was transmigrated into the body of a sixteen year old boy.
He had lost access to his elemental energies, his supreme physical strength, and the muscle memory forged through a hundred battlefields and ten thousand kills.
His body was weaker, slower, clumsier.
But he still had his battle sense, fighting techniques, killing intent and his iron will.
Now he had a purpose that was much more important than life - Protecting his Yuki.
And that was more than enough to deal with a measly, overgrown bloodsucking bat.
The Bloodbat leader shrieked and dove toward him, claws extended like blades, wings slicing the air with a blast of foul wind. Its speed was terrifying, but to Akira, it was slow.
"Far too slow." Akira noted coldly as he twisted midair.
With no fire energy to boost his speed, no ice energy to slow down his enemy, he still weaved through the oncoming attack with acceptable precision.
Acceptable, because it was far from perfect.
"Damn it. This body is so weak and so slow!" Akira cursed vehemently. "This is definitely not my body. I wasn't this weak as a 16 year old!"
One claw grazed his shoulder, slicing through his shirt and drawing blood, but he didn't even flinch.
He flipped forward and slammed his foot down on the beast's upper wing, using the momentum to launch himself off its body and spin around behind it.
Steel flashed as Akira stabbed downwards.
In a battle with an unknown sword and an unknown enemy, the most preferred strike was a stab.
A slash was too weak and a chop was too easily parried.
CLANG!
The borrowed sword slammed down on the Bloodbat's back, but alas, even the stab was ineffective.
The Bloodbat's hide was too thick!
Sparks flew as the blade rang with protest in his hand.
But Akira's eyes narrowed.
"That didn't work, huh?" he muttered. "Then I'll just go for the eyes."
The Bloodbat screeched and turned, jaws snapping, fangs glinting with fresh blood. It whipped its tail-like lower limbs at him, each strike heavy enough to crush bone.
Akira dropped low, ducked beneath one, then rolled under the next, the stone floor scraping against his back.
The smell of the creature was overwhelming. Wet fur, rotting blood, and the sickening stench of decay, they filled his nose like poison.
He ignored them.
He timed the next moment perfectly.
As the Bloodbat lifted its head to scream, he lunged forward and drove the blade up into its eyes, twisting with both hands. The beast reared back, howling in pain, its claws flailing wildly.
Akira released his grip on the sword and allowed it to remain stuck on the beast's eye.
Black blood sprayed across Akira's face, hot and thick like oil. He didn't even blink.
The Bloodbat bucked into the air, its wings beating wildly in pain and fury. Akira jumped back just in time to avoid being crushed as it slammed into the wall, leaving a crater of broken stone.
Its screech was louder now. It was desperate and quite heavily wounded.
Akira knew the end was at hand.
He ran straight at the beast as it tried to lift off again, leapt into the air to draw level with the sword still embedded in its eye, and then unleashed a right hook, driving his full upper body strength into the swing.
Jleb!
He drove the sword straight into the Bloodbat's brain.
The Bloodbat spasmed violently and let out one final whimper of shock before collapsing.
Its body crashed to the floor with a thunderous boom, wings twitching, blood pooling fast.
Akira stood over it, chest rising and falling, his hand trembling rather violently.
Princess Yuki and the twelve awestruck Royal Guards noticed it too, and attributed it to the adrenaline and shock surging through his veins.
"He… He is so strong! But he is so scrawny, how could such a thin body hold so much strength? Just how did he train himself?" Princess Yuki thought as she looked at Akira with eyes that were beginning to contain a little bit of admiration.
"That bastard actually killed the Class C Monster all by himself. Just who is he? A secret assassin? But he protected the Princess! Unless, it is all a ploy to win Princess Yuki's heart… BASTARD!" Captain Kagekatsu was extremely biased against Akira.
So were the rest of the Royal Guard, of course. But they didn't see Akira chomping down a Royal Grade Pill like it was a lollipop, so their bias was limited to the fact that he had his hands on Princess Yuki.
Still, killing the Class C Monster was a huge merit which offset the sin of touching their Goddess.
Well, almost.
"That sonovabeech did it! He saved us!"
"What the hell? I have never seen anyone move like that! And definitely not a little punk like him!"
"He is trembling like a vibrator. Poor kid."
"Definitely. I would be pissing in my pants if I were him. Look, his pants are still dry. He's actually doing well!"
"Indeed. He must be terrified!"
But they were wrong.
Akira was actually using every ounce of his strength to restrain the overwhelming bloodlust that had awakened within him!
His heart pounded like a war drum, the taste of blood still sharp on his tongue. If there were more monsters in the area, Akira would have joyously attacked them and hacked them all to little pieces.
At that moment, a strange, invisible energy swirled into life around the Stealth Bloodbat leader's dead body.
Akira couldn't see it, but he could feel its appearance, prickling with a faint static charge that raised the hairs on his arms.
And then quietly, it made its way into Akira's body.
It slipped through his skin like smoke through cloth. The moment it entered, Akira's breath caught in his throat.
His eyes widened slightly as a strange but familiar sensation pulsed deep within him.
A clean, sharp feeling rushed through his limbs like fresh mountain air and made his every nerve stand alert.
"Isn't this… the Advanced Element, Wind Energy Essence?!" Akira was stunned.