43 Unpleasant surprise 1 (1/2)

Lazar had thought about his strengths and weaknesses.

It emerged from this reflection that his main asset was obviously the Energy Slash, since without using it, he had killed only 3 monsters in a fair fight.

His most obvious weakness, on the other hand, was harder to determine. He had to analyze his fight against the Beta who had managed to injure him to put his finger on it.

'There was such a gap between his strength and mine that every time I tried to block him, I had the feeling that my blade was going to steal from my hands.' Lazar thought while staring at his hands in frustration.

His grip wasn't the only problem. In fact, for Lazar, the whole handling of 'Hate' had to be reviewed, using his sheath in combat couldn't solve everything.

Beeing skilled with edged weapons as a whole is one thing, but still there are some that Lazar feels more comfortable with than others and in this case, his profficiency with his blade was way inferior compared to what he could do with a knife.

The combat knife was his weapon of choice for close combat and although he tried many other edged weapons to be versatile, he hadn't trained with any other more than a tenth of the time he had spent with knives, 'That's probably why the gods wanted to give me a dagger at the beginning of the Apocalypse...' As he saw it, giving him a blade was a miscalculation on Death's part.

It was no coincidence that Lazar killed so few monsters without using any skills.

Beyond the numerical advantage his opponents had most of the time, it was also because he wasn't confident in his ability to fight in close combat that he avoided it since he was able to use the Energy Slash.

According to what Lazar understood from the description of his gloves, the improvement of the transmission of energy from his body to his weapon would somehow improve his use of the Energy Slash.

As for the improvement of his grip and the maneuverability of his blade, they would help him to develop his fighting style.

[You bought the Gloves of the Disciple of Death, they were automatically stored in your inventory]

[You have spent 300 contribution points, your new balance : 7 contribution points]

In conclusion, the reason why Lazar didn't hesitate to buy the gloves instead of saving his contribution points for something else, was that it was simply what he needed most.

He looked toward the patio door; Amandla had left it open behind her.

He headed there and before going inside he took one last look at his garden, 'It doesn't matter, I was going to burn it down along with the rest of the house anyway.' He relativized when he saw the deplorable state of what used to be his place of relaxation.

Back inside, Lazar spotted Amandla at the end of the corridor. She was on one knee, facing the front door.

Amandla didn't turned around but she knew Lazar was here, she just hadn't forgotten that he had a rather... indecent outfit, ”So... You've managed to defeat him?” She asked a bit mockingly.

Lazar didn't react, nor did he bother to answer, he halted at a chest of drawers a few steps behind Amandla and pulled open the first drawer from the top.

There was a lot of stuff in it, but since he himself had put away what he was looking for only two days ago, he found it easily.

It was Lana's medallion, it was made of silver and a Celtic spiral was engraved on it. From what she had told Lazar, it had been made on the initiative of one of her ancestors in the early 19th century, after her family migrated to the United States.

The purpose for this medallion was that the next generations of her family would never forget their Irish roots and since then, it had been passed down from mother to eldest daughter in Lana's family.

”What is it?” Asked Amandla, intrigued by the metallic rattles she heard behind her.

”Personal matters.” Answered Lazar coldly while putting away the medallion.

Amandla tilted her head to one side, 'Well, that's something. He didn't tell me it was nothing... Did he finally trusts me a little bit?'

”I'll be back in a few minutes.” Declared Lazar as he left for the nearest bathroom.

”Okay.”

Upon arriving in front of the mirror, it was difficult for Lazar to tell himself that the reflection he was seeing was his own.

He had reached about 1.80 meters, his muscles had become intimidating and his face was more angular, which in no way had detract from his charm.

Contrary to what Amandla had said, his eyes were completely normal, so he opened the bathroom door and shouted to Amandla, ”There's nothing wrong with my fucking eyes!”

The response came quickly in the same form, ”Mine are back to normal too! But earlier, your eyes were almost totally black, believe me!”

'Totally black? Another thing I inherited from Death...'

Lazar closed the door and continued to look at himself in the mirror to get used to his new appearance.

'What the...' When his gaze landed on the tears of his clothes revealing his abdomen, he understood that his body had undergone more important transformations than he thought.

He ripped what was left of his t-shirt to shreds and got confirmation of what he thought he saw, 'I don't have my scars anymore.'