"How?" Klaus asked, still darting his eyes between the seemingly dead Noa and his other companions, including the one Noa currently inhabited.
"How, you ask? It's simple, really. Life is cruel sometimes—it chose me to be better than you. Now it's your turn to be a loser… a dead one, though," Noa said calmly.
His previous fearful nature was nowhere to be seen.
"Me? A loser?" Klaus repeated furiously. "You have the wrong impression of me. I am not the one who will die today."
Noa chuckled. "Guess we have to find out."
Maintaining human puppets was harder than goblins, but his increased intelligence stat easily handled it.
Both of them dashed at each other, unleashing their full power.
[ Klaus Stark Lv. 5 ]
[ Grade: Evolved ]
With inspection already used, Noa knew Klaus would have done the same thing.
It wouldn't show their class, talent, or skills.
'He is S-ranked.'
Noa remembered from the game as Klaus displayed his strength, proving that he wasn't one of the main characters for nothing.
His talent was Exploding Face, and his skill allowed him to blast the opponent's mana the moment he made any physical contact.
It worked with weapons as well, and the moment Klaus touched Noa, his innards would explode.
But because his stats and mastery level were still low, the damage Klaus could cause was not much.
However, he became a walking bomb later in the game.
'I have to avoid him,' Noa thought.
It was easier said than done, as his current attributes fell short, letting Klaus land a clean slash on him.
Not only was Noa's leg cut, but its innards exploded as well.
The bleeding intensified, along with the pain that made him sweat.
"Dumbass," Klaus spoke. "There is no escape for you," he said proudly, arriving before him for one more attack.
His class skill allowed him to heal from the damage he dealt to his enemies.
It made him a truly tough opponent.
Noa shook his head. 'Nothing can beat my body.'
Then he left this inferior puppet, shifting back to his actual remains, rising from the dead.
The scene flabbergasted Klaus.
Seeing how his last sidekick dropped to the floor for Noa to come back to life didn't cheer him up.
"How?" he asked one last time before gaining his composure.
The fight started.
Now it could be called a true battle because both of them fought with everything they had.
"I am half-immortal," Noa answered for the sake of it.
It quickly became apparent who had the upper hand.
Noa surpassed Klaus in everything, including attributes and experience.
"What a weakling!" Noa mumbled.
Hearing his words, Klaus could only clench his teeth; being helpless left him with anger and sadness, but neither could change the impending defeat.
"Wait. You are the Deviation, right?" Klaus realized a bit too late, guessing that Noa's bizarre talent was proof of his abnormality.
"You just dug your own grave," Noa answered. "Not that I wouldn't have killed you."
The longer Noa stretched the fight, the more uncertainties might arise.
So he wanted to end it.
As for letting Klaus go, he didn't even consider such a possibility.
Even if he was an important character in the story, Noa knew what kind of wicked things Klaus would do if he were left behind.
And Noa would have to fight against him sooner rather than later.
If the price of getting rid of Klaus was an alteration of the story, he would gladly do it a hundred times over.
Awakened Extra with Plundering System had intense plot points.
He planned to change the outcome anyway by collecting every crucial resource himself, and any other adjustment in Velrox was within his control.
Noa disliked it when protagonists were afraid of altering the story they were familiar with.
Arthur Ashe was such a character, which earned him Noa's disdain.
As for Noa, he was confident in himself and his talent to trample everyone, and he wielded his new sword without hesitation.
"May the doom gift you peace," he said.
In the midst of the evasion, Noa found an opening, thrusting his deadly weapon into a spine.
Klaus moaned in pain.
The wounded boy lost balance, succumbing to his fatal damage.
No words could escape his mouth as the attack hit precisely his critical point, killing him on the spot.
And just like that, the famous, influential, talented, and strong Ember died.
His murderer was an extra—the most forgettable, plain, and weak person in the academy—but fate didn't favor Klaus, abandoning him in the face of greater power.
"I did it," he muttered. "I avenged your death."
Aeris exclaimed behind Noa.
It was hard for a frail woman to endure, especially seeing her younger brother drifting between death and merciless slaughter.
She lost consciousness.
Noa didn't panic.
[ You killed Klaus Stark Lv. 5 ]
Instead of the "human" modifier, the system presented the name and didn't announce experience gain.
[ You killed the main character ]
The darkness took rein over his vision.
[ You died ]
[ You died ]
[ You died ]
[ You died ]
…
…
The text floated and rang in his ears at least a hundred times, indicating that he lost hundredprecious echoes as a penalty.
[ Echo: 890/1,000 ]
Soon, he was back in his previous state, numb from head to toe.
His heart frozen, the pain was with him but only as knowledge that barely registered in his brain.
It took Noa one minute to get his thoughts back.
'What the fuck is this?' he asked. 'It didn't happen in the game when Arthur was butchering important characters.'
More system messages were waiting for him to read.
[ You killed 1 out of 3 main characters ]
'Three?' Noa exclaimed.
As far as he knew, there were only two main characters, along with other major names from the cast.
But no one really looked like a protagonist to him.
[ You will inherit one skill from Klaus Stark Lv. 5 ]
[ The skill you will receive will be random ]
[ Try not to lose it ]
The waves of questions emerged in Noa's mind.
'A random skill? And I might even lose it somehow.'
As he was trying to fathom what was happening, the system didn't wait for him, revealing the skill he had been given.