Bloodstar System: Infinite Evolution Through Beast Slaughter

"You think I am already dead?"

Kyo gripped the greatsword in both hands and swung it across Joren’s head.

Clang!

The collision sent a ring of compressed force tearing across the battlefield. Every lower level Voidbeast within a hundred meters burst apart before it could even scream, filling the air with blood mist.

Joren felt the impact hammer into his chest.

The shockwave ripped him from the ground and hurled him dozens of meters before he crashed into a boulder.

Kyo held his position.

Both legs sank into the rock beneath him, stopping only when the stone had swallowed him to the knees.

Above, the Golden Dragon Falcon was thrown back into the sky by the recoil. Golden feathers drifted loose around it, no longer arranged in their usual flawless layers.

"You think you can touch one of mine?"

Kyo spat a mouthful of bloody foam aside.

He looked like an old wolf standing over its cub, teeth bared at anything foolish enough to come closer.

Roar!

The Abyssal Blackscale Python and the Shadow Fiend arrived at the same moment.

They understood what Kyo intended.

If he wanted to protect Joren, then both humans would die together.

Boom!

The python’s enormous body rose and coiled inward. Layer after layer of black scales closed around Kyo until they formed a living prison.

"Poison Domain!"

Dark green mist poured from between the scales.

The air hissed as it corroded.

This poison did more than eat through flesh. It clung to Kyo’s protective Vital Force and gnawed through it without pause.

The Shadow Fiend moved with it.

Its body melted into darkness and vanished from the visible world, slipping into the seam between shadow and reality.

To [Spider Sense], however, it was anything but invisible.

Joren saw a mass of foul black intent racing through hidden layers of space, flickering from one angle to another as it searched for a gap in Kyo’s defense.

A perfect killing trap.

"That old bastard..."

Joren dragged himself from the broken stone and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

He had one blue Talent after another, yet before a gulf in realm this wide, he was still fragile.

Not weak.

Fragile.

A stray edge of that battle would be enough to erase him completely.

"So this is the road ahead."

The strength of those Rank Five beast kings only made the value of their purple Talents clearer.

Sooner or later, he would take them.

At the center of the battlefield, Kyo’s voice came through the poison fog.

"You animals think I spent all these years in Norcrest waiting to die of old age?"

The black and white of his eyes disappeared.

Both pupils turned silver gray, deep and chaotic.

Then the pressure inside him broke loose.

Boom!

A blood red pillar punched into the sky and tore the poison mist apart.

Within the light, a colossal crimson wolf took shape. It towered hundreds of meters above the battlefield, head rising into the storm.

The phantom threw back its head and howled.

That howl carried across the wilderness, vast and tyrannical, like something ancient had awakened and remembered the world beneath its feet.

"Sever."

Kyo held the sword in one hand and drew it across empty space.

A scream ripped out of the shadows.

The Shadow Fiend was forced back into view, one arm spinning away from its body.

Half Step Rank Six.

Kyo had not formed a true domain, but that casual strike already carried a trace of the force of heaven and earth.

Hiss!

The Abyssal Blackscale Python twisted violently within its own coils.

For the first time, it felt death close enough to touch.

"How is this possible?"

The Golden Dragon Falcon circled above, and the faint tremor in its voice betrayed it.

The boundary between Rank Five and Rank Six was not simply another increase in strength.

It was the line between ordinary Awakened Warriors and those who had truly stepped beyond the mortal scale.

None of the three beast kings had expected a remote human border city to hide someone already halfway across that line.

Blood ran over Kyo’s body.

The secret art was tearing him apart from within. Veins had burst beneath his skin, opening countless wounds across his arms, face, and chest.

He tightened his grip on the sword.

"You came all this way."

"Do not expect to leave."

One man stood beneath the crimson wolf, sword in hand, and met three peak Rank Five beast kings head on.

Sword light crossed a thousand meters.

Each strike carved another bottomless trench through the wilderness.

The Golden Dragon Falcon no longer dared to dive. It stayed high above, circling and attacking from a distance.

The Abyssal Blackscale Python took blow after blow against scales that had once seemed unbreakable. Sparks flew with every impact, and before long, blood had dyed half the battlefield dark red.

The Shadow Fiend suffered the worst of it.

Concealment was its greatest weapon, yet Kyo found it every time. All it could do was flee, slipping from one shadow to the next while sword light hunted close behind.

The battle had turned completely.

This was the weight carried by a true top fighter.

One man was enough to hold an entire city.

The three beast kings shifted back together.

Only half a step separated Kyo from Rank Six, but that half step changed the price of the fight.

Had he remained at peak Rank Five, the three of them could have killed him if they were willing to pay in blood.

Now, at least one of them would die.

The other two would leave crippled.

And dozens of kilometers away, Manester was still waiting behind the Norcrest defense line.

If both sides tore each other apart here, Manester would charge out at once and finish whatever was left.

It was a terrible deal.

The kind that lost everything before the bargain had even begun.

"Hmph."

The Golden Dragon Falcon forced the sound through a human throat.

"Do not get too pleased with yourself, Kyo."

"You think reaching Half Step Rank Six means you can save this miserable place?"

Its harsh laughter grated across the sky.

"Look at humanity now."

"The Seventh Defense Line along the Eastern Sea has already been breached by sea beasts."

"On the Northern Icefield, your Ice Emperor is being held down by two Beast Emperors. He can barely protect himself."

"The Aurelian Dominion is a broken ship with holes in every side."

"And it is sinking."

"Shut your mouth!"

Sword intent erupted from Kyo and split the rain around him.

The Golden Dragon Falcon showed no anger at being interrupted.

If anything, its amusement deepened.

Its gaze moved from Kyo to Joren below, still covered in blood.

"More importantly..."

"Kyo, you cannot hide anymore."

"Half Step Rank Six."

"Do you know how rare that kind of strength is now?"

"With the world in this state, do you really think those old men above will let a fighter like you keep hiding in a place like Norcrest?"

"Playing nursemaid?"