Chapter 49: The Aurelian Dominion’s Predicament!
For the first time, Kyo’s rock steady gaze wavered.
Barely.
The Golden Dragon Falcon caught it anyway, and its laughter grew harsher.
"Your transfer order may arrive sooner than you think."
"They will send you somewhere more important. Another battlefield. Another hole that cannot be filled."
"And when that happens..."
Its dark golden eyes shifted toward Norcrest.
"Only Manester will remain."
"The millions of humans in that city are nothing more than food being stored for us."
They were waiting.
Waiting for the larger tide to turn.
Humanity still appeared to be holding its lines, but those lines had been stretched too far. There were too few high level fighters left to cover them all.
Once Kyo was transferred away, Norcrest would become an animal waiting for the knife.
Joren slowly raised his head.
He heard every word.
In this world, weakness was the first and greatest sin.
Kyo lifted his greatsword and pointed the tip between the Golden Dragon Falcon’s eyes.
"Before I leave, try coming here again."
"I will burn away every bit of this Half Step Rank Six cultivation if that is what it takes to cut off all three of your heads and kick them through the streets."
"Fuck off!"
The last words detonated across the battlefield like thunder.
Wariness flickered through the Golden Dragon Falcon’s eyes.
"We leave."
It gave Kyo one last look, then glanced down at Joren with unreadable interest.
Its wings beat once.
A gale swept across the wilderness as it turned and flew into the dark.
The Abyssal Blackscale Python and the Shadow Fiend followed without hesitation.
They had arrived quickly.
They left just as fast.
The moment the beast kings withdrew, the endless Beast Tide began to retreat with them. The swarm flowed back into the darkness like the sea pulling away from shore, abandoning even the corpses of its own kind.
Soon, only the wind remained.
It moved through the shattered ruins after the rain, making them moan.
The crisis was over.
The crushing pressure around Kyo receded almost as quickly as it had risen. Color drained from his face as the backlash of the secret art took hold.
The beast kings had chosen their words well.
Every one of them had struck directly at the brutal truth facing Norcrest.
Kyo stood alone in the ruined wilderness and slowly let out a breath.
The aura of Half Step Rank Six folded back into his body.
Above him, the crimson wolf phantom faded with it.
Still, the battle had gone beautifully.
One man had forced back three beast kings and revealed the full terror of Half Step Rank Six.
That kid had probably been overwhelmed by admiration by now.
For a Rank Two newcomer, what he had just witnessed could only have looked like a miracle.
Kyo straightened his rumpled collar, settled into the posture of a seasoned senior, and turned around.
"Did that scare you senseless? What you just saw..."
His voice stopped.
The smile froze on his face.
There were several Voidbeast corpses giving off waves of frost.
Broken stone covered the ground.
Joren was nowhere in sight.
Where had he gone?
The kid had been coughing blood in the rubble only moments ago.
"Fuck."
Kyo found him.
Five kilometers away.
Moving fast.
In the same direction as the retreating Voidbeasts.
...
Five kilometers away, the Beast Tide was enduring the darkest day of its existence.
What had begun as a planned massacre of an entire city had turned into a complete rout.
The lords had fled one after another.
Even the beast kings had been beaten into retreat.
The lower level Voidbeasts had no desire left to fight.
They only wanted to go home.
Back to warm, damp nests where they could tremble in the dark and lick their wounds.
But the monster behind them would not allow it.
Pfft!
A savage line of blade light swept past.
Three Ironclad Rhinos at the rear of the retreat split neatly in half before any of them could make a sound.
The look on Joren’s face was enough to frighten anything still capable of thought.
The look of a miser discovering a mountain of gold.
[Frostgrave Path] spread beneath his feet wherever he went.
The heavier Voidbeasts had never been fast. Once frost caught their legs, they slowed to a crawl and became living targets.
He did not even need [Thunder Dominion].
With raw strength and Bladecraft alone, it felt less like battle and more like cutting fruit.
[Ding! Killed Rank Three Voidbeast. Gained Bloodstars: 150.]
[Ding! Killed Rank Two Voidbeast. Gained Bloodstars: 50.]
[Ding! Killed Rank Three Voidbeast...]
Listen to that.
What a beautiful sound.
These were not Voidbeasts.
They were walking cash machines.
All the frustration of being crushed beneath the pressure of the beast kings poured out through his blade.
Rank Five was beyond him.
These small fry were not.
The chase continued for several kilometers.
Joren carved through the rear of the retreating Beast Tide alone, leaving corpses scattered across the wilderness.
Up ahead, another pack of Bloodthirst Boars lumbered through the retreat.
He was about to harvest them too when a low hum filled the air.
An invisible barrier appeared in front of him.
Joren had no time to stop.
He crashed into it headfirst.
The barrier gave like an impossibly tough mass of cotton, then flung him backward.
His eyes hardened.
The Black Gold blade came across his chest by instinct, killing intent thickening around him.
Kyo stood on the other side with the greatsword on his back and a face like thunder.
He took in the blood soaked young man before him, not a clean patch left anywhere, and felt a headache coming on.
"How far exactly were you planning to chase them?"
Kyo pointed at the fleeing Voidbeasts in the distance.
"Another few kilometers and you will be inside their nest."
"Are you tired of living, or are you disappointed they failed to kill you earlier and decided to deliver yourself to their front door?"
Joren paused.
Only then did he notice how unfamiliar the surroundings had become.
The barren wilderness was gone.
Dense primeval forest had begun to rise around them.
The air carried a darker weight here, cold and oppressive in a way the outer region had never been.
"Uh..."
Joren blinked.
The frightening red in his eyes faded, leaving them clear again.
"That is enough," Kyo said. "If those three old monsters get angry enough to turn back and kill you even at the cost of damaging their foundations, I will not be able to save you."
Joren clicked his tongue and watched the last of the walking Bloodstars disappear between the trees.
A shame.
There had to be several thousand more points in that group.
Still, Kyo was right.
Take the win and stop before it turned into disaster.
"Fine."
"Come on. We are going back."
Kyo waved a hand and turned toward Norcrest.
Manester was probably still staring at the screen with his mouth open.