Chapter 34: Blood Queen Bee (Part III: Wings of Blood)
Kaal was enjoying the fight far more than he should have. Blood trickled down his arms, his clothes were torn in several places, and deep gashes painted his figure in red, but his eyes still gleamed with primal thrill. Despite the wounds and rapidly dwindling Qi, he stood firm, his brute strength pushing his body far beyond its limits.
A sharp whirl of wind accompanied another volley of blood rain from the furious Blood Queen Bee. Kaal twisted, narrowly avoiding the deadly droplets as they sliced into the ground behind him like knives.
"Have you seen enough?" he called out coldly, his voice echoing across the battlefield.
He had sensed them long ago. His Mind Eye Perception had easily picked out the three silent watchers hidden among the shadows. But he had chosen to ignore them. This fight, this chaos, had lit something inside him that refused to die quietly. He knew it was an impossible dream to solo an Earthcore Beast, especially while only at the first stage of the Foundation Realm. But the fact that he had matched the Blood Queen Bee blow for blow was already enough to declare him a genius of the century.
A rustle in the foliage broke the standoff.
Samrat stepped into the clearing, arms folded, eyes filled with disdain. He had been waiting. Waiting for Kaal to bleed, to collapse, to break. Then he would claim the kill and the glory. But now, seeing Kaal still standing tall, a twinge of annoyance tightened his jaw.
"I can’t support an idiot who’s so eager to become food for an Earthcore Beast," Samrat scoffed, his tone dripping with contempt.
Kaal turned to him, a grin forming through the blood on his lips. "At least I’m better than some cowards whose only relevance is their age."
The jab hit its mark.
Samrat’s face twitched. A vein bulged on his forehead. He was nineteen years old and four years older than Kaal, and already at the fifth stage of the Foundation Realm. Yet, despite that, they stood at the same level in the clan, both treated equally. Worse still, he had often been grouped with Kaal under the shared title "Twin Shadow Dragons of the Kilvis Clan."
The comparison burned.