BOOM!
Kiera's fist slammed into the grotesque head of the beast— forcefully removing it from its neck.
[You have slain a Warrior Beast, Cursed Soldier]
[Your art grows stronger]
[You have received 410 points]
....
The dead body of the beast dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.
"We killed it!" Kiera cheered happily while looking at the corpse. "Wait, didn't it have a tail?"
Looking up, she was met with Kaiser's figure barely standing with his head hung low. The scorpion-like tail of the beast was lodged through his abdomen, just below his ribs.
!!!
"No!"
Kiera shrieked in horror as she quickly rushed forward to support him.
"Hey. A-are you okay?" She asked gently.
She immediately felt stupid right after asking though, because he didn't even look okay at all.
Her mind was thrown into panic since the injury was something major.
"Pull it out..." Kaiser softly said to her— causing her eyes to widen in surprise.
"Won't that make your intestines spill?" She asked.
"Just do it. Trust me."
Sighing to herself, she closed her eyes and tugged violently at the tail— hearing as it made painful fleshy sounds until it was fully in her hands.
Thud!
Kaiser's body fell to the ground softly— causing her to dispose the tail and rush towards him.
Surprisingly, apart from the bloodstains on his clothes, everything else was fine.
"Huh?" She looked up at his face in confusion only to realize he had passed out.
"How the hell did he heal?" She asked rhetorically before shaking her head.
'That's not what matters now. I have to find somewhere safe for us to stay.'
Understanding the urgency of the situation, she hoisted him onto her back.
'He's quite light. Wait— what am I even thinking?'
Confused, she started looking for a habitable spot or building in the region. Fortunately, after a few hours she came across a small structure like a hut from history.
Entering into the building, she gently laid Kaiser down on the ground and sat beside him. Hugging her knees tightly, she took a deep breath as she felt a wave of drowsiness wash over her.
'Am I tired?'
She thought to herself as her vision grew blurry, then dark.
...
Half an hour later, Kaiser's eyelids trembled softly as they snapped open— revealing a pair of perfectly glistening black eyes.
'I'm in a shelter. Kiera must have brought me here.'
He stood up and flexed his arms, easing the stiffness.
Then he turned to look at Kiera with a calculative look.
'Her ability has something to do with blood. If trained well, she could be a prodigy. And I think I've figured it out. The Seed of Lust must have manifested itself as her flaw. Very interesting. Now I only need time to see what she truly is and needs. Daisuke should have started reshaping Hazel, right? Good thing for me. I am too lazy to do that anyway.'
Sigh.
'I can't believe I got myself gravely injured. If I hadn't used the Reversed Damage technique and transferred the injury to the beast's tail, it's possible I might have died. That would be troublesome.'
What a strange thought!
Chuckling to himself, he removed his top and spread it on the ground for Kiera to lay on. He gently tilted her body which was surprisingly light to lay comfortably on the cloth.
Checking her pulse, he thought to himself. 'She should be awake in the next one hour. I guess that's enough.'
He stood up, revealing his torso in its full glory alongside the Mark of Shadows that was spread across it. Closing his eyes and concentrating a bit, he manipulated the marks to shift into a small lotus shaped tattoo on his neck.
Cracking his knuckles, his lips widened into a predator grin.
'Time to go Ruler Hunting!'
....
'Transform'
He dissolved into a shadow and glided at a speed that was on par with the speed of sound. In his shadow form, he could move through tiny gaps like a water body and climb onto structures effortlessly.
Within ten minutes he arrived at what looked similar to a cathedral that emanated a very ancient aura.
"Citadels are still as enigmatic as I remembered." Assuming his human form, he said with a thoughtful look.
'What kind of beast could be guarding it?'
He thought as he closed his eyes and expanded his senses with the shadows as a medium.
'Can the Academy even replicate it...? Unless someone has the ability to manifest his memories and had visited all these places before.'
Soon he found what he was looking for. In a room devoid of any object, a beast quietly coiled around itself. It had the head of a Wyvern and the body of a serpent with glistening silver scales.
'Hmm? A hybrid Awakened beast? It's rare for Awakened beasts to guard a Citadel while surrounded by beasts of the Defiled Pathway.'
Waving his hands, he decided to stop bothering himself with such thoughts.
Deciding to make the most violent entrance possible, he unleashed all his strength and crashed into the Citadel. Although his physical body couldn't do anything significant to the walls since they were supported by heavy enchantments, his incredibly vast soul could.
He felt the protection enchantment tremble under the weight of his soul before shattering a split second later.
RUMBLE!!!
The whole region trembled as every living creature in the VR looked towards the heart of the region as a wave of dread washed over them— students and beasts alike. Among these, a pair of green eyes looked into the distance with an unnerving depth.
ROAR!!!
'who dares to defile this sanctuary?'
The beast roared in fury when it realized that its sanctuary had been damaged.
Kaiser appeared from the rubble, blood flowing from his mouth.
'Unleashing my soul through this feeble body... I really am courting death.'
Laughing wildly to himself, he lunged at the beast— a black ominous spear appearing in his hands.
Swinging heavily, his spear clashed against the beast's swinging tail.
BOOM!
They both recoiled, equally matched in strength.
'For it to be able to match my strength, it must have almost ascended into an Evolved.'
Kaiser's black eyes glowed in excitement at the prospect of finding someone who could match him in strength.
Finally! He could fight against someone that posed a threat to him.