Slaughter

There was no trace of the intense battle that had taken place earlier on the Holy Orchid Institute Training Grounds.

The light of the setting sun covered up the blood staining the grass, and the stench of blood was blown away by the wind.

There were four figures on the school's training ground who had not originally been there.

"Are you okay?"

"Or maybe not," Xiao Yan idly mused as he stepped up in front of Lu Piao. He had no idea of how strong his punch was, so Xiao made the logical decision of putting himself in front of the frightened Lu Piao, who was not suited to melee combat.

Once he got in front of Lu Piao, Xiao Yan felt the air move. He immediately crossed his hands in front of him like a shield.

He heard something like the sound of steel meeting steel, and a tremendous force bore down on Xiao Yan's arms. A weighty and swift object had struck the hands of Xiao Yan.

He saw a long, serpentine horns slowly retreat.

"Its horns... attacks like a bulldozer. However, judging by the feel and sound of the impact, those horns must be as hard as metal… its attack radius of over ten meters will be hard to deal with, but why does it seemed much bigger than the one I've killed earlier?"

With no frontliner skills, Xiao Yan had no idea how to deal with it. All he could do was advance into melee with his foe.

Xiao Yan sighed. He braced his shoulders into a battle-stance, ready to counterattack.

Lu Piao, who was standing behind him, should have been hit by that attack.

Nie Li and Du Ze breathed sighs of relief. Lu Piao, who felt quite silly for being so afraid, turned to Xiao Yan.

"Lu Piao, fall back," Xiao Yan said, forcing some semblance of fighting spirit back into himself as he gave that order. Lu Piao had a look of absolute confidence in Xiao Yan's victory on his face as he bowed deeply and then retreated to a corner of the clearing.

Seeing Xiao Yan raise his fists in a fighting stance, the Horned Beast lowered its body and tensed its entire body.

The massive body forcefully kicked off the earth with a mighty "bang", and lunged at Xiao Yan.

The flying tackle of the Horned Beast's massive body would have tossed any ordinary person away, had they been hit by it without using a martial art.

However, Xiao Yan used the fists of his arms as a shield, and took the Horned Beast's charge head on.

Despite its fearsome destructive power, Xiao Yan still easily resisted it..

"Muuuuu!"

The Horned Beast was surprised by the unmoving Xiao Yan, and slashed with the surprisingly sharp claws on its forepaws. Xiao Yan raised the fist in his left hand to block the strike, and swung with the fist in his right.

He did not put his full strength into it, but it was still quite a forceful blow.

There was a loud crash, and Xiao Yan's strike went through the beast's body, his arm numbed from the impact. It would seem the Horned Beast had died from Xiao Yan's strike.

The scent of fresh blood followed the sensation of the fist piercing into flesh.

"I'll go hunt some more beasts."

Then, Xiao Yan broke into a sprint and kicked off the earth floor, vanishing over the other side of the bushes. He had leapt over a two meter high bush in a single bound.

It was a scene that barely seemed real at all.

The trio could not bring themselves to believe the events which had just occurred. Each of them continued staring slack-jawed at the place where Xiao Yan had been.

They stared with open mouths and stunned eyes for a while, as though a typhoon had just swept past them. The first to recover was Nie Li and spoke:

"Oi… do you hear it?"

"Hear what?"

"The sounds of the beasts."

Lu Piao and Du Ze strained their ears to listen, they could hear constant howls from the beasts in the direction Xiao Yan went to. It was as though hell had been drawn across the land.

The frightened Lu Piao muttered:

"Oi, did that actually happen? That Xiao Yan… there were Horned Beast like that, and so many of them, and he broke right through them… went straight ahead."

Now all was silence.

The reason why the noise had stopped was because the nearby beasts had been drawn away by a new target. Given that the sound still had not returned, it implied that they were still fighting and had not returned.

This unbelievable scenario drew Nie Li, Du Ze, and Lu Piao to the other side of the bushes to satisfy their curiosity. They could not believe what they saw from up there, and they muttered:

"What is this… that Xiao Yan… what kind of a man is he…"

Countless bodies littered the ground. Corpses were everywhere, covering the entire ground. Although some of the beasts hung on to a thread of unlife and struggled weakly to move, all of them had lost the ability to fight.

The smell of blood floated over as they expected, and they heard the sounds of distant battle.

"…No way… he's still fighting? All these beasts, strong ones too, and he could actually break through them! Incredible…!"

"Calling himself with skills like that of a Bronze rank Fighter is too much of a joke. He should be Silver rank Fighter, right?"

Du Ze and Lu Piao quietly voiced their approval. Someone like that could not be a mere Bronze rank Fighter.

❄ ❄ ❄

When his right hand moved, the beasts were flung away. When his left hand struck, the beast were cut in two.

Xiao Yan, a tornado of death which killed everything it touched finally ground to a halt.

"I'm getting used to this."

Xiao Yan looked on the several beasts around him with an exasperated expression on his face, and then pointed his fist caked in blood at them.

The beasts recoiled at this and tried to flee from Xiao Yan. The beasts should not have known the meaning of fear, yet they had come to fear Xiao Yan.

With every step Xiao Yan took forward, the beasts took one back. They encircled him in this way while keeping their distance from him.

This circle moved with Xiao Yan's steps. Although the beasts seemed to be looking for a chance to attack, any who stepped forward were immediately destroyed by Xiao Yan. Therefore, the beasts merely surrounded him, but did not make a move on him.

Countless beasts had already been annihilated by Xiao Yan when they carelessly strayed too close to him. Even the mindless beast had learned something from this, which was why they had chosen to surround him.

"Still, if this keeps up, it'll only be a stalemate," Xiao Yan grumbled as he saw the several throng of beasts that still remained.

If he wanted to break the encirclement, he could easily cut a path through the beasts horde. However, if he forced his way through, the beasts would scatter in all directions and the nearby Nie Li, Du Ze, and Lu Piao might end up being injured or killed. Therefore, he had to lure the beasts to him as he moved forward, in order to ensure their safety. However, doing so made his forward progress very slow.

Xiao Yan unleashed his power, and charged into the greatly thinned ranks of the Horned Sheep beasts horde.