Monster

Swish.

Akt' sword came in a beautiful arc, taking away with it a life with every swing. Blood splattered everywhere. His every swing brought upon redness to the otherwise green forest. From time to time, a shield would come from out of nowhere and block the strikes he could not deal with while the others on the other hand would take on the beasts from the sides to lighten his load.

In this way, the group managed to stay afloat and gain momentum with a burst of strength. No one bothered to save up their remaining energies any longer. Mana rippled from their bodies and became a bit more visible to the naked eye. It was a display akin to a candle burning its last embers, a truly beautiful but foreboding scene.

Admittedly, Dalt felt frustrated in seeing this. He was their leader. Their captain. But at the most crucial moment, he could only shield and let a man younger than himself take the most risk. Akt was only in the Body Tempering realm, and yet he had to fight in the front lines. The guy even had to hurt himself to exhibit such strength just so he could match the group in power. Dalt felt that it was a shameful thing. What was his cultivation for if he let someone at that realm take the helm for him?

Dalt could not be blamed for thinking like this. Akt was after all an irregularity in this world. While Akt may seem like a normal talent in the Body Tempering realm that only had an exceptional swordsmanship going on for him, the truth differed slightly from that.

It was indeed true that Akt was only at the Body Tempering realm, but his base physique was that of a superhuman unlike that of the others who had cultivator bodies based on normal mortal physique. Even if his body could not exhibit strength greater than what he was exhibiting, his lean stature instead housed freakish regeneration ability.

Dalt felt guilt after assuming that Akt had paid a price for his current strength. And it was true that Akt truly did by exchanging his body's condition for a momentary power up. However, while normal cultivators would normally suffer from the backlash, Akt would not. Or rather, the suffering he would have to endure right after this would be significantly less with his regenerative abilities. If Dalt knew about this, he might feel a bit better. Unfortunately, Akt had no plans of telling them.

"Guys... hold on for a bit longer! We're nearing... outside the forest..." Kark winced in pain as he shouted. He was relieved inwardly that there were no powerful beasts intercepting them from the front. The other beasts probably moved away from their path after sensing the demonic mana coming out of the wolves, he reckoned.

Hearing that, the group's movements became more vigorous and energetic.

'Finally!'

They finally had hope and something to look forward to after fighting for so long. Now, things would be decided on whether they could last until they reached the city or not.

Akt would have been ecstatic to hear this, but he did not even have the mental capacity to even process that fact. His vision was fading to black, unable to see clearly. His other senses were also deteriorating. Activating his Ability to the maximum brought his mind to its utmost limit. The pain he felt bordered insanity, but he endured.

While his body still moved with power, he was on the brink of losing his consciousness. He could only use his remaining mental stamina to will his remaining clarity in maintaining his movements and swings. It was truly fortunate that his [Analyze] was capable of scanning everything in his surroundings independent of his senses.

At this point, it could be said that he was no longer in complete control of himself. His body used the information provided by his [Analyze] as a catalyst to stir his instincts, resulting in an autopilot-like state in which his body moved by itself and responded to the variables in the battlefield. As for his other bodily functions, he was no longer capable.

With every swing, his body broke from the inside. His muscle fibers tore whenever he strained his body to move. In addition, his existing wounds from earlier gradually worsened. It was impossible to avoid aggravating his wounds even if he was capable of using his Ability to find the most optimum movements. Still, he endured without letting out a single groan from his mouth. He could not relax even for a moment to shout because he would collapse the moment he did so.

As they neared outside the forest, the number of demonized beasts going after them dwindled. It seemed that the wolves were unwilling to go near the city as their numbers went down in proportion to the amount of distance remaining in between the group's location and the city. Of course, that did not mean that they could let their guard down as the beasts attacked even more fiercely the closer they got to the outside.

It was then that Dalt's shout echoed in the forest.

"Akt, move aside!"

Elated by the prospect of escaping this dangerous situation, Dalt was distracted for a moment. After he regained himself, it was already too late. He saw a wolf that had managed to close in on the formation after eluding his senses. And the worst part was that it was coming for the most vulnerable member of their party which was Akt.

Although Akt's combat prowess improved by leaps and bounds after using his Ability in reckless abandon, his defenses still stayed the same in the Body Tempering realm. Dalt did not have the heart to imagine what would happen next if Akt failed to avoid this one. Of course, it was not like he could not avoid it. For the beasts that Dalt failed to cover earlier, he was able to avoid it on his own. During these instances, Akt always reacted and made use of everything in his sleeves to dodge. However, Dalt knew that his body was already in a bad condition. They could not afford to take risks.

With his ability, Akt was already aware of the wolf that had managed to sneak up, or rather, his body was. He bent his knees and jump aside with quick movements the moment the wolf lunged forward. If he had not reacted sooner, it would have hit him. Fortunately, he managed to avoid it. However, everything would have been fine if that was the end of it.

After landing his feet on the ground, he staggered. His legs shivered a little when he tried to rebalance himself. It only took awhile to stabilize his body, but that was enough of a distraction for an accident. A wolf charged forward seeing this, taking advantage of the lull in between his attacks.

This time, however, he was not able to avoid it. He was definitely able to sense that an attack was coming. But no matter how strong his [Analyze] might seem in this situation, it was still a fact that he was heavily wounded, tattered, and torn up everywhere. His body could not keep up. And so, without being able to do anything, he could only stand there as the wolf bit his shoulder.

"Guh!" He winced in pain

Although he was partially unconscious, his remaining awareness enabled him to feel the tremendous pain coming from his shoulder. He felt as if he was drowning in agony. As an instinct, his body thrashed around trying to get rid of the wolf. However, the demonized hound did not seem to want to give up. It tightened its grip on his shoulder even more as it felt its opponent struggling under its bite.

'Let... go...'

Dalt and the others stiffened after seeing this. They were already near the edge of the forest. Just a bit more and they would have gotten out. Just a little more... However, their carelessness brought this upon themselves.

Of course, There was always the choice of leaving Akt behind. They barely knew him after all, and no one would blame them for doing so. It was a life and death situation after all. But whether it was out of kindness or pride as seniors, they felt that they could not leave behind this white-haired young man who managed to help them go this far despite being the weakest.

"Akt!" Dalt shouted. "Quick, help him out. I can't do it with one arm!"

"I can't! The beasts are starting to swarm the front. Alia and Shadow can do it. Probably!" Kark yelled over.

Hearing this, Alia and Shadow rushed over. As the nearest and also the only people who could do something in this situation, the two did not dally and hurried.

"Alia, help Akt out. I'll assist Captain in holding the beasts off. Do it fast!" Shadow said.

Alia nodded in return, "Alright! I'll do it fast."

As Akt and the wolf wrestled on the ground, Alia found it hard to intervene. She was also tired after all and might accidentally injure him if she aimed wrongly.

'Now!'

She waited for an opportunity, and luckily, she did not need to wait for long. When an opening presented itself, she quickly stabbed her dagger into the wolf's back, making it let go of its bite.

Alia was about to finish the wolf and carry Akt away, but she was surprised about what happened right after. She saw Akt, still covered in grievous wounds and blood, stand up unsteadily. She was about to help him up after finishing the wolf, but her movements stilled and was rendered unable to move.

She looked on to see how wretched his appearance was. She even doubted if he was even alive. Despite that, however, a sharp and oppressive aura emanated from his body

Alia clearly felt it as she stood in shock.

'How overbearing...'

What she perceived was not his body strength, nor was it his cultivation. If it was that, then she would hardly sense anything except his dwindling vitality. Things were not that simple. It was something that was far deeper than that. It was not something that could be seen outwardly but could only felt.

And Alia was able to feel it— this young man's willpower. She saw how unsteady he was on his feet, struggling to even balance himself as blood flowed out of his wounds. Nevertheless, no matter how wobbly he was, the hand that held his sword never faltered or shook even for a moment.

The second he took a stance, his aura sharpened noticeably. It was as if his whole person turned into a sword.

Alia's eyes widened in astonishment.

'What a fucking monster!'

She did not time to feel shocked however. The person she was supposed to help was already gone, plunging himself back into the battlefield.

During the whole time, only a sliver of Akt's consciousness was present. The moment the wolf bit him, it felt as if the world had collapsed. It was as though he was but a small ship in a stormy sea. It was so painful that he even blacked out for a moment before regaining his composure, or what was left of it. He wanted to give up just like this and surrender to his fate. He was just tired. Why did he have to suffer anyway?

It was then that a voice echoed in his head. A memory from a distant past flashed in his mind.

"Are you going to give up just like this?" A blurry image of a woman spoke. Her eyes were silver, glowing like the moon in the night sky.

Her voice was gentle but mixed within it was strictness and provocation.

It was Vera.

The Vera of that time when he was first learning how to wield a sword to be precise. He could still remember how strict she was with him at that time.

To be honest, Akt thought himself to be a pacifist back then. He never liked anything associated with violence because of the discrimination he went through for being a superhuman. And this included weapons, of course. However, Vera was having none of that.

She beat him black and blue until he learned how to defend himself and willingly wield a weapon for his sake if not for something else.

The memory faded, vanishing like a dream.

'What are you saying... Give up? No...'