Chapter 40: Only One Side Can Live

THWACK!

"FUCK!"

Zax cursed with a hideous expression plastered on his face.

Right after his spectacular turn around, the finishing blow he landed on Ilen-Tar that ended the fight, Zax's vision blanked while still being midair and his frozen body fell on the mush of furless rat meat and blood.

One move, one kinetic energy bodily exhalation was all it took to bring him into this disgusting and excruciating state.

In the beginning, after his body inflated and deflated, all he could feel was a mild tingling sensation all over his body. But in the instant that led to him defeating Ilen-Tar, the sensation intensified so quickly into pain and then unbearable pain that even after he awakened from the daze, all covered with filth, his mind still struggled to remain consciousness.

Zax got up. His face convulsed with every muscle stretched to its limit, which only added to the pain, and strode to the entrance of the tunnel.

If possible, he would still like to kill more, to accompany his big brother Tularg.

...

Hagen flew at her top speed toward the tunnel to her Master's cave. Due to the erection of the Blood Ties formation and the nuisances first level Core Master, she was free to chase Ilen-Tar when his fight with Zax was already over.

She lost Ilen-Tar's position after Tularg's mist detonation and thought the he perished in the explosion. Nevertheless, she never stopped looking for him out of concern that she might be wrong and indeed she was and knew it when Ilen-Tar revealed himself against Zax.

'Little brother Zax, Ilen-Tar... ' Hagen sent to him that instant she arrived to the tunnel's entrance. She inspected Zax, gauging the severity of his worn out condition and feared the worst. 'Did he-'

"No one can pass me, big sister Hagen", Zax interrupted, saying firmly, using five long breaths to finish the sentence...

...

Zetsa sprinted across the battlefield like a phantom of ice and fire. As one of the few humans on the battlefield, it stands to say that her presence could not stand out among the thousands of beasts in their oversized animalistic forms.

Fiery red and icy blue radiance shone from her arua.

BANG!

A frosty palm strike obliterated a raw of first realm experts simply as her first appetizer.

Ahead of Zetsa was Simel. He roared, pounced and smashed two first level Core Masters.

As for their clones ... they did not summon them for the lowly small fries.

...

Belavin, the third pillar of Karns's and Kardelion's forces, was surrounded by three bloody figures and one smoldering Kartius.

Bloody Kartius, the clone, along with bloody Simel and bloody Zetsa, impeded all of Belavin's assaults to the point of driving the oxen tribe leader insane.

The strongest the innate physique of a beast was, the more it relied on close quarters fighting style when engaging in a fight.

Belavin was proficient in a few long range mist attacks, but by no means could they compare to his mist enhanced physical assaults. And yet, the damnable bloody clones would vanish and reappear right in the crucial moments of his attacks to throw him off.

Kartius did not cultivate the Radical Fiery Icy Provocation Qi refining technique, therefore his aura was purely azure hue.

A glint of killing intent flashed in his eyes. He finally found an opening that would end the fight.

Stampeding toward Belavin, the glow of Kartius's aura thickened and a staggering amount of mist energy streamed to his crown of Black Stag's antlers.

This was Kartius's strongest attack and the circulation in which he sent his mist energy to his antlers was both grueling and complicated to execute in battle.

The piercing fluctuations of mist energy made Belavin sober up, but an ominous feeling already took root in his heart.

Ignoring the three bloody clones, his gaze shifted to Kartius, who was gaining terrifying momentum.

"Dare to come at me head to head!" Belavin's hotheaded attitude burst at the face of death. He could not evade Kartius, nor thought to do so.

Mist energy filled his horns in a stunning pace. Every ounce of mist energy in his body, actually, jostled to his head since Kartius came at him too fast, leaving him no time to properly execute his renowned horns attack.

Belavin had only enough time to take to steps toward Kartius when their attacks landed heavily on each other's body.

A mouthful of blood rushed from Kartius's throat. At the moment of confrontation, He raised his head, avoided directly ramming Belavin. As a result, though, Belavin's horns were embedded in his chest and the release of foreign, hostile mist energy injured his internals.

BOOM!

Belavin's body crushed on the ground. His head, on the other hand, was severed from the neck and stuck with his horns to Kartius's chest.

Azure color antlers wriggled like tentacles, after impaling Belavin body.

Kartius nudged his head and his antlers screeched as they shortened, assembled and resumed their original size and crown array.

...

Raroen, Merson and Somi had grave expressions and blazing eyes. The moment they got the support of their bloody clones, they took offence and in a short time slaughtered the entire enemy's second level Core Master.

As they finish the assignment of the line, Somi and Merson turned back, to help deal with the first level Core Masters.

Raroen declined the offer to join them and even after killing the lost human, remained fixed to his place.

"Tularg..." His voice was quiet and tender, but the killing intent emanating from it was nearly distinguishable to the naked eye.

Raroen's hundred meters, Silver Horns Dragon's body, ascended to the air and flew toward the bastards who brought about his little brother's death.

...

As the skirmish of first level Core Masters and first realm expert against the household experts took place, with the household having the upper hand, Grandmaster Kartion's battle with Karns and Kardelion only intensified.

Sixteen bloody clones, along with Raroen joined the fight, aiding Grandmaster Kartion.

"Give up and die already, Kartion!" Kardelion shouted, icy blue mist energy bloomed around him, forming a frosty defensive formation of sharp icicles. In his mouth mist energy consolidated to the shape of a five meters long spear.

WHOOSH!

The spear split the wind and shot toward Grandmaster Kartion.

"Kardelion! Kardelion! Kardelion!" Grandmaster Kartion bellowed three times. After learning of Tularg's death, there were no adequate words for him to curse with by the names of his two adversaries.

The air in a radius of several meters around Grandmaster Kartion vibrated. The kinetic energy did not exude from Grandmaster Kartion's body, but from the world itself.

Bashing the air, a current of kinetic energy converged to Kinetic Force and then traveled to counter the icy spear.

The two long range attacks were evenly matched. Upon impact, the icy spear shattered into countless fragments, while the wave of Kinetic Force dissipated.

For Kardelion and Grandmaster Kartion, though, it meant naught. They overbearingly confronted each other at the same time as they readied their next attack.

"Get the hell out of my way, brat!" Not far from the two, Karns shouted at Raroen.

"Karns, you bastard, your whole tribe of fiends should perish and die!"

Raroen blew a breath of azure flames, but against this level of attack, Karns merely waved his head, casting a black mantle that dissolved the blistering flames and threw backwards the bloody clones and Raroen.

"Brat, there is only so much face for me to give to your father. This is your last warning, withdraw from the battle or blame the traitor for your death!" Karns was seething with anger.

The unruly Raroen was a frustrating obstacle for him to deal with, more than he initially gave him credit for. As the son of one of the Silverhorned tribe's leaders, a tribe on per with Karns's Black Horns tribe, killing Raroen would put Karns in a difficult position with the Silverhorned tribe's leader. That being said, what truly was troublesome was that Raroen is a third level Core Master and a Chaoyue type beast, at that! By going easy on Raroen, Karns enabled him to fight without reservation, giving him the opportunity to go all out with attacks that even he, although also a Chaoyue type beast, could not casually block. Furthermore, with the backing of the bloody clones even his movements were slightly restricted.

The mantle vanished after as the last of Raroen's blue flames was abolished.

"Go!" Raroen's voice rumbled.

WHOOSH!

The bloody clones sprang toward Karns. Sixteen red silhouettes traversed a distance of several hundred meters in a blink with the help of the Blood Ties formation.

Seeing the clones appear next to him instantly and Raroen still being defiant, Karns snorted. Killing intent radiated from his eyes and a black aura emerged like a wailing wind.

"Brat, if you insist on being obstinate, then I rather give my condolences to your father!" Karns last his patience.

His aura extended into sixteen black beams that swiped the bloody clones, smashing ten of them, dissolving their forms. Nevertheless, Karns was not enthusiastic. The clones would keep reforming until Simel will not have the mental strength to support them, which is why is stayed at the back even after completing the formation.

Ignoring the remaining six that stood in his way, Karns galloped, bearing hate and ruthlessness, he issued another seven black beams to strike down Raroen.

"Hmph!" Raroen snorted. His mist energy condensed into icy and fiery spheres, but not with the intent to use against the black beams. The bloody clones appeared before him and countered the majority of the attack before dissolving, yet again, with only two beams going past them.

The beams hit Raroen, piercing his scales and went deep into his flesh, but did not cause severe damage. At the same time, Raroen discharged icy and fiery spheres that expanded from the size of two eggs to a circumference of one meter.

Karns squinted his eyes at the coming spheres, yet stayed on track; Raroen was but twenty meters or so from him.

BOOM!

The two spheres struck Karns and a grand explosion erupted and engulfed him.

Raroen was forced back by the shockwave and could not see Karns. Even his Soul Sense failed the perceive Karns's state.

WHOOSH!

A black figure leaped from within the flaring ice and fire. Karns's black mist energy shrouded him from the low and high temperatures, only the blast seemed to leave a lingering waning effect on the surface of his black fur.

"Brat, die!" Karns roared. His antlers were askew, aimed to impale Raroen's head.

A grim shadow passed in Raroen's eyes. He could not escape, avoid or counter, only see an instantaneous flash of his life.

"Karns, you savage, halt!" Grandmaster Kartion shouted in a crazed tone. Immediately after him another voice followed.

"Brother Karns, stop!" The familiar tone of the voice caused Karns to stop midair. It was Kardelion!

Glancing over his shoulder, Karns located the two and his expression became harsh.

Grandmaster Kartion breached Kardelion's icy defensive formation. His body was wounded, with couple of icicles thrust at his back, but still better than his opponent.