His face cracking with a mad expression, Aaron threw himself against the wall that was the beast lord bear, all whilst channeling an unstable cocktail of energy that flooded through his [ Reverse Cycle Faux Core ] as he summoned the energy through it and into his fists.

  But he stopped himself short of unleashing a fury of energy-fueled rampage onto the beast, and steadied himself. He read the threads of fate and calmed himself as he flowed with his movements, not trying to imitate Yendal but trying to be a better version of himself.

  It was this inner peace that he needed to achieve in the heat of the most difficult battles. He had long done it during easier fights, but he had a way of losing himself. Of succumbing to his wilder side, and throwing caution to the wind as he threw everything he had into a fight.

  But the truth was, a synergy between his overflowing and abundant energy and the absurdly manicured finesse he had learned from the multiverse’s strongest martial practitioner needed more work.

  But he didn’t stop there. He took these two ideas and layered them upon violently shifting threads of fate. Threads of fate that moved and changed as quickly as they formed. But while it may have looked chaotic and untamed to the naked eye, it was not without merit.

  As levels and power increased, so did speed, and it could make an ability like his fate-bending seem less useful if one couldn’t keep up. But if they could? Well, that changed everything.

  And this was exactly where his improved [ Gorgon’s Soul Vortex ] came in handy. He used it as he fought, reading into the secrets of the bear, as he read the energy flowing through it, and all the while, slowing his perception of time.

  It was perfect for what he wanted. More than just a combat Skill, but a training tool, and it gave him time to focus on every little thing that took place every microsecond. As fighting at this level could become incredibly overwhelming.

  And as he studied everything around him, he seized that supreme focus, and he landed. He could see the beast’s mana anchor, and he struck it with a [ Soul Shattering Strike ], the devastating and destructive energy damaging attack landed perfectly, but he didn’t stop there. Instead of breaking straight into his combination chain, he landed another [ Soul Shattering Strike ], perfectly hitting the beast’s stamina veins.

  The cultists immediately realized that there was something wrong with the irate beast as its energy fluctuated, and they pressed their attack. But only a second later, a red, chokingly thick mist of killing intent flooded out from the beast.

  The bear seemed to thicken, and in an instant, power flooded straight back through it, restarting both its mana anchors and stamina veins as it roared in defiance of the attacks coming its way.

  But Aaron knew he was getting through to it, and instead of changing tactics, he dodged several swipes coming his way and landed another [ Soul Shattering Strike ].

  Within barely a second or two of the beast’s outraged attack, another of the cultists had been torn apart, but Father Malcolm summoned his energy and returned with a powerful explosive punch that temporarily pushed the bear back.

  Aaron’s body was fully committed to the fight, eyes glazed over, and swinging several strikes in a row, forming long combinations that landed on the tail, and crushing [ Soul Shattering Strike ] when the opportunity arose.

  But mentally, he was almost meditating. Feeling the energies in the room, and how they differed from the System energy that was the base of all creation, or at least he believed it was.

  At a very basic level, he was starting to understand how energy branched off and formed new paths. In fact, he wasn’t even entirely sure whether or not this was something cemented, or if new energies could be formed from new ideas.

  Taking in the concepts, he barely even felt it when one of his arms was ripped away, and he countered with another [ Soul Shattering Strike ] without even thinking, and drew on adipose reserves as he cycled and pushed the limits of his core.

  But it would take more than that to end the beast lord, and the bear spun around, and both Aaron and the last of Malcolm’s cultist followers were shredded apart in seconds.

  But of course, Aaron was quick to reform. And having had some time to recover, Zero fired light beams from a distance, aiming at weak points, and Talia came in with her own attack.

  And it was at that point that Aaron saw something, thanks to [ Gorgon’s Soul Vortex ], that was truly eye-opening.

  The dark energy spilling out from Talia’s nightmare blade pierced into the beast’s stamina veins as Aaron’s attack beat them down and made them vulnerable.

  It acted like a poison, and when the formidable D-grade beast pulled on its energy and tried to flood its own body again, it was useless.

  It tried again, taking deadly swipes back and forth to keep them at bay as it tried to reset itself, using excessive amounts of energy in the process, but it had no luck.

  Father Malcolm saw the desperation in the beast’s expression and pushed the attack, but it was too soon. A cornered beast is a deadly one, and he lost a limb for his efforts, and jumped back out of range before the bear could finish the job.

  But Aaron was only a second behind, and unwilling to give the beast even a moment to figure out how to resolve its predicament.

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  “Strike after I do!” He roared as he dodged several strikes, ate one, and then landed with his own.

  Talia was barely a fraction of a second behind him, and the dark, corrupting power from her avatar’s sword infected the mana anchor the same as it had the beast’s stamina.

  The beast roared in anger and went into a ballistic rage, throwing everything it had at Aaron, which was perfect.

  He might have been slower than the beast, especially since it seemed to be powered by some kind of rage or berserker Skill, but his movement was perfect, and fate guided him.

  With most of its energy resources poisoned and offline, the bear wasn’t in a position to waste so much energy, but it was infuriated and unable to see clearly.

  It managed to kill Aaron in the end, but not without great effort, and he waited a second for it to turn its attention toward the cult leader before pulsing with aether and returning to life.

  He ate quickly, stuffing food from his scabbard down his mouth and drawing from his reserves to recover as best he could within a couple of seconds, and then he went for it, striking at the beast’s Vitality Heart.

  The cult leader lost another arm and took grievous wounds in but seconds of one-on-one melee, but the bear was running dangerously low on energy, and both Zero and Talia had somewhat recovered.

  Aaron led the charge, taking on a tanking-like role for his little party and throwing everything he had at the dwindling power of the bear, as Zero and Talia backed him up with their most powerful attacks. It was one hell of a beast, though, and his eyes widened with surprise as it started to heal and recover energy, drawing on its fat reserves, much the same as he did.

  It was a bear, though, and Aaron had to admit that the Skill probably suited the beast lord more than him.

  Unfortunately for it, though, pulling on its reserves was a desperate last-ditch attempt at turning the tide. There was only so much it could do without the ability to recover properly, a fact that was made considerably worse thanks to being greatly outnumbered.

  Aaron’s combos landed, and his attacks siphoned a little of its energy, adding injury to insult, and soon the well-fought beast was on its last legs, barely managing to keep itself up.

  He took no chances, pulling all of his final reserves into his following combination, and landing the most overpowered haymaker he had ever thrown against its head as all of its energy reserves had been drained, and the result was gory and explosive.

  But he wasn’t going to let someone else get this kill. This one was his.

  You killed: Vicious Iron Fur Bear [ Level 144 ]

  Bonus Experience rewarded for killing a creature of a higher level than yourself!

  [ Empty-Handed Energy Monk ] has LEVELED UP!

  78 → 82

  Purchasable Skill Available!

  Aaron smiled. It had put up a good fight, but ultimately, he had broken it down. And what’s more, he had gained some nice insights from the fight.

  And with the bear dead at his feet, he turned his gaze to the cult leader.

  “You… you did it.”

  Father Malcolm looked amazed and lost for words. Then again, he had lost his entire cult from the looks of things to the damn beast, and the people before him had just killed it. He was no pushover, but there was little doubt that he realized he was outmatched.

  “The anchor. Where is it?” Aaron demanded.

  Father Malcolm stumbled backward, glancing over his shoulder. “No need to get ahead of ourselves. We can come to an arrangement, can’t we?”

  Aaron cracked his knuckles, and the movement he saw the cult leader flinch, as if preparing something underhanded, he struck. It was a flash of movement, a sudden release of energy he had been cycling through his core, and the moment he released it all at once, he was there. Standing before the cult leader.

  The combination had landed so fast that the cult leader barely registered that his defensive Skills had been knocked offline, and followed up with a devastating blow that blasted straight through his chest. He was very badly wounded, though.

  He fell to the ground dying as he muttered something. Not that Aaron cared; death was probably the only suitable outcome for someone who was sacrificing prisoners anyway.

  You killed: Father Malcolm [ Level 125 ]

  Bonus Experience rewarded for killing a creature of a higher level than yourself!

  [ Empty-Handed Energy Monk ] has LEVELED UP!

  82 → 83

  He glanced back over his shoulder at Talia, and then toward the chapel. Even with the anchor so close, there was something else on his mind, though, especially with his pending Skill purchase.

  Talia’s infectious attacks had been rather helpful, and he wondered if he could do something similar? If he could, he wouldn’t need her supporting attacks. Not that he didn’t appreciate them, but he didn’t want to have to rely on others. Not if he could help it.

  What was more, he had a feeling he understood how it worked. Thanks to his insights into energy, and more importantly, System energy.

  I’m going to have to look into that.

  “Let’s see what all the fuss was about,” he finally said, breaking the short silence as he stared at the chapel.

  “Zero, would you gather the prisoners for us, please?” Talia asked, but Zero just turned to Aaron as if waiting for approval.

  “Yeah, that'd be very helpful. Saves us having to backtrack before taking the anchor.”

  Zero howled happily at Aaron’s request, and then shot off in a blinding wisp of silver light.

  There was just one thing left to do, and they both turned to the chapel as they walked.

  ***Dorian***

  Dorian and the other scouts had been at the jungle's edge for a couple of days now.

  They had acted with extreme caution, mostly watching from afar. And thankfully, the ants hadn’t actually traveled beyond the border of luscious trees and vegetation into the plains beyond, though they often came up to its edges and twitched their antennae as they looked around.

  The deadly ants had more or less lived up to expectations. They had watched on many occasions as their overwhelming numbers took down beasts one after another.

  Individually, they weren’t anything overly special, but as a swarm, they were scary.

  But none of that had particularly surprised Dorian, that was until he spotted an unfamiliar ant scuttling through the jungle toward a couple of giant frogs.

  It had a bluish sheen to it, and unlike the others, when it attacked the giant frog, it did so with a burst of lightning energy that turned the beast into charcoal.

  Dorian’s mouth fell agape at the unexpected turn of events. “When the hell did they learn how to do that?”

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