The world shook wildly as the monsters invaded the vast field. Their hunger and bloodlust filled the air endlessly. Standing there, a normal human would've felt their soul leaving their body the moment they witnessed that sight.
Yet, the only reaction it brought from Talon was anger and a desire to kill. His senses heightened to the extreme and his body surged with power as he grasped his spear with all his strength. The veins in his arms expanded from sheer grip.
Then, he slowly started descending the hill, heading straight toward the giant group of monsters approaching him. His eyes scanned them, one by one as his mind worked out a route for how things were going to transpire.
After fighting monsters for weeks non-stop, Talon started learning what to anticipate and what to do even before he fought them or knew what they could do. His battle senses had already broken through the norm and reached the advanced levels, something that the system interface cannot quantify or show, and yet Talon could feel it clearly within him.
As he descended, his speed started increasing gradually. From walking to strolling and from strolling to running then to a full sprint. By the time he was within range of the monsters, he was already moving at his highest speed.
He was so fast that the monsters were unable to even follow him with their eyes and by the time they realized it, he was already in.
*Swish*
Like a raging storm, he pierced through their lines, slicing and dicing several monsters almost at the same time. His arms moved like flashes, cutting down any enemy in the way as he rushed deeper and deeper into the swarm.
Many monsters tried to blindly attack Talon, only to find themselves on the ground, dead. He didn't differentiate between any of them. His eyes simply moved at top speed, locating a target, killing it, and then moving to the next one the next split second.
Notifications rolled across the corner of his retina at a ridiculous speed as the kill count accumulated at an alarming speed. The more he killed, the more the soul power he stacked and the more points added to his status.
Dozens of monsters fell dead on top of each other, creating many piles of corpses as Talon moved deeper fearlessly.
Talon's method of killing was brutal. He would either decapitate or pierce their cores, efficiently killing them with one attack. However, what he didn't notice and what Acrypha immediately realized was that Talon was acting far different than usual.
His style of fighting was now far more aggressive, bestial, and way bloodier. Every attack he performed seemed to be infused with anger and hatred that was directed at nothing for some reason.
His teeth were clenched and he had such a dark expression the entire time that Acrypha could only frown.
'His fighting style is filled with so much anger... and grief.'
"Hah!"
*Swish* *Swish*
His spear dissected monsters ruthlessly and coated him in blood. The blood of his own enemies. His handsome face was distorted with the ominous red color as he Talon mindlessly killed and killed. He didn't care what, where, or how. There was only him, his spear, and the monsters he had to attack.
He simply killed, that was the only thing he had on his mind.
'I need more! This isn't enough! This will never be enough!' In his head, a single idea formed. The more he killed, the more he wanted, the more his greed grew.
He knew that each kill made him stronger, made his chances of survival higher, and made his ability to protect his loved ones better.
Yet, that feeling only lasted as long as his greed wanted before it took place and pushed him to do more. It was an endless cycle that he willingly started.
The echo of the noise around him became a simple background to his thoughts. The voice in his head kept booming loudly and confidently.
'If you killed all these way quicker, things could've been different. Your mother could've lived and you could've saved her. You could've been with her now and yet you're late. So, don't be late again in your life. You are the one to always be one step ahead of everything, even fate itself.' The voice said repeatedly.
"Where is this coming from?"
"I don't know."
"Wait... Didn't the leader go in that direction on his own?"
"You're right..."
"He isn't responding to the device. Is he ok?"
More and more people started noticing the abnormality and eventually, they decided to go check out of worry. Even though they hesitated, it didn't take them long to make a decision since they couldn't find any more monsters in the areas they were hunting.
It was as if all the beasts had run away somewhere.
Rushing through the forest, they followed the howls for a while. Eventually, they found traces of a huge stampede of monsters that moved in one single direction. Broken trees and flattened grass with countless footsteps.
"This many footprints... H-How many monsters went that way?" One asked with a horrified look on their faces.
The more they followed the traces, the more they started fearing for their lives. Even with a rough estimate, they can count thousands of monsters. Easily over two thousand if they had to roughly estimate.
That was almost as many monsters as the battle of the campus so they naturally had their hearts beating loudly from fear.
"Leader!! Where are you?!"
"Leader!!"
As they called for their leader, they moved after the traces. Even with their fear, they were still worried about Talon. If he was in danger, then they had to help him.
Eventually, they ended up reaching an open field in the heart of the forest. There, they witnessed a sight that made them halt in their places, shell-shocked to the soul. Their eyes were wide open and yet what they saw seemed almost like an illusion.
It was by far the most shocking thing they witnessed with their own eyes. As far as the eye could see, there was only blood and dead corpses. The vast field that stretched for hundreds of meters was completely covered in dead bodies. Not even a single spot was left clean or untouched.
There were so many that they even piled on top of each other from lack of space. It was an utter massacre of a scale they couldn't even imagine. The stench of death made many of them look away and fight the urge to vomit. It was simply too much to handle even for battle-hardened warriors like them.
This was messed up, on many levels than one.
"... What is this?" One asked weakly as they took a step back in fear. "What happened here?"
"L-Look there! Isn't that..." One of the survivors noticed a silhouette standing in the middle of this ungodly massacre. The silhouette was completely covered in blood from head to toe, seemingly appearing like a demon from hell.
"It's the leader..." One murmured as they covered their faces.
Hearing those voices, Talon turned around as he stared at them silently for a moment. His gaze sent chills down their very souls. This wasn't the leader they knew... At least not when he is acting normal.
They couldn't recognize him from fear. Yet, ignoring their looks, Talon opened his mouth and spoke.
"You arrived a little late."
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