The Phoenix flames flickered in Alex's hands, casting an eerie, deep red glow around him.
The Awakened and the massive Rhinoceros beast had their attention wholly focused on Alex by this point, feeling the intensity of the heat emanating from the flames.
The beast snorted and snarled, pawing at the ground, while the mercenaries and students eyed Alex with a mix of curiosity and irritation.
"Fuck off-" Another one of the mercenaries, a burly man with a scar running down his cheek, stepped forward, ready to confront Alex.
It was obvious that he was probably the leader of this ragtag group of awakened.
Alex ignored the mercenary, his eyes locked onto the beast's.
"Back off if you don't want to end up dead," Alex commanded, his voice firm.
Most of the awakened around him complied, sensing the power radiating from Alex's body. They had been struggling with the beast for too long, unsure if they would even be able to kill it, and the threat in Alex's tone was not one to be taken lightly.
A few, however, stood their ground, glaring at Alex with defiance.
"Why should we listen to a puny D- rank punk like you?" One of them, a tall woman with short-cropped hair and a defiant stance, challenged.
Instead of answering, Alex unleashed his aura. The force of it washed over the group like a tidal wave, making their hair stand on end.
The remaining members of the group, including the woman, who stayed behind felt their legs tremble.
They had never felt such a strong aura from a D tier before. In fact, they had never even felt an aura so strong from a C tier either!
"Move aside," Alex repeated, his voice low and dangerous.
The defiant ones quickly moved aside, their defiance crumbling in the face of Alex's dominating aura.
The Rhinoceros like beast, sensing a shift in power dynamics, used the small bit of intelligence it had in its disproportionately sized brain to realise that Alex was most likely stronger than these other awakened that had been pestering it for the last 15 minutes.
But like the beast it was, its instincts took over. It snorted and charged madly at Alex, its massive hooves pounding the ground and shaking the earth beneath it.
Alex, not scared one bit, took the deep red flames in his hands and enveloped his sword in them.
The sheer number of corpses littering the whole battlefield was an eyesore, and he had the perfect method to deal with this issue.
He raised his hands, and the Phoenix flames roared to life once more.
He first decided to test out his plan on the Rhinoceros he had just killed, placing his hand on one half of its carcass.
'Ignite.'
Just as he thought, the flames roared and devoured the corpse of the Rhinoceros like it had a life of its own.
The whole process was over in a second, showing the insane speed at which the huge corpse had been turned into a pile of ash.
He repeated the same with the other side of the Rhinoceros, but this time, there was more than just ash left behind when the flames had finished devouring.
'A beast core!'
Alex saw it immediately, and he snatched it up into his hands the moment his eyes met it.
However, to his shock, something completely unexpected happened.
'I can store beast cores in my inventory now!??'
The moment his hands came into contact with the beast core, it disappeared, leaving Alex confused at first.
But he was used to this sensation from the countless times he had the same happen with any Soul orbs he found.
And he checked his inventory, finding the beast core sitting in a corner of it very nicely.
'It's not like I'm going to use it, but it'll fetch some good money on the market! I can use any beast cores I earn on this mission to fund a new weapon!'
Alex felt his emotions flare up as he found a new use for these beast cores that had been otherwise rotting away in his storage earring.
'It's time to move on to more prey!'
But he wasn't going to stop there just yet.
The fun had just started for him!