Chapter 182 Devouring

Yasmine's state was a little worrisome, but Kyle couldn't help smile faintly.

There was not too much to worry about because the huge amount of mana she seemed to consume in order to maintain her current state would force her to stop releasing her bloodline.

As such, she might still be able to defeat the remaining Late Vitae stage beasts, but that was already it.

With that in mind, Kyle could focus on the remaining beasts that were still more than 30 in number.

Beatrice was close on his heels, yet, instead of attacking together, Kyle's eyes began to gleam brightly as he geared up.

Excitement spread through his body, leading him to release more Soul force to utilize the wind affinity which further accelerated his speed.

Thus, he arrived in front of the closest beast which was a Clyronia deer at the Mid Vitae stage.

It had already created nine beads of energy, followed by connecting them with each other.

As such, it ought to be much stronger than Kyle.

However, its eyes that stared at him in fear clearly expressed how the beast was feeling in front of Kyle, whose appearance horrified the Clyronia deer.

A subtle green color enveloped him, showing the manifestation of his compressed wind affinity.

This, and his released battle intent that would otherwise hide the means of his attack were clearly showing his proficiency in fighting, and even more so, killing.

Thus, the Clyronia deer was sensing death approaching it slowly, causing it to bleat out.

Yet, even before it was able to ask for support from its horde, its body stiffened as Starbreaker entered the beast's sight.

It magnificent silver blade gleamed in the bright sunlight as the twinkling runes engraved on it caused the beast to halt its movement for a quarter of a second.

By the time it regained its senses, Kyle had appeared in front of, staring at it with cold eyes as he brandished Starbreaker.

Slashing the Katana across the chest of the Clyronia deer, he made use of the small opening to smoothly cut through the deer that sensed a little pain before its power seemed to be drained off.

Yet, instead of continuing advancing, Kyle didn't allow the beast he had severely injured to succumb to its injuries and die a slow and painful death.

Instead, he smoothly switched from a diagonal slash to thrust Starbreaker in the lethal injury he inflicted a moment ago.

Kyle's movement started off smoothly, but the ending disappointed him because he sensed that his strength and flexibility were too little to create a smooth movement sequence with Starbreaker.

However, that was perfectly normal as he had just received the weapon and was still learning to wield it properly.

After all, the last time he had wielded a katana had been in his past life.

Thus, it was only obvious for him to be rusty, which meant that he had to return to training.

But that was perfectly fine right now because the fight against the Wolves and Deers was more of a warm-up than a proper fight, to begin with.

At least that was how it felt to Kyle, whose attack ended the life of the Clyronia deer.

His physical strength might not have been enough to finish off the beast at the Mid Vitae stage.

Nonetheless, by wielding a weapon, whose blade was able to pierce through the body of beasts at the Krysal stage, there was no problem inflicting a deep cut.

And, then he just used the already existing injury to pierce deep into the flesh of his opponent, spilling its innards out of the intestine.

Making use of this simple means, Kyle killed the deer that let out a painful bleat before it succumbed to its injuries.

At this exact moment, Kyle felt a tingling in his hands that were tightly gripping the Starbreaker katana.

The weapon's blade began to gleam lightly, and the exact same subtle, almost untraceable glow could be perceived from the Soul Storage medallion.

Following that a second passed in which nothing seemed to happen in the view of the others, yet, Kyle was clearly able to perceive something grand!

Instead of flying through the air after detaching from the body of the Clyronia deer and progressing up towards the sky, the beast's soul was sucked inside the silver blade of Starbreaker, which seemed to devour the entire energy out of the now dead beast.

This was an interesting sight only Kyle was able to perceive as he was the only one who could see souls.

As such, Beatrice was confused to see a bright smile appear on his face as he watched his new weapon awestruck.

Yet, instead of paying him anymore attention, she decided to switch her focus on her own target.

Meanwhile, a second passed since the Clyronia deer had been killed, and only a minuscule amount of the soul's energy was left behind.

It gleamed brightly as it detached from the body of the beast, ascending into the air, unaffected by Starbreaker's suctioning.

'Is this the original size of a soul? If one didn't cultivate at all? It looks almost like the incomplete souls of the ant eggs…'

Perceiving that a tiny trace of the soul was left behind, Kyle could finally understand what Nitran had meant with his comment a few months ago.

After all, he had said that his Spirit Soul was not devouring the soul in its entirety, but only the energy of the Soul, not the core essence itself.

Now that Kyle got to know that Nitran's words were true, he felt much better.

"Kyle! The soul, take it!"

Suddenly he heard Beatrice's voice from behind him, pulling him out of his fascination.

Turning around, he saw three corpses of Low Vitae stage beasts lying around Beatrice, whose entire body was enveloped in a tightly compressed blood hue.

At this moment, his eyes began to gleam brightly, seeing that two souls had already detached from the body of the wolf corpses.

'Maybe this will work too?' He wondered, before rushing towards Beatrice, thrusting the Katana straight through the ascending soul.

For Beatrice, it looked like Kyle was stabbing empty air, but seeing how his lips curled upwards, she assumed that something good must have happened.

In fact, this was exactly the case because he had been able to pierce the soul and devour the cultivation energy of the soul, depriving it completely.

The energy was directly led to the Soul Storage Medallion, which Kyle could even access right now.

Yet, instead of testing how this worked out, he focused on devouring the other ascending soul, issuing a second sword thrust before he stabbed into the wolf corpse right next to him.

This astonished Beatrice a little, but when she perceived how Starbreaker's runes were becoming brighter, she understood that the soul of the wolf had yet to detach from the body.

She had been intrigued about Kyle's abilities ever since the day in which Arashi had jumped out of his body in the entrance hall of the Razkadan castle.

However, right now, as she saw him use the glowing katana to stab the air her interest shot through the roof!

This was quite odd because Beatrice had already been informed about the highest extent of Kyle's ability.

As such, her curiosity should have been satiated.

Yet, seeing the bright smile on Kyle's face, she couldn't help herself but be drawn towards getting to know more about the ability…and the person harboring it.

In the end, Beatrice knew that Kyle's blood was suppressing her desires, but she was not sure if that was a permanent solution or if her body would slowly get adjusted to the suppressing effects of her desires.

This was a little worry of hers, and sensing that her body and mind were drawn towards him, Beatrice understood that she would have to drink his blood soon enough once again.

While Beatrice was staring wildly at Kyle with her crimson eyes, Yasmine was almost causing a wildfire.

The fire was barely restricted owing to the focus of her flames being on the Late Vitae stage beasts, which she fought with her life on the line.

When Kyle noticed this, and the little amount of mana she had left in her body, he knew that they had to act quickly.

With that in mind, he attempted to transfer some of the soul's energy from the Soul storage medallion into his body.

It worked, but Kyle had never expected it to be so difficult.

As such, he spent a few seconds controlling the souls' energy inside his body, replenishing his lost energy.

The energy turned into soul particles the moment it entered his body, and Kyle used some of it to empower the Nurture ability.

Invigorating himself with it, Kyle's smile turned even more vibrant than it was a moment before if that was even possible.

'Everything works…it's perfect!'

Now that he had tested everything he could think of at this moment, Kyle turned towards the next opponents that had already reached them.

While some of the Clyronia deers had fled the moment they had sensed that death was the only outcome if they were to clash against one of the three bipedal beings, the Kians Wolves thought otherwise.

They were still sure of overwhelming their attackers and as such attempted to attack Yasmine.

She was the biggest threat and had to be defeated as fast as possible.

Unfortunately, this was easier said than done, and after encountering a wall of compressed flames that burned them the moment they came only close to it, the Kians Wolves switched their focus to Beatrice and Kyle.

There were fewer opponents than Kyle first assumed, but almost all of the remaining 15 beasts were at the Mid Vitae stage.

This was not exactly problematic, but it brought the two a bigger challenge than more beasts at a lower cultivation base would cause.

Seeing the pack of wolves advancing towards them, Kyle and Beatrice looked at each other for a moment, before they nodded their heads in unison.

A moment later, Kyle touched Beatrice's arm, invigorating her with the Nurture ability as he said with all seriousness he could.

"Don't you dare die!"

However, Beatrice only smiled as a retort before she added,

"You know, I've lived a little bit longer than you. I can take care of myself!"

Not responding to Beatrice's comment, Kyle shot forward, leaving her behind.

She had expected him to tease her, but that didn't happen.

Instead, it looked like Kyle wanted to face the wolf pack alone if she wouldn't want to join him.

Seeing Kyle's broad back as he rushed towards the wolves, Beatrice was not sure if she was truly older than he was.

To her, it seemed like she was relying and depending on him, instead of the other way around.

With that in mind, she grew restless, feeling like she had to show everyone that she only relied on Kyle because of his blood, and not anything else.

But even that was something that bothered Beatrice as she was far from being independant...

The pride of her entire being was on the line, and nobody was allowed to take that from her.

Thus, unbeknownst to her, the blood hue that had enveloped her loosely was slowly tightening around her body, forming a faint membrane that became denser the more blood Beatrice provided it.

Slowly, it took the shape of a tight armor that enhanced her strength, allowing her to circulate both her spirit force and mana at a much faster pace than usual.

This was something that had never happened to her, in the entire lifetime of 50,000 she had lived through.

Yet, she was oblivious to it, and only Kyle was able to take a glimpse of her blood armor, causing him to nearly lose his focus on the beast in front of him.

'Just what is going on with these two women?'