Bloodstar System: Infinite Evolution Through Beast Slaughter

Chapter 21: In your next life, grow a brain

Tavian gave a hand signal.

"Joren and I will hold it from the front. Arlen takes the left. Evric takes the right. Look for a chance to stab its soft belly."

"Remember. Do not get greedy. This thing has thick defense. We wear it down slowly."

The others nodded.

Tavian took a deep breath and drew a thick backed cleaver from behind him. His foot drove against the ground, and he shot forward like a cannonball.

"Kill!"

His roar shattered the dead silence.

The sleeping Ironclad Lizard opened its eyes at once. Its vertical pupils glowed with a cold dark yellow light.

There was no grogginess in it.

Only rage at being challenged by prey.

Roar!

The giant beast rose, and the ground trembled.

Its thick scaled tail swept out with a shrill rush of wind.

Tavian’s face changed. He brought up his blade to block.

Clang!

The impact rang out like a bell.

Tavian was whipped backward seven or eight meters, his boots carving two deep grooves into the concrete.

"Fuck!"

The webbing between his thumb and forefinger had split open. Blood ran down his hand.

His eye filled with alarm.

"Wrong intel! This strength... damn it, this is peak Rank One!"

Peak Rank One.

Arlen and Evric went pale.

Late stage Rank One and peak Rank One were only one small step apart, but in actual strength, the gap was enormous.

The former could still be hunted by the team.

The latter could wipe them out.

"Bad intel! Pull back... no, we cannot pull back!"

Tavian stared at the Ironclad Lizard as it locked onto them, his teeth grinding.

"That thing is faster than us. Running means giving it our backs! Fight!"

"Joren!"

Tavian roared and charged again.

If no one held the front right now, all of them would die.

Joren did not retreat.

He took a step forward instead.

Against a peak Rank One Voidbeast, an ordinary Mortal Awakened Warrior would already have lost control of his bladder.

But the excitement in Joren’s eyes only grew thicker.

He rushed straight toward the giant claw slamming down from above.

[Talent: Bladeborn Frame] activated.

[Great Strength] triggered.

The bones in Joren’s arms crackled. A faint green sheen flowed beneath his skin.

At this moment, his arm strength doubled.

His blade attack doubled.

Joren’s slash came down with the force to split stone and cleave a mountain.

Boom!

Blade met claw.

The scene everyone expected, Joren being smashed into paste, did not happen.

Instead, a terrifying vibration erupted from the edge of his knife.

[Vibrating Blade]!

The Ironclad Lizard’s iron hard claw went numb for an instant, and its huge body tilted backward against its will.

"Now!"

Tavian seized the moment and chopped hard toward its neck.

Arlen reacted too, rushing at the Ironclad Lizard’s left side with his iron club and smashing at its knee joint.

The battle locked into a vicious deadlock.

Joren and Tavian became the main force.

Especially Joren.

With Mental Force assisting him, he could predict every attack from the Ironclad Lizard with frightening precision. His movement was slippery, almost eel like, and each counterstrike sent the boning knife through a gap between scales, bringing up bursts of blood.

The Ironclad Lizard roared again and again, yet it could not shake off this irritating human.

Its attention had been completely drawn to Joren.

At that moment, Evric, who had been circling on the right edge, moved.

But he did not attack the Ironclad Lizard.

Right now, Joren had just finished a slash.

His old force was spent, and his new force had not yet risen.

The Ironclad Lizard was roaring madly as well, its huge voice swallowing every subtle sound.

A perfect chance.

"Die!"

Evric’s face twisted.

Jealousy and fear tangled in his eyes, becoming a crazed killing intent.

The dagger in his hand glowed with a faint blue poisonous light as it stabbed silently toward Joren’s back.

As long as it landed, even if Joren had heaven defying skill, he would die on the spot.

"Evric! Fuck!"

Arlen happened to see it from the opposite side.

His eyes nearly popped out as he roared himself hoarse.

He could not believe what he was seeing.

At a moment like this, with all their lives hanging by a thread, while everyone was fighting for survival, Evric was stabbing their main fighter in the back?

Was he trying to get them all killed?

Tavian heard the roar and turned by instinct.

His pupil shrank hard.

Too late.

Evric’s dagger was less than half a meter from Joren’s back.

At this distance, even a Rank Two Warrior would not dodge it without warning.

It was over.

Cold spread through Tavian’s chest.

Once Joren died, no one could hold back this peak Rank One Ironclad Lizard.

They would all be buried with him.

A cruel curve had already split across Evric’s mouth.

He could almost feel the pleasure of the blade entering flesh.

He could almost see that terrifying genius fall.

Then, in the next second, the smile froze on his face.

The figure in front of him did not even tremble.

As if...

As if Joren had known he would come all along.

Evric then realized, in horror, that the dagger in his hand felt like it had stabbed into thick glue.

No matter how hard he pushed, it would not move another inch.

What the hell?

Before he could understand.

Whoosh!

A sound almost too faint to hear cut through the air.

It was a rusty nut.

Thumb sized, covered in dirt and oil, the kind of trash that could be found anywhere in the ruins.

But now, it floated before Evric’s brow, spinning at high speed and giving off a shrill, teeth aching whine.

Evric’s pupils reflected that nut.

And behind it, Joren still had his back to him.

Yet somehow, Evric felt those cold eyes watching him.

Mental Force.

Full field vision.

"In your next life, grow a brain."

A flat voice exploded directly inside Evric’s mind.

Pfft!

The nut turned into a streak of light.

It pierced through Evric’s brow in an instant, carrying red and white matter out from the back of his head before nailing itself into a distant wall.

Clatter.

The dagger fell to the ground.

Evric collapsed stiffly.

Even then, Joren still did not look back.

The boning knife in his hand swept out again.

[Vibrating Blade] activated, knocking aside the Ironclad Lizard’s sweeping tail.

Apart from the Ironclad Lizard’s heavy breathing, the entire scene went quiet enough to hear a needle fall.

Arlen stood frozen with his iron club raised, mouth wide enough to fit a fist. He had even forgotten he was still on a battlefield.

Tavian trembled.

What had that been?

A hidden weapon?

What kind of hidden weapon could turn?

What kind of hidden weapon could be fired without a hand?

Could it be...

Psionic Master?

That noble profession said to appear in one among ten thousand, unbeatable among peers from the moment of Awakening, able to kill without leaving a trace?

This kid who had been following behind him all along was actually a Psionic Master?

Tavian felt his view of the world crack apart.

He had actually planned to use a Psionic Master as cannon fodder?

At that moment, his fear of Joren even surpassed the peak Rank One Ironclad Lizard in front of them.

"Why are you standing around?"

Joren’s calm voice came over, without the slightest emotional ripple.

As if the one he had just killed had not been a teammate, but a zombie.

"I want this lizard."