Bloodstar System: Infinite Evolution Through Beast Slaughter

Chapter 40: Breath Severing Slash!

Manester’s nerves eased by a fraction.

Then his gaze swept across the corner of the screen and stopped.

C3 breach.

The feed there was blurred by signal interference, but the enormous corpse in the ruins was still clear enough to see.

That was...

"Enlarge the C3 feed!"

Manester’s voice cut through the command hall.

The image zoomed in.

The huge body lying in the ruins, its belly torn open, was unmistakably a Rank Four lord.

Golden Armored Rhino King.

Dead.

"The Golden Armored Rhino King... is dead?"

Manester’s pupils tightened.

"Who did it? Kyo is not even at that position yet."

"Kaia..."

He murmured the name, then shook his head.

"No. Impossible."

As the supreme commander of the Norcrest defense line, he knew every combatant above Rank Three in Antares Command.

Kaia was a genius. That was true. She had reached Rank Three at a young age, and she even had a chance to challenge Rank Four before thirty.

But even genius had limits.

"Searching Military Merit database..."

A few seconds later.

"Found him."

"His name is Joren."

"Affiliation, Antares Command Third Special Operations Team. Kaia’s squad."

Manester’s brows pulled together.

"Why have I never heard of him? Elite transfer from another city?"

The adjutant shook his head. His expression turned even stranger.

"Not a transfer."

"He is... a new recruit who joined yesterday."

"A new recruit?"

Manester’s voice sank.

"Switch to live tracking. Follow him."

The drone camera locked onto the C3 area again.

On the screen, Kaia had picked up her blade and was saying something to Jazz.

The young man named Joren still stood where he was.

Then, as if he had sensed the drone watching him, those ink black eyes lifted.

Across kilometers of distance.

Across the cold screen.

It felt as though he was looking straight at everyone in the command hall.

Joren sighed inwardly.

He had two blue Talents now, but on a battlefield already sliding toward collapse, raw strength was still the only real truth.

That last Breath Severing Slash had been beautiful.

Still, the skill itself needed to catch up.

"System. Add points."

His mind moved.

"Consume 280 Bloodstars to increase [Breath Severing Slash] proficiency."

Buzz.

His muscle memory was forcibly rewritten.

Joren’s fingers tightened around the hilt.

The slash before had been a flash of inspiration, a single piece of art born in battle.

Now it had become part of his body.

Something he could draw out whenever he wished.

[Breath Severing Slash: 280/2000]

Kaia rushed up and grabbed Joren’s arm, her voice fast.

"Central command issued a full retreat order. There are at least twenty Rank Four lords behind them."

"And suspected Rank Five beast kings."

Joren wore the look of someone who had just seen fresh dishes brought to a buffet.

"You should go."

He turned away from the three of them, facing the smoke filled sky and the black tide coming in the distance.

"You burned through too much stamina in that last fight. If you stay, you will only slow me down."

The words hurt.

They were also true.

"What about you?"

Kaia stared hard at his back, her eyes red at the edges.

"If no one covers the retreat, do you think any of us can get away?"

Cover the retreat.

A recruit who had joined two days ago was going to stand alone against a Beast Tide that could crush a city?

"No. I am the captain. If anyone stays behind, it should be me..."

Joren cut her off before she could finish.

He waved a hand, his tone turning impatient.

"Go already. Do not get in the way of my... performance."

Then he ignored them.

Boom!

A violent aura burst from his body.

Rank Two Mental Force, fully released.

The six Nightshade throwing knives screamed out and circled around him, giving off low hums like they were thirsting for blood.

"Move!"

Joren’s roar slammed through the battlefield.

"Jazz! Alar! Take the wounded and retreat!"

Kaia clenched her teeth and gave the order.

The motorcycle engines faded into the distance.

Only when the three disappeared beyond the end of the ruins did Joren slowly withdraw his gaze.

The righteous, heroic look vanished from his face at once.

What replaced it was the greed of a starving wolf seeing a flock of sheep.

"Twenty Rank Four beasts..."

"That is twenty thousand Bloodstars."

His body became a black cruise missile.

Instead of retreating, he charged straight toward that sea of death.

A streak of black lightning slammed into the Beast Tide.

He opened with a killing blow.

"Breath Severing Slash!"

Where the blade light passed, more than a dozen Rank Two Voidbeasts at the front did not even get the chance to react.

Their bodies split strangely in half while they were still running.

[Killed Rank Two Voidbeast, Windwolf. Gained Bloodstars: 80.]

[Killed Rank Two Voidbeast, Ironback Bear. Gained Bloodstars: 100.]

[Killed...]

The beautiful prompts crackled through his mind like popping beans.

Joren gave up defense entirely.

A Rank Three Shadow Leopard ambushed him, its claws tearing across his back.

The next second, his blade swept back and took the leopard’s head off.

Behind him, the torn wound wriggled with new flesh. In two breaths, the bleeding stopped and the cut sealed over.

High above in the distance, a high altitude reconnaissance aircraft belonging to the Alkaid Authority happened to pass over this region.

The pilot looked down at the hair raising scene below and pressed the communication button with a trembling hand.

"Found him..."

After that Breath Severing Slash fell, the Beast Tide’s attack in the whole area broke for an instant.

Before the twenty Rank Four lords behind it could fully crush forward, Joren’s figure flashed and slipped behind a half collapsed air raid shelter.

"Hah..."

Joren lifted his left hand and lit up the tactical watch screen.

He had been too absorbed in killing just now. The thing had been vibrating the entire time.

A string of red notifications popped out.

[Killed Rank Four Voidbeast, Golden Armored Rhino King. Contribution judged at 100 percent. Gained Military Merit: 2000.]

[Killed Rank Three Voidbeast, Shadow Leopard. Contribution judged at 100 percent. Gained Military Merit: 500.]

[Killed Rank Two Voidbeast...]

Dense kill records rolled rapidly across the screen like an account ledger.

Behind every entry was a short video of several seconds, the killing moment automatically captured by the tactical watch’s high speed camera.

He had worried earlier that he might kill too fast for the system to count it, or that someone else might claim his battle merit.

Now it seemed Antares Command’s merit system had practically been made for him.

[Current Military Merit: 5200]

According to what Kaia had told him, one Military Merit had roughly ten thousand in purchasing power.

More than five thousand points.

That meant over fifty million.

"Should be enough to buy that thing."

Joren switched into the Internal Store with practiced ease.

After filtering by authority, he directly locked onto the high level area available only to official members of Antares Command.

Very soon, a virtual book glowing with faint golden light entered his sight.

[Helios Furnace Scripture].