Shaking his head, Talon ran his hand through his hair only to realize that he was soaking wet in blood from head to toe. The stickiness and the uncomfortable feeling made him frown before he leaked a small sigh.
"I need a shower." He murmured with an oddly stoic expression. His eyes were as serene as a still pond that was never touched by the wind.
His heart was beating calmly as if he was asleep. He wasn't even bothered by the horrid sll of blood and flesh around him. All he felt was pure calmness. Sothing that a normal person would only feel if they were relaxing and yet Talon felt it in the most disgusting place one could imagine.
'That was at least 2000-sothing monsters right there. I didn't expect I could kill this many alone…' Looking at his bloodied hand, Talon could only feel weird.
Barely a few weeks ago, facing 2000 monsters was a foolish dream. The only way he was able to actually kill this many monsters was when he unleashed that fusion attack and wiped out a good chunk of the campus in a mont.
Yet, now, after a few weeks, he is able to actually fight against this many monsters without using that attack. Granted, his body was riddled with nurous injuries and he was exhausted beyond words. But, he still did it and did it to the highest efficiency.
Talon had actually achieved what many thought would be impossible at such a stage. To fight an army on your own. He was a one-man army through and through.
'I feel a lot better for so reason. It's like I got sothing off my chest just now.' He mused as he looked up.
He noticed Acrypha descending toward him as she looked at him directly. "That was… Impressive." She said with a speechless look.
Even though Acrypha's expectations were already as high as the moon when it ca to Talon, he sohow kept upping that level. Now, he truly did sothing amazing.
'A level 25 human killed 2000 monsters on his own. Haha, this sounds so ridiculous even as a joke and yet it's true.' She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
At this point, she was contemplating not even having any expectations anymore since they kept being shattered as if they were nothing. Talon has simply transcended sothing as simple as 'Expectations'.
He was now setting his own league and playing in it.
'But… The way he was fighting, I couldn't understand it.'
She would be lying if she said that she felt completely happy with the way things went. Acrypha knew that even though Talon wasn't showing it now, he was still mourning his mother's death… deeply.
So deep in fact that it moved to his fighting style and made it far more brutal and unforgiving than before. He didn't hold his hand back from drawing as much blood out as possible. It was as if that was the only thing that put his heart at ease and she didn't want that.
She knew how horrible it could be for soone to get addicted to killing. It was even worse than being addicted to gaining power and the reason is simple… Power gives you arrogance while killing robs you of who you are as a person.
It chips away at soone's character and leaves him an empty, terrifying shell of their past self. It ruins them.
"Hey, you guys! Can you get a bottle of water?" Oblivious to the girl's thoughts, Talon turned to the others and asked casually.
"H-Huh?" His words seed to snap them out of their daze and they flinched.
"A bottle of water. I want to wash my face." He said as he made a bottle gesture with his hand.
"B-Bottle? Oh right, bottle!"
"... I have one…" One said as they rummaged through their backpack and pulled a bottle of water out.
However, when he was about to try and hand it to Talon, he realized a problem. How was he going to hand it to him?
Looking down slightly, his face changed just seeing the sea of corpses ahead of him. There was simply no way he could actually move through it even if it was the last thing he would do.
He wouldn't mind a few dozen, even a few hundred corpses. But, thousands was a completely different matter in itself.
Talon seed to realize the young man had a conflict with himself. So, he started approaching him silently. When he reached him, he stared down as he extended his hand. The young man flinched for a mont with a pale expression.
"The bottle," Talon said calmly.
"Huh? Oh yeah, h-here." He said as he handed him the bottle with a terrified look.
Talon ignored that blatant fear and simply opened the bottle before he spilled it over his head. Blood ca falling down along with the droplets of water. Looking down, Talon stared at the small red pond he created beneath him.
'I think I overdid it again…' He sighed as he washed his hands next and then finally washed his face. Even though much of the blood remained sticking to his face, he at least had his face and hair cleaned which made the rest of the students visibly relax.
Seeing their leader's expression bloodless put them at so ease. In the end, even with his terrifying look, this was still the Talon they knew.
"I'm sorry for the… Uh, stuff that happened here. I should've probably held back a little but I wanted to get things done quickly." Talon said with an awkward cough before he turned around. "Well, we need to collect the cores that fell from these monsters… How are we going to do that?"
"Uuh… We can cover our noses and do it, sir."
"Do you?"
The survivors looked at each other for a mont as if they wanted to see what the other thought. They could see the lingering fear in their eyes but, they weren't as terrified anymore. They understood that Talon simply did most of the work again and killed monsters that would've been a threat to their lives.
As blood and gory as it was, it was for the greater good. So, with no words said, they pulled out masks from their bags and put them on.
"We are ready, leader!"
Talon raised an eyebrow at them before he nodded faintly. "Well, if you insist. Go ahead. I'm going to rest a little."
"Leave it to us!"
With that, Talon left the group to work on that while he sat down near a treetrunk popped a healing potion, and chugged it down. After that, he exhaled a small breath before he stared at the students as they carefully maneuvered their way through the dead corpses and tried to harvest the cores.
For so reason, as twisted as that sight was, it was oddly peaceful in Talon's eyes.
"Hey…" Acrypha called him softly.
"What's up?"
"How are you feeling?" She asked calmly.
"...? Sticky, and I sll horrible but other than that, I'm fine." He shrugged.
"No, I an, how are you 'feeling'?" She repeated the question with a more aningful tone.
That made Talon look up for a mont, trying to understand what Acrypha was trying to say before he pursed his lips. "I'm doing fine… Why you ask?"
Acrypha opened her mouth to speak, only to realize sothing. How can she even bring this up? Talon was most likely unaware of it with how nonchalant he was acting.
'Telling him that his fighting style was angry and hateful would only confuse him more… What should I do?' Contemplating herself, she found it exceedingly harder to speak.
"Acrypha?"
"... It's nothing, don't worry about it." She sighed and decided not to speak. In his current state, Talon was still not fully back to normal. Three days weren't anywhere near enough for him to forget about his mother's death and move.
'I will give him more ti and then bring it up later.' She thought to herself.
"Hm, ok." Talon didn't get what she ant and decided to simply change the topic. "By the way, I think I've got a new ability from the Dinsion Harvester after it leveled up again." He said.
"Oh? You did? What's its na?"
"'Berserker's Greed' it says. What an interesting na for an ability." Talon murmured as he rubbed the back of his head. 'Is it implying that I'm a greedy monster of so kind? That's an.'
Talon could only laugh at how funny it sounded. In a sense, he can see why the skill gave him such an ability na. The way he was fighting did feel greedy and brutish as beautiful as it flowed. Even if he was making the most srizing dance using his spear, it still left in his wake a path of mutilated bodies.
"Have you ever heard of such an ability before, Acrypha?" He turned to ask his most knowledgeable partner.
"Hmm, I do know of Berserker skills in general. They're similar to sacrificial skills but less in terms of consequences that co up after using them. They're very powerful abilities." She explained.
Talon still rembered his fight with Cha Kwang a while ago and how he used a sacrificial skill and gained imnse power in a split second. The huge gap between them was shortened imdiately and Talon almost struggled to defeat him when he thought it was going to be an easy problem to solve.
"Oh, so this could be good?"
"Most likely. Check the description."
[Berserker's Greed (Level Max): Rage is your friend and foe. The more you embrace it, the stronger you beco and the more you lose. Using this ability, the host gains a 40% increase in all abilities but they will lose complete control of their minds for a set period of ti.
Flaw: Overusing could lead to the host losing their mind.]
A//N: If you enjoyed reading, don't forget to support the book with GT and PS. Thank you!
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