Slash!
Slash!
Slash!
For a brief mont, Malakai had forgotten everything. The expansive dark forest. The youths high in the trees watching him with trembling gazes. The people of the west, witnessing everything unfold.
Malakai was in his own world. In this space, twenty ters around him, nothing else mattered.
The darkness creatures breached this domain in droves, claws screaming from every direction. But this was his world. They had stepped into his territory.
And Malakai treated them as such, intruders.
His movents were seamless, and his entire being focused on only one thing: splitting them apart.
Everyone who watched this scene felt the sa thing, disbelief. None of them could understand how he was able to do what he was doing.
As a young Node Formation evolver, defeating even one grade one darkness creature was already considered remarkable.
To do that, one had to confront the fear these creatures radiated and withstand the chilling aura they emitted.
But with a horde of this size, many couldn't begin to imagine the weight of that collective chill. No fourteen year old should be able to withstand it.
Still, that fact, though shocking, could be swallowed. What truly stunned them were Malakai's movents.
How he handled so many attackers from every direction with such ease, they simply couldn't comprehend.
He was considered a battle genius, yes, but this… this was sothing else.
Malakai moved like he already knew every outco.
Every attack on him was parried, blocked, or dodged. Every counterattack he launched struck true, without pause or hesitation.
He had previously killed grade one darkness creatures with ease before their eyes, but handling them all at once like this should've been impossible.
What they didn't know… was Malakai's unique ability.
He could sense Vita within a certain radius. An ability that most wouldn't awaken until the Synergy Stage.
Coupled with the twice enhanced node in his brain, the darkness creatures looked like snails in his perception.
He simply moved to finish them as efficiently as possible.
It took a while. A ti that passed in utter silence, with every youth and people too stunned to speak.
Slash!
Soon, the final creature fell, and the silence only deepened. All eyes landed on the scene of carnage before them.
Black ichor drenched the forest floor.
The once raging army of darkness creatures now lay in massive heaps, lifeless, sprawled across the ichor soaked land.
Their gazes shifted to the figure at the center of the devastation, and their hearts froze.
He was drenched from head to toe in black ichor. Even his hair was so soaked it was hard to tell its true color.
He didn't look like a teenager. He looked like a devil that had crawled out of hell.
'What is he?' Octavia thought, shaken to her core.
How was he that fast? How was he that good at fighting?
'How is this even possible…' Maximus's thoughts were also in disarray.
Monts ago, he had been deciding whether to fight Malakai or back down.
And now, the boy he'd considered challenging had just singlehandedly annihilated an entire fucking army.
"No… no way…"
"H-he killed all of them?"
"He's only fourteen?"
"He's… a monster…"
The silence broke with the stunned whispers of the youths, all of them staring at Malakai in disbelief.
"Ninth Vein!"
A voice cut through the tension. Eyes turned to a boy with chubby cheeks sprinting toward the Ninth Vein.
He, too, was drenched in black ichor, showing that he'd also been fighting.
Renlo reached Malakai, panting. "Ninth Vein… are you okay?"
The others remained rooted in place, too stunned or wary to approach. But Renlo's eyes, as they stared at Malakai, showed only one thing, concern.
'He's worried.' Malakai could see it.
Then his gaze dropped to Renlo's ichor stained figure.
"You… fought?" he asked, mildly surprised. It was hard to imagine the always terrified Renlo fighting an army of darkness creatures.
Renlo clenched his spear tightly. "Yes, Ninth Vein… but it wasn't enough. Not compared to you…"
"Still," Malakai said, "you fought. That's sothing you would've never done in the past. You're changing. You should be happy."
Renlo blinked. Had Malakai, of all people, just complinted him?
He had to be sure. "Can you repeat that, Ninth Vein?"
"Did you go deaf?"
Renlo flinched, then smiled. A genuine one.
He clenched his fist. Those were the words he'd always wanted to hear.
'I'm changing.'
If Malakai himself had said it, then it had to be true. And that thought alone filled Renlo with nothing but excitent.
"Are you hurt?"
It took a mont for Renlo to realize Malakai was talking to him. The question had been so out of character, his ears simply filtered it out.
"W-what? No—no, Ninth Vein. Wait! I should be asking you that. You just faced an entire army!"
"Malakai."
Renlo blinked, confused.
"Call Malakai," Malakai said.
Renlo just stared, stunned. 'Did he just…' Had he heard right?
"Call Malakai from now on," Malakai repeated, his tone leaving no room for argunt.
"…"
Renlo was speechless. He didn't know what to say, he just stared at him.
Malakai frowned. "Try it."
The coldness in his voice snapped Renlo out of his daze. He finally registered what Malakai was asking.
"I-I should try it?" he asked.
"Yes."
Renlo looked visibly hesitant.
The veins of the Sanguine Clan were like princes, royalty. Calling one by na felt… wrong. The kind of thing you could get your head cut off for.
But right now, it didn't feel like a request. It felt like an order. One he couldn't refuse.
"M-ma—"
Renlo's fingers fidgeted nervously, tugging at each other as he tried to summon the courage. Malakai's cold stare wasn't helping.
"M-Malakai," he finally said, then imdiately reached for his neck, as if expecting a blade to co down on it.
A second passed. Nothing happened. Just Malakai's narrowed gaze.
"What are you doing?"
"I—I don't want to get beheaded…" Renlo said, still glancing around like soone expecting guards to jump out at any mont.
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