Kage was running like his life depended on it one minute, and the next he vanished into the undergrowth.
The horde of Barrowspikes that had been mindlessly giving chase just scurried along with ferocity, until suddenly, they were being stalked by Kage instead.
He had erged from hiding the mont he saw the last one streak past the bush where he had lowered himself silently. He raised the arrow and leaped, crashing down on the last creature and driving the point straight through to its death.
[You have slain a Stain: Barrowspike]
[The Heart Demon has progressed by 0.0001%]
The Impure faltered and tumbled, rolling forward. Kage imdiately seized its limb, strained his entire body, and hurled it forward.
The throw was so pathetic it barely reached the Impure ahead.
Kage’s heart plumted—certain it wouldn’t connect. However, the mont that Impure turned from the earlier ruckus, it charged forward, helping Kage’s feeble throw find its mark.
Both creatures tumbled backward. But the horde had progressed too far; only the slower stragglers behind managed to stop. Barrowspikes were swift on four legs. The stronger they were, the faster they moved, which was precisely why Kage chose to strike from behind.
Eliminate the weaker ones and pit the stronger ones against each other. Since the Forest’s apex predator had been woken up, he had no choice but to turn that to his advantage.
Either way, he had to face the Impure himself for all this effort to prove worthwhile. And to earn his father’s approval to attend the academy.
Kage slowly drew the obsidian blade. He could feel the ager Qi essence he possessed rapidly draining into the sword as he gripped it at his side.
The Impures behind now snarled at him viciously. Where their eyes should have been, white bone spikes protruded from their sockets.
They resembled a grotesque amalgamation of bones — perhaps so mutated outgrowth.
They were nauseating to observe for long.
Kage sighed and gripped the sword with both hands. As the creatures lunged forward, so did he.
He sidestepped the first one, twisted his wrist, and drove his blade forward, biting deep into its neck. Then he wrenched the sword upward, slashing through the upper throat as black ichor sprayed everywhere.
Imdiately he ducked and swept his sword low, severing the forelimbs of the next beast as it pounced dangerously close.
Kage’s expression remained stone-cold. He wasn’t channeling any Qi essence, and his movents were sluggish. But he had twenty-five years of experience, forced to rely on adaptation due to his limitations.
Kage could never hope to match the truly gifted, but by embracing his weaknesses and forging his own path, he could survive in this rciless world.
His body was slow, his movents labored. Even though he knew the techniques, they were often difficult to execute. This was why Kage had to know his opponent as intimately as he knew himself — and manipulate them into acting exactly how he wanted so he could kill them exactly how he planned.
With Impures it was simple; with humans it proved far more challenging. And Kage had trained mostly against humans. So this battle, despite appearing difficult and disadvantageous, was actually quite manageable.
Kage buried his blade in the Barrowspike’s flank and lunged forward, tearing it across the creature’s hide. Both bone and flesh t their grisly end at the rcy of Kage’s vicious companion.
Black blood erupted into the air, spattering his hair and black cross-necked garnts with crimson underclothes.
[You have slain a Stain: Barrowspike]
[The Heart Demon has progressed by 0.0001%]
He spun and dodged the next attacker with a pivot, slashing the Impure from behind and sending it tumbling into a roll. Kage granted no breathing room. He rushed forward and drove his blade straight through its hindquarters from behind.
[You have slain a Stain: Barrowspike]
[The Heart Demon has increased by 0.0001%]
After that, he flicked his sword downward, splattering putrid blood across the leaves below.
By this point, the moon was already fading and the sun was climbing from its resting place, its resplendent golden light already bleeding through the horizon’s clouds. But all Kage could glimpse through the forest canopy were scattered rays of gold.
It was sumr, so the morning mists were typically thin, and with the rising sun, they were already evaporating.
After dispatching the three that had turned back, Kage let the rest flee. He turned right and lted into the forest, heading toward the entrance from the Plains.
Barrowspikes were extrely sensitive to vibrations—they had no sight. Their territory had been violated, and they believed they were pursuing the violator.
Right now, the forest churned with chaos, making it nearly impossible to isolate a single vibration. They were overwheld by the cacophony, but they were too simple-minded to comprehend this. They simply charged toward whatever source of disturbance they could sense.
Kage then took a circuitous route, ensuring that by the ti he arrived, the skirmish would be over. Now that he’d discovered turf wars were tediously predictable, he’d lost interest in spectating.
As he ran forward, Kage was growing weary — so exhausted he had to rest against a tree, breathing heavily for several minutes until his racing heart finally settled before continuing.
Admittedly, the more ti he burned, the better his odds beca.
The creature he intended to face was an ancient relic from the era when Middlepass teed with Impures—it had been the weakest of that ti.
But it had been left alone, albeit with its wings severed.
Kage didn’t know which Ironstorm Patriarch had imprisoned the creature there, but he knew it wasn’t the current one.
The weakest specin from the golden age of Impures in this region was now the apex predator among the newly arrived threats. It was Wretch-rank, and more than that—this Impure could be considered a regional nace.
Sothing that had likely endured for five centuries. It was enfeebled and flightless. But it remained lethally dangerous.
For Kage, who hadn’t even achieved Purist rank, confronting it wasn’t rely perilous—it was absolute madness.
Yet this sa Kage pressed forward with a small, unreadable smile playing across his lips, humming a lody that went:
"Today, today, I will slay a vulture. Today, today, I will kill a wingless bird."
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