The battlefield had beco a massacre.
Blood hung in the air like rain; the ground was a quilt of mud and crimson.
Screams ricocheted between broken banners. Bodies of orcs, goblins, demihumans, elves, and lesser beasts littered the field — so already heads severed, so still twitching with limbless torsos.
The stench of burned flesh and iron burned the back of everyone’s throat.
’This is war. Be rciless,’ Alex thought, moving like a shadow with purpose.
He appeared everywhere at once — a flash of steel here, an eruption of force there. An orc lunged, tusks bared; Alex’s blade sliced an arc and the orc’s head flew in a slow, crimson bloom.
A pair of goblins tried to flank him; Alex planted a foot and the ground erupted, shaping jagged earth-spears that impaled them in a dozen points.
A demihuman cavalry charge bent toward him — a single stomp from Alex hurled a shockwave that shattered bones and threw riders like ragdolls.
Sotis he cut off heads cleanly, watching them topple away as if removing inconvenient thoughts.
Sotis he drove his sword through bellies, leaving n gasping eyes to the sky. Sotis he tore limbs free with cold efficiency — no hesitation, only action.
He had not co here to be kind; kindness ant death.
’If I were them, I’d do the sa. Survive or die. There is no room for regret now.’
A shredded elf crawled on the ground nearby; both arms severed, his sleeve a bloody rag. He looked up at Alex with wet, pleading eyes.
"Please—please, don’t—" the elf begged, voice broken. "Forgive ..."
Alex advanced, sword tipped down, the final note of a sentence in a story written in blood. He raised the blade.
Boom — a concussive force detonated through the air and knocked Alex off balance. He flew back in a blur, rolled, and slamd onto his heels. The ground kicked up under him, grass and dirt spitting in arcs.
A blond-haired elf stood where the shock had co from. The aura around him was not a simple shimr but a pressure — the air itself seed to crack under the weight of it, tiny fissures snaking outward from where he planted his boots.
He regarded Alex with an insolent stare.
"Looks like you enjoy killing the weak. Why don’t you try ?" the elf said, voice cold and sharp.
Alex whistled low. "Damn. Impressive speech. But this is war. If I were in their place, that freaking elf would have done the sa." He shrugged, amused by the elf’s sanctimony.
The elf gritted his teeth and fell silent. Alex laughed, a short, humorless sound. "What, cat got your tongue?"
There was no answer. That silence tasted like mouthwash gone wrong.
Alex blurred forward — the movent was almost casual. He leapt and brought a kick aid straight for the elf’s head.
To his surprise, the elf caught the kick, palm flat and steady, and with a sickening snap slamd Alex through force, sending him skidding across the ground.
Alex rolled, flipped up, and smirked. "Looks like you’re a strong one."
"Who the hell are you?" the elf spat, blood slicking his lips. "How can a human have that much strength?"
"Beats . Maybe I’m not a normal human," Alex replied, voice low.
He attacked again. A feint, then a real strike — the first kick aid for the gut was bait. The second landed full on the elf’s face, a clean explosive contact that sent the blond crashing into a shattered pillar.
He hit the wall and slid down, blood making a map across his features.
Rage warped the elf’s face. He drew a bow in a shaking hand and began to chant, words old and lethal. Magic ran along the arrow: runes seared into the shaft, words that burned with heat and blue fla.
He loosed it.
The arrow streaked like a falling star, shredding through two charging soldiers and scorching the skeletons of another who dared stand in its path.
Darkness swelled inside Alex, pooling like oil. He whispered a counter-chant and his body drank the leyline, shadow and void folding into him.
The elf’s arrows shuddered in midflight — then the darkness flipped them back, turned them into living shards of night that scread into the bodies of nearby archers.
Flesh smoked; bone bubbled as if under acid. The blond’s strongest spell ate his own people.
The elf fell to his knees, eyes wide. "Impossible... that was my strongest—"
He looked at Alex and breathed, "You’re a monster."
’Are all elves idiots?’ Alex thought bitterly. ’Does he not understand this is kill-or-be-killed?’
Alex readied the finishing blow. The blond croaked, pleading, a pathetic flutter of defiance left in him.
Then, like a knife of wind, soone slamd into Alex’s face — close enough to knock breath from his lungs.
Alex caught the incoming fist with a single hand, palm clamped to forearm, feeling the raw, stored power in the attack.
The attacker was the red-haired leader of the Dragonkin; scales flashed beneath leather, muscles rippling like braided rope.
The leader expected bone to crush on contact — but his fist hung there, arrested by Alex’s hand.
"What the hell is he?" the leader thought, stunned.
The leader slamd his head forward; the collision rattled Alex. He released the hold, skidded back, hand pressed to his temple. "Damnit," he hissed, tasting copper.
Alex blinked and recognized the attacker. "I was deliberately not killing you and your people because I owe you a favor. But you’re making it hard to keep that promise now, Mr. Red Hair."
The leader — voice rough, pride like an armor — said, "My na is Samara, human. I’m telling you this because you’re worthy of knowing it."
Alex rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I don’t much care," he said, tone flat.
Samara’s eyes narrowed. "I know how much of a hypocrite that elf is, but I can’t let you kill him. I made a promise to soone to protect him. Since this guy is from my world."
Alex snorted. "I don’t care about that. But now that you’ve attacked , you’re my enemy. That’s all there is to it."
Samara’s lips tightened. "That’s a sha."
They both shifted into stances. The air trembled with the energy bleeding off their bodies. The surrounding fighters backed away instinctively, so too slow and crushed by the pressure radiating from the two.
Samara studied him carefully. "Are you not going to use a weapon?"
Alex exhaled slowly. "The swords and weapons I brought already broke. They couldn’t handle my power. I’ve got no choice but to fight with my fists."
Samara’s eyes glinted with savage amusent. "Do you realize what you’re saying? Fighting a Dragonkin with your bare hands... Do you have a death wish?"
"Maybe I do," Alex replied dryly.
"You’re crazy."
"I hear that a lot lately."
Layers of mana spiraled and hardened around Alex’s fists, glowing faintly like molten steel. Samara grinned, lifting his own fists as a different, alien brilliance coated them.
The energy was sharp, dense, and strange — almost humming with a frequency that the arena itself seed to recoil from.
Alex frowned. ’What is that?’
The system’s voice whispered into his mind. [Host, that’s Espera. It’s an energy used in higher dinsions, just like how you use mana.]
’Is that so... Interesting,’ Alex thought, smirking.
Samara blurred, crossing the distance in a heartbeat. His fist shot toward Alex’s jaw, but Alex raised his arm, blocking and countering with a heavy kick.
Samara twisted, caught the leg, and hurled Alex like a cannonball. Alex flipped mid-air and ca crashing down on his feet, launching forward with a brutal right hook.
Their fists collided.
BOOOOM!
The entire arena shuddered violently, stone tiles exploding beneath their feet. The shockwave ripped outward, hurling weaker fighters across the battlefield. An unfortunate ones obliterated into pulp just from the aftershock.
They moved again, blindingly fast. Alex’s knuckles hamred Samara’s ribs, cracking scales, but Samara’s counterpunch landed on Alex’s shoulder, rattling him to the bone.
He hissed, pain lancing through his body, but forced himself to keep moving.
Samara’s Espera-coated strikes hit harder — heavier, sharper, cutting deeper than re mana reinforcent.
Every blow carried weight that distorted the space around it. Alex clicked his tongue. ’Tch. My mana coating isn’t doing enough. His Espera is on another level.’
Still, Alex pressed on. A low sweep caught Samara’s leg, staggering him, only for Samara to slam an elbow into Alex’s spine, nearly buckling him.
They exchanged dozens of strikes in seconds — fists, kicks, headbutts, knees — each collision detonating like miniature explosions.
The ground collapsed chunks of the arena caved in, crushing unlucky combatants who were too close.
Entire groups of elves and orcs scread as shockwaves tore them apart like ragdolls caught in a storm.
By the ti they finally stopped, both n stood bloodied, bruised, and panting, glaring at each other through swollen eyes.
Samara grinned despite the blood running from his lip. "You’re the first person to last this long against in all my battles."
Alex, chest heaving, smirked back. "You’re strong"
Then taking a pause he said.
"But playti’s over."
Darkness erupted around him. Black tendrils slithered out of his skin, curling upward like snakes. The sky dimd; even the blood-soaked ground seed to recoil.
"Vitality Drain," Alex whispered.
The tendrils shot outward. They pierced through the bodies of every fighter still standing — goblins, elves, orcs, humans, demihumans — all shrieked as their very life was siphoned out of them.
They withered in seconds, collapsing into empty skeletons. So tried to hide, but the tendrils hunted them down relentlessly. There was no escape.
Samara’s eyes widened in horror. "What... what is this...?"
He tried to resist, Espera flaring wildly, but the tendrils pierced him too. He roared, struggling, his veins bulging as the black cords drained his strength.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
Alex narrowed his eyes. "Be grateful. I’ll leave you half alive."
The tendrils released Samara before completely consuming him. He slumped to the ground, gasping, barely clinging to life.
A buzzing voice filled the sky.
{ Top 100 survivors have been confird. }
Alex walked over to Samara’s half-dead body. "I left you, that hypocritical elf, and your Dragonkins alive. That’s the favor I owed. But Next ti, don’t get in my way."
He kicked Samara in the chest.
"Kyaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Samara scread — but the scream wasn’t masculine. It was high-pitched, trembling.
Alex blinked. ’Hold on... that didn’t sound like a man.’
He knelt down and tugged the Dragonkin’s mask away. His eyes widened. Beneath the mask was the face of a beautiful woman, black horns curving from her head, her cheeks streaked with blood and tears.
She looked at him with wide, vulnerable eyes, almost breaking.
Alex stiffened. ’Partner...’
the system replied.
[What?]
’Let’s get out of here. Whenever I get entangled with a woman, bad things keep happening.’
Without another word, Alex bolted, running at full speed then suddenly his body dissolved into motes of light and vanished from the battlefield.
Above, a massive holographic board flashed into existence.
{ Rank 1 : Lucifer Morningstar
Kills : 147880
Rank 2 : Samara
Kills : 50475
... }
---------
A/N:
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