Chapter 327 (Patreon)

Ghin could no longer remember when the obsession truly began.

Perhaps it was when he was still a child wandering the lawless city barefoot, watching people kill each other over scraps of food while beasts roamed outside the walls like hungry gods. Or perhaps it was the moment he awakened his class and realized he had been given something unique.

Something dangerous.

While others received swords, elemental , physical, or sharper senses related classes, Ghin awakened a skill that allowed him to summon the creatures he killed.

Not humans. Well, he tried a few times but it never worked.

Only beasts or dungeon monsters.

Creatures born to hunt and devour. At first, the skill seemed weak. He could only summon small desert creatures, frail things that died easily. But Ghin discovered quickly that the ability had no true limit besides his own growth.

So he hunted.

Relentlessly.

He raided dungeons people feared entering. He wandered deserts where entire caravans vanished. He challenged monsters far stronger than himself simply because he wanted them added to his collection.

It became an addiction.

Every powerful beast he killed felt like adding another sharpened blade to his arsenal.

A sand serpent. A direwolf alpha. A giant cave crawler. Dungeon bosses.

He wanted them all. And over the years, his army grew large enough that people began whispering his name with fear.

Then came the day he transcended over the Great Wall. The invisible boundary separating ordinary awakened humans from true monsters.

An evolved class.

Transcendent. Whatever people called it, the result remained the same.

Ghin became something terrifying. The lawless city noticed him immediately. So did the faction masters ruling it. One of them tried to eliminate him before he grew too dangerous.

That had been over twenty years ago. Ghin still remembered the blood running through the streets after he killed that faction master and fed it to his summoned beasts.

He became one of the faction rulers afterward. One of the youngest faction masters in the history of the city. And since then, nobody dared challenge him directly again.

Why would they?

Against armies, Ghin was untouchable.

Against prolonged battles, he was a nightmare.

His enemies tired before he did. Even if hundreds of his summons died, he could simply call more. Wars of attrition belonged entirely to him.

Even the other faction masters hated fighting him.

But now… For the first time in decades…

Ghin felt genuine fear. The woman standing before him had ruined everything with a single skill.

The invisible barrier surrounding them shimmered faintly beneath the burning desert sun. Outside, distant roars and explosions still echoed across the battlefield, but inside this strange prison, the world felt suffocatingly quiet.

And worst of all…

He could no longer feel his summons. Nothing. No connection. No response.

The thousands of monsters outside may as well have vanished from existence. Ghin’s heartbeat quickened.

No!

That wasn’t possible.

“[Switch]!” he roared desperately.

Nothing happened. Cold sweat rolled down the side of his face. His skill should have been activated instantly. He should have already swapped positions with one of his creatures miles away from this woman.

He unrolled one of his [Teleportation] scrolls, one after another. It didn’t activate in the first place.

Instead…

Nothing answered him. The silence frightened him more than any blade.

Across from him, Rose Light slowly approached through the scorching sands.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Her longsword dragged lightly behind her, carving shallow trails into the desert floor while grains of sand danced around her boots. The sunlight reflected sharply against her dark armor, yet her expression remained completely calm.

That calmness unsettled Ghin the most.

Because she did not look worried. Not even slightly.

The desert wind howled softly against the barrier surrounding them, carrying heat intense enough to make the air distort. Sweat rolled beneath Ghin’s expensive clothes while the scent of sand and blood lingered heavily around them.

Outside the barrier, his monsters were dying as they began attacking each other.

And he could do nothing. Rose finally stopped walking several meters away from him.

The invisible prison flickered around them like heated glass.

Then she spoke calmly. “Don’t worry.”

Her voice was unusually calm in front of him, “Both of us lost the connection with our skills. We cannot use them.”

Ghin immediately checked again instinctively. Nothing. Still nothing.

His breathing grew heavier. He hated this feeling. He thought he wouldn’t feel it again.

Weakness. Helplessness.

Rose slowly lifted her sword, the blade gleaming beneath the burning desert sun. “The only way this barrier disappears,” she said quietly, “is when one of us dies.”

The words settled heavily into the silence. Ghin finally understood everything. This woman never intended to merely steal from him. The vault had been bait.

A provocation. Her plan was to probably get  him outside the lawless city.

Separated him from his defenses. Dragged him into the exact kind of battle he hated most.

A direct fight.

No summons. No armies. No escape.

Just steel, raw skills and blood.

And as Rose Light tightened her grip around her longsword, Ghin realized something terrifying.

She looked completely certain that she would win.

Why did I go out today?

….

Kana noticed it first.

The moment the battlefield changed.

Her [High Awareness] was stretched thin across the scorching desert, drinking in every sound whether she wanted it or not. The roar of monsters. The whistle of arrows. The crackling remains of Suri’s lightning that was still dancing faintly through the air. Blood. Burned flesh. Hot sand. Fear.

Then suddenly—

Something felt wrong. A direwolf lunged sideways instead of forward.

One of the massive orcs abruptly buried its axe into a lizard creature beside it rather than charging the knights. A skeletal warrior turned and hacked apart another skeleton standing near it.

Kana squinted her eyes. The army was breaking apart. At first, it happened in scattered pockets across the battlefield. Small incidents hidden beneath the chaos of battle.

Then the screaming started.

Real screaming. Monsters tearing into each other. The organized advance completely collapsed.

The horde that moments ago moved like a single living organism suddenly descended into madness. Direwolves snarled while ripping apart nearby beasts. Orcs roared and swung wildly at everything around them. Skeletons hacked into both monsters and Death Squad members indiscriminately.

Even the giant [Skeleton King] turned violently, its massive rusted sword cleaving through two nearby creatures in a spray of blood and shattered bone.

The battlefield became chaotic. Pure chaos.

Chelle raised a hand to shield her eyes from the brutal desert sunlight while staring toward the massacre unfolding ahead of them. “Uhm…” she muttered uncertainly. “Is it just me… or are they fighting each other?”

Ryle’s face had gone pale beneath the heat. “Is that because of Suri’s attack?”

Suri blinked in confusion. “My attack did that?”

Even she sounded unsure. The hot desert wind swept through them, carrying the metallic scent of blood so thick it coated the tongue. All around them, monsters screamed and died beneath the burning sun while the sands darkened red.

Kana calmly drew another arrow.

The heat didn’t seem to bother her anymore. Or perhaps her focus simply burned hotter. “Let’s take advantage of this.”

The arrow flew before anyone answered. It sliced cleanly through the shimmering desert air and pierced directly through a monster’s skull. The creature dropped lifelessly into the sand without even finishing its roar.

For a brief moment, several knights looked toward Kana. Technically, she wasn’t commanding them. She held no rank among the knights.

Yet somehow, everyone moved the moment she spoke. Perhaps it was because panic naturally followed confidence. And Kana looked terrifyingly calm.

The long-range class knights immediately advanced and began firing into the disorganized horde. Arrows rained into distracted monsters while [Mage] hurled skills toward clusters of fighting creatures. The melee fighters tightened formation around the students, prepared for anything that managed to break through the slaughter ahead.

Suri stood quietly near the center.

Gone was the overwhelming storm from earlier. Now her movements were smaller.

Sharper. Far more frightening. A single floating blade materialized beside her shoulder.

Then another. Then another. The weapons shimmered with illusionary light before solidifying completely.

Suri casually flicked her fingers. One blade shot forward and pierced through the eye of a charging beast. Another sliced directly across an orc’s throat. Another buried itself deep into the skull of a skeletal warrior attempting to crawl toward them.

Every throw killed. No wasted movement. No hesitation.

Chelle stared openly now. It looked less like magic and more like an invisible executioner calmly deciding who deserved death next.

The battlefield devolved further into insanity.

Monsters attacked monsters while the knights mercilessly cut down whatever survived. Blood splashed endlessly across the scorching sands. Severed limbs vanished beneath stampeding beasts. Roars shook the desert while lightning sparks still crackled faintly from corpses left behind by Suri’s earlier attack.

The heat became suffocating.

The smell got worse. Even the sands themselves seemed soaked with death.

It no longer looked like a battle.

It looked like the desert had opened its jaws and decided to devour everything standing upon it. Then the Death Squad members finally realized something was wrong.

Truly wrong. Their formation shattered almost instantly. Several riders turned their mounts around and attempted retreat while others screamed commands toward the remaining monsters. But whatever force had once controlled the horde was gone now.

Broken.

“They’re retreating!” one knight shouted.

Artin’s eyes narrowed sharply. Without hesitation, his body shifted mid-motion. Feathers burst across his skin while his limbs twisted and shrank. Within seconds, a common desert bird launched itself skyward, cutting through the blazing air currents above the battlefield.

The desert wind slammed hard against his wings as he flew higher. From above, the battlefield looked even more horrifying. Thousands of monsters killing each other.

Knights, Suri and Kana cutting through survivors. Blood painting the red sands darker and darker beneath the unforgiving sun.

And then Artin saw it.

Far away from the battlefield itself.

Beyond the chaos. Beyond the screams.

A faint shimmering barrier distorted the air like heated glass beneath the desert sunlight.

Inside it stood two figures.

One carried a longsword loosely at her side.

The other…

Even from this distance… Looked so afraid.

Post note:

Suri surely won’t misunderstand her skill effect…

Fifth chap of the week.Hope you enjoy the chap! 🙂

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