I held up my guard, by the time I could pull out my dark blade, the Shadow Prowlers had already arrived—they went in for the kill.

The black fangs of the Howlers jaw closed down on my arm and my body was pushed back. Its body was wildly larger than mine when standing on its hind legs. The ravaging force it produced was completely animalistic in every sense of the word.

Its razor-sharp claw tore into my shoulders and brought my knee to the ground.

“So…heavy!”

“Rei!” Arga called out.

She turned to me and wanted to run over but two Howlers blocked her path. The other four circled around them and moved in at a steady pace.

In a matter of seconds, we had been surrounded.

“Tsk—I can’t get past 'em.” Arga cursed.

Alice was terrified, she clung to Arga’s side out of fear for her life. If she moved any further away I’m sure the monsters would have nabbed her in seconds. If Arga tried to swing her sword she would leave an opening for the monsters to attack and both of them would be done for.

Our formation was broken but with things looking as bad as they were, we needed a turnaround.

The Howlers gleaming red pupils stared deeply into mine, lines of drool fell from its mouth.

“I’m so glad I got this armour…a bastard like you used to be hard to fight.” I muttered.

My right arm which held Agos was taking the brunt of its jaw, holding up the upper row of teeth against the top of my vambrace while my free hand was clutching to one of its lower canine teeth. My shoulders which would have been torn to shreds were perfectly fine thanks to the strong defence of my shoulder guards.

Without the Barhemoth armour, I probably would have been in pretty rough shape.

Even with my body in perfect condition, I still had the heavy weight of its body holding me down.

“Shadow…step!”

My body vanished for a split second and appeared over the Howler's head with my body upside down and my blade tucked in at my chest.

I whipped my arm out and sliced at the Howler's neck but I wasn’t the only one able to vanish. I sliced into a cloud of smoke and felt the looming presence of the Howler's teeth over my shoulder.

The corners of my mouth rose and a grin formed as the words fell out from my mouth in a satisfying command.

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“Second Step.”

The Shadow Howler bit down and its jaw locked closed on yet another cloud of smoke. My body appeared behind it and my arm which had been fully extended out to the left came arching to the right.

The back of its shadowy body was torn in half by the white blur of my blade. I poured all my strength into that attack and the damage spoke for itself.

One solid slice through its back and the Health Bar above its head dropped down to nearly half.

A death pack? I don’t care what they are, I’ll kill them too if it means I can keep my promise.

The Howler’s body fell to the ground and it pulled itself away from me, its fall cleared a good two meters between us before standing back up.

I couldn't let it escape! If it falls in with the others, we’ll never turn things around.

I charged forward and retrieved my other Chakram, with a quick chant I blew forward in a blur of white and blue.

“Rush!”

I folded my arms and held the blades at a cross, tucked in above my shoulders. I began to close the distance when suddenly a sharp sound came rushing closer.

I recognised it immediately, how could I forget the sharp pain it left on my gut.

“Using your tail, aye?”

When fighting it before I probably wouldn’t have been able to see it coming, it was thin enough to nearly be invisible when moving that fast. This time was different though, I wasn’t only faster than before but my senses were much higher.

I could perfectly trace the thin body of its tail whipping through the air. It was aimed at my shoulder and almost directly in front of me—I had the speed to dodge it but…I wanted to destroy that bastard!

I flung my left arm out and slashed through the tail, it cut clean off and my dark blade remained extended out at my side. With only a couple of seconds left on the Rush skill, I needed to act fast.

I broke up the ground beneath my feet with a sudden blast forward and launched myself onto the wall beside me.

The tunnel we were fighting in was much more spacious than the others before, which meant I had a lot more room to move around in and even more to jump from. It was a perfect situation for me and the worst for it.

With my right arm still crossed over to my left, I sharpened my eyes and ran up the wall, gaining more and more speed as I reached the ceiling. Once at the full height of my path, I froze and twisted my stance towards the beast below me. I snapped my position to the left and felt the rushing breeze of wind catch up to me.

Gravity finally caught up and my shoulders began falling forward with my legs following soon after.

With my head pointed down at the Howler I was at a perfect position.

I glared at it with a wide grin and bent my knees. Right before my feet lost contact with the wall I muttered beneath my breath,

“Rush.”

My feet blasted off from the wall and cut through the heedless monster's body with a perfect cut, leaving it frozen in place wondering where I had vanished. The monster's body split into two, probably leaving it in confusion all the way through death.

I rested my dark blade, Belos back into its holder and stood up straight. I held out my hand behind me, my eyes didn’t fall back to the slain monster but rather to the group of Howlers surrounding my friends.

It seemed that not only Arga and Alice but the pack of Shadow Howlers too, were focused on me for that whole fight.

Black mist devoured the shredded monster's remains and flowed back into my hand before being closed into a tight fist. The last specs of its endless void scattered out from the gaps between my fingers, like lost embers from a dying fire.

Their large fangs and stained teeth were no longer pointed at Alice but were now my problem. They let out their deep growls and bellowing groans as they walked past Arga as if she were no threat to them at all.

“All this Experience, walking up to me for free…I should be so lucky.”