"We're under attack! Warriors, come protect the bunker!" Skaal roared as he stood before the entrance of the dwelling in his Giant Beast Form.

Aldred mounted on Skaal's back while ten or so warriors flanked Skaal's sides. Julia wanted to rush into battle as well, but Aldred told her to stay in the bunker and look after the evacuees especially young Soul...making sure to fend off any enemies that got past their defenses. Julia wanted to protest but in the end, she understood and headed back in. Now, Aldred did not belittle Julia and her capabilities...he just wanted to protect her from harm. In addition, even though Julia had witness death...she hadn't actually killed anyone yet. So, Aldred feared that Julia would freeze up during the battle.

Once Julia had entered the bunker, Aldred turned his attention to the direction of the location where he and Skaal had sensed the enemies. Aldred shouted, "Stop hiding, we know you're here. Come out!"

Thirty-three shadowy figures emerged from their hiding positions and presented themselves in front of Aldred and the other warriors. These enemies looked like black foxes with some parts of their bodies covered in scaly armor and bat-like wings growing out of their bodies. There were three Giant Beasts and the rest were all in their Small Beast Forms. The warriors and Skaal all gasped in astonishment. Curious, Aldred asked what was up...why did their reactions sound so exaggerated?

"They...they're Fox Dragons! I-impossible...they don't even live here in this part of the Demonic Forests!" A warrior gaped as he explained.

"What do you mean? Why would they attack us? If they were not from around here, then there shouldn't be any enmity between us." Aldred asked.

"The Fox Dragons...were part of an assassination organization/family." Skaal gritted his teeth.

"Assassins! They're hired help?! I bet I know who had the audacity."

"Yea...Novile!"

"Enough whispering. Since it seems you know why we're here and who sent us...then you should know that you will not live to the see tomorrow's morning sun." The Giant Beast that stood in the middle growled.

"I am Aldred Blackehearth. Tell me your name?"

"Why? So you'll know who killed you? Haha, then clean your ears and listen! I am the great Vulpiro - young master of the Fox Dragons. Haha, aren't you honored to be killed for my first mission."

"Haha, Vulpiro is it? Good, I'll know what to write on your tombstone."

"YOU! Hmph! Kill them!" Vulpiro, having realized that he was played, immediately went red with anger and ordered the attack.

"Don't hold back! Let them know that we Toxic Razortails are not easy to mess with!" Skaal roared.

Both sides charged and attacked. At the first clash, each side had immediately suffered a few deaths. The Fox Dragons, even in their Small Beast Forms, were able to deal massive damage and even killing blows to the inexperienced young Toxic Razortail warriors. Conversely, the powers of Skaal and Aldred were very strong...contrary to what the Fox Dragons had expected. And through this loss of valuable information, the Fox Dragons suffered some deaths and even one of their Giant Beasts.

"Chiaro, no!" Vulpiro grimaced as he saw his best friend die, his head squished into pieces and pulp by the hand of the human boy. It seemed he had clearly underestimated the human. "Ptera! You and a few Small Beasts go take care of that Toxic Razortail while I personally take care of this bastard."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Ptera nodded in confirmation as she ordered a few Fox Dragons to follow her. She and the Fox Dragons following her hurled themselves toward Skaal, who was fortunately prepared for their onslaught. Vulpiro growled as he looked at the one-armed young boy. Surprisingly, the boy was calm even in the midst of this battle...like he was experienced in killing and death. With a few small yips, he called for five Fox Dragons to surround the young boy. With a yap, the Fox Dragons pounced at the human.

When Aldred saw the five Fox Dragons launch themselves, teeth first, towards him, he immediately used Tunnel and dove into the bottom of the earth. As the Fox Dragons land at where he was at just a few moments ago, they looked around in surprise. At this moment, Aldred emerged from the ground high into the air and aimed his body down towards the Fox Dragons below. As the Fox Dragons look up in shock, the last thing they saw was a flurry of sharp, mole-like claws raining down on them. Aldred had used Fury of the Berserker Mole. Within seconds, the five Fox Dragons were torn into pieces of flesh, bone, organs, and blood. Once Aldred landed, he looked towards Vulpiro and sneered.

Vulpiro was astounded by the prowess of this human. It seems he had underestimated him too much. Vulpiro threw away his pride and immediately charged towards the boy with his full strength of a King Tier 10 demonic beast. His speed was incredibly fast...but what he did not know was that Aldred was even faster. In the past few months, Aldred did not sit back and lazed around like an idiot. No, he trained with all his might...further strengthening, hardening, and sharpening his body using the Earth God Cultivation Technique. And with an accumulation of small successes, he was able to breakthrough two times...going past Core Condensing 3rd Stage and into Core Expanding 1st Stage. After reaching the peak of Core Condensing, he had finally created and condensed his core, which in his Qi Space was the size of a fully-grown pumpkin. Unlike a regular core, his core was not shaped completely spherical. It was shaped more like an egg. This confused Aldred since in his previous life, his core was spherical...in fact everyone's cores were spherical. Never in history had there been a non-spherical shaped core. Could this be a side-effect to being in a Magic World? Anyways, once Aldred reached Core Expanding, he was able to expand his core. The larger the condensed core expands to, the more pure his Qi would become...and thus the stronger and faster he would become. In addition, he would be able to heal wounds quickly because of the purity of his Qi.

Aside from making a few breakthroughs in cultivation, Aldred had also increased his movement speed and reflexes as well as the number of skills in his fist technique by two. These two new skills were badly named as Tempest and Raging Claw. Tempest was basically Aldred lunging forward towards an enemy and twisting his body speedily like a cyclone with his claw extended outwards above his head. Then, he would aim at the enemy's body and bore a hole through the body where he would emerge from the other side of the enemy's body. Raging Claw was an idea that Aldred came up on whim one day. He was doing his regular training sessions when he got frustrated with his bottleneck at the peak of Core Condensing 3rd Stage that he ferociously kicked at a tree. Now, Aldred had trained his body so that they were extremely strong, hard, and sharp and so, when his foot connected with the tree, his foot tore off a huge chunk of the tree. Surprised at the sight of half the tree's trunk missing, Aldred received a moment of inspiration...and that was how Raging Claw was born. In other words, to put it simply, Raging Claw was a move that uses the feet as alternative claws to attack.

When Aldred dodged the charging Fox Dragon, he quickly launched a Raging Claw towards Vulpiro's side. Sensing danger, Vulpiro hastily dodged to the side. Thanks to his incredible reflexes, he was able to dodge a fatal situation, however, he was still unable to fully escape from harm. Although he dodged the attack, the mere pressure of the Raging Claw, however, was able to claw away a small chunk of his flesh. With a stinging pain and constant blood loss, the King Tier demonic beast started to feel...fear. Even though there was a significant difference in their levels, Vulpiro still felt like he was battling a demonic beast at the level of Adult Tier 9 at the least.

Suddenly, a sharp cry emitted into the ears of the warriors. Everyone turned to the source of the cry. Some faces showed elation...and some were troubled. Apart from Aldred, Skaal, and a Toxic Razortail, the other Toxic Razortail warriors had all perished. However, their deaths were not in vain as they had managed to drag 14 Fox Dragons down with them. But even so, coupled with the 11 Fox Dragons that Aldred and Skaal killed, there were still 8 more Fox Dragons. Two of them were engaged in combat with Aldred and Skaal...however...the other six.... They...were inside the bunker!