“HA!” a loud shout from the center of the exile village sounded throughout the area. Most of the exiles were watching Asur who was the source of the shout.
After hunting for nearly a week, almost every day, he finally filled his first Asura Mark completely without any more spillage that happened as the mark purified the blood of beasts.
All five reservoirs were perfectly filled as were every last passage in the asura mark at this moment. This was the first time Asur was going to fully transform and everyone was waiting to see how different he was.
The normal Deva would grow between 200 cm and 220 cm tall.
The asura mark was glowing brightly and it quickly spread throughout his body causing cracking and popping like what happens in all first complete transformations.
His muscles began to swell and his height began to increase at a steady pace as the energy became more and more potent.
His pale grey skin began to gain a faint glow while his grey hair began to turn whiter under the energy. He kept growing as he let loose the energy and when his body finally stopped at 250 cm tall while his muscles were swollen like a bodybuilder and looked like it was sculpted by the heavens.
“Ha!” he sighed and released a breath of steam after exerting so much power.
Asur lifted his hand and opened and closed it feeling the power before turning and seeing a very large bone sword behind him. This was the sword he had forged with Adsila made from two Saber Horn beasts.
He gripped the handle that almost didn’t fit his hand and lifted it like it was a regular sized sword, in fact, for his size it really was a normal sized sword. He exerted little to no effort to move the heavy sword.
He began to move slowly, controlling his steps but when his foot landed it still caused considerable force to be transferred into the ground.
Those watching were shocked by the amount of force he exerted but knowing how much energy he had to put into reaching this made it obvious.
Each step shook the ground less and less as he began to adapt to the force in his new size. “Open the gate!” he said in a low voice but the air trembled at this voice.
None of them had thoughts of disobeying and opened it and he moved just at the gate and slowly lifted his sword. Everyone was curious about what he was going to do until they saw a strong red aura cover the sword.
“Hya!” he shouted as he brought the sword down in a simple slash.
WANG!
At once, a storm blew. The windforce behind the blade backed by the bloodline power formed a gale like that from a storm while at the front was a launched slash formed by the bloodline power cutting the wind and the propelling force pushing it with immense force.
The explosion came from the fact that this slash broke the sound barrier with so much force almost as if the atmosphere itself was shattered.
Asur slowly stood up straight and his size began to decrease until he finally returned to normal while wielding the heavy sword.
“That strength is amazing.” Shiva said.
“Yeah… it is.” Asur said, raising his free hand and closing it before looking at his right arm’s asura mark.
“Are you thinking about the next step?” Shiva asked.
“Yeah, I feel that before anything else, I should have at least two marks filled.” he said.
“It makes sense, the beasts in the area are all very powerful and the Raksha are no pushovers as well.” Shiva said.
Asur chuckled at the mention of them.
In the last few weeks, he has visited the Gate of evolution every 2 days and every time he would find new ascended people. It isn’t exactly easy to become an asura, the reason being that it needs to be within a margin of neutrality.
As for which tribe comes up, it doesn’t matter to Asur, he would take in every single one of them and has been training all of them.
He also discovered what the ‘beast form’ of the Raksha was. If compared to anything it was like the transformation of a werewolf but most of the creatures they became were feline, from tiger to leopard to anything.
As for the Yaksha, everyone was amazed when the first one was able to achieve the transformation.
Their bodies were covered with wooden armor that grew branches and leaves. The armor isn’t weak either, it was naturally very hard and bloodline power flows through it using special veins that form connecting it to the body so they basically form a very powerful living wooden armor.
That said, one feature stays the same with all of them, they all grow above 2 meters tall and they all possess heightened physical strength. The distribution is different though. Deva gains pure brute physical brawn as demonstrated by Asur. The other normal ones were about a third weaker than him but they also had immense physical strength.
Raksha have beastly instincts and speed that is highly empowered making them very fast due to adopting animal senses when in beast form as well as using weapons and armor further improving their power.
The last one, Yaksha, the armor works both as camouflage and it seems they gain considerable boost of power in forests but their most defining feature is their defensive ability. The one Yaksha with the full transformation once took Shiva’s punch but the amazing thing is that he actually bruised his own hand. Of course, in the place of all that armor they are slow in comparison.
“How many people have completed the transformation?” Asur asked.
“Most of the elders and warriors, the women are still not successful besides Adsila who you have been supplying nearly endless supplies of blood for.” Shiva said.
“Hmm…” Asur fell into deep thought and looked at the state of the camp. Although they have greatly improved but the conditions of the camp have not. As said before, this was not a good defensive position.
“I wonder if it is smart for us to finally move out?” Asur asked.
Shiva frowned at the question. He became serious because of the dangers that came with moving a settlement. The number of people attract a lot of beasts and might even catch the attention of the Raksha tribe.
“It’s all good to think about it but we never found any true good place to resettle at.” Shiva said.
“I know…” Asur replied and suddenly thought of the gate. “I remember the chief of the village saying that most kingdoms form around gates of evolution right?” Asur asked.
“That is what we are taught, the gate is the foundation of a nation because it constantly brings new people so there is constant growth even in a dangerous world like ours.” Shiva said.
Asur went quiet as he thought but he did not remember the layout of the land around the gate. The place was mostly covered and there was no way to see the actual land shape besides the cave of the gate itself.
Maybe because of the question asked, after thinking about the question Shiva’s eyes suddenly opened wide, “Do you plan to make us move around the gate of evolution!?” Shiva suddenly asked.
“Huh? It was just a thought, I don't think we have sufficient people to hold that place though.” He replied.
“Really?” Shiva asked.
“Yeah, if we move there the tribe will naturally notice eventually and they will irritate us about it and then draw the attention of the Raksha to the east.” he said.
“Now that you mention it, why do you think the tribe never tapped into the gate’s incoming people?” Shiva asked.
Naturally he knew that Asur had told the tribe about it but the question made Asur grin with ridicule. “Why else, do you think that fool will let new people ‘live’? If even one person has even a little knowledge unknown to him he will do something to him.” He said and spat on the ground in disgust.
“Right.” Shiva nodded remembering the fool.
“Alright, for now I need to rest after using so much energy. Later I will go train and hunt to use my transformation, the power is really out of control.” he said, turning and looking at the footprints he had made.
The following day he donned a specifically tailored armor which was folded in several areas to be tight but when he activates his transformation, the folds will unwind and stretch with him.
“Open the gate!” he shouted as he was ready to go hunt and test his real strength.
The two gate guards slowly pulled it open for him and with his huge sword, with the resized handle that fit into his transformed hand now, ready he left.
Travelling north while circling the original deva tribe village, he had a very clear target he wanted to hunt. Previously he had hunted a golden bull and on the way back he killed a large tiger known as a Savage Claw.
This tiger is between 2 and 3 times bigger than earth tigers and their claws and fangs are extremely sharp. In fact, the two main incisors of the first savage claw he killed were what he used to forge his first true wood plane blade that is now used for carpentry.
Unlike the first time though, Asur wanted to use that beast of strength to test out his own physical power.
Although the golden bull is a good option for this, the fact that they move in herds is a very huge obstacle that he cannot overturn without the help of the tribe itself.
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After close to an hour after leaving, he was within the forest zone of the north area and had already spotted a number of predators but he still did not find his main target. This isn’t strange as tigers are solitary after all and he already killed one so the territory might not have a new one yet.
Soon getting tired he killed a leopard before skinning and bleeding it, absorbing the blood to which he would slowly assimilate instead of simply dump into his asura mark now, and began to cook the meat.
The two hind legs were cut at the hip joint to make a large ham-like cut along with the ribs being removed and placed next to the fire to be cooked.
The rest was left hanging on the tree that was used to bleed it. Asur grinned as he looked at the carcass and closed his eyes.
Bloodline power flowed throughout his body and enhanced his sense of touch that made his hair sensitive to change in the air while another part flowed into his ears making him focus his hearing to a much greater level.
He moved his head slowly to change the angle in which his ears caught sound and for close to an hour he sat there with his eyes closed, only so often opening them to move the meat and letting it roast the other side before sitting on guard again.
Only when he removed the first leg that he finally caught wind of his target.
A very quiet rustle came from the ground that was moved under the weight of the tiger. Like on earth, tigers and frankly all felines, stalk and ambush their prey. With the gained human level intelligence and rational thinking, it is natural for already master hunters to become even more dangerous but under the laws of the jungle, only the stronger wins. Humans are innately smart creatures and the evolution into the 2nd realm doesn’t take a single bit of that intelligence out of them.
Asur, with over 100 years of experience thanks to virtual reality, has hunted far more than a fair share of monsters in the virtual worlds and learned countless tracking techniques. This is a simple superiority of technique of two hunters facing each other.
Thanks to the armor the tiger could not see his muscles become tense and ready for action at any moment but naturally Asur was also hungry and taking the leg meat, he dug in while always on alert.
The instincts of the tiger, although wanting the cooked meat, told it that it was dangerous to move at that time so it just carefully moved, hidden in the underbrush as silent as a shadow.
Under unrelenting hunger, Asur rapidly cleaned off the bones and took the next one while always alert of the tigers position. After the second leg he cleaned off the two ribs finally feeling full.
Carefully piling the bones on top of the hide Asur looked around and enhanced his eyes. Without clearly focusing on the tiger he spotted the beast when his eyes passed over it.
A faint frown appeared on his face.
The previous tiger he killed was twice as big as one from earth but this one was 30 cm bigger than that which rang a few bells in his mind.
This is because he himself was that much bigger than his tribesmen making his alertness reach peak because he knew that he clearly attracted a big fish unlike the previously common animals.
Suddenly a strong rustling came from behind and almost instantly Asur kicked up the bow at his feet and pulled out an arrow, turned, pulled and released the arrow just as his eyes landed on a leopard that looked at him with rage and desire for revenge.
A dull red covered the arrow as it flew out and struck the head making the body backflip in the air and fell on the ground.
Just as Asur released a breath of relief, his heart pounded heavily as he jumped forward.
BOOM!
A huge sound came from behind and he stood up pulling an arrow and releasing towards the culprit which was the savage claw that had crushed the spot he was standing at before.
The beast slowly raised its head after it’s attack and seeing the arrow penetrating the air towards it, something radical happened.
Asur, thinking it would hit and he would have to find another one felt an immensely dangerous feeling and suddenly jumped away.
ROAR!
The tiger suddenly opened its massive maw and an intense wind burst out with its roar. The arrow was caught in it and was instantly turned into powder against the wind which rapidly turned black and surged forward like a storm.
Asur ran quickly until he was away from the wave of black wind and turned back to look at the tiger closing its jaw and looking at him before snarling.
“This is very different from the other one or I just killed the first one too quickly for it to use this power.” he said, feeling the sweat on his back.
“Filthy man cub, you are quick to move.” a thick voice rich in hatred.
“You talked!” Asur exclaimed before frowning even more.
“You man cub think only the children of men can speak, this king has long spoken the words of man and beast. Now die to this king!” he said and roared, opening his maw once more.
This time Asur saw the stripes on the head of the tiger shine.
In chinese mythology, the tiger has four stripes on its head which mean king (王) which represents its power and majesty. In this realm, though, it seems to be the source of their power which makes Asur feel a deep fear and he instantly accessed his first mark’s blood power and pushed it to his legs jumping to the left causing the land to break.
PA! CRACK!
With immense strength, even Asur was not accustomed to it and his jump made him run right into a tree but his battle instincts made him quickly overcome the stumble and get up before quickly jumping and digging his fingers into the tree just as the tiger turned his head towards the place Asur jumped.
The bottom of the tree was instantly dug out but Asur narrowed his eyes as his body reached full transformation. Holding the tree he ‘crouched’, with his feet on the tree before jumping back and pushing, with immense force, the tree fell towards the tiger.
His figure somersaulted several dozen meters back and the tree collapsed towards the tiger he growled and swiped with its claw and slammed the tree to the side with ease.
Seeing the feat, Asur’s pupil shrank, “This is definitely not a normal savage claw.” He muttered and stood up while his body flowed with bloodline power from his asura mark through his blood.
The leopard blood was flowing rapidly and even entered and exited the asura mark flowing continuously and slowly mixing with the much thicker power of his blood.
“Man cub, you are much different from the others but that is good, this king is at the turning point in its evolution and shall evolve into a grand white demon king once i have eaten every tiny morsel of your thin crunchy bones.” the tiger said.
“You are really a blow hard, don’t think i am going to die so easily.” Asur said coldly.
His hands move to the sword and pull it out ready to battle with the tiger.
That said, maybe because he was such a powerful individual of his race, this action really pissed off the tiger.
“You dare go against this king!” he roared and suddenly the two stripes on his head shone and his body began to crack and pop like Asur’s when he transformed but the change was much more drastic.
In no more than ten seconds, the tiger went from only 3 times bigger than a normal earth tiger to nearly 8 times bigger and was even bigger than an elephant but far from being fat, the muscles were rippling like steel wires.
“Oh shit!” Asur cursed before raising his sword before he felt a bursting impact and was thrown flying back.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Under the unrelenting force, Asur was sent flying through three trees.
“Fuck!” he cursed and looked at the sword. It had four long claw marks clearly showing how strong the tigers claws were since forged bones were many times stronger than raw bone.
He got up and looked at the tiger who was glaring at him. He was not someone who liked to be on the defensive and very quickly showed that as his bloodline power surged in him.
With the flow starting in the mark it flowed throughout the body but even so to Asur who had felt many types of energies in games, he knew it was slow and it didn’t get faster even when he tried to get it to move.
A deep demeaning laugh came from the tiger. “Stupid man cub, you do not even know the true flow of the blood’s power. Your power is so pathetic that if not for how delicious your blood smells, I would not lower myself to hunt you.” the tiger said.
Asur instantly realized that something was wrong.
He flowed and could not do anything else and rushed at the tiger. When a gap was too big, running would do nothing so he had to figure out the tiger’s weakness.
The tiger narrowed it’s eyes but didn’t move as Asur jumped and swung his sword down on his back.
Ding!
Because of the claw marks, when the sword finally hit the tiger, it broke, which is why the tiger didn’t even move despite bloodline power flowing through it.
Asur scowled as he saw it before throwing the sword away and kicked off the tiger but only a dull thud came from it.
WOOSH! Bang!
As he jumped back the tiger turned and slammed him like a toy sending him flying and striking the ground several meters away.
“Fuck!” Asur cursed and flipped quickly to his feet. His mind was ringing but he still forced his bloodline power to flow but at this time he noticed that the energy was very agitated and flowing erratically in his body. “Great, just great!” he cursed as he tried to get control and began to flow his energy towards his mark while looking at the tiger.
At that time his mind shook as the many lumped portions of bloodline power struck the huge deposits of bloodline power making them radically change.
This caused his body to clench a moment which the tiger took and struck him from the front making him fly back even more and he coughed out blood while his chest had four huge claw marks.
“Weak!” the tiger said getting bored.
Thump!
“Hmm…” he frowned and looked at Asur who was standing up with his eyes closed.
The tiger’s ears twitched and he heard extremely strong and slow heart beats from the deva while the armor over the right arm suddenly burst showing the mark slowly getting more and more bright and the black fog started to flow extensively into it.
“What is this man cub doing?” he muttered.
Something in his heart made him want to flee but when that thought came to mind he felt rage at himself and rushed at Asur and swung his claw at the head downwards.
With his eyes closed and following only his instincts, the 250 cm tall body jumped to the side without opening his eyes while the fog gathered more and more while the bloodline power began to grow brighter.
Pop!
A pop came from his spine.
What was actually happening was that Asur took the words of the tiger and the feeling of the clumps striking the reservoir of power stirring it up and thought that he figured it out.
He began to make his bloodline power flow into the mark and spin in the reservoir and it was the correct choice.
It began to draw in energy from the air and slowly released more energetic transformed bloodline power which started to turn the second reservoir.
This was all within the asura mark but slowly a small amount of extra energy flowed out and began to change his body.
Slowly his body began to grow even stronger and his instincts allowed him to dodge the tiger’s swipes with the use of his enhanced hearing and touch which he used to feel where the attack was coming from.
That didn’t mean it was 100% and in no few times he was hit but he would move his body to take the least damage from the tiger but this just pissed it off more and more and several times he shot out the black wind and Asur had to open his eyes and run quickly.
Finally a very vibrant bloodline power reached the end of the asura mark and began to flow and turn the reservoir causing a change. It was not quantity but quality that began to change.
The thick red blood like energy spun more and more and as it gathered at the end, it began to compress. As it did, a very faint light could be seen that was faintly yellow in color and was released with the bloodline power into his body.
BOOM!
At this time Asur finally opened his eyes as the asura mark suddenly shined as if it was alive. It was now flowing on it’s own and Asur began to feel this new energy flow through his body like a toxic viper.
Where it passed the body would crack and rebuild itself but that had major changes in an instant as his body began to grow taller and taller until he reached 3 meters tall while his eyes were glowing. His armor and clothing was completely destroyed with the expansion but his muscles rippled.
“Smelly man cub, you have figured out the growth method but i will not let you leave!” the tiger roared and jumped at him.
“You should worry about yourself.” Asur said slowly and stretched his hand and grabbed the tigers incoming paw and spun around driving the tigers own strength before pulling it up and flipping the tiger and sending a hammer punch into its midsection instantly sending it flying into a tree.
ROAR!
The tiger was instantly pissed off to it’s limit and the mark on it’s head changed from shining white to golden as it’s body expanded once more until it was 10 times the size of an earth tiger.
“No matter how big you get, you will just be a big cat!” Asur insulted him but the tiger had already reached its peak of rage and didn’t care and just jumped at him to kill him, unable to live if he did not kill Asur.
As for Asur, finally getting to the proper first step, he decided that weapons would not work with this thing and he now had to master his own strength and use humanity's greatest strength, intelligence and techniques.