After casually killing the monster, Kaian drank some of his remaining purple blood, emptying the vials. And exchanging them for the blood of the weaker beast. The upgrades were permanent for him so the best course of action would be to drink everything. But he didn’t do that, the blood looked too cool. A rational side of him also agreed that he shouldn’t drink it all. People would underestimate him or overestimate him depending on the situation.

He rubbed his chin and went on his way. It didn’t take too long until something interrupted this adventure of his.

Kaian was walking through the forest when he suddenly got a weird feeling from the left. He glanced there and a very light orange glow appeared in his vision. Danger! He immediately turned around and walked straight to it.

The closer he got, the more he could see what it actually was. There were tents and multiple rough looking men were walking around, carrying weapons or boxes. Could they be the bandits the guard in the village spoke about way back?

Well, it didn’t matter. Kaian grinned, speeding up.

“Hm?”

The men looked at Kaian, whose cloak swayed in the wind and the crown glistened. It made him look quite majestic.

“Uhhh, what do you want here? ..Sir” one of them said, he was most likely the leader.

“Are you the bandits that terrorized the village over there?” Kaian said with derision and pointed in the direction of the village.

“Huh, so what if we are? Is that something you should be worrying about?”

“Yes.”

“...This guy.”

The bandits surrounded Kaian and took out their weapons. Kaian knew that they noticed his vials since the leader’s eyes glanced towards them and a scared look flashed on his face. Maybe they didn’t have that much of a deterring factor, disappointing.

They started running at Kaian, hoping to overwhelm him. He still hadn't tested out how strong he was compared to a human and a perfect opportunity arrived. Kaian took out his dagger and started running as well.

He accelerated extremely fast and he felt like wind was helping him, pushing him forward. The bandit in front of him didn’t even have time to react accordingly before the dagger was in his stomach.

Kaian ripped the dagger out, taking the man’s weapon and throwing it at a bandit on his left. The man tried to parry it and kind of succeeded. The flying cutlass hit the bandit’s weapon and broke it in half, digging into his flesh with the remaining force. He staggered and knelt on the ground, wounded, yet alive.

SLASH

“Haha, I got him!” one of the weaklings shouted. His sword dug into Kaian’s flesh, stopping after a few centimeters.

Despite a direct hit with a sword into his arm, Kaian only got a minor wound and it was more embarrassing than painful.

“Tsk.”

Kaian turned around and finished the bandit with a dagger into the face. The looter did not, in fact, get him. Unfortunately, there was no time to rest. The rest of the weaklings rushed at him and he had to continue cutting them down.

He considered changing forms, but ruled it out due to the fact that he got damaged already. Instead Kaian grabbed the fallen man’s sword and slashed out. It hit two people who fell down bleeding. Kaian took some steps back. Even though he eliminated like 5 people already, there were still at least 10 more.

SMASH

It was a mistake to count his enemies instead of focusing. Something blunt hit Kaian on his head and he staggered, stabbing his sword in the enemy’s chest reflexively.

This attack took too much time and all the other bandits were very close now. He got hit from his side and before he even managed to turn around and respond, he got hit again.

Kaian started madly slashing around him, creating a sort of a barrier around himself. It tired him out quickly. Still better than getting hit more. This attack shallowly wounded some of them, but didn't kill a single person.

This wasn’t too good, if he changed he would be locked out of his human form and he doubted that an animal could decimate ten people. Instead, he chose to drop his sword and drink some blood.

The cowards didn’t wait for him to finish and rushed, frightened expressions on their faces.

They knew he couldn’t be left to heal, but despite their thoughts, they were too slow. He drank the most unique blood he had on him, a recovery one. It was one of the rare few bloods that he didn't manage to integrate into his body, for a very obvious reason.

His flesh writhed and closed his wounds, restoring his stamina a bit as well. The price he had to pay was his actual blood which evaporated to heal him. Thankfully, the effect was short and Kaian didn’t lose enough to harm him.

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With renewed vigor, Kaian smirked and attacked. The weaklings hesitated and a few dropped their weapons, abandoning their comrades. Kaian’s smirk transformed into a grin and he started slashing away.

SMASH, SLICE, CRASH

A bandit lost his head, another hit Kaian on his back before getting torn apart. The next bandit tried to immobilize Kaian and instead got his skull crushed by a powerful stomp.

As Kaian breathed out, he got hit on two places and fell on his knees. His dagger fell out of his hands and he had to force himself and pick it up again. He returned the favor and punched the one on his left in the shoulder, feeling the bones crack under his fist.

The bandit kneeled and fainted. The right one watched in horror before getting his knee blown out by a kick and falling down too.

Kaian took a few more hits, managing to last and kill all of the remaining bandits. He definitely wouldn’t have managed that if the others didn’t run away.

Kaian dropped on the ground, breathing heavily and coughing out blood. It was brutal, but he had won. An entire bandit camp got destroyed solely by him. Kaian was the chosen one, he had to be.

And with these thoughts, Kaian changed into a snail to heal and fell asleep, giggling.

…

Warm blood flowed across the dirt, making puddles and soaking blades of grass in its embrace. The surroundings were quiet, no animal sounds resounding whatsoever. This scary, yet peaceful atmosphere got suddenly broken, as a man with blue, ruffled hair and a purple crown stomped on a dead animal’s head.

CRAAACK

His shoes were nearly rainbow at this point, the blood mixing everywhere and making it seem like his feet were glowing. He was grinning as he gave the beast a few more stomps, completely demolishing the corpse.

“Haaaah”

His sticky and bloodied hand ran through his hair, giving him a free dye job. Yes, this person was Kaian, he had spent some weeks alone on the road after his slaughter and it clearly didn’t do any favors to his mental state.

Thankfully, his rational side took over after he took out his anger on the poor animal and he went to find some water to clean himself a bit.

There was a river nearby so Kaian used it to wash himself. It didn't work very well since the blood and other fluids had already soaked in. His cloak was dark red at this point, but at least his body was relatively dirt-free.

After washing himself, he continued walking. He had been on the road for a long time already so he had to be close. And close he was, it only took a few more hours until he ran into a big village that was built around an inn.

However, that wasn’t nearly the most important thing. There was a road, an actual stone road. It split in three ways and the one Kaian was going to use led into Teim. It looked the best and you could clearly tell that the most effort was put into it.

For now though, Kaian intended to visit the inn and restock on some cash. He noticed that there were some guards near the entrance to the village and he walked straight to them. Kaian thought it was pretty weird that every place he came into had walls as a defense mechanism.

“Hey! Are you going to rest here? If yes, then I’d definitely recommend visiting the house next to the carpenter instead of the inn. They have cheaper prices an- Wait a minute. Are you the blue-haired demon?” The guard spoke calmly at first, but became shocked as he went on.

“What? Blue-haired demon? What’s that edgy ass name?” Kaian responded, so baffled that his crazy personality disappeared.

“Uhh, nevermind then. It’s just some rumor I heard, you are free to enter.”

Kaian looked at the guards suspiciously and went inside. The first thing he noticed was a big house with “Three-way fork inn” written on a sign, very literal. There was a stone with a sword pierced in it before the house and it immediately reminded Kaian of the Excalibur legend.

He wanted to try and get it out as soon as possible, but forced himself to remain calm. His rational side was in control because of the demon incident, and hopefully it would last for his entire stay here.

Looking around, Kaian decided that he would get some money and rest for a night before being on his way again. He couldn’t be that far anymore and the urge to start learning magic was rising with every second.

The moment he entered the inn, many people turned to look at him, some turning away just as fast, some having a shred of recognition appear in their eyes. Kaian proudly walked to an empty table and spread his legs, resting.

He was waiting for some employee to come and ask him for his order, when he heard the people at a different table talk. They didn’t think that he could hear as Kaian was pretty far away and if it wasn’t for the blood he had consumed, they’d be right.

“No way, did you see the guy enter? Doesn't he look exactly like the blue-haired demon is described?!” One of the men blurted out.

Another went into thought before replying: “His hair was blue, an ocean on land. A crown carved out of a purple gem on the ocean, with a bloody cloak under it.”

“See? That’s definitely talking about him! Though, his cloak isn’t that bloody and the crown doesn’t look like a gem.” The first man replied, less convinced than before.

“Umn, Excuse me. What would you like to order?”

Kaian felt a touch on his shoulder and sharply turned to look at the person speaking to him. He threw a mean glare and after noticing that it’s a young girl, he relaxed.

“Some ale and dinner. Do people play Azir here?”

“Yes! You have to wait for a while until they begin, though. I think that they’ll begin by the time you’re done with eating.”

“Alright, thanks.”

Kaian went into thought after paying for the food. Ignoring the weird habit of paying before getting the food, he pondered about his newly gained fame.

…

Upon finishing his food, people started gathering in one of the inn’s corners. It seemed that the girl was right about the time. Kaian stood up and followed them.

“Hey, could you perhaps be the blue-haired ball master?” One of them asked innocently.

Kaian had enough of this and snapped at him: “Are you fucking serious, first you give me some edgy nickname and now this goofy shit? Do you think I won’t dare to beat you the fuck up?!”

He could feel losing control and it took all of Kaian’s willpower to not whip out his dagger and show him what was up.

Multiple men surrounded Kaian and went between him and the guy who made fun of him.

“Calm down, chief. If you want to show us your strength, you can do so by pulling out the legendary sword in the rock.” The man before him spoke, obviously suppressing a smirk.

“Oh, I fucking will.” Kaian gritted his teeth and went outside to slap their faces.