Chapter 389: 1 vs 1000 (2)
A searing heat flared in my chest, like fire devouring my insides.
I gasped, my mouth wide open, drawing in desperate gulps of air ..
Only to exhale them as scalding steam, mixing with the blood mist around me.
"Huuuuff..."
How many had I killed already?
Slash!!!
"Faster!!"
I cut them down—one after another.
Their mouths moved, but I couldn’t hear a thing.
Maybe they were screaming... a final cry before they left this world.
"Faster!!"
I left only the afterimages behind me, moving at the absolute limit of what this body could achieve.
I was struck dozens of times, but blocked them all.
It felt like I could see the future—dodging was effortless.
Their combat styles, their movements...
It was as if I had seen them all before.
My body shimmered with a black glow, shadow-like in nature.
My movements were incomprehensible.
Too fast.
Too precise.
Too powerful.
One strike. Certain death.
The Ultras no longer felt they were fighting a mere boy of eighteen...
But a martial artist who had trained for centuries ..
A demon forged through countless wars.
But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
> [Shadow Adaptation: 3/7]
Slash right. Evade left.
Leap. Turn. Dodge forward. Faster!
Stronger!
It was as if some phantom was guiding me across the battlefield.
My mind had reached an unnatural state of focus, completely detached from reality.
"Faster!!"
How much time had passed?
"Faster!!!"
How many had I killed?
I didn’t know.
But whenever I paused for a second and looked behind me, I saw the nightmare I had carved with my own hands ..
Severed heads.
Spilled entrails.
Shattered chests and limbs scattered across the dirt.
A lake of crimson blood pooling beneath their corpses.
"I’ve killed so many..."
And when I turned forward again..
They were still coming.
An endless swarm of Ultras pouring in from every direction, flooding my vision.
"And there’s still more..."
I inhaled sharply—then surged forward again.
My eyes darted in all directions.
Hawk Eyes swept across the battlefield, scanning every enemy with deadly clarity.
"Huffffff..."
Exhaling more of that searing, bloody steam, I continued the slaughter.
"Don’t stop!"
I had to move faster.
Those visions still danced in front of me—
My comrades, fighting for their lives.
"Faster!!!"
At some point, the whites of my eyes turned blood-red.
And reality slipped from my grasp completely.
I knew I had reached the strong ones—
Because I could no longer kill them in a single strike.
Now, I was surrounded by S-Class warriors.
Battle-hardened elites who struck with deafening force.
My body boiled.
My armor—heavy and suffocating—was the first to go.
I tore it off and tossed it aside.
My face was drenched in blood.
I tried to wipe it with my elbow... only to find that it, too, was soaked.
Above, black crows descended, feasting happily on the corpses I had left them.
Their caws, the stench of blood, and the blistering heat of war ...
They blended into one.
The battlefield was now a pit of death.
Corpses piled high.
Blood forming rivers beneath my feet.
My enemies were growing stronger with every second.
Shadow Adaptation allowed me to block most of their attacks, but the faster ones began landing hits now and then...
Yet I felt nothing.
My eyes were fixed on only one thing—
Them.
"Kill them!!"
Faster.
"Kill them all!!"
I heard a scream.
At first, I thought it came from them.
But even after slicing their throats, the scream didn’t stop.
Only when I looked closer...
Did I realize it was me.
A war cry.
A desperate howl.
A thirst for blood I had never known before.
Blood flooded the ground beneath me.
Trading blows at blistering speed with their strongest fighters, I came to a terrifying realization...
This wasn’t even close to the end.
They were still coming.
Every second, more and more Ultras charged toward me ..
This was what it meant to fight 1 vs 1000.
I kept running like a madman.
My body was breaking down.
I was exhausted...
But I never stopped.
In that place... I chased his phantom.
The phantom of my father—who had already torn through the Ultras’ army with a speed far beyond mine, and a strength far greater than I could ever match.
Trying to keep up with his shadow, I saw him glance back at me now and then.
"You still have a long way to go... a long, long way."
With a bloody smile and a body on the verge of bursting, I kept moving forward.
"I know."
I knew just how far behind I still was.
But I wouldn’t stop.
I wouldn’t fall.
No matter what it took... this back would never touch the ground.
"Hoooooooooooof..."
The Aura of Darkness and Shadow flared stronger than ever before, reaping the lives of the Ultras one by one.
The mighty army of Nokron found itself in a state unlike anything it had ever experienced.
"Surround him! Keep attacking!!"
Many of them screamed.
"He’s just one man! He’ll wear out eventually!!"
They brought out magical cannons, prepared to fire...
But they never got the chance.
I was already too close.
At this range, weapons of mass destruction were useless.
I had killed so many of them.
So many...
And when I finally stopped again, I found my body in a wretched state.
Dozens of cuts, burns, bruises—
Every kind of wound imaginable.
Bathed in red, my blood mixed with theirs, each passing second worsening the burning sensation in my flesh.
But I paid my injuries no mind.
This body would heal.
It always had.
And it always would.
"Come at me!! All of you!!"
It was absolute madness.
The speed at which I tore through them made no sense at all.
What swept over them wasn’t a boy...
It was a whirlwind of blades.
An overwhelming force.
A monstrous power.
That’s when the Ultras realized...
They were fighting a real monster.
....
Somewhere else in the world...
With wide, disbelieving eyes, Millicent stared blankly into the distance—trying to deny what her senses were showing her.
"He killed... all of them? Alone?"
These weren’t weaklings.
They were the Highbloods.
The elite of the elite—soldiers one could rely on in any war.
But their enemy... was simply too strong.
The mages were rendered useless the moment the anti-magic activated.
The Wave Controllers couldn’t even touch me due to my speed.
The duelists and melee fighters—
All of them were shredded by Shadow Adaptation, which allowed me to deflect everything thrown my way.
No matter what they tried, no matter how desperately they fought...
My blade would cut them all down.
"Monster..."
One of them shouted.
"He’s a monster!!!"
A true monster unleashed upon them by fate.
Then ..
In just a few seconds, a massive shadow loomed over the battlefield.
And when that colossal fist slammed into me, sending me crashing away with immense force—
Everyone realized the other monster had arrived.
The Ghoul.
Lawrence.
...
"AHAHAHAHAHA!! Another one! More of the elite class!
A stronger warrior!!"
Towering at over six meters tall, with a destructive aura reaching SS rank—
Lawrence stood like a giant among his troops.
That single bloodshot eye of his locked onto me, gleaming with a monstrous thirst for blood.
But he didn’t realize...
He was staring at nothing more than the afterimage I had left behind.
Because in less than a heartbeat—
I was already standing before him.