CHAPTER 182: IT’S JUST GETTING STARTED

The beast’s roar ripped through the air, a sound so deep it made the ground itself tremble. The massive creature—a hulking fusion of scales, fur, and jagged bone spikes—lowered its head, saliva dripping from its maw like acid. The stench of death rolled off its breath, hot and suffocating.

Aamir tightened his grip on his twin blades, his eyes narrowing to slits. His heartbeat didn’t quicken—if anything, it slowed. Every muscle in his body coiled like a spring, ready to explode.

"Come on, then," he muttered, voice low but carrying across the blood-soaked clearing.

The beast lunged first. Its enormous paw struck down with the force of a falling boulder, tearing up earth and sending shards of rock into the air. Aamir twisted sideways, barely avoiding the crushing blow. He didn’t waste the momentum—his body flowed like water, blades flashing in a silver arc as he sliced across the creature’s foreleg.

The wound was shallow. Too shallow.

The beast roared in fury, swinging its tail like a steel whip. Aamir brought both blades up in an X-guard, the impact rattling his bones and hurling him backward. He skidded across the dirt, boots digging in to slow himself.

"Fast... but not fast enough," he said, smirking despite the blood trickling from his lip.

This wasn’t going to be a battle of brute force. The beast was stronger, heavier, more resilient. But it was also overconfident.

The monster charged again, jaws snapping. Aamir ducked low, rolling beneath its massive chest. His right blade slashed upward, biting deep into its softer underbelly. The beast howled and spun, trying to crush him under its weight, but Aamir was already gone—sliding between its legs like a shadow.

A green notification flickered in the corner of his vision:

[Weak Spot Discovered — Damage Multiplier +25%]

"Good," Aamir breathed, wiping sweat from his brow. "Now we’re getting somewhere."

The beast reared back, its spiked mane bristling. Then its jaws opened wide, and a sickly green light built in its throat.

Aamir’s instincts screamed.

He dove sideways just as the beast unleashed a torrent of corrosive breath. The ground where he had stood moments ago hissed and melted, black smoke curling upward.

"Acid breath. Great."

He shook his head. "You really are trying to make this difficult."

The fight raged on, each exchange faster, deadlier. Aamir used every ounce of his agility, weaving in and out of the beast’s reach, slicing at tendons and soft joints. Every hit drained the monster’s stamina, every dodge bought him another second to think.

Finally, the beast staggered. Its breaths came ragged now, green drool pooling beneath its jaws.

Now.

Aamir’s blades ignited with pale-blue aura, his energy flaring in a controlled burst. His body blurred, moving faster than the eye could track. One slash cut through the beast’s right eye, blinding it with a spray of blood. The other blade drove deep into its neck, severing muscles and arteries in one clean strike.

The beast thrashed wildly, but Aamir held on, climbing up its scaled shoulder like a predator mounting prey.

"Fall," he growled.

With a final, explosive thrust, he jammed both blades into the base of the beast’s skull. The light faded from its remaining eye. Its body collapsed like a mountain crumbling, shaking the earth as it fell still.

A silence settled over the battlefield, broken only by Aamir’s steady breathing. He stepped down from the carcass, boots crunching on broken bone fragments.

The system’s chime rang in his ears:

[Level Up!]

[Current Level: 79]

[Stat Points Earned: +15]

[Skill Upgrade Available]

Aamir exhaled slowly, wiping his blades clean on the beast’s fur.

"Level seventy-nine... not bad." He glanced back at the corpse. "But you were just a warm-up."

Above, the sky was darkening—not from clouds, but from something deeper, heavier. A storm without wind. A warning.

And Aamir knew this fight had just been the first of many.

The beast’s corpse still radiated a faint heat, steam rising from the places where blue flames had cauterized its wounds. Aamir stared down at it for a long moment, the forest unnervingly quiet—as if every other living creature had decided to vanish rather than be anywhere near this fight’s aftermath.

Then, another ding echoed in his ears, different from the level-up tone.

[New Skill Acquired — High-Speed Regeneration]

[Source: Bloodsucking Hound]

Before he could react, another line appeared:

[Bloodline Purity Increased]

[Current Purity: 20%]

Aamir’s brow furrowed. "What the hell...?" His gaze flicked to the floating text again, but it only pulsed, almost like it was alive. "It’s increasing way too fast."

Luman’s voice resonated in his head, calm but carrying an edge of warning.

«Host, the rate of growth is proportional to your current pace of power acquisition. At this speed, your bloodline is evolving at an extremely accelerated rate.»

Aamir knelt beside the beast, resting one hand on its cooling hide. His eyes narrowed. "So, you’re telling me... the more I fight like this, the more I’m going to change?"

«Yes,» Luman confirmed. «It’s good... but also terrifying. Rapid evolution like this grants you unmatched power, but if your will isn’t strong enough to anchor it—»

"I know." Aamir cut in sharply, standing to his full height. His gaze drifted upward, toward the now-unnatural darkness gathering over the treetops. His voice was quieter now, but there was steel in it. "I’ll lose my humanity."

He sheathed his blades with a fluid motion, the faint shhhk of metal sliding into scabbards breaking the silence. "Not happening. I’ll take the power... but it’ll be mine. I won’t let it take me."

The beast’s blood still clung to his gloves, warm and thick. Aamir flexed his hands, feeling the faint hum of the new ability already beginning to work—burns sealing, cuts closing in seconds.

A small, humorless smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "High-speed regeneration, huh? Guess that means I can go harder in the tournament."

The wind shifted then, carrying with it the distant sound of movement—heavy, coordinated, predatory. Werewolves. Champions, maybe. Or something worse.

He tilted his head toward the sound and cracked his neck. "Looks like the warm-up’s over already."

Luman’s voice was low, almost amused, but laced with something darker.

«Or maybe... it’s just getting started.»

Aamir’s smirk deepened. "Good. I was starting to get bored."

Without another word, he crouched, energy surging into his legs. The forest floor cracked under the sudden force as he launched himself into the air, vanishing into the dense canopy with a blur of motion.

Leaves whipped past his face. His senses sharpened, every sound and scent magnified—the musk of fur, the iron tang of blood, the faint shift of paws on damp soil.

The first target revealed itself before it even saw him. A hulking boar-like beast with tusks like spears burst through the underbrush, snorting steam.

Aamir dropped from above like a falling shadow. His right fist, wreathed in blue flame, crashed down on the back of its neck with a bone-splintering crack. The shockwave flattened the grass around them, and the beast collapsed instantly, its spine shattered.

[Beast Slain — +2,300 XP]

He didn’t pause. The moment the boar’s body hit the dirt, he was already moving again, weaving through trees like a phantom.

A pair of scaled wolf-serpents lunged from the left, fangs dripping venom. Aamir slid low beneath the first, his flaming palm striking upward into its belly, bursting through with a spray of black ichor. The second lunged at his neck, but he twisted mid-spin, heel smashing into its jaw with a crack before he grabbed its skull in both hands and tore it apart at the jawline.

[Beast Slain — +4,700 XP]

[Beast Slain — +4,900 XP]

«Efficient,» Luman noted. «But you’re still holding back.»

"I’m warming up," Aamir replied, vaulting over a fallen log just as a six-eyed panther exploded from the shadows. Its claws tore deep furrows into the wood where he’d been a split second ago.

Aamir sidestepped, letting its momentum carry it past him, and hammered three rapid-fire punches into its ribs—each blow detonating with bursts of blue fire. The final strike drove his fist straight through its chest, flames erupting from the other side as the beast fell silent.

[Beast Slain — +6,200 XP]

He was barely breathing harder. His new regeneration was knitting cuts and bruises before they could even sting, his body adapting to the relentless rhythm. Every kill felt easier, faster.

Minutes blurred into a deadly dance of flame and fury. One moment he was flipping off a tree trunk to drive a knee into the skull of a horned lizard the size of a carriage, the next he was seizing a bear-like beast by the throat and slamming it into the ground so hard the earth caved in beneath them.

Notifications flashed in the corner of his vision like a staccato drumbeat.

[Beast Slain — +3,800 XP]

[Beast Slain — +5,100 XP]

[Skill Proficiency Increased — Martial Combetent Lv. 7 → Lv. 8]

Finally, he paused atop the massive branch of a towering tree, the jungle spread out beneath him in a misty expanse. Dozens of corpses lay scattered through the clearing below, their blood soaking the soil.

The air was thick with the scent of death.

«You’re accelerating again,» Luman said quietly. «Your bloodline purity has already risen to 22%.»

Aamir glanced down at his hands, flexing them. His knuckles were raw and steaming from heat, but uninjured—regeneration already at work. His eyes caught every flicker of movement in the dark.

He grinned, almost feral. "Then let’s see how high I can push it before they find me."