CHAPTER 163: CHAPTER 163: BLOOD, DEATH, SHADOW [2]

Chapter 163 – Blood, Death, Shadow.

The battlefield was in complete chaos. The corrupted were numerous—no, they looked endless.

The weakest was at Intermediate level, and the strongest could be considered a Grandmaster... just without a Domain.

They were strong. Exceptionally strong.

But what truly made this battlefield descend into chaos was the sheer variety of abilities being cast. Rainstorms of elemental magic—fire, ice, lightning—and even the rarer ones like light and darkness filled the air.

There were also those with monstrous physical power, their strikes shaking the very earth as if Goliaths were rampaging across the land.

And then there were the fast and elusive ones, making the lives of Asael and Kaden absolute hell. They’d strike, vanish, and let their comrades keep the pressure, only to strike again and again, like gnats too intelligent to be called mere beasts.

For corrupted creatures supposedly in a berserk state, they were frighteningly smart.

And there were those with even more special powers—the kind Kaden had never encountered outside of nightmare zones.

One of them, a peak Master-ranked corrupted, could manipulate space itself.

All of this—the powers, the numbers, the sheer madness—made the battlefield descend into utter entropy.

But if there was one defining characteristic of Kaden and Asael...

It was that they were hard to kill.

Extremely hard to kill.

And right now, without caring for wounds, exhaustion, or even death—they ran through the battlefield, slaughtering everything in sight.

Kaden looked like a trail of red lightning, Reditha flashing every nanosecond, severing Intermediate-ranked corrupted with a single strike through the dantian. As for the Masters... at first, he needed more than one slash...

...but not anymore.

Now, even early Master-ranked corrupted died with one strike.

Reditha was cloaked in the Flame of Blood and amplified by Soulbrand, and every slash not only vaporized the corrupted’s blood but also tore apart their soul.

Even without destroying their dantian, Kaden killed them.

He controlled all the blood around the battlefield with terrifying ease, detonating it in bursts so violent they created a thick fog of black mist that swallowed the field, obscuring vision and suffocating hope.

That’s when Kaden and Asael started targeting the most troublesome Masters.

Their duo was... devastating.

Blood. Death. Shadow.

What an incredible combination.

Every strike they landed made the world bleed. The ground cracked, space trembled, and the entire dungeon was plunged into unfathomable shadow.

Kaden attacked head-on, conjuring hundreds of bloody spears wreathed in flame, raining destruction down like a god of wrath. Asael struck from the shadows—elusive, treacherous, and silent as death itself.

The battle raged on.

They looked like fiends from the deepest pits of Hell, killing everything in sight without mercy or pause.

The ground was littered with black blood and corpses—soaked and sludgy, reeking of rot and ruin. The air turned thick with the scent of iron and death. The corrupted fell like livestock under the blades of two monsters: one still at Intermediate rank but killing Masters with ease, and the other... Asael. A peak Master-ranked being so dreadful it was hard to define him in human terms.

Because Asael’s fighting style was truly a sight to behold.

He didn’t move like a person. Not even like a beast. He moved like a shadow—formless, fluid, and perfectly adaptable. A deadly phantom.

But the two of them weren’t unscathed. Their clothes were torn, blood leaked from countless wounds, but their unnatural regeneration kept them standing, kept them moving.

But... everything has its limits.

Right now, Kaden and Asael stood back to back.

The number of corrupted had diminished greatly, now only a hundred or so remained.

"Ah... Kaden, my friend, are you truly Intermediate?" Asael asked, breathing ragged, blocking a strike with one sword and killing a corrupted with the other.

Kaden was holding two blades made from black blood, slashing apart any enemy that approached while Reditha, given temporary autonomy, hunted on her own.

"I’m a genius. But at this rate, I’m afraid the world is about to lose one," he said, a bloody smile stretched across his face, half of it covered in blood—his own and theirs.

Asael laughed loud and deep, and the corrupted howled in fury, launching even more frenzied attacks.

Clashes of steel and roars of madness echoed.

Explosions erupted everywhere, Kaden detonating pools of his own blood across the battlefield, blackening the air and shaking the space around them like the dungeon itself was about to collapse.

"Asael..." Kaden muttered, breathing deep, his eyes locked onto the final horde.

"Yes, my friend..." Asael responded, sweat pouring down his face, his constant regeneration taking its toll.

This night was brutal.

"One last strike to end it," Kaden said, taking a stance with his smirk bloodthirsty, savage.

In that moment, he looked like a true Warborn—mad for blood, mad for battle.

His words made Asael grin, mirroring his stance, both blades ready.

"I’m with you."

They closed their eyes at the same time.

The world faded away. All that existed was power. Intention. Will.

Each searched within for something, anything, to end this.

For Kaden, the answer came fast.

Soulbrand... finally evolved.

A new ability emerged: Soul Laceration.

For Asael, the answer came in a flicker of inspiration by thinking of Kaden’s Flame of Blood.

If that flame burned blood and the liquids within a body...

Then Asael’s flame would burn the very shadow of his enemy.

His mind clicked.

’My flame will burn their shadow,’ Asael thought, then smiled.

"Kaden, my friend, you’re brilliant!" he shouted, laughter echoing through the chaos.

He raised both his swords to the sky, and instantly, they caught fire—black, flickering, spectral flame.

And then... he slashed.

Not once. Not in one direction.

He slashed in dozens of times, from all angles.

"Asael’s Sword Style — Flame of Shadow: Multi-Slash!"

Kaden attacked at the same time.

He pulled every drop of blood in the battlefield together transforming them into a massive river of black blood that floated in the sky. Then—

"Flame of blood."

"Soulbrand — Soul Laceration."

He poured every drop of mana into it. He laced every single molecule of blood with Soulbrand’s new ability and his flame.

At that time,

The lingering light vanished.

The corrupted’s shadows were slashed—engulfed by Asael’s shadowflames—while at the same time...

Blood began to rain from the sky.

Each drop tore through soul and flesh alike. The corrupted screamed in agony, their souls shredded to pieces before they even hit the ground.

One by one, they fell.

Flesh ruined. Souls destroyed. Shadows devoured.

Until only two remained standing.

One, a being of blood and death.

The other, a being of pure shadow.

"Kaden, my friend..." Asael said, his voice hoarse, trembling with exhaustion and joy.

"Yes..." Kaden responded, in the same raw tone. Blood dripping from his whole body.

Asael paused... then smirked.

"I won, right?"

Kaden shook his head slightly, bloody eyes fixed on the black sky above. His lips curled upward.

"In your dreams, my friend."

—End of Chapter 163—