Sokram's foot slid through the snowy ground as he forced himself to halt. Before dashing back toward the females, he shouted, "Hold him back, guys! I'll try to be as fast as I can over there! I'm counting on you!" Without waiting for their replies, he cast another movement spell.

‘Force Step - Three Strides!’

Sokram's figure flashed three times, and he reappeared in front of the barrier.

Seeing him there, the females raged, knowing their chosen male had failed them.

The reality was that the male boar was confused and madly enraged. Before the boar's fall, he had been following just one target.

But even before he managed to stand up, he was assaulted by a barrage of attacks from four different individuals.

Kiana used her Shield Bash to keep the boar off balance, while Kan danced around, aiming for the boar’s joints, arteries, and tendons.

Nora and Lara went berserk, swinging their two-handed weapons at the beast, barely leaving any room for Lucy to aim.

But she still managed to hit one of the boar’s eyes, enraging the beast so much that it forgot about its trapped harem.

Savannah looked at Sokram, wondering how he would get past the barrier, as no one could enter or leave it once it was active.

Her answer came as soon as Amber called the spell forth.

“Lightning Rain!”

A dense storm cloud formed above the pentagonal barrier, and thin snakes of lightning began to fall.

Sokram was impressed, not only by how quickly Amber had learned the spell, or by her no longer needing to chant to use the spell, but also by the sudden spike in his mana consumption, showing she had truly mastered it.

Still, even with the spike in mana consumption, he remained unworried.

He controlled his reserves with precision, releasing only what was necessary while drawing in ambient mana to compensate.

Yet, even with his refined technique, the constant expenditure took its toll; mana breathing could only keep up to a point before the strain set in.

But looking into the barrier, Sokram was proud to see that the spell worked perfectly against the female boars.

Whenever the lightning struck them, they were electrified into paralysis, which enraged them further but also gave Savannah more room to breathe.

Maintaining the barrier became easier as the boars were constantly struck by one of the countless snakes of lightning raining down and being briefly paralyzed.

In the next instant, Sokram willed his mana into the storm cloud, casting with a single thought: ‘Dark Lightning – Lightning Chain!’

“Zzap!” Sokram’s figure zapped away into the cloud in a flash, and then dark lightning flashed again as he appeared in the middle of the boars inside the barrier.

Savannah and Amber’s eyes went wide at this seemingly suicidal maneuver. But neither of them stopped feeding mana into their spells.

The boars, who had been incessantly trying to break the barrier, stopped and turned their murderous gazes toward Sokram.

They tried to charge at him, only to be struck by the lightning raining down at random intervals.

But that only lasted for a second.

In the next moment, Sokram used one of the strongest Killing Blade forms: ‘Killing Blade Art – Mighty Thunder: Lightning Dance Throughout the Sky!’

Using the lightning that rained down as a conductor, along with his own Elemental Control and Assimilation, Sokram unleashed his attack at literal lightning speed.

From Amber and Savannah's perspective, it looked as if Sokram had multiplied.

Countless after-images, flashes of lightning, and explosions of blood flooded the space inside the barrier.

The air crackled with energy, and the ground sizzled where the lightning struck.

The agonizing and terrified screeches of the female boars echoed across the snowy plain, their cries mingling with the crackles of lightning and the sickening sound of metal slashing through flesh.

One by one, the females fell, their massive bodies collapsing into the blood-stained snow.

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Forming ripples of crimson snow within the enclosed space of the barrier with each fall, the air grew thick with the stench of blood.

By the time Sokram could no longer spare any mana, Amber’s spell flickered and fizzled out, and Savannah’s barrier cracked.

The strain on his two teammates was evident, their exhaustion mirroring his own.

He clenched his fists. Had he miscalculated? No, this was simply the inevitable consequence of pushing their limits.

Savannah’s barrier finally fell, and all of the boars were killed too, their lifeless forms steaming in the cold air.

The male boar, smelling the blood of its harem on the wind, let out a deafening screech, its eyes blazing with fury as it charged out of the ambush point, escaping the ambush team.

When he saw Sokram, covered in blood and with their corpses lying around him, the boar went into a killing frenzy.

Despite its wounds, it charged at Sokram with reckless abandon.

Sokram, taking a measured breath, steadied himself.

He couldn’t fully replenish his reserves in an instant, but he could still harness what remained.

A final burst, just enough for one last spell.

‘Dark Lightning – Tetra Slash!’

“Zzap!” Sokram flashed past the boar’s left side, severing one of its arms. The dark lightning snaked around the boar’s back.

“Zzap!” Two more arms were slashed away, and Sokram’s katana, coated in lightning, cut through the beast’s hide like a hot knife through butter.

“Zzap!” The lightning zapped in front of the boar, leaving a deep slash from the right side of its belly down to its left leg.

“Zaap!” The lightning flashed one last time upward behind the boar, leaving another deep slash on the back of its nape, so deep that it severed the brainstem.

The male boar died without even realizing how.

Its massive body slid across the snowy ground, staining it with blood as its heart continued to beat faintly.

Sokram landed a few meters away after his upward slash sent him soaring into the air.

Breathless and exhausted from the toll of sharing his mana while fighting beasts that could kill him with a single blow, he quickly rushed toward the dead boars to store their bodies before they bled out.

Beast blood was rich in Chaos Energy, making it a perfect component for enchantments, runecraft, and other forms of magic that relied on inscription patterns.

As he stored the boars’ bodies, he felt a faint yet familiar humming coming from the Chaos Energy in the monsters' blood that painted the snowy floor. ‘This… It shouldn’t be possible from beasts of this level. Or is it my perception?’

Before he could ponder further, his team came running after him, worried that the boar had broken free from their encirclement.

Sokram pushed the thought aside for now and focused on storing their prey.

As for his team, watching Sokram store the beasts’ bodies into his Void Glove, more concerned about preserving their prey than his own condition, his earlier words replayed in their minds: ‘I’m stronger than you…’

And he proved that point time and time again.

Sokram saw his team rushing toward him and, covered in blood, smiled at them.

It was a terrifying sight, but it still brought them comfort. “See? Six boars in one go! You guys are awesome! We’re going to have a feast! Hahaha!”

Seeing him act like a kid with a new toy made them even more self-aware. He was only thirteen, and yet they had been treating him like an experienced senior, though not without merit.

“Alright, their bodies are stored. Give me a few minutes to meditate and refill my mana pool. I think we can hunt another two groups before lunch. What do you think?”

Kan nodded eagerly, a grin spreading across his face. “Sure, little brother.”

He couldn’t help it; this had been the easiest and most efficient hunt he had ever taken part in, and the sentiment was shared by the whole team.

Kiana allowed herself to smile, while Nora and Lara exchanged a look of quiet satisfaction.

Even Lucy, usually so mischievous, seemed impressed, her tail swishing lazily behind her.

To him, their reactions were expected.

He knew how difficult things could be for young hunters, and he took pride in guiding them.

But while Sokram meditated, a few memories flashed in his mind, the sensation of being bathed in blood, a feeling so familiar it was almost comforting.

The metallic scent, the warmth against his skin, the way it clung to him like a second layer, it was a reminder of battles fought and lives taken.

But this time, something felt different.

The inner conflicts weighing on his conscience dragged his mind to the darker memories of his previous timeline.

A shadow lurked within him, not a creature, but a weight.

The silent whisper of guilt, the echoes of choices long past.

Sokram had spent lifetimes suppressing it, yet moments like these threatened to bring it to the surface.

He couldn’t understand where it came from; maybe it was his manipulative ways? Or was it his hesitation, his refusal to act fully, to draw Nhiria’s gaze before he was fully ready? He had come back to save those he loved, not to play games.

Yet here he was, pretending to be a child.

Sokram chuckled inwardly, realizing that being an ancient being didn't make him immune to his conscience weighing on him.

It might have its advantages, but when things happened unexpectedly, like what happened the previous night with Lucy, his guilty conscience always weighed on him, adding to his sense of responsibility.

But his real purpose remained unchanged; even if the number of the ones he would care for increased, he wouldn't lose any of them this time.

After meditating for a while, they returned to hunting.

Yet, unlike what Sokram had expected, instead of just two groups, they managed to hunt four before lunchtime.

When lunchtime finally arrived, each member of the ambush team still had three runestones left.

Sokram was roasting a piece of boar meat over the fire after having purified and drained its blood when Savannah approached him. “Did you do it on purpose, or was it a miscalculation?”

“What do you mean, big sis?” Sokram asked, genuinely unsure of what she was talking about.

“You said that with the runestones, we could hunt at best five groups. But we’ve already hunted four, and each group had at least six boars.” Savannah clarified while sitting near the fire beside Amber and Lucy, who were watching him roast the boar meat with salivating mouths.

“Right... I won’t lie. I lowered my expectations of how much we could hunt, but you guys surprised me. Maybe it’s because you work better without Kazzah and Timothy interfering with your teamwork. But you’re hunting way better than yesterday. So that’s totally on you guys.” Sokram praised them humbly, though his words carried a subtle jab at Kazzah and Timothy.

But the team didn’t like what they heard.

They had followed his lead without question, trusting his judgment completely.

Realizing that he had underestimated them, even with good intentions, left an odd, nagging feeling.

They weren’t just students learning under him.

They were warriors, and they wanted to be seen as such.