Chapter 30: Divided
A dozen wolves dropped dead in a splatter of gore and blood, heads severed, limbs cut off, mangled. Worse of it all, they were slayed in one swing, a full arc swing.
[Reaper's Edge]'s reach was beyond reproach.
[Copper Grade Energy harvested.]
[+0.05 Strength.]
[+0.03 Strength.]
...
[+0.08 Strength.]
[+0.02 Strength.]
[Congratulations! Strength has reached the 75-point mark.]
[Strength has touched Iron Grade. Energy below Iron Grade will not benefit your Strength]
Warmth blossomed within Warden, driving away more of the inherited despondency and exhaustion. The very muscles in his body twisted in an agonizing effect, but Warden gritted his teeth and endured it all, knowing it was beneficial to him.
He grew even an inch or two taller as well, his form becoming more... condensed, he guessed. He didn't have the right words to describe this metamorphic transformation. He figured it wouldn't be wrong to say he was becoming more divine because in no possible way would a human-sized body—albeit taller than most—have such meteoric strength.
Moreover, he could feel it was merely the beginning. Some of the invisible weights were put down from his back, still far from reaching his peak, but he was a lot freer than before.
The Ghost Wolf had completed its fusing with the cursed wolf. It charged at him, minions in tow, determined to sink their teeth into this interloper.
Warden found the extended Divider wasn't so good for quick swings. It had to return to the original form for him to showcase traditional sword moves. Of course, Warden abandoned that notion, awakening [Void Shroud]. Even if one or two wolves managed to sneak in between his sword moves, he would deal with them with the shroud.
Determined, he leapt into the air, sword moving left and right in a with a radius of over three meters. With double efficiency in handling energy as well as amplification, Warden was having an easier time severing heads. ƒreewebɳovel.com
Within seconds, he killed over a couple of dozen wolves and understood [Reaper's Edge] wasn't for simple swordsmanship but for a massacre. On the ground, he would definitely have trouble fighting a seasoned sword master with the sheer length of the sword, but the wolves were feeble in mind, and nor was he on the ground.
He extended the sword's length to the highest of 8 meters, as it drilled through the neck of an iron-ranked wolf. It barely growled once when Warden swung it to his right, the corpse flinging away from the sword's tip.
The Ghost Wolf had trouble going through his [Void Shroud], but even with its now superior power, it was unable to make contact with him. It was swift, which was a nuisance for him.
Warden didn't seem to be trained in how to use the eight-meter-long blade most efficiently, as the dungeon boss seemed to be getting away from his attacks with relative ease as well.
So far, Warden left it to do as it pleased while he thinned out its minions. Once his strength reached the Iron Grade, it seemed to increase exponentially. The copper-ranked equivalent wolves were mere cabbages to the Divider. As for the iron-ranked...
Warden plunged onto the back of a Cursed Wolf, his [Void Shroud] keeping it in place as the blade tore through the semi-transparent and semi-corporeal shroud to pierce into its head.
Warden retracted [Reaper's Edge] to withdraw from the dead beast and extended the blade towards the Ghost Wolf that lunged at him from behind, its huge maw opening to take a bite of his head. He let it come, but the very moment it was about to pounce on him, the blade extended its edge, burrowing deep into its maw.
The dungeon boss tried to escape, but Warden limited its path, crushing the full force of the shroud over it, freezing it in its place, not even letting it struggle.
These tainted creatures feel fear, Warden had seen it the very morning he came across one near the stream. And he also saw it now in the eyes of the wolf he was about to kill.
Another cursed-ranked wolf came from behind and crashed into Warden, sending him tumbling to the ground. He had to extend [Void Shroud] to land on his feet, but the sword was still plunged into the mouth of the boss somehow, even though he wasn't towering over it.
Warden could actually move in the direction where the sword tip moved. It wasn't as flexible as a whip, but it could bend in the direction of the wolf's brain.
With a sharp gasp, Warden drew more energy into the blade and extended it to pierce through the dungeon boss's head. The tip of the blade tore through the head of the beast in a smear of blood as Warden intended, the excitement of the breakthrough finally growing thin within him.
[Iron Grade Energy harvested.]
[+1.5 Strength.]
[+0.9 Spirit.]
With that, the dungeon boss was dead. It seemed to have a large chunk in Spirit, as he received the most points in Spirit ever.
The rest of the creatures finally came out of their trance, though with their dull brains, they could either flee or fight to their last breath. Warden liked if they chose the latter, as it would be a bother to chase after them.
Only three of the cursed wolves remained, one injured, another one on its way to flee, and the remaining one on its way to pounce on him. He welcomed it with open arms, of course, after gutting the tip of the sword into its skull.
With not much difference between their physical strength anymore, Warden didn't find the feat that hard, though he did crush its brain, providing a sufficient amount of void energy.
Warden barely had a tenth of his energy left. He wouldn't even recover much from ingesting another heart, as he had already done it thrice. He would have to deal with the rest more in physical terms while waiting for his energy to recover on its own.
Good thing the winner of the battle was already decided.