A shadowy figure with maliciously gleaming black eyes streaked through a horde of monsters, leaving a grim harvest of gore in its wake.
The unseen being, a tapestry of darkness, danced and wove itself through the throng of vicious monsters.
Its eyes glowed with menacing red hues, streaking along with its blurred form.
Blood adorned the floor and arched through the air in every direction its visage passed.
The monsters who had reigned in this region for decades were left to the graceless dance of this morbid killer.
Its claws were scythes of death.
Its jagged teeth, maws of horror and torment.
Its entire form, in just a few minutes of appearance, struck primal fear into the souls of these savages.
Such that fighting back was no longer an option.
Monsters born to be predators.
Monsters that had reigned over this land as lords, threats to entire civilizations...
...were made to cower and flee for their lives.
It mattered not their size.
And there were massive sizes among them.
Just as the body features of Corpse Eaters and Night Terror had changed, so too was it for any other monster.
They might not increase in soul rank or number of soul cores.
But their bodies became restructured, gaining enhanced physicalities.
And the bodily changes were diverse and unstereotypical.
For some Corpse Eaters, they were smaller, faster and deadlier. While others could be larger, enormous and stronger.
It was all based on each monster's individual traits, however slightly.
That was how there could exist a monster over four meters tall, with extremely long forelimbs and smaller hindlimbs—almost quadrupedal.
With no eyes whatsoever. Just a long neck and extremely long, needle-like teeth.
The devil shot up into the sky, coated in black flames. Twirling in the embrace of the two moons, it dropped powerfully onto the monster, bringing it down with a tremendous crash.
A loud clang reverberated across the entire place, causing the earth to shake tremendously.
But Dark Terror seemed not to care.
The monster was left with a deep, gaping hole where its supposed head had been, at the tip of its long neck.
The devilish monster exuded steamy breaths from its vicious fangs, slowly turning to behold the smaller throngs of beasts with a viciously burning gaze.
Before it could fully turn its gaze upon them, the Corpse Eaters, even without eyes, skeddadled away, whimpering like defeated pups as they scuttled away to survival.
All of them rushed in a particular direction.
It was a sight to behold.
Hundreds of small monsters running toward a particular direction, it was almost as if they were migrating with frightening urgency.
Whereas it was just one single Terror that had sown discord amongst them.
The notable ones among them had been disemboweled and maimed by the devilish Terror—which now stood like a harbinger of chaos, awaiting the arrival of the Hero of Light.
Without prolonged delay, Ryan pierced forward like an arrow, coated by a powerful gale of cold wind.
In the first few steps, he was practically floating. But as his legs touched the ground, a cold air oozed out, and before anything could be noted or seen, Ryan was streaking forward on a thin trail of ice.
His eyes were focused and squinted, hands swung back to gather more momentum for him to speed forward.
Arlem, who was behind him, smacked his teeth. "Tch, showoff."
Suddenly, the entire ground trembled heavily, causing all of them to stop in their tracks for a moment.
Ryan looked up; he had at least glimpsed the silhouette of a strange being twirling in the sky before it dropped, causing the powerful tremor.
"Shit, that must be it... the monster those guys were talking about," Arlem's voice came out, tinged with a soft note of... (to be polite)... caution.
Ryan slightly turned to him and cocked his head. "Scared?"
His one-word was cold and filled with so much mockery.
Even though said with his usual tone, Arlem couldn't help but feel deeply insulted by it.
He grinned from ear to ear.
Throwing forth a hand, a saber blade slowly materialized into it.
He arrogantly placed the blade on his shoulder, a vicious grin plastered across his face.
"I personally can't wait to decimate that thing."
Ryan looked away indifferently, his eyes subtly dimming before shooting wide open.
In that moment, Percival and most of Ryan's party members quickly took cover, protecting themselves by turning away from Ryan.
Light would be envious of the magnifying speed at which the boy flashed into the distance, leaving a blast of tiny ice shards that inflicted shallow injuries on several.
Arlem, receiving small cuts in several areas—since he was exposing his broad chest—frowned and glared at Percival.
"I'm sorry, there was no time to warn..."
He shifted his glare toward the front, where Ryan had taken off.
"No problem. If he can run, then I can leap!"
His glare became wilder, a berserk grin on his face.
"Fabian!" He called out.
"Yes, Arlem," a lean-faced man with a red-patterned bandanna tied around his forehead answered quickly. His gaze was lazy but bore slight sharpness.
"Take care of the team," Arlem commanded.
And with that, he went low, his muscles seeming to ripple and wheeze out a squeezing sound as he crouched extremely low.
And like a spring...!
Arlem catapulted into the air—with a wild and villainous laughter.
Both parties watched him soar into the distant embrace of the skies.
Donned in a resplendent silver armor, Fabian stepped forward and smiled at Percival—who wore something less intimidating and more casual.
His vambraces seemed exceptional, though, carved with the inscription of a snake-like dragon. And they were golden.
"I guess that leaves us to things," Fabian said with a soft smile, the curling of his lips making his entire face shine with noteworthy handsomeness, even with sleepy eyes and thin eyeballs.
"Should we just go deal with the rest of the mobs while both of them deal with whatever that thing is? We would only be a hindrance to them, wouldn't we?" Percival suggested.
"Well spoken, my friend."
With that, both parties turned in another direction and abandoned their wild leaders.