Once again, the Abomination charged him.
Slower than earlier, heavier thanks to its wounds, but not any less deadly than it had originally been.
And Kyle was barely standing.
His sword faltered in his grasp, his arms trembling as his bones rattled—not from fear, but from the lingering effects of the attack from the Beast.
But he kept his focus up.
His eyes remained locked onto the being of the beast as he desperately searched for a weakness.
Anything.
’Come on...’
’Search...’
’Search...’
There.
Kyle exploded forward with extraordinary speed, charging directly towards the oncoming Abomination.
The Monstrosity, seeing this, seemed to roar in twisted excitement, its maws falling open as it prepared to devour Kyle in a single attack.
But Kyle was not stupid.
He knew exactly what the beast wanted.
As the two clashed in the middle of the battlefield, the Tainted Abomination snapped its maws at Kyle.
However, its attack met with nothing but air.
Kyle had ducked at the very last moment.
His body dropped against the snow, allowing himself to skid across the frozen ground and beneath the Monster.
He was now directly beneath the underbelly of the Veiny Abomination.
"Time to die, you bastard!"
Kyle thrust his sword forward with all his might, aiming directly at a crack in the neck portion of the Monster’s veiny Carapace.
SPLOOOSH!
Blood erupted from the wound.
The sword pierced completely through the creature’s neck, tearing through its throat until the tip of the blade finally struck against the armor along the hind of the beast.
Kyle’s eyes widened slightly at the resistance.
Then he grinned.
He twisted the blade.
A guttural death shriek escaped the mouth of the Veiny Abomination.
The creature jerked backwards violently, blood flowing endlessly from the wound as its body spasmed in agony.
But even then, it refused to die.
Instinctively, the beast threw itself down onto its belly, attempting to crush Kyle beneath its enormous weight.
But before it could complete the act, several ice-like pillars suddenly formed from beneath the monster, rising from the frozen ground and holding up the weight of the Fiend.
The Abomination shrieked again.
It refused to give up.
The monster raised its massive body from the pillars before slamming itself down again.
And again.
And again.
Each time, its enormous weight crashed down upon the ice pillars.
CRACK!
The frozen structures began to fracture.
Thin cracks spread across their surfaces like spiderwebs, threatening to give up beneath the sheer weight of the beast.
Kyle gritted his teeth.
His entire face was drenched by the warm blood of the monster, the liquid running down his forehead and dripping from his chin.
"I won’t go down that easily!"
He grunted and once again twisted the blade.
More pain permeated through the body of the Monstrosity.
The Abomination shrieked and thrashed violently, its claws digging into the frozen ground as it desperately tried to crush the tiny human beneath it.
But Kyle held on.
He refused to let go.
Its strength grew slower and slower...
Its movements became weaker.
Its desperate thrashing gradually turned into sluggish spasms.
Until finally—
BOOM!
A loud explosion suddenly erupted from beneath the beast.
The Abomination’s entire body jerked violently.
Then...
It stopped.
The monstrous body slumped completely still against the ice pillars, its enormous form hanging limp.
The pillars creaked beneath the weight.
For one terrifying moment, Kyle thought they might collapse.
But thankfully...
They held.
At this, Kyle finally let out a low, painful sigh.
His body relaxed.
And then he chuckled.
"Hahahaha! I won, you ugly bastard."
He paused there for a moment, savoring the words.
Then he finally turned over and began crawling from the tight opening beneath the monster.
He had barely crawled halfway out when someone suddenly grabbed onto his wrist.
Kyle froze.
A moment later, the person pulled him out from beneath the enormous corpse.
[Ding!]
[You have slain Demonic Veined Abomination.]
[You have gained Twelve Soul Fragments.]
[Soul Fragments: 72/100]
Kyle stared at the notification.
Then a deranged laugh escaped his mouth.
"Hahahah! So much from just one kill."
Rita, who had been the one to pull him from underneath the monster, only stared at Kyle.
The young man was laughing in victory in the most psychotic manner fathomable.
His armor was cracked.
His body was covered in blood.
His face was drenched in the blood of the very creature he had just killed.
And yet...
He was laughing.
Rita watched him for a few seconds before finally speaking.
"It’s just one Tainted—"
Kyle suddenly gave her a dreadful glance.
’I almost died.’
’Who are you to say it’s just one...’
’It took me my full power to kill it.’
’Nonchalant sadist.’
Kyle slowly rose to his feet, warily standing in an uneven manner as his battered body struggled to maintain balance.
He scanned the entire snowy battlefield.
His eyes immediately found three corpses near the ridge where they had been earlier.
All three belonged to polar bears.
And all three had been brutally and inhumanely torn apart.
Kyle’s gaze lingered on the corpses for a moment before he finally turned his attention back to Rita.
She was injured all over.
Cuts and bruises covered her body, her clothing torn from the earlier battle.
But compared to Kyle?
She looked almost perfectly fine.
’Our battle must have caused enough noise to draw other monsters.’
Kyle’s eyes shifted towards the corpse of the Abomination.
The massive body of the monster rested heavily upon the ice pillars, its head now replaced by an enormous, jagged, human-sized rock.
The plan had originally been for Kyle to distract the beast while Rita landed the final attack using a mana-charged rock.
Except...
Kyle had ended up doing it himself.
He stared at the body of the beast.
He sighed.
Then...
Zip!
Pisssss...
Rita blinked a few times.
Her eyes shifted from Kyle.
Then to the corpse.
Then back to Kyle.
Her mouth opened.
Then shut again.
She paused for a moment, as though genuinely struggling to comprehend what she was witnessing.
Finally, she spoke.
"Why are you peeing on the beast’s corpse? Do you perhaps want your dick to freeze in the cold?"
Kyle shrugged, a smile slowly forming on his face.
"This is what we call dishonoring the enemy. Watch and learn."
He said it playfully.
Rita only shook her head and turned away.
"You are a menace."
Kyle chuckled, savoring every second of this moment.
The victory.
The relief.
The sheer satisfaction of surviving another battle that should have killed him.
He had almost died.
But he was still standing.
And that was enough.
Until...
[Ding!]
[Legion 2]
[SSS Rank Soul Devourer System has taken effect...]
[Demonic Veined Abomination has been evolved to its apex form.]
[Demonic Devourer]
A grin slowly emerged on Kyle’s face.
The realization crossed his mind.
He now had a Tainted Beast added to his Legion.
A beast that had nearly killed him.
A monster that had fought against three opponents at once and still managed to overpower two of them.
And now...
It belonged to him.
While other Awakened had to grow in their own strength and develop their Talents to become more powerful...
He was perhaps the only one who simply needed to defeat a beast...
And then make it his own soldier.
Kyle stared at the notification.
His grin widened.
’For me, this Realm is not just a place to grow powerful...’
His gaze swept across the frozen battlefield.
The corpses.
The blood.
The dead Abomination.
His fallen summons.
The endless, unforgiving snow.
This place was supposed to be a nightmare.
A place where the Awakened struggled desperately to survive.
But for Kyle?
It was something else entirely.
Kyle chuckled.
’It’s my domain.’
His eyes gleamed with greed.
’And I’m going to become impossibly overpowered.’