At this point, it was impossible to tell whether Roya had reached Hina first or whether the Giant Azure Wolf had launched its attack first.
What could be determined, however, was that Roya was faster!
The crimson Engetsu carved a blood-red arc through the air, resembling the last rays of a setting sun.
Beautiful as it was, it also concealed a terrifying killing intent.
ROAR!!
The Giant Azure Wolf was, after all, a Level Two ferocious beast.
At this critical moment, it still managed to react.
It sensed that before it could bite Hina, Roya’s sword would strike it.
An ordinary wolf would have had no chance of avoiding such a blow.
But this was a Level Two ferocious beast, after all, and it was naturally far different from an ordinary wolf.
It barely managed to evade Roya’s slash.
However, even though it avoided the main attack, the edge of Roya’s blade still grazed an inch of its flesh, instantly sending blood spraying through the air.
Drops of scarlet blood fell to the ground, staining the earth with several vivid blood-red blossoms.
The sight was chilling.
Roya looked at the Giant Azure Wolf as though it were nothing more than prey.
His movements did not stop for even an instant.
The next moment, he swung Engetsu horizontally toward the Giant Azure Wolf once again.
ROAR!!!
The wounded Giant Azure Wolf became even more ferocious.
Seeing Roya’s sword sweeping toward it, it opened its jaws and viciously bit down on the blade, clamping its teeth around the middle of Engetsu’s edge in an attempt to forcibly wrench the sword away from Roya.
Yet when Roya saw this, he suddenly smiled.
There was a trace of helplessness in his smile, mixed with what almost seemed like pity.
He even shook his head slightly as he looked at the Giant Azure Wolf.
“You could’ve bitten anything else.
Why…
did you have to bite my sword?”
Whoosh!
Almost in the very next instant, before the Giant Azure Wolf could even begin wrestling with Roya for control of the weapon, flames suddenly burst from the section of the blade trapped between its jaws.
The flames shot directly into its mouth and down into its body.
The Giant Azure Wolf immediately convulsed as though it had been electrocuted.
It released Roya’s sword at once.
It couldn’t even produce a howl of agony.
Its entire body swayed twice before it suddenly collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud.
A tiny, faint flame even slipped from its mouth like a belch.
Then its eyes rolled back.
Hina had been standing frozen nearby ever since Roya attacked.
When she saw the Giant Azure Wolf collapse and stop moving, an expression of disbelief gradually appeared on her face.
“D-Dead?!”
From the moment Roya attacked until the Giant Azure Wolf fell, almost no time had passed.
From beginning to end, Roya had made only two sword strikes!
Hina hadn’t even understood how the Giant Azure Wolf had died.
Although she was confident that she could kill this Giant Azure Wolf in a one-on-one fight, there was absolutely no way she could have slain it as quickly as Roya had.
It was practically an instant kill!
“You…
You…”
Hina stared at Roya in disbelief.
Was this really the same Roya she remembered?
The Roya who couldn’t beat anyone, whose physical ability was the weakest, and who could barely complete the weighted running exercises?
It was as though he had become an entirely different person!
“I wonder…
does that count as a solo kill, or does it count as a joint kill?”
Roya chuckled.
The corners of his mouth lifted into a faint, almost sinister curve, while a burning flame of passion seemed to flicker within his eyes.
Hina remained completely stunned.
Her crystal-clear eyes were filled with deep disbelief.
Even now, she still found it difficult to accept the fact that Roya had just instantly killed a Level Two ferocious beast—the Giant Azure Wolf.
And then—
Countless terrifying presences suddenly surged from every direction.
This finally snapped Hina out of her shock.
Within the forest surrounding the two of them, countless dark silhouettes emerged.
One pair after another of blood-red eyes appeared in the darkness, radiating terrifying auras.
Hina instantly felt as though she had fallen into an icy abyss.
“This is bad!!”
Roya’s killing of the Giant Azure Wolf had caused blood to spray everywhere, and the bloody scent had already spread through the surrounding area.
If the smell of roasted meat had been the bait that attracted these ferocious beasts, then the scent of blood was the catalyst that drove them into a frenzy!
Although these beasts were unlikely to cooperate with one another and would eventually turn on each other, there was no doubt that this entire area was about to become a river of blood.
Roya was extremely powerful.
By now, Hina even believed what he had previously said about killing the Brownback Giant Ape.
But faced with this many ferocious beasts, even Roya might have been in serious danger.
Hina’s heart sank.
She was desperately thinking about how she could join forces with Roya and fight their way out when all the ferocious beasts finally went completely berserk.
ROAR!!!
At least dozens of ferocious creatures unleashed furious roars at that very moment.
The sound reverberated throughout the forest, leaving everyone who heard it shaken.
Even some of the recruits farther away heard the unified roar.
They all looked toward the source in horror.
Although the ferocious beasts on the island were targets they were supposed to hunt, the sound clearly indicated that at least dozens of them had gathered together.
None of the recruits dared approach.
With so many ferocious beasts gathered in one place, anyone who went over would probably cease to be the hunter.
They would become the hunted.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!!
Almost in the blink of an eye, the entire forest erupted into chaos.
Some ferocious beasts began attacking one another.
Others pounced toward the roasted corpse of the Brownback Giant Ape.
And more than a dozen ferocious beasts actually regarded Roya and Hina as prey and lunged toward them.
Of these dozen or so beasts, a rough glance showed that at least half were Level Three or higher.
It was even impossible to determine whether any Level Two or Level One ferocious beasts were among them.
The beasts had sealed off every direction, and Hina’s expression instantly changed.
“This is the end of us!”
That thought flashed through Hina’s mind.
But almost the instant that thought appeared—
Roya, standing to one side with his sword in hand, showed no trace of panic.
Instead, the corners of his mouth lifted into a slightly sinister smile.
Roya gripped his sword with his right hand and held it to his left side.
Then he suddenly swung it from left to right.
The swordsmanship itself appeared simple, without any particularly sophisticated technique.
But the instant the blade swept through the air, a strand of blazing flame suddenly ignited and followed the sword’s trajectory.
“Flame Sword: Torch!”
Vooooom!!
Engetsu in Roya’s hand seemed to transform into a crimson blade wrapped in flames.
As he swept it from left to right, the flaming arc formed a perfect semicircle before connecting at both ends.
In an instant, it became a ring of fire that completely enclosed Roya and Hina within its center.
At first, the flames were relatively weak.
But the moment the two ends connected and formed a complete circle, they suddenly erupted into blazing fire.
The flames expanded outward with explosive force, spreading several meters in every direction.
The ferocious beasts charging toward them had no time to stop.
Almost all of them slammed directly into the several-meter-long wall of flames.
Their agonized howls immediately shook the forest.
The pain in their cries was unmistakable.
Most of the beasts instinctively stopped the instant they touched the flames.
After catching fire, they began rolling desperately across the ground in agony.
But the ferocious beasts that forcibly charged through the ring of flames were met by Roya’s merciless Great Grade Blade, Engetsu.
There were no Level One ferocious beasts among the dozen or so attackers.
Those that managed to force their way through the flames were cut down by Roya almost instantly.
Fwoosh!
Once the flames extending several meters had formed a complete ring, they created a blazing field covering more than ten meters of surrounding space.
The flames continued to surge and dance.
Many of the ferocious beasts fighting one another around the perimeter stopped their battles.
They stared over with their enormous, bell-like eyes, seemingly confused and at a loss.
More than anything else, however, there was fear.
Fear of the flames.