“H-How?”

  The soldiers called out as the black blood continued to drip from the bird's wing. It was heavy; a strong pungent smell of iron and something else had filled the air. The bird itself was far from falling down, as even while injured and slow, it didn’t stop circling above them, eyeing its prey with a deadly glint in its eye.

  In the next instance a howl was followed by a storm of sand covering the area in intense waves.

  “Retreat!”

  Captain Maira signaled taking cover further back in the trenches down below. The soldiers, not waiting themselves, shifted hysterically.

  “Damn this place.” Summer muttered, her eyes still finding the roaming bird above them.

  “I really want to bring it down.”

  Chris nodded, his bronze skin covered from head to toe by a cloak he had draped on his shoulders. His fist clenched tightly and shook with excitement as he noticed many soldiers do the same.

  “KWAAA!”

  The sand bird screeched as Summer and the other soldiers looked up. A dark figure barely visible to the naked eye, his presence almost illusory, was standing in the sky, a white faceless mask adorned on his face making his features obscure.

  The yellow sand converged together, forming something close to a boulder mid-air and shot it forward toward the masked figure. It came down like rocks falling from the peak of a mountain, albeit it was neither a mountain nor rocks; it was simply an attack forged by the sand bird with the intent to bring down its adversaries.

  Summer raised her hand to destroy the boulder but the masked figure—Asher—raised his hand specifically toward her, as if telling her to stop. She blinked twice, initially confused but then she—no, everyone saw it—the boulder paused in the sky, not moving an inch from its place.

  Asher looked at it and then took another step forward in the air, as if walking on land. With a slight jump, he reached the boulder, standing above it before pushing below with his legs and jumping straight toward the sand bird with a burst of speed.

  The sand bird pushed its wing with all its might and tried to fly away. Asher didn’t let it happen; with his strong command over [kairosflow], he has managed to perform several tasks at the same time, speeding himself being one, accelerating his thoughts and perception second and finally slowing the damned beast at last.

  The crystal sword, gleaming in an eerie hue of black, almost dimming the light surrounding it, was raised high by Asher just as he reached inches away from the sand bird. At the same time, the boulder dangling in mid-air, frozen in spot, moved, falling down after gravity did its work. Asher ignored it, trusting his team to deal with it, and they did as a loud booming sound entered his ears as the boulder turned into dust.

  The debris fell below, almost hitting the soldiers as they evacuated from the dreadful attacks.

  Asher lunged, sweeping his sword in a wide arc toward the bird’s wings. The sand bird struck back, its beak darting for his chest—only to freeze mid-lunge, time itself halting. The crystal blade’s enchantment flared, swirling with power as it pulled at his very essence, sharpening its edge, and becoming deadly. With a roar, he drove the strike through, cleaving the wing apart with all his strength.

  Time started again, especially for the sand bird, who had been unaware of everything that happened just now; a sharp pain, a deadly curse, flared inside it as it fell on the ground after losing its wings, its feathers fluttering, flying away like ashes surrounding it.

  Thump!

  Captain Maira and the soldiers stared at it with a surprised look, left agape after witnessing it fall for the first time. The sand bird trembled; surrounding it were humans, the enemies it needed to kill to eat its prey and regain its regal strength back.

  All of that was a pipe dream of a beast.

  However, death was closer.

  The masked figure—Asher—came down from the sky, as if climbing down stairs with calm steps and stepped over the bird's dying figure. He raised his hand, removing the faceless mask, and putting it away with a swift move. His expression remained calm, almost aloof, as he grinned before plunging his blade inside the damned beast's chest, ending its misery.

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  “Hmm, so this was a mid-rank beast? Pretty weak, I must say.” Asher whispered, swinging his dark blade to remove the black blood dripping down its edge.

  “Seriously.” Maira came closer, eyeing the dead beast with a bored look.

  “Good work, Captain Asher.”

  She praised him honestly, patting his shoulders. Asher smiled back and shrugged before moving toward his team, letting the rest of the soldiers take over as cheers resounded in the background.

  He moved through the cliff, looking down as Enzo and the others came above.

  “Is that thing dead?” Chris asked curiously.

  Asher nodded.

  “Yeah, I made sure of it.”

  They nodded in unison, satisfied with this discovery.

  “Well, have you guys ever fought flying creatures before? It was certainly a first for me.” He asked, storing his blade in the bracelet.

  This flying creature was certainly not the first thing Asher had killed; he had killed one more before, months ago at that. But it was so weak and so small that he didn’t wish to count it.

  Enzo looked up and said in a small voice.

  “We had fought some newborns before; they were on the weaker side, as most outside the dead zones are. It's certainly a new experience even for us.”

  “I see.”

  Asher muttered and looked around with an expressionless face, the cold smile and the grin he had on his face before while fighting nowhere to be seen. It was a strange sight to witness, the trio thought simultaneously.

  Even Summer, who had always maintained a sense of distance from Asher, felt a certain strangeness in him. It couldn’t be described by words but if she were to say it, she would call it a persona—someone who acted like they were close yet maintained a certain distance.

  Sometimes he would talk with a smile; at other times he would taunt others, challenging them like how he had tried to mimic her.

  Summer gritted her teeth, remembering that.

  ‘Yeah, why should I care?’ She thought, moving forward with heavy steps.

  The group of soldiers again started their journey travelling through the hills.

  It was relatively peaceful. The calmness of the scene was eerie. As the sand bird's lifeless body lay still, the only sounds echoing were the distant howls of the wind and the footsteps of the group as they continued their journey.

  Asher gave the bird one last look, its body already butchered by soldiers taking whatever part they could identify as important. Asher soon lost interest and walked away, faster than before.

  ***

  It's truly strange.

  Be it the monsters, the grey sky, or the terrain.

  Walking here almost feels like walking at the edge of the world with nowhere else to go. Momentarily I found myself attracted to the thought of what truly lies behind these chains of mountains; after all, no human has ever reached it.

  ‘Ah, but that's certainly a bad idea.’

  If people can’t even fight creatures of beyond present near the safe zones, what hope do they even have outside it? I was sure that outside here lie creatures of avenger rank who can destroy cities as easily as breathing if not stopped by transcendents.

  Even I, who fought that beast, could only do it so easily because of the help my artifacts provided; otherwise, I would have struggled quite a lot myself. Especially the crystal sword—it's the biggest part of my strength right now. Well, it is made of materials of an avenger-rank monster and the ability of an unknown being.

  According to Franz, it is almost a rank B and tier 1 artifact.

  I really won a lottery by getting it for free.

  I smiled thinking as such, but that's not all; I still got another artifact from the temple as well. It was one of my trump cards and the most powerful artifact I currently possessed.

  “We are camping out here.” Maira said, stopping not far from me. The time had passed bizarrely fast today even for me; several monsters had come our way, injuring many. The soldiers needed to rest but so did he.

  I nodded, looking around to find a suitable place to set up camp. The area was mostly flat with a few rocks scattered around, which would serve as a natural barricade from the wind and creatures running wild. We had to keep moving, but we also had to be careful not to push ourselves too hard.

  The dead zone was unforgiving, and even the strongest could fall if they weren't prepared.

  I glanced at Enzo and the others already taking their tents out and placing them on the ground, ready to work. The other soldiers were not very far behind as well, as if competing on who could do it faster.

  I waited a few moments, observing how they all did it. And then I started to do my own. I had seen it last time on the mission; however, I was helped by Chris to set it up. Right now I needed to do it myself, which certainly was not that hard; after setting some poles and placing the tent's material over it, the work was done.

  I was the slowest one but it didn't matter.

  I went inside, ignoring the chatter happening outside and sat in the corner, leaning against the wall. I had made the tent and closed my eyes.

  A little rest was all I needed.

  After some time passed, I stopped dozing off and started to meditate like usual.

  Soon my mind ended in a trance-like state. [Kirosflow] ran through me, making my mind accelerate. Slowly I increased my thoughts and then started to diverge them as if opening a ball of yarn.

  I had tried it several times by now, practicing slowly and steadily, as it accumulated a lot of mental pressure.

  The threads were present, showing separate lines of thought, but I couldn’t pull them out yet. I knew they existed and my body was capable of thinking many thoughts at once, yet I was far from succeeding. Before getting my soul healed, there was a wall stopping me as if something was missing.

  However, that was not the case now.

  I knew the missing portion had been filled; I just needed to open my mind.

  Time passed quickly, sweat accumulated on my forehead as my breathing grew heavy, my vision started to waver, and the ball of yarn opened, just a tiny string. I strained my mind further trying to tug on it.

  Throb!

  Throb!

  “Ugh.”

  I groaned, leaning back, and grabbed my head with both hands. It was throbbing as nerves had started to appear. A metallic taste touched my lips; I rubbed my mouth only to see crimson blood on my fingers.

  Sigh

  I failed again.