Asher stood in composed silence, his heartbeat measured, each breath drawn with a focused calmness. In a blink, Virelass materialized in his palm, its blade resonating with a quiet hum, an eager whisper, as though thirsting to taste real blood and cleave through living flesh for the first time.
His gaze remained steady as he listened, leaves trembled in warning, rustling with increasing urgency. Whatever was approaching was fast, and it was drawing near.
The instant they emerged from the forest’s shroud and stepped onto the open path, Asher saw them.
’Wolves? How predictable. It’s always wolves or goblins, first to appear, first to die.’ The thought edged with irony
The first wolf lunged, its jaws wide open, fangs gleaming as it aimed to tear through Asher’s neck in a single, savage bite. But Asher moved, effortlessly, precisely, his body shifting sideways at the final instant, matching the creature’s speed with unnerving ease.
The beast’s maw snapped shut with a sharp crack, biting into nothing but air where Asher’s throat had just been.
Then, before it could even recover, a silver flash arced across its vision.
The wolf froze mid-step.
A breath later, its head slid cleanly from its shoulders, severed with such elegance it barely registered the strike before falling to the earth.
But Asher was already gone.
In the blink of an eye, he was on the move again. The wolves came in waves, surging from the front, flanking from the sides, closing in from behind. A coordinated hunt.
Yet Asher didn’t flinch. He didn’t panic. His body responded on instinct.
He bent slightly at the knees, muscles coiling tight, then released like a spring unbound, launching into the air with explosive grace.
Mid-flight, his body twisted. Virelass sang once more, its hum rising with anticipation.
Then, guided by gravity and precision, Asher descended. With a single forward thrust, the gleaming rapier pierced clean through the skull of another wolf, silencing its snarl before it ever reached him.
The moment Asher’s feet touched the ground, claws filled his vision, from the left, the right, all at once.
But Virelass moved faster.
With a single, fluid motion, he parried, his rapier slicing through a wolf’s extended forelimbs, severing them cleanly. The beast shrieked in agony, but the cry was short-lived.
Before it could even collapse, Asher was already in motion, his blade cleaving through its torso, splitting the creature in two. A crimson spray followed, dyeing Virelass red as he pressed forward.
The space around him erupted with motion.
Slash. Thrust. Weave. Sidestep. Footwork.
Each step was precise, every movement deliberate.
Even with his stats suppressed, Asher moved like a predator among prey, a silver wolf amidst a flock of startled hens.
Corpses fell in his wake. Crimson blood soaked the earth, staining brown soil and green grass alike. But Asher didn’t slow. He didn’t falter.
He was still moving. He kept moving.
A wolf lunged from behind, aiming for a blind spot, but Asher had already seen it. Omni Perception had marked its presence long before it struck.
Without hesitation, Asher dipped to the side, his center of gravity shifting seamlessly with the motion. In a single, fluid twist, he pivoted to face the beast’s flank.
His arm moved, Virelass moved as one with him.
From below, a brutal upward slash arced forward. With a wet, sickening rip, the rapier’s edge tore through the wolf’s abdomen, flesh and muscle parting like silk beneath Virelass’ teeth.
Asher rose slowly, his posture composed, his breathing unbroken.
His white shirt, once pristine, was now drenched in red. Blood stained his arms, splattered across his frame, but his eyes remained calm.
The remaining wolves had already halted their assault, their snarls fading into whimpers.
Instinct screamed at them, they had chosen the wrong prey.
Now, they stood frozen, tails tucked low, eyes wide with primal fear. Their pack formation unraveled, hesitation spreading like wildfire.
Asher’s purple gaze swept over them, cold and unblinking.
He saw it clearly, the fight had left them. Their will to battle was gone, crushed beneath the weight of a single human’s presence.
There was no need to suppress himself any longer. Nothing left to gain from holding back.
So... why not test something else?
The wolves barely had time to twitch before Asher vanished.
His form blurred into a streak of purple, lightning laced his body, crackling with raw intensity.
A sharp, thunder snap echoed through the forest, searing the air, crackling in everyone’s ears
Asher had moved, no, he had erased the space between them, crossing the distance in an instant, as though it had never existed at all.
Before the wolves could even blink, their existence had already ended.
A single thrust. A single slash.
That was all it took. But Asher didn’t stop.
He moved through the pack like a living storm, a blur of steel and purple lightning. Virelass danced with him, clean, efficient, merciless.
Blood burst into the air like ink spilled on canvas. Innards scattered. Heads rolled. Limbs fell with dull, wet thuds as he carved through them.
In less than three seconds, it was over.
Asher stood exactly where he had been before, as if he had never moved at all. The purple lightning crackling across his body slowly receded, quieting into a hum before vanishing completely.
There was nothing more to gain from these creatures, not power, not knowledge, not growth. He had simply used them to test his lightning in real battle.
Whisper-ranked monsters were the lowest of the low for a reason. They had no true abilities, no elemental control, no innate powers. Just claws, fangs, and basic senses like heightened smell and hearing, which they’d already possessed even before Astra’s touch had evolved them.
They were little more than upgraded beasts, predators to most, prey to Asher.
As Asher stood in silent thought, something breached the edge of his Omni Perception, a presence deliberate, heavier than the others.
He didn’t need to guess. He already knew. The Echo ranked pack leader had arrived. He hadn’t forgotten about it, he was merely waiting.
Unlike Whisper-ranked creatures, some Echo ranked monsters had awakened abilities. Others remained mundane, relying on brute strength and instinct. But this one... Asher had already suspected it possessed something more. It was a pack leader, after all.
Without hesitation, Asher spun around, Virelass flashing forward like silver lightning to intercept the incoming strike.
Then he saw it — wind.
It coiled around the wolf’s extended claws, sharpening them into whirling blades of compressed air.
The collision came with a soft yet forceful boom, like thunder behind silk. The impact echoed out, spiderweb cracks rippling across the ground beneath their feet.
Asher’s eyes narrowed.
The wind-infused claws slammed into his body, not deep, but sharp enough to tear through flesh. Blood welled from the tears, and mild pain flared in his nerves.
Still, he didn’t yield.
Instead, he increased the strength behind his guard, forcing the beast back, just a few steps, but it was enough to shift the momentum.
"It seems I was careless," Asher murmured, his voice quiet but edged with clarity as his gaze fell to the shallow cuts carved across his chest and shoulders, thin lines drawn by wind based attack.
This... was the difference.
The difference between one who had lived through battles and one who hadn’t.
Experience.
A seasoned fighter wouldn’t have fallen for such a thing. Would have read the wind before it ever struck. But Asher didn’t mind.
This was why he was here, to earn that experience with blood, steel, and pain.
From the edge of the field, Lyra’s eyes narrowed. The moment she saw the wounds, her posture shifted. She prepared to move, hand instinctively brushing the hilt of her weapon. There were no healers among the guards. If the Tenth Sun sustained another hit, especially one deeper, he could bleed out before the battle even ended. She couldn’t allow that.
But before Lyra’s thoughts could fully form, she saw it.
The blood on the ground, spilled from slain beasts, began to stir. It rose in thin, twisting strands, as if possessed by will, slithering through the air toward Virelass.
The rapier pulsed faintly, its silver teeth edge absorbing the crimson threads like a starving relic. The blade shimmered, and in that moment, the wounds across Asher’s chest and shoulders snapped shut with unnatural speed, torn flesh knitting together in seconds as if time itself bent around him.
A small smile touched Asher’s lips as he watched the final traces of blood vanish from his skin.
But the wolf wasn’t watching. It moved, fast and feral, lunging to capitalize on what it perceived as a moment of distraction.
A fatal mistake. Asher didn’t need to look.
Omni Perception had already mapped the wolf’s every twitch, every violent intention. Even without turning his head, he saw it, clear as day.
The moment it sprang, he was ready. Asher’s form blurred, a sudden, violent streak of motion.
The claws came again, slashing through the air with lethal force, but this time, he didn’t block. He dipped low, fluid and effortless, the attack sweeping harmlessly overhead.
Then Virelass screamed through the air as it moved.
With a single, devastating thrust, the rapier tore through the beast’s hind limb. The wolf howled in agony, but Asher didn’t slow.
In the same breath, he moved, cutting low, and in one clean motion, severing the second hind limb.
The wolf crashed to the ground, its rear legs now nothing but ruined flesh and bone. But Asher was already gone again, only to reappear in front of the creature like a ghost stepping through time.
Virelass was already mid-descent.
With surgical precision and terrifying ease, the rapier cleaved through both of the wolf’s front limbs, no resistance, no struggle, just flesh parting beneath divine steel, like a blade through butter.
Four limbs gone.
The wolf’s howl rose in pitch, a piercing, agonized cry, as it lay limbless in the dirt. Its body trembled, blood pooling beneath it in thick, steaming rivers. And then, it looked up.
Fear now filled its eyes.
Not rage. Not pride. Just the cold, primal fear of a predator realizing it was nothing more than prey.
But Asher didn’t flinch. He moved, twice.
Two quick thrusts, like flashes of silver lightning, and Virelass pierced both of the beast’s eyes. Blood and darkness swallowed its vision, leaving it blind in its final moments.
Virelass slipped from Asher’s grip, not falling, but floating. It hovered above the wolf’s ruined form, humming low and sharp with a metallic resonance.
In a flash of silver, it arced downward in a full, graceful swing. A clean decapitation. The wolf’s head dropped from its neck with a soft thud, rolling gently before going still.
For a moment, Virelass lingered there, suspended in the air, as though gazing down upon the creature that dared harm its master. It hovered in silence, judgmental, almost sentient, before drifting back to Asher’s side.
It hummed contentedly now, like a weapon that had fulfilled its vengeance.
Asher smiled faintly at the display. He said nothing, simply letting Virelass float beside him, its blade still faintly warm with blood and retribution.
Asher cast one final glance at the corpse, then turned away, expression unreadable, mind already shifting beyond the battle.
Unlike humans, monsters didn’t have to train to use their abilities. They were born with them, raw, instinctive, natural. From the very first breath, they wielded their abilities as easily as they breathed.
The wolf had been able to coat its claws in wind without effort.
But Asher... he couldn’t yet coat Virelass in lightning.
Not yet. He was almost there.
But he could channel it through himself, let lightning wrap around his body like a second skin, crackling along his frame, heightening his speed, sharpening his reflexes.