Chapter 109: Ascendant List

Boom!

The impact shook the valley like a small mountain had just slammed into the ground.

Dust surged outward.

A figure flew through it, carving a trench half a meter deep before crashing through a boulder and finally coming to a stop.

"Captain!"

Cerys went pale. Even the sword in her hand trembled.

The one lying in the rubble was Jace, their squad leader and one of the top three students on the school rankings.

His A Class armor had caved inward across the chest. He tried to push himself up, barely made it halfway, then dropped heavily back to the ground.

"Do not... worry about me..."

His voice was hoarse, his eyes struggling to focus.

"Run..."

For the first time, the squad understood what real helplessness felt like.

They were the pride of Highcrest College.

The sharpest group among their generation.

In previous field exercises, they had even brought down peak Rank Four Voidbeasts through teamwork and superior equipment.

Today, all of that had been stripped bare.

Against an overwhelming gap in strength, tactics, coordination, expensive gear, none of it meant much.

Roar!

The dust ahead began to settle.

The Mount Shifting Demon Ape stepped into view.

Blood red stone armor covered its huge body, faint crimson light moving across the surface. Jace had poured everything into his last strike, yet all he had managed was a shallow cut.

The ape, meanwhile, had nearly turned him into meat with a casual slap.

"Run?"

Mercer gave a grim laugh. Half his body had gone numb from the shock.

"Run where?"

The valley seemed to go still.

Scarlet eyes moved slowly across the humans before the beast, amused by the tiny creatures trapped in front of it.

It was in no hurry.

High rank intelligent beasts often enjoyed this part.

The struggle before death.

The fear.

The Mount Shifting Demon Ape slowly raised one foot.

Holt was directly beneath it.

The shield user remained on one knee, both palms split open and bleeding. His once imposing shield had been twisted almost beyond recognition.

The shadow above him grew larger.

Corren’s face tightened.

"Then I will fucking take you with me!"

He roared and tried to force himself upright, burning his vital blood rather than retreating.

"No!"

Cerys screamed, her eyes instantly reddening.

Too late.

It was over.

Several of them shut their eyes.

None wanted to see what Holt would look like after that foot came down.

...

Ten thousand meters above the valley, wind screamed past Joren.

[Garuda Skyfall Wings] carried him toward Norcrest.

Then [Worldheart Awareness] picked up something below.

"Hm?"

A Mount Shifting Demon Ape.

Several human Awakened Warriors.

Joren glanced down.

Since he had already run into it, there was no chance he was letting that beast go.

Not because he had suddenly developed some heroic urge to save strangers.

The important part was simpler.

That was a living Rank Five beast king.

Even scraps were still meat. By the system’s usual rewards, that thing had to be worth several thousand Bloodstars.

More importantly...

Joren looked at his right hand.

The orange Talent he had just obtained, [Peerless Blade Saint], was still waiting for a proper test.

Buzz.

A faint tremor passed through heaven and earth.

It was barely audible.

Yet somehow, it swallowed every other sound in the valley.

Holt, eyes still shut and waiting for death, suddenly felt something hot splash across his face.

Scalding liquid poured over him.

The enormous foot above his head lost all strength and slid sideways.

Boom!

It crashed into the ground half a meter from him, throwing up another wall of dust.

Cerys and Mercer did not even see what happened.

The Demon Ape did.

Its vision split apart.

The world became two halves, slowly falling away from each other.

Boom!

Boom!

Two enormous impacts followed.

The fifteen meter beast king separated cleanly down the center, both halves collapsing to opposite sides.

As the dust drifted away, someone stood where the Demon Ape had been.

A young man in a black coat.

A heavy black blade in his hand.

He stood in the middle of the spreading blood without a stain on him.

Not even a single drop.

The blade pointed loosely toward the ground.

Dark purple beast blood slid from its tip.

What had split the Demon Ape was Joren’s Blade Intent.

[Ding! Early stage Rank Five beast king, Mount Shifting Demon Ape killed. Bloodstars obtained: 5000.]

The system notification sounded in Joren’s mind.

He let the moment pass.

Clang.

[Heaven’s Sin] returned to its sheath.

That clear metallic sound finally snapped the others out of their daze.

Holt wiped blood from his face and stared at Joren’s back.

He had seen strong people before.

Highcrest College had no shortage of them.

He had even watched Rank Six instructors fight.

None had ever pressed on his senses like this.

Farther away, Jace dragged himself from the rubble with one hand clutched over his chest.

Then he noticed his sword.

The S Class weapon was trembling.

Jace was a swordsman.

He understood weapons better than most.

This was not damage.

It was submission.

Like a blade lowering itself before a sovereign.

Just a trace of Intent leaking from that young man had made his weapon lose the will to oppose him.

And the person standing there looked several years younger than Jace.

What kind of monster was this?

"Thank... thank you for saving us."

Jace forced himself forward through the pain and bowed deeply.

Joren turned.

His gaze passed over the battered students.

Highcrest College.

There had been a time when even hearing that name filled him with envy.

Something distant.

Something far above him.

Now the talents he had once imagined standing out of reach were right in front of him, covered in dust and blood.

The contrast left him with little more than a faint sense of how much had changed.

Especially Holt.

The man was still half kneeling where he had expected to die, drenched in hot beast blood.

He had nearly burned through his vital blood for one desperate attack.

At best, he had managed to scrape the beast’s hide.

Joren had cut it in half with one strike.

"Ascendant List..."

The words slipped from Jace before he realized it.

The Aurelian Dominion Ascendant List.

It ranked the strongest talents under thirty across the entire nation, and merely appearing on it meant standing among the most dangerous young monsters of a generation.

Every name there belonged to someone capable of fighting above their rank.

Jace was on the list himself.

Rank twenty one.

That alone had been enough to place him above nearly everyone his age and make him one of the most prominent students at Highcrest College.

"What rank?"

Cerys asked without thinking.

"Top five."

Jace’s voice remained rough.

Then he looked at Joren again.

"No."

"Top three."

This time there was no hesitation.

"Only those monsters in the top three could kill a beast king of the same rank that easily."