Steps From Blood

[FIRST WAVE IS STARTING WITHIN 3 SECONDS]

[<3>]

[<2>]

[<1>]

[!<0>!]

The moment the countdown hit zero, the creation within the light began again. Stepwise, giving an absence of rush feeling, it leisurely grew as its light spread more and more and shaped a figure within its gleam, bringing something into life.

No matter the uncountable times I've seen this since my arrival, it still contrived to astonish me. It's a shame I wasn't here to magnify this happening. Before making a move, I keened my eyes on the light, surveying it.

I could predict what I was going to fight with, but still, it didn't put me away from curiosity. There was no guarantee whether I would fight again with the same enemies or not. After all, the one thing I know for sure about this place is that I, even now, know so little about it.

As though trying to encircle me, dozens of familiar bulky figures appeared all around me, creating a perfect circle line, leaving a certain distance between us. I stood and watched as my eyes wandered around while trying to figure out whether they were the same creatures I fought in my last attempt or not.

Standing still in the same position, even though the light hadn't completed their creation, I understood what I would fight with as the light justified my guess. Again, it was the orcs.

"*Sigh*" I let out a relieved sigh.

At least my opponents were still the same. Not like I was worrying, but it might have made things more challenging for me if I were to meet with different enemies. And I, of course, don't want that.

Not letting me pull into thoughts, the light finished its job by revealing the familiar scene. With axes held in their rough hands, green skins, stiff muscles, and a body forged for battle— dozens of eyes locked onto me. Clearly, I was the focal point of attention at this party.

Up close, the Torchlight unsteadily quaked from right to left. No, Torchlight wasn't quivering; instead, my hands were shaking. More precisely, my arm, no, my whole body was trembling.

But it didn't take too long before I stopped this feeling. My fists, locked like pandora's box, stopped the trembling. "Pfft!" I let out a brief sarcastic laugh. It was pure adrenaline my heart was pumping at that very moment.

Closing my eyes, "Not fighting for a week, and you already started forgetting this feeling," I mocked myself as a wide grin blossomed on my face. When my eyes opened again, I directed my gaze on them while the Torchlight slowly rose, leaving its sheath behind and taking a position in the grasp of my hand.

The unsheathed Torchlight shimmered when I got into an attack stance, reflecting light from its sharp edges. As every muscle roared to move, fight, and taste this sensation even more, I gathered strength before lunging forward with an inhumane speed. With each step I had taken, the air separated into two as if I was a bullet, forwarding its aim. Seeing a movement from the other side, the orcs started advancing towards me too. But compared to my speed, theirs were looking like a baby's first crawls.

Only two seconds after, I was over one of them.

*Slash!*

My sword vertically swept the meat wall standing ahead of it before liters of blood scattered into the air. A small pond of blood started forming on the white ground. And next to it, a bulky body torn in two laid down silently.

The small blood pond splashed into the air as I began my rush again. Some of the blood fell down in drops and continued to be part of the pond they belonged to, while some of them splashed onto my leggings and got into my sabatons. Each step left an obvious red trace behind me. It would be uneasy for an ordinary person to walk, feeling the blood covering their skin. But to me, it was neither annoying nor a disgusting feel. It was as normal as interacting with water.

After passing a certain point, even the things I found sickening became normal. I was changing, I knew, but what can I do about it? Giving up or stopping completing trials? Expecting my salvation on looking at the white eternity until I lose my mind?

Thanks, but I'm going to pass.

I have a goal that, in the end, will get me out of here. And with my all selfness, I have to carve that goal into every inch of this body of mine. So that, even if I lose my mind at some point, I will still run on completing these damned trials. There is a reason why I am here. At best, there must be one, right? And, if there is a reason, there should be answers too. No matter how I, insane or sane, need to find all of them.

My legs pushed the ground as fast as my thoughts, quickening my acceleration. More confident ever than before with every step I had taken, I clashed with my next opponent.

Risky, lacking in technique, the next orc flailed his ax uncaringly from left to right, up to down. No matter how or how strong he swung his ax. It always met with my sword while being blocked. He couldn't break my stance; his attacks were so transparent and predictable. I'm not even counting that he uses his two hands, and I use one.

"Enough of this child play," I declared while sending his strike into fail again.

I lowered the Torchlight, letting his ax break through my defense. My knees bent slightly as his ax head missed me narrowly by sweeping the air over my head. I pivoted with my half-bent knees as the Torchlight did the same with me.

*Slash!*

The strike slashed his throat and let gallons of blood run down. The orc tried to stop blood from pouring out with his hand helplessly, but it was too late for him. Loosened his grip around his neck before falling onto his knees as I dashed again, passing by him like the wind itself.

In rhythm, whenever my blade rose and fell, a body fell underneath my feet. Sometimes these bodies had just one wound that proved their life ended quickly by a single strike, and sometimes bodies had multiple cuts that dismembered them before death. Even worse, some unlucky ones were even cut in half. Yet they all shared one thing in common, in the end, they all died.

In less than three minutes, I was sitting on a small hill made of corpses after finishing off the last one of them. Being stabbed into a dead body staidly, the Torchlight was standing next to me gloriously as though it was a flag fluttering on a conquered castle.

"Phew!" I wiped out the blood that created a "beauty mask" across most of my face.

[WAVE-1 HAS BEEN COMPLETED]

[REMAINING TIME UNTIL THE NEXT WAVE: 30 Minutes]

Pulling out the Torchlight from the dead body, "Waiting again, huh?" I mumbled, changing my sitting style into the lotus position. It was again a cultivation time for me.

"This will really take some time..." I huffed as my eyes slowly shut, separating my mind from all the other things clouding it.

...

...

...

...

...

Suppose a person had taken a gaze from above onto the white ground beneath him. From among the limitless white sky without any cloud or sun that still successfully manages to illuminate the ground below, from there, that person would see a dead planet where nothing could live on its surface. Or he would think like that.

But on the contrary, in a way that doesn't fit this long-dead scene, that person would see a small area painted in red seeming like a speck of dirt on the infinite white ground and spoiling the white harmony ruling this place. Zooming up, he could even see some ants moving on the red area. Some fly using their wings, and some run on the ground. Regardless of the way, they all head towards a certain direction, the center of the red area. And in the center of this red stain, conversely to the red ones, another ant runs exactly in the opposite direction of the red ants.

*Slash!*

"Fuck off!"

At least these were what I thought if somewhere above, how a god would see this battle while the Torchlight's blade hacked away a chunk piece of flesh from the imp's chest, sending him to the other side. Now to think, was there an after-life for these creatures? Ultimately, they were all created by the light. So there shouldn't be one, right?

"No, stop thinking about useless things!" Hitting my selfness with another thought, I focused on fighting again.

Here I was on the fifth wave again, swinging the Torchlight ruthlessly against the ımps, leaving a real pond of blood lake underneath my already bloodstained armor. I didn't know how much time had passed until now, yet I knew it had taken much shorter.

At first, I didn't notice the difference, but the more foe I faced in waves, the more my new power showed the strength gap between them and me. My strength was on a new level. All they could do in front of me was make helpless already-known moves that I had already learned personally from my previous attempt. And as there wasn't a surprise factor anymore, their fate had already been destined to die.

*Crack!*

After the crack sound reached my ears, I took my foot off the imp's crumbled ribs, unquestionably dead. Wiped out the blood covering my face and lifted my head to look at the remaining numbers. Presumably, they were left around between a hundred or hundred and fifty. They may still look many but lack the strength and power to kill me.

After all this fighting and killing non-stop, expectedly, I was tired. Nonetheless, I was sure I still had the stamina to end them all. Picked up my stuck sword from the imp's body and started gaining acceleration before my legs moved fast enough to be seen by an ordinary person as just a vague object because of their movement speed. Feeling the wind in my hair with each step, the distance gap between the group of imps and me closed quickly.

With a simple formation, four of them started running to prevent me from going further. Their small and fragile bodies lined up before me, probably with hope. However much I appreciated their "adorable" efforts, they were still in my way. Near enough, before they began to flail their claws onto me cluelessly about any technique, my sword slashed them into two at the speed of thunder. , Before their body's upper part fell onto the ground, I grabbed one by the head tightly with my free hand and threw the rest of his body unto a flying imp, preparing to attack me. It was a dirty way of fighting but who cares?

Unstable and unconscious anymore, the imp crashed onto the ground. The collision of the two must have made felt like a ballista had hit him.

He was surely dead, but whether dead or alive, I'm taking no chances. So I left a deep cut on his throat, letting blood flow out and find its way while I kept rushing the others.

I reached the next group and lunged at the nearest one with a heavy horizontal attack. Unable to defend himself against such a powerful attack, the imp died before I advanced the others again. Group after group. I swung, swung, and swung the Torchlight with cold but calm, controlled fury. Only two things reached my ears—the sound of my heartbeat and the sound of slashed air my sword left behind with each swing. I tried to reach the silent end that heralded the end of the waves as fast as possible.

90...

60...

30...

10...

5...

1...

Gradually their numbers decreased one by one. The closer I got to the end, excitement got stronger with it too. No, rather than excitement, this feeling was more like a sense of accomplishment.

This feeling was the symbol of I managed to top myself.

As my red blurry image reflected from the blood of countless imp bodies lying around, I held the last of them from his neck. Prior to, I had already cut the part from his elbows all the way up to his hands along with both wings. His life was left entirely to my mercy at this point.

"It's not as enjoyable as eating me, huh?" I mockingly asked.

"*Growl!*" Still far from giving up, the imp tried to bite me, moving his head frantically. While doing so, he spat into my face.

With a grossed-out expression, I moved him away from my face. But at least I learned one lesson, never bring an imp near your face.

"Yeah, I'm glad our feelings are mutual." Wiped out the saliva from my face.

Tightening my grip around his neck, my voice came out sinisterly. "Nonetheless, this is the end for you, my 'friend'..."

*Crack!*

Upon hearing the crack sound, I let his lifeless body fall and join his fellows.

"Phew! I finally did it." I congratulated myself with a smile on my face.

[WAVE-5 HAS BEEN COMPLETED]

[REMAINING TIME UNTIL THE NEXT WAVE: 30 Minutes]

After the panels approved the completion of the wave, I sat on the ground to pass my time doing cultivation, focusing my mind, and feeling the Qi running through my whole body. After all, there was nothing else to do.

"Wave six, huh? Let's see what you've got for me, system..." My curiosity grew with excitement as my mind fell into quiescence.

-CHAPTER 38 END-