Blood soaked the ground.

Ash rampaged overhead, flames raining down, Soul Flame orbs detonating in clusters of beasts. Wolves howled. Lycans roared. Shadows burned. The battlefield turned into absolute chaos.

And Bruce was at the center of it.

Then Vaelith's voice echoed calmly in his mind.

[The Lycans' aura is… strange. Particularly dense. They appear to be SS-ranked beasts.]

Bruce's brows furrowed slightly, but his momentum didn't slow in the slightest. He spun, slit another throat, stepped off a collapsing corpse, and drove Red through the skull of a lunging wolf.

Really? he thought flatly.

From his perspective, they felt weak.

Cutting through them felt no different than slaughtering ordinary Moon Wolves. Stronger, yes, but nowhere near what he expected from SS-ranked beasts.

As another Lycan fell at his feet, Vaelith spoke again.

At that moment, Vaelith's voice echoed again in Bruce's mind, calm and precise.

[Do not underestimate Red, Bruce.]

Bruce sliced past another Lycan, the dagger gliding through reinforced muscle and bone as though they weren't there.

[Its edge is no longer what it was when you first forged it.] Vaelith continued. [With every battlefield it has tasted, with every drop of blood it has absorbed, its structure has refined itself.]

Bruce's eyes narrowed slightly as Red pulsed in his grip, the blade humming faintly with predatory satisfaction.

[Right now, its sharpness, its mana conduction, its lethality,] Vaelith paused briefly, as if measuring the statement. [are multiple times greater than when you first created it.]

Another SS-ranked Lycan lunged.

Red passed through its neck in a clean, effortless line.

The body fell before Bruce had already moved on.

Bruce didn't slow.

But understanding settled quietly in his mind.

The dagger wasn't just cutting anymore.

It was hungry.

And the battlefield was feeding it.

Beasts were dropping left and right.

Bruce moved like a blade given form, fast, ruthless, efficient. Red flashed again and again, carving through fur, muscle, bone. Each step he took left corpses behind, each swing spilling blood across the mountainside. It was only a matter of time before the ground resembled the crimson fields he had created back in the VR trials, when he slaughtered entire packs of S-Ranked beasts without pause or mercy.

But then…

A howl rolled down from the mountain peak.

Deep. Commanding. Ancient.

AWUUUU

It was from the Alpha Lycan.

This time, it was different.

Bruce felt it instantly.

The Alpha had decided to stop observing.

The moonlight bathing the mountain shifted slowly and ominously until the pale crimson glow deepened into something darker. The full moon above turned blood-red, its light thick and oppressive, washing over the entire mountain range like a ritual veil.

The scene turned surreal.

Mythical.

Ethereal.

The blood moon symbols etched onto the foreheads of the wolves ignited, glowing a vivid scarlet. At the same time, their eyes burned brighter, red light spilling from their sockets as if something inside them had awakened. A faint mist rose from their bodies, thin at first, then thicker, coalescing into a blood-colored aura that clung to the battlefield.

Bruce felt it.

A sudden heaviness settled into his limbs.

<Ding!>

[Your Strength has been reduced by 30%.]

[Your Healing has been reduced by 30%.]

Bruce's brows knit together.

"What is this…?" he muttered.

But before he could fully process it…

<Ding!>

[Your Strength has been reduced by 40%.]

[Your Healing has been reduced by 40%.]

Bruce's eyes narrowed.

'What the fuck…? The debuff is increasing with time? Isn't this a little too broken?'

Yet his heart remained calm.

Vaelith's voice sounded in his mind, steady and unshaken.

[It cannot be helped. You are currently affected by the Authority of multiple SS-Ranked beasts. Although you are Half SS and exist on a comparable tier of existence level, you lack a personal Authority for offense or defense. You are a single existence. Their collective Authority naturally overwhelms you unless countered with a skill.]

Despite the explanation, Vaelith's confidence in Bruce never wavered.

Bruce exhaled slowly.

"Interesting…" he murmured, a strange glint forming in his eyes. "So this is what I should be wary of, huh?"

A malefic smile spread across his face.

He wasn't surprised.

In truth, he had expected something like this.

'If this is all they have to show… Then they're already finished.'

The wolves bared their teeth, growling ferociously, saliva dripping as they closed in. Gray fur bristled beneath the red moonlight, werewolves towering among them, eyes glowing, blood-mist swirling. The scene was horrifying. Any normal person would have lost control of their bladder by now.

Surrounded by Lycans and wolves beneath a blood moon, marked by glowing symbols, drowned in a suffocating Authority,

It was the stuff of nightmares.

They rushed him.

Not cautiously.

Not tactically.

Like rabid beasts sensing prey.

Bruce swung Red. The two daggers slicing through the air in a streak of red lightning arcs.

The blades howled through the air, releasing a sweeping arc that erased the first wave instantly. Bodies were torn apart, limbs flying, heads rolling. But the second wave didn't slow.

They didn't care.

They threw themselves at him, ignoring injuries, ignoring pain, lunging even as their bodies were torn open. Bruce cut again, precise, brutal, but this time, the resistance was undeniable.

He could still handle them.

Even with forty percent of his strength sealed.

But it was getting harder.

The next wave came.

Bruce's slash crippled them, legs severed, bodies split, but his eyes twitched.

Because they didn't stay down.

"In… sane," he muttered under his breath.

A wolf he had just dismembered convulsed, and its severed leg regenerated, flesh knitting together as if the injury had never existed.

So they heal like mad too.

That was the moment Bruce stopped holding back.

"Heal."

<Ding!>

[You have gained immunity to Blood Moon debuff effects under Blood Moon Authority.]

A wide grin spread across Bruce's face.

"Since you heal so fast," he said calmly, eyes glinting, "I guess there's no reason for me to hold back."

He slashed again.

This time, it was harder.

The blade didn't cut as cleanly.

Bruce frowned.

'Don't tell me… they are using a miniature version of my class.'

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