A/N: I will write some skill names and some not, since people technically don't shout out the skills, I should never write them actually, but they make it easy to visualise the formations that occur.

So, for the repeated skills, I will use names; rare and complex ones will only be described.

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Below on the ground, Lu condensed flames into a thick fire lance and hurled it straight at Xyren, the weapon screaming as it cut through the air.

[Blood Barrier]!

Xyren slammed his hands together. An orb of densely compressed blood formed between his palms, and as he sharply thrust his arm forward, the orb unraveled into a violent whirlpool. The spinning mass acted like a living suction, swallowing the fire lance and grinding its destructive force down until nothing remained but evaporating sparks.

But Lu was already there.

His fist, wreathed in blazing flames, crashed toward Xyren's head.

Thang!

A sharp, metallic clang rang out as Xyren was flung sideways. If one looked closely, a hardened carapace of blood had coated the side of his head just before impact. It cracked and burst apart under the punch, shards scattering through the air—but Xyren himself suffered only minor damage.

"Bastard!" Xyren spat as he was sent flying, fury twisting his face.

Even while airborne, he extended his arm.

SHIING!

A blood lance formed instantly and shot toward Lu. In response, Lu raised a swirling barrier of fire, the rotating flames catching the attack and dissolving it into sizzling crimson steam.

This wasn't their first battle.

Lu and Xyren had clashed once before, and it was then that they had realized how eerily similar their combat styles were. Xyren held the advantage in rank, but Lu's purifying flames compensated for the difference, forcing a stalemate neither could decisively break.

That battle had drenched the land in blood.

Xyren slaughtered countless humans.

Lu incinerated countless demons.

From that carnage, both earned their infamous titles.

Lu had gone mad watching so many humans die under his watch. Xyren, in turn, had been enraged at being forced to retreat—crippled by injuries inflicted by Lu and the phoenix.

Both carried a blood debt.

"Today, you die for humiliating me that day!" Xyren snarled, hurling multiple condensed blood orbs toward Lu.

"And I promise you'll be humiliated once again!" Lu shot back, sending rings of fire spiralling outward. The rings wrapped around the orbs, compressing them until they detonated midair in violent bursts of red mist.

Xyren's sharp gaze flicked toward the phoenix, now nothing more than a blazing speck in the distance after carrying the boy away from the battlefield.

"You did manage to save the boy," Xyren said, lips curling into a malicious grin that exposed rows of jagged teeth.

"But who will save you when your beast is gone?"

He clapped his hands together once more.

This time, the sound echoed unnaturally, reverberating across the battlefield like a signal.

All around Lu, the ground pulsed—and countless figures rose from the blood-soaked earth, encircling him from every direction.

Lu calmly surveyed the scene.

"Hoh?" he remarked, raising a brow. "A demon utilising his beasts? That's rare. Doesn't that leave you weakened?"

As he spoke, a massive sphere of fire began forming above his head, heat distorting the air in a widening radius.

"Look closely, fool!" Xyren barked. "That's my new skill!"

In perfect unison, every surrounding figure clapped its hands toward Lu.

Instantly, pressurized jets of blood erupted from all directions, converging on him like a collapsing storm.

"Hm?!"

Lu canceled his attack mid-formation. Flames detonated beneath his feet, launching him upward just as the blood streams tore through the space he had occupied.

Still—

One beam grazed him, piercing clean through his ankle.

"Tsk," Lu clicked his tongue.

He didn't panic. The purifying flames coursing through his body burned away the toxin almost instantly. A brief healing spell followed, flesh knitting back together as if the wound had never existed.

But Xyren was already there.

Appearing behind him with a twisted grin, Xyren thrust forward a razor-thin blood sword, its tip aimed precisely at Lu's chest.

A translucent barrier flashed into existence.

The blade shattered on contact.

Both figures recoiled, creating distance between them in a blur of motion.

"Pathetic humans," Xyren said coldly. "Always hiding tricks up your sleeves."

"You're the last person I want to hear that from, Monger!" Lu replied.

Around them, multiple fire orbs ignited one by one, spreading outward until nearly a hundred meters of airspace was saturated with heat and blazing pressure.

"Tsk!" Xyren clicked his tongue sharply.

Thick, dark blood seeped from beneath his feet, rapidly enveloping his body. It wrapped around him like a cocoon, layer after layer condensing and hardening until it gleamed like forged metal.

The battlefield fell into a tense, burning silence.

Leo was now nearly a thousand meters high in the sky when a massive explosion erupted below, blooming into a towering mushroom cloud. Pure, raging heat washed over him, making his entire body feel like it was burning—even at this distance.

"FUCK!" he cursed.

His mind was still in complete shambles, battered by continuous searing pain and near-death encounters coming one after another without pause.

"Just what in the world is this scale of destruction?!" he muttered hoarsely.

That was when he noticed it.

He was already flying through dark clouds.

The moment he passed above them, the atmosphere changed completely. The air became unnaturally still—eerily silent. Realization struck him instantly.

"WTF…! Even these clouds are a skill?!"

It wasn't as if he had never seen such phenomena before. The shadow wolf could create something similar—but that was merely a swirling mass of clouds about a hundred meters wide.

These, however, were on an entirely different level.

The cloud formation stretched nearly four to five kilometers across, thick, layered, and oppressive.

The phoenix altered its course and carried Leo toward a distant clearing, one positioned high enough that the chaos below came fully into view.

When Leo finally took in the scene, he froze.

A few kilometres away, Brant was forcing back a mountain-sized colossus with raging winds—winds so violent they rivalled, no, surpassed the most dangerous storm speeds ever recorded in Earth's history. Entire sections of terrain were being carved away under the pressure.

Below, Lu had already resumed his battle with Xyren. Blood mist had begun to rise at the base of the mushroom cloud, staining the air itself as the two monsters clashed once more.

Elsewhere, Leo spotted three humans locked in combat with another demon-like creature—one that was effortlessly manhandling them, swatting away their attacks as if they were nothing more than pests.

And that wasn't all.

Battles were breaking out everywhere.

Countless low–3–star beasts were still alive, rampaging across the battlefield as instructors, and monsters collided in chaotic pockets of destruction.

At that moment, Leo felt something inside him settle.

He had no complaints left for the instructors or professors.

He—who had thought himself a top contender in this forest—had been ragdolled across the ground like trash just moments ago.

His eyes went towards the city and caught to the bright pink hairs.

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