Hajin kept his footsteps light as he moved deeper into the alleyway, his thumb pressing firmly against the guard of his sword. The smell of rotting meat and sulfur grew stronger with every step, making the back of his throat burn.

’Is it that monster?’ he thought, his eyes scanning the dark rooftops and narrow ledges lining the walls.

He was thinking about the monster that had nearly killed Princess Didi back in the forest. That creature possessed a suffocating, dense demonic energy that had almost crushed him just by being in the same area.

If that same monster had somehow tracked him here, right into the heart of the capital, things were not going to end well.

At the same time, a strange sense of anticipation flared up in his chest.

He had so much he wanted to try. He had just successfully assimilated a divine-tier ring spirit into his bloodline. If he wanted to grow fast enough to actually survive in this world, he needed real, life-or-death pressure to force his limits open.

’If I can get stronger,’ he reasoned, his grip tightening on the hilt, ’then maybe... maybe one day I can actually confront my family.’

A sharp displacement of air above him cut his thoughts short and his body reacted on instinct.

He drew his sword in a single, fluid motion, bringing it up above his head to block the sudden blur of movement dropping down from the rooftop.

A fist wrapped in thick, oily black mana slammed directly into the flat of his blade, causing a loud impact sound. The sword could not handle the power and shattered into pieces, allowing the punch to connect solidly with the side of his face. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The sheer force of the blow launched him backward like a ragdoll.

He skipped across the floor, the world spinning violently around him, but his combat instincts took over before he could crash into the alley wall. He snapped his wrist, summoning the chain from his inventory straight into his open hand.

He whipped the chain upward mid-air, the links wrapping securely around a protruding ledge on the side of a building.

The chain went taut with a violent jerk, arresting his backward momentum entirely. He used the sudden stop to pivot his body, flipping backward and landing sharply on both feet.

He stumbled slightly, letting out a harsh cough before spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground. His jaw throbbed and his ears were ringing, but he forced himself to stand straight, dropping the chain and staring down the alley.

The dust slowly settled, revealing a figure standing right where he had been a second ago.

The man was hunched over, his skin unnaturally pale and covered in dark, pulsing veins that leaked black mist into the air.

His eyes were completely solid black, lacking any whites or pupils, and his breathing sounded like a death rattle.

Hajin wiped a streak of blood from his chin, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the man’s face. It took him a second to place it beneath the twisted, corrupted features, but when he did, a wave of pure shock hit him.

"You?..." he muttered, his voice tight.

He recognized him, it was the same arrogant adventurer from the guild hall, the idiot who had grabbed Juna’s arm and tried to buy her like a piece of property before Hajin had lifted him by the face.

’That makes no sense,’ he thought, his mind racing as he stared at the man’s corrupted form.

Back then, the guy was incredibly weak. He was just a low-tier nobody who bullied rookies, he didn’t even have a single shard’s worth of decent mana control.

’So where the hell did he get demonic mana?’ he wondered.

"This is all your fault," Maren said, his voice distorted as he took a step forward, the black mist around him growing thicker.

"You humiliated me and made me look weak in front of everyone," he continued, his black eyes locking onto Hajin. "I am going to tear you apart for that, you can not be allowed to live."

The angrier he got, the stronger the demonic mana became. The pressure in the alley spiked, pressing down hard enough to crack the ground beneath his feet.

"I have no idea what you’re talking about," Hajin replied, raising his right arm, as the chain started wrapping tightly around his forearm and hand.

"But you’re right about one thing," he continued, adjusting his stance. "This is the perfect opportunity for me to grow."

A smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth just as Maren rushed forward to attack. Maren threw a punch and Hajin responded in kind, stepping forward to meet it.

Their fists collided and the impact created a sharp shockwave that sent both of them sliding backward across the ground, but a second later, they were on each other again.

They threw blow after blow, each collision sending another shockwave outward, cracking the walls and damaging the nearby buildings.

Hajin ducked under a wild swing and landed a solid hook directly to Maren’s liver, but the hit did nothing.

’His durability is off the charts,’ he thought, quickly stepping back to avoid a counter strike.

He looked at the damaged walls around them and realized, if he wanted to fight him properly without holding back, they needed to go outside the capital.

Maren let out a distorted roar and leaped into the air, bringing both fists down for a double arm smash.

Hajin stepped to the side and whipped his arm forward, sending the chain wrapping tightly around Maren’s torso mid-air.

He flared his mana, enhancing his own body and pushing the energy down the length of the chain. He planted his feet, spun the chain in a tight circle, and launched Maren forward at high speed.

The corrupted man shot through the air like a cannonball, smashing through the upper walls of a building before continuing outward.

But the capital was massive, one throw was not going to be enough to get him out of the city, so Hajin kicked off the ground and chased after him.

He caught up to Maren just as the man started to recover his balance mid-air. He threw his chain again, wrapping it around Maren before he could drop to the street below. Using his own forward momentum, he spun and hurled him again, sending him crashing over another block of buildings.

He didn’t stop, chasing him down, wrapping him up, and throwing him again and again, repeating the process mid-air.

He kept up the relentless sequence, throwing Maren across the capital until the city finally gave way to a thick treeline.

With one final, mana-enhanced spin, Hajin launched him over the boundary walls and sent him crashing straight down into the forest.

Maren tried to get up, but Hajin came flying from above, landing a nasty kick to the face that sent him flying further into the trees.

Hajin landed smoothly on the ground, adjusting his grip on the chain. "This will be fun."