Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 38: Battle II

His gaze darkened as he pushed forward, but his blade didn’t move further than the inch it had already gone.

SNARL!!!

The beast snarled at his futile attempt at slicing off its legs, bringing down its mace on Kieran, who gave up on trying further and rolled to the side to escape a tragic fate.

WOOSH! BAM!!

Again, Kieran barely managed to dodge the simultaneous attacks of two other beasts. He had an issue keeping up with their speed, and he struggled to keep up with their strength.

Sooner than later, he was going to crumble under the attacks of the nine beasts if he didn’t do anything to change his current situation.

Kieran had also realized this as he used his scythe with one hand — something he had decided to learn, and he just happened to need it now.

Although this decreased his efficiency, with his other free hand, he could grab his B2 laser pistol and take a quick shot at the beast he had caught from the side of his eye preparing an attack.

"Kuekk!"

The shot made the beast move backward, grunting in pain. Kieran managed to see an injury on the point of contact of the laser, but he wasn’t in any way happy.

A shot from a laser of that frequency was meant to leave a hole in the shoulder of the beast, but all it got was a minor injury that looked more like a burn. It was at times like this that Kieran silently doubted the effectiveness of the military. Their equipment felt so useless, but Kieran could tell that the low-tier weapons in his hands were perfectly okay; the problem lay with the beasts.

If a laser couldn’t fully go through their bodies, Kieran had no idea how he was going to kill them, but one thing he knew was that he had to figure out something, and fast!

If this was how all the big ones were, then he could forget about getting help from Jake and Ruby anytime soon.

BAM! CRASH!!

Kieran finally had no choice but to block the attack of one of the beasts with the pole of his weapon and his entire self was flung to the other side of the room due to the sheer force behind the hit and his bad defense posture.

Unlike what one might expect from an average recruit, Kieran didn’t fall into a state of panic. He stood up and wiped the trail of blood slowly creeping to his eyes from his forehead. His expression was still the same as before the fight.

His aura though had started to take drastic changes, the amount of bloodlust he was giving off had multiplied several times, but unlike the first time he fully exhibited bloodlust (battle against the Girith), his aura had a sharp feel to it. It seemed more refined.

’.....’

Kieran was currently feeling nostalgic; it felt like he was back in the forest during his first morning drill or during his combat test.

He had somehow entered a state of extreme concentration, silencing the world around him. This managed to give him the same sensation he felt those times, but none of this mattered to him right now, his mind was totally blank before one word started echoing from deep within, resonating with his very soul.

’kill...Kill...KILL...KILL’

’KILL!!!’

It was like a switch going off in his mind, and in that instance —

BANG! SLIC-PUCHI!!

THUD!!

The sound of a lifeless body hitting the ground was heard.

Turning around, Kieran could see in clear detail how the eyes of the remaining eight widened in shock. He could see their mouths open to express their shock, exposing their dark fangs, but like earlier, none of that mattered.

’KILL!!!!!’

The sound was not only still clear in his mind; it had gotten louder. He hadn’t felt enough blood to satisfy his raw desires.

Narrowing his now amber eyes that shone like gold, he moved!

He moved at a speed that the beasts could barely keep up with, sending them into another round of shock, they couldn’t wrap their stupid heads at how the little thing they had been bullying a few minutes ago had suddenly shifted gear going into overdrive.

The beast he had targeted barely managed to get its club up to defend itself.

CLINK!

Sparks flew as Kieran exerted more strength on his weapon, but despite managing to overpower the beast, he was unable to slice through the black rock the club was made from.

Instantly abandoning that method, he delivered a punch to its gut, leaving it bending in pain before using the tip of his scythe to pierce through its brain.

THUD!

Watching as the lifeless body of the beast collapsed to the ground, he turned his attention to the remaining six, making them take several steps back as his gaze landed on them.

It was time to end things!

....

Ruby and Jake entered to see something they had never expected. Limbs of the beasts were scattered in several parts of the room that had their walls painted with the purple blood and guts of the beasts.

At the end of the room stood Kieran’s figure covered from head to toe with purple blood; he held the head of one of the beasts in his hand.

This beast had a bead of small skulls around its neck; its identity as the leader of the ones they had just massacred was obvious.

"Don’t!"

Ruby could feel the intense bloodlust emanating from Kieran, and she screamed to stop him from killing the beast while he was still in a trance. He probably had the intention to interrogate it after all.

Jake held her back from running out to him; he just stared at Kieran with a silent expression.

CRACK! POP!!

Unfortunately, her shout was useless as she watched Kieran pop the beast’s head between his fingers, soaking his already bloodied hand with brain matter.

Kieran’s gaze landed on Jake’s plain face before moving to Ruby’s concerned one, making her flinch at the golden tone his eyes had taken.

"I already got what I needed." He said, dissolving part of her worries.

"We are done here. Let’s move." Kieran said, walking past them.

Just because he spoke fine didn’t mean he was.

One could tell easily from how much he was struggling to contain his bloodlust. The sounds in his head had died down though and he could finally assess himself carefully.

It was just like the first few times something like this happened but this time it remained long enough for him to actually feel the changes.

One thing that bothered him though was, a small uncomfortable feeling in his chest. It was so small that he wasn’t even supposed to notice but he couldn’t just tear his mind away from that feeling.

The feeling of being restricted, of being caged in like a wild animal. He hated it; he felt a deep sense of revulsion just from thinking about it, yet the feeling was there, although it was little, it was there, aching silently in his chest.

Forcefully suppressing his urge to throw up, Kieran walked further away from the camp. There was nothing to see there. He had already gotten the story of how they managed to occupy the already ghosted outpost from the leader of the beasts.

The leader was more intelligent compared to the rest just like they had predicted, it even understood Kieran’s words, but there was something about it, some of the things it said, that set Kieran off.

The beast had literally sat and watched as Kieran fought and butchered its underlings with an expression that showed no fear. Even when its life was literally in Kieran’s hand, all he got was a crazed expression as he kept on repeating the same words over and over again.

Kieran just watched as the beast went from answering his questions directly like someone who had admitted defeat to a crazed fanatic that wouldn’t spill a single word the moment he asked the most important question.

"What is your goal? Who else is involved in all this? Were yo–" The moment the first two questions left his mouth, he was never given the chance to ask the third as the beast went into a frenzy, spouting the same line over and over again.

His watch had translated the words and the read;

"The hand from the holy region of the sky shall devour the world. Nothing can change that."

None of this made any sense to Kieran. He knew of nothing called the "holy region of the sky". It was probably among the other books and information closed off to him because of his low level.

"Where are we going next?" Ruby asked, stepping out of the building.

"Why don’t we rest here for sometimes before we move out again. It’s almost morning" she suggested seeing Kieran in thought.

Looking up to the small rays of sunlight that shone from the slowly rising sin, Kieran realized that they had spent the rest of the night fighting.

’She has a point, we should rest a little’

"Alright! We’ll move in a few hours." Kieran said changing his direction to a random building before shutting the door behind him