Valerius Cross stared at the graveyard of his wolves his mind fracturing under the weight of absolute terror. The boy standing in the center of the arena was not a Hunter. He was a nightmare.

Up in the VIP suite Vane slammed his fist against the glass. "Do not just kneel there you fool. Use the blood. Summon the ace."

Down in the arena Valerius heard the command through his earpiece. He gritted his teeth his fear morphing into desperate cornered rage. He grabbed his silver staff from the sand and drove the sharp bottom end directly into his own palm drawing a stream of bright red blood.

"I will not be humiliated by a mere F rank Mimic," Valerius screamed his voice cracking.

He slammed his bleeding hand against the sand. He began chanting in a guttural ancient language. The blood from the fifty dead wolves surrounding Glen suddenly began to boil. The crimson pools lifted off the ground defying gravity and rushed toward the center of the arena swirling into a massive floating sphere of pure biological matter.

The sky above the Colosseum darkened. The ambient mana in the stadium grew heavy and suffocating.

"Blood Sacrifice" Valerius roared. "Arise Bone Wyvern."

The massive sphere of blood exploded.

From the crimson mist a terrifying monstrosity emerged. It was an A Rank Bone Wyvern. It was a massive undead dragon measuring sixty feet from snout to tail. It had no flesh only jagged gray bones held together by pulsing blue soul fire. Its massive skeletal wings snapped open creating a gale force wind that blew the sand across the arena.

The crowd screamed in genuine panic. An A Rank undead dragon was a city level threat.

The Wyvern let out a deafening roar that shook the foundations of the stadium. It opened its massive skeletal jaws and a sphere of concentrated blue soul fire began to gather in its throat.

"Burn him to ash" Valerius commanded pointing his staff at Glen.

Glen looked up at the towering undead dragon. The fragment of The Lost inside his core pulsed violently. The whispers returned clawing at his sanity.

*Let it burn us. We shall devour the flames and the world. And then feast on the ashes of the dead world.*

"No" Glen gritted his teeth forcing the intrusive thoughts away. If he let the demon take over he would become just like Jarek. A mindless vessel. He had to stay in control.

The Wyvern unleashed the breath attack. A massive pillar of blue fire shot down from the sky incinerating everything in its path.

"Lightning Movement" Glen whispered. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

He vanished a split second before the fire hit the ground. The sand where he had been standing was instantly turned into a crater of bubbling blue glass.

Glen reappeared running up the curved boundary wall of the arena. He pushed his Level 15 agility to the absolute limit his boots defying gravity as he sprinted vertically up the reinforced stone.

The Wyvern tracked his movement snapping its massive jaws and firing smaller bursts of soul fire. Glen dodged them weaving through the air like a purple phantom. He reached the apex of his run fifty feet in the air and kicked off the wall launching himself directly toward the flying dragon.

He was completely exposed in mid air.

The Wyvern opened its jaws wide preparing to swallow him whole.

Glen activated his defensive skill.

"Abyssal Juggernaut Armor."

The dark crimson and black plating materialized over his skin just as he crashed into the Wyvern’s massive skull. The impact was brutal. The undead dragon tried to snap its jaws shut but Glen drove his heavy black longsword directly into the gap between its teeth using the unbreakable A Class metal to wedge the monster’s mouth open.

The Wyvern thrashed wildly spinning in the air trying to shake the human off its face.

Glen held on with his left hand his boots planted firmly on the monster’s bony snout. The blue soul fire leaked from the dragon’s throat burning his armor.

He needed to end this fast before the demonic fragment completely hijacked his nervous system.

Glen raised his empty left hand. He channeled the microscopic fragment of The Lost deep within his core. He activated Void Touch.

He slammed his bare palm directly against the thick bone plating between the Wyvern’s glowing blue eyes.

The moment he released the anti mana the demon fought back. Thick black veins erupted from Glen’s palm crawling rapidly up his forearm. The fragment was trying to use the open channel to escape his core and infect his brain.

Glen screamed in absolute agony. He was fighting a war on two fronts battling an A Rank dragon on the outside and an outer world demon on the inside.

"You work for me" Glen roared his eyes flashing pitch black. He forced his own spiritual mana down his arm violently crushing the black veins and pushing the anti mana out of his hand and into the dragon.

A sickening hiss echoed through the sky. The indestructible A Rank bone instantly began to rot turning into brittle gray dust. The decay spread rapidly eating a massive hole straight through the dragon’s skull and exposing the pulsing blue soul core hidden inside its brain cavity.

The Wyvern let out a final agonizing screech its wings faltering as the anti mana destroyed its structural integrity.

Glen ripped his black longsword free from the monster’s jaws. He raised the heavy blade high above his head channeling every ounce of his remaining strength into the weapon.

He drove the black sword straight down through the rotted hole in the skull plunging the blade directly into the blue soul core.

The core shattered.

The blue fire holding the Wyvern together instantly extinguished. The massive skeletal dragon went completely limp plummeting out of the sky like a falling mountain.

Glen rode the dead dragon down.

The massive corpse crashed into the center of the arena with an earth shattering boom. A massive cloud of dust and sand exploded outward covering the entire stadium.

For a long terrifying moment no one moved. The crowd was completely silent.

Slowly the dust began to clear.

Standing on top of the shattered skull of the A Rank Bone Wyvern was Glen Mcdonald.

His dark armor was smoking. His black jacket was torn. He was clutching his left arm breathing heavily as he forced the last of the black veins back under his skin. The demonic fragment was subdued for now but Glen knew the terrifying truth. The power he had eaten was a poison and it was going to kill him if he did not learn how to master it.

He looked down at Valerius Cross who was kneeling in the sand weeping in absolute terror.

Glen did not say a word. He just looked up at the VIP suite locking eyes with the S rank Dragon Knight.

Evander Buchanan stood up from his leather chair. He walked to the glass window placing his hands against the pane. For the first time in his life the golden boy of the Hunter world was not looking down at an insect. He was looking at a rival.

The F Rank Mimic had just soloed an army and executed an A Rank dragon. The world would never be the same.