The forest had become a warzone.
As the Beast Tide surged forward, Lin Kuan stood like a solitary mountain between chaos and his people. His blade gleamed, coated in beast blood, his face a storm of concentration.
The two Beast Kings circled him—one a colossal six-eyed wolf with flowing black fur, the other a thunder-tusked boar whose hide shimmered like armored steel. They moved with calculated fury, aiming to break the man who dared stand in their path.
The six-eyed wolf lunged low, jaws open wide. Lin Kuan spun, sidestepping with fluid grace. His guandao flashed, drawing a shallow line of blood across the creature's flank. Before he could recover, the boar came barreling in from the other side, its tusks humming with dense dark matter.
With a roar, Lin Kuan brought his guandao down in a two-handed arc. The weapon met tusk with a resounding crash that split the air. Sparks flew. The impact threw Lin Kuan back a step, his boots carving twin trenches in the snow.
But he didn't fall.
He advanced.
Grandmasters were rare. Few lived long enough or trained hard enough to fully harmonize with the internal flows of dark matter. Fewer still dared to refine their bones and blood with it. But Lin Kuan had.
Dark matter pulsed under his skin like a second heartbeat. Every movement carried the weight of mastery. With a burst of energy, he shot forward again, guandao slashing a burning arc that lit the air. The wolf ducked, but the boar caught the edge of the strike, roaring in pain.
Meanwhile, the tide reached the formation.
The four Beast Generals at the head were each the size of a carriage. Hulking, terrifying, intelligent. As they approached, Lin amd the other two instroctors at the front, Instructor Yun, and Instructor Jang exploded into action.
Instructor Lin surged forward, aura flaring like a bonfire. His sword danced through the air, a blur of steel and blood. He took on two Beast Generals by himself, locking them down with relentless precision.
Yun and Jang each met a Beast General head-on. Their weapons rang with every strike. One wielded twin sabers, spinning like a whirlwind. The other fought with a hammer, each blow shaking the earth.
Behind them, the Tier One trainees clashed with tier one-tier beasts. Despite the chaotic situation, they had numbers, weapons, and training. They fought with desperation, blades flashing and spears stabbing. The beasts came in waves, but the line held. They even held the advantage over the beasts.
The Tier Twos were also very well coordinated. Their movements crisp. They fought in pairs or small squads, taking down Tier Two beasts with practiced efficiency. Blood sprayed, fur flew, but the humans held their ground.
The Tier Threes, Adam among them, were visibly less organized. Their lack of training and real life fighting was beginning to show.
They had strength. They had speed. But few had faced such overwhelming numbers. The beasts came at them in droves, and it was all they could do to hold their own. Adam fought his back to Zhao, sword flashing, body moving on instinct. Each beast he killed left him breathless.
The battle dragged on. Minutes became hours. The snow turned red.
Trainees fell. Screams rang through the forest. Beasts died, their corpses piling up. The line shifted. Regrouped. Shifted again. It was a war of attrition, and both sides were losing, the winner was death as it kept claiming one life after the other not caring whether it's man or beast.
Then came the explosion.
A sound louder than all the rest. It ripped through the air like the earth itself had cracked.
Adam turned toward Bai Village.
Smoke rose high above the trees. More than before. A tower of black against the pale sky.
Lin Kuan paused. His eyes locked onto the smoke.
Then his aura changed.
From controlled to unbound.
From tempered to feral.
He roared—not in pain, but in fury. His body surged with power, his muscles glowing with crimson light. Blood mist rose from his skin. It wasn't just dark matter now. It was something deeper. He was using a forbidden art.
"No!" Instructor Lin shouted, still mid-battle. "That technique will destroy your body!"
Lin kuan answered in voice too calm for the current situation. "They broke through the barrier."
The wolf Beast King lunged at him again. This time, Lin Kuan didn't dodge. He stepped forward, grabbed the wolf by the throat, and drove his guandao through its chest with one deafening cry. The blade erupted out the other side in a spray of black blood. The beast spasmed, then went limp.
The boar turned to flee.
Lin Kuan wasn't done.
He vanished. Reappeared above the boar. His guandao came down like a falling star, striking between the beast's eyes. The creature's skull split with a crack like a tree snapping in a storm.
Silence.
Then came the screaming.
Not from the beasts, but the humans.
First the master tier martial artists, instroctor lin and the other two.
Soon, Tier One and Tier Two trainees also began to glow with the same blood-red hue. Forbidden techniques erupted across the battlefield. Their weapons blazed. Their eyes glowed.
Adam watched in horror.
They were burning their life force.
Desperation gripped the ranks. Every trainee seemed to understand—they had to go back. Bai Village was under siege. Their families. Their homes.
They fought like demons.
The tide broke.
Beasts fell by the dozens. Roars turned to whimpers. Corpses littered the snow. Blood steamed in the cold.
Even Adam felt the pressure shift. He and Zhao pushed forward, cutting down beast after beast. The remaining Tier Threes joined them, while not yet able to use forbidden arts they too were emboldened by the madness.
Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over.
The beasts fled.
The normal ones turned tail and vanished into the woods. Only the dying and wounded remained. The battlefield went still.
Lin Kuan stood among two fallen Beast Kings, breathing hard, his guandao buried in the snow.
He didn't look victorious. He looked exhausted.
He turned. "We march. Now."
No one argued.
Only the wounded and the dead stayed behind, guarded by a few instructors. The rest began the march back.
Adam looked to the sky. Smoke still rose. And now, he could hear the sound of battle echoing from the village itself.
Whatever had begun was far from over.
And Adam had the feeling this was only the beginning.