The ground trembled and split beneath the clash, cracks spiderwebbing outward from each impact. It would have been a comical sight if not for the danger: a blind human and a bloodstained bunny locked in combat against a three-tailed crimson fox the size of a warhorse.
Ren had just witnessed firsthand what it meant to follow Bahamut. The system had spoken of embodying Brutality, but in Ren's case, that essence had twisted, reshaped by his strange existence into something wholly his own.
Now, his body was fully healed. The blood matting his fur wasn't his—it was residue from earlier wounds that had already sealed shut. A manic grin stretched across his little muzzle as he darted aside, narrowly avoiding a tail that smashed into the earth. The impact left a smoking crater where he had stood a heartbeat ago. If it had struck him directly, his small body would have been pulp.
Yet there he was. A bunny. A cute, fluffy bunny—grinning like a lunatic.
Bahamut, oblivious to the bizarre thoughts of his furry companion, moved with brutal efficiency. He seized one of the fox's thrashing tails, muscles rippling as he swung himself upward like a hammer launched on a chain.
BANG!
His fist slammed into the beast's forehead with a resounding crack, leaving a shallow dent in its hide. But the fox roared in fury, staggering only a step before lashing out. Bahamut twisted away, narrowly avoiding a slash that could have gutted him.
"Tsk! Bastard!" he snarled, rolling across the dirt as three tails rained down like burning whips. Each strike carved craters and sent shards of stone flying.
The crimson fox had a hide thick as iron, and now, fully roused, it fought with relentless ferocity. Gone was the earlier arrogance that had left it open to injury. Now it pressed the attack with ruthless precision.
This was a Tier 2 Beast—and it had only just begun to fight seriously.
Tier 1 was the beginning: Circle of Body, Circle of Spirit, and Circle of Mind. Only when all three were forged did one gain the Circle of Initiation—the threshold to Tier 2.
The difference between Tier 1 and Tier 2 seemed small in name, but the gulf was vast. Tier 2 was when elemental power awakened. Even without forming the full Circle of Element, a newly advanced Tier 2 could already feel their element stirring, shaping, and answering their will.
Bahamut had only just begun. He had formed the Circle of Body, his first step into cultivation, making him officially Tier 1. Ren, however, was a different case. Forcefully elevated, he stood at Tier 2—but without the Circle of Initiation, without even a foundation. His power burned on borrowed time, fleeting, unstable, and temporary. Hell, he didn't a circle to begin with!
"Who are you?" Bahamut asked, voice low and rough, as he slid beneath the crimson fox's belly. His fist shot upward, grazing the beast's most sensitive part. It's genitals.
CRUNCH.
The fox howled in rage and agony, staggering as its tails whipped wildly.
"You don't recognize me?" Ren shot back, his voice muffled around a sharp branch clamped between his bunny teeth. His small body blurred forward, ears flattening as a massive claw swept overhead. At the last instant he leapt, twisting midair, and drove the branch straight into the fox's right eye.
SPLUTCH!
The beast shrieked, a guttural, blood-curdling roar as black ichor burst from its ruined socket. Its body hardened by the Circle of Initiation should have been impervious to such a strike, but Ren was no ordinary opponent. He was a false Tier 2, yes, but a Tier 2 nonetheless—and in that moment, his blow had landed true.
The crimson fox staggered, its one good eye blazing with murderous intent, tails thrashing like whips of fire.
The fox's howl tore through the valley like thunder. The ground cracked beneath its claws, flames erupting from its tails as they lashed the air in fury. Its single remaining eye glowed a molten crimson, burning with unrestrained hatred.
The loss of its eye had only driven it into true Tier 2 rage—bloodlust and elemental might merging together.
"Ah… shit," Ren muttered, ears twitching back as the pressure nearly crushed his tiny bunny body. "Maybe stabbing its eye wasn't the best idea…"
The beast's aura surged, a tidal wave of fire and fury. Each step it took scorched the earth black, and the air warped from the heat. Bahamut could barely breathe in its presence.
Ren's fake Tier 2 power flickered like a candle in the storm. "Bahamut! Any bright ideas before I get turned into roasted rabbit?"
Bahamut didn't answer. He stood still, blood dripping down his chin, his blind eyes dull but steady. Then it came—the shift. His aura twisted, contorted, and reshaped. What had been unstable moments before now surged outward with violent certainty.
A crimson haze enveloped him, thick, heavy, suffocating. It was not the calm aura of cultivation—it was something raw, primal, and terrifying.
The Brutality of the BEAST.
It wasn't rage. It wasn't madness. It was survival sharpened into a weapon. The cold, merciless instinct that every strike must kill, that every motion must assert dominance.
The fox paused for half a heartbeat, instincts screaming at it. Something had changed. The blind human before it no longer felt like prey.
Bahamut raised his head, voice echoing with a strange, guttural resonance:
"I live; therefore, you fall."
The air trembled.
Then he moved.
In a blur, Bahamut launched forward, grabbing the fox's whipping tail mid-swing. The beast tried to drag him, but he didn't budge—his grip was iron, his aura a crushing weight. With a roar that seemed too deep for his body, he yanked the fox off balance and slammed it into the cracked earth.
BOOM! The ground split like glass, dust and fire erupting around them.
Ren's jaw dropped, his bunny eyes wide. "...Okay, that's actually terrifying. Remind me never to piss you off again."
The fox thrashed, its tails flaring with fire, but Bahamut only tightened his grip. Brutality surged through him, turning weakness into ferocity. Each blow he landed wasn't elegant, wasn't refined—it was brutal, each punch a declaration: I exist, and you will not.