The forest trembled as monsters began emerging from every direction. Wolves with bone spikes along their spine, horned serpents, armored boars, insectoid predators, vine-covered beasts, and more humanoid mantis creatures rushed toward the battlefield.
Some were weaker, but many were in the Great Unity Immortal realm. Their eyes gleamed with hunger, rage, or territorial aggression. The scent of blood, dense spiritual energy, and the disturbance caused by the battle had turned the area into a beacon for them.
Arthur slowly smiled. "So that's how it is."
The first wave crashed into him moments later. He moved as lightning erupted around his body as he dashed forward, his fist smashing through the skull of a wolf-like monster before its claws could reach him.
He twisted mid-step, using telekinesis to drag a charging boar sideways into the path of a serpent's bite. The serpent's fangs sank into the boar instead, and he used that opening to compress the air around both creatures with Density Manipulation before detonating the pressure outward.
BOOM!
Blood and shattered armor scattered across the forest floor.
A vine-covered deer-like beast lashed at him from the side, dozens of thorned tendrils whipping through the air. He raised his hand and used Matter Manipulation to harden the vines mid-motion, turning them brittle before shattering them with a pulse of telekinetic force. The creature roared, only for Arthur to appear in front of it and drive his hand through its chest, ripping out its core before tossing the body aside.
The number of monsters kept increasing. Ten became twenty, twenty became fifty.
Soon, nearly fifty Great Unity Immortal-level monsters surrounded Arthur from every direction, attacking relentlessly. The forest around them had already become unrecognizable. Trees were uprooted, the ground was torn open, and shockwaves from every exchange spread deeper into the fog.
Yet Arthur didn't retreat. If anything, the pressure from the battle made his blood boil in excitement. There was something primal about being surrounded by enemies strong enough to shake mountains, yet still being able to stand in the middle of them and fight without fear.
A massive tiger-like beast lunged at him from behind, its claws glowing with black energy. Arthur sensed it before the attack could land and ducked under the attack without looking back. He grabbed its foreleg, increased the monster's density, and swung the entire beast like a weapon into three other monsters charging from the front.
The impact crushed bones and sent bodies flying. A snake spat venom toward his face, and Arthur instinctively allowed part of it to strike his skin. The poison entered his body through the pores of his skin and for the first time in the fight, his Reactive Evolution was activated.
Arthur felt his cells analyze the toxin instantly, adapting and improving his resistance. But almost at the same moment, the Origin Flame inside him stirred. Bluish-golden heat surged through his body, burning the poison away before his ability could fully process it.
Arthur frowned slightly. "Stop."
The flame pulsed again, almost like it was offended.
Arthur's eyes narrowed. "I said stop, let my body adapt."
For a brief moment, the Origin Flame resisted instinctively, its nature demanding that impurities and harmful substances be burned away. Arthur pushed his will down through the golden chains sealing it, forcing the flame to suppress itself.
The heat receded reluctantly, allowing the remaining traces of poison to circulate long enough for Reactive Evolution to complete its work. His toxin immunity improved again, adjusting to the strange venom used by the forest monsters.
Arthur nodded slowly. "Good."
Then a centipede-like monster slammed into him from the side, its armored body coiling around him while dozens of legs tried to pierce his flesh. Arthur's expression remained flat. "Bad timing."
Lightning erupted from his entire body, turning the centipede into a convulsing mass of smoke and charred shell. He tore it apart with his bare hands and threw the pieces into a cluster of approaching monsters before using Elemental Manipulation to send wind blades towards them.
The battle dragged on, and more monsters continued arriving. Now, nearly one hundred fifty monsters surrounded him and every powerful predator in the surrounding region seemed drawn toward Arthur like moths to a flame.
Their attacks came from all directions, claws, fangs, venom, energy beams, sound waves, hardened spikes, and corrosive mist. Arthur responded with ruthless efficiency, he used Spatial Manipulation to teleport short distances and avoid being buried under the sheer numbers of monsters.
He used Telekinesis to control the battlefield, turning monsters into projectiles and smashing them into each other. He used Matter Manipulation to reshape the terrain, creating stone spikes, traps, and hardened walls that redirected attacks.
He used Energy Absorption to drain incoming beams and convert part of their power into his own. He used Lightning Manipulation to paralyze groups at a time, and Density Manipulation to make his strikes land with absurd force. But even with all that, the numbers were becoming annoying.
Arthur crushed the skull of another mantis monster and looked around at the endless wave still approaching through the fog. His clothes were torn in several places now, both due to the monster's attacks and also because the shockwaves and constant movement had shredded the material he created earlier.
His body remained unharmed, aside from minor poison exposure he had intentionally allowed for adaptation. The monsters, on the other hand, had turned the forest into a graveyard.
Arthur shook his head and muttered quietly. "This is getting out of hand."
A massive bear-like monster charged toward him, roaring with enough force to flatten an island. Arthur raised one hand, stopping it mid-charge with telekinesis. At the same time, three serpents lunged from behind, a mantis dropped from above, and two wolf beasts attacked from both sides, Arthur's eyes glowed faintly blue-gold.
The Origin Flame stirred inside him. And this time, he didn't suppress it.
A small wisp of bluish-golden fire appeared above his palm, no larger than a candle flame. The moment it manifested, the entire battlefield changed. Every monster nearby froze instinctively. Their bodies trembled, their predatory confidence collapsing into primal terror. Even creatures without high intelligence understood one thing immediately, that flame meant instant death.
Arthur stared at the tiny wisp calmly, feeling the terrifying power contained within it. Compared to the uncontrolled eruption earlier, this was almost nothing. But even that tiny amount made the surrounding spiritual energy tremble.
The bear monster suspended in front of him struggled violently, sensing danger.
Arthur looked at it and spoke softly. "Let's test what this is capable of."
He flicked his finger, and the tiny wisp drifted forward slowly, almost lazily, before touching the bear monster's chest.
There was no explosion or dramatic shockwave, the bear simply vanished. Its body, soul, energy, and core were consumed in less than a second, erased so completely that not even ash remained. The bluish-golden flame hovered in place afterward, slightly brighter than before, as if it had eaten something mildly satisfying.
Arthur's eyes narrowed slightly. "…This is wasting resources." But since there were too many monsters and it was no longer proving anything useful to him he still decided to use the flame.
The monsters finally hesitated. Some tried to flee, others driven by instinct or madness, attacked even harder. Arthur raised his hand, and several more wisps of Origin Flame appeared around him, each one small but terrifyingly powerful. He didn't unleash them wildly, he controlled them carefully, sending them toward the densest clusters of monsters while keeping their destructive range limited.
The result was horrifying. Every monster touched by the bluish-golden flames disappeared completely. Armor, flesh, bones, spiritual energy, cores, everything was devoured. The flames didn't spread uncontrollably this time because Arthur restrained them with his will, but even in that limited state, their power was ridiculous.
A mantis monster tried to sever one of the wisps with its scythe, only for the flame to crawl up the blade and erase the creature before it could scream. A serpent spat venom at another wisp, and the poison evaporated before reaching it. A stone-armored ape slammed both fists into the ground, raising a wall of earth, but the flame passed through the barrier as if it wasn't there and consumed the beast behind it.
Arthur stood at the center of the battlefield, his expression calm but focused. Controlling the Origin Flame required far more concentration than his other abilities. It wasn't just any fire, it had a will buried beneath the seal. Even after being subdued, it constantly tried to burn more than he intended. He had to restrain it every second, guiding each wisp like handling a blade that wanted to cut the wielder too.
Still, the effect was undeniable. Within minutes, the tide of monsters collapsed.
The ones that survived finally abandoned all aggression and fled deeper into the forest, their instincts screaming louder than their hunger. Arthur didn't chase them, he allowed the remaining wisps of Origin Flame to return to his palm before absorbing them back into his body. The forest around him had become silent again.
He looked across the ruined battlefield. Dozens of monster corpses remained from before he used the flame, but everything touched by the Origin Flame had vanished completely, leaving him with no cores, no bodies, or materials to collect.
He sighed faintly but that was the tradeoff. The Origin Flame was excellent for erasing enemies, but if he wanted research materials, he couldn't rely on it too much. Still, the test had been worth it. He had confirmed he could use a small portion of the flame without triggering another catastrophic eruption.
Arthur crouched beside one of the intact corpses and extracted its core before storing the body in his Sea of Consciousness. Then he moved through the battlefield, collecting useful samples from the monsters he had killed before unleashing the flame. Bones, venom sacs, cores, claws, scales, exoskeleton fragments, anything that looked biologically or energetically valuable went into storage.
After finishing, he stood and looked deeper into the fog-covered forest. The suppression on his divine sense remained there, and the formation's restrictions would likely become stronger the closer he moved toward the core region.
But now he was even more certain there was something important hidden ahead. The monsters here were stronger than the ones found outside the forest, and the environment was too deliberately restrictive.
He adjusted his sleeves and started walking again. "Let's see what you're hiding."
The fog swallowed his figure slowly as he moved deeper into the forest, leaving behind a battlefield of shattered trees and broken earth.
***
Become a patreon member and read 35 Chapters ahead:
patreon.com/New_Horizon1
You can join my discord channel to discuss my novel and find artwork of this novel!!
https://discord.gg/PmkQsrAdMY