It was a Soul-Beast.
One of the strongest of it's kind. And it required at least groups of experienced A-rank Soul-Hunters or more to kill.
It had a dark, almost ash-gray skin stretched over it's lean body, with two sharp, curved horns rising from its head. Its limbs were long and sinewy, ending in clawed fingers that was built for tearing.
It's legs were slender yet strong, built for quick, precise movement, and its burning red eyes was fixated on the two boys with an unblinking, predatory stare.
Kazuki fell to his butt. And he froze.
His eyes wavered like never before, every cell in his body screamed only one thing.
Run.
"Let's get out of here Kirito..." He dragged himself back, his hands and legs trembled uncontrollably. Kirito understood his fears, it was natural to be afraid especially when you can't do anything against it.
"Calm down Kazuki, I'm a Soul-Hunter now, or did you forget?" As he spoke, his Soul-Energy flared to the surface, swirling around his body like a torrent of flames.
"Y-you don't understand... You can't beat that thing... Let's get of here now!" From his memories, he knew. Not even a B-rank Elementalist Soul-Hunter could beat this thing. And since he failed to activate a Soul-Core, his chances plummeted even more.
"I just activated my Soul-Core Kazuki, you think I'll let that shit hole mess up this good moment!?" His Soul-Energy burst into the sky like a volcano, the forceful wind hurled Kazuki backwards like a ragdoll.
"Stop! Kirito!"
He shot forward with explosive speed, the swirling energy around him condensing into his fist as he drove it straight at the beast's face.
"Flame Soul-Core: Blazing Torrent!" The punch slammed into the beast's face, blasting it off its feet. The force hurled its lean body backward, skidding across the ground as dust and debris shot into the air, and it crashed hard, with the earth trembling beneath its weight.
"Hell yeah!" He couldn't contain his excitement, it was his first experience with a Soul-Beast, and he won!
"Kirito!" Kazuki rushed at him, he couldn't believe it. He actually took down an A-tier Soul-Beast.
"What do you know, guess we didn't need the Soul-Hunter's association after all." A smug stretched across his face, there was a level of pride you'd get in defeating a beast especially as a newly awakened Soul-Hunter.
"Ah thank God." He sighed. Kirito didn't know how lucky he was, he took it down before it came to life fully. Things weren't going according to how the novel was, and it worried Kazuki. But for now, he was grateful.
"If I remember correctly, that's a Soul-Beast right?" Despite his achievement, there was a much more pressing matter, the gate that brought it here.
"An Orange gate? What the hell is an orange doing here?"
"I don't know, but we have to report back to the Soul-Hunter's associatio-"
"As expected, that was really the best a human can do? Pitiful." Almost at once, a crushing pressure swept over them like a tsunami, and from behind came a deep, distorted voice that made the air tremble.
"W-what..." They both glanced over their shoulders, and there it was, not a single scratch or burns on it's body, standing like nothing ever happened.
"It... Can talk?" Kitito couldn't believe his ears, from his memories, a Soul-Beast shouldn't be able to talk, but yet this one did.
"Run... Run!" Kazuki shouted as the Soul-Beast's crimson eyes flared to life.
"How unfortunate." The creature raised it's fingers at them, and in an instant, the skies above them turned dark.
A sudden flash lit up the surroundings, drawing the boy's attention to the sky. To their shock, a massive bolt of lightning raced down towards them.
Their instincts kicked in, and they ignored the brief numbness in their bodies before leaping to the sides just before it struck.
The lightning hit with a deafening boom, sending shockwaves tearing through the air. The force hurled them backwards, carrying them until they hit the ground.
Immediately, it disappeared from their sights.
"What!?"
"Gh-Bleh!" Before Kazuki could grasp what had happened, a sharp pain tore through his stomach, as if his ribs had snapped. A mouthful of blood burst from his lips, forced out by the blow.
"Kazuki!" Kirito shouted at the top of his voice as the creature flung Kazuki from his hand, backwards into the air like a ragdoll.
To prevent wasting time, it targeted the weakest amongst them after gauging their Soul-Energy.
It was intelligent, too smart to be considered a regular Soul-Beast.
The creature didn't stop. Its fingers stretched out, and another fierce bolt of lightning tore down from the sky, aimed straight at Kazuki.
"Kazuki!" Without thinking, Kirito sprang to his feet, racing to reach Kazuki before the lightning struck.
However, the lightning struck with a blinding flash, lighting up the ground before erupting into another explosion, sending a thick cloud of black smoke into the air.
The job was done. However, thanks to the noise from the explosion, Soul-Hunters were bound to show up sooner or later. Whatever it came for, it had seconds to finish it before they showed up.
"Hm?" Before it could depart, the creature felt another energy beside it, crackling with the heat of flames. Turning its head, it saw Kirito, gasping for his life. And Kazuki on the ground few meters away.
"What's this? He dodged it? No, that's not it." It could tell from how he looked. He may have dodged the entire lightning bolt, but he didn't escape unscathed, he barely held on to his consciousness, and he had burns all over him.
"How persistent."
With little time left to spare, the creature lunged at Kirito with incredible speeds, thrusting it's sharp claws toward his head.
His eyes went wide as the creature's claws gleamed in his vision. At the last moment, flames burst from his body, and he sidestepped, catching the creature's claws in his hand.
Then.
A massive bolt of lightning fell from the sky, striking the two of them in one clean hit.
Kirito screamed in agony, and his eyes turning white before he collapsed into unconsciousness.
As soon as Kazuki could hear again, a knee drove into his stomach. The beast followed with punches and kicks to his stomach and face. The force of the strikes knocked him off his feet and sent him flying toward Kirito.
"It's over, human." The creature spoke slowly, raising its fingers to the sky as dark clouds gathered swiftly overhead.
Kazuki's arms and legs shook violently, and he knew it wasn't from the heavy blow he had taken.
It was something else.
Fear.
At that moment, it came to him. This scene, this particular part of the novel.
The dungeon break that laid the foundation for the main protagonist of the Path To Ascension — Akira Xander.
And he realized who this character was. He wasn't just an extra, he was one meant to die for the protagonist development, and the twisted part? Kirito wouldn't, even though he wasn't supposed to be here.
He was destined to die for Xander's sake.
A character rejected by the author from at chapter 3.
'Why?' He whispered in his mind, lying battered and bruised on the ground. Since the day he was born, he had learned the hard way that the world was cruel. He was beaten, tortured and abandoned, but he endured it all for the sake of his mother.
Then she was taken from him.
Just when he thought he had the upper hand — the knowledge of the future, a system. Fate reminded him that he was just another tool. Irrelevant to the world, created for the purpose of developing Akira Xander.
"That's right, how could I forget? No matter what world this is, it will always be cruel, it has no tolerance for the weak, and there's nothing anyone could do about it." Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet, blood running from his head and trailing down his arms.
"But no more... Xander huh? I never really did like that name, in any world..." He was done being a fucking pawn in any lifetime.
"For the protagonist development? Fuck it. I refuse to die for someone else's sake... If this world rejects me, then I'll reject it too. I reject this fate, I'll reject this fate! If I'm going to survive in this world that rejects the weak, I'll reject this fate!"
Then.
From the dark clouds above, a massive bolt of lightning tore downward, racing straight toward him.
Just then, as Kazuki's vision began to fade, the same translucent interface from the awakening ceremony flickered to life before him. Its symbols glitched, but this time, the inscriptions stood bold and clear.
[Rebooting System Functions...]
[System functions has been successfully rebooted!]
[Due to System errors, your previous awakening has been deleted.]
[Due to System errors, the hosts Soul-Cores will be reset back to it's default state.]
[You have fulfilled the conditions for a re-awakening!]
[You have successfully sealed the shadow contract.]
[Shadow Beast is now available!]
[Summoning Shadow Beast....]