Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

Little by little, as the northern wind blew, the chaotic magic in the sky was blown away, dispersed by the Gold-tier warrior’s strength. The golden sunlight shone past the cloudy sky and formed beautiful light pillars with the warrior as the center of it.

Ka chak.

The sound of metallic boots, striking the ground could be heard when the warrior walked out of the browned mushroom clouds. What was supposed to be snow was converted into the extremely dry ground.

The warrior that was clad in black metallic armor walked out of the crater that he made during his landing. A blood red radiance seeped out of the metal armor and was releasing powerful heat and light.

Combat Aura, was the cumulation of will and physical strength. It was an expelling type of supernatural strength which would change according to the human’s behavior and the soul’s attribute. It possesses many types of characteristics. Joshua’s Combat Aura’s main attribute to burn.

Joshua lifted his head up and observed the surrounding through the V-shaped eye hole in his helmet. Broken arrows were scattered throughout the entire field as well as many craters made from the cannons and magic blast. Unlike the arrows that were scattered around scarcely, the craters were covered the entire field like wild grass in a forest. Innards of the Berserk Daemons could be seen, along with the mangled remains piling up along with snow and dirt. Blood that was not frozen by the extreme temperature flowed like rivers into the craters around to form a small pool of putrid blood.

It was hell.

Joshua took a deep breath of the putrid smell and glared at the scene. The warrior could something inside him awakening.

Like gears in a machine that aligned perfectly, the feeling within was like a bottled desire that was finally unleashed to the world. At that moment, behind the helmet, Joshua cracked a smile.

The taste of hell was good.

What was once a majestic fortress wall had turned into a pile of white granite rubble with countless daemon’s corpses buried underneath them. In reality, the Dark Tide had not ended. There were still countless daemons crawling and climbing their way up at the far ends of the fortress. They had not dared to get close to the Gold-tier beast yet they had not deserted their mission to destroy the fortress.

Soldiers that had still a certain level of combat power remained in the frontline and fought the daemons. When Joshua landed with a loud crash, not many soldiers that were still fighting sustained many injuries. Hence, they could still defend the wall and stop the daemons from getting across.

Ba bump.

A soft thump was heard from behind and Joshua turned to look, only to find something odd.

Once the dust settled, all he could see was a gigantic beast with purplish magic runes appearing on all over the beast. The sound from before was made when the beast had fallen to its feet. One of its massive tusks was broken off and the bone skull armor on his head had severe cracks on it. Like a mammoth, the gigantic beast had several wounds and scars was so severe all around its body, lining up with the purplish magic runes.

The colossal beast was still alive. Logically speaking, when Joshua landed and made a huge commotion, the beast should not be able to stand when the warrior had stepped on the beast’s spine.

In reality, the beast was still standing. Along with the disgusting sound of flesh, dark purplish mist gathered around the beast and concentrated on the wounds of the beast, triggering muscle growth. The raw flesh formed at incredible speed and closed the wounds that should have been fatal to the beast. No sooner, the beast was already standing firmly on its four limbs. Its purplish-blue eyes were still in chaos. Its berserk will and killing intent had not subsided. As the colossal beast regained its stance, the cold wind grew stronger around it and the icy armor formed once more on its body to provide maximum defense.

“Wild mammoth. A Silver-tier herbivore colossal beast that lives in the mountain region of the cold north. You, on the other hand, have the power and size of a Gold-tier beast. There is something inside you that had provided you your incomprehensible life force. Making you an unchallenged foe.”

With his eyes glued to the beast, Joshua walked step by step towards the beast with high interest. “It was only due to the berserk stage that it was able to reach Gold tier. You have taken fatal damage and allowed the virus on your body to be infected deeper, reaching the precursor of the Dragon’s Berserk. Now that it has come to this, it seems that the Chaotic Gore Magala must have been to the north.”

“However, that is not the main reason that you could still be alive after my attack.”

“In that case, shall I examine your body for any abnormalities?”

Joshua casually lifted his sword and allowed the crimson aura around him to swivel around the sword. He gripped the handle tight and aimed the sword tip to the beast and whispered, “Come on.”

I’m giving you a chance. Don’t let your efforts be in vain.

“Grrr…”

Even though the beast had traded its intelligence to gain strength, the colossal beast held its steps and refused to budge. It knew that what it should do then. If it did not kill the male human standing in front of it, it would die.

With a low growl, the magic runes that was wrapped around the beast’s body glowed with an intense purple glow. The ice magic that was surrounding the beast expanded. All the heat that was around hundred meters of the beast was removed. On the other hand, those that were outside the range of the beast had gained intense heat, melting all the snow, turning them into water and mixing with the ground to form muddy plains.

Magic is the source of power even at the beginning of time. It is the building blocks of life and matter. This power originated from souls. It could be anything and could be used to make anything. It could be used to expel heat, stop motion, return everything to being silent, and many other means and method that were only limited by the imagination.

Daemons born were able to utilize those powers. They were protected by it as they were born from it. Nature’s child.

“FUAAAHHH!”

As the growl grew louder, so did the tremor that shook the land. Countless snow and dirt floated up and formed a huge ice ball that measured at least ten meters in diameter. With a flash, the beast stomped the ground and hurled the ice ball towards the warrior in Maximillian armor.

There was an unknown force interfering with the ice ball that the beast had cast, compressing the ball and increasing its movement speed. As such, the initial ice ball’s shape and texture starting changing after traveling some distance. From an ice ball, it changed to something between solid and liquid—an unfrozen entity.

The unknown frost attack that was many degrees below subzero whistled through the air with a speed that could trample anything in its path towards the warrior in black armor. However… no matter how powerful it might look or sound, it was just an attack by a wild beast.

The beast, that was attacking the fortress, which was held back by merely three Silver-tier fighters and was inflicted with intense wound and fatigue, and was also struck by the warrior in black armor from the sky, was extremely tired. It was obvious to the warrior since it had not chosen to attack physically but to use magic instead.

The frost attack was not weak yet it could not deal much damage. At most, its true threat lies with the area of effect. Still, it was something an experienced Gold-tier warrior could easily dodge, not to mention Joshua, an ex-legendary warrior.

Yet, he stood still, with no intention of dodging.

The bone-chilling wind blew in his face. Joshua’s unblinking eyes remained focused on the incoming frost attack. He lifted his sword, faced the multi-form ice attack, and cracked a smile.

The Combat Aura that was seeping out of his armor glowed redder, as well as the aura that was swiveling around the sword’s tip. The Wind’s Spirit Seal, that was supposed to be hidden in the sword, glowed with a blinding light when a surging power wrapped around the blade. Until one point, the sword was unable to contain the power and surged the excess of it all around Joshua. The heat that was generated by Joshua had sent all the coldness around him upwards as the ground and air around Joshua was burnt.

What else was there, that could excite a warrior’s dull life, than a one on one fight? Nothing. That was why, when Joshua was at the receiving end of frost attack, instead of dodging or running away, he took a step forward and sliced his sword downward with all the might he had.

The air resonated as the indestructible, undull blade blast out a powerful deep crimson energy wave that not only had cleaved the frost attack into two parts, did not slow down, and went ahead to crash into the Gold-tier colossal beast.

“…”

The beast wanted to scream in pain but failed to do so as it did not have any energy left to even squeak. The beast opened its mouth wide yet nothing came out of it. Slowly and weakly, the beast fell to the ground as the ice armor that was protecting the beast disintegrated into the air. Its chest area was ruptured and wrecked into a pile of mash from being attacked.

The ‘battle’ was not fair or on equal grounds since the start. The beast, that could not be defeated by the soldier of the fortress, was killed in one shot by the warrior in the black Maximilian armor.

Walking slowly towards the colossal Gold-tier beast, Joshua, who had realized that the beast had already expended all possible energy and power, sighed disappointingly as he cleaved the beast’s head with a final stroke of his sword. The sword that was as tall as Joshua seemed rather small to cleave the beast’s head. Joshua had no choice but to imbue a little Combat Aura to lop off its head.

Like a water fountain, once the head was removed from its neck, blood splatter around, drenching the warrior in the black Maximillian armor. The warrior stood unfazed as he did not mind the blood. He just stood still in the pool of purple blood. After some time, he walked closer to the beast’s heart and plunged his hands into the beast’s body.

After searching around, he found something.

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