Hitman with a Badass System

** In the previous chapter, I made a mistake by writing the shadow monster is at the Celestial stage. It should have been Half Celestial Stage. I edited the chapters and changed them to Half Celestial Stage. Sorry for this grave mistake **

**Here is the cultivation stages again ( Do not worry about these instructions as I updated the chapter first and then wrote all this. So only the chapter word counts, not these comments**

Arch Sensing Stage

Foundation Stage

Body Refining Stage

Body Strengthening Stage

Core Formation Stage

Core Strengthening Stage

Soul Refining Stage

Fusion Stage

Half Immortal

Immortal

Half Celestial

Celestial

**

While Michael and Gaya were striking down the crows in the sky, Rowena headed straight to the shadow monster. Seeing Rowena, a Half Immortal surviving a battle with a Half Celestial being really surprised Gaya. Although the shadow monster was at the Half Celestial stage, something felt off about the monster to Gaya. She felt it was not a true Half Celestial. Otherwise, Rowena would have been a red mush by now. There was no chance for a Half Immortal even to survive a second in front of a Half Celestial unless the Celestial wasn't at its peak power. Since Gaya knew more about the Celestials than Michael, she didn't think Rowena survived the monster because she was strong. On the contrary, Gaya thought the shadow monster was weak for a Half Celestial. One reason why the shadow monster seemed weak in her eyes was the lack of physical body. A Celestial being could not unleash their full power without a physical body. Celestials often existed in the ethereal form if something was to happen to their physical bodies. For instance, if another Celestial being or an Immortal managed to kill the Celestial being somehow, their souls would escape the body and exist outside until it could find another vessel. While they were in the soul form, they would be at their weakest. Thus, Rowena was able to fight the shadow monster at the Half Celestial stage.

Many Celestials would go to hell and heaven to create another physical body for themselves in case something was to happen to their current one. However, creating another physical body suitable for their soul was not as easy as one would expect. Plus, the shadow monster didn't have many offensive attacks to end the battle quickly.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Core Formation level 4 crow. The reward is 100,000 Experience points and 4000 Badass points]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 7000 Badass points]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Core Formation level 7 crow. The reward is 100,000 Experience points and 4000 Badass points]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 8000 Badass points]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a Core Strengthening stage level 5 crow. The reward is 200,000 Experience points and 8000 Badass points]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 9000 Badass points]

…. ｂｅ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟𝚎ｌ.𝚌𝚘ｍ

Michael willed the system to be quiet as the system blew his mind with notifications. The black bolts of lightning from Michael's dark swords riddled the skies and charcoaled countless crows. Despite the number of monsters around him, Michael restrained himself from using the ultimate Ignitia. He wanted to use the ultimate spells on the shadow monster after Rowena froze it as planned. Speaking of the plan, Rowena was on the ground fighting the glass wraiths around the shadow monster. She had to fight off these beasts to reach the shadow monster, which remained on the ground, firing dark spikes at Michael.

Several glass wraiths screamed and surrounded Rowena, only to get smashed by her. She threw the blades and swirled like a tornado, destroying every glass wraith around her. She destroyed them as soon as they revived themselves. After swinging the blades for a few moments, Rwoena pulled the chains towards her, grabbed the blades by their hands, and stabbed the ground with enough force to create a powerful shock wave. The shock wave mixed with the Cold flames sent a chilling frost wave that froze everything around Rowena. Then with another stab to the ground, Rowena sent another shock wave, shattering everything frozen.

When Rowena cleared out the twenty or so glass wraiths with a single attack, the shadow monster finally turned its focus on Rowena. Seeing the glowing eyes fall on her, Rowena prepared herself to attack the monster head-on. However, when she took a step forward, the shadow monster roared. The next moment, Rowena went flying away from the monster like a rag doll. She coughed up mouth full of blood in mid-air as every organ in her body screamed in excruciating pain.

Michael and Gaya were occupied with the monsters as they failed to catch Rowena. A few moments later, Rowena hit the ground and went sliding through the ground. Her sky-blue robes were torn and had holes in several places. When she picked herself from the ground, her hand looked crooked. The bone in her hand was sticking out through her skin. Just the look of this bloody sight would make a typical man squirm. But Rowena grabbed her broken bone and pushed it inside, gritting her teeth to fight the pain.

The shadow monster didn't plan to give Rowena any time to retaliate. Instead, it flew straight toward Rowena, its eyes burning with pure killing intent.

[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current stage is Immortal Stage Level 6]

Just as the monster was moving toward Rowena, Michael leveled up. As a result, his full power reached the Immortal stage level 10 due to the death range. Even though it's just one level, it boosted his power to the point he appeared before Rowena in a blink of an eye. The shadow monster created a giant fist out of thin air, bringing it down upon Rowena. Luckily for her, Michael was just in time to block the fist with his black shield.

Boom!

Upon the fist hitting the black shield, a thunderous explosion sounded throughout the area. The ground beneath Michael's feet cracked as the punch pushed Michael down. Michael gritted his teeth, struggling to keep the shield between himself and the monster. At that moment, the black shield was the only thing that safeguarded Rowena from getting crushed to death.

"NOW!" Michael shouted at Rowena. She didn't need Michael to tell her twice as she summoned the Cold Flames to freeze the shadow monster. Meanwhile, Gaya fired arrow after arrow quickly enough to mimic firing several arrows simultaneously. She flew around the shadow monster and kept the other monsters of the Fire realm at bay. The moment Rowena summoned the Cold Flames, Michael felt an intense chill as he saw the icy blue flames dancing upon Rowena's hand. Ignoring the pain in her borne hand, Rowena raised her other hand, firing a stream of Cold Flames at the shadow monster.

As soon as the stream of Cold Flames hit the monster, it roared and exerted more force to bury Michael in the ground. Michael's knees were on the verge of shattering, but he remained firm, resisting the shadow monster's force with brute strength. Thanks to Gaya striking down more and more beasts, Michael grew stronger. Rowena sensed the aura around Michael getting stronger with each falling beast, yet she was too focused on freezing the monster instead of focusing on Michael.

Rowena's Cold Flames momentarily stopped the monster from making another move. Michael utilized the opportunity by casting the ring of fire. Immediately Rowena felt the temperature taking a turn as she felt the intense heat all around her. The cloud of darkness shrouding him grew darker and stronger as the dark flames burnt everything to the ground. Even the glass wraiths could not revive themselves as the flames evaporated their body and soul.

[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current stage is Immortal Stage Level 7]

The moment Michael stepped into level 7 of the Immortal stage, the death range boosted his power four levels higher and made him a Half Celestial. His strength skyrocketed through the roof as Rowena felt the sudden explosion in his aura. With his new power, Michael slowly pushed the shadow monster's hand away and punched the frozen area in the monster's core.

Michael's punch sent the monster flying. It couldn't stop for a mile. Sensing the power radiation from him, the glass wraiths and the crows halted their advancement. Their eyes glistened with fear. When Michael took a step forward, they all stepped backward. Rowena was startled by how powerful he looked at that moment. One moment he struggled with the monster, and the next, he sent it flying with a single punch.

Suddenly, countless clusters of dark clouds appeared in the sky out of nowhere. They rumbled as purple lightning streaks struck across the sky. Rowena looked up at the dark clouds and sensed the overwhelming murderous aura from the Dark Lord. He slowly raised his arms to the sky and brought them down as hundreds of lightning bolts struck the ground at the same time.

The sight immediately reminded Rowena of the time he ended the lives of hundreds of soldiers in Itholan almost a year ago. Her neck hair stood up due to the electricity in the air. The lightning bolts crackled everywhere she looked, burning the beasts to a crisp.

[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current stage is Immortal Stage Level 8]

[Congratulations to host 'Michael' for leveling up. The current stage is Immortal Stage Level 9]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 15000 Badass points]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 25000 Badass points]

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 12000 Badass points]

….

The amount of experience points Michael got exceeded his expectations. Furthermore, he only needed fifty thousand badass points to pay his debt to the system. Initially, he thought killing all the beasts would get him to Immortal stage level 8, but he killed enough with his ultimate ignitia to reach level 9. He decimated all the glass wraiths and flocks of crows in a one-mile radius. Rowena had never underestimated him. However, at that moment, she realized how powerful he truly was. When the darkness around him and the dark clouds in the sky faded away, Rowena saw the piles of ashes around her. No wonder the whole world feared him, she thought.

After Michael eradicated the beasts, the shadow monster turned out to be alone.

"I will distract it, and you freeze it with the Cold Flames," said Michael calmly as though nothing had happened. Now that he reached level 9, he could reach the Half Celestial stage with the use of the Death range. In other words, he closed the power gap between him and the shadow monster.