SPIRIT SOUL

Kyle tried to remain as calm as possible. He took the ranked black steel machete and dagger out of the spatial pouch, forcing his hands to stop shivering.

Only a moment later, both Mell and Gard appeared behind them though it took him a second to realize that they weren't strangers but the Jar couple.

They seemed to have undergone a drastic transformation.

Not only was their expression cold and devoid of any emotions, but they had put on combat clothes, seemingly ready to fight with their life on the line.

Kyle found their clothes and accessories to be extremely interesting.

As he observed them, his gaze was drawn to a particular ring on Mell's finger that glowed lightly.

Lifting her hand, Mell inserted a large amount of mana inside the spatial ring she was wearing.

Suddenly, the entire house vanished from around them as if it had never existed, and was stored inside Mell's spatial ring.

This astonished Kyle, but he had expected that they wouldn't leave their shop behind.

It held all their belongings, weapons, and potions so he was sure that they wouldn't leave it unguarded in the face of an attack.

Meanwhile, Selene hadn't even realized that something had happened or the space around her looked different.

She was just staring in the direction from which she could hear the commotion.

The scent of blood permeated the air, and screams filled the night sky that was brightened by countless stars.

Suddenly, without a prior warning, the wooden house near them collapsed, startling them all.

As they turned to look around, a large, ferocious beast charged through it, solely focusing on the prey in front of it.

With bloodshot eyes, and a monstrous appearance it appeared to be in a high-speed chase of a young man.

As the youth ran for its life with all the energy he could muster, the three-meter tall hyena let out a growl.

Its wide-open maw revealed sharp, yellow teeth.

Its mouth was smeared with blood and shreds of flesh while saliva was dripping from its mouth.

Within an instant, the hyena's head appeared right next to the young man's.

The hapless youth didn't even get the time to shriek as the hyena had already bit off his head cleanly.

Just as the hyena bit off the head of the young man, his headless corpse slumped to the ground, a terrified scream rang through the surroundings and its ears twitched..

Looking around for the source of noise, its eyes roamed around before stopping on Selene.

Realizing her mistake, she placed both her hands on her mouth and was staring at the beast with a terror-struck face and trembling legs.

Munching on the head as if it was a delicacy, the bullhorn hyena, a beast with a cultivation base at the Vitae stage, turned to the group of four.

While Selene puked at the sight of the headless corpse that was only a dozen meters away from them, Kyle paled visibly.

Based on the surrounding sounds, he realized that there was an entire pack of bullhorn hyenas and not only the one in front of him.

Averting his attention from the bullhorn hyena, Kyle could only look at the Jar couple helplessly.

The bullhorn hyena was slowly advancing towards them, making weird noises to inform its brethren about its find.

'Did they know about that? Were they referring to the hyenas when the Jars said 'they're about to reach the village'?'

Somehow, Kyle doubted this, but there was no time to think about it.

Gard stood in front of everyone, holding the broadsword in front of him.

A faint smile could be seen on his face as he brandished it threateningly.

From the outside, it looked like he was trying to intimidate the bullhorn hyena, but Mell knew what was going on.

Not only was Gard's smile a facade, but it had been years since he had fought seriously, with his life on the line.

He had grown rusty!

The same could be said about herself, and she would have shown her fear openly if it weren't for the odd pair beside her.

Both Kyle and Selene appeared nervous and she had to appear strong in front of them.

In her opinion, they must be scared witless and were unable to think straight because she felt the same.

According to their informant, it wasn't a pack of bullhorn hyenas that were about to attack the village.

Instead, one of the larger Nasga tribes was behind these attacks. Furthermore, if this informant was to be believed, this tribe only had three individuals at the Vitae stage!

Fighting a Nasga tribe wasn't that difficult because their technical progress was but a joke. Comparatively, the Aldra race had progressed a lot during the last few centuries!

Now, however, everything had changed, and Mell had to keep calm, despite the desperation that was gnawing at her, making her want to flee.

Kyle saw the tinge of fear in Mell's eyes, but instead of letting this affect him, he willed himself to think clearly and stop panicking.

Pinching Selene, who appeared to be frozen on the spot, he handed her the ranked black steel dagger and made her hold it firmly.

After that, he gave her its scabbard before he began to calmly bind the machete's scabbard around his waist.

Seeing him act calm and composed, made Selene feel less anxious.

Meanwhile, Kyle finished sheathing his weapon before he pointed towards Gard.

The bullhorn hyena was known for being impatient. As such, instead of waiting for reinforcement to arrive, it charged at Gard with its massive body.

It bent its head low, so as to point its half a meter long bullhorns directly at the small group of humans.

Owing to its large size and long legs, the bullhorn hyena emerged only a moment later in front of Kyle.

He was the weakest of the lot and the first being who was targeted.

Just before the bullhorn hyena reached Kyle, who was frozen due to fear, Gard appeared in front of him.

Brandishing the heavy broadsword in front of the bloodthirsty hyena, Gard tried to make loud noises and show that he wasn't afraid of the beast.

Despite knowing that the human in front of it was at the same stage as itself, the beast knew that there was a substantial difference between the two of them.

While Gard cultivated with mana, the ferocious beast used primordial energy to enhance its entire body. This energy reinforced its physical strength and life force to the extreme, turning it into an apex predator.

As the bullhorn hyena was confident of its own strength, it ignored the brandished sword.

Gard's tactic turned out to be a failed attempt at establishing his dominance between the two.

The beast swung its head with great momentum to deflect the broadsword directly with its bullhorn.

However, what the bullhorn hyena had been unable to realize due to its shallow knowledge, was that the sword that crashed onto it was gleaming in a faint light.

A large number of runes were inscribed along the length of the broadsword.

When Gard inserted enough mana into it, the runes were activated, increasing the blade's sharpness drastically.

Not even the tough bullhorn that could pierce through the hide of beasts at the Vitae stage could hold a candle against Gard's broadsword.

The mighty blade cut through the bullhorn hyena as if it was made of butter.

The fight ended before it could even begin, and Selene was about to exclaim in joy as Kyle covered her mouth with his hand.

Signaling her to stay silent by shaking his head, he let go of her.

Gard was visibly exhausted after killing only one beast, and the rest of them weren't proficient in fighting beasts either. This only showed how dangerous the current situation was.

Nevertheless, Kyle couldn't hold back as he saw the brightly shimmering soul that was forcefully detached from the bullhorn hyena's carcass.

He grasped it quickly, before pushing it into his chest where it dispersed into the Spirit Soul's nutrition.

Kyle's body began to heat up a little at the sheer influx of soul particles flooding his body, and he could barely contain himself.

His sight blurred for a moment as dizziness overcame him.

Fortunately, this feeling vanished as Kyle instinctively exerted the Nurture ability. It devoured the soul particles that had turned into energy.

His gut feeling was telling him that his Nurture ability could use soul particles as energy. But knowing that it was really possible allowed Kyle to change his plans.

That was if they would survive the beast-tide, or whatever was currently happening inside the village!

"Most beasts and possibly even Nasga should be inside the village. Let's leave, follow me!"

Mell had regained her composure, allowing her to think properly.

As such, she tried to come up with the best plan to leave the village safely without attracting too much attention.

However, Kyle could only hear 'Nasga' which caused him to frown deeply as he stared at Mell.

Yet, before he was able to say anything, Gard swore under his breath. Upon hearing him, Kyle felt the need to do exactly the same.

He was not sure how many Nasga were running towards him, but there were at least a hundred, half-dead Nasga, enveloped by a paper-thin blood-red hue.

They were being pursued by the small pack of bullhorn hyenas Kyle had expected to find inside the village.

But, what was scary was that they were heading in no other direction than directly towards them...

The entire situation was fucked up, and Kyle cursed in his mind. Meanwhile, Gard took a deep breath, only for Mell to hold his trembling hand.

She nodded her head as she lifted her wand that released a distinct cold.

"We will keep them occupied...just leave. If we somehow meet again, let's have a good talk!

So…stay alive by all means!"