From Max to Zero to God

The Bloody Baron's Blade

“How long has Atsushi’s group been gone?” A tall woman walked into the tent, her blue hair tied into a ponytail as she gripped the rapier on her slim waist.

A bowed before her, “Last we heard they were attempting a dungeon in the Shinjuku district 2 hours ago, Captain.”

“Hmm… They’ve been gone for a long time, I’ll bring a team to find them.”

“Understood!”

The woman turned, barking orders to a nearby group, worry flickered past her eyes.

Please be safe little brother…

>>>

TING! CLANG! BOOM!

Atsushi slammed into a nearby rock, spitting out a full mouth of blood, groaning as immense pain flooded his mind and he spat out a loud grunt “GAH!”

Suddenly, a warm cosy feeling enveloped the brawler, closing all the cuts and mending the broken bones. Atsushi breathed out a sigh, feeling the pain disappear like it was never there, he sprung up and nodded to the healer standing next to the mage.

Shiki flicked his staff in the air and three energy orbs flew towards a lone berserker, accurately hitting the head, chest and groin accurately, bring the berserker down. Kinuko’s eyes never left the battlefield once, always ready to heal her teammates.

But she couldn’t resist trembling at the sight of Han Ling… His body littered with slashes and swords and axes stuck on his shoulders and sides. Yet with a few swings of his sword, those wounds vanished like they were never there. However… the scariest part of the death of the beasts, each time their health dropped to zero, blood would flow out their bodies and enter the ruby in the blade, before oozing dense mana around Han Ling.

It’s like he’s a demon…

Karin and Atsushi battled a pair of berserkers, even thought they were a few levels lower, they held their own well. With Shiki’s cover as well, they could dish as much damage as they can. Atsushi’s flowing fist technique blasted a large hole in the chest of berserker before easily breaking the axe of another.

While the archer Karin, fired arrow after arrow, dashing around nimbly to pick up the arrows from the corpses. “Karin!” the archer looked up to see a wolf soldier sailing in the air…

“Whew…” She breath in… out… nocked her bow and fired.

DUD!

The arrow lodged perfectly in between the wolf soldier’s eyes.

Karin breathed out as she scanned the battlefield, she killed 4 LVL 7 wolf soldiers on her own which is a pretty amazing feat for a LVL 6 Archer, yet she didn’t feel happy as she looked over on Han Ling’s side.

A few dozen dried up wolf corpses littered around the lone swordsman, the thick, dense blood mana billowing around him like a personal hurricane.

FWOOOH

The mana dispersed and Han Ling returned to his normal self. “Hooo…” Han Ling closed his eyes, feeling the forest wind on his face. Its already been a few hours since he started the hunt. God know how many wolves he killed, but his sword shuddered as the second seal was unlocked.

[Unlocking second seal…]

[Bloody Baron’s Blade: Second Seal unlocked. Skill Vicious Soul has been unlocked…]

LVL 1 Vicious Soul [Bloody Baron’s Blade series] (Skill)

-          For every kill, grants player one stack of Feared

-          Feared sends an enemy in a panicked state for 2 seconds, and grants player temporary +1 of all stats.

-          Once player reaches 10 feared stacks, +10 to all stats excluding class stat. Life Reap buffs also double.

-          Feared stacks disappear when all enemies in the vicinity are slain.

Han Ling grinned, feeling the sword in his hands cry with joy, the ruby glowed a brighter red than before. He turned to the team, sighing as they had more fear on their faces than awe.

“Let’s keep going.” “Y Yes, expert.”

>>>

“We’ve finally caught up to them hooo…” The blue haired woman bent forward, panting after that long run. “I can’t believe they killed so many beasts…” She squinted her eyes, hearing a loud boom in the distance as clouds of dust flew into the air.

“Is that Atsushi?” The woman picked up her pace and found a clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a whole troop of wolf soldiers. Atsushi and Karin were facing a couple of berserkers while the new party moved to Shiki and Kinuko at the back line.

“Kanna-san! What are you doing here?”

“Kinuko! We’re here to save you!” Two members of the party stayed behind with Shiki and Kinuko while the rest ran forward to help the brawler and archer.

But when they closed the distance…

“What! Level 7 Wolf Berserkers! How is Atsushi even handling this monster?”

But when they looked over to Atsushi… “Damn! Even Atsushi is level 7! As expected of the captain’s older brother!”

Atsushi noticed the oncoming group and waved, but a berserker took this chance and leaped into the air with its axe swinging down. “Brother! Look out!” The blue haired woman name Kanna shouted, lifting her bow and nocking an arrow.

However… there was no need for her to do anything. Atsushi spun around, and pulled his fist back, concentrating his mana on his knuckles.

[Flowing Fist Technique: Waking River form. 1st movement: Dash Rock]

BOOM!

The head of the berserker exploded like a melon, spraying all kinds of brain, muscle and blood on the brawler, yet his eyes were calm like a flowing river. The party couldn’t keep the surprise concealed, their eyes widened to a comical degree and their mouths gaping.

Kanna herself was shaking. Just a few hours ago, her brother was only LVL 3, the same as her, but now he was on a completely different level and capable of defeating such powerful beasts.

Atsushi turned to his sister, grinning from ear to ear. “Welcome to the party! Hahaha!”

Karin also finished on her side and met up with the group, “What are you doing here team leader?” “You guys took a long time, so we came looking for you.” Kanna then saw the swordsman standing at the side, looking down at his blade. “Who’s he?”

Atsushi and the others grinned, even Karin who was always calm and collected was struggling not to brag. In the end Atsushi spoke first, “He’s an expert we met before entering, we’ve only lived up to now with him here.”

One of the men from Kanna’s party snorted, “An expert? Doesn’t seem like much.” Atsushi shook his head, “Don’t judge a book by its cover, even I am unable to touch him.” The group gasped. Even the battle maniac surrendered…

AWOOO!! AWOOOO!!

Many loud howls erupted from the bushes, as a large group of wolf soldiers and berserkers stepped out into the opening. But in the middle was a wolfman sitting on a bone throne, with his hand supporting his bored face.

[Sudden Quest]

-          Defeat the Wolf Guards.

-          Defeat the Wolf Chieftain.

The humans gulped as the 4 LVL 9 wolfmen in chainmail armour stepped forward, along with dozens of soldiers.

Atsushi’s group all moved, getting into their stances. But the swordsman spoke up, “Let me handle this.” He walked up to the group with his sword drawn. Atsushi sighed, “Shame… Looks like this is the end of the dungeon.” The others all frowned, “How is a single man gonna defeat this many beasts?”

Yet the next action shut them all up.

Han Ling faced the group of monsters, a single human against nearly 50 wolfmen, along with the LVL 9 guards. He breath in… out… in…

VOOOWMMMM

[Mana Body]

He was covered in blue light that knitted into a shield around his body. Then he gripped his sword tightly, feeling the blood flow from the gash on his hand.

[Blood Dance]

Immediately, a heavy, dense mana swirled around the swordsman, violently billowing like an angry, alive cloud. Han Ling closed his eyes…

And opened them to reveal the hungry red ruby pupils.