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Chapter 57: The Savage Harvest!
Damon Cruz and Marcus Harris lay broken and motionless on the black moss, their brief, brutal reign of violence ended by Ayra Sand’s explosive wrath.
Daniel knelt beside the corpse of Damon Cruz, the heavier of the two thugs.
His A-Grade Phantom Edge Striking Wraps felt almost too delicate for this grim task.
He reached out, his mind already forming the command for [Soul Assimilation]. This was the grim harvest, the necessary reaping that fueled his unprecedented growth.
These two might have been bottom-feeders, but even dregs could offer a drop of power, a forgotten skill fragment.
He had plenty of Assimilation charges left, around nineteen out of his current limit of twenty-five, eager to be put to use.
"Just a quick... assimilation ," Daniel muttered to himself, more for Lia’s benefit than his own.
She stood a few paces back, her B-Grade Verdant Lifespring Staff-Sword held loosely, Its gentle green glow stood in stark contrast to the surrounding gloom.
Her calm grey eyes watched him, not with judgment, but with a clinical curiosity that was becoming familiar.
Ayra paced like a caged lioness, her crimson berserker aura reduced to a low, dangerous simmer.
The earlier fight had clearly not sated her appetite for righteous violence.
Just as Daniel’s focus deepened, his SSS-Talent reaching out to Damon’s fading essence, his enhanced [Aura Sense] flared violently!
It wasn’t just one warning, multiple hostile signatures suddenly burst from the deeper forest shadows, closing in on their position with unexpected speed and stealth.
"Boom!"
The sudden shift in the forest’s energy struck Daniel with the force of an unspoken alarm.
"Ambush!" Daniel snapped, instantly abandoning the assimilation.
He jumped up quickly and turned to face the new threat.
"Lia, Ayra, incoming! Multiple hostiles, west flank, moving fast!"
Ayra, who had been frowning at a twisted tree, spun around, her red hair flying.
"More of these pond scum? Excellent! I was just getting warmed up!"
Lia, shifted her stance, her staff-sword now held defensively, its green light intensifying.
"How many, Daniel?" she asked, her voice calm but alert.
"At least ten, maybe more," Daniel reported, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the rapidly approaching signatures.
They felt... desperate. And greedy. "They were holding back, waiting. Typical scavenger tactics.
Seems like Damon and Marcus were just the advance party."
The wind suddenly shrieked through the trees as the first wave of attackers burst from the undergrowth.
They were a mixed group, wearing patched leather and scavenged metal, their faces tough with desperation and anger.
Their weapons were crude: rusty pipes, sharpened pieces of metal, a few chipped vibro-knives.
Leading them was a thin man with a jagged scar on his cheek, giving him a perpetual snarl.
"Well, well, look here, boys!" Kane cackled, his voice raspy.
He pointed a dirty finger, tipped with a sharp piece of bone, at Daniel’s group.
"The big dogs went down, but left us some tender morsels!
And look, two pretty little birds for dessert!"
His eyes, small and pig-like, lingered unpleasantly on Lia and Ayra.
The Savage Blades behind him shouted and cheered, their faces full of greed and raw hunger.
They had clearly dropped any pretense of caution, believing Daniel’s group was weak and easy to attack after their recent fight.
"You!" Ayra roared, her voice laced with pure, undiluted fury.
The insult, along with the earlier fight, pushed her rage to a new high. She didn’t wait for a plan.
She didn’t need one.
"Boom!"
The ground beneath Ayra’s feet burst up with black moss and broken earth as she charged at the Savage Blades.
She moved with such speed that she closed the distance in a heartbeat.
"[Primal Fury Berserker: Second Stage - Tyrant’s Mantle]!" she bellowed.
Her muscles, already formidable, seemed to swell and harden further under her torn uniform.
Kane’s eyes widened in shocked realization. This wasn’t a "pretty little bird", it was a demigoddess of destruction, clearly furious.
"Scatter! Take her down!" he yelled, but it was too late.
Ayra slammed into the front line of the Savage Blades like a battering ram through brittle wood.
"Boom! KRA-KOW! CRUNCH!"
Her fists, soaked in that terrifying crimson energy, were blurs of motion.
Each impact sounded like a cannon firing.
The wind from her punches alone sent nearby trees groaning and shedding leaves.
Savage Blades screamed as they were sent flying, their crude weapons shattering, bones snapping like dry branches.
One particularly unfortunate thug tried to block with a rusty metal shield.
Ayra punched straight through it, and him, sending him tumbling end over end into the dark woods with a final, choking cry.
"She’s... magnificent," Lia murmured, her calm grey eyes wide with a mixture of awe and clinical fascination as she watched Ayra dismantle the ambush.
The sheer, unrestrained power was breathtaking.
Then, remembering her role, her staff-sword pulsed with gentle green light.
"[Lifeweave Affinity: Soothing Mist]!" A fine, emerald mist enveloped Ayra, instantly knitting together minor cuts and bruises she’d sustained, bolstering her stamina.
With Lia’s A-Grade healing ensuring she fought at peak efficiency, Ayra seemed unstoppable.
Daniel watched the one-sided slaughter with a critical eye. Ayra was a force of nature, yes, but she was also reckless, leaving openings a more skilled opponent could exploit.
However, against these disorganized thugs, her raw power was more than enough.
He focused his [Aura Sense] on the periphery.
Kane, seeing his forces disintegrating, was already trying to slip away into the deeper forest, along with two of his quicker cronies minions.
"Oh no, you don’t," Daniel said softly.
He nocked an arrow onto his C-Grade Reinforced Shard-Tip Bow.
He didn’t need a fancy skill for this. His raw Strength and Hunter class proficiency were enough.
He drew the bowstring back, the C-Grade bow groaning slightly but holding.
Twang!
The arrow, a normal shard-tipped one, flew with the speed of a bullet, a silent streak in the dim light.
It struck one of Kane’s fleeing companions in the back of the knee. The man screamed and tumbled, his escape cut brutally short. 𝓷ℴ𝓿𝓹𝓾𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
Twang!
Another arrow, another fleeing Savage Blade down, this one pierced through the thigh.
Kane, hearing the screams of his last two men, glanced back in terror, his scarred face pale.
He saw Daniel, bow still raised, aiming directly at him.
Kane didn’t hesitate, he dropped and crawled away on all fours like a frightened rat, vanishing into the thick undergrowth.
"Coward," Daniel grunted, lowering his bow.
He wasn’t going to waste another arrow on him for now.
Ayra, meanwhile, had finished mopping up the remaining Savage Blades in the clearing.
The fight didn’t take long. The ground was littered with broken bodies and shattered weapons.
Ayra’s crimson aura finally began to recede. She stood amidst the carnage, panting slightly, her fiery hair plastered to her forehead with sweat, but her eyes blazed with triumphant satisfaction.
"Hah! That barely even stretched my muscles!" she declared, though the slight tremor in her hands suggested otherwise.
"See, Vance? Sometimes, direct approach is best!"
"Sometimes," Daniel conceded, walking over to the nearest fallen Savege Blade.
"And sometimes, it gets you surrounded by more trouble than you bargained for." He knelt, ready to begin the grim, but necessary, process of [Soul Assimilation].
Lia approached, her staff glowing softly as she checked Ayra for any serious injuries.
"You were incredible, Ayra. But you also took several hits that could have been avoided."
"Details, details," Ayra waved dismissively, though she let Lia treat a bad cut on her arm.
"They didn’t even make me use my axe! What a bunch of weaklings. I was hoping for a real fight!"
Daniel just shook his head, already focused on the task at hand.
Thirteen more corpses, plus Damon and Marcus. Fifteen souls, ripe for the picking.
This was going to be a bountiful harvest. He could already feel his SSS-Talent humming in anticipation.
The three of them began the grim task of collecting the spoils. Beyond the satisfaction of survival, Daniel knew the real reward was yet to come.
He scanned the area again; the forest had fallen silent once more.
They searched the bodies of Kane’s Savege Blades quickly. Most carried little of value, crude weapons, a few scavenged rations, some tattered bits of armor.
But almost every single one had a cool, jade Yin card tucked away in a pouch or pocket.
"Looks like these guys were busy," Lia commented, holding up a handful of the cards.
They gathered them all. Daniel counted. From Damon, Marcus, and the thirteen Savege Blades they’d just dispatched, they had collected a staggering sixty-two Yin cards.
"Sixty-two..." Ayra breathed, her eyes wide. "That’s... that’s more than enough!"
Daniel nodded. "Indeed. Sixty-two Yin cards.
That means roughly twenty for each of us, with a couple to spare.
According to Director Thorne, accumulating multiple matched pairs of Yin and Yang cards grants access to better Class Transitions."
He looked at Lia, then Ayra. "With this many Yin cards, if we can secure a similar number of Yang cards, we’re not just looking at basic classes. We could be aiming for advanced, maybe even those legendary hidden ones."
The bloody fight brought an unexpected prize. With Daniel’s rare talent, their rise to power had just gotten another major boost.
The strong, indeed, ate. And today, they had feasted.
