Chapter 104

Chapter 104
## Chapter 104

### Mountain Escape (2)

Brawny muscles swelled as veins writhed across his flesh.

Thud!

Limbs as thick as ancient tree trunks slammed against the earth, launching his massive frame straight into the sky.

A shimmering heat mirage wafted from his skin as he ascended, causing the intricate “Calcos-style Combat Tattoos” etched across his body to radiate an eerie, mystical light.

And then…

Slay— Splat!

Enveloped in the crimson, flickering radiance of “Bio-Aura”, his heavy axe blade traced a massive arc through the air, cleanly severing the head of a four-meter-tall behemoth from its shoulders.

“Bwahaha—! Now that is what I call a satisfying kill!”

Harley roared with wild laughter, drenched from head to toe in the creature’s foul blood.

Yet, his onslaught did not pause for a single second.

The moment the beast was decapitated, he drove his weapon straight down into its chest cavity, fracturing the ribcage entirely. Thrusting his bare hand into the bloody rupture, he wrenched the glowing magic stone free.

He bounded back down to the earth, leaping away from the monster’s towering carcass—.

Crunch!

…And with a final, brutal swing, he clove the severed skull rolling on the ground completely in two.

Crash—!

Though its mind and heart were thoroughly destroyed, the behemoth’s frame thrashed violently for a few agonizing moments before finally growing still and collapsing into the dirt.

‘The vitality of these creatures is absolutely absurd, given their inherent healing traits combined with this corrupted frenzy.’

Harley grimaced, tossing the magic stone into his mouth and chewing it down.

He had dispatched the creature with relative ease only because his entire life revolved around hunting colossal beasts and his physical prowess was utterly unmatched, but anyone else would have faced a desperate struggle.

Just like the companions behind him, who were desperately gasping for air the moment the clash with the horde concluded.

“Phew…”

“Pant, pant… Curse it all. Encountering a beast of that caliber out here. We are supposed to be fleeing these peaks, yet it feels like we are only drifting further into the abyss.”

As the corrupted wildlife began their massive migration southward, even the apex predators lurking in the deepest valleys were being forced out toward the fringes.

A brutal war of attrition was already unfolding between humanity and the creatures on the outermost borders.

“…We must keep moving immediately. Every passing minute only works against us.”

The artifacts they possessed to mask their presence were proving less effective against the formidable entities that were now occasionally crossing their path.

Under normal circumstances, these beasts wouldn’t have spotted them, but the spreading corruption had heightened their primal instincts, sharpening their awareness to a dangerous degree.

The group wasn’t lacking in strength, but a small squad simply couldn’t hold out indefinitely under these conditions.

Days of ceaseless skirmishes had left them utterly spent, and now high-tier predators demanding absolute focus were emerging at every turn…

“Only Harley, who has shouldered the brunt of the fighting, seems completely unbothered. Is that the power of his esoteric tribal arts? Truly envious…”

“Still, it is solely because of his might that we have survived this far. We can break free of these mountains if we can just endure for one more day. Let us brace ourselves until then.”

Marcus, acting as their guide, injected a note of optimism into his voice to rally the weary travelers as he reclaimed his position at the vanguard.

However…

The reality of their situation was spiraling downward far faster than any of them anticipated.

—

During his trek across the Northern Mountains, Harley had managed to glean a much deeper understanding of how these corrupted beasts operated.

The intelligence shared by his counterpart vessels on the outside suggested that the afflicted creatures refrained from infighting and worked in unison, but that claim was only accurate to a point.

They were biological entities after all; survival demanded sustenance, and the ruthless laws of the predatory hierarchy still governed the wilderness.

It was a common sight to witness more dominant predators hunting down weaker specimens within these very woods.

‘In fact, the lesser creatures often become so unhinged that they recklessly throw themselves at superior predators without a second thought.’

Consequently, there were moments when even the apex beasts were overwhelmed and brought down by sheer numbers.

The corruption rendered them incredibly hostile toward one another, meaning a single spark could ignite a lethal civil war even among members of the exact same pack.

‘Furthermore, whenever a beast consumes one of its own kind, the density of the corruption within the victor multiplies.’

The fallen became nourishment, while the survivor inherited the residual malice, growing exponentially more lethal.

That alone made them a terrifying threat…

Yet, the absolute instant these monsters detected the presence of sapient life, particularly humans,

They would immediately cast aside their mutual hatred, uniting as though they had never crossed blades, and charge forward with a singular, maddened focus to eradicate the intruders.

Exactly as they were doing at this very moment.

—

The opening casualty was Bordo, a scout who had found himself cut off alongside the Dwarf Zaonic.

In contrast to his wounded comrade Hans, Bordo was unhurt and had been assigned the dangerous task of baiting and corralling the fiends so the rest of the squad could execute them…

“Gah!”

A venomous projectile, fired by a cunning Hobgoblin concealed among the rushing horde, struck him cleanly.

“Bordo!”

“Hold on!”

Covering fire rained down from the rear a moment later, but the assistance arrived far too late for Bordo, whose limbs instantly seized up directly in the path of the encroaching swarm.

An Orc, driven entirely mad and numb to all physical trauma, sprinted straight through a barrage of arrows that pierced its vital organs.

Though the Orc eventually dropped dead on the spot as its life force finally bled out, and a crossbow bolt was driven cleanly between the Hobgoblin’s eyes…

Bordo’s life had already slipped away.

‘They are utilizing ranged weaponry now? Not merely swinging clubs, but deploying tools like blowdarts?’

Positioned at the absolute front line, Harley cleaved through the oncoming wall of flesh with his axe, casting a dark glance back at the tragedy as his brow furrowed.

In a normal scenario, they would have exercised far greater caution, but they had dropped their guard simply because they had never encountered an infected beast capable of wielding such tactical tools before.

‘Was that a rare, highly intelligent specimen? Or has its mind somehow resisted the full warping effect of the corruption?’

Regardless of the underlying cause, the undeniable reality was that the group’s peril had just multiplied.

On top of managing an already overwhelming melee assault, they now had to constantly anticipate lethal projectiles raining down from afar.

As a direct consequence, the defensive fire from their rear line noticeably faltered.

Mikel, who had been rapidly discharging bolts from a compact quiver enchanted as a spatial storage device, was forced to slow his rate of fire, shifting his focus toward scanning the immediate perimeter for hidden threats.

‘This is going south quickly. If things keep progressing at this rate, everyone is going to be slaughtered… excluding myself.’

Brute force had its boundaries; no matter his individual might, there was a strict threshold to how many foes he could suppress single-handedly.

Especially when dealing with adversaries whose lifeforce had been unnaturally fortified by madness.

‘I’ve grown somewhat fond of this crew, and I certainly have no intention of breaking my unblemished streak of flawless operations… Guess I have no choice.’

The time had come to unleash his entire arsenal without reservation.

‘Perfect. Let us utilize this chaos to thoroughly measure the upper limits of Harley’s capabilities. Let’s see just how much destruction this form can unleash.’

Steeling his resolve, he began to draw upon his hidden reservoirs of power even as his body kept moving, hacking down every adversary within arm’s reach.

His already imposing stature expanded further under the influence of “Physical Transformation”, while his “Bio-Aura”—fueled by the volatile energy stored within his core—erupted into a blazing vortex of crimson light.

His “Wildness” trait sharpened to a razor’s edge, granting him an instinctive, absolute comprehension of the battlefield’s shifting tides, while “Regeneration” continuously mended his tissues to keep him at peak performance.

Simultaneously, the “Calcos-style Combat Tattoos” woven into his skin flared with blinding intensity.

The emblem of ‘Flame’ on his chest, the jagged arcs of ‘Lightning Storm’ surrounding his eyes, the feral visage of the ‘Beast’ branding his right arm, the heavy ‘Axe’ marking his left, and even the hidden marks of the ‘Running Horse’ and ‘Bird’s Wings’ along his legs all vibrated with power.

“Huuu—”

A dense plume of white vapor hissed from his lips with a shallow breath.

In truth, intense heat and billowing steam were radiating from every single pore across his flesh as his internal reserves burned away at a terrifying velocity.

His perceptions reached an almost transcendent state, and the weapon balanced in his grip felt virtually weightless.

Yet, his ascension did not halt there…

Slowly, deliberately, Harley began to tap into the very ‘madness’ he had spent so long keeping under lock and key.

The sheer presence of this corruption within his bloodstream naturally enhanced his baseline physical attributes, but merely letting it sit idle could hardly be called mastering its true potential.

Thump—

He could feel a dark, volatile current surging through his pathways, driven by the violent drumming of his heart.

It saturated his sinews, his skeleton, his internal organs, and plunged deep into the recesses of his consciousness—.

*Yes, butcher them all! Render everything that stands in our way to ash! Ahahaha!*

As the intrusive thoughts of the rampaging frenzy began to claw at his mind once more,

Whoosh—

His overdrive state pushed his physical form to glow with the incinerating radiance of forged iron, casting a wave of blistering heat into the air. His left eye remained dark, but his right eye bled into a stark, crimson hue, burning with an internal inferno.

The exact instant Harley permitted the madness to fully awaken, bending its chaotic nature entirely to his iron will,

《Individual criteria met. Evolution initiated. The trait “Wildness” has transformed into the unique ability “Frenzied Beast”.》

A superior methodology for channeling the absolute chaos of the corruption was forged within him.

“Kuh… Kuhhahaha—!”

An uncontrollable burst of laughter tore from his throat as a volcanic torrent of raw energy ruptured within his chest.

It was a far more unhinged laugh than his usual grim amusement.

‘Ah… and here I thought I had finally tamed this mental instability a bit.’

But given the emergency, there was no alternative.

Fortunately, the moment he stepped down from this maximum combat output state where the frenzy ran completely rampant, his mental corruption would settle back to its baseline.

…In theory.

‘Now then, shall we commence the real slaughter?’

Even while unlocking this terrifying tier of power, Harley remained rooted in the epicenter of the melee due to the pressing danger facing his team.

Reaching behind his shoulder with his right hand, he unlatched the secondary axe he kept strapped to his back.

Up until now, he had deliberately kept one hand unoccupied to swiftly gouge out magic stones mid-battle, but since he had committed to a total massacre, he might as well double his offensive output.

Securing a heavy grip on both weapons, Harley took a profound breath—.

“Hup!”

Slay—! Crash!

One of his axes tore through the air like a ballistics missile, burying its heavy edge deep into the skull of an advancing Orc.

Yet, that was merely the prelude.

His left eye, which had remained entirely still and focused in stark contrast to his blazing right eye,

Suddenly ignited with a profound, abyssal green radiance.

“Gem Eye: Telekinesis.”

The weapon embedded in the ruined skull of the Orc was instantly enveloped in a faint, emerald aura, wrenching itself free to hover in midair.

And then…

Whoosh— Thud! Crack!

The blade danced through the atmosphere with absolute autonomy, systematically crushing the skulls of the predators closing in on his vulnerable allies one after the other.

He didn’t even require direct line of sight to dictate its trajectory.

His awareness, amplified to an impossible degree by “Frenzied Beast”, allowed him to map out the movements of every single entity on the battlefield in real time.

‘The pure destructive capacity is perfectly fine, since the kinetic force driving the weapon effectively mirrors the output of my aura. However, the fuel consumption is utterly atrocious because I am projecting my energy across such a wide distance…’

Ultimately, that limitation was of little consequence to him.

At the very least, it posed no issue while surrounded by an endless sea of monsters.

Shatter— Munch!

Harley moved like a specter of death, tearing out the hearts of the corrupted beasts with his bare hands, tossing the flesh and magic stones into his jaws to be systematically processed by his “Gluttony” trait.

Through this constant consumption, the rapid drainage of his internal reserves slowly began to stabilize.

‘To think that even with constant feeding, I am barely breaking even.’

It was a testament to just how much fuel this absurd combination of high-tier abilities demanded to stay active.

Boom—!

“Hahaha! Fall before me!”

Naturally, the returns on that investment were nothing short of catastrophic for his foes.

His hyper-dense physiology generated sonic booms with every sudden shift in direction, and the twin axes swinging with crimson aura had long since shattered the sound barrier.

He had reached a point where he could obliterate lesser monsters by simply ramming his brow into them.

At this stage, his frame had become almost too buoyant to handle the sheer kinetic energy cascading through him, forcing him to adopt specialized stabilizing techniques just to maintain his footing, even if it meant sacrificing more fuel.

He altered the structure of his lower limbs, expanding the surface area of his soles and shifting his toes into rigid, anchoring talons while pumping massive quantities of aura into his lower half to lock himself to the terrain.

Even with these adjustments, the earth split and detonated into craters with every stride he took, but it allowed him to project his absolute strength far more reliably than before.

‘The sheer energy drain is astronomical, though. If I lacked the passive recovery of “Gluttony,” I would have run dry long ago.’

He executed lethal hit-and-run maneuvers with blinding velocity, carving through flesh with elegant, sweeping strokes, all while systematically ripping out vital organs to feed his insatiable hunger.

Meanwhile, the emerald-tinted axe continued its airborne dance overhead, shattering skulls across the perimeter…

Crackle—!

Owing to his relentless violence, the frantic pace of the skirmish finally began to wane.

The endless stream of enemy reinforcements had finally been stemmed, courtesy of a makeshift acoustic barrier that the Dwarf Zaonic had desperately erected, which managed to dampen the clamor of the battle before it could echo across the mountain range.

‘It was assembled in a panic using a basic artifact, so it couldn’t stop the immediate neighbors from crashing the party, but it was an excellent tactical decision nonetheless.’

Had the Dwarf failed to deploy it, they would have been forced to fight an unending ocean of teeth and claws until they expired from sheer physical exhaustion.

“Huuu—”

Just as Harley prepared to disengage his maximum output form, releasing a weary sigh alongside a heavy cloud of white steam,

‘Hold on.’

His hyper-attuned senses picked up a massive presence rapidly closing in on their position with terrifying velocity.

Thump, thump, thump…

Rhythmic tremors vibrated through the bedrock, radiating an oppressive aura that triggered his “Frenzied Beast” instincts instantly. The sheer volume of concentrated ‘madness’ swirling within the approaching entity was palpable even from leagues away.

‘Well, that is just fantastic.’

The monstrosity was charting a direct course straight toward them.