I forgot to add one thing, which was supposed to happen alongside the evolution.

[Life sensing - low] was turned into [Life sensing - medium]. basically improved the distance and accuracy of measures. Until now, Aster could see life only as "red mist" hovering in certain places, now he sees it more like "blood" flowing through the body, so he can tell the outline of creatures. So, through the wall, he will be able to tell if the monster is humanoid, and so on. He will be able to more directly tell the "power" difference between two beings, for example, until now, he could easily tell that a rat was weaker than a dog, a dog was weaker than a human, and so on, though the "shapes" of the "life mist" were roughly the same - just by density. But, if he would see for example level 8 human and level 11 human, he could barely tell the difference between them by life forces.

Now, he would be able to do so. Not "precisely", but still. Ok. Again sorry for forgetting to add it yesterday. Not wasting more time, get to ze the choooptaaar.

After leaving the camp I started moving quickly through the corridors, not paying much attention to the noise caused by my armor. In the end, I left to look for some enemies to see how much I had improved. While moving in the attack force I would find plenty of opportunities to see how the “new better me” would act as a member of the formation, but how would I do alone in one versus one or one versus many? In more or less twenty days I would have to duel Rowan, then, my blind spots won’t be covered by fellow knights, then, I will not be able to hope for archers or artillery support.

No. I had to master all my skills. Learn how to fight in every situation and environment. ‘But you can be ambushed!’ - exactly. Another lesson. I need to teach my body and mind - to react to unexpected changes in the tide of battle, or I would risk my targets running away, only because someone I didn’t suspect had decided to backstab me, or, for example, throw a stone at the back of my head.

The memory of being betrayed by the person who I treated as my younger brother filled my heart with dulled anger… or maybe not even anger? Annoyance? Yes. This fool was dead, his name was scratched off my list. A “dead case”... Pun intended.

Shaking off unpleasant memories I once again focused on my task. And, I didn’t need to look for long. Around an hour of march away from the camp, I managed to spot another small nest of monsters. Crouching behind a boulder I scanned the area, counting enemies and ‘classifying’ them into groups, preparing a plan of battle in my head. The nest wasn’t big. About twenty monsters, type one - well rounded. Beasts who seemed not to excel in any particular battle style - not being fast, nor strong, and also not that cunning, but also not lacking anything. One of them would hardly be a challenge. Group of them? Aye, might be. Still, I couldn’t spot any ‘pack leader’, so, without an alpha of any sort, their actions should remain uncoordinated, as such, footwork and constantly keeping your back against the wall should do the trick. Bah! - With some luck they would get in each other's way

And so, I decided to leave my cover. With the blade in my right hand and shield strapped to my left forearm, I started walking quickly and proudly.

Lava'Raz Reptiles usually met around Vulcanic Mountains, preferring environment reach in sulfur. This 1.6-meter tall standing nocturnal predator can be meet both alone and in packs.

Fire-resistant, savage, and blood-lusting creatures have a perfect memory, the small that it once imprinted in its mind it would remember for its entire life. And grudges. It remembers grudges as well, so if you are a hunter that manage to wound it, better watch your back, for it will dedicate yourself to hunt you down, with whatever it takes.

My shiny, white armor attracted attention almost immediately. Creatures raised their ugly heads in my direction, blinking a few times as if not believing what they are seeing. “Who was so stupid, that they entered our lair just like that? A single person! Does this man have a death wish!?”.

Their nest was quite spacious, could easily hold twice, if not thrice as many monsters inside, and the beasts that were inside were, until now, lying in random places of the cave, dispersed. Good. I should have around thirty or so seconds before they collectively decide to jump on me. I should use this situation before it would get crowded, shouldn’t I?

My march turned into a trot, and then into a full-blown charge as I stormed at a creature lying close to the chamber entrance, which had nearly gotten up. Almost. Not enough. There was no swordplay, no footwork. Only one quick strike separated the head from the rest of the body. Their kindred weren’t pleased seeing that, the smell of their brother’s blood whipped them into a frenzy - with a vicious hiss and savage roars they started rushing at my position with a desire to rip me into pieces.

Just as I thought. They were lacking an ‘alpha’. This mad charge lacked any synergy or formation. They just hoped to cover me with their bodies, claws, and fangs till I stopped breathing. And so, I used that to my advantage. From the cave’s entrance, I moved to the left, for in that direction there were fewer enemies. Right now, my plan was to eliminate as many of them as possible before they swarmed me.

Two creatures ran at me, and as I couldn’t deliver a clean strike with my sword on the one to my left, I decided to raise my shield and slam its head, hopefully stunning it for some time. And indeed, the metal of my shield met the creature's scaled head. A dull sound echoed across the chamber alongside a muffled cracking nose. My shield, despite being slightly dented, appeared to be fine, which meant that the cracking noise must have come from the reptile’s skull. Continuing onward, I clashed one more time, this time with the beast coming from my right. I quickly parried its claws, changed the grip of my blade, and cut it deep. I knew that my blade would pierce its body, but the results were still surprising. Its body offered almost no resistance, and so, the tip of my sword pierced through the other side of my foe.

I have surely pierced through its vital organs, and so its death was obvious, still, I decided to waste two or three precious seconds, to check the limits of my strength. With my sword completely submerged in the creature's now dying body, still holding the handle I twisted with my wrist enlarging the wounds. The blade was enveloped in still pulsating masses of flesh, muscles, and organs, possibly even bones, yet something that should have come with herculean effort appeared to be almost childishly easy! There was resistance but it was disproportionate to the action! I know that while ranking up my strength increased by around the amount equivalent to my three previous levels, but it was still beyond ridiculous!

Changing my footing I rammed my body into the beast’s, forcibly releasing my weapons from the creature's hold, making its bleeding body drop down, spasming as the final act of its existence. Seeing it dying, I resumed by running towards the cave’s wall, and on my way there, I was stopped once again by two more monsters attacking in unison.

I dodge to the left, positioning myself in such a manner, that one of the beasts was standing on the path of his kin. Raising my shield I blocked the attack of the creature answering with a quick, shallow jab. The beast from behind tried circling the beast from the left, so I responded moving to the right, constantly staying out of its reach.

Block, jab, move. Block jab move.

Eventually, the crippled monster collapsed on the ground crying in pain, the one which until now was denied any access to the battle pounced at me, overly eager as he saw the opportunity to join the battle.

Far too eager. A beast will remain a beast, controlled by their pure, savage desire to kill. Seeing me effortlessly kill his kinsmen didn’t teach him anything - something that I recently learned, you should jump in the air only when certain conditions are met. Indeed, such strikes tended to deliver much greater damage and shake enemy balance, but, when you are in the air, you can’t change your trajectory. That means, that if the enemy is fast or skilled enough, he could either leave the impact’s area or, in the worst-case scenario - move to your blind spot and deliver a deadly counter. That was exactly what I did.

Even as I saw him getting ready to pounce, I quickly ran to the side, circling the ‘flying’ beast, and as he landed, I was at its side, with the blade already aimed. One move. One kill.

Funny, with the brute strength which I seemed to possess, a mace or a hammer might prove to be a better-suited weapon for me…

That’s for later, Aster, you have greater and more urgent worries now - for example, around fifteen monsters that are about to catch up with you.

Again, wrist twists and pull to release my weapon, then, resuming my desperate run towards the wall. With my back pressed against the wall, secured, and shielding my whole left side, I waited for the mass of bodies to fall on me, and I didn’t have to wait long. The claws and fangs fell down upon me like a tempest of the judgment’s day… Or, that’s what I have been expecting. I could sense blows on my shield and I could tell that they were dangerous but… These weren’t pushing me back slamming me onto the wall. Straightening my back I awaited for the attack and countered it with a quick pierce, then still glued to the wall, I started moving right alongside the edge of the chamber, constantly blocking and answering with quick ripostes. Then, a crazy idea appeared in my mind.

Yes, I could continue fighting like that and kill them all, one by one, but that would take an extremely long time and would barely teach me anything. I didn’t come here to ‘feed’, I came to polish my swordsmanship, and for that, I needed a challenge.

Out of the crowd of thirteen more monsters which kept on swarming around me, only three could attack effectively at the same time - in the end, that was the purpose of having my backs plastered against the wall and shield raised up, ready to nullify all incoming attacks. When the monster directly in front of me attacked, I slightly changed the positioning of my shield and ‘pushed’ the monster back, making it trip and fall back towards the rest of his comrades. Then, I moved onward, jumping in the air and landing directly in the middle of the fighting mass, piercing one of the beasts upon arrival.

Then, right away, I activated my life-detection, trying to weaponize it. The main problem with fighting multiple enemies at the same time is that you can’t efficiently guard your blind-spots. If the enemy would attack you from the front, then you wouldn’t be able to tell if you were also being attacked from behind.

But, improved life-sensing gets rid of that disadvantage. My vision “left my body”, allowing me to look at my surroundings from different perspectives. With “me” in the center, I was able to see perfectly formed shapes made of life.

They were no longer clouds of red haze randomly floating in the air. No, they had precise shapes - shapes of my enemies. I could perfectly tell where his limbs were, where his tail was, and even whenever he was opening his mouth ready to bite me. And so, seeing my enemies' moves, I reacted.

Left leg forward, right leg back, a twist of my pelvis rotating me in place, letting the monster attacking me from behind “run past” me, as I raised my shield blocking an attack from the monster, which until moments ago was in front of me. My blade danced, digging deep in the body of another creature.

I was constantly moving, constantly dancing, with all the beasts being my unwilling partners. This fight was challenging, I had to remain constantly focused on so many enemies, on so many factors, that I was getting dizzy.

… Or, it was not caused by my overburdened focus - rather, my new ability being abused beyond its original function. The new life-sensing skill wasn’t meant to be used in combat situations, and so, maintaining it while constantly dodging, blocking, and countering blows of my enemies was challenging my mentality.

Apparently, I will need to get used to it, preferably, by practice.

With my new tactic, the battle gained a new tempo. I more than tripled the pace of extermination while suffering little to no damage, though, I couldn’t say the same thing about my shield, which, after the battle, looked like it was barely holding up on my forearm. Oh, Ol’ Cap’ Godrick will yell at me for damaging House’s property so much. I could already hear him yelling “I will cut it off your pension. No more soup for you!”

Then do so, old man. Godspeed to you.

In the meantime, as I was enjoying my sufficient exotic deal of life forces of mutated reptiles, I was able to hear a sound from the corridor leading outside. After a moment, I managed to link the sound with something I failed to notice until now. Or, maybe I did notice but failed to draw a conclusion.

The cave was big and could effectively accommodate a group at least twice as big. The fact that such a big group didn’t have an alpha also was more than awkward, in the end, a group of individuals this big required someone to lead it - the biggest or the most clever creature in the pack.

And indeed, in the next second, another group led by another monster, similar to the rest, just bigger, bulkier, and with intelligence in its eyes entered the chamber. They were carrying some other animals in their maws, clearly returning from the hunt. Seeing me in the middle of the pile of corpses, it seemed somewhat dissatisfied with what it saw after returning after a hard day of hunting to his nest. It opened its mouth, letting bloodied remnants of some big mammal fall to the ground as it let our ear-piercing shriek.

Unfortunately, this time, I couldn’t allow myself to experiment on the battlefield. Pointing the tip of my blade at the pile of bodies, I decided to summon some reinforcements.

“Bones of my bone,

And the blood of my blood.

Your shackles I rip,

Your body I raise.

Your life might be done,

But your task is not

So hear out my words,

And obey my command.”

The dolls of the monsters started getting up, directing their absent, cold eyes towards creatures that were once their family. But, right now, they viewed them only as a meal.

Crackling my bones I walked onward, calling forth my puppets to form a line with me.

Round two was about to start.