Due to being extremely annoyed to be refered as “Shadow Wing” and thought of being some kind of hero by most, Kaden did not go easy on people who wanted to fight him in the arena. He still got many fight requests despite being considered one of the higher ranked fighters which meant that one had to be relatively high ranked to even get a match to begin with.

One has to consider that Kaden always fought seriously, but this time, even against tougher opponents, he felt angry and fought with greater ferocity.

One of the opponents was one of those suspicious ones that had been coming to fight him. This time the person brought a concealed poisoned weapon. While lot of things were allowed on the arena, such things were not. That is unless the fight was specifically a death match. This one was not. Then again, if you did bring such weapons with clear intent on murder, you were goint to have to face the consequences.

Kaden had fought against some poisonous beasts in the forest so he knew they were dangerous. One had to be extremely careful about not being hit by the poisonous parts! Despite the dangers, once he realized his opponent was using poisons, he felt joy. He could kill this person!

With his grown strength and the gansters not being aware of it, Kaden quickly overwhelmed the man. He on purpose hit him in such a way that he was stabbed by his own weapon. Then he delivered several more strikes to prevent him from moving or speaking to prevent him from using potential antidote. Kaden knew at this point Sidon, who worked as referee, usually would come to end the fight and declare a winner since opponent was incapacitated.

Kaden uncharacteristically stood there and waited for Sidon to announce the fights end instead of inteding to continue to the bloody end like usually.

“Shadow Wing is victorious!” Sidon shouted. Once Sidon had noticed Kaden disliked the name he immediately started to use it. It was better known name anyway.

Sidon frowned due to Kaden’s unusual behavior, but sent the guy out to of the arena to be healed like normally.

Kaden calmly walked out. He wondered, if Sidon had noticed the concealed weapon. At any rate, there was probably no saving that guy. As Kaden looked the man be dragged out, he noticed the man starting to have seizures and foaming mouth.

Sidon decided to not press the matter. If someone tried to murder you, you were allowed to fight back.

As for Kaden, this particular case had proved he had to start acting. He was getting actual assassins after him now. It was to be expected, but it would become a problem eventually.

He had grown stronger than last time. It was about time to go see what was in that gangster hideout. He still doubted there were anyone at Formation stage. The guy he had interrogated about it didn’t know of any either. It was probably fine to attack.

Kaden made his way to the second layer where the hideout was. There were still sentries around with Channel Opening cultivation. They were mostly only at initial stage so Kaden tried to silently eliminate them first.

He jumped high up and fell on the first one. Kaden weighed quite a bit despite his outwardly smaller size. Once he fell on the sentry along with his claws sticking out, he at the very least caused major damage and the sentry was not moving. The second sentry was about to shout, but Kaden moved quickly and slammed his face against a wall. The man slumped on the ground with his nose and mouth bleeding.

That would do for a while, but someone would soon notice. Kaden decided to rush in quickly.

This particular hideout was used to haul and distribute large amounts of certain drug known as ‘Heavenly Touch’. Despite its strange name, it was rather apt. Apparently its users would feel like they were the center of the world and feel extreme euphoria. It also caused damage to body and mind and stunt ability to gather mana. This was due to it increasing mana sensitivity forcibly, which was what it had been invented for originally. It was based on certain herb that was not quite a mana herb, but almost. With right conditions it was possible to grow.

Of course, the entire thing was illegal. By this point Kaden had pretty good idea what the gansters did for busines. They managed the local criminals and also sold drugs and other illegal things. It was relatively basic stuff at least in the first few city layers where he had acted so far.

Right inside, Kaden beat up a few people not even at Channel Opening. This was just before alarm was sounded. Soon shouts came from beyond a door across the room where Kaden was. Then armed people rushed in and started to surround Kaden. There was no way he would allow that to happen so he rushed to attack nearest target.

A fight ensued, but with is unsual strength and with just raised core grade, he held slight advantage. The gansters were good at ganging on weak people and relying on their numbers and threats, but once they met true strenght, they would find themselves in unfamiliar situation and thus at disadvantage.

Obviously they were not helpless, but Kaden at least could fight them. As for Kaden, he was certain he would be able to eventually fight. His endurance was much higher.

“Ka ka ka”, laughed a voice. “He is mine! Finally the trap is sprung! Thank you! I can now create art!”

The fight stopped and Kaden looked up some stairs. There was a man with knives in his hands. He had this twisted grin on his face. A face that Kaden knew. Jed the Slasher!

Similarly Kaden’s face twisted in joy. This was one of the bounties!

Jed the Slasher liked to cut up people into multiple pieces and was also fond of tormenting his victims while at it. He was also relatively intelligent and stayed within sidelines of whatever criminal organization he happened to be employed at and only come out when needed. He wasn’t quite a fixer, but did solve problems for whoever paid him most. Not exactly assassin either, but someone who got rid of troublesome things. Including troublesome people like Kaden.

Kaden turned to look at the ‘common’ thugs he had been fighting with and smiled at them. “Are you with him?”

“Scared are you, Shadow Wing!” Said one of the gansters. “Thats Jed the Slasher. Your pieces will be collected for days and ...”

That was enough for Kaden. The rules were clear. No killing unless they were directly working with the bounties and could be assumed to be accomplice. Once that was confirmed…

Kaden burst out with all of his power and clawed out that particular gangster’s throat. Blood spewed on him and he rejoiced. Finally he could let himself loose. There was no need to hold back! These people he could kill!

As Kaden was tearing apart the second ganster, Jed finally interrupted him.

“Ka ka ka ka, while I like the show, a true artist does not like to be ignored”, Jed said with that annoying voice of his. “You aren’t even doing it right! I’ll show you!”

Jed was quick. Kaden could not even really follow his strikes as the blades he was using danced right on him. Each strike left a gash on Kaden and his clothes were starting to get torn apart. Still, these attacks were more quick than actual power. Even normal human would only bleed. Jed was playing with him. His intent was to torture and not straight away kill.

“Tough!” Jed said and stepped backwards. “Ka ka ka. Maybe I’ll show you my magic technique that I have been creating. Its not artistic to simply tear people apart! There is no skill and true sense involved! One should cut with precision. I like to start with fingers, then proceed from there. Nose is good too. Toes are acceptable! Did you know I can keep you alive for days and slowly cut piece by piece. Ka ka ka.”

“Waste of time”, Kaden replied casually as if he was stating an absolute fact. “If you have opponent, you should kill.”

“Huhhh? Are you crazy!? And waste that chance to practice your art?!!!” Jed started getting enraged by such suggestion. He was shaking and having twitches. “Ka ka ka ka! I have decided show you my supreme technique! I worked hard to set it with precision. I haven’t succeeded perfectly yet, but I can already cut people into cubes of ten centimeter edges! Ten! They should be precicely six point five! It is almost a complete art style!”

Jed was a lunatic. Kaden was very happy to erase such a person from the world. He had met too many lunatics.

“While you rave about your deranged thougts, I can show you how killing should be done”, Kaden said and leaped directly at Jed who was well prepared to receive an attack. Still, with his momentum Kaden managed to get close while Jed had to defend. With his other hand he drove his hand with Devour ready on Jed’s chest.

Jed only grimaced as his flesh was being torn off and quickly kicked Kaden back. Then he jumped backwards up the stairs and examined the wounds. Kaden let him do this, he wanted to heal some of the cuts he had received. The small amount of flesh he took should be enough to quickly stop bleeding.

“I must have this spell!” Jed screamed suddenly. “Give it to me! If I can incorporate this into my art style, I can do so many beautiful things! Art of pain!!! Ka ka ka! Now feel the true art!! Separation!”

It was quick. A grid like light was released as Jed slashed the air with his blades. There was no avoiding it so Kaden charged his claws as full of mana as possible and prepared to block the grid.

The hit was like he had been slammed with a hammer, despite the attack being seemingly precise. Majority of the spell was blocked, but the magic extended much further than the actual hit. Kaden felt him being cut up even at his back. It was coming from every direction. He felt it should have cut him even inside out, but Kaden’s body was extremely tough and his mana unusually dense so he did not receive internal damage.

“Alive? ALIVE?!!! HOW DARE YOU TO BE ALIVE?!” Jed was screaming in rage and making those twichy movements as if he was unable to control himself. “HOW DARE YOU MOCK MY ART AND BE ALIVE?!!!”

Kaden had taken quite a few steps backwards and spit some blood. He had precise cuts crisscrossing his body just like a grid. If he had been weaker, he had no doubt he would have been sliced and diced into cubes roughly the size Jed had been jabbering on about.

There was body of one of the gansters next to him so Kaden started devouring it. His flesh started to knit together. Jed only watched with his mouth open.

“How beautiful!” Said the suddenly calmed Jed. “Its like worms growin on you! Worms of flesh. Beautiful! Maybe… yes, maybe, this is another kind of art! Different from mine. An artist! You are an artist! Just like me! How wonderful! We must see whose art is greater expression of our desires!”

Jed was twitching more as if he was feeling some kind of extacy.

Kaden was very happy that Jed allowed him to devour the corpse as he pleased. The information he knew of Jed had said he was intelligent, but it seemed his lunacy distrupted whatever intelligence he might have had. This was a very good thing. Or perhaps Jed was merely allowing him to perform his ‘art’ so that he might test them against each other?

Kaden was nearly full already and he had not been interrupted by Jed. This meant he would likely keep healing any wounds he received for quite a while. With this in mind Kaden finally stopped and charged at Jed. Whatever wounds he would receive would be greatly diminished to point of being able to ignore them entirely.

The both of them continued their fight on upstairs. Kaden was being more brutal and aggressive than before. While Jed was certainly a lunatic, one could not disagree that he was also extremely good with those blades of his. The man had surely more fighting experience than Kaden did, but that was probably mostly against humans. Kaden’s style was to simply overwhelm and ignore everything else.

It had been critical mistake for Jed to allow Kaden to devour the body. Jed was eventually getting hit more and more and Kaden’s claws were not precise ‘tools’ like Jed’s blades and pinpoint precision strikes. Damage they left behind was much greater than Jed’s attacks and those were visibly being healed as Kaden’s body knitted together soon after.

This did not slow down or cause Jed to feel despair. It was the opposite. It was as if he was going into a frenzy as he was being pushed back. To Jed this was a test of his art. He even used lesser version of his spell and screamed something about true art and his being greater form. Kaden didn’t listen. His mind was focused on killing.

Then finally Jed made a mistake. It was likely due to wounds he had accumulated. Kaden leaped forward and slammed against Jed with great force sending the man flying backwards towards a window.

Jed was defenestrated!

Kaden leaped after him and landed claws first upon Jed who was laying on the ground on his back.

“Aaahhh! PAIN! ART! MAKE ME YOUR MASTER PIECE!” Jed screamed as Kaden was tearing him to shreds. “ARTIST BECOMES THE ART! GAAH!”

Kaden had enough of the lunatic and finished him off by tearing off his head. He needed a proof for the bounty and head was probably fine.

Kaden tossed the head on the side and used Devour once again. He was bleeding all over and whatever he had gained earlier had already been mostly used up. Since Jed was already dead and laying in pool of his own blood, he was fine enough target. Kaden set him on flames.

One has to remember that it was Kaden’s original plan to find people to kill and then devour them so that he could ‘eat’ mana infused food. Jed was advanced Channel Opening so his flesh was delightfully rich in mana. There was no need to question why beasts liked to eat humans.

He devoured his fill.

Whatever remaining gangsters were around, they did not interrupt Kaden and instead chose to run away.