Burgen was a problem. Kaden knew he would have to gain upper hand. It was time to test some matters.

Kaden raised his hand and pointed towards Olren. Fire and Wind mana mixed together and he shot an extremely fast fiery blade, mixture of fire ball and wind blade, towards him to ensure a hit.

Olren was still Dorin’s little brother. Would they aid him, even if he is useless?

Burgen did indeed move in way to block it!

“These losers have sold themselves to the nobles”, Kaden determined. “It is a weakness. If they only cared about victory, I’d probably be in trouble. How foolish.”

Kaden took the chance to use his movement technique to move around Burgen before he could stop him.

“Hehe, die!” Kaden laughed and shot another Fire Beam at Dorin. Burgen could do nothing. Only Ronnald who had been treating Dorin was there. Someone would get hit. If Ronnald dodges, he will allow Dorin get hit and he would probably die. Dorin himself was aware and awake, but his chest was burnt and he was unable to do much at the time.

Ronnald chose to take it by using his weapon, a sword, and with quite a bit of mana it seemed. Kaden sneered at the nobility slave and continued feeding mana to the Fire Beam as much as he could. He managed to get to close range while doing so and slashed at Ronnald with his talons while he was still reeling from the attack to push him aside a bit.

Attacking Ronnald was not Kaden’s true intent, though. It was time to eliminate Dorin. Kaden only took a few steps past Ronnald and grabbed Dorin to Ronnalds dismay. Kaden held Doring from behind his back, his talons against his neck, ready to tear it open with other free hand.

“You are going to die now”, Kaden said calmly to Dorin’s ear who was only pathetically able to struggle. Sure, he was at Formation stage, but he was too injured to gather any relevant mana or attack. Kaden could easily stop anything he tried. Indeed, the man was pathetic excuse for a Formation stage mana cultivator.

Burgen and Ronnald looked really bad. They had messed up and moved to make move on Kaden.

“We can’t have that!” Kaden told them with a grin. “Get the fuck away from me or Dorin here will die.”

Both of them started hesitating.

“Let me go!” Dorin croaked. “I will arrange you to be left alone!”

“I may look like a beast, but do you think I’m stupid?” Kaden replied to Dorin. “I told you I’m going to kill you… oh thats right I said something else too!”

Kaden clawed Dorin’s face and tore off his nose. Dorin screamed in pain and Burgen and Ronnald almost attacked.

Kaden held the bloody piece of meat on his hand and burned it. Then he stuffed it in his mouth and started chewing. Kaden did have some opinion on directly eating human flesh directly, but recently he had some feeling that it didn’t make sense. Perhaps his ideas about whatever remaining humanity he had was changed at some point. In fact, he felt some curiosity about the matter and thought to give it a try.

The nose was not exactly best part, but it wasn’t too bad in Kaden’s opinion. Texture was just not good. It was still flesh that had at least some mana in it.

“I will have to take some time later to try it more”, Kaden though. “Now is not the time.”

While this Dorin was screaming at Kaden. “U dade! U DADE DO DIS DO MY FACE! KILL IM! DO ID!”

With the lack of nose and the bleeding, Dorins voice was nearly unintelligible. Yet, Burgen and Ronnald were still hesitating. Kaden had their master in his hands and could kill him right away. It would be bad for them, if Dorin died. As far as Kaden cared, they had made the worst decision of their lives when they agreed to serve the nobles.

Kaden sneered again and cast Devour on his other hand. Then he pressed that hand on Dorin’s back

“AAAAAAAAAHhh”, Dorin screamed in pain as he was being devoured alive.

Kaden didn’t give a shit and only grinned at the so called bodyguards. Luckily Dorin was already at Formation stage so Kaden’s internal wounds started to heal slightly.

“What? Aren’t you going to save him?” Kaden said mockingly. “So what will happen to you, if you fail to guard him? Perhaps you will already get harsh punishment because he got injured? Haha, what losers these nobles are.”

There had to be some consequences. They wouldn’t act the way they were otherwise.

“What weakness”, Kaden continued and used Devour on Dorin once again. He listened to the screams some more.

Burgen and Ronnald were trying to figure out how to solve the situation, but Kaden was about done. He felt he had quite a bit of flesh from Dorin. It was about time to continue. Kaden pressed his talons against Dorins neck. Then he started to slowly press them in and observed the reactions from his two. By the time Dorin started screaming and blood flowing on his talons, the two failed bodyguards finally acted after realizing Kaden was doing it this time.

“Hahaha”, Kaden laughed at them, tore out Dorins throat. Formation stage wouldn’t save someone from that. They would need a priest at some higher stage than anyone was to heal it. There was no healer around to begin with. He then tossed gurgling Dorin who was about to die at them.

Burgen caught Dorin, but Ronnald continued forward. Kaden wasn’t still aware how he would fight, but he didn’t seem like Burgen. He at least had a sword so he would likely come close anyway. Kaden knew Burgen would determine Dorin to be finished soon and then come. He had to deal with Ronnald before that. There was one thing in his mind, but that would waste tons of mana.

As Kaden was about to clash with Ronnald, he blocked the sword with this talons and then collided directly with him. Ronnald tanked the collision pretty well, but that was not the point of the attack. Kaden quickly took steps backwards and stared at a tiny dark reddish smolder on Ronnald’s shoulder.

Then it ignited and Ronnald noticed it. It burned and spread! Faster, faster and faster! All the time growing.

“Shit!” Ronnald shouted and tried to put it out, but he only managed to get his hands to ignite too and fire spread even more.

The fire continued spreading and burning even faster. It was like a tiny spark had hit something extremely flammable. Ronnald began screaming as he burst into roaring flames.

Devouring Flame.

Kaden was happy it had succeeded. It was the mixture of fire and consume concepts. He hadn’t really trained to cast it too many times so he was happy he didn’t fail it. To begin with the spell was something he had thought up randomly and wasted tons of mana. Even to current him with core fully released, it was quite a burden. He hadn’t thought he would use it in fight like this since its damage wasn’t powerful direct hit like Fire Beam and yet mana expediture and effort was far beyond it. Yet, at the moment he could not cast another Fire Beam and turning Ronnald into a torch was necessary.

The spell would consume more power to burn from its victims. It was extremely difficult to put out. Kaden wasn’t planning on getting near it either. Instead he concentrated on Burgen. Even, if Ronnald managed to put the fire out, he would be severely injured. If not, he would burn until none of him is left.

“Its time for you to die too”, Kaden said. Burgen was strong and experienced in melee combat. Kaden wouldn’t be surprised anymore.

“You are strong”, Burgen said. “But I must bring your head back. I would not survive the punishment, if I come back without providing proof of your demise.”

“Slave of nobles”, Kaden replied. “I am free. You would have already killed me, if you didn’t have to mind these useless bags of flesh.” He glanced at Olren who was trying to make his way towards the exit, but stopped once he realized Kaden saw him. “Heh, I am free to act where as your are chained down.”

“There are benefits”, Burgen said and rushed forward. His hands were glowing with mana.

Kaden also charged forwards. He was concentrating on all his senses to react to any attacks immediately. He was also feeling Burgen was probably at mid Formation stage. Still, Kaden felt he wasn’t entirely beyond him. Still, this meant he had to be careful.

Once Burgen was close enough, Kaden flashed with mana again, released a burst of flame. He was intending to use this basic ability he had as basically a smoke screen. Burgen would have to pass through it all the time. It would waste mana, but it was ability he could already use when he was a dire beast. It was relatively cheap.

It didn’t do much damage to Burgen, though. He seemed to have some kind of defensive spell that made his skin really hard. Very similar way that Kaden’s feather shaped skin worked.

Kaden was having kind of a rush. He felt battle was way of life. It was how all things eventually boiled down to. Through battle he would grow stronger, if he was strong enough to survive! Burgen was tough fight and this made Kaden’s blood basically boil with desire.

Kaden’s tactic was based on avoiding anything bigger like the Penetrating Palm from before. That strike was able to go through his defenses easily. Other than that, most of Burgen’s strikes went through his armor, but their power was greatly diminished. It still caused some damage, but not at the extent of what the spell did. This damage was starting to pile up.

It still was not one sided matter. Kaden was used to close range combat and furiously slashed with his talons tearing gashes on Burgen.

The more pain Kaden felt and more blood he tasted, the more he went into frenzy. Not in uncontrollable way, but extremely focused.

Perhaps in melee combat like that, Kaden was able to at his early High Beast stage compare to an experienced mid Formation stage.

Both of them slowed down eventually due to wounds received. This also determined the end.

Kaden stood in fighting stance in front of Burgen who was bleeding all over and was breathing heavily. Kaden screeched and rushed forward with his talons on his sides ready to strike. This time he managed to push aside Burgen’s defenses and slash down from side of his shoulder near the neck. Blood started to spew out. Even with the blood smearing Kaden, he furiously continued his attacks not seemingly noticing the already fatal wound he had inflicted.

Burgen on the other hand was not going to go down without making Kaden pay. He started to gather together whatever mana he could and condense it together to self destruct. He was already dying so he might as well go with a boom.

Kaden noticed it finally by the time Burgen started to glow, his flesh flicker and flash. Then finally he started to literally crack open. At this moment Kaden realized what was happening and tried to rush away.

*KADOOM*

A blast was released and Kaden felt like he was a kite with no string attached. Mana explosion like that was partially heat and partially just force, which was the simplest form of mana use. Burgen was very well versed in all sorts of penetrating strikes so that was mixed in too with all of his concepts he had in his body. Kaden’s armor shattered completely and he had to take a lot of the damage by trusting only his powerful body.

Soon after Kaden found himself on the ground, bleeding all over and in pain. Heavily injured, yet, still very much alive.

“Gahahaahahaha”, Kaden started to laugh, ignoring the pain it caused.