The Transcendent Godslayer

When Kallen had been running earlier... before he even came in contact with the ambushers, he had come across a very powerful beast. Fortunately, he was more agile than it, and a little faster as well, and thus, was able to outrun it.

Although he did not fight the beast, it had made him work harder than all the other three beasts he had met combined... the shadow cat included, and was the reason he'd been so gassed earlier.

It had chased him down a good distance, and Kallen had to pull on everything he had to outrun it and make it give up.

And now, he was back to it, and to the very thing it was protecting.

He had been waiting… hoping, in fact, for it to come out and jump him like it had the other time. That way, he could just make a beeline for what he was headed for.

He could only curse his luck that it didn't, and was ironically, now in the worst position he could have wanted it to be.

His steps, however, did not pause as he dashed into the corner, where a black rift stood like a gate to the abyss, releasing steady pulses of oppressive dynamis into the air... pulses that contrasted with the volatile dynamis raging throughout all of Ares now.

At its foot lay a massive beast with thick brown fur, and what looked like molten veins running across its muscles like striations and steel cords, pulsing with immense vitality and giving off their own light against the pitch-black night.

It had two metallic horns, with red veins of what looked like molten magma running through them.

Upon sensing Kallen's presence, its head rose from its lying position with a deep, reverberating bellow, the tremor traveling through the air and making Kallen's form quiver to its beat.

Kallen gritted his teeth as he felt his organs quake to the rhythm of the bellow, blood slowly trickling down his nose and ears.

His eyes met those of the beast across the distance, and it let out a breath that vaporized the air in front of it into steam.

It rose to full height as Kallen charged toward it, each of its movements releasing a great wave of heat that vaporized the heavy, pelting drops of rain into steam, causing a thick fog to envelop its surroundings.

Kallen's eyes grew even colder, not slowing down in the slightest. Before him stood the most powerful ascendant he had ever faced, standing in its quadrupedal form in full glory.

A beast that was, frankly, Kallen's greatest nemesis, as it handicapped his greatest strength: his mind and body. Its sound turned his organs to mush and disoriented his mind by impacting his ears, which controlled balance.

The intense heat it exuded caused his body temperature to rise to frightening degrees, and if it hadn't been raining, Kallen wouldn't have even dared to stand before it, let alone try to make use of it, as he planned to now.

Behind him…

The Third Ascension ascendant swiftly entered the range of Kallen's Will, and was swiftly closing the distance between them. He had only at most, ten seconds before he upon him.

Kallen let out a foggy breath. From the thick fog about twelve steps ahead, he could make out the beady red eyes of the bull trained on him, filled with complete malice.

Seeing Kallen made it incredibly mad. Because not long ago, as much as it had injured Kallen without even touching him, Kallen had as well toyed with it, making it look like a fool until it became very dizzy and gave up.

Knowing what was coming, Kallen took a deep breath, an icy cold washing over his mind as he tuned out all his senses, focusing only his vision through his Will as he was barely able to see with his eyes in this dark night.

He traced a direct line from himself, to the beast, and to the rift, and that line exploded into a world of colors, while his other senses vanished, as his sight became akin to a swift blade, cutting a path towards his destination.

[Bladeful Soul (Third Ascension Passive Skill): The mind is the metaphysical representation of the Soul, and the brain, its physical dominion. According to legends, it is even said the brain inhabits the Soul.]

[Your Soul is a blade, and your mind its edge. You're in a transcendental mental state that transforms the Soul into a functional blade, purging all distractions into cutting clarity. You are able to align all five senses into one "cutting" channel of perception. The roars of blood rushing through your veins, create a lyrical harmony between all your muscle fibers, breath and heartbeat]

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The beast let out a growl that clapped more like that of a feline than the bovid it was, the veins along its body pulsing with each heartbeat.

MOOOOO!!!

It released a deafening roar like the clap of thunder, and the air before it practically exploded into a shockwave.

Before Kallen's eyes, he saw the ripple in the air as the grey of sound traveled through it. It appeared both fast and slow to him, so much so that he could see the sound move through the air, but his brain lagged by at least a second in processing it.

Blood dripped from his ears, and he was sure his eardrums had ruptured. Fortunately for him, aside from his sight, he had lost every other sense, so he was able to focus.

The Third Ascension ascendant behind him wasn't so lucky, but Kallen paid him no mind. It had bought him a few more seconds.

A wall of sound, compressed air, and wind pressure rushed toward him, appearing as a wall of myriad colors in his eyes, with the bull right behind it, charging at him with vengeance.

'Six seconds,' he thought calmly, as his body pierced through a weakness in the wall of colors only he could see, at the same time stepping into an angle that effectively pointed the bovid's charge away from him.

While this bull was extremely powerful and fast as well, it had a severe weakness tied to bovids: its rotational speed.

He accelerated forward as both he and the bull rushed past each other, its extreme heat almost melting his skin… however, he didn't feel that either.

'Four seconds.'

At this point, there was just a straight line of sight between him and the rift... but he knew it wouldn't be so easy.