“GRAAAAAAWHHHHHHHHH!”
The earth rumbled beneath the thunderous roar as Alex stood motionless, eyes locked on the monstrous minotaur in front of him.
His expression didn’t flicker, calm, focused, and utterly unshaken.
A storm of bloodlust and chaos swirled around them, yet Alex’s gaze never wavered.
Towering at nearly seven meters tall, the [Chief of Minotaurs] was double the size of a standard warrior of his race.
Muscle-bound arms the size of tree trunks flexed as the beast stomped forward, veins bulging, fur bristling.
The sharp curve of his black horns shimmered with blood.
The air around him burned with fury, radiating the unmistakable pressure of someone driven by both duty and madness.
Looking at the monster before him, Alex couldn’t help but briefly remember another minotaur he had once fought, Clovox, the one who had appeared during the [Dragon Bloodline Trial].
He didn’t know if Clovox had survived the collapse of that realm.
Frankly, he didn’t care.
Friend or foe, anyone who stood against him was nothing more than a target now.
“Alright,” Alex muttered, letting out a slow breath as his left arm shimmered with dark crimson energy, his claws extending.
“Let’s get this over with.”
“GGRAAAWWWHHHHHRRRR!” the minotaur bellowed again, the sound splitting the skies, shaking the crumbling earth beneath them.
Alex wasn’t sure if the creature had lost its ability to speak or if its rage had simply consumed all sense.
Not that it mattered.
In the end, the result would be the same.
[Tharnak, Chief of Minotaurs (Berserk)][Level: 2,000][HP: 25,000,000,000]
His stats were monstrous.
A max-level being, just like the Primordial Dragons, perhaps even stronger than some.
The berserk state had certainly pushed his physical limits far beyond normal.
His aura alone could crush most foes into submission.
But Alex wasn’t most foes.
Fwish! BAM!
A single flap of his wings, and Alex vanished from his spot, leaving only a faint afterimage behind.
He reappeared before Tharnak in the blink of an eye, too fast for even the towering chief to register.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Three swift, calculated strikes landed against the beast’s thick neck.
Alex’s movements were surgical, no wasted motion, no flourish, just brutal efficiency.
His [Bleeding Dragon Claws] shimmered with crimson light, tearing through skin, muscle, and bone alike.
Each strike normally dealt over 700 million damage.
But this time, he had aimed directly at a weak point, Tharnak’s neck.
[Weakpoint hit, dealing 10X damage.]
-7,172,482,000! -7,172,482,000! -7,172,482,000!
In less than two seconds, nearly ninety percent of the chief’s massive health pool had been shredded.
Blood gushed from Tharnak’s throat, spilling down his chest in thick rivers.
His eyes widened in shock as his body staggered backward.
Despite the berserk state, his expression twisted in a mix of disbelief and pain.
He couldn’t even process what had just happened.
“GRAWR?!”
That was all he managed to get out before his survival instinct kicked in.
FWOOSH!
With a burst of violent rage, the minotaur chief launched himself into a desperate final assault.
BERSERK ASSAULT!
His fists blurred, hundreds of punches unleashed in a frenzy.
Each strike carried terrifying force, enough to reduce buildings, or even mountains, to rubble.
The ground beneath them cracked and caved in, the air itself tearing under the pressure of the rampage.
But it wasn’t enough.
Alex’s [Eyes of Cursed Void] activated with a shimmer, locking onto every movement, every tremor, every shift in momentum.
To him, the world moved in slow motion.
Each of Tharnak’s attacks played out like a slow reel of film, easy to read, easier to counter.
With smooth, precise motions, Alex twisted through the air, using his wings to redirect and pivot, avoiding every punch.
And then, with a final spin…
SHUNK!
His [Wings of Hatred] flared out and sliced clean through Tharnak’s thick neck.
The wing’s crimson blade shimmered with a wicked gleam as the minotaur’s head was severed completely.
DING!
[You have slain “Tharnak, Chief of Minotaurs”]
The towering corpse collapsed backward, hitting the earth like a fallen mountain.
Alex let out a soft sigh.
No emotion. No satisfaction. Just progress.
He noticed he wasn’t receiving any experience anymore, but he had already expected that.
The system likely capped his gain since he was locked into a Tier-10 advancement task.
Any EXP earned was probably being stored for later.
Not that it mattered right now.
He quickly approached the minotaur’s body and placed his palm against it.
Ding!
[You have extracted the “Chief of Minotaurs Trophy”]
[Description: given to anybody strong enough to defeat the chief of minotaurs in a one on one battle, proves your strength and increases your reputation with minotaurs by 100.]
Around him, the battlefield had shifted.
The moment Tharnak’s body hit the ground, the tide of battle turned instantly.
The nearby angels, seeing the chief fall, roared in victory and surged forward with renewed strength, cutting through the minotaur ranks with ease.
And as for the minotaurs, their morale shattered.
Some collapsed to their knees.
Others dropped their weapons entirely and fled.
The fight was leaving them fast.
“Alright,” Alex thought, opening his [World Map], “Next target.”
He placed the trophy in his inventory and scrolled across the glowing blue interface, locking onto the location of the [Demon Empire].
He hadn’t needed to visit it to mark it, just entering its portal back in Angel City had been enough to add it to his map.
He didn’t even look back.
Fwish! Ding!
[Teleporting to “Demon Empire”]
His body scattered into shimmering blue particles, and seconds later, he reappeared in an entirely different realm.
The landscape had changed drastically.
The grass beneath his feet was burnt and blackened.
The sky overhead swirled with red and purple clouds, as if the heavens themselves were watching with fury.
In front of him stood a massive empire, one of obsidian towers, black stone fortresses, and flickering crimson flames.
The Demon Empire, an ancient, brutal land that stretched as far as the eye could see, wide enough to host tens of millions.
War was already in full swing.
The skies were filled with streaks of light and magic, angels clashing with demons in chaotic dogfights.
Alex’s wings flared open behind him.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
He ascended with two powerful flaps, instantly rising above the battlefield, scanning the horizon.
The angels were indeed more powerful than the demons, but they were outnumbered heavily.
The demons were holding on with sheer quantity, driven by the orders being shouted from deep within their empire.
And from where the explosions were thickest, Alex could already tell where the [Demon King] was.
He dove.
Of course, as he approached the heart of the city, demons began targeting him, flinging spells, hurling javelins, trying to intercept.
But with a flick of his wrist and the shimmer of red light, Alex summoned his [Bleeding Dragon Claws] and his [Wings of Hatred].
They didn’t stand a chance.
Each attacker was cut down instantly, their bodies torn apart midair as he flew past them.
Some didn’t even have time to react before the claws sliced their heads clean off.
But just in case more tried to swarm him, Alex decided to speed things up.
[Celestial Judgment] activated.
Twelve radiant swords descended from the sky, glowing with divine power.
The blades hovered beside him like guardians, targeting and eliminating any nearby enemy with surgical precision.
One after another, demons were impaled midflight, their bodies burning with pure light before falling to the ground below.
Alex didn’t even glance at them.
He was already descending.
CRACK-BOOM!
Rather than waste time finding the front door, Alex smashed straight through the side of the demon king’s castle.
The obsidian walls cracked like glass as he burst through and landed in a wide hallway filled with chaos.
Elite demons and angels were locked in vicious battle here, far stronger than the grunts outside.
Armor gleamed with dark enchantments, weapons radiated cursed energy.
It was clear this was the heart of the demon forces.
The angels were struggling.
But then—
Fwish! Fwish! Fwish!
Alex’s twelve holy swords darted forward like comets, slashing through every elite demon in the hallway.
Heads rolled. Bodies dropped. Blood painted the walls.
Not one demon remained standing.
The angels, shocked, gasped in awe.
“He’s here!”
“That’s the human!”
“He saved us!”
Their voices reached him, but Alex barely acknowledged them.
He kept walking forward, not slowing down.
His eyes glowed faintly, crimson, golden, black, flaring with the conflicting powers inside him.
“Where is the Demon King’s chamber?” he asked coldly, not stopping.
His voice was quiet, but it echoed through the hallway like a death sentence.