Mikael's right foot once again touched the ground, like it had all the earlier times—but this time, something was different. He felt the earth beneath his sole crumble, and his foot slowly passed through the earth, gravity doing its job and bringing him downward.

Below where his foot was heading, the earth disappeared entirely, revealing rising rows and rows of extremely sharp teeth located in a circular mouth that was the stuff of horror. If his foot landed in that mouth, it was clear it would be shredded to pieces in an agonizing way. And with that came a great loss of mobility that would signify certain death.

Time seemed to freeze. Mikael's foot slowly inched closer toward the rows of teeth, each inch bringing him closer to a horrifying fate. At this instant, Mikael’s fate seemed sealed. Normally, the expected expression on his visage would have been abject horror, but—

Contrary to what one might expect, Mikael didn’t have a horrified expression. On the contrary, a small mocking smirk was present—a smirk that seemed to scream, “Got you, fucker!”

Boom.

Using his broken left leg, he pushed with his full power on the nearby solid ground. At the same time, he activated his flight ability.

Combined together, they allowed him to ‘easily’ leap tens of meters away to the right—more than enough to be out of the rising Fleshgrinder Worm’s way and, more importantly, out of its terrifying mouth’s path.

All of that happened in the fraction of a second before Mikael's foot was shredded to pieces by the worm's jagged teeth.

Crunch.

The worm’s rising mouth closed with a loud crunch, but it caught only empty air, causing it to pause mid-lunge, predatory instincts confused by the empty space. It had clearly felt the seismic vibrations of the small human standing here—its ambush should have been a clean kill.

It was understandably disoriented, unaware of the existence of something called Divine Sense. Its so-called ‘stealthy’ approach had been entirely visible to Mikael. Consequently, it was only logical that he hadn’t been caught off guard… in truth, he’d even had time to prepare a small surprise.

Rumble rumble.

The worm felt a deep and extremely loud seismic vibration come from its left. Instinctively, it turned its ‘visage’ toward it. It didn’t have eyes, but if it did, it would have seen the moving hill that was the Titanhide Rhino quickly approaching—especially one of its immense feet, which was already above the worm, casting a shadow as it quickly descended toward the subterranean demonic beast.

The Fleshgrinder Worm sensed the danger and instinctively burrowed into the earth. Moments later, the Titanhide Rhino’s foot slammed down on the exact spot the worm had just vacated. The Rhino was about to turn to correct its trajectory toward the small human, uncaring of the ‘insect’ it had just crushed.

But at this moment, the terrain—already fragile—collapsed under the Titanhide Rhino's enormous weight. A large cloud of dust was released as its foot sank deeper into the earth.

Its foot became stuck in the ground which, considering the Late-stage demonic beast’s momentum, made it stumble and fall to the ground in an astonishing fracas.

Meanwhile, a gasping-for-air Mikael was standing tens of meters away, observing the scene with a satisfied expression. The only thing he found somewhat disappointing was that he was able to sense the aura of the worm still alive—it was far weaker than before, clearly severely injured but sadly not dead.

But it was to be expected. After all, while the Titanhide Rhino was at the Late-stage and far bigger than the Fleshgrinder Worm, expecting that only with its weight it would be able to instantly kill the worm was a little too much.

Even then, Mikael was satisfied with the result of his out-of-the-blue plan of using himself as bait. Not only was the worm severely injured, but even the hill-sized Rhino was temporarily immobilized, giving him precious seconds.

Mikael’s gaze flicked away from the fallen beasts and moved across the chaotic battlefield. His eyes searched for the safest and fastest path he could take to leave this tide.

Quickly, his gaze zoned in on the northeast. This was one of the places with the highest demonic beast density—at least for Body Forging Realm ones—but as for Spiritual Foundation Realm demonic beasts, he didn’t see as many of them compared to the other locations he could potentially take to escape.

With a path in mind, he didn’t waste a second of this hard-fought time. Mikael erupted with his full speed toward the end of the tide, five hundred meters away.

His surroundings blurred as he moved at high speed, ‘quickly’ crossing ‘immense’ distance. A couple of seconds and some injuries later, he was now only four hundred meters away from the edge of the tide—and from safety.

BRRRAAAUUUGHH!

At that instant, the extremely loud bellow of the Titanhide Rhino resounded. He felt it in his bones, and following the bellow, the ground began to tremble as the hill-sized demonic beast began to charge toward him.

And this time, it wasn’t motivated by simple curiosity or fleeting interest, but raw, bestial fury—as the immense demonic beast was enraged at having been tricked by the small human.

Mikael weaved through the dense crowd of demonic beasts, the Titanhide Rhino on his heels. Knowing this, Mikael redoubled his effort and accelerated even further. Because of this, by the time he had reached three hundred fifty meters from the edge of the demonic tide, he had received a particularly nasty wound across his chest.

This injury ran from the lower left of his chest to the upper right, and it was bone-deep—exposing the white bone and pushing his already struggling body even further toward total collapse.

Mikael gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain, fatigue, exhaustion, and numbness, continuing to move toward the exit of the tide.

Rumble.

The rumbling of the earth as the Rhino approached was a silent countdown to his end. He could clearly feel it gaining ground between them, quickly closing the distance.

A hint of despair appeared in Mikael’s heart. ‘Wasn’t I supposed to have an opportunity if I didn’t use my non-cultivator powers? Because now the only opportunity I see is dying—so where the fuck is it?’ he thought with a mix of frustration and dread, feeling more and more tempted to use his Weightless Wind-Explosive Style

and get the fuck out of here.

For a moment, his ‘steps’—if they could even be called that—faltered. And not because the poison spreading through his leg impaired his movement. No, it was something deeper. The kind of misstep that betrays a mind reeling and a will that quivers on the edge.

Especially when he threw a glance backward and caught sight of the Titanhide Rhino, now only fifty meters behind him—its massive frame casting a shadow on the surroundings like a moving mountain.

His fist clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palm. He didn’t stop—even when they broke the skin and warm blood trickled between his fingers.

The pain in his hands was a wake-up call, shaking him out of his defeatist thoughts and slapping his mind back into the right place. ‘I didn’t suffer through all these “beatings” to forfeit just before the finish line!’ A fire of determination burned in his eyes. ‘My Foresight of Heaven’s Mandate “sense” can see things I can’t—so let’s believe in it!’

With his determination burning even amidst the pain, Mikael banned the thought of using either his aura or mana from his mind and refocused on moving toward the exit, meter by meter.

Moments later, just as he evaded yet another attack from an Early-stage demonic beast, reality decided to ‘test his determination.’ As he turned around a small hill, his gaze landed on what lay beyond.

Immediately, he stopped in his tracks.

At first glance, there was nothing particularly shocking. The same dense swarm of demonic beasts filled the area—but Mikael’s eyes caught something instantly.

Tens of meters ahead, separated from the other demonic beasts by a distinct circle of emptiness—like nobles set apart from commoners—stood a small pack of wolves.

Normally, that wouldn’t have caught his attention. Wolves were common; he’d seen dozens, maybe hundreds throughout the tide. But these were different…

There were six of them, each with sleek silver-gray fur streaked by faint green patterns that seemed to shift with the air itself—so fluid and subtle they resembled wind made visible more than markings.

This was particularly eye-catching as Mikael could ‘see’ how the wind warped itself unnaturally around them. Even more concerning was their cultivation: three were three meters tall and at the Early-stage, two were larger—four to nearly five meters—emitting a much stronger aura that marked them as Mid-stage.

And finally, at the center, lounging lazily on the ground, was the alpha. Nearly six meters tall, its aura also rested at the Mid-stage of the Spiritual Foundation Realm, but Mikael sensed it was extremely close to the Late-stage.

They were all Zephyr Wolves, a race of powerful wind-aligned demonic beasts. Mikael didn’t know the species by name, but he could sense their strength—and the fact that they stood directly in his path made his expression darken.

It worsened a heartbeat later when the alpha slowly rose, licking its lips and staring at him with unmistakable hunger in its eyes.

Awooooo.

The Alpha Zephyr Wolf let out a loud howl, echoed moments later by the rest of the pack. All six stared directly at him, their gazes sharp with hunger as they took slow, deliberate steps forward. The nearby demonic beasts quickly cleared the way, parting before them like commoners before royalty.

And then, to make a bad situation worse—BOOOOMMM!!

The hill Mikael had just circled exploded into fragments. Rock and earth were hurled in every direction at terrifying speed. Demonic beasts nearby were pelted by the debris—skulls caved in, ribs shattered, dozens of Body Forging creatures killed or maimed in an instant.

Mikael was directly in the path of the debris, but he slipped through the chaos unharmed, evading each shard before it could strike. Still, there was no joy in his expression.

The reason?

Thud.

From the swirling cloud of dust and shattered stones, a colossal demonic beast slowly emerged, the ground trembling with each of its steps. The creature stood over forty meters tall, and if it wasn’t for its gray skin, it could’ve easily been mistaken for the hill it had just destroyed.

It was the Titanhide Rhino. The beast’s colossal frame towered over the battlefield, its hide stained with dust and debris. Then, its gaze shifted, slow, deliberate, locking onto the lone human nearby. And within those ancient, primal eyes… there was a glint of rage.

Mikael’s lips tightened. ‘Fuck me. I’m too dumb—why did I stop to admire those wolves?’ He cursed himself for wasting precious seconds gawking at the demonic beasts ahead when he should’ve been moving.

In everyday life, a few seconds meant nothing. But in a pursuit like this, they meant everything—and for Mikael, those brief moments of hesitation had been enough for the Rhino to catch up.

Now his situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse. Behind him stood a colossus at the Late-stage Spiritual Foundation Realm, its defense near impenetrable—and before him waited a pack of wolves that, in terms of threat, weren’t far behind the Rhino.

His purple, unsteady hand tightened his grip on Sangrelia as his gaze swept the surroundings. All around him, there was only the destroyed terrain left by the Titanhide Rhino’s ‘entrance’, as for the other nearby demonic beasts, they were pretty much all dead.

‘Let’s see the good things, at least I don’t need to watch my sides…’ he thought, though not even he sounded convinced. ‘Yeah, it’s a super news—I don’t need to watch my side when I get torn in pieces by these demonic beasts… Oh joy!’

Mikael barely had time to ‘rejoice’ before the Titanhide Rhino behind him swung one of its pillar-like front legs his way. The thick limb tore through the air with a force that seemed enough to flatten the world.

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— End of Chapter —