“Are you sure you want to fight them alone?” Elaine asked.

Her forehead creased with worry as the very earth beneath their feet shook. The smallest pebbles bounced up and down with each violent quake. Everyone in the group was strong enough to handle a couple of Green beasts with ease by now, but this wasn’t what Percy was planning to do. Instead, he was about to take a risk that they generally tended to avoid.

The trio was currently standing about a mile away from the western boundary of the Valley, staring at the wall of foam blocking the way to the outside world. They’d already confirmed with Micky that the Holy Child’s entourage was roaming close to the opposite side, so at least they wouldn’t have to worry about getting ambushed by a bunch of Blues.

Still, this was quite dangerous.

Counting the days, they knew the Divine Root was supposed to dump the next batch of beasts into the Decree today. Judging from the tremours, they already had. Whenever that happened, the eastern and western boundaries broke into absolute carnage. Dozens – if not hundreds – of Green creatures and thousands of Yellows were released in close proximity to one another. The handlers from House Ypnos then retracted their bloodline from the beasts, allowing the monsters to wake up and scatter through the Valley.

It wasn’t a peaceful transition in the slightest though.

The creatures were all highly territorial to begin with. The Greens, in particular, had all been local overlords before getting snatched from their homes. Most of them had never even encountered peers at the same grade before. At least, not in a long time. Suddenly finding themselves surrounded by both enemies and food, it wasn’t difficult to imagine the outcome.

By the time the survivors spread to the rest of the region, more than half would perish. Over the next several days, the remaining beasts would succumb to hunger, other beasts, or the humans – if there were any around. After that, things would calm down a little until the next shipment arrived.

So far, Percy’s group had tried to steer clear of these hotspots during such times. Even the secondary surge of beasts that reached the north and south ends of the Valley was intense enough, so there hadn’t been much of a reason for them to throw themselves into the carnage before.

That said, Percy wanted to train here today, to take advantage of both the beasts’ numbers and the chaos. He hoped the overwhelming pressure would help him iron out the last few kinks in his fighting style and fully break into his new capabilities. Steady and controlled fights were fine for general training, but one needed to truly push themselves to their very limits every now and then.

At least, this was his experience, as he had personally achieved many of his greatest spell upgrades in the heat of battle. And he’d tried the safer route over the past few days, but it seemed to lack that little extra that could only be found when he truly put his life on the line. He was confident this was the very step he was missing for many of his spells to climb to the next level.

“Here they come. Just… be ready to save my ass if I screw up!” he said, only half-joking. This earned him some disapproving frowns from his companions, causing him to chuckle.

In the distance, the stampeding creatures were already approaching. A cloud of dust rose up, concealing the globules in the area. The beasts weren’t advancing in an orderly manner. Not even close.

Many were grouped together into herds and packs of various sizes, others running by themselves. A few focused mainly on escaping, while many attempted to chase them down. The more aggressive ones didn’t even bother running. Instead, they held their ground, fighting each other.

But the fastest ones were already a couple hundred metres from Percy.

Tying the final piece of his armour into place, he activated his boosting art. The Dance with his first core, and Circulation with his second. He wasn’t confident in using the upgraded version with both at the same time just yet, so he focused on the stronger of the two. Not only would it help more, he hoped to take advantage while the memories were still fresh in his mind.

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Two sets of lines lit up on his skin, the silver ones a touch brighter. Dozens of wisps of the same colour swirled around him, filling his body with strength one after the other. Raging torrents of ambient mana rushed towards him, as a faint silver mist shrouded his body, mixing with the Regalia’s teal shroud. He’d already filled his armour with tiny vents years ago, to better accommodate his boosting arts.

Taking out his scythe, he snapped it in half, pumping the self-repair runes full of fused mana. By the time the beasts were a hundred metres away, he held a complete weapon in each hand. But that was just the start.

He snapped them again, into three segments each, repeating his actions. His channels filled and emptied in equal measure as he fused his affinities as fast as he could currently manage, slowly but steadily forging his arsenal.

The dust now blocked the sky, the tidal wave of monsters pulverizing everything in their path. Any bones left from the previous batch got crushed into powder, as roars and agonized bellows filled the air.

Percy’s heart raced in anticipation – and sure, maybe even a tiny hint of fear – as he looked at the creatures closest to him.

‘Maybe I’m an idiot, and I’m about to get myself killed…’

No. Zoris – who had remained oddly silent today, expressing neither approval nor disapproval – had said it clearly. One couldn’t become a god without the courage and stubbornness to pursue the impossible. Well, if that was true, then Percy was on course to become the strongest deity of them all.

Either way, his opponents were already upon him.

It was a herd of buffalos, though they were covered in shells made of the same material as their horns, Yellow cores burning brightly in their frames. Their shadows jumped forth, charging several metres in front of their actual bodies. His own projection shot forward to meet them, the weapons he had yet to finish crafting slicing into their souls.

‘Not that way.’

His projection had dodged to his left, avoiding the first creature only to get skewered by the one behind it. Listening to his spell’s unspoken advice, Percy dashed to his right instead, thinking it led to a more promising future.

The real buffalo arrived, Percy already circling around it. The beast steered to impale him, but he was far more agile. He wielded a whopping six scythes by now, their shafts rolling and pivoting along his joints, the constructs phasing freely through one another as they carved elegant arcs around his body.

Coming to a halt behind the beast, his gaze briefly lingered on it. Its limp frame collapsed just after its soul did. Not that surprising, since he’d already struck the buffalo thrice with each edge. Having suffered a total of eighteen wounds, each deeper than the next, there was no mystery left as to its fate. With a deafening boom, it hit the ground, skidding and rolling along the dirt.

But Percy wasn’t paying it any attention, his eyes having already moved to the next pair of beasts.

‘I guess that was overkill…’

His recent memories of Melodia might have subtly biased him to expect tougher opponents.

Deciding to better conserve his stamina, he settled for fewer hits this time. Sending both creatures to their doom, he hurled four of his Harvesters up, letting them fly for a couple of seconds. At the same time, he split the remaining pair in his hands in half, already regenerating them into more weapons as he slaughtered another beast with their edges.

Soon, the wave of buffalos had all moved past him, most of them still alive, save for half a dozen beasts unlucky enough to have met his spells head on.

Next, a pride of lions came at him. They were chasing the bovines – or had been, at least. They seemed happy enough to shift their sights to the human, practically drooling in the process. They looked no different from their mundane counterparts, except for their claws that were twice as long as they were supposed to be, their savage glint betraying their sharpness.

Smarter and nimbler than the previous beasts, they surrounded Percy, leaping at him from every direction.

His feet landed in all sorts of strange angles as he pivoted around the creatures – three at a time – his four weapons severing heads and limbs with every calculated slash.

More kept coming, of course, but Percy was only getting started.

The flying constructs fell back down, sinking into just as many felines, pinning them to the ground. Next, they unlodged themselves, spinning toward Percy. Letting go of the ones he was wielding, he freely exchanged them with the others whenever it was convenient, now juggling eight weapons in total.

The whole pride fell atop him, determined to taste his flesh today. But it wasn’t enough. Over twenty lions, both male and female, met a swift end. Even if it had been twice as many, Percy wasn’t afraid of any Yellows.

Not anymore.

The third wave approached. He didn’t even bother to look at the creatures.

They didn’t dare to attack him either, having watched the fate of their predecessors.

The two sides just ignored one another, as his eyes peered past the remaining Yellow beasts. He looked beyond the fourth and fifth waves too, his gaze sinking deep into the cloud of dust ahead.

The Greens were here.