Brandon was barreling toward the thief whom he wasn’t very sure whether it was an illusion or not. With quick, heavy footsteps that cracked the earth beneath him, he leaned forward his entire body to get the least amount of air resistance possible. However, before he could catch up with the sprinting figure, his foot stepped into a certain part of the ground that glowed a bright orange.

Boom!

The explosion was… ineffective. It only hurt as much as the arrows that he withstood during the duration of his strengthening ability, which wasn’t even enough to make him wince.

‘Was that the trap he was luring me into? If it is, that could barely be considered effective. Something’s not right.’

He immediately slowed down to a stop. There were many subtle hints about the ‘trap’ that he was being lured into. Firstly, the trap he had just triggered was absolutely useless. Normally, you would lure something into a trap to either kill them or restrain them. The trap had done neither and wouldn’t have been that effective even if his ability was deactivated.

Secondly was the figure’s speed. While Brandon looked stout and bulky, he was actually capable of moving quite fast, even more so with his ability. Each step he took was bursting full of energy and launched him a good few meters each time, yet the figure could still keep the distance between them. This only served to grow his suspicions further.

Brandon had long noticed that Kayden had no abilities that would empower his movement and was adamant that there was no conceivable way that his opponent would be faster than him, no matter how good he was at running. Furthermore, the distance between them neither closed nor increased, which meant that they traveled at the exact same speed, which was doubly suspicious.

Lastly, the figure had made zero sounds whatsoever. Even though Brandon had heard him speak at the very beginning, after chasing him for a while, the figure said nothing. No insults, no taunts, not even bragging! Of course, his opponent could simply be so concentrated on running that he couldn’t speak, but Brandon had a way to prove that speculation wrong.

He let the battle axe in his hand drop and fade away, and replaced it with a long, thin rod with a sharp edge at one end. It was a spear, and it shone an ominous blue light over his face. Planting his feet on the ground and gripping his spear tightly, he aimed at the figure and threw.

The spear sailed through the air, lighting the areas it passed an electric blue before crashing into the figure. A cloud of dust was kicked up from the force of the spear landing on the ground, but Brandon could clearly see that after the dust cleared up, the figure was still endlessly running into the distance.

‘No yelps or screams, and he didn’t even turn around to look at the explosion. This must be an illusion!’

Brandon stomped the ground repeatedly in frustration. He could instinctively feel his time was running out. In about a minute, his ability would run its course, and his advantage will be wiped out in an instant. In desperation, he swiveled his head left and right, trying to find his opponent. To his surprise, he did.

His opponent had reconvened with his ally in the distance and seemed to be having a conversation without a care in the world. This scene only made Brandon more furious than ever before.

‘This is the last time you humiliate me! I will make you pay a hundredfold! With my last minute of power, I’ll use all I have to defeat you!’

With the final battle cry that he would make in this battle, he charged forward to begin his final confrontation.

***

“Holy crap! He’s about to reach us!” Both Kayden and Ezekiel were in sync as they both leaped backward to avoid the stampeding behemoth. Ezekiel immediately tugged on his bowstring and released a few explosive arrows, while Kayden threw multiple knives in quick succession.

Another blue spear formed in Brandon’s hands as he threw out his own projectile. His weapon collided with the explosive arrows in mid-air, causing an explosion that knocked all the knives off course. He managed to completely nullify their attack!

Both Kayden and Ezekiel didn’t dillydally and responded in kind, doing their best to slow down the unstoppable force. However, Brandon managed to deflect every single one of their attacks, and nearly caught up.

“Tch! Shwards! Spilt up!”

Kayden jumped to the left while Ezekiel jumped in the opposite direction. A blue spear struck directly in the middle between the two, cruising by like a missile which made their hair and clothes blow to one side from the sheer force. If they had dodged any later, both of them would have sustained severe injuries.

“How much time does he have left?” Kayden yelled.

“Twenty-five seconds!”

Seeing the two of them separate, Brandon naturally headed towards the one he hated most. At this point, he was only about a hundred meters from Kayden, which spelled doom for the thief.

‘This is bad. He can reach me in less than twenty seconds! I just need to stall for long enough!’

Kayden ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Never had his legs split so wide with every step he took.

 The System decided to take this moment to measure the distance and time between them.

“Eighty meters! Twenty seconds!”

“Sixty meters! Fifteen seconds!”

Kayden suddenly vanished into thin air before reappearing as three hooded figures. One split off to the right while the another to the left, and together, they ran off in three different directions.

“Don’t try to fool me again!” Brandon shouted, both his hands forming spears at the same time. He launched both of them at the two that split off, which phased right through them. Witnessing that his duplicates had been completely seen through, Kayden immediately dropped the spell and focused on sprinting.

“Forty meters! Ten Seconds!”

“Twenty meters! Five seconds!”

‘I won’t make it!’

This was the only thought that occupied Kayden’s mind when Brandon had caught up. During that 100-meter sprint, he had been coming up with all sorts of ways to drag out the duration of the ability. Unfortunately, his only plan had been ruined from the get-go.

‘I have to at least block this blow!’

He turned around to see that his opponent had no weapon in his hands. As it turns out, Brandon had ditched a weapon in favor of more speed, which was how he managed to catch up to him in the last second.

For a split second, relief flashed through Kayden’s eyes.

‘Phew! This means that I won’t—’

[Critical hit!]

Kayden felt like a battering ram was jammed right up his gut.

[()se^ h@s t@k3n &!/ d@m$ge!]

The last thing he saw was himself, spitting a mouthful of blood that was so much that it frightened him before he lost all consciousness.

***

As soon as the duration of his ability ran out, Brandon collapsed onto the ground in a heap of steaming red muscle. Blood flowed out freely onto the grass as his once bulging muscles visibly deflated.

Ezekiel, who had stopped after seeing the barbarian charge the other way, witnessed the whole event. Kayden had been kicked in the gut so hard he couldn’t help but wince and was now nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t sure if he had been sent flying somewhere or simply disappeared with his magic.

After making sure that the collapsed Brandon wouldn’t rise up again to kill him, he cautiously approached the limp body and poked it with the long end of his bow.

His provocation proved harmless as the adventurer seemed to have fallen unconscious. Over the long, labored breaths that Brandon was taking, Ezekiel spoke.

“Human lives aren’t cheap like grass, you cannot simply reap them as you wish. It’s a shame that it had to end this way, but perhaps it would be better for everyone if you died.”

Ezekiel was normally very averse to killing humans at all, especially with the situation that plagued his homeland. Kayden had guessed it correctly before; he had come from the Southern Continent of Riphone where demon attacks are frequent and lives were lost on a daily basis. It was in those harsh times that humanity learned to band together to fight against a common threat.

Due to this, humans rarely ever fought one another in the Southern Continent, and killing a person meant one less defender against the demons and fiends. Only when someone had committed particularly heinous deeds or was deemed completely irredeemable were they sent for execution. Even criminals could be used as free labor or meat shields.

Growing up in this kind of environment, killing a person didn’t come naturally to him. It was only when he arrived at the Central Continent of Galio did he open his eyes. There were many people who could kill without batting a single eye, and if no one put a stop to them, more lives would be lost. Thus, the cycle of killing would never end and slowly, he too was corrupted by this mentality.

He pulled his short sword out of its sheath and lay his other hand on it. A circular orange rune formed on the blade as let the sword tip point towards the body.

“Any last words?”

The sounds of heavy breathing were the only reply.

“What am I saying, of course you don’t. Let’s end this—”

A ball of acid came flying towards him, which he immediately countered with the sword in his grip. The rune on the blade activated, causing a small explosion that sent the acid raining down everywhere. Little acid droplets prickled his skin as they came into contact.

A man with a long tongue that lolled out of his mouth, ran straight towards the unconscious body. It was Ryan and he had finally made his move. Ezekiel could see a green liquid drooling out of the corner of his mouth, and it was precisely because of this liquid that he couldn’t stop the reptilian man in time. The acid that he thought had faded away began burning off his skin and the stinging pain muddled his ability to process things.

‘He managed to sneak up on me? How did I not notice him until now with my ability?'

Ryan scooped Brandon up and slung him over his back, before effortlessly hightailing away, even with the weight on his shoulders. His actions were all done in one fluid motion as if he had practiced doing this many times before.

“He got away… I should have considered that the lackey would jump in last minute, but who would have thought that he could carry that bundle of mass so effortlessly?”

He sighed. Although the man had made off with his enemy, Ezekiel was secretly relieved. Deep down, he didn’t want to end someone’s life, especially with his own hands.

“Now then, where is he?” Ezekiel scanned his surroundings but couldn’t find Kayden anywhere. He even used his ability to scan the plains within a kilometer radius, but still failed to find him. He looked straight up, and other than the clouds and a black spot, he didn’t see anything else.

“Wait… Is that— Yup. It is.”

***

Kayden awoke to the sound of rushing winds in his ears and abruptly opened his eyes. What he saw was the brilliant blue sky, as well as some drifting clouds. At the corner of his eye, there was the latest notification from the System.

[Critical hit!]

[User has taken 81 damage!]

‘Where am I?’

“Kayden—!”

There was still a slight ringing in his ears that deafened him after being kicked to the heavens. He was still a little dazed having just awoken, but maybe he was still dreaming? No way he just died and got sent to heaven, hell was probably where he’d go. And just now, he could have sworn that someone was calling his name—

“Kayden! You’re about to die! WAKE UP!”

“Huh? What? It’s not a dream? Ahhh—!”

Thankfully, Kayden’s cloak served as a sort of makeshift parachute that helped slow down his fall. However, with the speed at which he is falling, he was still going to be pancake once he reaches the ground.

He quickly rifled through his pockets, hoping to find a way out of his situation. As expected, he had nothing.

‘Skills! What can I do? Illusion magic? Not very helpful. Blessing of Ymir? Never going to use it. Blessing of the Trickster? Hmm…'

Kayden recalled that the System had told him that he should be capable of using transformation magic. He didn’t know how to do it, or if he could even do it in the first place, but with things as they are now, he had to at least give it his all.

‘What I need right now are wings!’

He quickly imagined himself sprouting wings from his back. As he opened his eyes, he was shocked to discover… nothing! Absolutely nothing grew out of his back.

‘Sh*t! Am I going to die? From falling? What a stupid way to go!’

It was then that an indescribable feeling welled up within him. Was it fear? Relief? Or was this his inner crazy? All he knew was that in the next moment, his body began to move on pure instinct.

He spun around in the air and caught sight of a bird just gliding past. Kayden didn’t know what type of bird it was, but it had grey feathers with white spots and an elongated beak that looked like a needle. Most importantly though, was that it had wings.

Like following the instructions of a textbook, he began to use the same procedure that he always used with his illusion magic. Black tendrils shot out of his body and rapidly wrapped around him, forming a cocoon that was as dark as midnight.

[User is casting tier 1 spell: Animal Shapeshift]