Klein landed softly on the ground, one knee down, his katana still smoking with the black blood of the creatures. His breath was short, and abundant sweat beaded on his forehead, flowing along his temples down to his jaw.

"One less," he breathed as he got up with a spring.

But two Guardians remained facing him, and these ones seemed to have learned from the death of their companion. They did not charge separately. Instead, they drew closer to each other, their chitin shoulders almost touching, and they advanced like a single block.

The second guardian opened its maw, and a reddish light began to gather inside it.

Klein swore silently.

"Careful, Klein," said Walpurga in a suddenly more serious voice. She had gotten up from her rock, her parasol half opened. "If they hit you with that kind of projection, you will be reduced to ashes."

He nodded without looking at her. His Predation Eyes activated again, tracing potential escape lines in his field of vision. A trajectory to the left. Another by jumping over. A third by passing between the two monsters.

All were risky.

"I know," he replied in a calm voice, almost tranquil. "But I have no choice."

He changed his grip on his katana, switching to a reverse guard, the blade pointed downward. The position was less precise for slashing attacks, but it allowed faster movements, thrusts, stabs, everything that could reach a joint before receiving a mana beam in the face.

Walpurga took a step forward, then forced herself to step back. She breathed deeply through her nose, exhaled through her mouth, and her fingers slowly relaxed around her parasol.

"If you die," she said, regaining her light tone, although a tension remained perceptible under her words, "I will resurrect you just to kill you myself. For making me waste a good evening."

Klein gave a rictus, almost a smile.

"Understood."

...

He sprang forward.

[ Target: Chimeric Guardian

Level: Rank S-

Strength: Enhanced physical, mana resistance ]

’The level has drastically increased since this morning... or rather, since what I perceive as being this morning.’

"Be careful, Klein," murmured Walpurga behind him, her voice losing its usual arrogance. "These ones were designed to resist direct attacks from rank A warriors."

"Don’t give me orders, Witch," retorted Klein without turning around, although his tone was less sharp than usual. "Just watch."

He sprang forward with a speed that defied human perception.

< Aura Technique: Dash >

In a flash, he was at the center of the group of monsters. The Guardians roared, bringing down their masses of weapons with a force capable of pulverizing basalt. Klein pivoted with liquid fluidity, using centrifugal force to initiate his attack.

< Third Movement: New Moon >

< Second Movement: Quarter Moon >

The blades of white aura burst forth, not in a single blow, but in a succession of arcs that remained suspended in the air, vibrating with unstable energy. One of the Guardians tried to seize him with its clawed hand, but Klein used the property of his technique to redirect the assault. In a screech of metal against flesh, the monster’s arm was cleanly severed, projecting a jet of black and fetid blood that came to stain Klein’s silver coat.

Klein did not stop. He felt the Aura Farming activate, converting the tension of combat into an inexhaustible reserve of energy as long as his style remained impeccable.

< Aura Technique: Attraction >

He forcefully pulled the head of the second Guardian toward his knee. The impact was brutal: the monster’s skull exploded in a spray of gray brains and bone fragments. The massive body collapsed with a dull sound of dead meat.

As the third monster prepared to spit a jet of acidic poison, a wave of polar cold swept through the room. Walpurga had not moved, but her 5-star Genesis aura had deployed for a brief instant, just enough to freeze the monster in temporal stasis. Klein took the opportunity to slash its throat with a nonchalant movement, letting the carcass extinguish in a hiss of toxic vapor.

He sheathed his blade and took out a cigarette.

"You’re becoming more and more protective, Walpurga," he remarked while exhaling a puff of gray smoke. "Are you afraid your new toy will break before reaching the top?"

The witch approached him. She raised a slender hand to wipe a blood stain from Klein’s cheek. Her gesture was of a disconcerting softness, far from the cruelty she showed toward her subordinates.

"You understand nothing, Klein..." she sighed, her gaze lost in the void.

***

One of them grabbed Klein in mid-air and violently hurled him against a basalt pillar. The shock was devastating. Klein heard his ribs break in a sinister crack. He fell heavily, face against the ground, while blood flowed abundantly from his mouth.

In these fights one should use less and less the techniques that consume a lot of endurance because the enemies were numerous... Obviously if Klein went at 100 from the start, they could kill them but afterward they would be at their mercy... That was the real target of the training, rare would be the times when it would be a singular one-on-one fight, when the advent of the demons would come... And so he should learn to save as much energy as possible. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

One of the guardians raised its axe for the finishing blow. Klein looked up, his vision blurring, as death approached. ’So this is it... my limit?’

"ENOUGH!"

A blast of power that made the entire tower tremble. Walpurga was no longer the languid and mocking woman. Her amethyst eyes burned with an apocalyptic light, and her long hair floated around her.

The environment changed instantly. The laboratory transformed into an oppressive void where the laws of physics collapsed. The guardians froze, their bodies beginning to twist under the effect of an unbearable gravitational pressure. Walpurga advanced toward them, each step splitting the stone slabs.

"You dare... touch what belongs to me?" she murmured, her voice vibrating with a cold and absolute rage.

With a simple wave of her hand, all the debris on the ground began to levitate. The guardians were dismembered in an instant, their limbs torn off by an invisible force, their entrails spilling onto the ground in a mass of putrefied flesh. In a few seconds, the S+ rank monsters were nothing but dust.