Waaaaaaaaa!!!!!
The environment became increasingly scorchy as the fireball shot out of Feral's mouth into the horde of about 100 D-ranked beasts.
A conflagration of black flames spread throughout the surroundings, causing a cacophony of beast wails to echo through the environs.
A paranormal scene was put on display as multiple beasts with ginormous sizes and grotesque appearances turned to ash.
The flames continued to spread, causing havoc and destruction with profound intensity.
Cars in the vicinity exploded, houses of mundane people that could not withstand the power of a D-ranked awakened beast melted and crumbled. However, even Kailen knew that this flame was no ordinary flame. The flame of his shadow creature had power beyond the D rank.
The flame was just too terrifying.
The collateral damage from Feral's attack could not be underestimated. However, Kailen stood still, unafraid of the flame's power. He stood amidst the conflagration that had spread to his location with a relaxed expression.
The time dilation artifact had already notified him when Feral launched the attack that he had passive immunity to any attack from his shadow creatures.
"This is really a good thing. In the future, I won't have to worry about friendly fire when fighting alongside my shadow creatures," Kailen mused to himself.
Kailen stood amidst the battlefield, immersed in a thrill he had never felt before—a calm he had never experienced, a blood-pumping feeling that surpassed the thrill he felt from reading novels, delving into classical literature, solving complex mathematical equations, conjuring beautiful artworks, or studying anatomy books.
After his depression set in when his parents died two years ago, he felt no desire to engage in these habits of his. But he still clearly remembered the thrill these pursuits brought him.
"However, the thrill those activities brought me cannot be compared to what I feel now. This sereneness, this calm I feel by being on the battlefield. This euphoria. How intriguing. To think I would be what they call in those novels I've been reading—a battle maniac."
Kailen mused intriguingly.
Feral finally turned with a meek expression, as though it wanted some sort of compliment from its master.
Kailen sighed. "Just a few seconds ago, you looked like a malicious being meant to cause an apocalypse. However, now you're acting like a cat seeking its master's approval. Anyway, you've done well."
The three-meter-tall creature shrunk to the size of a normal dog. However, its appearance and body structure didn't change.
"You can do that too? This time dilation artifact doesn't tell me anything about my shadow creatures' abilities. How absurd." Kailen was shocked.
[Do you think I am your servant? Tsk]
"As expected." The time dilation artifact was just too shameless. Kailen ignored its response, then placed his hand atop Feral's head.
The creature made some strange sounds as though it were happy.
Kailen shook his head. This creature was quite strange.
Kailen looked at the large square that had been completely razed to nothing.
Houses had crumbled, cars had been destroyed, and worse, some lives had perished. The ground had been scorched dark; cracks, crevices, and craters had formed.
"Horrifying." Kailen was shocked when he looked at the collateral damage Feral's flames had caused.
Kailen turned around with Feral, now the size of a dog, following him.
"Now that's an issue. Will I have you following me everywhere I go? If only there was a place to keep you so that you won't always be trailing me."
[Ahem. You have what is referred to as a shadow expanse—a space in your consciousness purely generated because of the shadow affinity for the sole purpose of storing your shadow creatures.]
"You didn't think telling me I had that was necessary, system?" Kailen was shocked.
[Well, it's not a skill. It's more like a perk for having the shadow affinity. Anyway, call it whatever you want. Tsk.] The time dilation artifact grumbled, then went silent.
Kailen sighed. This system was just too dramatic.
"Feral, enter the shadow expanse." At Kailen's command, Feral reverted to his original form, then disappeared.
Kailen's expression changed the moment Feral entered the shadow expanse.
He saw a vast, amorphous space completely devoid of light. He had no way to explain it, but looking at the space made him feel like he was staring into an endless, formless domain that had no end.
"Interesting. So that's the shadow expanse existing in my consciousness." Kailen shook his head, then glanced at Feral walking with its legs upside down in the shadow expanse the next second, then floating around in the next.
Kailen shifted his focus from his consciousness, snapping back into reality. "It's time to head home. The awakening association should be sending my money soon."
Kailen had completed his mission; it was time for him to head home.
"Team leader Micheal, am I hallucinating? Even though we have clearly left the scene of the battle, we could see what was happening. But it's just too hard to believe."
A female who was part of Micheal's team spoke.
"I am asking myself the same question. This guy is a monster in human skin. At least he saved our lives. Perhaps... if only I could get close to someone like him, I could ride on his coattails to the top."
Just as Micheal was thinking of approaching Kailen, who was leaving the scene of wreckage and devastation after eliminating the D-ranked beasts, Kailen's indifferent expression made him abandon any ideas of approaching the youngster.
Kailen donned his hoodie cap and walked past him and his team.
One of the ladies in the group was dazed, blushing from ear to ear at seeing Kailen.
However, Kailen simply walked past the group and left, not sparing them a glance.
Other awakened groups and mundane people who had left the scene of the battle at Kailen's warning were all staring at him as though he were some sort of monster. He paid no attention to their gazes and left.
"I could really use a medium of transportation. Maybe I could try creating a shadow creature from a winged beast or something," Kailen muttered. He realized that the car he brought to Smallville County had been destroyed in the attack too.
Meanwhile, in a conference room in New Alexandria City, a man with a robust physique donned in a tight T-shirt stood before a large flat screen with a few individuals seated in the executive room, watching the video alongside him with astonished looks on their faces.
This man was Conrad Ronald, the guild master of Sunset Guild, the number one guild in New Alexandria City. He was currently an A-class awakened. However, what made him stand out was that he was among the few in the world who had S-class talent potential. There were even rumors that he would break into the S rank very soon.
"This Kailen Darkhaven must be quickly eliminated if he refuses to join our guild. Send him a very tempting invitation to join. If he refuses, find a way to secretly assassinate him. If he joins another guild or even remains independent, he will grow to dominate the entire city. We can't have that happening after we've worked too hard to get the Sunset Guild to where it is now. At just E rank, he can end D-ranked creatures. He's too monstrous. If we can't have him join our guild, it is only a disadvantage to have him alive."
The executive members of the guild nodded, satisfied with the decision of the Guild Master.
Various chatters broke out, all supportive of what he had said.
Kailen had no idea that the video of him wiping out a large number of D-ranked monsters with his anomalous methods in Smallville County had caused a storm among the higher-ups of the city.
In just a few seconds after he completed the mission, the awakening centre of Smallville County had sent the footage of his feats to the awakening centre of New Alexandria City. The centre decided to use the video as publicity to establish Kailen's prestige as an uprising genius, posting it on the social media forum of the New Alexandria City Awakened Centre.
Also, with various awakened acting as eyewitnesses present at Smallville County at the time, news spread by word of mouth and through footage of Kailen wiping out the large number of D-ranked beasts with Feral's overpowered flames.
It was no doubt that by the next day, everyone in the city—both awakened and unawakened—would be talking about Kailen.
Each of the three guilds was already thinking of ways to recruit him, and ways to end him if their attempts failed. If they couldn't recruit him, he would be a threat that had to be eliminated.
This was a wicked world where the strong preyed on the weak.