068 THE MONSTER HAVE RANGE
A strange urge crawled under Damen's skin — a pull toward Melrose Meta High School No. 1.
He told himself he had to be rational: He must kill Kurt, yes, but on his own terms, not on a blind sprint.
He checked Kurt's stats again.
The numbers were obscene. He was Rank E now, at least — his Blood and Armor climbing faster than anything else. Damen's stomach went cold as the implication hit him: the curse didn't feed on Annunakin blood alone.
Ordinary killing made those Blood and Armor attributes swell too. Kurt has proven that.
The curse was feeding on human blood too.
"Let the Heroes deal with him," his reason said, neat and cold. Let the city's enforcers wreck this monster and keep his hands clean.
"I never said I'm a hero", Damen muttered.
But his hands betrayed him. They fiddled at his jacket as another thought slid under his defenses — Eryn.
He called Eryn… but she didn't pick up her phone.
"Damnit, I should have saved her in my favorite list", he complained.
Images of her flickered through his mind: running from the monster, engaging with him, being harmed.
Against his better judgment, he grabbed his jacket.
He wasn't going to run headlong into a fight — not yet — but he needed to see, to make sure Eryn was safe.
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Damen reached Melrose Meta High School No. 1 to the sound of chaos — screams, explosions, and the echo of collapsing walls.
"Damnit… hope I'm not too late," he hissed, sprinting toward the dormitory wing.
Students flooded the corridors, running in panic. A monster was loose in the school, cutting people down like prey.
Damen pulled up Kurt's Live View. The feed showed Kurt in the dormitory, one hand clamped around a boy's neck, draining him dry.
Damen didn't think — he moved on instinct.
He burst into the dormitory. The walls were scorched and crumbling, smoke still curling from a recent explosion.
"Kurt did all this?" he thought, stunned.
Then he saw them — bodies scattered across the floor, shriveled and pale like dried husks. What caught his breath were their uniforms — bright, armored suits marked with the emblems of the city's Heroes.
"Damnit," he muttered. "How far has he grown after feeding on so many Heroes?"
He summoned Kurt's status panel.
The numbers made his stomach twist. Rank C. Blood and Armor both surged to levels equal to Zalira's when she was in her Deacon of Annubis form.
A sound — a shift in the air was felt behind him.
It was Kurt, the monster.
In a blur, Damen spun and lashed out. His kick connected with a bone-shattering impact, slamming into Kurt's chest and hurling the creature through the blasted wall into the open field.
Kurt landed hard, growling.
He was no longer human, his fangs bared and veins pulsing with dark light.
Then, from above, the sky split with a rush of wind. A spiraling gust struck Kurt head-on, a miniature tornado wrapping around him.
Damen looked up and his heart froze.
It was Eryn Veyran.
"Damnit, Eryn! Get out of here — you're not his match!" he shouted.
"Don't underestimate me!" she shot back, her eyes burning with fierce determination. "I've trained for this. I can handle him!"
Damen clenched his fists.
He knew that tone — that same fire that once drove her to cross the space rift for her mother, ignoring every warning everyone gave.
She wouldn't back down now.
Damen quickly realized the truth — he wasn't a match for Kurt, not as he was now. The monster had climbed more than a full rank above him in meta power.
But Damen still had one advantage: Kurt had no technique.
Before the Ring of Greed and the cursed blood, Kurt had been just an ordinary student. He had no combat training and no refined meta skills — only brute strength and unnatural speed.
Then Kurt lunged.
Claws tore through the air, slamming into Damen's chest.
"Arghhh!" Damen cried as the impact sent him sprawling, his ribs screaming under pressure.
He blinked, gasping but alive. Barely. The strike could have killed most Ranked E Heroes.
Then he saw the reason why: his body suit. The armor Lord Nicaesa had given him was a Rank C, strong enough to block Kurt's killing blows.
Kurt roared and swung again, his fist colliding with Damen's chest. The armor held, but the sheer force made Damen cough blood. The shockwaves rattled his organs.
The suit could protect against wounds, not the pain behind them.
Before Kurt could follow up, another blast of wind crashed into him — a swirling tornado that knocked him off balance.
It was Eryn.
Damen seized the opening, leaping clear to regain distance.
But the tornado strike drew Kurt's attention. "I'll kill you bitch."
Snarling, the monster turned and sprinted toward Eryn.
"No!" Damen shouted but it was too late. Kurt's claws wrapped around her neck, lifting her effortlessly off the ground.
Without thinking, Damen charged.
His kick landed square in Kurt's ribs with a bone-shattering crunch, hurling the creature backward and forcing it to release Eryn.
"Run, Eryn! Run!" he shouted, following up with a second strike — his elbow this time, driving into Kurt's abdomen. The air cracked with kinetic backlash.
Before he'd left Fortress Myrone, Damen had asked Lieutenant Kalmer to upgrade his Momentum Collapse — refining it so even punches and elbow strikes could trigger the follow-on kinetic compression effect.
Now, every one of his blows detonated with crushing power.
"Momentum Collapse!" he roared as his elbow connected, the impact echoing like thunder across the field.
Taking advantage of Kurt's momentary daze, Damen struck again.
Trained with the best AI combat simulations, he knew precisely where and when to hit.
Kurt might have raw strength and speed, but he was still a novice in real combat. He couldn't anticipate every move from a seasoned fighter.
Gradually, the tide turned. Kurt's movements slowed slightly; his internal injuries were beginning to show.
"Die, you monster!" Damen screamed, unleashing a relentless flurry of kicks, punches, elbows, and knees- all followed by devastating kinetic waves that crunches.
"Rawwrrr! Not so fast," the creature who was once Kurt roared, then bolted backward, putting distance between them.
He knew he wasn't Damen's match in close combat.
Damen smirked. "What now, Kurt? Gonna shoot me from there?"
He wasn't worried …. he didn't expect the monster to have any ranged skills.
Then the impossible happened.
A brilliance flared from Kurt's hands, coalescing into a searing blast of energy that shot straight toward Damen.
"What the hell?"
He barely managed to dodge in time, the heat of the attack scorching the air around him.
"Damnit… since when did he learn that skill?" Damen muttered, his heart pounding.
The tide of battle changed again. Damen had no chance against the monster's range skills.