The Psychopathic Beast Emperor-Chapter 101: Six Against Thirty

The shattered tree groaned as the man’s body slid down its splintered trunk. For a moment, nothing moved.

Dust drifted through the ruined courtyard like gray snow. The others tightened their grips on their weapons, their senses stretched thin.

Then the man stood up, slowly. A pressure rolled outward from him like a silent wave. Bahamut’s pupils shrank in awareness and familiarity, while Ren’s ears twitched sharply.

They both recognized the pressure in an instant.

Death Intent.

It wasn’t merely killing intent. Death intent was something deeper... an oppressive presence born from creatures that had fed on life for too long. Predators that had refused to stay dead, but not living either. To normal people, it felt like drowning in a thick, cold water.

To Bahamut and Ren, it felt familiar.

The air around the man darkened as the sickly green glow in his eyes intensified. Then his body began to move.

His skin bulged in waves, writhing like something was alive beneath it. The sound that followed made Rakia’s face twist in disgust... a wet, tearing, bone-grinding against bone.

Cracks spread across his neck and shoulders... then his flesh fell off as pieces.

Chunks of blackened skin peeled away and hit the ground with dull thuds. But instead of them lying still, those pieces began to twitch, stretch, and stand.

One became two, two became five... the fallen skin multiplied in seconds, filling the courtyard with figures from the fallen scraps of skin. They numbered up to thirty, all radiating that heavy and cold Death Intent.

Thirty men stood there, draped in entirely black robes that hung like funeral cloth. Their faces were swallowed in shadow, leaving only those same sickly green eyes.

Each one held a massive axe. The original ghoul stood calmly atop the broken stump of the shattered tree, looking down at them like a king watching his soldiers deploy.

Sel slowly exhaled through his nose.

"This will be annoying."

The thirty figures moved at once, their axes raised. They rushed forward like a silent tide. The ground trembled under their charge.

Bahamut moved first.

He launched forward with a violent burst of speed, the red halos behind him spinning rapidly. The nearest ghoul barely lifted its axe before Bahamut’s claws tore through its chest.

The creature burst apart like rotten wood, but before the pieces even hit the ground, another replaced it.

Two axes swung toward Bahamut’s ribs.

CLANG!

Sel appeared beside him, his silver machete catching one blade while the black one carved across the attacker’s torso. The chain on the handle rattled as the slash tore the creature open.

"Left!"

Bahamut ducked.

A second axe whistled over his head as Sel stepped forward and buried his blade straight into the attacker’s neck, while Bahamut double-punched it in the waist, tearing it into two.

Across the battlefield, Apollonia descended like a streak of sunlight. Her wings flared brilliantly as she stated coldly.

"Radiant Lances!"

Dozens of spears of golden light formed around her and shot downward. The projectiles punched straight through the black-robed figures, blasting holes through their bodies and pinning several to the ground.

Explosions of light tore the earth apart, but the creatures kept coming.

Rakia slammed both her hands onto the ground.

"Stone Break!"

The earth erupted upward in jagged pillars, crushing three ghouls against each other. Their bones cracked as their bodies were pinned between slabs of rising rock.

A fourth ghoul leapt from above, axe raised.

SHUNK.

It froze mid-air in shock. Exildra stood behind it, one slender dagger buried between its ribs. Her other blade flickered sharply, as a thin crimson line appeared across its throat.

The body dropped with a thud and disintegrated.

Ren disappeared from his position... then space twisted. Three ghouls rushing toward Apollonia suddenly jerked sideways and exploded apart as a silver arc sliced through all three at once.

Ren reappeared a few steps away, his form crouched low, the glowing marks on his body pulsing like twin stars.

Axes crashed into the ground where he had stood, destroying the land and forming a deep pit.

The place had turned chaotic.

Bahamut tore another one apart with a brutal uppercut, sending the creature’s torso spinning through the air. But his gaze never left the one standing on the stump. The real ghoul.

The thing watched the battle with eerie amusement, its glowing eyes gleaming like rotten lanterns in the dark.

Then it slowly began to clap. The sound echoed across the ruined town like hollow bones knocking together. The Death Intent grew heavier, taking a toll on everyone except Bahamut.

Bahamut, sensing this, stomped hard on the ground and released a violent burst of energy that destroyed all the ghoul clones around. His smile widened as he locked eyes with the original ghoul, the multiple pupils in them glowing with dark light.

A violent pulse surged through his spine as his back arched suddenly.

The muscles along his lower back bulged as if something alive was forcing its way out. The sensation was sharp, burning, and stretching.

RIP!

The cloth at the base of his back tore apart, and two tails burst free.

They were thick and powerful, covered in sleek crimson fur that shimmered faintly under the sunlight. Each one ended in a soft white tip that flicked through the air like living flames.

The moment they emerged, they lashed instinctively behind him, slicing through the air with a low whump.

Bahamut’s ears twitched, then they elongated.

His human ears stretched upward, sharpening into tall, triangular points as soft red fur spread along them. The tips twitched, adjusting to the world with unnerving precision.

His senses exploded outward more powerfully this time.

Sel, who was in the middle of slashing through another ghoul, glanced sideways and nearly missed his next strike.

"Well, that’s new," he muttered. But Bahamut wasn’t paying attention to the battlefield anymore.

The air around Bahamut bent slightly as power gathered in his legs. His two fox tails rose behind him, swaying like banners of blood-red silk.

Then...

CRACK!

The ground beneath his feet exploded as he disappeared.

The speed was so sudden that several of the ghoul copies didn’t even react before the shockwave of his movement blasted them aside like ragdolls.

He shot straight through the battlefield, a red blur tearing through the warzone.

The original ghoul’s head snapped slightly.

For the first time since the fight began, it looked beyond surprised.

Bahamut appeared in front of it in an instant, his clawed hand already swinging.

The ghoul barely lifted its axe in time...

BOOM!

The impact detonated like thunder.

The stump beneath the ghoul shattered into splinters as the creature was blasted off its perch, sent crashing backward across the ruined courtyard. The ground cracked in a jagged line where its body skidded across the dirt.

Dust exploded into the air.

Bahamut landed a moment later, crouched low, his tails swaying slowly behind him.

The battle was just getting started...