FREE USE in Primitive World

SLASH

SQUELCH!

The arc cut cleanly through the front row of the Zharun vanguard.

Their weapons were sheared like dry grass. Thick wooden spear shafts snapped apart mid-air. Leather armors offered zero resistance... the edge passed through hide, muscle, and bone with the same effortless finality.

The Zharun commander and the seven warriors standing closest to him were cleanly bisected at the waist.

For a single, surreal heartbeat, their upper bodies remained upright, eyes still wide with unfinished words. Then they slid off their lower halves in a synchronized, violent collapse with arterial blood exploding outward in thick, pressurized fountains that painted the already red white limestone a deep, glistening red.

”AAAGH!”

”MY LEGS—!”

”RUN! HE’S SLAUGHTERING US!”

The remaining Zharun warriors shattered instantly.

Discipline evaporated like mist under a rising sun. Men screamed in terror as they scrambled backward, trampling over the still-twitching lower halves of their own comrades.

Some dropped their weapons entirely. Others tripped and fell into the spreading pools of blood, only to be stepped on by those behind them in the panicked rush to escape.

Sol watched them for a moment, his neon-crimson eyes calm.

Then he began to walk.

Not with the explosive speed of a desperate warrior. Nor with the roaring momentum of a charging beast. He simply walked... calmly andleisurely... into the heart of the fleeing Zharun ranks.

The Dreadwing Blade rested lightly against his shoulder, still dripping with the blood.

Every step he took left a crimson footprint on the white limestone.

Seeing him, the first group of Zharun spearmen knew that they couldn’t outrun him, so they tried to reform a desperate line, raising their weapons with shaking hands.

But Sol didn’t even change his pace. He swung the Dreadwing Blade in a short horizontal arc.

A compact wave of sapphire-gold force erupted from the edge, no more than ten feet wide, and passed through the entire line as if they were made of wet paper.

Their bodies continued forward for half a step before separating cleanly at the waist. Upper torsos tumbled, still mid-stride, while legs collapsed beneath them. Arterial spray painted the stones in wide, arcing patterns.

Sol kept walking.

A Layer 2 warrior with a heavy axe charged from the side, roaring in a last burst of courage. Sol didn’t look at him. He simply shifted the angle of the blade slightly and flicked his wrist.

The high-frequency edge sheared through the man’s torso from shoulder to hip. The two pieces of the warrior fell in different directions, still mid-stride.

Soul power surged into Sol’s body the moment the man died.

As each life ended beneath the Dreadwing Blade, a thin stream of soul power and residual essence surged into Sol’s body. He felt it clearly... the familiar rush that should have poured into his Sun Core or Chest hollow, strengthening him, refining him, pushing his foundation higher.

But just like before, the energy mysteriously twisted the moment it entered him.

Instead of settling in his chest, it shot upward toward his head and vanished without a trace.

Sol’s expression didn’t change, but his mind noted the phenomenon with cold curiosity.

Still going there.

He had noticed it earlier when killing the Layer 4 warlords. The soul power refused to remain in his core. Something above... something he still did not understand... was taking it. Devouring it. Hiding it.

He still had no idea what it was.

And that unknown only made him more willing to test its limits.

Sol decided, then and there, to stop holding back.

Whatever you are... let’s see how much you can take.

Anyways, the massive increase in his baseline power after the earlier battles... the layers of essence and soul force he had already absorbed.... made every movement feel almost unfair.

His body was denser. His reflexes sharper. His control over Free Use and the Dreadwing Blade more precise than it had ever been. What would have required effort before now felt as natural as breathing.

So he let loose.

Sol moved through the Zharun like a black wind of quiet annihilation.

He didn’t even bother with large, flashy waves unless a dense cluster of enemies required it. Most of the time he simply walked, and wherever the Dreadwing Blade passed, men died.

A group of twelve seeing him lost in his thoughts as he continuously killed without even properly paying attention tried to surround him from behind.

But even though he was lost in his body searching where the enrgy was going, his senses were still sharp as ever, without even looking, Sol spun once, the sapphire blade tracing a full circle at waist height.

As usual, Twelve bodies collapsed in pieces. Soul power flooded in. Again it vanished upward into his head.

Interesting.

He stepped over the corpses and continued.

Seeing him kill so ruthlessly and effortlessly, a Zharun Layer 3 standing on a slightly higher rock was suddenly filled with righteous indignation.

Who knew what was going through the man’s mind in that moment.

Perhaps he had some buried hero complex.

Perhaps he truly believed that, just like in the old legends, a higher power would be moved by his courage and grant him mysterious strength at the critical moment.

Or maybe he simply could not accept that one outsider was dismantling their entire force with such casual indifference.

Instead of running with the others, he passionately tried to rally the fleeing men.

”Hold the line!” the Layer 3 roared, raising his spear high as his voice cracked with desperate fervor. ”He’s only one man! Stand with me! If we face him together—!”

A few of the nearer Zharun hesitated for half a second, glancing back toward the rock. For a fleeting instant, it almost looked like the rallying cry might work.

But alas, who would tell him that legends and myths remained legends and myths for a reason?

In the real world, no higher power descends to save the brave. No mysterious energy would answer a desperate heart.

No protagonist’s halo protected those who stood against overwhelming force.

According to his information until now, this world is absolutely massive and since it has literal gods, maybe it really is possible, but well, it seems like anything like that isn’t gonna happen here.