God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

On the edges of the forest, numerous grotesque plant creatures were waving their vines like tentacles, so it was currently impossible for those that could not get past them unnoticed to enter the forest.

Stan, Sue, and Li had learned the hard way when Stan was smacked across the face trying to brute force his way through the protective defense line.

"She said we should wait, that she has a plan," Li said with a calm expression on his face.

"Ha... Why did she have to put herself in such a situation? Wasn't she the one who told us that splitting the group up could be dangerous?!" Stan said, a confused expression on his face.

"Believe in her. She has a plan..." Li said with a fairly confident smile on his face.

"You doing okay? He hit you pretty hard." Sue, who would always fight with her brother showed her soft side.

"I'm alright. Nothing a few health potions can't fix. Besides, he didn't even hit that hard. Hahaha!"

Seeing Li laugh it off, although they were still concerned, they decided not to talk about it anymore.

"I'm so going to kill that arrogant scar-faced bastard should anything happen to Jenny," Sue said with a menacing expression.

Li simply laughed and said, "Relax shorty... She's going to be fine."

"How do you know?!" Sue said with a questioning stare.

Li replied, "I know for a fact he wouldn't lay his hands on her. He isn't a killer." Li said with a confident expression.

"He is also very strong!" An excited sparkle flew through Li's eyes as he continued, "Such a powerful blade. The strength required to wield such a blade is even more terrifying. Not only that, but the dude knows how to fight." Li exclaimed.

"How do you know all this?" Sue couldn't help but ask.

"Tsk! This baby sister of mine, you truly do underestimate your dear brother. While he is strong, there would have been no chance in hell he would have beaten me and Jenny together had it not been for that his disgusting skill and the fact that we weren't prepared for it.

"That is true..."

"That doesn't change the fact that he does possess enough strength to be arrogant. Yet, while I could sense a decent amount of arrogance, he was also very calculative and thoughtful, which goes to show just how scary he is." Li concluded. Even though he had just praised Cain, he couldn't conceal the fighting intent that rolled off his body in waves.

"I'd love to fight him again... This time, in a real battle "

Li clenched his fists as he wondered how he could improve his abilities and beat Cain. Not only was he intelligent, but he was also very strong.

If Cain hadn't used {Seal}, Li and Jenny would have given him a tough time. AndLi knew this fact very well. That was why he wasn't feeling too down when Cain had beaten him.

'Once I improve my abilities even more, I'll beat him!'

***

Cain spat out another mouthful of blood as he trembled where he sat.

'Master, are you okay?!'Ruby yelled through their telepathic connection when she saw the state Cain was in.

He was bleeding from numerous gashes that had appeared on his body. Blood gushed out from all his orifices as well, and the golden light of the {Golden Blood} skill flickered on and off before finally dying out.

'It's okay, I'm fine.' Cain said to the bear before retrieving a few mana potions from his inventory and pouring them down his throat.

Cain stared at the system prompt that was displayed before him with twitching eyelids.

'Shit! I overdid it now!'

{A violent energy has entered the host's body and has dealt serious damage...}

{The host has been rendered immobile for the next 10 seconds...}

{All physical stats -50% for 1 hour...}

'This is not good at all...'

Cain stared at the consequences of his rashness a bit before letting out a sigh.

'No use crying over spilled milk. What do I do now? Where did I go wrong?'

Cain noticed quickly that controlling the violent Ki in any way or form would always lead to a disastrous outcome. The two times he had attempted it, he ended up spitting blood.

'Could it possibly be that I'm doing it the wrong way?'

Cain thought hard about what he had done wrong but was unable to come up with a solution...

'Thinking about it too hard will be of no use. For now, I just need to focus on-'

'Master! I sense a few devils headed our way.'

Ten seconds of handling have since gone by, so Cain had recovered his motor abilities, but he hadn't recovered all his stats. Hence, we were weaker than he could ever be at a crucial moment.

'How many?'

'A group of 20. Ten in the sky, and ten on land.' Ruby said with confidence.

Cain was a bit surprised by this...

'How do you know this?'

'Hm? Oh, one of my skills, {Blood Sense} allows me to sense the blood aura of living beings within a 50-meter radius from me.'

Due to the {Body and Soul} contract created between the man and beast, while Cain had attained the ability to absorb god ash, Ruby had gained the ability to create skills just like humans.

Most of the time, without any external factors involved, mutant beasts, especially those of low tiers like Ruby would be stuck with the skills they had gotten from the system. A few exceptions to the rule like the {Devil-eyed White Primate} could pop out sometimes, but most of the time, the former was the case.

However, thanks to the unique conditions of the{Body and Soul} contract, Ruby had gained the ability to create an infinite amount of skills, just like humans could.

'Can you tell how strong they are?' Cain said as he stood up and retrieved his blade from his inventory.

'Ruby can't tell, master. The skill isn't strong enough yet.' The bear had a sad face as it spoke to Cain through their telepathy connection.

Rubbing her head, Cain cheered her up, 'Don't worry. You've done enough.'

Whispering slightly, he called out to Jenny and Evangeline who both appeared the instant he called their names out.

"We have a few roaches on our hands. We need to kill them all at once if we want my plan to walk." Cain said with a stern expression.

The beauties before him, one with an angelic, yet extremely passive face, and the other with a sly expression and a devilishly curvy body, both stared at him as he spoke, making him feel a bit bothered.

"So all of them have to die in one shot? Got it." Evangeline said in a cold voice.

"Exactly. And this has to be done on my command. Not too fast, and not too slow." Cain nodded in approval.

"Jenny, you and I will take out the ones in the sky, while Evangeline and Ruby will be responsible for the ones on the ground."

"Noted..." The two girls didn't even express the desire to argue before getting into their attacking stances. Once again, they fazed out of existence, one vanishing away from existence, the other disappearing into the shadows...

'Damn... These girls are too aloof!' Cain thought with a pout.

'Alright, Ruby. Kill as many as you can, as fast as you can on my command.'

'Okay, Master!' With a feral growl, the crimson runic lines on the bear's body glowed, creating a field of bloody aura around her.

After a while, Cain was able to hear the organized marches of the devils coming in their direction.

'Not now...'

Cain readied the spell he was going to use. To kill the devils as fast as he could, he needed a special spell he had recently acquired that he had yet to test out.

Most of his skills and spells were centered around his swordsmanship, so he previously didn't have any long-range skills. However, with his acquisition of the {Elemental Body} skill, he had attained a few extra skills.

Fiery orange magic circles appeared behind him before they were instantly replaced with three huge {Fireball} spells...

***

{Mana Heart (passive): Mana pool increases by 2×. Mana is regenerated at 5MP per second. The Cooldown of all skills and spells is reduced by 50%. For every level, +1 extra point to Magic stat. Grants host the ability to absorb and transform pure forms of mana}.

{Fireball}: Create a concentrated ball of flames to incinerate your enemies. Each fireball deals pure magic damage equivalent to the host's magic stat.

A maximum of 3 fireballs can be created per second, and a maximum of 9 can be stacked up.

Cost: 100MP per fireball.

***

Due to the effects of {Mana Heart}, Cain was able to create nine balls of flames in less than two seconds. Each ball could also deal damage of almost 500 magic attack points, making the skill very terrifying in his hands...

The devils drew closer fast until they had come almost face to face with Cain and the others. Since every one of them, including Cain, was under one concealment spell or the other, the devils weren't able to notice them in time.

By the time they did, it was already too late.

"Now!"

A brief yell later, and the fates of all the devils were sealed...

***

{Blade Devil}: Level 5. (elite)

Strength: 40.

Agility: 30

Defense: 0

HP: 500/500

MP: 50/50

Skills: Body strengthening level. 1.

{Sentinel Drones}: level 5. (Normal)

Strength: 5.

Agility: 50

Defense: 0

HP: 150/150

MP: 100/100.

Skills: Sentry level 1, Magic Pulse.

***

There were only two types of devils present in the attacking group. The elite tiered {Blade Devils} and the normal-tiered, yet foreign-looking {Sentinel Drones}. Even though the {Sentinel Drones} flew at a moderately Hugh altitude, it wasn't enough to escape Cain's impeccable aim.

Even though he had never used the skill before, with his high magic and control stats, manipulating them to strike all the flying devils was relatively easy.

At the same time, a shadow blurred across his vision, and less than a second later, the heads of ten devils were floating above their necks.

"Shadow Walk: Night Dancer."

Before the second could elapse, Cain activated his trump card...

"Seal!"

The devil cores of the {Blade Devils} beeped with a strange like for less than a split second, but once the {Seal} spell was activated, they were stopped immediately.

The charred corpses of the {Sentinel Drones} fell to the ground the very same second as the headless corpses of the {Blade Devils} fell to the ground.

{Congratulations to the host... You have killed ×10 Sentinel Drones...}

{+200exp...}