God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Due to how complicated the terrain was, Cain and the others were unable to move as swiftly as the herd of {Blood Abominations}, so outrunning them was simply impossible. The creatures were built for this type of terrain, but human feet just weren't designed to scale diagonal rocky surfaces. In the end, they simply couldn't avoid fighting with the herd...

"Jenny, get some height and provide cover support. Susan, summon the light guardian and heal us both."

During their treacherous journey through the barren landscape, Cain had spent a great deal of time and effort learning the details of Susan and Jenny's skills and abilities.

As it turned out, the system seemed to purposely manipulate the amount of stat points awarded for every kill and individual made. Because of this, if two individuals killed the same amount of identical creatures, they would both receive varying amounts of stat points distributed.

For Jenny, they mostly went to her perception, control, and mana, while for Susan, her spirit, mana, and control stats received the most stat points.

Cain's stat points usually went to his strength, agility, and mana. In this way, the system designated their roles for them. Cain would be the melee advance, Susan would provide support, and Jenny would be the marksman whose job was to gun the creatures down from the shadows...

Instead of summoning the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame}, Cain decided it would be best to keep it on the back burner in the meantime.

The battles they were about to engage in was a marathon and not a sprint. It would only end when they found Hunter and returned back to their world.

'Curse this! Why the hell am I even doing this?'

Cain had no idea if he would actually be able to return to the normal world, or if he would survive this impromptu rescue mission.

He had acted on the spur of the moment, the only thing on his mind being the safety of his teammate.

'I swear, I am going to gut that bastard.' Remembering the abomination that captured Hunter, Cain gritted his teeth and focused on the task at hand.

In less than a minute, the horde would descend on them. The ground trembled ever so slightly under the continuous impact of their steel hooves.

Cain burned the mana within him and activated a few of his skills...

A slightly transparent flame immediately enveloped his body. It took on a deep orange huge in the next second. It was almost as though he had been enveloped by flames.

Seven golden swords with tiny runes glowing on their edges materialized from thin air. Grasping two of them by their hilts, Cain poured more mana into them. The blades became longer and more girthy, eventually stopping their growth when their length passed the one-meter mark.

The blades also became wider, and more tangible than his other metallic constructs. It almost seemed as though they wouldn't fall apart if he stopped supplying them with mana.

Almost...

Grasping onto them tightly, Cain waited...

Very soon, the first of the dreadful aether beasts appeared. Since they were hidden behind a small cliff, the creatures hadn't noticed them at first. However, one of the creatures suddenly snapped its head in their direction and let out a shrill shriek.

The sound of the creature's call was tearing metal sheets apart. It was unpleasant, to say the least...

The creature didn't waste any more time. Its hooves smashed against the ground and it led the charge, barreling toward Cain and the group.

A few meters ahead, a creature of light appeared from a large magic circle on the ground. Nodding slightly at Cain, Susan placed her hand on his chest and cast a swift blessing...

{Your defense has increased by 20% for ten minutes}.

Cain turned into a blur as he dashed at the incoming creatures. The metal blades in his hands turned into a whirlwind of death as he crashed into the first creature.

The sickening sound of metal tearing into flesh was filled with the shrill sounds of agony coming from the dying creature. Cain's well-placed strikes had hit it on the thigh and neck, creating severe wounds. While they didn't kill the creature immediately, the light of life was being drained from its eyes swiftly as it crumpled to the ground.

Once his goal had been achieved, Cain smaller his feet against the ground and jumped up, avoiding the crowd of frenzied creatures. Grabbing onto the horns of the other leading abomination, he used his tremendous strength to bring it down, crashing it into the ground, and sending cracked earth and dust everywhere.

His main goal was to slow the charge of the horde, then slowly grind away at them...

Almost at the same time, a bolt of blinding purple streaked across the air and shot through the eye of a charging abomination, turning its brain into mush and killing it on the spot.

'So frightening...'

Cain was incredibly stunned by Jenny's skills. She could literally one-shot any creature she wanted as long as she had enough mana. Her aim was terrifying, and she also had impeccable timing. With her on his side, Cain felt his confidence swell...

The remaining five golden blades flashed around him and dove into the horde of creatures. The blades were unable to cause any severe injuries to the aether beasts due to their incredible defenses and tough hides.

The blades in his hands, on the other hand, were very scary...

He had poured a large amount of mana into them so they could maintain their durability, and become sharper, stronger, and capable of distributing more force along their cutting edges...

Sidestepping a powerful swing from another abomination, he stepped forward and stabbed the curved blades forward. The blades cut through the creature's jaw, puncturing its brain and killing it. Dragging the blades that were now covered in blood back, Cain adjusted his strategy and began targeting the weak points of the creatures.

Their necks, the soft underside of their jaws, their bellies... All these places were torn apart as A well-placed strike from Cain was enough for their innards to spill out. A second later, their heads would be sent rolling as well...

That didn't mean that Cain was unscathed though...

His body was soon covered in bloody streaks and large gashes that constantly leaked blood. Even with the assistance of the light guardian and the well-placed shots of Jenny, he was still getting injured and losing blood at a frightening pace.

Luckily for him, Susan was a healer, amongst many things...

A quick healing spell brought soothing relief to some of the heavier injuries, giving him more strength to keep the fight going.

He continued slaughtering the creatures one after the other. Very soon, there was silence...

Surrounding him, numerous lifeless bodies formed a small hill, and their bright red blood flowed like a river and pooled at the bottom of his feet.

Letting out a sigh, Cain activated {Blood Regeneration}. Cain noticed that the stronger he got, the less effective his old skill became. Despite the effects of his titles and skills, his rate of regenerating HP and healing was becoming slower and slower.

Growing a bit, Cain only hesitated for a bit before a greedy light ignored in his eyes...

'Hehe... Let's see what treasures you guys are holding.'

In the end, they gained almost twenty grade 7 blood elemental mana shards, causing Cain to be a bit more satisfied.

Once he gathered a few other things from the creatures, he made a signal. Very soon, Jenny came down from the cliff and stared at Cain with complicated emotions,

"That was... not bad." She said, avoiding eye contact with him.

Cain simply grinned and shrugged,

"Let's go. We need to leave this place fast. More are coming this way..."

The dark soul was able to see a whole kilometer ahead of them, and what Cain saw from the creature's eyes made him feel a bit flustered.

The amount of aether beasts was simply... terrifying. They could use their numbers to crush Cain and the others, so they had to avoid the vast majority of them and defeat the smaller groups as fast as possible.

Letting out a sigh, Cain glanced at Susan,

"How long before you can summon the guardian again?"

Susan paused for a moment, "Twenty minutes, give or take."

'Not too bad...'

Despite how close it would be, Cain could take on the role of a defender as well by activating the metal enchantment of the {Burning Spirit} and increasing his defenses. However, he would have to be careful, as expending too much mana would be detrimental in the long run.

The {Burning Spirit} enchantment could be kept active for as long as he wanted, but there were a few rules the skill followed.

If he activated the elemental enchantments more than once, the passive state of the skill would become undone. This meant he could only change into three different elemental attributes before he would be forced to spend another twenty thousand points of mana again.

He could choose to just keep the passive adjustments active for as long as he wanted. However, the creatures in the Aether realm were much stronger than mutant beasts. They simply couldn't compare.

Once they recovered a bit, they began moving once again, slowly covering more ground as they fought a pack of creatures one after the other.

Eventually, they decided to take a rest...

They were completely spent. They had been fighting for more than three hours now, and it seemed as though they had made no progress at all. They hadn't even made their way away from the outer fringes of the fragmented land.

The {Dark Soul} had found a cave on the landmass they were currently on, so they quickly made their way toward it. As soon as they got closer to the cave, Cain immediately felt all his hairs stand on edge...

Just at the entrance, the terrifying aura that assaulted him nearly made him take a step back in fear.

'Damn it! Damn it!'

He wanted to make the call to retreat, but there simply was no time. He was too slow to react.

"Seems like we've barged into someone's home unannounced. And the owner doesn't seem hospitable at all..." Cain said to his companions with a bitter smile.

The girls also had grim expressions on their faces...

Taking a deep breath, Cain summoned the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} and took a step forward, a cold gleam flashing in its eyes.

'Time to evict this bastard...'

The figure of the creature was slowly revealed in the dim lighting of the fragmented land. Its grotesque body broke away from the darkness, causing Cain to stifle a curse.

'Shit!'