God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

Although he had been warned by Evangeline, Cain still wanted to test his mettle against these huge creatures. Their bodies were filled with thick muscles, so he reasoned that their strength would be immaculate.

Circulating his Ki, he was about to strike his fist against the forerunner when his senses suddenly tingled.

It was the sort of tingle that indicated the moment before a calamity. Thinking fast, Cain twisted sideways and dodged. The creature's first slammed into the ground, producing a shockwave that lifted him off his feet.

"What?!"

Cain quickly took a moment to check the stats of the creatures...

***

{Steel Spine Gorilla}: Level 99 (Deadly).

Strength: 3,500.

Agility: 2,000.

Defense: 5,000

Aether: 19,000/19,000.

HP: 50,000/50,000.

Skills: Tremor, Steel Armory, Juggernaut Primate, Speed Boost.

***

Cain didn't have enough time to think about anything else before he was bombarded by a flurry of punches.

'I shouldn't have gotten into their range.' He had gotten careless. They were not only very strong creatures, but they also knew how to fight. Cain was sure they had brought down creatures much stronger than they were together. And now, he was facing off against them, what would be his fate?

Cain had a look of concentration on his face as he dodged. Suddenly, seven magic circles appeared around him. In the blink of an eye, his body began moving like a specter. He had activated, {Nexus Tether}.

The skill allowed him to dominate the melee entanglement thanks to. its short-range spatial transfer. Cain was finally able to have some breathing space. He quickly turned a bit of his attention to Evangeline and her opponent. The plan was for him to step in when she needed help. If she didn't, then he just needed to focus on his battle.

Cain turned his full attention back to his fight when he was pushing the {Golden Spine Gorilla} back.

'I guess she is very strong...' Cain had no idea what to think about Evangeline's strength. It was quite strange. He had only gotten a glimpse of her strange spells, but that alone was enough for him to feel intrigued.

'Focus...'

A {Steel Spine Gorilla} suddenly let out an aggressive grunt. An extremely sharp blade suddenly protruded from the akin of its forearms. Then, a light sheen of platinum-colored energy encased its body. Its speed suddenly picked up a notch.

Cain's eyes focused as he quickly began attacking seriously. A small mistake could easily spell his doom at this point. Not only were these creatures now armed with weapons, but they had also become faster.

Their defenses had even become more disgusting. Cain quickly made a decision.

Dodging an outstretched fist, he rotated his body around the arm and slashed forward. Mid-swing, a thin short blade appeared in his hand and slashed at the creature's underbelly.

CLANG!

Cain stayed still in disbelief for a few seconds. The other monsters took this chance to bear down on him. A large don't slam against his shoulder and rocked his world. A strange tremor traveled through his body, straight past his defenses, and shook up his organs and bones.

He coughed up a mouthful of blood as he stared at the creature that had attacked him. His eyes turned cold.

"Azure Burst..."

He turned into a flash...

'The Hand of Stingè is useless against these things.' Although the blades were very sharp, unfortunately, they lacked a sufficient amount of weight. Most of the cutting power came from his strength and not the weight of the weapon.

Hence, Cain quickly retrieved the next weapon in his inventory. The Scale of The Abyssal Flame...

His body moved like a phantom as he wielded the heavy Blade with uncanny precision. Parrying an approaching don't with the edge of his blade, he concentrated his Ki and Devil essence onto the surface of the weapon and slashed forward. An unsuspecting {Steel Spine Gorilla} was slashed across the abdomen.

Blood and pieces of its guts spilled everywhere, but to Cain's surprise, it didn't immediately fall and die.

Instead, it stumbled around for a bit before walking toward the put at the center. As soon as it started walking, the other {Steel Spine} apes began howling and grunting sorrowfully. The ferocity and intent of their attacks suddenly went up a notch as they tried to pulverize Cain.

Slashing forward, he blocked another attack, bitten more quickly fell on him. His eyes narrowed, he poured in more power, and turned the horizontal slash into a full circle,

Dark Dragon, Orbiting...

Cain's sword turned into a black blur as it orbited around an imaginary Sun. However, the violent creatures simply continued in their relentless attacks whilst wrapping layers of metal on their fists.

Although he was using Dark Dragon, Rising he was still so suppressed.

Cain gritted his teeth as he was forced into a defensive position. The damned creatures were just too strong. Their stats weren't very high, but their physique allowed them to draw out those stats to their greatest potential.

Brandishing his sword, he slashed and parried, careful to avoid clashing head-on with the creatures. Because of {Azure Burst}, he was now faster than the creatures by far. This he was able to buy himself some time to think. At the same time, he carefully observed the {Steel Spine Gorilla} that trudged over to the pit.

Cain didn't know the reason for its behavior. However, not only a second later, he understood...

A branch in the tall tree suddenly swayed and dropped lower until it was situated right before the creature. The creature absent-mindedly reached forward and plucked a single fruit from the branch.

Before Cain knew what was going on, he started in disbelief as the fatal wound he had delivered to the creature closed up as though it wasn't there.

'What the hell?!'

Not only that, but the creature's aura continued to surge out of nowhere. Cain was appalled by this change.

Soon, the creature's black fur was dripping with blood. Its spine stretched out longer, and it became much taller than it had been previously. It was almost as high as the {Golden Spine Gorilla}.

The creature turned to him threw a madness-filled glance at him and blitzed forward.

'Fast...' Cain thought to himself as he leaped out of the way. His body twisted mid-air as he fired shot after shot of {Flame Orb} at the crazy creature.

The metal element in the air stirred wildly as the creature manifested two very terrifyingly sharp blades from its forearms.

Then, it created a huge mace in its right hand. The weapons trembled violently as the creature lunged forward.

Cain realized that because of the way the creatures surrounded him, the only way he could move around was through {Nexus Tether}. Otherwise, he would be pummeled to death.

'That damned tree...' Cain knew what his goal was in that moment. He had to destroy the tree at all costs. If he didn't, then the creatures he had gravely injured would simply go there for a power boost.

Once he had made that conclusion in his mind, he turned around to dash in the opposite direction. His azure flames burning on his body trailed after him as he dashed through the maze of boulders, the angry creatures hot on his tail.

As soon as he entered into the maze of boulders, Cain realized he had made a mistake. He had entered their domain. They excelled in fights like this, and he was going to witness it firsthand.

The boulder just to his side suddenly crumpled, shards of rocks shooting forward like bullets. Cain's eyes went wide as he activated {Nexus Tether} and shifted forward. However, the blade he left behind was destroyed by the sharp stone shards that ripped it to shreds.

Cain suddenly applied force to the soles of his feet and jumped up. Simultaneously, all the boulders surrounding his former position exploded and destroyed the entire place.

"How?" That was Cain's only question.

How were they able to attack him even though there was considerable distance between them? Some of the creatures were pursuing him from the sides in an attempt to cut off his route eventually. However, that still didn't explain why they would be able to attack him from so far away.

He shot a glance backward and was able to see one of the {Steel Spine Gorillas} clench its fist. A pristine layer of energy wrapped around its fist. The creature stared at him with evil intent before punching forward.

Cain was able to see how the wave of energy traveled forward. Because of the way the creature had thrown the blow, the shockwaves from the low didn't travel forward in a string line. Instead, it formed a curved trajectory, passing through the gaps between the boulders before landing directly on the boulder beside him.

Cain activated the {Divine Essence of Metallurgy}, and a compact metal wall rose from the ground to block the attack.

'Its Ki...'

Cain was shocked to see the indigenous way the {Steel Spine Gorilla} applied their Ki. Their physique indicated that the amount of Ki they had would be abundant. However, Cain had a feeling they didn't really know what they were doing.

However, they had managed to come up with such an ability. Cain couldn't help but be bewildered.

'Ha... What an unfortunate turn of events.' Cain was suddenly interested infighting the creatures and gleaming more about the strange Ki application technique.

But he had a plan he had to stick to...

'Seems far enough.'

They had been running for nearly five minutes and {Azure Burst} was about to deactivate. Cain stopped abruptly and waited for the creatures to descend upon him with mad fury in their eyes

Cain turned around and activated {Spatial Jump}. A spatial tear tore through the area before him, and as he ran through the fissure, the creatures lunged at his former position.

Cain didn't even look back as his time was limited. He had roughly four minutes to do what needed to be done.

Drawing his blade he concentrated a majority of his power into the large handle of the large sword.

"Abyssal Crimson Blade: Hell's Nexus."