Chapter 66: You Were Already Dead

Silence.

Complete, suffocating silence spread across the blood-soaked street.

The gang member’s bisected corpse lay in a spreading pool of red, steam rising from the exposed organs.

Damian stood over it, his axe dripping, that insane smile still plastered across his face.

His dark crimson Aura pulsed around him like a living thing.

"What the fuck..."

"He just–with one hit–"

"That’s impossible!"

The gang members backed up instinctively, their earlier confidence evaporating.

Kael’s face twisted with rage.

"ONE LUCKY SHOT! He caught someone off guard, that’s all! RUSH HIM!"

Five gang members charged at once, their Auras flaring, weapons raised.

Damian’s smile widened.

"Sonic Blink."

He vanished.

Not teleportation but pure speed.

His movement skill activated, and suddenly he was just

gone

from where he stood.

The five attackers’ weapons hit empty air.

"Where did he–"

Damian reappeared behind the closest one.

His axe whistled through the air, that circular hole creating an eerie sound.

One strike.

The blade took the man’s head clean off, the Aura-enhanced edge meeting zero resistance.

The body stood for a second before collapsing, blood fountaining from the neck stump.

Sonic Blink.

He was gone again.

And reappeared beside another gang member.

The axe came horizontal this time, catching the man at the waist.

SHUNK.

Cut clean through. Top half sliding off the bottom.

The screaming started.

"FUCK! FUCK! WHERE IS HE!?"

"I CAN’T TRACK HIM!"

Sonic Blink.

This time Damian brought the axe down vertically through a man’s shoulder, splitting him diagonally from collar to hip.

The Mafia students watched with wide eyes, their mouths hanging open.

"Boss is... he’s..."

"I’ve never seen him fight like this."

"He has a MELEE weapon art!?"

Even Edrin, through the pain of his broken ribs, couldn’t look away.

’Each strike. Just one. That’s all he needs.’

Damian moved through the gang members like death itself.

Sonic Blink.

Appear. Strike. Kill.

Sonic Blink.

Repeat.

His axe sang its whistling song with each swing.

A man raised a sword to block.

The axe went through the sword. Through his arms. Through his chest.

He fell in pieces.

Another tried to run.

Sonic Blink.

Damian appeared in front of him.

The terrified gang member raised his hands.

"Wait! Please, I’ll–"

The axe took him through the skull, splitting his head like a melon.

Ten seconds.

Ten bodies.

Ten strikes.

Not a single wasted movement.

Damian stood in the center of a growing circle of corpses, blood dripping from every inch of his body and weapon.

His breathing was steady. Calm.

Like he’d just taken a casual walk.

The remaining gang members were backing away now, their faces pale with terror.

"Monster..."

"He’s a fucking monster!"

Kael’s face had gone from confident to genuinely shaken.

"Marco! Do something!"

The Wall – Marco Chen – had been watching from his position near the headquarters.

His golden shields were still up, layered thick around his position.

"He’s fast, I’ll give him that. But speed means nothing if you can’t break through my defense."

He slammed his hands together.

The golden Aura shields multiplied, creating a dome around the remaining gang members.

"Get inside the barrier! NOW!"

The survivors scrambled to obey, rushing for the safety of Marco’s shields.

But Damian was already moving.

Sonic Blink.

He appeared right at the shield’s edge just as a gang member was trying to squeeze through.

His axe came up in a brutal uppercut swing.

The blade caught the man under the chin and didn’t stop until it exited through the top of his skull.

The body jerked once and went still.

Damian kicked it aside and looked at the golden barrier.

His smile never wavered.

"Interesting."

He tapped his axe against the shield.

Tink. Tink.

The sound was almost playful.

Inside the barrier, twenty gang members huddled together, their eyes wide with fear.

Kael forced confidence into his voice.

"You can’t touch us in here, kid! Marco’s shields are impenetrable! You’re just wasting your–"

Damian raised his axe high overhead.

Dark crimson Aura exploded around the weapon, so dense it looked almost black.

The air itself seemed to distort around the blade.

"Let’s test that."

He brought the axe down with everything he had.

BOOM!

The impact sounded like a bomb going off.

The golden shield cracked.

Actually cracked.

Marco’s eyes went wide.

"Impossible! No E-rank should be able to–"

BOOM!

Another strike. The crack widened.

"He’s a D rank, you idiot!" Marco breathed. "Just look at THAT damn pressure!"

BOOM!

Third strike.

The shield shattered like glass.

Golden Aura fragments rained down, dissolving into nothing.

The gang members inside screamed.

Damian stepped through the broken barrier, his axe resting casually on his shoulder.

"Run."

No one moved as they were too terrified.

Damian’s smile grew wider.

"I said run. It’s more fun that way."

They ran.

Scattered in every direction like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

Damian watched them go for exactly three seconds.

Then he moved.

He appeared in front of the slowest runner.

The axe whistled.

The man’s torso separated from his legs.

Another position. Another runner.

This strike took the target at the neck, clean decapitation.

Sonic Blink. Sonic Blink. Sonic Blink.

It wasn’t a battle anymore.

It was a hunt.

And Damian was enjoying every second of it.

His movements were almost artistic in their brutality – each strike perfectly placed, each kill instant.

The Mafia students watched in horrified fascination.

"He’s smiling," Lysa whispered.

"He’s actually smiling while he does it."

Ronan, collapsed against a wall clutching his broken ribs, couldn’t look away.

"Boss is... different when he fights."

"Different?" Zavier’s voice shook. "He’s fucking

terrifying

."

But despite the fear, despite the horror of watching Damian butcher people with casual ease...

They felt safer than they’d felt all night.

Because this monster was

their

monster.

Fifteen more bodies fell in the span of thirty seconds.

Damian’s Sonic Blink made him impossible to predict, impossible to defend against.

By the time you saw him, you were already dead.

Finally, only three people remained standing.

Kael. Marco. And one random gang member too paralyzed with fear to run.

Damian appeared in front of the terrified grunt.

The man pissed himself.

"Please... please I have a family, I–"

The axe took his head.

It rolled to a stop at Kael’s feet.

Now just two.

Marco’s hands were shaking as he formed another shield barrier.

"Kael, we need to retreat! This kid is insane! Call for backup from–"

"SHUT UP!"

Kael’s Aura exploded outward, purple and violent.

His face was twisted with rage and humiliation.

"I’m not running from some fucking STUDENT! I’ve killed men twice his size! I’ve been doing this for TEN YEARS!"

He cracked his knuckles, purple Aura condensing around his fists until they looked like solid weapons.

"Come on then, you little shit! Let’s see how tough you are when someone actually fights back!"

Damian’s smile finally faded.

His expression went cold. Dead.

"You talk too much."

He started walking forward. Slow. Deliberate.

Not Sonic Blink. Just walking.

His axe dragged along the ground behind him, the blade scraping across pavement with a terrible grinding sound.

His dark crimson Aura built with each step, growing thicker, heavier.

The very air seemed to vibrate.

Kael charged, his Aura-coated fist aimed straight for Damian’s face.

"DIE!"

Damian didn’t dodge.

He raised his axe with both hands, channeling every drop of Aura he could muster into the weapon.

The blade pulsed and glowed.

Abyssal Slaughter weapon art activated with full intent. And that old man who taught him had said... he must believe he only needs one strike and not prepare for another in his mind.

’One strike. That’s all I need. I believe it. I know it.’

His intent was absolute. No room for doubt.

The axe came down.

Kael’s punch came up.

They met.

BOOM!

The shockwave flattened everything within ten feet.

Windows shattered. The ground cracked.

For one frozen moment, nothing moved.

Then Kael’s Aura shattered like glass.

The axe continued through his fist.

Through his arm.

Through his shoulder.

Through his torso.

Diagonally from right shoulder to left hip.

The blade exited cleanly.

Thud

Thud Thud

Damian kept walking as the sound of his shoes hitting the ground responded throughout the streets.

Slow steps but heavy steps, one after the other.

Behind him, Kael stood perfectly still.

He blinked and looked down.

Blood started seeping through his shirt.

A thin red line appeared across his torso, following the axe’s path.

"I... what..."

Damian didn’t look back.

"You were already dead. You just didn’t know it yet."

He took three more steps.

Behind him, Kael’s upper body slowly slid sideways.

Then fell.

The two halves of his corpse hit the ground with wet thuds.

Blood pooled rapidly.

Complete silence.

Marco stared at Kael’s bisected corpse, his face white as paper.

The Mafia students stared too, unable to process what they’d just witnessed.

Damian finally stopped walking.

He turned to face Marco, his axe resting on his shoulder, blood dripping steadily from the blade.

"You’re next."