### Chapter 391
The Beast King, Veldo
He was born royalty.
A lavish environment, a good family, and subjects loyal to the royal family.
It was a world without any shortcomings.
However, in stark contrast to the life he lived, there were those who could not accept such a world.
Indeed, it’s a rotten tale.
And that person was Veldo’s younger brother.
The younger brother, always compared to the superior older brother.
A life that merely existed because he was born into royalty.
Unable to endure this, instead of making efforts to change his situation, he chose a drastic path.
If he could not have it, he would destroy it.
With such a selfish mindset, his brother unraveled the secrets the kingdom had hidden all along.
The essence that lay within the beast tribe,
The brutal instinct they had separated and concealed to prevent awakening.
Beastification.
Casting away reason and displaying pure savagery, a radical form.
Originally, it was a wildness that the Great Sage had gathered from the beast tribe and sealed away, but once unleashed, it turned the world upside down in an instant.
The wildness that had been sealed for nearly a thousand years unleashed a frenzied rampage, proving how suppressed it had been all this time.
A thousand years ago, there would be warriors from the village who would step up to contain the periodic beastifications of the beast tribe.
But the fact that all of the beast tribe had been unleashed after a millennium of suppression was sufficient to end the world.
Of course, there were a few who resisted the wildness.
However, even they could not withstand the onslaught of those who had become beasts and eventually fell victim to them.
Veldo was also one of these strong individuals.
In his right mind, he dashed to protect his father and mother.
And there, he beheld his brother ravaging his parents.
His brother began swinging his fists at him, and in the end, Veldo had to kill his brother with his own hands.
With a hollow gaze, he watched the kingdom collapse around him.
Was his kinhood flawed from the very beginning?
It might have been a mistake to have restrained the raw instinct born from nature for the sake of the beast tribe’s revival.
Thus, the kingdom toppled and vanished into the abyss.
Veldo became a wandering soul, battling against the beastified remnants of his people day in and day out.
During this time, he obtained a key to another world.
There was no longer hope for his own world anyway.
The wildness sealed for a thousand years showed no signs of dwindling even after a few more years.
Eventually, unable to find a way in his own world, Veldo fled to the present.
Using every method he could think of, he wore a wildness restraint to quell the instinct within him.
However, he never imagined he would shatter this restraint himself today.
“……”
With golden eyes, Veldo stared at Kraush.
For a moment, those eyes seemed to show remnants of reason.
But Kraush knew better.
He realized there was not a shred of rationale left in him.
Gradually, Veldo’s mouth began to open.
“—————!”
The sound that erupted felt like it would shred ear drums in an instant.
Kraush, unable to endure the pain ringing in his ears, stepped back two paces.
The roar from Veldo was something out of this world.
Nevertheless, Kraush didn’t take his eyes off Veldo, locking onto him.
He couldn’t afford to lose sight of him, even for a second.
In a tense moment, the muscles in Veldo’s right leg twitched.
He’s coming.
The instant Kraush sensed it, Veldo’s fist was already propelled towards Kraush’s left side.
Bam!
In an instant, Kraush was sent flying through the air.
At that very moment the blade of his Thunder Sword that had blocked Veldo’s punch shattered.
Simultaneously, the gale created by Veldo’s movement slammed into Kraush with tremendous force.
“Ugh!”
Despite having anticipated this, Kraush was sluggish to react.
He was hit hard.
Kraush needed to draw on the white flame inside Sable.
As Kraush’s ragged breath escaped him, he barely managed to avoid Veldo’s follow-up attack.
Yet Veldo was already above him.
Kraush swiftly swung his sword of thunder again.
Bam!
But again, with insufficient power, he was knocked to the ground.
“Cough!”
The impact from hitting the ground knocked the wind out of him.
Veldo descended toward the fallen Kraush, both hands raised like a club ready to smash him down.
With no time to catch his breath, Kraush just barely avoided an attack that could have ended him.
Boom! Kaboom!
But a subsequent shockwave totally devastated the ground, sending debris flying everywhere.
“Damn it.”
Ever since Veldo’s father, the Demon King, failed to take down Veldo, he knew the latter was a beast of unimaginable power.
Whew, whew.
Now, it seemed Kraush had only one option.
Back when he faced off against the Swordmaster,
He had to use his own body as a vessel and apply the techniques of the Sword Demon to move to the next level.
This was the first time Kraush attempted this after absorbing countless realms.
And so, he couldn’t predict what results would come of this endeavor.
One thing he knew, though: it would take at least three minutes.
‘Three minutes.’
Kraush faced Veldo, whose red-gold irises flickered amidst the rising dust.
Could it even be possible?
‘It has to be possible.’
Otherwise, he wouldn’t stand a chance against Veldo.
Whoosh!
At that moment, the smoke twisted into a single point.
Kraush’s sword was already in motion before he realized what this meant.
Clang!
Echoing through the blade of thunder, as Kraush honed a new blade, he swung downward towards the left.
Clang!
Just in time, he managed to barely intercept Veldo’s knee strike.
The pressure was overwhelming with each parry, but for the moment, this was his best hope.
‘Let it all flow as much as it can!’
He had no time to use his signature move, Sword Light.
If he attempted that, the impact would rip him apart like before.
So, Kraush poured his mind entirely into the enhanced form of his instincts.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!
Against Veldo’s relentless punches, Kraush swung his sword with frenzied determination.
His muscles trembled.
His bones ached.
His breath was so ragged it felt like his lungs would burst.
But he couldn’t afford to stop.
One misstep could be his last.
‘Thirty seconds.’
The problem was that amidst this exchange, only thirty seconds had passed.
Crack!
Kraush slammed against Veldo’s strikes.
Ironically, at this very moment, Kraush’s senses were sharpening.
In the past, he had seldom gone all out while traversing through realms.
Though the continuous absorption had fatigued his body,
He had hardly engaged in life or death battles.
This was proof that Kraush had grown stronger, but it also reminded him that his instincts were growing dull.
In fights won easily, few would pour every ounce of their strength.
Most only exert themselves to what they believe is enough for victory.
It’s a common blind spot that genius fighters fall into when facing weaker opponents.
Fortunately, because Kraush had once lived as a nobody, he was sensitive to such mistakes.
That’s why he reminded himself of the need to stay alert, but he was still only human.
The lesser he fought against strong opponents, the harder it became to unleash all his strength.
However, at that moment,
Kraush found himself facing a formidable opponent.
This meant that he was rediscovering how to defeat the buried strong ones.
Kraush’s gaze began to shift.
His movements sharpened.
Focused, he matched each move of Veldo’s chaotic onslaught.
This evolution didn’t go unnoticed by Veldo, either.
Though his rationale was consumed by wildness, he sensed a change in Kraush’s level of intensity.
In that instant, it reminded him that if he didn’t finish Kraush quickly, he might be in danger.
This realization spurred Veldo into action.
Gold particles began to scatter from his body,
Signifying that he was releasing even more of the energy contained within.
His fists began to glow with golden light.
But this energy only emerged over the span of 0.1 seconds.
In other words, in just 0.1 seconds, if he didn’t capture the rise in power, Kraush would be struck with fatal damage.
Boom!
A golden flash erupted from Veldo’s fists.
In a striking aftershock, the winds churned violently.
Veldo’s thick brows twitched.
Before him, the whitened strands of Kraush’s hair floated gently in the air.
And there, Kraush’s blade clearly blocked Veldo’s punch.
It had cracked, but
In response to the sudden surge of power, Kraush managed to fend him off.
He needed to buy himself three minutes.
The very fact that he could block it meant he had anticipated Veldo’s movements.
Kraush’s crimson eyes glowed fiercely.
Even through his ragged breaths, he wouldn’t dare take his eyes off Veldo.
Was he concentrating so extremely that his eyelids didn’t even blink?
A shiver ran down Veldo’s spine, fueled by his beastification.
But this wasn’t fear.
Instead, it was a thrill of joy from encountering a worthy rival.
Kraush’s strength provoked Veldo.
This provocation unleashed even more of Veldo’s potential.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Strikes unlike any he had unleashed before came crashing towards Kraush.
The landscape was obliterated, trees and mountains crumbled.
Soon, only golden and white light danced chaotically all around.
Veldo showed no signs of slowing.
His wild instincts thrived on encountering a worthy opponent, bringing him sheer joy.
Kraush was the first to respond.
Despite his efforts, even he realized that it was impossible to take on all the attacks head-on.
He could feel his arms trembling, threatening to break.
Withdrawing became a necessity, dodging the strikes from Veldo while he evaded the ensuing shockwaves.
Kraush’s moves were almost an art form, calculated to evade Veldo’s overwhelming strikes.
Letting out whatever he could, he dodged everything he had to.
Caught in this life-and-death focus, his mental fortitude was steadily wearing thin.
Yet his resolve never wavered.
He refused to let the past, when he was dubbed “the Unique,” define him.
In that moment, he poured everything he had into the fight.
However, this completely ignored his physical limits.
With his body already spent from blocking Veldo’s punches, adding in dodging took its toll.
Kraush was nearing his breaking point.
Just one last time.
A tiny mistake loomed.
It was the precise moment he had to step back.
Yet his leg muscles met their limit, causing him to falter.
Veldo wasn’t the type to overlook this.
He adjusted the trajectory of his punch aimed directly at Kraush’s head.
Golden light exploded from his elbow as he lunged forward.
So, it reached Kraush’s chest instead of requiring a retreat to avoid it.
In his state, Veldo altered his arm’s trajectory again.
Regardless of the strain on his own arm,
He released a blast of golden light with all his strength once more.
Veering down, Veldo aimed to crush Kraush, who was already leaning back.
In that instant, Veldo was convinced of his victory.
Just before Kraush’s eyes turned a brilliant white.
Boom—
Something dropped before Veldo’s ears.
Unsure of what it was, he blinked,
only to realize what was rolling on the ground.
It was an arm.
A golden-furred arm.
Gradually losing its golden hue, it turned white instead.
When Veldo recognized it as his own arm,
He discovered his right arm had vanished.
And soon after, he faced Kraush standing with a sword unsheathed under his arm.
“……Three minutes.”
The timer had run out.
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