This confird that Jas’s reanimated undead could grow through combat. The wolves didn’t just remain static tools. They were becoming stronger the more they fought.
Jas used Corpse Explosion only when enemies were clustered. He didn’t waste it. Every corpse beca a weapon. Every death refilled mana through Call of Souls. The more bodies fell, the more dangerous Jas beca.
The awakeners began to understand the problem too late.
One of them shouted, "Stop dying near him!"
Another scread, "Move away from the bodies!"
But the warehouse was already full of bodies and there was nowhere to run that wasn’t within range of a corpse.
By the end of the exchange, most of the twenty n were dead, unconscious, or too injured to continue. Jas was breathing hard. His armor was cracked in places and blood ran down his shoulder and back from the speed user’s cut. The burn on his arm throbbed with each heartbeat and his shield arm was still half-numb from the stone awakener’s earlier punch. But he was still standing.
Derek’s face had gone pale.
Ronan finally spoke, his voice calm and asured.
"I think I need a taste of this battle too."
Then he jumped from the platform.
Ronan dropped from the platform, but he didn’t fall like a normal man.
Wind curled around his body and slowed him before he touched the concrete. He landed softly with his coat shifting around him even though the air inside the warehouse was still.
He looked around at the bodies scattered across the warehouse floor. His expression was calm, almost disappointed, like a teacher who’d expected better from his students.
Jas watched the movent.
The man wasn’t a normal mage. Mages usually stayed back. They cast from distance. They avoided close combat.
Ronan walked forward with empty hands.
That told Jas enough.
Close-range fighter.FDT
Wind gathered around Ronan’s fists, thin and almost invisible. Jas only noticed it because dust bent away from his knuckles.
Ronan stopped a few feet away and looked at Jas without raising his voice.
"You’re strong for a boy."
Jas said nothing.
Ronan moved.
He crossed the distance faster than Jas expected and his fist ca forward wrapped in compressed wind. Jas raised his shield, but the impact launched him backward into a container hard enough to dent the tal and knock the air from his lungs.
Before Jas could fully recover, Ronan turned and killed one wolf with a wind-coated elbow that caved its skull in. The movent was efficient, almost casual.
[CONTRACTED UNDEAD DESTROYED]
A second wolf lunged at Ronan’s back. Ronan spun and released a crescent kick of compressed air that cut through its body and tore it apart.
[CONTRACTED UNDEAD DESTROYED]
The third wolf bit Ronan’s arm, but Ronan slamd it into the ground and crushed its head under his boot without changing expression.
[CONTRACTED UNDEAD DESTROYED]
Jas realized the difference imdiately.
The others were prey.
Ronan was a predator.
Jas fired Necro Blast. Ronan twisted aside and the blast only grazed his shoulder, rotting part of his coat and skin, but he kept moving.
Jas triggered Corpse Explosion from a nearby body. Ronan saw the corpse swell before detonation and used wind to launch himself backward, escaping the worst of the blast.
Then he appeared in front of Jas and punched him in the stomach.
Jas’s breath left him. Pain exploded through his ribs and he tasted blood. He nearly dropped.
Ronan beat him badly for several exchanges. Fist, knee, elbow, wind burst, low kick. Jas blocked so with his shield, took others on his armor, and barely stayed alive because of Shield Instinct and his B-rank gear. The last remaining wolf bought him small openings, but Ronan was faster and more experienced.
Jas summoned another wolf from a stored corpse, but Ronan destroyed it after a short struggle. He didn’t seem frustrated or angry. Just focused.
Jas was battered. Blood ran from his mouth. One eye was swelling shut. His shield was cracked. His sword hand trembled and his legs felt weak from the accumulated damage.
But he was still thinking.
He let Ronan push him backward toward a pile of corpses and pretended his footing was worse than it was. Ronan’s expression shifted slightly, no longer quite so disappointed. The man stopped calling him "boy" and simply pressed the attack.
Jas waited for the exact mont Ronan stepped into range.
Then Jas activated Corpse Explosion on the corpse behind Ronan, not the one in front of him.
The blast caught Ronan off guard. It didn’t kill him, but it destroyed his balance and tore open his back.
Ronan’s eyes widened slightly—the first real emotion Jas had seen from him.
Jas fired Necro Blast at close range.
This ti Ronan couldn’t dodge fully.
The bolt hit his side and rot spread across his ribs.
Jas drove his sword through Ronan’s stomach.
Ronan grabbed Jas by the throat and tried one final wind punch. His grip was iron-strong despite the wound.
Jas raised his damaged shield and blocked.
The shield cracked almost completely, but it held for half a second.
That half second was enough.
Jas twisted the sword.
Ronan’s grip loosened. He looked at Jas one last ti, and there was sothing in his expression that might have been approval.
Then he dropped.
[LEVEL 20 HUMAN AWAKENER SLAIN]
[EXP GAINED: 650]
[CALL OF SOULS ACTIVATED]
[MANA RESTORED: 180]
After the accumulated kills from the warehouse, the System calculated his total experience.
[ACCUMULATED EXP FROM HUMAN AWAKENERS: 1,475]
[PREVIOUS EXP: 4,962/6,000]
[CURRENT EXP: 6,437/6,000]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL 11 → LEVEL 12]
[STRENGTH: 29 → 30 ( 1)]
[AGILITY: 32 → 33 ( 1)]
[INTELLIGENCE: 47 → 48 ( 1)]
[ENDURANCE: 26 → 27 ( 1)]
[LUCK: 21 → 22 ( 1)]
[HP: 520 → 540]
[MANA: 940 → 960]
[5 STAT POINTS AVAILABLE]
Jas didn’t celebrate. He was too injured and too angry to care.
The warehouse was silent except for groans, dripping water, and Jas’s breathing.
Derek stared down at Ronan’s corpse.
His face lost all color.
The man he trusted, the fighter who was supposed to destroy Jas, was dead on the concrete.
Derek took one step back.
Then another.
Then he turned and ran.
Jas was barely standing. His body hurt everywhere. Most of his wolves were destroyed. Only one damaged wolf remained with its ribs exposed and one leg dragging slightly.
Jas looked at it.
"Bring him."
The wolf moved.
Derek reached the back exit and grabbed the handle. Before he could pull it open, the wolf slamd into him from behind and bit into his leg.
Derek scread.
The wolf dragged him across the tal platform, down the stairs, and across the warehouse floor, leaving a sar of blood behind him.
Derek kicked, begged, and cursed the whole way.
"Jas! Jas, wait! We’re family!"
The wolf dropped him at Jas’s feet.
Jas sat on Derek’s stomach and started punching him.
No style. No skill. Just rage.
Each punch ca with the sa question.
"Where is she?"
Punch.
"Where is my mother?"
Punch.
"Where did you take her?"
Derek’s face swelled. Blood spilled from his nose and mouth. He tried to speak, but Jas kept hitting him until his voice ca out broken.
"We didn’t take her," Derek cried. "I swear. I swear on God. We only trashed your house. That’s all. I told them to scare you. Why would I kidnap Auntie?"
Jas grabbed his collar.
"Don’t lie to ."
"I’m not!"
Jas’s phone rang.
The sound cut through the warehouse.
Everything stopped.
Jas froze with his fist raised.
The phone kept ringing.
He pulled it out slowly.
The screen showed his mother’s na.
For the first ti in the Chapter, Jas looked afraid.
He answered.
His mother’s voice ca through warm, tired, and completely normal.
"Jas? Sorry I missed your calls. I was helping your aunt with sothing. Are you okay?"
Jas closed his eyes.
The anger drained for one second, replaced by relief so strong it almost broke him.
"Mam," he said quietly. "Where are you?"
"At Anne’s. I told you I was going there, rember? My phone was in the other room. Why? What happened?"
Jas looked around.
Bodies. Blood. Broken containers. Smoke. Derek beneath him, whimpering.
He swallowed.
"Nothing. I just called and you didn’t answer. I got worried."
His mother softened. "I’m fine, love. I’m safe. Are you okay? You sound strange."
"I’m okay."
She asked if he’d eaten. She said she’d be ho tomorrow. She told him not to do anything reckless.
Jas almost laughed, but nothing ca out.
"I won’t," he said.
The call ended.
Jas lowered the phone.
For a few seconds, he didn’t move.
Then he exhaled—a long, heavy breath that shook on the way out.
His mother was safe.
Derek didn’t kidnap her.
But Derek still destroyed their ho.
And now Derek had seen everything.
Derek saw the change in Jas’s face and imdiately tried to use it.
"You see?" Derek said through swollen lips. "I told you. We didn’t take her. It was just the house. Just to scare you. That’s all."
Jas slowly looked down at him.
Derek started begging harder.
"I won’t say anything. I swear. We can fix this. I have money. I’ll pay for the damages. I’ll say nothing happened. We’re family, Jas. We’re blood."
Jas looked around the warehouse.
Dead awakeners.
Ronan’s body.
The destroyed door.
The wolves.
The blood.
Then he looked back at Derek.
"You have money," Jas said quietly. "So there’s no way you won’t do sothing."
Derek’s eyes widened.
"No. No, Jas, listen—"
Inside Derek’s mind, the truth was ugly.
The second he got out, he’d report Jas to the police, to the TRB, to every guild, to every news station. He’d call him a murderer. He’d say Jas attacked first. He’d say the Floor 5 record breaker was unstable. He’d bury him with lawyers and public fear.
He’d destroy him.
Jas watched him.
Maybe he saw it in Derek’s eyes. Maybe he already knew because n like Derek never changed.
Jas placed his hand on Derek’s head.
Derek went still.
Jas said one word.
"Corpse Explosion."
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