The Frostclaw Primate, towering and covered in thick white fur, roared furiously, swinging its icy claws toward Mordred with such force that it whipped up a powerful gust of wind.
But its strike found only empty air.
The Primate sensed a terrifyingly powerful aura behind it, and an involuntary shudder passed through its massive body.
It swiftly turned around, bracing itself for what was to come, but a razor-sharp blood tentacle lashed out, slamming against its arms and sending it skidding across the cold, snowy ground.
Blood oozed from the deep gashes, staining its pristine white fur a dark crimson.
The Primate alpha shook off the attack and roared in defiance.
"Quit yapping, will you? My ears are beginning to hurt," Mordred appeared before the beast, his blood claws slashing at its face with precision.
The Primate roared in agony as one of its eyes was ripped away by the ferocious attack. Enraged and wounded, it instantly retaliated with a powerful swipe.
Enhancing his body with ardor, Mordred blocked the strike, but the impact sent him tumbling to the side.
His tentacles whipped around, and he landed on the ground. He crouched, streamed ardor into his legs, and shot forward, his tentacles trailing behind him.
He noticed ice particles converging around the Primate's mouth and frowned.
'So this guy knows how to use a sub-strand,' he thought, a smile tugging at his lips. 'This is going to be fun!'
The alpha puffed out its chest, unleashing a chilling icy breath that froze everything in its path.
Mordred activated transcendence, gracefully sidestepping the oncoming breath attack that tore through the ground, leaving a trail of frozen destruction in its wake.
"That would have been nasty," he muttered, his gaze fixed on his adversary.
The one-eyed Primate launched itself at him, its relentless onslaught of icy claws tearing through the earth with formidable power.
Mordred flexed his claws and met the attacks with fierce parries, deflecting each devastating blow with violent finesse.
Before his transcendent state, the Frostclaw Primate's attacks looked like they were moving through syrup.
Mordred could discern the intricate details of each strike, the raw power rippling the ardor-rich air of the mountains.
Getting struck by them definitely won't be pretty.
Deflecting another icy claw, he quickly darted to the side. His crimson eyes glowed, and blood surged into his palm.
Scarlet runes encircled his arm as he unleashed Blood Grenade at the beast's arm.
The explosion of crimson was soon followed by the deafening howls and roars of the alpha Frostclaw as it jumped back, its left arm mangled and bleeding profusely with broken claws.
With a menacing glare from its remaining blue eye, the alpha Frostclaw locked onto Mordred, its murderous intent palpable in the frigid air.
It opened its mouth and unleashed another roar that reverberated throughout the valley.
Mordred felt his muscles seize up, constricted by the primal force of its powerful sound waves.
"This is different," he grimaced, recognizing it as the commanding call of an alpha.
His suspicions were confirmed as multiple roars echoed behind him, signaling the approach of the remaining Frostclaw Primates drawn by their leader's call.
With a quick pivot, Mordred faced the oncoming horde, their ferocious roars, and bared icicle-like teeth signaling their frenzied state induced by the alpha's command.
'Seems like the alpha's roar put them in an enraged state,' Mordred observed and rushed toward the white apes.
His eyes glowed, and blood swirled around his arm, elongating his lethal claws into razor-sharp weapons.
He accelerated his blood, and with a burst of speed, Mordred blurred into motion, closing the distance to the approaching primates in the blink of an eye.
"Just bloody die," he said and unleashed the full force of the Baskerville combat arts on the ardimals.
His serrated blood claws shredded fur, flesh, and bone with ruthless efficiency, transforming the snowy ground into a macabre canvas of crimson spray as the primates met their demise.
Mordred exhaled a cloud of mist as he caught his breath. He's been using Ava's skills for about five minutes, and his headache's getting worse.
But he couldn't afford to deactivate his stigma. To do so would leave him defenseless and skillless for a critical period of time.
"Calling your subordinates to their death must've given you the necessary recovery time," Mordred remarked as the alpha appeared behind him without a single noise.
With lightning speed, the alpha swiped its intact arm at Mordred, its claws gouging the earth as they closed in on their target.
Mordred's blood tentacles moved forward to protect him but were swiftly torn apart by the sheer force of the attack.
For a fleeting moment, the Primate felt a surge of triumph as its claws neared Mordred's vulnerable skin.
It anticipated the satisfaction of inflicting true pain on the human.
That is if the strike had landed
In the briefest moment, just a split second before the claws could reach his face, Mordred intercepted the alpha's attack with his bare hands, halting it with astonishing strength.
The ground trembled as the force of the strike was deflected, obliterating the earth beside them.
The Primate stared in shock, unable to process what had just happened.
Did the small human just catch its attack with his hand?
As it locked eyes with Mordred, the Primate was gripped by a newfound emotion it had never experienced in its savage existence.
Fear.
"Shall we end this?" Mordred's voice dripped with boredom as he regarded the bewildered creature before him.
With a surge of ardor and blood, Mordred crushed the Primate's icy claws with his bare hands. Flesh tore and bones snapped as he violently tore its arm from its shoulder.
Before the ardimal could scream, he smacked it with its own arm and pointed the broken remains of the claws at its lower body.
In another burst of ardor, he drove the severed arm right into its biggest tool for intimidation.
The alpha Frostclaw Primate, one of the mighty creatures that ruled this valley, howled in pain and fell to its knees before the young prince.
But Mordred wasn't done.
His blood tentacles reformed and surged forward, piercing the ardimal's upright body and pinning it to the frozen, now crimson ground.
The alpha Primate, now in utter agony, raised its head and locked its terrified eyes onto the glowing crimson eyes of the monster before it.
What a horrifying being.
This would have been the Primate's thought if it could form words.
Mordred looked down on the trembling, blood-soaked ardimal, a sadistic smile appearing on his lips.
He raised his serrated, deadly blood claws, an insane glint in his glowing crimson eyes.
"You'll only die when I am done with you. I'll make sure of that."
*******
The Primate died just as I was finishing my handiwork.
Just as I had promised.
By the time I was done with it, the bloody and shredded pile of flesh no longer resembled a Frostclaw Primate.
It eerily resembled the bodies I witnessed in my nightmares.
Yeah. I still have nightmares of the crimson sky, the blackened stars, and the endless sea of lifeless bodies.
With each passing year, those dreams grew more vivid and more terrifying, until even the faces of fallen comrades began to haunt me, questioning why I alone remained among the living.
A shudder passed through my body as my eyes fell on the shredded corpse of the Primate alpha.
Incarni!
I need to visit my therapist one of these days.
Yep. I now have a therapist. Being a Deathwalker can be quite stressful to the mind.
Clouds of mist escaped my mouth as I recovered my breath and deactivated my stigma.
Immediately, knowledge of all skills ingrained in my mind and body vanished like a mist.
I would be skillless for some time.
My blood claws and tentacles dissipated into crimson mist as I deactivated Haema.
"Now that is horrifying," Iris remarked as she stood beside me, admiring my handiwork.
In her hands, she held two curled horns from the Pookie Bear that looked like they were intricately carved from pure ice.
I snorted, "Look who's talking."
The horns Iris held were the only parts of the Glacial Hornbear that were in good condition.
The rest of the bear was, well...
Let's just say that, like the Primate, it no longer resembled an alpha Glacial Hornbear that was living and breathing a few minutes ago.
I looked down at my handiwork and noticed that the tusks of the Primate remained quite unscathed.
"Oh well," I shrugged and pulled out the icy tusks covered in blood and gore, immediately placing them in the storage of my bracelet.
Parts of certain ardimals can be used to make a wide variety of items and are quite valuable. These icy tusks can be used to make a weapon or potion.
And these are from an A-ranked alpha, so they'll fetch a good price.
"You two are diabolical," Carlo's disturbed tone made us turn around to see him approaching us.
His claymore, crackling with residual energy, rested against his shoulder as he surveyed the scene before him.
The body of the alpha Frost Hound he fought lay smoking and skewered on one of the many conifer trees making up the woods near our location.
Compared to our absolutely eviscerated foes, the Frost Hound looked relatively intact and could be easily harvested for its body parts.
I whistled as I raised my head to see the hound skewered by the tall tree.
"Well, I'll be," I remarked with a grin. "Didn't know Frost Hounds could fly."
I looked at him, "You can fly?"
Carlo offered a modest shrug in response. "I can jump pretty high with a little boost from Fulgur," he explained.
"Managed to launch the hound into that tree with a well-placed strike before giving it an electrical finish."
I arched my eyebrows, "Must've smelled delicious."
Iris's eyes sparkled with excitement as she made a playful observation.
"So you're like a lightning bunny!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands excitedly.
"A Buzz Bunny!"
Carlo winced at the nickname, "Please don't."
"Buzz Bunny? Sounds just like you, Carlo," Krystal's playful voice rang out as she and the others approached us.
Despite the recent battle against a massive horde of ardimals, they appeared relatively unscathed, save for a few scratches and cuts.
Artemis, twirling her bloodstained yoyo, chimed in with a smirk, "Sounds cute."
Her brother couldn't help but join in, snickering at the nickname, "Buzz Bunny. Hehe."
Ava Baskerville trailed close behind, her eyes falling on the bodies of the A-ranked alphas.
Her attention lingered on the Frostclaw Primate, now a mangled mess of fur and flesh.
"Those cuts. This level of precise violence," Ava remarked, her tone tinged with shock as she approached for a closer inspection, "Baskerville style?"
She turned to me.
"You did this?"
I nodded with a grin, "Yep. Executed by yours truly."
Ava's curiosity was piqued further and she fixed her grey eyes on me.
"Now that you mention it," she continued, "I noticed you using my exact skills when fighting the alpha."
"How do you know the Baskerville combat arts?" she inquired, suspicion evident in her voice.
I just smiled at her, "It's my stigma, Miss Baskerville. I can copy the skills of another."
She was surprised, "That is your stigma? It's basically a cheat!"
She wasted no time in probing further, "What is the cost?"
"Mostly a headache," I replied and stuck out my tongue, "No way I am going to tell you the full cost of my stigma. Especially to a Baskerville."
"Tch!" Ava clicked her tongue, looking disappointed.
She then turned to Carlo, "Really? Buzz Bunny?"
Despite his victory over the Frost Hound, Carlo sighed in defeat.
"Not you too," he moaned.
I and Iris laughed, and then our gazes fell on the ancient path up the mountain.
"Can you feel it?" she asked, her voice tinged with excitement.
I nodded in response.
An ancient and powerful wave of ardor emanated from the depths of the mountain, hidden beneath the omnipresent strong ardor of the surrounding peaks.
A sense of adventure stirred in me, a yearning to grasp the unknown. It was the same feeling I had during the quest for the Holy Grail in my old world.
I gazed at the ancient stones forming the pathway up the mountain.
"Just what are you hiding?"