'Power.' Kai thought with a smile. And more power was waiting for him outside. Leaving the corpse behind, Kai joined Shuzen's battle. The instant he left the carriage he was met with multiple insurmountable auras. It was as though the very weight of the air was being compounded into one devastating force crushing Kai.'This is their strength?' Kai thought with awe. His awe quickly turned into anticipation.Looking back to the carriage, he thought 'When I used corruption on him, I gained his beast's soul.'Looking ahead to the A-rank and B-rank hunter tag teaming Shuzen, he knew he could corrupt their beasts as well. Such a jump in power would already have him nearing Shuzen's strength.Which means he would have to hide it. Even if Shuzen was hellbent on conquering everything, he wouldn't be so dumb as to let Kai corrupt the A-rank tamer. Not until Shuzen's control was completely assured.Forcing his fingers through the force of auras, he gently touched his neck where Shuzen's poison had entered.Kai knew that Shuzen's fragile control hinged entirely on this poison. The Maka-Mako already confirmed this. So Kai's avenue to power couldn't only include corrupting strong beasts. He also needed a way to overpower the poison.For now, though, the C rank left his hiding spot.Knowing that just Shuzen's passive strength at this moment could eviscerate him, he had been lurking in the shadows. He was only to come out for 2 reasons.1: after they weakened Shuzen severely, he would come out of the shadows and attack Shuzen while his guard was down. Because Shuzen was weakened, his aura would no longer be so overwhelmingly threatening to the C rank.2: if the elf would dare to join the battle. Based on their intel, Kai was nothing more than Shuzen's favorite servant. Because Kai had greatly improved the late Khazi's speech, Shuzen favored him most among the servants. Of course, the elf, his favored aid, would be his traveling partner.They didn't expect such a weak being to interfere with true power, but in case he did their C rank with the mountain eagle soul, Ahi, was supposed to dispose of him.If the elf killed him, that meant he was either very lucky or his skill was understated.Still, this C rank, the one with a Komodo Dragon's soul, was vastly superior. The hunting group knew there was no way some weak elf who had never been appraised would be able to do anything to him.Within an instant, before he could even think to activate his beast's soul, Kai's arm turned into a wing and his talons scratched at the man's eyes.Screaming from pain and the sudden shock of becoming blind, the man raised his hands to his eyes as he fell to the ground.Though his arms covered his face, they offered little resistance against Kai's other new trait.The next moment, Kai's mouth slammed through the arms and neck of the man with a force of a Juma's jaw. Kai spit out the arms and head of the man as the rest of his body fell to the ground, completely limp.Then he raised his hand, sending the purple fire out of his fingers as he had before. There was a small hope that Kai would inherit some form of poison resistance from a Komodo Dragon, though he already knew it wouldn't be so easy.Ignoring the flashing of Anhita's system detailing his level ups, Kai instead relished in his dominance over another soul.He would look at the system after he added a third soul to his collection.As the soul cried out against Kai's grasp, he merely strangled it further. The Komodo dragon would not best him or his control. Nothing would.The fire danced amongst the cries of the soul before it eventually snuffed out each and every one. A gasp, a cry. Then silence.Obedience.Kai had now dominated, corrupted, his third beast. 'Level up? And I got my first ability? And somehow this C- Rank beast had a B- Rank trait! What was it then, a dominant aspect?' Kai thought to himself with wonder, his mind swirling from this substantial increase in strength.Kai took one look at Shuzen, already knowing his answer. Right now, Shuzen was clearly holding his own against the 2 tamers as their clashes shook the trees of the jungle with a fierce ferocity.Even if he had difficulty, Kai wouldn't have stepped in. For starters, he was weaker than Shuzen right now so he obviously wouldn't have any chance to stop someone who killed him. Additionally, though, he would simultaneously be free from Shuzen's grasp and have an S-rank beast to conquer.Even if Shuzen's version had a weak aspect, with the limitless potential of Kai's corruption the S- rank would quickly show its true power.So Kai turned his attention back to the voice, to Anhita, as he nodded his affirmation."Go ahead.""What is it? Stuff like killing and corrupting beasts?""I see. And obtaining an ability should be self-explanatory. The beast I corrupted, the Komodo dragon, was already level 4. So it must be strong enough that my corrupted version already became a stronger version of a Komodo dragon.""Seriously? My skill is that strong?"Kai looked back to Shuzen, his curiosity satiated. Promising to reach that infinity, he used the new B-rank trait to accurately watch the battle as he formulated a plan.