The rodent's head rolled to the side, its fresh blood spraying onto the dark soil. Xane didn't stop.

His boots kicked up dirt as he sprinted along the edge of the pit. The damp stench of blood mixed with a weird choking smell coming from the rodents filled the area.

All around him, the Rodent King's nest was in chaos, filled with shrill squeals, the thud of beasts' bodies hitting the ground, and the constant angry roar of the Rodent King at the center of it all.

Xane leaped over the corpse of another rodent, gripping the twin swords in his hands tighter. Covered in sweat, he was huffing, trying to catch his breath. His eyes were burning with determination. A lot depended on this task.

He wasn't here just to become one of the Supreme Ten. He wasn't here for the thrill of bloodshed, like some monsters in this academy.

No, he was here for one thing: survival.

He looked down at his chest in frustration. The egg stirred again, sucking his blood like a leech. The loss of blood blurred his vision, and his grip on his swords faltered momentarily.

'Not now.' Xane placed his hand on his chest and surrounded the egg with his mana. This decreased his already depleted mana reserves, but now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

Xane glanced at the center of the nest with fire in his eyes. 'I just need the blood of the level-one Rodent King to hatch this damn egg... just a bit more.'

The thought of finally ending the constant internal battle pushed him forward. The faint pulse in his chest kept reminding him of the high stakes.

He closed his left eye to get a better look at the overall situation. In the next moment, his vision switched to one of the hundreds of eye bats swirling above the battlefield.

With a simple thought, he began switching his vision from one eye bat's vision to another in quick succession. Hundreds of scenes flooded his mind, fitting together like pieces of a puzzle to paint a complete picture of the battlefield.

Through them, he saw the entire rodent's nest.

At the core, the massive Rodent King was pulsating with mana as it swung its spiked tail at Marcus, who rolled out of range, throwing bursts of fire and water balls to keep the beast's attention.

"C'mon, big guy, you gotta try harder than that!" Marcus taunted the beast. He danced around the Rodent King despite being covered in sharp thorns, preventing it from controlling the other rodents.

Xane noticed that Marcus had already merged with both his core beasts. Even then, Marcus could barely dodge the Rodent King's attacks. A level-one Beast King was truly too much for them.

If not for the fastest member of Team Denial, Marcus, distracting the strongest beast, they wouldn't have been able to take on this nest.

Far to the back side of the nest, Uzino jumped out of the shadow of a clueless rodent, stabbing his sword through its chest. In the next moment, ten shadow tendrils launched sharp weapons at the surrounding rodents.

Shhh shhh!

Multiple rodents screamed in pain, and before they could understand what was happening, Uzino jumped back into the shadows, disappearing from that spot and reappearing on the other side of the nest.

The death reaper of Team Denial moved from one spot to another, reaping tens of lives, and giving the opponents no chance to land a single attack. Uzino was a killing machine, responsible for dealing with hundreds of the base rodents running around the nest.

Xane switched his vision to an eye bat flying outside the nest. There, he saw Terrance sitting on the edge of the pit. His half-transformed fire turtle was charging up for the finishing blow, flames moving around the edges of its massive, floor-high volcanic shell.

Xane analyzed the battlefield for a few seconds before shaking his head. "It's not time yet."

At that moment, he felt a strong pain in his chest. He opened his left eye, and the bat's vision faded from his mind.

Gritting his teeth, Xane once again sprinted toward the nearest rodent.

…

At the center of the nest, the Rodent King roared. Its mana glowed faintly in the surrounding air, like a heatwave. With an ear-splitting shriek, it swiped its tail at Marcus, the spikes at the end tearing through the dirt.

"Whoa!" Marcus skidded to the side, breathless, covered head to toe in sweat. He jumped out of the way of a follow-up paw strike, the Rodent King's claws slamming into the ground inches from his head.

"That all you got, big guy?" Marcus gave his best attempt to taunt the Beast King.

The Rodent King tried to move for another attack but stumbled, its legs shaking under its massive weight.

From above, Xane watched through his bats as the Rodent King stumbled forward, off-balance from its last attack.

That was what they were waiting for. He shouted, "Now!" With that, all the bat eyes started blinking above the nest.

Already waiting for the signal, Uzino didn't hesitate and appeared out of the Rodent King's shadow.

Before the beast king could react, Uzino stabbed his fire-covered blade into the beast's eye.

Puichi!

The Rodent King screamed, its massive body twisting in agony as blood gushed from its eye. This was the first wound it had received in the battle.

Uzino smirked coldly, punching the blade's handle to push the sword deeper into the beast's socket for good measure. "You won't be seeing much out of that anymore."

Xane jumped out, leaping down from a nearby tree. He landed on top of the Rodent King as the chaos energy stored inside his left arm tattoo surged.

Xane muttered something as black fog spiraled from his tattoo into the summoning circle that had just appeared before him. He wasted no time and pressed his hand to the beast's fur. "Summon!"

The next second, Xane felt drained as he fell back to the ground. He saw the ground below the Rodent King cracking, and hundreds of rotten hands emerged from the soil.

These pus-filled, bony hands started attaching to the Rodent King's limbs, restricting its movement.

The Rodent King tried to struggle, stomping over a few hands, but by then, hundreds more had clawed out of the soil, gripping the beast's legs.

The Rodent King screeched in panic, the mana surging from its body as it struggled to break free.

The egg in Xane's chest pulsed wildly now, having used all the mana in his last attack. Xane's vision dimmed, nausea rising in his throat, but he forced himself to stay upright.

'Just a little longer. Hold on.'

The rodent king's fur stood up. Its entire body stiffened, and Xane felt the mana movement just a second before it happened.

"Down!" he shouted, throwing himself flat against the ground.

Dozens of sharp, needle-like hairs exploded from the Rodent King's body, cutting through the air.

One sliced across Xane's shoulder, tearing through his academy jacket.

He hissed in pain as hot blood trickled down his arm. Behind him, Uzino let out a grunt, and Marcus cursed loudly.

Xane tried to focus, but his head was spinning. The egg had already started leaching blood from his body.

Just before losing his senses, he looked at the ten bat eyes circling above the beast king. With a single thought, he commanded them to explode in the air as he mumbled, "Terrance, now!"

He felt a hand on his shoulder as he blacked out.

When he regained his senses, he found himself back on Marcus's back, far from the Rodent King.

At that moment, hundreds of fireballs appeared in the sky. It was as if the sky was on fire.

Then, all the fireballs started dropping into the center of the pit.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The loud explosions rang in his ears.

"Ahhhh!"

From time to time, he heard the Rodent King's screams, but as the fireballs continued to fall on the same spot, the beast grew quieter and quieter.

Xane tried to sense his bats, but the fireballs had scorched almost all of them.

He switched his perception to the ones flying above the edge of the pit.

There, he saw a giant fire turtle spitting fireballs into the center of the nest.

With each fireball, the turtle continued to shrink. After raining fireballs for an entire minute, the turtle reverted to its normal form and size, with Terrance collapsing next to it.

…

Xane and Marcus stared at the massive dust cloud engulfing half the rodent nest. It was hard to tell what had happened to the Rodent King.

Soon, Uzino stepped through the smoke, his sword dragging behind him. With the torn shirt, blood dripped down his arms, but he gave them a small, triumphant smile. "Dead."

For a moment, there was silence. Xane and Marcus stared at him, then at each other. Then they erupted.

"Haha, fck yeah!" Marcus shouted, dropping Xane onto the ground as he collapsed onto his back. "We did it!"

Xane groaned, clutching his injured shoulder, but he couldn't help laughing. "Hell yeah!"

Uzino chuckled softly, sitting down on a nearby rock. "That was the most exciting fight!"

"Worth it." Marcus grinned. "We'll be top ten now, right? Team Denial's moving up the ranks."

"Not just moving up," Xane said, his voice steady despite the pain. "We're soaring."

The three of them lay there, surrounded by the wreckage of the battlefield, laughing like idiots.

Xane tapped on his chest, trying to ease his pain. He could finally settle this damn curse. He looked around at the calm sky and clenched his fist.

The months-long planning had finally worked. But then he calmed down and said in a serious tone, "It isn't over yet."

The other two, lost in their thoughts, nodded to him.

"Not yet."

"This is just the first step, baby!"