It was Max who finally stepped forward, breaking free of the swirling chaos as though emerging from the eye of a storm. For long moments, he'd held himself back, torn between instinct and cold calculation. The Ascendant rampaging through the first circle was a monstrous force, a creature whose strength dwarfed his own by an entire gulf.
A Seventh-Level Champion Rank Ascendant was so far above his First-Level Master Rank cultivation that even the notion of confronting it bordered on madness. Every shred of rationality screamed that engaging would be suicide.
And yet, Max's gaze kept straying to the carnage—the twisted bodies of hunters littering the ground, their lifeless eyes staring into the crimson sky, blood pooling beneath them as the Ascendant's claws tore through flesh and bone with ruthless precision.
Each fresh scream drove the blade of rage deeper into his chest until he could no longer stand idle.
Enough.
