Chapter 80 - 79 : Blood in the streets (5)

The blood in the sky quivered like a thousand blades waiting for the executioner’s signal. The Aristocrat’s smirk widened. "Let’s paint the street with what’s left of you." His fingers snapped. The arrows fell. "MOVE!" I screamed. Seo-Yeon’s scream split the night. She threw her arms upward, telekinetic pressure warping the air, but she was already too drained—most of the spears cut straight through her shield. In-Ji blinked into motion, *Flashstep* cracks spiderwebbing under his boots. He intercepted as many as he could, bullets shattering blood mid-flight, but every step shredded his legs further. Blood pooled in his boots. Ye-Rin raised her axe and roared, cutting through volleys like she was fighting a storm of knives. Sparks flew with every swing. Mother whispered curses between ragged breaths, black glyphs sparking as she dissolved half a dozen spikes before they reached us—then collapsed to one knee, coughing blood. And still—there were too many. Too fast. Too sharp. We were going to be skewered alive. A roar ripped through the street. BZZZZZZZRAAAAAM! Lightning exploded outward. Volt’s body blurred across the battlefield, his massive wings wrapping around us all. Thousands of blood arrows tore into him instead of us, piercing flesh, feathers, bone. He convulsed, sparks spraying with every impact. His screech echoed down the broken avenue, half-thunder, half agony. "No!" Ye-Rin shrieked. She tried to shove against his wing, to move him, but Volt stayed firm—his body a wall between us and death. His head turned, his eyes glowing electric gold. Not looking at Ye-Rin. Not at Seo-Yeon. Not at anyone else. At me. And then—I heard him. Not a voice from his throat. A voice in my skull. "Ye-Jun." "What—?" You know what must be done. Stop holding back. Fuse with me. I staggered, shaking my head. "Fuse—what the hell are you talking about? Volt, you can do much more out " "I’ll die if I continue more". His voice pulsed, steady despite the pain. "But if you and I merge, if you call upon Beastification, we can end this. The Aristocrat bleeds like any beast. You just have to become worse than him. And by doing so I can survive as well." The words froze my breath. My feathers twitched. My instincts screamed to obey. He pressed. "Together—we don’t crawl. We don’t kneel. We devour." His final cry shook my skull. "BEASTIFY, YE-JUN!" "But I can’t. There is a limit and I can only Use beastification once a day and as you can see, I’m already in my beastification form with Roger." "Just do it. Don’t trust the system blindly. You can do it". I gave it no other thoughts. I know what he is saying is correct. " Fuck it." [Do you want to use Beastification?] [Target : Volt, The three headed Thunderstorm dragon] [Yes/No] I pressed yes. [Access denied] [Your daily limit has been reached 1/1] I pressed yes again and again. [Access Denied] [Access Denied] [Access Denied] [Required sacrificed has been made Volt] [Your request is being accepted] "Wh-what sacrifice?" But I didn’t have any time to think, as the ground split beneath me. My blood ignited. My feathers burst away in a storm of burning white. I screamed—no, *roared*—as my body ripped itself apart and stitched into something monstrous. Two massive wings tore forth—not feathered, but leathery and regal, scales shimmering gold like molten banners. They cracked wide, shaking the air with every beat, the sound like a dragon’s roar shackled in wind. My teeth are lengthened and sharpened to razors. My pupils narrowed into vertical slits, burning with animal hunger. A tail lashed free from my spine, long and coiling, cracking the pavement like a whip. My voice dropped into something inhuman, guttural, echoing: "...Baron." His smirk faltered. For the first time—his eyes widened. "What... are you? How could you do it twice a day?" I didn’t answer. I moved. The street cracked under me as I launched. In a blink, my claws met his blood-spear mid-air, shattering it like glass. My tail whipped through his defenses, cracking against his ribs, sending him staggering through a half-collapsed building. He snarled, reforming whips, spears, entire clones from his blood. They lunged at me like a tidal wave. I tore through them. Feathers and scales melted into arcs of lightning and claw. My wings beat once, the gale throwing his clones into rubble. My roar carried thunder. Our duel was no longer man versus monster. It was a monster against its prey. But while I had him, the others still had the Hybrid. The monster screeched, four wings flapping like a storm, its body stitched with muscle and fangs. The thing that used to be Kim Song-Woo wouldn’t stop moving, tail-cleaving cars in half as it drove the others into corners. Seo-Yeon, crimson-eyed, half gone to madness, lifted an entire building’s worth of rubble and crushed a Behemoth into paste. She screamed like she was being torn apart with it. In-Ji darted between debris, his boots cracking from Flash step overuse. He fired at the Hybrid’s joints, each shot precise, each one burning him down. His legs bled through his jeans. "Die already, you bastard!" The Hybrid’s tail caught him—he would’ve been shredded— "Over here, ugly!" Ye-Rin roared, distracting the hybrid for a. Moment, spinning her battle-axe until the edge caught flame from the burning debris. She charged, sliding low, and hacked into the Hybrid’s shin. Bone cracked, black ichor spraying. The creature bellowed, swiping down with its claw—Ye-Rin barely rolled aside, but her armor split open across her ribs. She coughed blood, spat, and laughed through gritted teeth. But Mother dragged her blade through the pavement and unleashed it. Requiem Strike. The arc of light split one of the Hybrid’s wings clean off. The monster shrieked, crashing through fire and rubble. Mother fell to her knees, coughing blood, barely conscious. Hyun-Tae roared, clutching his shotgun. "C’mon, Boom Boom—wake up for me just once!" And the Boom Boom answered, "I can only do this once more". The shotgun thrummed like a heartbeat. When he pulled the trigger, the shot wasn’t normal— It was a meteor. A cannon blast was fired at the Hybrid. The Hybrid staggered. Broken wing. Smoking chest. But it wasn’t dead. Seo-Yeon, berserk, leapt onto it with no hesitation, fists covered in telekinetic energy slamming again and again, every impact like thunder. She drove it into the cracked earth. In-Ji limped forward, unloading the last of his magazine point-blank. "Stay—DOWN!" The Hybrid finally stopped moving. Its skull cracked under Seo-Yeon’s bloody fists. She roared, then collapsed beside the corpse, unconscious, chest rising in ragged bursts.