“Damn it, why are there so many?!” Caius swung his warhammer in a wide arc, exploding a spray of blood in every direction.

  Yet before him, the red tide showed no sign of thinning.

  What surrounded him weren’t Wolf Demons—but Bloodfish.

  These creatures were simple in structure: shaped like droplets of water, their rounded end was a gaping maw capable of opening nearly one hundred and eighty degrees, filled entirely with razor-sharp teeth. No eyes. No nostrils. Just a pair of fins and a tail.

  A faint trace of Bloodborne Power allowed them to float about half a meter above the ground. Each Bloodfish was just over a meter in length, agile and fast—quicker than the average person in a full sprint.

  Their rank was low, barely at the Brass level. A few of the larger ones, around one and a half meters, might reach Silver—but against Caius, even those died in a single blow.

  The problem was their numbers.

  Right now, the ones encircling Caius numbered in the thousands.

  Even if he crushed seven or eight with each swing, he’d still need to swing hundreds of times, nonstop.

  That in itself wasn’t the real issue.

  The real problem was what happened after they died.

  As the Bloodfish perished, the Bloodborne Power within them would leak into the air. The sheer volume of fallen creatures gradually created a thickening blood mist.

  And this mist was toxic.

  It agitated one’s vital energy. Even a minor wound on Caius would bleed several times faster than normal in this fog.

  Of course, none of this would usually be a threat to him. Caius possessed immense stamina, unyielding physicality, and a powerful regenerative ability.

  But the blood mist had another effect—it gave off a pungent, intoxicating scent.

  That scent was what drew more and more Bloodfish from the distance.

  If this went on, it wouldn’t just be Bloodfish arriving—Caius was certain that Wolf Demons, Slaughter Wolf Demons, and perhaps even more terrifying Bloody Creatures would come as well.

  He groaned, gripping his warhammer tighter.

  This was a damn headache.

  He had been following the battle traces left behind by Hilda. But halfway through, the trail had gotten muddled—another battle had taken place here, likely between mercenaries or adventurers and the Bloody Creatures.

  The scale of that fight had been large enough to disrupt Hilda’s original path.

  Soon, Caius reached a fork in the trail. Both paths bore signs of retreat and combat. One had fewer traces—clearly taken by a smaller group. He chose that path.

  But when he stumbled upon two shredded corpses, he knew he had made the wrong choice.

  Just as he turned to go back, a swarm of Bloodfish appeared—likely a hunting group that had coincidentally run into him.

  They immediately swarmed him, and the numbers only continued to rise.

  He knew this wasn’t sustainable. On the distant ridge, he could already make out the silhouettes of approaching Wolf Demons.

  It was time to break through.

  With a thunderous roar, Caius unleashed a violent storm of magic power from his body, blasting every Bloodfish within several dozen meters into the air.

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  “Hold on tight, Kiki!” he shouted.

  The Catgirl clinging to his back wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

  Then Caius charged forward, warhammer in hand, smashing a path through the thinning Bloodfish horde.

  But it wasn’t just Bloodfish anymore.

  A chorus of howls echoed from the side.

  Caius turned and saw a pack of Wolf Demons weaving through the blood-red sea, lunging straight toward him.

  More than twenty of them.

  And two among them were especially massive.

  They howled as they charged, unleashing a brutal roar that caused the surrounding Bloodfish to collapse like marionettes with severed strings. Streams of crimson light surged from their fallen bodies into the two massive Wolf Demons.

  In the blink of an eye, the beasts entered their berserk second phase.

  Caius twitched at the corner of his eye.

  Seriously?

  They sacrificed their own allies to trigger berserk mode?

  One thing was clear—breaking out was no longer going to be easy.

  The two Slaughter Wolf Demons were blisteringly fast. Even with Bloodfish swarming in every direction, they quickly closed the distance. Caius couldn’t shake them off.

  And there was no way he was going to show them his back—not with a small Catgirl clinging to it.

  If he wanted to break free, he had to deal with the damn Wolf Demons first.

  With no other choice, Caius sprinted toward the mountainside. At least with his back to the rock, he wouldn’t have to worry about being surrounded from all sides.

  Reaching the stone wall, Caius raised his warhammer and slammed it hard into a wedge-shaped crevice. Several blows later, a person-sized gap was smashed open.

  “Get in!” he barked, shielding Kiki from two lunging Bloodfish as he shoved her into the narrow gap.

  It wasn’t big, but more than enough to hide one small Catgirl.

  Unlike Caius, Kiki didn’t have the same physicality. The blood mist and blood toxin would be far more dangerous to her, and even a single bite could prove fatal.

  He had to protect her at all costs.

  Then Caius turned, broad back blocking the gap, massive frame standing firm against the incoming bloodstorm.

  Bring it on. I’m done running.

  Let’s see how many I can kill today.

  With a roar, he smashed another wave of Bloodfish aside—just as the two Slaughter Wolf Demons arrived.

  The angled mountain wall forced them to crush their own underfoot just to get close. Their massive frames made it difficult to maneuver.

  Maybe they were desperate—one of the Slaughter Wolf Demons let out a furious roar. The remaining Bloodfish rapidly scattered, clearing the space within the mountain's wedge.

  The two demons lunged with their claws bared—right at Caius.

  But they didn’t realize: they weren’t trapping him.

  They had walked into his kill zone.

  Strength contest with Caius?

  They clearly forgot what happened to the last Slaughter Wolf Demon that tried.

  “BOOM!!” Another deafening crash. One of the demons was sent flying.

  But it didn’t even reach the air before a massive hand clamped down on its ankle and yanked it back.

  Caius spun, dragging both demons like ragdolls and slammed one into the ground.

  He lifted his boot and brought it crashing down on the demon’s chest, caving it in with a sickening crunch.

  The Slaughter Wolf Demon thrashed beneath him. Caius stomped again. And again. Each step reverberated like a war elephant’s rampage, shaking the ground.

  And he didn’t stop moving.

  While his foot crushed one demon’s chest, his warhammer danced in the air, clashing blow for blow with the second Slaughter Wolf Demon.

  It wasn’t long before the second fell into disadvantage, finally sent flying by a devastating swing.

  At this moment, the first wolf demon beneath Caius's feet had its chest cavity crushed, but even so, it still hadn't died. Instead, it opened its sharp claws and wide mouth, attempting to attack Caius.

  Caius granted its wish.

  He shoved the head of his warhammer into its gaping maw, raised his boot high, and brought it down with bone-shattering force onto the hammer’s flat face.

  The Slaughter Wolf Demon convulsed violently, then finally went limp.

  "COME ON!!!" Caius roared, his eyes gleaming with savage light.

  But the ferocity of the Bloody Creatures would not falter in the face of his overwhelming presence. More and more Wolf Demons howled as they charged forward. Caius met them head-on, swinging his massive warhammer again and again, smashing them to death, sending bodies flying, grinding flesh into pulp.

  From within the crevice, Kiki watched Caius’s back, tears already streaming down her face.

  Through the narrow gap, she could see the spray of blood—and blood, too, flowing down Caius’s muscular back, seeping through the gaps between his muscles and soaking his clothes red.

  She was terrified. Terrified that the blood wasn’t from the Bloody Creatures… but from Caius himself.

  The deafening crashes, the endless roars, and the tremors shaking the ground—it was all too much.

  Kiki finally couldn’t take it anymore. She reached out a trembling hand, gently pushing at Caius’s back.

  “Big guy… please… please go…”

  To her surprise, Caius’s voice came back with a laugh.

  “What are you saying? They’re almost all dead!”

  “The Wolf Demons are done for. Just a bunch of little damn fish left!”

  But Kiki could clearly hear roars outside—roars that definitely didn’t belong to Bloodfish.

  “Big guy…” Her voice trembled harder now. The chaos outside was deafening, but Caius could still hear her. He always could.

  “Don’t ask me to leave… You’d be asking me to break my vow.” His deep voice rumbled back to her.

  “Fall for me, little kitty.”

  “I’m a real man, damn it!”

  “If they want to get to you—” His voice turned into a snarl. “—they’ll have to dig through my chest first!”

  “Haha! Come on, more! One Wolf Demon’s worth three to five thousand, a Bloodfish fetches four to five hundred—at this rate, I’ll be the richest man in Ocean City by nightfall!”