Xaren was born as a Level 50, so he was going to be prudent and assume that the other demons had simirly high base levels. But he retty sure that the one who just attacked him certainly did not, as there was no way he could o K.O. a Level 50 like himself.

  It would have been nice if he could perceive energy, then he’d be able to gauge their Existence realms based on the energy they emanated, but it should not be fotten that he just emerged from his incubation co not too long ago.

  His energy circuits hadn’t yet awakened or activated, and he couldn’t even sense his own energy, much less another person’s.

  “KRAAaaa!”

  He heard a roar ing from behind and abruptly turned around, however, his foot got caught on the legs of the unscious demon on the floor aripped, falling onto the ground.

  The little demon that was about to stab him with a broken shell shard froze as its target suddenly fell to the ground, and it stared at Xaren in fusion food 10 seds.

  Then it roared once more and tried to stab him with the broken shell like it inally intended, but Xaren rolled his body out of the way and the demon stabbed the ground instead.

  The shell shard shattered to pieces upon impact with the hard ground and Xaren quickly got to his feet, stumbling a bit as he had unsciously tried to move the way he used to in his past life.

  ‘Remember Xaren, you’re in a kid’s body. It’s not as strong as your former body.’

  Xareally ted his mantra, grounding himself in his new reality as he shed out with a swift kick, eg with the stomach of a demon in an impact that khe air out of its lungs.

  Just like the previous demon, this one was knocked out in a si.

  But there was no time to celebrate; another demon lu him and he sighed as he jumped back to avoid the punch. This time, he was able to keep his band not stumble like before.

  The demon charged forward and threw another wild punch, but Xaren dodged, befrabbing its outstretched arm, pivoting on his heel and flinging his attacker over his shoulder.

  As the demon hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud, Xaren grabbed a nearby rock, smashing it against the demon's skull before it could recover. He repeated the motion with ruthless effitil the demon stopped moving.

  Just as he finished off that one, a thunderous roar caught his attentiouro see a fourth demon charging at him.

  ‘Give me a fug break!’

  Xaren reized that this demon was uhe other humanoids who attacked him. It had a humanoid body, but its head was that of a bull, plete with rge, menag horns.

  ‘Bull Demons have powerful strength.’

  That little trivia came to his mind as the bull demon charged at him with its head pointed forward, and Xaren dodged the charge at the st moment, before seizing the demon’s left horn with his left hand.

  Without hesitation, he drove his right ko the demon’s neck, but it didn’t go down as easily as the others. He aimed for another krike, but the demon thrashed about, causing his ko miss its ned strike the horn instead.

  **CRACK!

  “GAR!!”

  The demon roared in pain, swinging its fist toward Xaren. He parried the blow with his right hand, thehe same hand to strike the base of the cracked horn, snapping it off just as the demon’s other fist smmed into his side.

  Xaren tumbled to the ground, rolling forward to avoid the demon’s follow-up stomp. Quickly getting to his feet, he gripped the broken horn like a dagger. It was curved and about 30 cm long—just enough for Xaren to adjust his hold, maximizing its offeential.

  The bull demon charged at him again, and just like before, he was able to sidestep its charge at the st moment. He sshed the horn across the demon’s fnk and it roared, stumbling, giving Xaren an opportunity to drive the horn into the back of its knee, f it down.

  With a quick leap onto its back, he pluhe horn into the base of its neck. The demon thrashed briefly before colpsing, lifeless, at his feet.

  “Phew…”

  Xare up his guard, but it seemed the other nearby demons were all too busy fighting each other to sider him.

  Suddenly, his nose seemed to perceive a tantalizing st, aurned around, trying to find the source.

  He saw a small ball of bck light floating on top of the body of the demon whose head he had bashed to death, and a sihought came to his mind.

  ‘A…Soul?’

  He’d heard demons devour the souls of their enemies in battle, and he had indeed seen some demons making straions after killing.

  But since he couldn’t see souls, they always looked silly to him.

  Turning to the bull demon at his feet, he saw that one’s soul had emerged as well and was just silently floating there, waiting for the w of death to cim it.

  Xaren unsciously reached out to it, grabbing the soul and looking at it in silence.

  “Demo souls, right? I know they eat normal food so it's not their main form of sustenance, and the Mid-Rank demons I saw made it look more like a hobby than anything.

  But before that, I doubt my mouth open wide enough to eat this thing…”

  The bull demon’s soul was rge enough to fit in his palm. Xaren was curious.

  He’d seen the expressions on the faces of some more humanoid demons whee souls and they seemed to be iasy.

  That state had even given him openings to kill some of them, so he was curious about how souls tasted that they could get so unguarded.

  Xaren slowly brought the soul closer to his mouth, trying to bite it like a fruit, but the moment it touched his lips, the whole thing was sucked into his mouth like dirt being sucked into a vacuum er.

  “?!”

  The fvour was unlike anything he had ever tasted, both intoxigly rid deeply satisfying, as if every essence of the bull demon’s life force was pressed into that single moment.

  The sensation was over as quickly as it began, leaving Xarehless, eyes wide with shod a newfound uanding of the dark huhat demons harboured.

  His gaze shot in the dire of the other soul, and he rushed towards it and grabbed it, dev it without a word.

  That same intoxig feeliurned and Xaren turned his gaze towards the two unscious ones on the floor.

  He used the horn in his hands to end their lives and ate their souls, and it was only after the fourth soul that he snapped back to his senses.

  “…damn…now I see why they do this…”

  The taste lingered, sweet and addictive, as if calling out to him, tempting him to devour more, but he smacked his head with the horn in his hand.

  “Focus, Xaren.”

  He turned around and saw that the thousands of demons around him were all fighting each other, trying to kill themselves for souls.

  Suddenly, a deep rumble echoed through the air, drawing Xaren’s gaze to the o. His eyes widened as he saw the tides swelling ominously, rising higher with each passing sed.

  “Tsunami!”

  He barely had time to speak the word before his instincts kicked in. He bolted, muscles coiling like springs as he sprinted across the beach.

  Xaren navigated through the shells and cos, ign the waves of fighting demons as his mind focused solely on escape.

  Thanks to his E+ Agility, Xaren moved faster thaher demons, his speed giving him a crucial advantage.

  He effortlessly outpaced those who were persistent enough to chase him, leaving them in the dust. A quice over his shoulder firmed that others had also noticed the impending danger, and soon, the entire beach was a frenzy of demons fleeing for their lives.

  “Got to get to high ground fast...!”

  Xaren sprihrough the rocky terrain, his breath ing in sharp bursts as he pushed himself toward the forest. His legs pumped furiously, vaulting ged rocks and scrambling up the steep ine.

  The rumbling of the rising o grew louder behind him, a stant reminder of the impending danger.

  Reag the edge of the forest, Xaren didn’t slow down. He ducked under low-hanging branches, his feet barely toug the ground as he wove through the dense foliage. The air grew cooler as the opy thied, but he kept moving, instind experience driving him deeper into the safety of the woods.

  Behind him, the tsunami crashed onto the beach with a deafening roar. The crimson waves engulfed everything in their path, swallowing the incubation cos, broken eggs, and demon corpses without mercy.

  Xaren paused at the edge of a small clearing, gng back just in time to see the st remnants of the beach disappear beh the ing waves.

  He spotted some little demons who couldn’t get away fast enough being cimed by the o, and just whehought they could try swimming back, giant shark monsters devoured them whole.

  “?!”

  The sight sent a shiver down his spine, but he quickly turned aushing forward into the heart of the forest.

  “Damn…

  I survived that…but the real challenge is just beginning.”

  The further he went, the quieter it became, the chaos of the beach fading into the background.