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At the command of the beastman captain, Dora, one of the beastmen lunged out from the group, charging at Riku with shocking speed.
His face was twisted and feral, clawed fists clenched tight. As he threw a punch, it cut through the air with a piercing sound, clearly aiming to blow the human's head off in one strike.
Too bad for him, that was never going to happen.
The moment the beastman attacked, Riku moved even faster, leaving afterimages behind him as he flashed to the beastman's front. Without a word, he slammed his own fist forward, face calm.
"Boom!""Crack!"
In the blink of an eye, the beastman was sent flying with a sharp sound of breaking bone.
He crashed hard onto the ground, writhing in agony, clutching his throat and coughing up blood, eyes filled with disbelief.
Sure, beastmen had way stronger life force than humans, but getting your throat crushed by a punch like that? Death was only a matter of time. In fact, the beastman's strength only made it worse—he had to stay conscious and feel every second of it.
"Damn it!" Dora's eyes burned with fury as he watched his comrade get one-shotted.
"You… You're really human?!" Dora snarled, eyes full of killing intent.
To all races, "human" was basically a synonym for "weak." Just a bunch of monkeys, nothing more. And now, one of them had just casually wiped out a beastman like it was nothing? What kind of sick joke was this?!
"Yup. 100% human," Riku replied coldly.
As he spoke, energy swirled around his hands and formed into two short blades—the very same Kanshou and Bakuya that Heroic Spirit Emiya favored.
"A human… who can use spirit magic? And your physical strength's not even much weaker than ours…" Dora's face darkened. What he was seeing completely shattered everything he thought he knew.
The other beastmen glared at Riku with hatred, but deep down, they were just as shocked.
And this was exactly what Riku had been waiting for.
In a flash, he activated Sky Step, turning into a blur midair and shooting straight toward the beastmen.
"Kill that bastard!" one of them roared, reacting instantly with his heightened senses.
"Splat—!"
But in the next second, Riku's speed exploded again. Before the beastman could even react, Riku had already slashed clean through his neck. Blood gushed out like a fountain—the guy was dead before he knew what hit him.
That strike was fast, precise, and lethal. Nothing like the messy, uncoordinated attacks he'd been throwing out just the day before.
After all, Riku now had Mastery of Swordsmanship. Basically, he was a swordmaster now.
"You bastard!!" Another comrade down, and Dora completely lost it. With a furious roar, he launched himself at Riku like a human cannonball.
His speed and strength blew the rest of the beastmen out of the water—this guy was clearly one of the top elites.
But even so, he couldn't lay a finger on Riku.
"Splat—!"
In seconds, the battlefield turned into a slaughterhouse. Every few moments, another beastman would fall under Riku's blades.
In no time, their group of a dozen was down to just five.
"You forced me to do this, human!" Dora finally snapped. So many of his own had been killed, he couldn't take it anymore. His beast eyes turned blood-red, his bloodlust practically oozing into the air.
The next moment, a violent red aura surged from Dora's massive body.
"Blood Rage!" he roared.
Red marks crawled across his body, his veins bulged, his claws grew longer, and a terrifying pressure burst out of him.
"Beastmen's Blood Rage, huh?" Riku stepped back slightly, narrowing his eyes as he locked onto Dora.
He knew—this beastman was going berserk. Even if using Blood Rage might attract the attention of other races, Dora clearly didn't care anymore.
"ROOOOAAARRRR!"
Unleashing his Blood Rage, Dora let out a primal howl that turned into a soundwave, making Riku's eardrums ring painfully.
Then came the real danger. The ground beneath Dora cracked as his strength erupted, and in the blink of an eye, he vanished from view—reappearing right in front of Riku, his claws flashing with a deadly chill.
His speed now outstripped even Riku's Sky Step. He wasn't just fast—he was freakishly fast.
"—!"
Riku's eyes widened, but he reacted instantly, crossing Kanshou and Bakuya in front of him. Energy surged across the blades as he blocked.
"Clang—!""Crack—!"
The impact rang out like thunder. Riku let out a muffled grunt as he was blasted backward, clearly shaken. Even worse, Kanshou and Bakuya had been completely shattered by the sheer force.
Mid-air, Riku forced himself to stop by activating Sky Step again. He kicked off the air, stabilizing himself above ground, though his body felt like it had been turned inside out—his blood felt like it was flowing backwards.
So this was the beastmen's Blood Rage. That level of speed and power was just insane—completely beyond normal limits.
Even the Skywing race couldn't match that purely in terms of physical strength. Their bodies may have been refined to the peak of physical perfection, but the beastmen's Blood Rage? That was something else entirely.
"Don't think you can escape just 'cause you can fly!" Dora snarled from below, glaring up at Riku in the sky.
In the next instant, he stomped the ground, blowing a massive crater into it, then rocketed into the air like a missile, heading straight for Riku.
No holding back. This was an all-out, one-hit kill move.
"....."