Jerome swung his sword downwards. His attack was quick, but Kang Oh's Hyper Intuition let him know where he was aiming for ahead of time.

'Now!' Kang Oh extended Blood. The moment their blades met...

Sword Parry!

Jerome staggered as his blade slid off Blood. Then, Kang Oh swung his sword as quickly as lightning.

Slash!

Blood cut through Jerome's steed. Red shards of light burst out, and the horse's blue flames surged.

Neigh!

It neighed angrily, raised its front legs, and stomped on him.

Kang Oh threw himself out of the way, passing by its hind legs. The horse's hooves stomped on the muddy floor, leaving footprints in the ground.

He quickly got back into position. Jerome tried to turn his horse around, but it was already far too late.

Tempest Tiger!

A golden tiger shot out of Blood, which radiated scarlet energy. It was like the red sky and the setting yellow sun.

Boom!

Its power was considerable, but it couldn't topple the Tehorus.

Charge of Death!

Jerome quickly regained his bearings, and the Tehorus charged at Kang Oh like a truck with a malfunctioning brake.

Taking a knight's charge head-on was the pinnacle of stupidity.

"Tasha!" Kang Oh flew into the air. From there, he shot Blood Spikes and Blood Spears at Jerome and his horse.

Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!

Jerome swung his sword upwards.

Chaos Aura!

A brown aura, resembling a black hole, completely devoured his blood based attacks. Thus far, the two were dead even.

Kang Oh descended to the ground, and engaged Jerome once more. Jerome was riding on horseback, so he took advantage of his elevated position and aimed for Kang Oh's neck.

Swish!

Kang Oh stretched out his wings, leapt into the air, and quickly swung his sword.

Swish!

Blood cleaved through Jerome's neck.

Normally, it'd be difficult to target Jerome's neck since he was on horseback. However, his wings and his lighter, one-handed sword, allowed him to attack with greater precision in the air. It was like he was a red bat!

Jerome attacked him while he was trying to land.

Kang Oh balanced himself with his wings, deflected Jerome's blade with Blood, and then safely landed on the ground.

Tap.

'Mm.'

He realized something from this fight.

In his Red Demon form, the combination of his wings and a light, one-handed sword like Blood, allowed him to fight in a completely different way.

Flying Swordsmanship!

'I've relied too heavily on Ubist thus far.'

Gluttony and Ubist's other abilities were completely overpowered. That's why he'd relied on Ubist so much.

But by focusing on Blood, not Ubist, while assuming his Red Demon form, Kang Oh had grasped a completely new fighting style!

Learning something new was fun.

Kang Oh repeatedly leapt into the air, and further refined his flying swordsmanship. By using this style, he completely eliminated Jerome's height advantage.

His concentration had hit its peak. He could feel and react to his Hyper Intuition now better than ever.

At some point, Kang Oh began to completely overpower the Chaos Knight, Jerome.

He knew where Jerome would attack beforehand, and he instantly knew where Jerome's weak points were. Even Jerome couldn't properly respond to Kang Oh's attacks when he was jumping and flying all over the place.

Jerome realized that at this rate, all was lost. Thus, he called forth a Death Knight and a Ruin Knight. The three knights surrounded Kang Oh and attacked him simultaneously.

However, he was surrounded on the ground, not in the sky. Kang Oh flew into the air, and launched Blood Spikes, a Fresh Blood Wave, Tempest Tiger, etc. He completely bombarded them from above, and then landed on the floor.

Swish!

Whoosh!

Swoosh!

Thinking that this was their best chance to kill him, the undead knights attacked simultaneously.

"Tasha!"

Kang Oh leapt into the air, extending Blood and spinning as if he were performing a triple axel. This was only possible due to Tasha's skill. If he had to give it a name, he would probably call it Flying Spinning Slash or something.

Bam, bam, bam!

In an instant, Demon Sword Blood sliced through Jerome, the Death Knight, and the Ruin Knight's necks several times.

Spurt!

Several shards of light fell from their bodies, and Blood greedily devoured them. 15 red stars now lined his snow-white blade!

Kang Oh didn't use Blood Bomb; instead, he kept fighting with max stacks. Each red star increased Blood's attack power by 2%. He'd rather maintain the 30% increase in attack power than use Blood Bomb.

At that moment, Darkness Strike activated. A scarlet, bat-shaped wave swept through the undead knights.

'Now!' Kang Oh leapt into the air.

Transcendent Blade!

Because of Blood's scarlet light, he looked like a red falling star.

Swish!

Jerome's neck was sliced right after, causing brown, ominous energy to leak out. At the same time, cracks began to spread across Jerome's body.

Boom!

Ultimately, Jerome shattered into pieces like a dropped ceramic pot! The blue flame-wreathed Tehorus, the Elite Death Knight, and the Ruin Knight turned to smoke as well.

Tap.

Kang Oh landed on the ground and spread out his wings. He then slowly retracted them.

[You are the first to defeat the Chaos Knight, Jerome.]

[As a reward, Jerome will drop his highest rank items.]

[You have leveled up.]

A first kill bonus! However, the system messages didn't end there.

Demon Sword Blood radiated wicked red light, which surged into the air in nine different sections.

[Demon Sword Blood has leveled up.]

[Demon Sword Blood has risen to level 30, and has gained a new ability.]

"Yes!" Kang Oh clenched his fist, and quickly checked Blood's updated item information.

[Demon Sword Blood (Lv.30)]

Blood, the demon that made all beings within the Great Forest tremble in fear, is sealed within this sword.

The snow-white blade emanates scarlet energy, making the sword extremely beautiful but also ominous.

The sword has an ego of its own. It sees, hears, and feels the world through its wielder, and grows.

Untradeable.

Upon death, there is a high chance that the demon sword either drops, or you become a monster under the demon's thrall for 24 hours.

+ Evolving Weapon: Has its own level. Takes a portion of its wielder's experience points. These experience points are what the demon sword uses to grow. The higher the level, the more powerful the sword and its abilities become.

[Next Level Up: 0.001%]

+ Life Steal: Dealing damage restores your HP. The amount of health restored is based on the damage you deal and the demon sword's level.

+ Vampiristic Reinforcement: Successfully life stealing increases the sword's attack power by 2%. Life stealing again within a 15 second period causes this effect to stack (15 stacks max).

+ Blood Bomb: Usable when you reach max reinforcement stacks (15 stacks). Consumes all stacks to unleash a blood red explosion.

+ Red Butterfly's Dance: Evasion doubles for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

+ Festival of Blood: Consumes half of your HP. For 30 seconds, your attack power, speed, and life steal increase significantly. The more HP is consumed, the more significant the increase. Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Rank: SS.

Abilities: Attack Power 601, Physical +75, Mental +20, HP +1,500.

Minimum Requirements: Clear the Trial of the Demon Sword.

'Festival of Blood, huh.'

It was a buff like Gluttony. He'd have to use it to find out how significant the increase would be.

Kang Oh picked up the item that Jerome dropped. He was only a named monster, yet he dropped an S-rank item.

[Hellfire Forged Chaos Blade]

The sword that the Chaos Knight, Jerome, used. It is filled with death energy, so it is precious to the undead. It is unknown what kind of sword it was originally.

+ Summon High-Rank Undead Knight: Allows you to summon an Elite Death Knight and a Ruin Knight. Cooldown: 1 day.

+ Chaos: The sword is imbued with significant chaos energy. You may freely manipulate this energy.

If an undead uses this weapon, then the power of chaos may transform them into an even greater existence.

Rank: S.

Abilities: Attack Power 715, Main Stats +80, Charm -100. Gives nearby people a sense of unknown hostility and terror.

Minimum Requirements: Level 500, undead only.

It was an undead only item, but it could be remodeled so that a player could equip it.

'Should I try selling it to Eder?'

There was a slight demand for undead items. Necromancers would buy undead only items, and equip their summoned undead with them.

Anyhow, Kang Oh stashed the Chaos Blade in his inventory. Then, he looked for suitable prey to test Festival of Blood on.

'That guy looks good.' He saw a Mana Enlightened Skeleton Mage. It was the strongest skeleton-type monster that had an excellent grasp of fire, water, wind, lightning, and earth spells!

Kang Oh quietly approached it, and then immediately popped out of hiding.

It immediately cast a spell.

Exploding Lightning!

It chose wrong. To think it'd use a lightning spell when the Draka set decreased all lightning damage by 90%! He just pushed through the lightning. As expected, the damage was minimal.

Festival of Blood!

Not only had Blood's scarlet energy darkened to such an extent that it now more closely resembled actual blood, but the snow-white blade had become completely coated in it.

Demon Sword Blood had turned blood red, from the blade to the hilt! It was more accurate to call it a blood sword than a demon sword now.

[Half of your HP has been spent.]

[Attack power, speed, and life steal have increased significantly.]

[Duration: 30 seconds]

[Cooldown: 2 minutes]

Swish.

Kang Oh softly swung his sword. He'd swung it so softly, yet his sword was as quick as the wind.

Bam!

It was more like a mace than the wind. With just one attack, Blood had completely smashed apart its rib bones!

Kang Oh widened his eyes. His power was greater than he'd expected!

'It's similar to Gluttony when I use a BB-rank item. It increases my abilities twofold.'

The Skeleton Mage's shards of light were sucked into his blood sword.

[You have life stealed.]

[HP has been restored.]

[+3%]

The amount he life stealed increased by a fair margin too. At best, Blood would usually heal him for about 1% of his max HP. However, Festival of Blood had tripled that amount.

'This is great.'

Kang Oh made the most of Festival of Blood's 30 second duration time.

His blade streaked through the air again and again! The Skeleton Mage's body broke into pieces, leaving behind nothing but bone powder.

* * *

A week quickly passed by, and it was finally D-day.

Kang Oh and his companions met at the outskirts of Modrak Village, which was the only area in the Great Forest that had an intercity transfer gate.

"Hello." Bart was here too.

The Harbinger of Death, Viper, stood beside him. He had come along during their Lich Eclipse raid. Like a true assassin, his body was covered in black cloth.

The other was a brown skinned man with a robust body. He carried a giant axe as well.

"My name is Mulan."

"Ah, Mr. Mulan! It's a pleasure to meet you." Kang Oh beamed.

Wolf Warrior, Mulan!

Mulan was also a high ranker. He was a werewolf that possessed the ability to transform into an Oga Wolf.

"These are Mr. Bart's friends, Mr. Viper and Mr. Mulan. These are Ares' Warriors, and over there are..." Kang Oh introduced Bart's party to the rest of them.

Bart and his party hadn't had time to practice with them, and had only just shown up today. Kang Oh felt kind of anxious, as they hadn't been able to practice together, but Bart, Viper, and Mulan were all experts, so they would definitely do their part.

Anyhow, Kang Oh, Bart, Sephiro, Soren, Karin, Dambi, Viper, and Mulan made eight. There were seventeen of Ares' Warriors joining them, including Isher, who was a Shield Knight. In total, they had 25 party members for the Wukong raid!

"Are you all ready?"

"Yes!"

Kang Oh turned on live film mode. Then, he sent his live code to Jin Cheol.

"Then let's get going!"

Kang Oh rode on his Yuma, the most common mount in the Great Forest, and led the rest of his teammates.

Miu, miu!

Twenty-four Yumas cried out, and Kang Oh's party traversed through the Great Forest.