Clasp.

With this simple sound, the second to last of the monsters below the sage level fell down to the ground, only to end up at yet another portion of nourishment for Bonger's body, slowly reaching the level of detail that would make him indiscernible from any other human.

"Just what the hell happened to him…"

Repeating myself, I couldn't pull my eyes from the agile movements of my system's avatar. Even when comparing it to what I saw during Eve's performance, I had to admit that his moves not only looked far more dignified, they had this one element that was missing from what I saw in my fiancee's fight.

Every single move that Bonger's avatar performed had a sense of some underlying aim, target hidden within the outwardly simple movements.

Slashing the sword that he made on the spot by absorbing specific part of the bone from one of the carcasses that continued to melt down and form a river that was flowing towards Bonger's body, he would use the momentum of his half-spin to push his body under the paw of another monster, grabbing it as it swung above its head.

Clank.

With the sound of metal hitting against metal, despite no iron or its similar elements being present in the fighting ground resounded, Bonger's fist sank deeply into the chest of the monster with the appearance of a mix between a spider and a fox.

SCREECH!

Unable to withstand the sudden flow of the energy into its vitals, the monster could only gasp in agony before its body turned limp and started falling apart. Just this sight alone was enough to prove that said monster wasn't something that was born out of nature, but something created by a conscious being with some unknown target in mind.

"Bart, are you okay?"

Rather than focusing on the ongoing fight, Eve placed her hand on my forehead, as if attempting to check whether I didn't contract some kind of cold. Yet as hot as my body felt, there were no other signs that would indicate a problem with my body, making me realise that something was wrong only when Eve started acted worried!

"Well, yeah? Outside of being stupefied by everything that is going on here, I feel even better than usual?"

As much as I hated to see any kind of negative emotion of Eve's face, making me come up with this response, what I said wasn't completely true. Even if the point of feeling good was right on the mark, it was also a fact that there was something strange happening to my body!

In essence, it felt as if the space of this world itself became smoother for me to move around, offering less resistance for me while I attempted to traverse it. Even just by swinging my body, hand or even head around, it felt as if the minimal pressure of the air pushing back on my body parts simply disappeared, or rather, changed the direction!

"Okay, let's help Bonger for now. We can't have him do all the work for us, can we?"

This decision of mine came just at the right time. As I finally moved back to the standing position, the last monster below the sage level just finished its process of falling apart only to be absorbed back into the awful looking pool of strange matter, slowly infusing itself into Bonger's avatar ankle.

"Those monsters… Are you sure we can fight them?"

Rather than instantly arming up and rushing forward as one would expect from Eve after the show she did earlier, my dearest fiancee actually looked at our opponents in the distance with worry. Maybe it was the fact that she didn't want to go too far, maybe her fight earlier made her realise that her ability to use her own strength was not yet up to the par, or maybe she was just worried about letting me fight in the current state my body was in…

But it all didn't have any real meaning. I promised to protect this village, and as long as I wasn't sure that I was unable to best those damned monsters, I would do everything in my power to abide by my own word!

"While I'm not that certain whether we can best them, we won't know unless we try, won't we? And if you are worried about the fact that they are close to us in terms of their raw power, then just recall all those times we spend all the way back in the sword sect's forest, hunting monsters of our level as if they were nothing!"

While I was trying to encourage Eve, my body was already moving towards the opening in the barrier's corridor, as if the changes that were happening to me made me itchy for a clash with something, just as if some kind of energy was trying to escape from my body, and doing so in the fight was the easiest way to go about it.

Before I realised, my legs already carried me halfway towards Bonger's current position. Yet even before I could even consciously react to this strange automated action of mine, for the first time in a long while, I felt the similar reaction that my body had towards my predator's mind ability taking over my body.

My vision dilated, as if the point of view that I had in my eyes suddenly changed to a third person, while the person responsible for this continued to scroll the camera out, while giggling at my puzzlement caused by the simple fact that I still had full control of my body!

"Right on time. I don't think I can deal with those fuckers by myself. By the way, how do you like the changes?"

By the time I finally reached Bonger's position, the pool below his feet already turned to nothing more than just a few droplets still trickling upstream towards his ankle. Looking up, I could see a prideful grin on his face, as if he managed to achieve something. Yet it was his words that made me wary, especially after every single detail that I found suspicious about his earlier behaviour.

"What do you mean, the changes to my body? I know you mentioned that by raising your own cultivation you could improve me in a similar way in which I improved you by going through the upgrades, but this feeling… While it's certainly useful during fights, I'm not really sure I'm down to using it for the rest of my life!"