Cracking the jolts in his fingers, Aiden spoke. His tone gradually changed, from his clear tone to the deeper draconic one. His voice carried great majestic power.

"I will handle the leader, you guys can handle the rest."

At a slow pace, he started walking towards the leader. His voice was contorted into a vicious grin, his eyes were brimming with a bright golden luster. His arms rapidly changed. Golden scales appeared all over his creole skin, providing an additional layer of protection. The fingers grew, his nails morphing into thick black semi-curved claws.

After his arms finished its rapid transformation, he also unfolded his Draconic Aura, enveloping several hundred meters of the lush forest in its domain.

The sudden surge of power coming from the seemingly harmless human boy startled the leader quite a bit. Originally, he thought that they caught some easy prey and will be able to bring great merits to the clan. However, in the first few seconds of their perfectly executed ambush, three from his group died without any chance to retaliate. While it was a nuisance, he quickly made the decision to empower the rest of the group. Even if it sapped quite a bit of energy from his reserves, it would be still worth it in the end.

He was confident that with the spell they had the victory for sure, but now, this boy revealed a terrifying power. He could feel the human's presence, his authority surrounding him as if his will was the highest in all existence.

Angered and distraught at the same time with the sudden turn of events, his expression turned crazy, as he grabbed his stick with both hands and raised it above his head. He started chanting something seemingly unintelligible.

The red gemstone at the top of his stick started glowing in bright crimson color at the command of his words. Aiden wasn't in a hurry, he wanted to see what this little guy was up to. He halted his steps, standing only a couple dozen steps in front of him. He stayed in a vigilant stance but didn't take any steps forward, instead he focused his gaze, trying to understand and analyze his actions.

Continuing his chant, the gemstone started pulsating. Amidst the bright blinding light, it started to emit a scarlet-colored thick smoke. The smoke seemed to have a mind of its own, as it quickly surrounded the leader, shrouding his figure. Raising his voice as it got to the end of his spell, the leader decisively smacked the gnarled stick on the ground, releasing a surprisingly loud bang and a shockwave.

Although the power of the shockwave was not threatening, Aiden still unconsciously crossed both of his arms in front of him, as if it were blockable. The thick red smoke that shrouded the leader's figure quickly seeped into his body through his pores. Immediately his muscles tensed and contorted, emitting a steady pulsing rhythm all over his body. His blood vessels all over his body swelled, increasing the blood pressure to feed the increased stamina consumption of his empowered state.

The white sclera got replaced by a crimson color, turning his gaze crazed and giving his facial expression a maddened feel.

With the spell's changes now in full effect, the leader raised his bloodshot eyes on the strange, half-draconic boy in front of him. Forgoing the stick, he pulled a crude dagger from his right pocket, and with a cruel grin on his face charged at him.

His speed increased several-fold, it only took the leader a moment to cross the distance, and lounge into the air. With the dagger tightly gripped in both of his hands, he was aiming to stab his enemy in his forehead, attempting to end his life instantly.

Although the creature's burst of speed was much higher than what he was expecting, it still wasn't difficult for him to react in time, and agilely evade to the left. As he stepped sideways, he also swung with his right hand.

Contrary to his initial expectation, his claws couldn't dig deep into the monster's body, it only managed to pierce its skin, his muscles felt like marble. The power behind his swing, however, managed to swat the leader out of the air and throw him several meters to the left.

Crashing to the ground, he tumbled several meters before the leader managed to regain control over his body and stop. Although it didn't receive any major damage, the nerves in his right side still violently flared. He reached for the wound, only to notice a looming shadow over him.

Not giving it any time, Aiden flickered, only to appear in front of the guy in the next instant. Before he could regain the clarity of his mind, he was already swiping with his right hand, this time, with more power behind the attack.

Meanwhile, Lily was relentlessly firing her arrows, ending one life after another. Sam and Biggy weren't idle either, in their jaws, the mangled remains of two brownish creatures hanged.

Another arrow flew through the air, only to find its place in the middle of a dark green monster, who was currently airborne, trying to launch himself on Sammy from the back. He immediately crashed to the ground, unable to stand back up. He clawed briefly at the shaft protruding from his chest, then sagged to the ground lifelessly, as the tip of the arrow successfully pierced his heart.

Lily had a confident smile on her face, as she quickly prepared yet another arrow, and aimed at another little monster. While the creature's violence seemed to have jumped up a level, they were still relatively easy prey. Her two doggies also had no problem at all mangling into their flesh, ripping their bodies to shreds.

Looking back at Aiden, his downwards swing successfully caught the leader by surprise who in turn could only raise his left hand to weakly defend against the incoming blow. As the density of his muscles were weaker in his forearm, it was unable to completely block the blow. His skin shredded, and the terrifying black claws tore deep into his flesh, only stopping at his radius bone.

He shrieked in pain, causing a momentary halt in the brutal battle. As the remaining few companions looked towards the source of the sound, the bloodlust faded from their eyes, as shock and fear replaced it. They saw their fearless leader as their left forearm became a mangled mess of flesh and skin. Dark green blood spurted out from the deep laceration, painting Aiden's golden scales as well as the ground below them.

The leader fell back on his back to the ground and desperately clamped his right hand over the huge gnashing wound, trying to cover it. The bloody craze faded from his eyes, the vicious maddened grin vanished, only to be replaced by a fear-stricken expression. He could no longer look at the half-dragon half-human boy as a simple enemy, he saw his nightmare, the reaper in him.

Seeing his new expression, caused great satisfaction to Aiden. He felt euphoric, overcoming the enemy, crushing his confidence to this point… It was something he craved for, in the deepest recesses of his mind. As the golden glow got replaced by the scarlet hue in his eyes, he stepped forward and crouched down.

Leaning over the leader's body, he revealed a cruel grin. His voice was much lower, unnatural, as he slowly growled the words.

"Where's your fierce power now? Is this all you can muster?"

Placing his right clawed hand over his chest, he continued.

"Tell me, was this the outcome you hoped for when you jumped at us? Are you afraid? Can you feel your looming death?!" He continued to mutter the words, almost growling like some beast.

Before the leader could have a chance to respond, although not that it could understand their tongue, Aiden pushed down with his claws with great power. As the spell's effect had abruptly ended, his flesh no longer provided any meaningful resistance against Aiden's power, it easily tore through, clearing the path towards the precious organ that Aiden instinctively craved for.

Grabbing the waning organ, Aiden looked into the creature's terrified eyes and snarled.

"Pathetic weakling."

With that as his last words, he violently ripped his heart out from its socket. Without wasting any second, and not caring for his surroundings, he immediately swallowed it. He wanted to, no, he had to experience once again as the power filled his body.

As he crunched it down, Aiden closed his eyes and swallowed. A satisfied smile rested on his face, as he fell to the ground, with his arms spread to the sides. In the next second, he could feel a violent surge deep inside him. A massive torrent of energy rushed through his veins, reaching to all ends of his body.

Afraid to release and waste this power, he tried his best to contain it inside himself. Every bit of this power was precious, he was not willing to let it out!