Things were looking bad.
Blaine quickly opened his creator dashboard and used his beginner permissions to draft a simple rental contract. He sent the invitation to Wu Liuqi.
A few seconds later, his phone flashed with a blinding white light. The beam hit the ground , and the Demon Blade: Thousand-Edge materialized right before him.
Blaine couldn't help feeling worried for Seven. Anyone who'd watched the anime knew that Thousand-Edge was always in Plum Blossom Thirteen's master, Qing Feng's (Green Phoenix), possession.
Everything had been arranged from the start , Qing Feng's conspiracy, his long-laid plan.
"Once you make it out alive, head to Xuanwu Kingdom. You'll find your answers there."
Leaving Seven with that final message, Blaine shifted his attention to the blade.
Just like in the anime, Thousand-Edge was truly one of the Divine Forge Nation's national treasures. Its blade was forged from a thousand fragments; the hilt was black, and half the blade held glowing blue lines that only unleashed power when activated.
Right now, only Wu Liuqi could draw out its true strength.
But… could the world's strongest swordsman from One Piece handle it?
Either way , first things first.
Time to get that Black Blade.
Especially since the patrol squad recently received warnings from higher-ups: monster activity had become strange. Something was off.
Having a Black Blade on hand meant at least some degree of safety.
Blaine sent a trade request to Mihawk.
Another white flash , and a massive black blade, nearly as tall as Blaine himself, appeared before him. Just the sight of it radiated overwhelming dominance.
"Brother Blaine, if you're done resting, let's head back."
From a waist-high bush, Wayne pushed aside the leaves and approached.
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
Blaine stood, stepping away from the tree he had been leaning against. He looked up at the night sky , the stars seemed distorted, and everything around them felt unnaturally still.
Strange.
Only after Wayne mentioned it did Blaine notice how eerie things were.
This was the wilderness , a place where monsters frequently roamed. It should've been noisy, alive… yet now, not even insects chirped.
A gust of cold wind blew past. Blaine shuddered instinctively.
"I feel it too. The patrol assignment this time is way too deep into the wild."
Wayne , tall, muscular, usually fearless , glanced around nervously. The ominous feeling was intensifying.
"If we run into anything above C-class, we're dead."
The moment he finished speaking,
The entire environment shifted.
The wind roared, branches whipped, leaves scraped violently.
Swish!
A blood-red slash dropped from above, cutting a deep wound across Wayne's thick arm. The pain snapped him awake.
"Blaine! Monster! Get ready!"
Blaine's brows tightened. Nighttime visibility was terrible , perfect conditions for a monster.
He grabbed the Black Blade. The moment he lifted it, an overwhelming weight surged through his arm , the weight of pure power.
Wayne stared into the grass ahead, where a pair of glowing red eyes peeked out. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead.
"Should be a C-class monster. The two of us can probably handle it. But if things go bad, we run. No shame in that , staying alive matters most."
For people like them, who lacked awakened abilities, the only path to strength was physical training.
But human bodies had limits.
For non-ability users, merely escaping from a C-class monster alive was already impressive.
"Just our luck… first thing we meet is a C-class."
Wayne's fighting spirit ignited.
He was an ordinary man , but that didn't mean he didn't dream of awakening and fighting higher-tier monsters.
Talent could not be forced… but even so, the pride of a man demanded he stand and fight.
"No… not one. And not just C-class. This looks like a B-class… or higher."
Blaine sensed the strange shifts around them.
The moment he finished speaking, Wayne's pupils dilated in horror.
All around them ,
countless red eyes lit up in the darkness.
Like stars in the night sky.
"B-B-class monsters?! And more than one?!"
With that realization, Wayne's fighting spirit instantly collapsed.
Two ordinary humans meeting a B-class monster in the wild had only one possible ending:
Death.
A whole group of B-class monsters?
They probably wouldn't even leave corpses behind.
The leading B-class monster stepped out of the shadows.
Its head looked like it had been woven from dried grass and twigs. A thick, thorn-covered tongue stretched from its bloody maw as it licked fresh blood from its claws.
"ROAR!!!"
The suffocating pressure , unmistakably B-class.
Wayne gave a defeated smile and stopped resisting.
"Brother… looks like we'll meet again in the next life."
Blaine lifted the Black Blade with one hand and patted his shoulder with the other.
"Brother, didn't I tell you? When I make it big, you'll definitely get your share of the benefits."
Wayne turned back, stunned. He was about to complain,
Seriously?!
This was NOT the time to act cool!
Ordinary humans could barely face D-class monsters head-on.
Now they were up against a whole group of B-class monsters , the difference was absurd!
Was his buddy scared out of his mind?
"Holy, ! Where did you get that insane weapon?!
Don't tell me you awakened some late-blooming superpower?!"
Blaine now held the Black Blade upright , the thing was over three meters long, utterly intimidating.
Even facing a swarm of B-class monsters, he didn't flinch.
In fact ,
the monsters were the ones who hesitated.
The Black Blade emanated a terrifying aura , an unmistakable scent of death.
"Black Blade… time for you to taste the flavor of this world."
Blaine swung it down in a diagonal slash.
Sword energy blasted out like a tiger leaping from the mountains.
Grass withered in its wake.
The slash tore through the air itself ,
and the group of B-class monsters fell like paper being shredded.
Blood soaked the earth.
Wayne, towering and muscular, stared wide-eyed, utterly stunned.
His brother, Blaine… since when did he become this monstrous?!
An ordinary human treating B-class monsters like vegetables?!
Impossible.
Even if Blaine had awakened an ability, no one could instantly slaughter B-class monsters like this!
B-class monsters!!
Wayne's brain simply shut down.
He could only watch in a daze as Blaine swung again and again, cutting down the monsters like weeds.
"No wonder it's one of the Twelve Supreme Grade Blades , the strongest Black Blade in the world."
Even Blaine found it hard to believe.
B-class monsters were crumbling like dry twigs ,
fragile, flimsy, instantly crushed.
He couldn't help sighing inwardly:
"Hawk-Eye's Black Blade is ridiculously strong!"