"Here's your challenge."
"These are mindless beast called..."
Before the adjon member could finish his sentence
Kenji ran towards the beast with his almost cold dead eyes with his sword in hand and the determination to kill all creatures, he was prepared to slaughter everyone of them
The beast swarmed around him trapping him.
Swoosh
As Kenji swung his sword killing some of the monsters and
as Kenji swung his sword, killing some of the monsters. Their bodies fell around him, but the sheer numbers of the swarm were overwhelming. He fought with a desperate, cold fury, a stark contrast to the terror he'd initially felt. He moved with a speed and precision born of a thousand painful deaths, anticipating their clumsy attacks.
Slash! A beast's head rolled to the side.
Thrust! Another fell, its heart pierced.
But for every one he felled, two more took its place. They were smaller than the bear-like monster, faster, with sharp claws and teeth, a pack of hellish wolves.
A monstrous wolf lunged, sinking its teeth into his shoulder. Kenji didn't scream this time; he simply twisted, using his body weight to snap its neck with a sickening CRACK, all while parrying a swipe from another with his sword. He kicked the dead body away and continued his deadly dance.
He was bleeding from a dozen minor wounds, his clothes rapidly becoming shredded rags. The pain was still there, a constant companion, but his mind had learned to detach from it. He was a machine, a tool of vengeance and survival.
He dodged a double-team attack, leaping high into the air, and spun, decapitating both in a single, fluid motion before landing. He noticed a pattern: they lunged predictably, relying solely on their numbers and ferocity.
THINK! The training from the thousand deaths clicked in his mind. He wasn't just fighting; he was calculating.
He sprinted towards the thickest part of the swarm, drawing them in close. Just as they lunged, he dropped to one knee, driving his sword straight into the ground.
KABOOM!
A massive cloud of dust and debris erupted as Kenji used the force of the ground to propel himself back and away from the immediate danger. The blinding cloud confused the beasts for a vital moment
Kenji burst through the dust cloud, moving with a focused, almost blinding speed. He didn't waste a single movement on defense. He used the flat of his blade to shove one beast into another.
He used the momentum of one killed enemy to deflect an attack from a third.
He used his sword not just to kill, but to control the flow of the battle, forcing the beasts to crash into one another, turning their numbers into a liability.
He saw the adjon leader watching, an unreadable expression on his face. This was no longer about survival; it was about proving he could kill everything thrown at him.
Finally, with a final, desperate roar, Kenji plunged his blade into the last surviving monster, twisting it until the creature went limp.
Silence.
Kenji stood alone in the clearing, covered head to toe in blood, mud, and sweat, his chest heaving. His sword, his only friend, dropped with a soft clank onto the blood-soaked earth.
He was exhausted, but for the first time, he felt competent.
He turned to face the adjon member, his gray eyes now dull, flat, and entirely devoid of the light they once held, a complete void of emotion.
"Done," Kenji stated, his voice a low, rough monotone. He didn't ask for a rest, didn't ask what was next. He merely waited.
The adjon member clapped slowly, a sarcastic, measured applause.
"Remarkable. One thousand and six deaths. And you finally showed me a flicker of that noble family's grit," the adjon said, still smiling that cold, unnerving grin. He gestured to the pile of dead beasts. "These were called Ghouls of the First Earth. Their bodies are tough, their numbers endless. You killed them all."
He paused, his grin widening further. "But the training is only just beginning, Kenji. We can't have the only powerless human on Earth being merely average." He chuckled.
The adjon snapped his fingers.
The world warped for Kenji, the bloody clearing dissolving into a new, sterile environment. He found himself standing on a hard, smooth floor within a vast, echoing chamber made of polished, dark stone. A faint, clattering sound, like dry bones rattling, filled the space. The air here was still and cold.
"Welcome to your next trial," the adjon'm said "These are the Whisperers of the Hollow Step. They are what remains of a lineage of masters of stealth. They have no sight—their eyes were burned out long ago in a failed power experiment. But their hearing… well, their hearing is flawless."
Kenji looked around. The massive room offered no cover, no shadows to hide in. He was entirely exposed. He retrieved his sword, gripping the familiar hilt, the silence amplifying the sharp metallic sound as the blade was drawn.
Clack... Clack... Clack...
From the darkness at the far end of the chamber, three figures emerged. They were humanoid, their bodies unnaturally thin and elongated, clad in tattered, dark leather armor. Where their eyes should have been, there were only smooth, sealed depressions. They carried no visible weapons, yet their movements were unnervingly precise and silent, save for the rhythmic, almost deliberate, light clicking sound they made as they walked.
"I GUESS YOUR READY!!" The adjon shouted to attract the attention of the whisperers "bye now"
The adjon shouted, his voice echoing cruelly through the chamber. "I GUESS YOU'RE READY!! Bye now!"
The deafening sound acted like a sonic cue. The three Whisperers instantly lunged. They covered the distance not by running, but by a horrifying, silent glide as they closed in on the still-recovering Kenji.
Death 1007: The Price of Noise
Kenji reacted instantly, a flash of muscle memory honed by a thousand deaths. He dropped into a defensive stance, but the adjon's shout had already given the creatures everything they needed: his precise location, his initial surprise, and his fear.
Before Kenji could even swing, the Whisperer on his left lashed out. It didn't use a claw; it used the displacement of air from its sudden movement to generate a silent, focused shockwave.
WHOOSH.
The invisible force slammed into Kenji's chest, knocking the air from his lungs and sending him skidding across the hard floor. He scrambled to rise, but the second Whisperer was already upon him. It moved its foot across the grassland of the estate.
CRACK.
An obsidian spike shot up from the floor, piercing Kenji's thigh and pinning him in place. His involuntary gasp of pain was the only sound the creatures needed. The third Whisperer, with a horrifying, smooth precision, drove a bone-like finger straight through Kenji's temple.
Kenji's eyes snapped open again. He was back and, gasping for air, the pain already fading, replaced by cold frustration.
"I guess you're not fast enough" the adjon's voice cut through the silence. "The battlefield is always controlled by the strongest Kenji. Unless that voice is yours. You will not win.