“Difference is, you can do something about it.”

The only reason the enemy Heralds hadn’t attacked Fury already was the threat of Penance. Meaning that if Yerin left, she’d be signing over her friends’ lives.

If she left…or if she lost.

For once, Min Shuei was the one to play peacemaker. “We all know that Malice wouldn’t have allowed this situation if Fury didn’t have a way out. She didn’t tell you to go save him, did she? No. So we have a very simple situation.”

She clapped her hands together. “Yerin, you just have to win two fights.”

That didn’t calm Yerin down. Even her Blood Shadow was boiling.

The Sage noticed. “You want to go save them? Perfect! That’s what you’re doing by fighting Yan Shoumei.”

The statement didn’t instantly solve all of Yerin’s worries, but it was true. How often in her life had she wished she could fight her way out of a situation?

Tomorrow, she could.

She dipped her head to Min Shuei, but turned to Charity. The Heart Sage was taking deep breaths, visibly trying to master herself.

She needed something to do just like Yerin did.

“Run me through a course,” Yerin demanded.

There was little chance of making any kind of breakthrough overnight, but a small chance was better than none, and it wasn’t as though either of them would be resting.

Charity silently agreed, leading the way to the training facilities inside the Akura guest tower.

The Winter Sage beamed.

Yan Shoumei noticed that they had started putting her in a sealed-off arena for every one of her fights.

She couldn’t blame them. Crusher demonstrated power beyond what any Underlord Blood Shadow should be capable of.

The arena this time was like a huge cave with thickets of blood solidified into razor-sharp blades. Sword and blood aura were thicker than air here, which meant there would be no escaping from Yerin’s Endless Sword.

Shoumei had a plan for that.

As usual, Northstrider stood in the center of the arena with an invisible wall dividing the space in half. With his shaggy hair and rugged, unshaven look, Shoumei had always thought he was the most handsome Monarch she’d had the privilege of seeing.

Not that she would ever say so out loud. He might hear it.

Powerful golden eyes fixed her. “Are you prepared?”

She nodded once, feeling Crusher’s eagerness for battle. He was ready to be unleashed.

Northstrider looked to Yerin, who looked like she hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep in days. She paced nervously, her hand clenching and unclenching, her hair was disheveled, and there were bags under her eyes. Even her black sacred arts robes were in disarray.

Yerin had obviously never put much stock in her appearance, but this still struck Shoumei as strange. Had she been fighting already? Had someone threatened her?

Shoumei focused. Every win for her was safety, prosperity, and a bright future for her family.

And while Yerin could beat Shoumei in any one-on-one contest, this was two against two.

Yerin’s Blood Shadow flowed out of her, carrying a black sword from Yerin’s soulspace, and the spirit’s state of existence had clearly improved. It barely had a pink tinge to its skin now, its crimson hair and eyes being the biggest difference from Yerin herself.

The Shadow looked just as unruly as Yerin did, prowling and snarling like a caged beast. Something had Yerin’s soul in disarray.

When her Blood Shadow was summoned, Yerin nodded.

Northstrider told them to begin.

As the command still hung in the air, Yan Shoumei unleashed Crusher.

There were three methods for cultivating a Blood Shadow…although since the clone technique always failed, there were really only two. The most common was raising the Shadow as a weapon, a shifting tool, and it was this method that Yan Shoumei had used through Truegold.

But when she’d been given the opportunity to enter the Ghostwater facility, as part of preparing her for this tournament, the Sage of Red Faith gave her special instructions.

In his pocket world, Northstrider kept samples of rare and powerful sacred beasts. Some were the only individuals remaining of their kind, while others were unique in their own right.

When she retrieved blood samples from those ancient and powerful creatures, the Blood Sage showed her how to integrate them into her Shadow, creating a spirit whose power dwarfed her own.

She called him Crusher.

A monstrously muscled humanoid body formed from the blood madra she usually wore as a cloak. The Shadow inherited its body from a Deepwalker Ape that had mutated its spirit to focus entirely on physical strength.

Crusher’s fur was thick and shaggy, taken from the blood of a bear dreadbeast that had inherited power from the Wandering Titan itself.

The spines that rose from his back and the claws on his long fingers came from the diamond dragon, who had been the only member of its species.

The wolf’s muzzle and tall, rabbit-like ears must come from the other, more common blood samples that were mixed into the spirit for balance and tempering.

Crusher’s final, hulking form stood more than twice Shoumei’s height, and its strength…

As sacred artists advanced, the line between sacred artist and sacred beast became more difficult to distinguish. While humans and beasts advanced differently, there were fewer and fewer differences at each stage until the differences disappeared at the peak of Archlord. Everyone reached Sage or Herald the same way.

But as a result, it could be hard to pinpoint a sacred beast’s exact strength relative to a sacred artist. You had to measure the relative weight of the madra you felt.

Crusher did not feel like an Underlord. She didn’t know how to describe his power, but he gave off the spiritual impression of overwhelming, impossible physical power.

The moment Crusher manifested, he roared.

The ground shook. The aura quivered. The light in the cave-like arena trembled.

Yerin and her Blood Shadow, both of whom had rushed forward immediately, staggered as blood aura caused the roar to affect their bodies directly. Blood streamed from Yerin’s ears—madra usually preserved a sacred artist’s hearing during combat, but the roar was too powerful. Yerin should have focused her spirit to protect her ears. Now it was too late.

Crusher appeared next to her.

He didn’t have a spatial artifact…or any sacred arts at all, really. He did have incredible leg strength and dexterity.

Yerin managed to spin and get her feet beneath her, raising her sword to block. The blade began to glow with an Enforcer technique.

Crusher slapped her.

Yerin caught the blow with both hands on her sword.

And stopped it.

Shoumei’s shock froze her thoughts. Crusher’s strength was so great that it worked on a conceptual level, according to the Blood Sage. It could bend the rules of the physical world with its strength, as Heralds or Monarchs could.

Crusher couldn’t do so to such a degree, of course, but no one below Herald should be able to stop his attacks. No one.

The ground shattered beneath Yerin’s feet, and if ordinary laws still held sway, she would have been sent flying into the distance by the difference in their weight alone. But there was the clearly impossible scene of Yerin taking a blow the size of her entire body and not budging.

Until a moment later, when Crusher put more power into his hand.