Chapter 348: Skinbutcher’s Ability Still... it was hard to imagine that it was truly dead. Azel didn’t even get a proper look at the monster’s face before Sebastian had crushed its skull. The scene was so fast and so violent, that part of him wondered if it had even been real. But that illusion didn’t last. The body twitched. And before either of them could process it... The Skinbutcher moved. Its headless corpse lunged up with inhuman speed, it’s tendons snapping back into place as it tackled Sebastian. Even without a head, it fought wildly, thrashing its knives through the air as steam poured out from the torn flesh. By the time Azel blinked, the creature’s neck had already begun reshaping itself... veins were crawling upward and the bones reknitting. After a few seconds... in the most grotesque sight imaginable, its head grew back. "Nice," Sebastian muttered, stepping back with an amused smile. "You might have fulfilled my expectations after all." The monster screeched and closed the distance again, swinging its knife in a wide arc. Sebastian leaned aside, dodging effortlessly. "After all... someone able to put a Grand Mage on edge like you should be strong, however—" He didn’t finish. He punched forward, his fist shooting forward like lightning... the same force that had blown apart walls and even momentarily killed the Butcher before. But when his strike connected... There was nothing. ’Huh?’ His eyes widened. The energy, the impact... it had vanished the moment it touched the monster’s skin. The Skinbutcher’s knife slashed again. He dodged backward, swatting the blade away with a palm strike, but by the time he looked back... the monster’s head was fully regenerated, and they couldn’t even see its face. Azel shouted. "Get out of the way!" Sebastian didn’t question it. He leapt aside. Moments later, a barrage of icy javelins pierced through the air... divine energy mixed with mana crashing straight into the monster’s torso. Each spear shattered on impact, the shards scattering harmlessly across the ground. The creature barely flinched. But it turned. Its hollow eyes fixed directly on Azel. Sebastian exhaled, watching closely. ’That confirms it... this thing’s adapting.’ He could feel it... the Skinbutcher’s body wasn’t just resisting attacks. It was learning from them. Every hit, every blast, every strike was teaching it how to defend better and even giving it an invulnerability. ’The only way to kill it...’ he thought. ’is to hit it once with something big enough to obliterate it entirely.’ But there was a catch. The attack had to be new... something it had never adapted to before. Anything repeated would be useless. While Sebastian processed that, Azel and the Skinbutcher were already clashing. "Fucking beast!" Azel hissed, his sword meeting the monster’s knife in a violent flash. Each strike grew faster, the same way as before. The creature’s style was changing with every swing, adapting in real time to Azel’s speed and even increasing it’s own. He ducked under a slash, spinning his blade into a reverse grip. "Fuck you," he muttered, swinging upward with all his strength. The blade cut clean through splitting the Skinbutcher in half from shoulder to waist. The halves fell to the ground with a wet thud. Then the flesh crawled. Both halves slid back together, the skin rejoining like melted wax. The monster stood once again. ’It already blocked Star Strike... I need to hit it harder.’ He stepped back, aura beginning to coil around his body like a living flame. "Where the hell are the academy guards when you need them?" Before he could unleash his next attack, Sebastian’s voice rang out. "Don’t attack it! That thing can adapt to anything!" Azel stopped mid-step. Sebastian stomped the ground, aura rippling outward like a shockwave. "Let me handle it." The Skinbutcher’s focus shifted immediately. In an instant, Sebastian vanished... reappearing behind the monster. He grabbed its leg and swung, hurling it skyward like a rag doll. The air itself cracked from the force. The creature spun midair, thrashing violently. From the edge of the clearing, the academy guards finally arrived. "My prince!" one of them shouted, running up beside Varen. "What’s the situation?!" But the prince wasn’t answering. He was staring upward. The guard followed his gaze and what he saw made him pale. Sebastian was already in pursuit as he shot through the sky like a rocket. "Holy hell..." the guard breathed. "Fuck," Varen muttered under his breath. Up above, Sebastian caught up with the monster midair. ’I just have to kill it at once,’ he thought The Skinbutcher spun and thrust its knife toward him. The blade shimmered with a dark oily mana... It sliced through the air, stabbing into his arm. Sebastian gritted his teeth, the dark mana burning into his flesh. He didn’t stop. He caught the monster’s leg with his uninjured arm and squeezed hard. Bones shattered like dry twigs. With a roar, he swung his arm downward and hurled the Skinbutcher toward the ground. The monster plummeted, crashing into the lake below with a massive splash that parted the water like an explosion. Sebastian began moving downward and his expression darkened. "Aura Breathing." The words left his mouth in a low growl. The world responded. The aura around his body expanded... once, twice, four times over. The pressure in the air doubled with every rise. The guards on the ground stumbled back, clutching their chests from the sheer force radiating from him. The sky above the lake churned, the clouds twisting into a spiral as the golden light from his aura reached higher. ’The fuck...’ Azel thought, shielding his face. ’He just multiplied his aura output four times! Is he trying to burn himself alive?!’ Sebastian exhaled as he shot down. "First Style..." The aura stopped expanding and condensed shrinking until it clung to his body like molten armor. The air around him began to vibrate. The moment his foot touched the water... the surface split apart. The entire lake parted like it was sliced open by invisible blades. Azel could see the monster now floating at the bottom of the chasm. The Skinbutcher was unmoving even though it’s arms were spread and Sebastian vanished. "Crush." The sound was instant. The impact was... indescribable. The aura erupted outward in a single explosion that turned the lake into a crater. The shockwave ripped through the forest, uprooting trees and sending waves crashing through the banks. It was cataclysmic.