The Invincible Full-Moon System

A smile curled on his lips.

The first time, he was completely blindsided.

Rex knew that Haxel was going to try and sabotage the mission, but he didn’t know what Haxel had in store; what were the cards hidden in his sleeves? So, the moment he made his move, it was already too late to stop it.

No chance for Rex to anticipate Haxel knowing the fixed route they were taking and making preparations.

But now, it was different.

From the first attempt, Rex learned two things: Haxel has the means to influence the behavior of the voidal monsters, and was effectively aiming to use them to his advantage. Second, he knew the route, so there were bound to be traps along the way.

A Werewolf’s strongest trait was its senses, second only to the ability to grow stronger with anger.

If Rex really focused, he could feel everything—the world unraveled itself to him in layers no ordinary man, spirit, or supernatural could perceive. The faintest shift in the wind told him of clear changes in the air—subtle, precise, like the land drawing a new breath. The iron tang of blood lingered heavier in certain patches of the area, marking the vein within the ground. Ahead, muffled voices bled through the din: soldiers whispering their discontent, lamenting that the meager rewards of service weren’t worth it anymore, as it now outweighed the danger they faced.

On top of that, he didn’t only hear or smell things—he processed them in an instant.

His mind was a razor, sorting normal from abnormal with terrifying speed.

One heartbeat is all it took for him to decide what required his attention and what could be ignored.

Sure, his senses weren’t equal to Kyran’s supernatural awareness, but even so, even among the wolf-man hybrids, there were few alive who had incredible senses like his. And there were even fewer who wouldn’t call his senses monstrous.

As soon as Rex focused, he noted several energy beads buried in the ground.

Each one pulsed with a terrifying concentration of voidal energy.

He didn’t need to scan them with the System, as from how they were placed, buried right above or close to patches where the scent of blood was the most pungent, it was clear that the beads were there to hurt the vein.

From that, Rex could tell Haxel was going to use the Mystic Aged Blood.

Rex thought that if he were in Haxel’s shoes, he’d use the magical substance to summon discord.

Above his plan of sabotaging the mission, Haxel couldn’t be caught red-handed.

And what better moment to strike than in the heart of chaos?

But blowing up the beads would be too suspicious to do it out of nowhere.

Even though soldiers were mainly block-headed from being hit too many times in the head along their battle-hardened career, they weren’t exactly idiots. Most of them would notice that there was a traitor among them when the ground suddenly blew up right when they were passing.

So, when the falling star blitzed through Rex’s vision and shook the ground, a smile crept to his face.

It was the distraction Haxel needed to make his move.

And when the ground blew up, spewing Mystic Aged Blood skyward, Rex was ready to respond.

Crack!

A jagged fissure tore through the earth—right beneath him, and in the next instant, a brutal shockwave erupted, launching Rex skyward in a burst of shattered stone and dust. Rex remained calm and viewed the situation upside-down.

It was discord, soldiers, and voidal monsters were hurled everywhere.

Some voidal monsters got smeared by the Mystic Aged Blood, but none of the soldiers did.

Fortunately, all of them were quick enough to raise their shields or use their life energy to shield them.

So, for now, the soldiers were in the clear.

And Rex planned to keep it that way, and he already had a plan in mind.

Accessing the Inventory, he summoned the Magnet of Blood item, a black orb that doesn’t emit even a tinge of energy. It looked ordinary, not special in everywhere, despite costing him 100,000 gold, but he knew that wasn’t the case.

Smirking, he flicked the marble-sized orb with his thumb, straight towards the column of crimson water.

Instead of watching the effect, his eyes turned to the side, to a figure.

And like a shadow, he blurred and disappeared out of thin air.

Meanwhile, Haxel held onto the ground, digging his fingers into the soil—as he watched the chaos with a clear smile on his face. Seeing the formation breaking instantly, and the soldiers were now forced on the defensive, shielding themselves from the deadly spray, he could now proceed to the next step.

But first, he turned to where Rex should be, eager to see his reaction.

He looked left and right, trying to find Rex amidst the chaos, but he was nowhere to be seen.

A frown crept to Haxel’s face, ‘Where is he?’

Swish!

Just then, his attention was pulled to a sudden glow above.

His pupils blew wide as the Mystic Aged Blood defied gravity, veering and twisting sideways instead of falling—drawn as if by some unseen magnet. He blinked hard, eyes narrowing—on a single point above, where a small, ominous orb hovered in the air.

It was the center of the disturbance.

“What is that?” He thought aloud, face turning ashen. “Who did this?”

Likewise, the soldiers looked at the black orb in surprise.

“It’s sucking the blood, what is that? Whatever it is, we’re safe now, that’s all that matters.”

“Stop idling and get into fucking formation!”

Assuming that it must be Rex who was onto him, Haxel wasted no time and made his next move.

Even though he could afford to fail this attempt as he has one more that’d seal the deal, he would rather complete his mission now. The last attempt was reserved for emergencies, as it was also the riskiest, so he’d rather not go there.

Fishing out a handful of red sand from the pouch on his belt, he poured it on the ground.

And with his life energy, he guided the red sand straight for the bubble.

It was the processed extract of the Berserkin Berries.

People sold the berries in the black market, where only an extreme few knew, and alongside the berries was the extract. Making voidal monsters go mad—and deviate from their natural behavior would only serve as a distraction.

Though useful, it doesn’t necessarily serve Haxel’s purpose wholeheartedly.

Casualties in the legions would impact the empress still, but it doesn’t come close to civilian casualties.

Soldiers are meant to protect the empire’s subjects at the cost of their lives.

So, their deaths weren’t that damaging.

What Haxel needed was a damning mistake, one that was great enough to seal the empress’ decline.

Naturally, the Berserkin Berries weren’t really a perfect match for his purpose.

But he used it anyway because of the extremely rare and costly extract that could alter the berries’ effect.

The Berserkin Berries are voidal energy-fueled berries that are also delicacies for voidal monsters, and even to some spirits due to their unnatural spiciness. And like mushrooms, they reproduce through spore dispersal.

Upon falling to the ground, crushed, or eaten by a voidal monster, it bursts into a cloud of spores.

Each berry’s flesh was filled with spore sacs.

And these spore sacs were where the magic happened.

From the spore sacs, an extract could be refined into a crimson sand that drew in anyone who had tasted a Berserkin Berry recently. The moment the red grains drifted toward the bubble, the Pawns and Knights Haxel had been secretly feeding all this time snapped their heads toward it in near-perfect unison.

All of them sniffed the tantalizing scent emanating from the red sand and instantly moved.

Unlike earlier, where only a few hundred of voidal monsters followed the Special Voidal Knights, this time, almost half of the horde rushed towards the bubble. Seems like Haxel had been efficiently giving them Berserkin Berries without anyone noticing.

“Shit! Get in line faster! We can’t hold it!” A soldier screamed.

He and a few dozen others were holding back the voidal monsters that made a sudden interest in the bubble with their shields. But with the increasing number of voidal monsters pushing against their shields, it was hard to stand their ground.

Another looked around, noticing the soldiers weren’t rallied.

Unlike the other side, where Ethan was barking at them, on this side, the second captain was passive.

It got into the soldiers’ nerves as they were getting overrun.

Glaring to the side, he gritted his teeth at the soldiers that were still sprawled, shield above them.

Knowing what the Mystic Aged Blood could do, all of them were terrified of being infected.

So much so that they were still hiding under their shields.

Not realizing that the black orb had already dealt with the crimson rain without a problem.

“Get up, you damn bitches! It already stopped! Get in formation!”

Hearing this, the soldiers peeked upward and realized that they were in the clear.

But it was already far too late.

Roar!!

A powerful Voidal Knight charged at the weakened formation like a raging bull, and upon impact, the soldiers were hurled away, opening the path towards the bubble. Like a tidal wave, the voidal monsters came pouring out.

All of the soldiers who recovered quickly enough were pummeled down once again.

Some of the unfortunate ones who weren’t thrown away were killed in the stampede.

Now, the voidal monsters have a straight access to the bubble.

Swish!

Rex came out of nowhere and leaped across the horde, heading straight towards the breach.

No voidal monsters are a match for him, so he could break them easily.

However, Haxel also knew about that.

‘No, you don’t!’

Boom!

As Rex was about to reach the separating horde to buy time for the soldiers to recover, the ground once again exploded. It sprayed a torrent of Mystic Aged Blood straight onto Rex, but Haxel underestimated his reaction time.

In an instant, Rex summoned the Aegis of Moon Sentinel and shielded him from the torrent.

Knowing that he may need a spare, he threw another Magnet of Blood to contain the torrent.

However, he underestimated the shockwave from the explosion.

Rex was hurled backward as he backflipped mid-air, and landed perfectly on his feet.

His gaze fixed on Haxel, who busied himself with a charade—hauling soldiers to their feet while making several wings with his greatsword, just enough to look useful while not making a big impact on helping their situation.

Just the sight alone was infuriating, but letting anger take the reins would only work against him.

At this moment, Rex has to remain calm and play Haxel’s game.

“Sir Haxel!” Rex exclaimed, loud enough for every soldier to hear, as he climbed back to his feet. “Lead your soldiers to take on the left half of the separating horde. I’m going to lead mine to tackle the right half. Can you do it?”

At the words, Haxel’s teeth clenched, though his face remained the picture of composed calm.

He knew what Rex was getting at.

Using the soldiers to his advantage, there’s no denying that it was clever.

“I can do that, Sir Rex.” Haxel forced out an answer.

Rex nodded in return and immediately pointed at his soldiers, telling them to follow him while he leaped again towards the separating horde that was now already nearing the bubble. He left Ethan to take care of the remaining horde and rally the soldiers back to formation.

Behind him, Haxel was also doing the same thing.

Since the soldiers heard what he said, he couldn’t stray away, or else they would get suspicious.

As he sprinted towards the separating horde, his eyes narrowed.

I still don’t know how Haxel was planning to shatter the bubble when it’s this strong.

Just as he thought of that, his eyes noticed cracks near the bubble.

But what surprised him was that the crack reached even the bubble’s surface, seemingly weakened.

Even then, it wasn’t enough to open up the bubble’s protection.

A jagged rush of breath tore through the air, each exhale growing faster, sharper—until it dissolved into a spectral hiss, faint yet echoing as though it came from nowhere and everywhere at once. Rex turned to the left and saw a Knight seething with power.

And with a powerful pounce, it launched straight towards the bubble.

CRASH!