Blood Assimilation

Inside the Safe Room...

Randy's body, which had been maintaining a meditative posture with its eyes closed, suddenly moved. At this moment, Randy had returned to his body, his eyes slowly fluttering open. As soon as he opened his eyes, he felt a disconnect between all his senses, making him wonder if he had returned to the wrong body.

Having just returned from the cosmic journey, he was now faced with a dilemma. He felt a sense of discomfort and rejection as he issued commands to his own body. Forcefully attempting to stand, he managed to stand on his feet.

Despite his success, he found it difficult to maintain his balance, which reminded him of the unwieldy nature of his previous towering stature. Much like his feelings towards his former colossal body, his original body now seemed foreign to him, despite no changes having occurred.

He took a few moments to readjust and familiarize himself with his body. Once acclimated, Randy pondered the reason behind the disconnection between his consciousness and body.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he arrived at a few potential explanations. Eventually, he attributed his lack of control over his original body to his previous experience of possessing fundamentally different type of body.

Back in the Universal Library, he had transformed into a colossal being and, albeit temporarily, acclimated to its power, thanks to the Grand Librarian. Upon returning to his regular human body, he believed that was the reason he found it challenging to move, as his human body possessed a significantly lesser amount of power compared to the colossal form he had previously assumed.

Realizing the disparity between the human form and the previously assumed cosmic form further strengthened Randy's resolve to become more powerful. This realization also bolstered his unyielding will to discover the truth about everything related to him.

However, amidst his thoughts, he suddenly remembered something, causing a frown of concern to crease his brow.

"I wonder if he's alright." He muttered, recalling the predicament Brawler Randy was in before succumbing to unconsciousness due to the Divine Resonance. Brawler Randy had been the one most affected by the Divine Resonance, as he had been engaged in a deadly battle at the time of his collapse.

Randy was not constantly connected with his incarnations, as the strain of conducting the process through a different dimensional space was too great. Additionally, his inability to maintain a constant connection meant that he was not always aware of his incarnations' actions unless he intentionally established a conscious connection.

He contemplated the possible method of creating a permanent link between his consciousness and that of his incarnations's consciousness, so he could intervene if they found themselves in a life-threatening predicament. In such dire circumstances, he could utilize the link to teleport the incarnations into the Safe Room.

Despite his musings, Randy was uncertain about how he could achieve such a feat with his current psionic energy. This uncertainty frustrated him, as he once again found himself limited by his lack of power.

Regardless, he had no intention of losing any of his incarnations, even if they were not his primary body. Although he had mentally prepared himself for the potential demise of an incarnation, such an eventuality was only acceptable if there were truly no other options.

Setting aside his plans, Randy decided to check on Brawler Randy. He closed his eyes and focused on the connection between them. After a few moments, he was able to successfully link his consciousness with Brawler Randy's consciousness, which was still on its way to its host.

This allowed Randy's consciousness to enter Brawler Randy's body when the latter's consciousness returned, witnessing the set of events that unfolded afterward.

…

In the real world, near the Western Region's Outpost City...

Liena's face was haggard, her hair disheveled, and her body marked with multiple injuries that bled freely. She had exerted her full strength in the simultaneous combat against Flame Legs and Flame Claws.

Not only that, she had to fend off the other Flame Werewolves attempting to seize the opportunity to attack the unconscious Brawler Randy. Despite her efforts, the sheer number of opponents had made it nearly impossible for her to remain unscathed.

Their exchange had been brief, lasting only a few seconds. Liena couldn't fathom the state she would be in if the fight were to last a minute. Despite the risk of danger, she refused to let her enemies have their way, knowing all too well the nature and cravings of the werewolf race.

She could have escaped on her own, freeing herself from danger and the bothersome Brawler Randy, but her conscience wouldn't allow her to abandon a comrade she had worked with, albeit briefly. With newfound determination, she was resolved to stand her ground as she assumed a fighting stance, her form poised to battle to the death.

Brandishing her dagger and summoning her shadow skills, she glared at the leaders of the werewolf pack with a defiant gaze.

"You despicable human!" Flame Claws snarled, his frustration evident. He viewed Liena's persistence as nothing but a hindrance in his path to exact his revenge.

"You dare to stand in the way of my revenge? No matter, I'll rip you apart with my fangs and feast on your flesh before dealing with that bastard that killed my pack members!"

Meanwhile, Flame Legs carefully observed the protective and resolute Liena and the unconscious and injured Brawler Randy behind her, a thoughtful expression on his face.

'This woman is physically weak, but her shadow manipulation always manages to thwart my advances on that strange and unpredictable human within these few seconds of exchange.' He mused.

'I'll let Flame Claws wither down her mana, then I'll seize the opportunity to finish her off swiftly.'

As he formulated his plan, Flame Claws had already charged forward, a ferocious growl escaping his lips.

"Die, you wench!" He bellowed, swiping his flame-infused claws at Liena's chest.

Witnessing the incoming attack, Liena bit her lip and braced herself to block the incoming assault of the feral Flame Claws. Before they could clash, however, she saw a figure appear behind Flame Claws, causing her eyes to widen in shock.

Flame Claws smiled sinisterly, assuming that Liena's expression was one of terror upon realizing his full strength. However, in the next moment, he felt a stinging and painful sensation on his back.

Instinctively, he tensed his muscles in the affected area, which allowed him to lessen the impact of the pain. He then frantically jumped to the side, distancing himself from both Liena and the mysterious figure that inflicted the pain on his back.

Afterward, he looked in the direction of Liena and saw a figure standing before her, smiling. The figure was dressed in a black coat that billowed behind him. The most shocking part, however, was the figure's identity.

It was none other than the human who had been unconscious the entire time during their battle with the human woman. With this realization, Flame Claws hesitantly turned to look behind Liena, but the human was still lying there, which shocked him to his core.

He blinked his eyes a few times, thinking that he was seeing things, but when he regained clarity of his eyes and looked behind the human woman, the sleeping human man had disappeared, leaving him dumbfounded.

At this point, he had no choice but to conclude he was hallucinating seeing the human man behind Liena, probably induced by having just received a sneak attack from the same human man he assumed was incapacitated and defenselessly lying down behind the human woman, Liena.

Even Flame Legs, who had been scheming in the background and occasionally keeping an eye on the unconscious Brawler Randy, didn't see what had transpired. From his perspective, the target was lying on the ground one moment, and then another one appeared behind Flame Claws, wearing a different outfit.

The uncanny development had occurred when the unconscious target had turned illusory, fading away in misty, dark particles. This phenomenon sent a chill down Flame Legs' spine as he pondered the possibility that this had been the target's plan all along to catch them off guard.

"Impossible!"

He couldn't believe that he had fallen for such a scheme. He hadn't anticipated such a possibility because he had sensed the target getting injured when one of his pack members had attacked earlier.

There was no way he could have mistaken the scent of human blood. Doubting their previous experience, he wondered if their current situation was all an illusion constructed by their targets. The thought alone terrified him as he looked in the direction of the target with a somber expression before turning to face Flame Claws, who still had a puzzled expression on his face.

"Flame Claws! Retreat for now! We need to regroup!" Flame Legs instructed hurriedly, his tone sounding very commanding. He didn't care what Flame Claws would think of it.

On the other hand, Flame Claws regained his focus. He gazed intently at his quarry with a reluctant look. With an unwilling expression, he gritted his teeth in frustration before retreating to join up with Flame Legs and the others.

Meanwhile...

Brawler Randy stood before the confused Liena with a mischievous smile that slowly faded away as he examined her condition. Earlier, when he had silently returned to his body, he had assessed it using [Dimensional Sense] and noticed that his injury had nearly healed.

This was because he was still in his Werewolf King of Wind's form, which granted him a mild regenerative factor. This allowed him to not lose too much blood and preserve his body, enabling him to remain in stable condition until his consciousness returned.