NOVEL NEXT Chapter 54: Taming a King (2)
Four figures darted through the trees with intense speed.
Ray spotted them from afar and stopped running.
They looked similar — most fiends did — but the weapons they carried were different. One held a saber, one gripped a spear, another wielded dual blades, and the last had a sword tied to his back. They all seemed to be melee combatants.
The good news was that none of them gave him a sense of challenge. His sixth sense didn't pick up any unforeseen danger either. He felt he could take them on.
Besides, it wasn't like he could run forever. Better to fight and kill than waste stamina running unnecessarily.
Seeing him stop, how could the fiends not realize his intention?
They whispered amongst themselves, mockingly.
"Yura, this human thinks he can take on the elites of the Ash Legion."
"Humans always overestimate their worth. Soon he'll regret his decision and beg for mercy at our feet. Crushing his bones then will be revitalizing, Matiaz."
"I can't wait to hear his cries!"
"You said what was on my mind, Viho."
"The cries of humans are like a melody to our ears." Vehshe, "Once we subdue him, let's torture him to death."
Yura kicked off the ground, lunging like a ferocious beast. Cold gusts swirled around his spear as he thrust at Ray's legs.
He was intentionally avoiding his vital parts as his goal wasn't to kill, it was to maim, to keep Ray from resisting or escaping, so he could savour his cries like music while torturing him to death with his brothers.
"A mere human dares to cause turmoil in a territory taken over by fiends. You really have no sense of self-preservation. A stupid person like you deserves to have his last moments spent for our pleasure," Yura said while attacking.
"Spouting bullshit without the ability to back it up only leads to an early grave," Ray said as he sidestepped the attack with effortless grace.
"Impossible! I am the fastest under the Bronze rank! How could you dodge my attack?" Yura shouted in dismay.
"Is it so hard for your dog eyes to discern? I'm faster than a dumb dog like you!" Ray said as murderous intent surged in his eyes. He threw a simple punch.
Yura was shocked to see his strike dodged, but he dismissed Ray's counterattack.
The punch Ray had thrown looked weak, as though it carried no power, as he had thrown it without putting it any effort, but he had done it intentionally.
No matter how he attacked, his trait — Consecutive Lucky Shot — would amplify it to a terrifying degree, comparable to a full power attack from a bronze rank beast.
The seemingly powerless swing was a trap set to misguide Yura's judgement, and the trap had worked.
Ray's fist connected as Yura hadn't bothered to dodge, choosing to attack instead. A moment later, his head exploded like a watermelon, spraying brain matter and blood through the air. His spear stopped an inch away from Ray's eyes.
"Be careful. He is powerful."
Seeing their brother killed so swiftly, apprehension crept into the hearts of the remaining three fiends. Still, they weren't terrified. Otherwise, they would've fled already. Yura was the weakest among them.
"Let's take him down with the three star killing formation," Matiaz said.
"Sure," Vehshe and Viho said in unison.
"Head the charge simultaneously on my command."
"Now!"
The moment Matiaz's voice fell.
The three fiends attacked in unison, their cooperation sharp and deadly.
From different angles, their weapons closed in on Ray, leaving seemingly no room to evade.
Against ordinary humans or weak tamers, the Three Star Killing Formation of the Fiend race was an inescapable death sentence. But who was Ray? He could cover fifty meters in a second. What was a net made by iron rank fiends to someone like that?
"You cooperate like ants. Your strength is no different." Ray's taunting words rang out as he vanished from their sight. The weapons of the three fiends cut empty air as the very next instant, Ray appeared beside the dual wielder.
A dagger flashed into his hand, drawn from his interspatial ring with a thought. He drove it deep into Matiaz's neck, cutting his breath short.
Fiends shared human strengths and weaknesses. That was the rule. Some exceptions existed, but these so called elites of the Ash Legion were nothing special. When their weaknesses were exploited, they died like any other human.
Ray's face remained impassive as he pulled the dagger free from Matiaz's neck. Blood spurted from the gaping wound, splattering across his face. He didn't even blink. The dual wielder's body hit the ground lifelessly.
Ray moved again, disappearing just as a saber and a sword slashed at where he had stood. A heartbeat later, he reappeared behind Viho. Wisps of fire came into existence from his palm, condensing into a blazing sphere.
He smashed the fireball into the back of Viho's head before he could sense a presence behind him.
Boom!
A head exploded.
A saber fell.
Viho died.
Ray's cold, murderous gaze locked onto the last opponent. Without a word, he flicked his dagger.
Vehshe swung his sword desperately, but the sword cut nothing but air. The dagger shot past his sword, piercing through his skull before embedding itself deep into a tree.
♦️ Congratulations, Host. You have killed the Elites of the Ash Legion and decreased its power by 4. You have gained +10000 EXP for every single unit of decrease in its power level.
♦️ You have leveled up.
♦️ You have gained +2 Stat Points!
"What?"
"This is the first time I have gained such an overwhelming amount of experience from killing a mere group of four iron-rank trash."
"It seems... the system has a deep hatred for fiends, rewarding me so heftly for killing their weakest."
Worthy telling, in his eyes, all fiends were nothing but vermin that needed to be exterminated if the world was ever to become a better place.
Honestly, it did not matter how closely they resembled humans in appearance, their twisted habits was clear to all, and every human took them as inhumane, believing it was impossible for humans and fiends to coexist under the same sky. One race had to perish. The demonic creatures thought the same way.