As darkness came and went, sunlight slowly filled the once night sky.
A young man stood on the side looking over newly tilled soil. He took out the sword that he had once used to train with and embedded it into the ground. The soil gave way to the piercing sword backed by a nearly unstoppable force.
The man then flowed mana from his surroundings and gathered it all into the sword.
"This should be enough..."
Zane had used this sword throughout his training had a special function, to store a large amount of mana. Adam had specifically given Zane this sword so that he could use as much mana as he could without worrying about destroying his own weapon.
The mana within the sword then slowly spread out in a circular manner slowly enveloping the land around it. As mana flowed through the dirt and rock it solidified even more making it even more compact to the point that the sword that was embedded into the ground seemed like it was becoming one with the soil.
"I can't do this forever but for now until the mana inside the sword is depleted no one can bother you."
Gabe and Abel stood behind Zane silently, they just watched as Zane give his last words to his people.
Zane opened his storage ring and after looking for a little while, took out a cloak, the same one Adam had given him when he was training. When he wore this he could feel familiarity within this cloak and instinctively infused mana within it.
When everyone looked at Zane's face, no one could distinguish his features and it felt that the person standing in front of them wasn't Zane. Still, no one commented nor did anyone react but instead reflected.
The soldiers that had gone through an actual battle that was filled with bloodlust could only feel melancholy. Seeing the burial site of the people they once protected and the people who they had protected could only force them to feel guilt.
Still, there was a pure burning fire behind this sadness, the soldiers went and gathered all their belonging and began to release a few horses they managed to capture.
As they marched forward there were only the sounds of their feet stomping the ground, their silence indicated how seriously they took this and how determined they are on their task.
The horses then eventually started to gallop faster so their originally slow pace immediately increased in intensity.
"Gabe, I am counting on you."
Replying with a simple nod, Gabe started to gain a sudden influx of extremely dense mana, and using the technique Zane taught him, he buffed the entire army without any issue.
As the soldiers felt this extremely refreshing and satisfying feeling, the injuries they once obtained weren't healing but were now barely noticeable, their fatigue disappeared in that instant and they all started running at full speed. The mental drain that they had from the previous day could only be felt like a distant memory as their focus was extremely sharpened as well as their reflexes.
The three remaining elites that Zane once trained seemed to be strengthened even more. Their previous speed and current speed is incomparable due to the sheer difference between them.
Abel, on the other hand, when receiving Gabe's buff now had a monstrous increase in strength instead of speed as he was now ramming each tree apart as they came along increasing their speed even more.
In the face of this, Zane remained unaffected only looking forward to what was coming to their view. It was a relatively smaller camp than what they were in before but was still big enough to be considered a threat if it was them before.
The enemy soldiers could hear the galloping of the horse, they were alarmed but not particularly curious since those horses could've escaped from somewhere.
An enemy soldier guarding his post was lazily resting on the side of a tree suddenly heard weird thudding noises alongside the horses. He got up and went forward to investigate, the noises suddenly got louder and louder and within his confusion, a sharp noise appeared then darkness.
The enemy soldiers within the camp were just about to change shifts when an incoming army moving at an unprecedented rate attacked from out of nowhere.
Abel was the first person who managed to get breach the enemy camp then Gabe followed after that the three elites and then the rest of the soldiers. They didn't need to communicate at all since there was only one thing on their minds, to kill.
Shouts and screams could be all heard from camp, people were being slashed apart with ease that it was terrifying, people who thought they managed to escape were instantly shot down.
One of the elites was an archer and with one arrow, pierced three enemy soldiers instantly killing them.
The soldiers didn't even hesitate as they slashed apart the enemy in front of them. Their swords cut through the enemy's armor as if it didn't even exist and the enemy couldn't even leave a dent on their armor.
Abel decided to forgo his weapon and just decided to use his fists since his body strengthed with mana while being buffed by Gabe was sharper and sturdier than the weapon he had. Using his fists would be more efficient and would let him sate his desire for revenge even more.
While Gabe was the most ferocious one out of the bunch, comparing what he was like a week ago to what he is now, one would have never guessed that would've led such a cheerful man to do such acts.
Gabe doesn't just kill his enemies but instead, he tortures them, using his own technique to force his enemies to overflow with mana destroying them from within. The physical pain that the other enemy soldiers felt was nothing compared to the mental and spiritual pain that Gabe's prey felt.
Watching his men sate their bloodthirst for vengeance he quietly slipped through all the chaos and directly arrived in a relatively cozy-looking tent with a fancy looking banner in front seemingly supposed to be the leader's quarters.
There was a man hiding inside the tent wearing a relatively luxurious set of armor, his hand held a cutlass but with all of the chaos outside his abode, all he could do was shake. Seeing an unknown man appear in front of him without him even realizing it, he felt that his death was inevitable.
Although the man was obviously afraid, he mustered up all his courage to speak out, "Stay away! You'll regret it if you harm me!"
"Where's that Underworld Envoy?"
When the man heard that he didn't even try to argue and just made a run for it. He threw an orb and it exploded into fire and smoke completely blocking all of Zane's vision.
The man managed to run two steps away before his body froze. He tried to look back only to see the smoke that was supposed to block Zane's vision of him slowly disappear making way for Zane's eyes.
The fire that came along disappeared as quickly as it appeared making it look like a firework display.
Zane took a step forward and appeared in front of him. When he realized that the man in front of him had no intention to talk he just decided to punish him.
When he saw Gabe torturing his prey it made him remember when Adam corrupted those bullies' mana rendering them immobile and in excruciating pain. He decided to use that move on the person in front of him.
A slightly dark orb of mana gathered in Zane's hands. He forced that orb into the man's chest then all of a sudden, veins started to pop out of his skin making them completely visible. His eyes were watering and his dark started to darken. It was simply a weaker version of Adam's Kiss of Death.
Zane then left the man alone and started to rummage the tent in hopes of finding anything that could lead him to the Underworld Envoy. His casual form of searching despite the screams of the man in front of him and the silent slaughter outside made for an uncomfortable atmosphere.
He then spotted a tattered map on the ground, it was slightly burned from the explosion before but had all the key points of where the camps laid, the only problem was he didn't understand their symbols so he just needed to find out what all these meant in order to find where the Underworld Envoy was staying.
Zane ignored the man's squeals and just left him to suffer by himself.
The exact moment Zane left the barely standing tent was the moment the last arrow was shot ending the slaughter. He gestured Gabe to go into the tent to which Gabe did, after a while, Gabe left the tent with blood splattered all over him. The innocent-looking smile he still had from a week ago merged with the blood covering his body made for a sinister scene yet no one thought so.
Zane brought up the map he just got and showed it all to everyone, "These are our next targets, we won't stop until we kill them all. We will strike when they aren't ready yet, those bastards will feel what we felt. No survivors, no witnesses, only corpses."
Everyone screamed at the very top of their lungs.
"No survivors!"
"No witnesses!"
"Only corpses!"
Abel spoke up, "This can't even be considered a warm-up! Hunting is harder than this!"
Gabe added, "This is only the beginning! After killing that Underworld Envoy, the next one is that king!"
At this moment it was only an hour after sunrise, this was how brutal and one-sided the slaughter was. There wasn't a single injury at all and all it took was just a bit of concentration and stamina to kill fifty people in an instant.
Zane stood in front of all of them and said in a low but authoritative voice, "Next time fifty minutes, if you don't meet that standard then we stop for today. So if you want to kill a lot then be faster, crueler, sharper, kill them as fast as possible."
Everyone nodded except Gabe, Zane saw this but he decided to ignore it. Zane understood how angry Gabe is and isn't as mature as everyone here but he had no right to do so since he was even younger than Gabe.
They all instantly ran at the same time, even faster than before since they weren't following a horse anymore. Their formation was that Zane and Abel were in front breaking the trees in front of them to ease their travels, Gabe was in the middle buffing everyone and everyone else was just following them.
This enemy camp had a few more patrols around them so unfortunately, they managed to hear the rumbling in the forest due to the falling trees and gathered their defense. They took out a short-range communication scroll and reported it to the surrounding camps.
With Abel and Zane's increased hearing, they managed to realize this and ordered the archers to kill the person who was making the report before they were found out. At the exact same time, they launched an all-out attack from one side. The slaughter ensued without much resistance due to the sheer disparity between them.
The soldiers realized how much more efficient they would need to be if they wanted to meet the fifty-minute mark. From attacking just their bodies, they focused more on their hearts and heads. They also realized that going with small groups for four would be enough to completely demolish anyone together.
Gabe still continued to torture his prey but this time he increased his range and caused more people pain in a wider area.
Abel still continued as always being the person with the most amount of kills.
Meanwhile, Zane was standing over there with his gaze looking upon the entire battlefield and constantly supplying Gabe mana.
At the end of the one-sided slaughter, they just barely went under fifty minutes. This battle helped them realize what's best and had started to help them form battle instincts.
From that attack, they realized to no longer smash through trees in hopes for speed but to go for a quiet but quick attack. Forming four different groups, each one would be tasked with dealing with one side ensuring that there would be no escapees.
Even though their targets were increasing in size and relative strength, it didn't even matter in the face of pure destructive force.
Their massacres were beginning to pick up the pace, from the previous hour to fifty minutes to thirty to eventually only needing ten minutes to completely wipe out an entire enemy camp increased their experience on this type of attack.
Forming their ranks and polishing their skills through this enabled them to experience countless victories and massacres. All of this was still in the name of revenge and in their hearts, they only cared to avenge what they had lost.
Finally at the arrival of dusk, in front of Zane laid the last base that could be seen on the map that they had. The place where the Underworld Envoy was staying, the person that Adam had deemed to be a failure.