Unfortunately for Ludo, Adam still had a couple seconds left on his berserk skill, making him faster for a couple seconds, enough to catch up.
Adam used [Charge] on Ludo, stopping him in place, and swung his sword to his neck. However, before he could hit him Ludo shone with a white light, which awoke him from his stun, and allowed him to raise his shield in time.
Adam was about to attack once again when he suddenly jumped away, dodging two arrows coming for him. While he had chased after Ludo they had entered within the attacking range of the archers, making killing Ludo even harder.
Moreover, his berserk skill ended, turning him back to normal. Ludo didn't know that though, and thus still tried to flee.
Adam stomped the ground, using [Icy Stomp], and roared at Ludo as the ice reached him. Roaring wasn't just for the fun of it, Adam also did so because he found out that the more he used it, the more effective it would get, and his enemies were starting to get slightly weaker with his roars.
When the ice hit Ludo, he was once again slowed down because of the impact, and the skill's effect lowered his speed by 9%. This left enough time to Adam to reach him and attack.
Adam used both [Lunar Smite] and [Mighty Strike], as well as [Wind Blade]. Ludo was able to put up his shield, blocking some of the damage. However, even using his shield didn't counter all the damage, and so he was only left with 30 000 HP.
Moreover, the freezing effect of [Lunar Smite] had activated, reducing Ludo's Agility by 30%. Feeling his frozen joints, Ludo knew he had no chance of escaping, and so he yelled to his archers "Make the arrows rain! Don't worry about me, kill that son of a bitch! If he kills me, I want everyone out to kill that bastard!"
Adam grinned, perfect. He rushed at Ludo, and they began battling. Had Ludo been in a perfect state, their fight wouldn't have been totally one sided, Ludo would have been able to put up a fight as his attributes were stronger than Adam's.
However, with 30% of his agility gone, not only was his movement speed slower, his attack speed was too. Adam was able to dodge the spear thrusts as easily as he would if he were facing a child, and Ludo was wasting his Aura by activating skills on his spear.
His shield was annoying, because with how big it was it was hard to go past it. However, it also allowed Adam to dodge most of the arrows as they would hit the shield instead.
By the time the 30% debuff on Ludo's Agility wore off, he only had 5000 HP left, and most of his Aura had depleted.
While fighting him, Adam had found something shocking though, and that was about his skills. Ludo didn't have many, only three. However, all of them were perfectly mastered, just like Adam's [Mighty Strike].
What made him think that was that every time he used a skill some Aura would be spent, and he didn't seem to have any cooldown.
Adam concluded that this could be a feature made so that NPCs could stand above normal players. Or maybe this was just to increase the realism in game, that NPCs didn't have the system to help them execute skills they don't understand.
Whatever the answer was, this made NPCs both more dangerous and less dangerous. More dangerous in the sense that they knew perfectly how to use their skills, not only would the power be at its maximum but they also know when to use it and not to use it.
But that would inevitably lower their adaptability. For example, Ludo. He had three skills. One to use with his spear that would shoot a spear of light out of his spear, another on his shield that seemed to absorb almost all the damage from several attacks, and the final one was a buff to his own stats.
Of the three, the offensive one was useless because Adam fought in such close range that the spear of light would always miss as he never stood in front of the spear's tip.
Nevertheless, this was still the path he himself sought. He would rather have a few completely mastered skills than more skills, but unmastered ones.
Adam looked at the retreating Ludo and walked toward him, dodging the arrows coming at him, when Neith's voice sounded in his head 'Master, I have found the egg! I'm bringing it away!'
Adam smiled and said to Ludo "You should just have given me the egg straight away, you would have lived."
Ludo spat and said "You idiot, I don't even have the egg anymore, someone you can never touch already has it!"
Adam laughed and said "First, know that for me, no one is untouchable. Secondly, I already have the egg, so I don't know who you are talking about."
Hearing his words, Ludo's face turned ugly, and he wanted to explain himself further, but Adam has wasted enough time, the gang members were already leaving through the gates.
He jumped toward Ludo, and swung his sword. Ludo tried to block the blow, but his shield, which had already suffered a lot of damage, finally cracked, and was cut in two.
The sword didn't stop there, and cut Ludo's head at the same time.
[Congratulation for killing the leader of the Serpentine Gang! Go to the guards barracks of Ember City to claim your reward!]
Well this was surprising. Adam picked up the glowing head as well as the rest of the loot Ludo dropped, then the one the tiger dropped.
Ludo had dropped a Rare Chest Plate as well as a skill book, and the tiger had dropped materials as well as Rare Gauntlets, but Adam didn't have the time to check any of it in detail since an army of 5000… Well 4900 was coming for him.
Adam was about to just flee since he already got what he wanted, but he stopped. There was something holding him from fleeing, his surging thirst for battle.
This was a good opportunity to make progress for his Gates, this was a battle against an opponent much stronger than him, and his balance would be tested at all times fighting against an entire army on his own.
Moreover, if he wanted to flee, then all he has to do is to activate his ultimate skills, [Misty Escape], or even [Totemic Rage] if needed.
And even if he was unable to flee, so what? This was a game, he could die, he would only lose some XP.
That's why, instead of making the more logical choice, running away, Adam turned back toward the army running at him, and said to Neith telepathically 'I'm fighting this army. If you want to help then you are welcome, but make sure you always have a path of retreat.'
'Understood master.'
Adam smiled, and focused on the army in front of him. There were about 5000 of them, and they were currently screaming their lungs out as they charged. Adam took a deep breath in, and as they approached he released the loudest roar he ever did.
He didn't say any word, because he didn't feel like saying anything. Rather, this was a beastly roar, one that served only one purpose, to show his thirst for battle!
Due to how the canyon was shaped, the sound of his roar resonated far and wide, and all adventurers and monsters in the surrounding kilometers heard the roar, and felt the violent aura it emitted. Everyone thought a powerful monster had appeared.
As for the Serpentine Gang, they were shocked by it, and it quieted them all down. However, their numbers allowed them not to stop, and continue their charge toward Adam, who jumped toward them with multiple emotions.
The overwhelming one was his thirst for battle, but there was also some surprise. Just then, his Barbarous Roar had leveled up four times in a row!
But this was a matter for another time. For now, he already had one thing to do, and that was a lot of killing!