"Ahhh!"
Hearing Geri's shrill and painful scream, John decided to go all out for the first time.
He raised his right arm, propping it up with his left and aiming with his index and middle fingers forming a gun. The red blood revolving around both of his wrists started to coalesce into a black bead the size of a bean.
Around the small bead, the space could be seen slightly trembling.
Micro Blood Bomb!
Pew!
John flicked his fingers and released his move at the back of the beast that was still chasing after the fleeing Geri.
The concentrated blood bead disappeared from his fingers and appeared close to the Earthflame Rat King's arse.
Roar!
The Rat King felt the danger and her 3 inches long red fur stood on edge.
Within a millisecond, the Rat King's almost 10m long tail coiled up like a spring. The blood bead landed noiselessly in the dead center of the 3m wide tail shield, before burrowing into the muscular appendage.
The micro bomb exploded with a small, almost inaudible "pop".
As soft and almost soundless as the bomb let off, to the ears of the Rat King it was as loud as a clap of thunder.
Hou!
The beast roared and decisively severed her tail before flashing over 100m away.
Unfortunately, the bomb had already exploded and the beast was way too close to the blast zone.
The blood bead devoured every drop of blood present in the thigh-thick tail, fueling itself as the tail shrivelled up in the blink of an eye.
Thrum Thrum.
With a few minor vibrations, everything within a kilometre-wide range was covered by thin wisps of blood, swirling like a mini-tornado kicking up dust and powder dregs in the air. The blood silently began corroding everything it came in contact with.
John waved his hand collecting the bloody vapour in the air, stopping it from spreading.
The Earthflame Rat King burrowed out of the ground where it caught refuge with lava dripping from its now patchy skin with tufts of fur missing. Flames lit up on the beast's skin, eroding the remaining contaminated blood and accelerating its regeneration.
Grrr!
"You're a stage 6 wizard!" The beast paced about warily, fear all over her face.
"No. You're not a wizard... to think I'd run into a fucking Battle Mage!"
"Rawwrrr!"
She started distancing herself from the approaching John with her fur standing straight like little spears.
John waved his right hand and observed the area. His halberd laying 3km away flew over and landed in his hand.
He sighed lightly after calculating the casualties.
"One peak King realm, two early King realm, and twenty-three Crysalis realm... all dead" John shook his head in pity.
Of the thirty-four mercenaries who came on the final hunt, only eight survived.
What a tragedy!
Initially, John wanted to take it slow and deal with the beast step by step. Because of the way his ability worked. As a stage 6 Nova realm cultivator, his ability only qualified him as a stage 5 Bloodmage. His power would be boosted multiple folds in areas like the battlefield with a high concentration of blood, making him a literal killing god. But in single combat, unless his enemy began bleeding then his power would drop by a tier.
His idea was to bloodlet the beast slowly and use the powerful energy in its blood to erode its body's vitality. But looking at how things turned out...
John shook his head again.
He sighed wistfully and retrieved a cryogenic bottle from his ring. John felt like his heart was bleeding as he uncorked the bottle.
A sweet and intoxicating fragrance filled with vibrant rich energy wafted out from the lip of the bottle.
Sniff Sniff.
The Earthflame Rat King, bathed in flames and magma sniffed the air and fell intoxicated.
Noticing the beast's intoxicated visage, John became enraged.
"Vile beast! Die for me!"
He dripped a drop of blood into the bottle and flung it directly at the beast.
Chomp!
The bottle disappeared as it was swallowed whole by the Earthflame Rat King.
Slurp!
The beast licked her lips, satisfied.
John took out a cigar and lit it before taking a drag. He looked at the beast calmly before sighing and lamenting his loss.
"Star realm, divine beast descendant blood... gone just like that" he threw his favourite cigar to the ground before trampling on it like a hated enemy.
"Ao! Ao! Ao!"
The Earthflame Rat King that was delightedly licking her lips started convulsing and roaring like a pig being slaughtered.
Its steel-like highly compacted muscles started swelling and contracting in rapid succession.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
As the beast's muscles began exploding under its skin, black blood started streaming from all the holes on its body. The blood began floating in the air towards John's open right hand.
"So not worth it" John complained while retreating 10km away from the wildly thrashing beast.
The beast started spitting flames all over the place, setting the base of Mount Anansi on fire. While her 20-tonne compact body trampled the area 8km around her. Each stomp from the beast formed 7 to 8 km long gullies wide and deep enough to swallow a standard two-storey house.
"Rawr! Die with me!"
Boom!
Pushed to her wit's end, the beast began chasing the retreating John.
"Hmph! Die by yourself! You got killed by Divine beast blood, isn't that satisfying enough for you?"
John fled, having no intention of wrestling with the already dead beast.
Having failed to catch the fleeing John, the beast switched her target and locked onto Geri who was already escaping 35km away.
"Fuck..."
John clutched his halberd tightly and began chasing after the beast. He spat out a mouthful of blood on the tip of his halberd and swept it out with full force.
An 80m wide qi blade slammed into the weakened neck of the frenzied beast, beheading her instantly.
"Rawrrr-"
Boom! Rumble!
Ka! Ka! Ka!
The 20-tonne heavy beast's body fell on the half-destroyed mountain base, causing the area to tremble and quake violently kicking up clouds of dust.
The fleeing Geri and surviving mercenaries heard the cut-off death throes of the Calamity beast and stopped escaping while furtively checking out the situation.
...
Gulp!
Alfred watched as the Calamity beast went on a rampage when it got close to death. He saw the beast creating 30m wide gullies so deep that a man could die instantly if they accidentally fell in.
His heart bubbled up with excitement when he saw John create that 80m wide blade qi that beheaded the savage and violent Calamity beast.
Apart from Alfred's shock, everyone in the command centre began cheering and jumping in excitement.
To them, it's a huge pity about the 26 fallen mercenaries. But for the safety of the nearby city, no amount of sacrifice was too much. Even if both John and Geri fell here, it would still be a worthy sacrifice. The counter result would have this beast killing and rampaging for a distance of at least 5,000km (25 million square kilometres) without challenge.
What sort of result was that? How many hundreds of millions or even billions of people live within the surrounding 5,000km?
...
John heaved a sigh of relief and flew over to the Rat King's body, looking at its beaten and battered corpse.