Fresh blood splashed on the ground as Richard was grazed past his neck. His head would have flown off if he hadn't instinctively moved at the last second.
"Bastard, how could you be so strong now?" Richard stuttered, warily looking at the blade in Bryan's hand from a distance.
"Haha! This is the power of our Lord! Are you scared?" Wiping the blood on his blade, Bryan laughed excitedly.
Who could have imagined that one of the heroes, he used to revere, would be trembling right before him? It felt surreal.
"You…" Richard wanted to refute, but the cold feeling on his neck made him shudder in fear. It had been a long time since he experienced this feeling. Anyways, he wasn't going to back down. He had yet to showcase his strength.
Having these thoughts, he yelled, "Don't think that you have won just because you are faster than me. The destructive capability of my thunder is not something your mana can handle."
"Thunder Storm"
Bolts of lightning discharged from him, turning the space in front of him into a sea of lightning.
Seeing this, Bryan only frowned with a bit of surprise written on his face. "With this ability, he should be able to clear a large wave of monsters in the blink of an eye. In contrast, my teleportation ability lacks such means. It's also a reason why I was rejected by the guilds."
Hatred was slowly surging in his eyes as he remembered how disdainfully they rejected him. Plus, the mocking voices of his so-called friends at that time, fueled it even more. If not for Boss Adam taking him in, he would have already given up on his life.
"Humph! Destructive power? How can it be comparable to the Lord's mana?" He scoffed and released all the mana bubbling inside him.
Boom!
The space twisted as his chaotic mana clashed directly with the sea of lightning, obliterating it into specks of light.
"How can it be?" Noticing how frail his lightning was, he lost all his hope.
"I have to notify Luther. Perhaps, he can do something with his physical strength." Making a haste decision, he dashed straight towards the exit in his lightning form.
Nonetheless, how could it be easy? Bryan teleported to the exit, appearing ahead of him in a fraction of a second. Next, he did multiple cuts in the air, sending crescent-shaped energy blades in all directions, sealing all possible exits.
"You dare!" Furiously, Richard blasted his thunder around him while mobilizing his movement speed to the extreme, creating multiple afterimages.
Not knowing the real one, Bryan targeted each of them.
Boom!Boom!
Explosions after explosions resounded in the vicinity. But the strange thing was that there wasn't a single pothole in the ground, as well as the courtyard. A thin layer of fog could be seen protecting them.
After a couple of minutes, did Bryan finally stop firing.
"Eh! Where is he?" Not perceiving anyone, he became puzzled.
Bam!
However, a loud crashing sound rang beside him, bringing him back to his senses.
"How?" When he peered in that direction, he burst into hefty laughter instead of getting frightened by how he sneakily arrived behind his back.
He saw Richard colliding into the fog and getting flung like a cannonball, heading toward him. It looked like the Lord had solidified the fog. Moreover, the rebound force excluding form it was nothing to jeer at.
"Haha! You didn't expect it, did you?" He gathered a large part of his mana into his blade and readied to welcome him beautifully. How could he not take this opportunity?
Richard realizing this too, panicked and hastily materialized a lightning sword filled with mana in mid-air.
Then they clashed in the next second, generating a heavy shockwave in a hundred-meters radius.
Boom!
"Ah…"
Along with the blast, a heart-wrenching cry of pain sounded. Indeed, it was Richard's. In the end, how could he deal with the full-force strike of Bryan head-on? Especially, when he was roughly knocked back by the fog.
Smoke rose in the air due to the aftermath, disappearing into the endless fog.
When everything subsided, one could see Bryan standing upright with a smile on his face while a disheveled Richard was on one knee with blood spilling all over.
He had his right arm missing with streaks of Bryan's mana still lingering in his flesh, slowly destroying him from within. Furthermore, he could neither heal nor close his wounds as a result. It seemed like his fate was already sealed.
"Cough, cough!! Brat, you won!!! But I won't accept it. If I wasn't suppressed, I would have turned this place upside down." Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Richard shouted in despair, not accepting this outcome.
"Humph! Weren't you here for my Lord? Now you are complaining that he simply oppressed you with a trace of his power?" Bryan approached him step by step, producing rhythmic footsteps, and sending chills down his spine.
"Haha! Do you think that I will believe it? How can one be this formidable? We are fucking S-ranked warriors!! How can we be helpless against anyone?" Richard bellowed madly, smashing his other hand on the ground.
Bam!
"He is god. How can you even be qualified to test his strength?" Bryan shook his head.
"God? I guessed it. This is the dwelling place of a cult. Perhaps, he is performing a ceremony somewhere, worshipping some evil gods. Tell me how many of you are involved in maintaining this fog?" Richard asked frantically with bloody eyes.
"Fool! You have lost your senses." Bryan was disappointed. Weren't they heroes who should be fighting proudly till death?
"Haiz, stories are stories. They are all lies. Only during death can one's true image be grasped." He sighed, reaching right next to him and putting his blade on his neck.
"Sir Richard, any last words?" Despite all that, he still had to give him some respect.
"Nothing! It's sad that I won't be able to witness how guys die thereafter. You are going to experience the true terror of the Military." Richard forced an ugly smile, making Bryan furious.
"We will see about that." The moment he was planning to finish him off, a hoarse voice full of anger sounded from the entrance.
"Stop!"
When he glanced in that direction, he spotted a humanoid dragon making its way here. It seemed like Luther eventually managed to find the way. Or it might be the Lord, allowing him to enter. Who knows?
Anyways, how could Bryan let it go? A deathly feud had long been instigated. Thus, he swept his blade calmly.
Swish!
Richard's head was cut off as it rolled to the floor while sprouting a fountain of blood from the neck.
Buzz!Buzz!
His mana immediately shielded him, preventing the blood from drenching his clothes. Only then, did he put his complete focus on Luther.
"How dare you?" Luther's eyes nearly popped out from fury. Never in his wildest dream, did he foresee this unimaginable scene. He lost his best friend in this cruel manner.
Boom!
His blood boiled and a reddish aura emerged from his skin. His veins popped up as they became visible beneath his skin and an unexpected change occurred.
Clank!
A crisp sound like something breaking inside his body rang with his mana violently becoming stronger, crossing the threshold of a rank B warrior. Soon, it was restored back to its original state.
Honglong!
His body enlarged by a hundred meters again, showcasing his true body.
At the same time, from inside his house, Cayden's eyes glowed with a strange light. "Divinity. He mistakenly tapped into its power. However, it's far from being enough."
"Who?" Luther, who had just recovered his S-ranked power abruptly exclaimed. He felt ominous eyes peering right through him.
However, he couldn't catch it using his strong senses. "Maybe it was my hallucination. How can I be shaken in this state? Was it due to his death?"
He narrowed his eyes at the headless corpse of Richard and took a deep breath, containing his anger a bit. "My friend, rest in peace. I will raze this place to the ground for you."
Meteor Punch!!
Unlike last time, his punch was filled with an enormous amount of mana and depth. His vigor burst in an instant, condensing a fiery dragon that rammed straight into the sky.
"Destroy!!"
The first thing he wanted to do was to eradicate this fog since it made him uncomfortable. Nevertheless, it was his wishful thinking. Even with his current power, he was no match for the means executed by the Heavenly Demon.
Whoosh!
His fist disappeared into nothingness, the moment it touched the fog. Only a few ripples were observed, causing him to become astonished.
"Hehe! Sir Luther. You are naïve to think that you can take it down with your meager abilities." Bryan laughed arrogantly.
"Meager?" Luther snorted and ultimately snapped. He let go of the fog and struck Bryan at once.
Bang!
A horrible aura enveloped Bryan as he found it impossible to utilize his teleportation superpower. Then he was whipped by a tail, emerging from above.