James moved with purpose as the blade of his sword cut through the creatures with the ease hot knife cutting through butter.
Each strike was executed to kill in one move. The creatures noticed his actions and moved forward to intercept and stop his charge, but James proved to be too difficult for them to handle.
The creatures screeched, fired streams of acid at him and even threw themselves at James, yet he evaded all of that with the grace of a swan, his figure leaving blurs and afterimages.
In all of this, not a shred of mana was used to deliver any of the attacks. With every creature cut done, more moved towards him as even the big boys at the back turned to James with sharpened slits.
The others began noticing the pressure on them decreasing and when they followed the path the creatures rushed to, they noticed the figure of James zooming across the space with flawless execution of techniques.
"Whoa… Look at him go."
"Isn't he the one giving off that terrifying aura before?"
"Now that you mention it…. His face is still covered under his cloak. Anyone know who he is?"
Without being able to see his face, there was little they could do in the guessing department.
"Even if we do see his face, look at us." Another waved around after having enough room to relax now that the pressure had decreased.
"Most of us are using face-changing spells to hide our identities. What makes you think the face we see will be the actual person's?"
His words were true as the onlookers exchanged glances before focusing on James taking on all the creatures.
'They're right…' Kaelen agreed with the words spoken. At this point, he had forgotten about James as his entire interest was now on the mysterious figure.
Even as the numbers grew, he was zooming through them as if he was in his backyard. Not a shred of acid had touched him and if the others could see his expression under his hood, they would recoil in fright.
'These creatures are weaker than I thought…' James was surprised at how easy it was for him to cut them down.
'Are the people that weak or have I gotten that strong?' He thought as he plunged his sword forward and impaled the creature that came at him with its maws and claws.
The sword stopped the creature in its tracks as the light of life in its green eyes slowly faded. With the last of the weaklings down, James turned to face the big boys.
At this point, silence had settled in the space as everyone watched James finish off all the smaller reptilian creatures.
"He really killed them all without a single scratch." The surprise and awe in his voice was shared by almost everyone watching.
James observed the creatures that numbered twelve as they spread out and formed a semi-circle facing James with snarls and growls.
Observing their actions, James remained calm and composed. Even at this point, he wasn't feeling any life-threatening danger.
'This is weird. It's like my emotions have been rubbed from me or something is blocking them.' Did he want to feel fear and anxiety when fighting?
The obvious answer would be no. But they did make him know that he understood the danger he was in. Now, however, he didn't even know if the emotions were there.
He didn't understand it.
Before he thought it would be useful in aiding him with his vengeance, but not feeling anything was starting to get to him.
Well, aside from the anger and hatred he felt whenever he thought about his targets of vengeance, he felt nothing when in a fight.
'I'll think about it once I get time for myself.' He took a deep breath and then focused on the creatures that looked ready to pounce on him.
Everyone watched in anticipation as the first of the creatures flapped its wings and stormed at James while the rest fired jet streams of acid at him.
Unlike the other creatures, these bad boys were faster and stronger. Even then, James wanted to see how far he could be pushed without using his mana.
James brandished his sword and charged at the creature as well. Who said anything about him waiting to be attacked just to test his limits?
He abruptly appeared underneath the creature, plunged his sword into the creature's neck and cut through its flesh from that point to its tail.
James dissected the creature before it even knew what happened as its blood sprayed around as it fell to the ground with a thud.
However, James wasn't done as the moment he appeared behind the creature, the jet streams of acid were already on him.
With calm eyes, he skillfully manoeuvred in and out of the acidic fluids with only portions of his cloak being hit that sizzled and melted.
The reptilian monsters showed surprise, proof of their intelligence.
But James didn't give them the time to regain their composure as he arrived before his next target and swiped his sword through the maw of the creature, cutting its head in half before moving towards the next one.
Confusion and panic had settled among the creatures as some took to the skies while others backed off to gain room for a follow-up attack.
"You wish!"
James sneered at their attempts and arrived before the next one and before the creature could take flight, he leapt and landed on its back as he plunged his sword inside the creature.
A loud shriek escaped the creature as it fell back to the ground.
Suddenly, James jumped up and backflipped as another stream of acid flew past the back of the creature he had just killed.
The moment he landed on the floor, two more creatures arrived with their sharp claws as each one took a swipe at James.
"Hmph!"
He snorted and blocked the first strike coming from his front with the broad side of his sword.
*CLANG!*
But then, his sword shattered on impact, leaving him weaponless as the second claw closed in from the side.
His mind spun rapidly as he considered his next action. He didn't have time to retrieve another weapon and could only use his physical body to either take the attack head-on or attempt to block it.
And even in such a situation, he felt calm; incredibly so.
He used the rebound force of his first block to forcefully turn around as he brought both hands forward and caught the claw. The momentum pushed him back as he skidded across the floor.
'Interesting…I'm even stronger than I thought.' He flashed a small grin when he realized this. The creature was only able to push him back just a couple of meters.
'Let's end this then.'
Abruptly, he pulled back his right hand and condensed a mana flame in his palm before slamming it into the face of the creature.
*BOOM!*
It exploded on contact, but James already expected that.
He already had a fair idea about his battle prowess and while he didn't know how he compared with a Starforged level being, it should be close.
Everyone was awestruck watching as James killed one monster after the other. In less than a minute, they watched James kill four out of the twelve creatures.
They thought when his sword was shattered, he would have been injured from that claw attack, but he surprised them when he caught it with apparent ease and then retaliated.
James quickly followed up by going after the other monsters and with his hand blazing in mana, he cut through the monsters with even more ease. It was as if his strength increased another fold.
"What the hell…? How is he making it look that easy when he is on the same level as most of us? Is there a secret that we don't know of?"
"Even if there was, why would he tell us? Of course, if you're interested in finding out, you can always ask him."
Another suggested, silencing him.
Who wouldn't want to have greater strength? Instead of being thankful someone had taken it upon themselves to kill all the creatures, they were here feeling bitter about not having the same level of strength.
Soon, James came to a stop when the last of the big boys exploded in a gory of flesh and blood.
The entire place became silent as everyone stared at the bloodied figure of James emitting a dangerous vibe.
It literally distorted the space around him and the moment he turned to face the people, they shrunk back when their eyes met his red glowing ones.
*Gulp*
'Is he a vampire or something?'
Kaelen thought, but he couldn't be sure. The moves he watched were nothing like how vampires worked.
There was no display of vampiric abilities or even shadow manipulation.
What's more, a vampire had no reason to stand out and fight the creatures when it could go after the others and feed off their life essence.
Heck, they were rarely seen in Astoria.
'No… He's something else….'
Kaelen thought with a cold chill running down his spine.
James observed the onlookers as they slowly backed away. He narrowed his eyes at them and wondered if there was else behind him.
'There's nothing there.' He looked back and saw nothing.
'Why do I even bother? It's not like I did it for a thank you.'
His eyes moved towards the entrance and noticed the barrier was down, but the people outside did not dare enter the hall.
He noticed Thalia looking at him and without a word, he turned his back and walked towards the statue, completely ignoring his messy state.
His footsteps for some reason echoed loudly in the space as everyone remained silent and observant.
'Hmm… Mine, huh.' He thought in silence, recalling the words he muttered the day he first had sex with Thalia.
When he turned in Thalia's direction a few seconds ago, he felt a strong pull towards her and that was the only thing he felt that was different from his hatred and anger.