Chapter 198 How It Feels To Be The Loser (7)
Iliana slightly frowned at Basil's cryptical answer. From the way he said it, it conveyed anything but care; Basil would likely leave the hostages behind after he used them. It was a heartless plan—very Mage-like of him—but Iliana didn't say anything about it.
"Prepare for battle."
On Basil's cue, Iliana focused her attention to the front. As Basil had predicted, as soon as they entered the perimeter, the Low Class Demons were busy guarding the humans filled cage.
Slightly away from the group of Low Class Demons that were busy guarding the cage, the Middle Class Demons were maintaining their rank while simultaneously surrounding a particular Demon, as if they were guarding it.
It didn't take Iliana even a second to deduce what the status of the Demon in the middle was. "I'll break through the rank, and slay the boss. You can free the hostages."
"Let Deacon help you."
"I don't mind."
Deacon was already 3 meters away from the rank of Middle Class Demons when the conversation finished. Befitting of a chaos loving creatures, 4 Middle Class Demons, Hobgoblins, quickly jumped at him, ready to smash him with their crookedly made wooden mace.
Different than the normal Goblins, all of them were 3 meters tall that makes them 6 times bigger than the normal Goblins, and their body was also packed with a ridiculous amount of muscles.
Although compared to the other Middle Class Demons they didn't look as big and threatening, they possessed a strength that could turn the body of a Peak Stage Yellow Core to mush with a swing of their mace.
In other words, blocking their mace was not a bright thing to do. One might argue that one could easily cut through the wooden mace or burn it to crisp, but none of that would work; one had to use a High Grade Artefact or a High Grade Fire Element Spell to do that.
It was because the wood that was used to make the mace wasn't just any wood. It was made from a special wood called Rigenum, one of the strongest wood that could only be found in the Druid's forest.
Of course, Hobgoblins never had the permission of the Druid to take Rigenum with them. This is why their mace looked crooked; only those who had gained the Druid's permission could make something decent out of Rigenum.
Boom!
The ground which the four Hobgoblins had smashed with their mace caved in, creating four different craters that was each a meter deep.
Although Deacon was obviously bigger than the four Hobgoblins, he had still stopped in his track, and taken a step back when they smashed their mace to the ground to avoid their mace.
Despite how crooked it looked, the sturdiness of Rigenum wasn't something one could scoff at. Although it didn't make a good sharp weapon, it made a fearsome blunt weapon.
Iliana looked at the scene in front of her, and smirked. "Good luck with the hostages, Sil. I am going to have some fun here." She looked so eager to skewer the Hobgoblins with her beloved Sinister Piercer as she twirled it in her hand.
Basil didn't say anything as he merely propelled himself to the right, where the cage of the hostages were guarded by a bunch of Low Class Demons. He quickly used Wind Magic to make a pair of wings behind his back to allow him to fly.
Whoosh!
With a speed that was as fast as a bullet, he arrived right in front of the hundreds of Low Class Demons guarding the cage. Maintaining his position in the air, he pointed his sword at the Demons.
"Let me show you how it feels to be a part of a symphony." Mana gathered on the tip of his sword, as a ball of blue light was gradually forming. "[Mountain Piercer]!"
The marble sized ball of light shot forward, leaving a straight blue line in the air.
BOOM!
As it traveled faster than a bullet, none of the Demons had actually actually registered what was actually happening until the ground exploded. Of course, they could only let Basil's Art disintegrate their body at that point.
A semisphere of blue light covered 10 meters of the ground, while the explosion swept anything that was within 60 meters away from it. That means, the crowd of Middle Class Demons that Iliana were currently fighting was also affected by the explosion.
Iliana couldn't help clicking her tongue as she and Deacon took a distance away from the explosion. "Tsk! What is that brat doing? Does he want to kill the hostages too?" She quickly looked at the cage only to find it remained untouched.
Returning her gaze to the Demons, Iliana could see there were, at least, 10 unlucky Middle Class Demos that had been hit by the explosion. As they had been quick to react however, there was only 1 of them that was killed; the rest was injured, but it was nothing their regeneration factor couldn't heal.
Basil, who was the culprit of the explosion, looked at the semisphere of blue light he had made, and charged through it. He was well aware of his own Art—that entering the semisphere—was dangerous, but he had made sure it was different for him.
The Art he made was his—truly his. It could never hurt him.
When Basil entered the semisphere, it didn't part for him; it maintained its shape, but it didn't blow him away. He didn't even need to cover himself with a barrier to protect him from his own Art. It worked just like how he created it: it didn't hurt him, its creator.
Although everything happened very briefly, Basil's [Eyes Of Mana Perception] that was coupled with his enhanced brain allowed him to observe what the semisphere—his own Art—was doing to the ground. He could see it disintegrating the ground, making a crater that was deep enough to make a small pond.
When Basil passed through the semisphere, he was greeted by the flustered bunch of Low Class Demons whose eyes were still planted on the brightly shining semisphere.
Although they were quickly awaken from their daze when the semisphere suddenly disappeared, Basil had already sent countless of wind blades at them by that time.
Screech!
Coupled with the uncomfortable sound that the wind blades produced by clashing against each other, the anguish filled scream of the Low Class Demons created a disturbing yet satisfying symphony of murder.
The confused Demons got their body helplessly shredded to pieces, while the Demons who were aware of the situation tried to get away from the invisible wind blades.
The Demons that weren't affected by the attack were busy throwing their weapon to hit Basil who was still in the air, but their attempt was futile as none of their weapons could pierce through the sphere of wind blades protecting him.
"When are they going to get out from the ground?" Basil glanced at the ground behind the big cage. "If I got down now, the Nightcrawlers would spoil my plan by killing the hostages." Basil lightly clicked his tongue.
He was about to send another attack to the ground, when it rumbled as the Low Class Demons distanced themselves away from said area. Not long after, seven Nightcrawlers emerged out of the ground; all of them were trying to devour him in one gulp.
Of course, Basil, who knew something as predictable as this would happen, managed to dodge the Nightcrawlers' attack. He quickly poured his Qi into his sword, and held it horizontally.
[Hill Splitter]!
He fiercely swung his sword vertically at the seven Nightcrawlers who were about to return to the ground upon missing their target.
Whoosh!
The air split as a curvy trajectory of green light swept the sixth segment of the Nightcrawlers. The attack quickly took effect as in the next moment, their head was cleanly cut from the rest of their body.
Plop!
The seven heads fell to the ground, and Basil also landed on the ground at the same time. Looking at the lifeless body of the Nightcrawlers he had killed, Basil snorted coldly.
"Great advantage; zero mind. Pathetic!"
He didn't feel any sense of accomplishment or whatsoever for managing to kill the gigantic Nightcrawlers at once. In his mind, as long as they utilized, at least, ten percent of their brain, anyone would be able to achieve the same feat.
Basil wasn't totally wrong: anyone could successfully cut through multiple Nightcrawlers at once. Of course, killing them was a different story. One needed a quite high precision to even kill a Nightcrawler in one attack.
The sixth segment of a Nightcrawler—its weakness—was a hard to find and well protected area. To be able to hit that area successfully, precision and concentration was needed. This is what made Nightcrawlers were hard to kill.
Therefore, what Basil had done wasn't something just anyone could imitate; one needed to posses a certain experience and skills to be able to do that. Of course, according to Basil, who had experienced many things in his past life, it was nothing.
"HuMan!!"
Basil quirked his eyebrow at the Lower Middle Class Demon who had just shouted at him.
It had one big eye on its disproportionate head, sharp pointy teeth that were revealed to the world, a muscular figure, and two clawed hands. Although it was just as tall as him, Basil knew of the danger of this particular Demon.
As it like to grab the throat of its opponent as if it was plucking something, this particular Demon was called Plucker. It relied on its speed, and its sharp claws to fight.
Though Basil had seen many Pluckers in his past life, he rarely encountered one that managed to Evolve to a Middle Class Demon. Therefore, he couldn't help but wonder when he encountered one—this soon, at that.
"——•••———•—"
The Plucker's eye widened in shock when it heard Basil asked him how it could speak human language in Lesser Tongue. Growling at him in the next moment, it pointed an accusing finger at him.
"YoU humAn! HoW caN yOU SPeAK oUr lAnguAge?! YoU arE nOT wOrthy!" Then, it immediately charged at Basil with a speed that was comparable to Deacon's.
Basil lightly sneered, and utilized his Art. "Says the creature who can't even speak properly."
[Slip]!
In the next moment, he disappeared from the eye of the Plucker.
Upon noticing that Basil had disappeared from its view, the Plucker quickly turned around, and it could see that Basil had reappeared right in front of the gigantic cage entrapping the humans.
Without wasting any time, the Plucker quickly kicked the ground to dash at Basil who was facing his back to it. Instead of moving forward however, it fell down.
Thud!
To be exact, its head fell down. Basil had cut its neck in the split moment he had passed it.