The shadows seemed to be endowed with life, spreading out in an instant to swallow Baron Sori and the several nobles beside him, forming a shadow cage.
Within the cage, several pitch-black tentacles quietly emerged from the ink-like darkness, silently coiling toward one of the nobles.
The tentacles swept past the swords the noble hurriedly raised in defense. They didn't lash out like whips; instead, they flowed through the blades like water, leaving a dark lash mark on his arm.
Then—
Creeeeak!
The lash mark suddenly tightened like a lethal noose, violently constricting the flesh of the noble's arm inward.
Under the irresistible force of contraction, his flesh sank deep, and his arm bones snapped one after another, emitting a tooth-aching crackling sound.
“Aaaaaah—!”
The intense pain made the noble scream in agony. But before the cry could last long, another shadow tentacle coiled around his neck like a venomous snake.
In an instant, the screaming stopped abruptly, leaving only the raspy, wheezing gasps of a dying duck.
The noble frantically clawed at his neck with his remaining hand, trying to break free from the suffocating noose. His nails left deep bloody furrows in his skin, yet he was utterly powerless to resist.
He could only watch as the force tightened further and further, until—
Snap!
The vertebrae connecting to his skull snapped.
The noble's struggles ceased instantly, and his life force rapidly faded into the thick shadows.
In less than ten seconds, a noble who had undergone professional bloodline warrior training had been strangled to death by shadow tentacles.
This scene immediately turned the other nobles' faces pale, their expressions filled with horror.
This was Shadow Boiling—a powerful rogue technique rated at the Silver rank, used for assassinating powerful beings.
As the God-Chosen of the God of Thieves, Alicia had discovered she possessed this technique upon waking up from a dream one day.
She usually practiced with Leon, which never gave her enough preparation time to use it; otherwise, she wouldn't have lost to him so quickly.
Just now, while Leon was chatting with Baron Sori, Alicia had received a signal from him and dived into the shadows to manifest this technique.
As for why these nobles hadn't noticed?
That would be thanks to a life-saving technique the God of Thieves had taught Alicia in her dreams during the gray mist invasion—Presence Reduction.
As the name implied, this technique could lower Alicia's presence, reducing the chances of her being discovered by monsters in the fog. It was considered a top-tier survival technique for the Bronze and Silver ranks.
And now, Alicia was using this technique for an ambush.
The effect was remarkable. None of the nobles had noticed anything unusual about the shadows at their feet before being trapped directly within Shadow Boiling.
“Do not panic.”
Baron Sori scanned the panicked nobles and said in a heavy voice, “Use your battle qi and mana to protect yourselves.”
However, his reminder was essentially useless to this group of useless nobles.
Some nobles who had reached the Bronze rank naturally knew how to use mana and battle qi for protection.
But the incompetent ones possessed neither strength nor a shred of fortitude. They were already showing signs of hysteria, completely deaf to Sori's warning.
“Trash. Then just die.”
Baron Sori looked away. If these useless nobles followed him to the Nightmare Empire, they would only end up being exploited and eventually drained of their blood by the vampires.
Since they were going to die anyway, what was the difference between dying here or in the Nightmare Empire?
Baron Sori looked up, his gaze piercing through the shadow cage to lock onto Leon.
“Do you think you’ve won?”
“In your dreams!”
Before his voice even faded, a powerful surge of cyan battle qi erupted from his body. The surrounding shadow tentacles withered and retreated like dead leaves under a scorching sun.
His footsteps were heavy as he stepped forward one pace at a time.
The coiling shadow tentacles and the entire cage crumbled under the impact of his battle qi, unable to hinder him in the slightest.
Just like that, relying on that surging power of battle qi, he actually forced his way out of the shadow cage.
Leon supported the exhausted Alicia. Feeling the strength of the battle qi on Baron Sori, his expression couldn't help but turn solemn.
“A Silver rank bloodline warrior?”
“Hahaha! That’s right!” Seeing a ripple finally cross Leon’s perpetually calm face, Baron Sori felt a surge of pure, unadulterated satisfaction in his chest and laughed loudly.
“Two weeks ago, I broke through the Bronze limit and stepped into the Silver rank!”
“Now, you should clearly feel it—this power that crushes everything! Hahahaha!”
Seeing Baron Sori laughing in such a manic way just because his own expression had grown slightly serious, Leon suddenly felt a wave of disgust, as if he were a female lead being cornered in some cliché story.
Besides, he just reached the Silver rank and he's already talking about crushing everything?
If Baron Sori were truly deep and had reached the Silver rank long ago while pretending to be Bronze, Leon would have grabbed Alicia and turned tail without a second thought.
After all, the gap between one Silver rank and another could be wider than the gap between a dog and a human!
Someone like Miles, who was at the peak of Silver and a half-step Gold, could beat the crap out of Leon with one hand.
But Baron Sori, a bloodline warrior who had just ascended to the Silver rank...
“Rest here for a while,” Leon said to Alicia, who had exhausted all her strength casting Shadow Boiling.
He then looked at the four Falcon warriors who were still standing by. “You don't need to step in either.”
Then, Leon gripped his priest’s staff and took a step forward to face Baron Sori directly.
“Against you, I am enough alone.”
The experience would be mine alone to enjoy!
This contemptuous attitude caused Baron Sori’s satisfied smile to sink instantly, his face turning livid.
He gritted his teeth. “It would have taken some effort to deal with all of you at once, but since you want to duel me, you’ve saved me a lot of trouble...”
Before he could finish, Leon interrupted him. “If you truly thought that, you’d be secretly gloating in silence. You’re only saying this now to pretend you aren't angry or bothered.”
Leon held up a finger and wagged it slightly, following up: “But in reality... someone is already tilted~”
“You’re dead!”
Baron Sori’s face distorted instantly. Surging battle qi swirled around his rapier, transforming into a cyan cold light as he lunged toward Leon.
Leon remained composed, raising his priest’s staff high as the mental energy in his mind surged rapidly.
With a heavy 'thud,' a massive hammer handle shimmering with brilliant golden light suddenly materialized in front of him.
Seeing this, Baron Sori sneered, “It’s just a hammer...”
But before he could finish his sentence, an incredibly massive Hand of Divine Spells suddenly appeared behind the Hammer of Holy Light.
The palm gripped the hammer handle firmly, like a hero pulling a legendary holy sword from a stone.
“It’s just a hammer plus a palm...” Baron Sori told himself in his mind.
However, when that hand swung the giant hammer, crashing down toward him with the weight of ten thousand tons—
A powerful sense of crisis rapidly surged into Baron Sori’s heart!
Rate on N.U.
