197 Alone and Ready
At the same time, he drew his fist back, focusing a lofty amount of magical pressure around his knuckles, “–I’ll handle this! Just get ready to handle the chunks!”
“The chunks…?” Korain looked at him.
Before he could get an answer, a massive swirl of magical energy emitted from the young man’s fist as he waited for the perfect moment before leaping off of the alleyway walls, jumping up to meet the falling corpse in midair.
“King Fist!”
[Spirit: -300 | 800/3700]
It was a flashy maneuver, but fortunately, War had long since flown away in his destructive endeavors, leaving him to freely unleash his most powerful blow:
As his fist was thrust forward, being engulfed in a swirl of light with royal, azure strands of iridescence trailing from his knuckles, it clashed directly against the defenseless abdomen of the colossal corpse.
Against a sack of meat and bones that was unable to defend itself, the potency of his blow manifested itself fully in an impact that emitted an explosive force, blowing a massive hole straight through the stomach of the colossus.
Falling back down, steam exuded from his right fist as the aftermath of the impact left not just the gaping hole in the corpse, but damage done to most of its body.
“Go, Jeong-Hui…” Xiaodan said in disbelief.
“Nicely done, kid,” Korain muttered before squinting, “Ah…so that’s what he meant by the ‘chunks’.”
From up above, the entrails and fleshy bits of the deceased colossus rained down on them, prompting Korain to begin swinging his sword to handle the big, dangerous boulders of bone and flesh from crushing them.
“Ngh…!” Korain focused.
“Gross, gross, gross…!” Xiaodan put his hands on his head, ducking away from the storm of blood.
As he landed back down, he huffed, holding his steaming fist before drawing his daggers and aiding the claymore-wielding man in handling the grotesque hail.
“Remind me to never let you take the lead on things!” Korain said jokingly.
“We’re alive, aren’t we?!” He replied, swiping through a rib the size of a bus.
The remnants of the colossus’ corpse meteored the surrounding block, crushing other buildings as fragments of bones were like cannonballs, crashing into buildings as if a war had commenced on the abandoned cityscape.
By the time they were done, the alleyway they stood in was caked in blood and ivory fragments.
“Phew…” He breathed out.
“…Well, we are alive, I guess, so…” Korain said, looking at him, “Not bad.”
Moving through the city, etching themselves closer and closer to the Tower while staying beneath the radar of War, something came to obstruct their path:
As if out of medieval society, walls of steel, wood, or whatever seemed to be on hand were erected with sharp ends. Sitting on those spikes were the heads of people. Some seemed in the process of decaying, but some looked fresh. Fortunately, none were of their comrades.
“Gkk…!”
The sight of it immediately made Xiaodan gag, who promptly covered his mouth.
Korain was disgusted as well, but remained composed, “…What the hell is this?”
He was left without words as the rotten stench hit the back of his throat like something pulled straight out of Hell itself.
“Do you think people did this?” He asked quietly.
“Well, who else would?” Korain replied.
He looked at the heads displayed on the spikes for another moment, “…Demons.”
“–“
It seemed Korain had forgotten that such creatures once thought to be fairytales now walked the world.
“…Is there any way around?” Xiaodan asked, still holding his mouth.
“Doesn’t look to be–unless we want to wrap completely around, but look…” Korain nudged in the direction he was talking about.
In the distance at their west and east, Tarnished Colossals marched in large numbers, almost acting like a wall that secured the broad area around the Tower’s location. Beyond that, War was still sailing the skies, attacking the colossals and whatever seemed to catch his eye.
“If we’re going to head through this way, let me scope it out first,” he said, holding his daggers.
Korain looked at him for a moment, “Alright, then. Try not to die, will you?”
“Like you’re one to talk,” he replied.
The walls were certainly tall, lacking any refinement with the barbaric displays of human heads and what looked to be entrails, strewn across the surface.
Using his inherent nimbleness, he scaled the wall silently with his featweighted steps, peeking over it before committing to hopping its height.
…Bingo, he thought.
Stationed around the streets beyond the grotesque wall were pig-faced demons, dressed in obsidian armor. The streets were painted in blood, with a mountain of corpses sitting in the intersection in the near distance.
He looked back at his two companions, who waited, “…I’m going to clear our path.” ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
“Be careful,” Xiaodan said worriedly.
All he did was nod before quietly hopping the fence, quickly casting an assassin-class spell: “Cast: Conceal.”
With Sage Period, the ability was free of cost; he turned nigh-invisible, unseen and unheard as he began stalking the demon-governed neighborhood.
First was one of the snout-nosed, red-skinned demons that guard the south wall which he had jumped over, who was luckily snoozing away as he would’ve likely noticed him at first.
[Enemy Identified: “Demon Swine” | Level 23]
As he moved closer, he moved quietly and methodically, slowly sinking his dagger into the throat of the pig-man demon.
“Rr–”
Before it could squeal, he covered its mouth with his other hand, snuffing out its cries before pulling his dagger out. A heaping amount of black blood poured out from the lethal wound as the demon quickly passed.
[EXP + 500 | 13500/15000]
Previously, [Conceal] would be nullified by any combative actions taken, but with a higher assassin proficiency, he could take such actions, as long as they were slow and subtle.
Moving on, he set his sights on the next demon, who was fiddling with the blood-stained jacket of a slain human.
“–“
From behind, he slid his dagger across its neck with a deep, but swift cut that left no room for the pig-faced demon to make any noise before it fell forward. Before it could fall with a heavy thud, he grabbed it by the back of its armor, allowing it to quietly drop onto the ground.
[EXP +500 | 14000/15000]
It was difficult for him to remain completely silent, in that the repugnant stench that filled the streets made him want to gag.
Still, he held it together as he approached the two demons that were stationed at the end of the corner. The two pig-faced, weapon-wielding fiends were conversing in an unintelligible tongue.
“—”
“——”
The language used sounded like gargles and aggressive spitting, making for a tongue as violent as the ones speaking it.
Handling two at once while remaining concealed was tricky, but he carefully flipped his daggers around before moving in.
Even standing just a couple meters from them now, the crimson-eyes demonfolk couldn’t discern his presence.
“—”
Just standing near them, the deathly stench burned his nose and singed the back of his throat with the putrid stench oozing off of them.
They were disgusting creatures, no doubt; they drooled over themselves with unwashed skin stained with blood not of their own.
Without waiting any further, he stabbed each dagger into the skulls of the pig demons.
[EXP +1000]
[Congratulations. You’ve reached level 26]
[Spirit (3800/3800) and Health (3500/3500) fully restored]
[Skill Point(s) Available: 2]
[Assassin Proficiency: +2 | 43/9999]
Though his mind hardly registered the level up as he carefully made sure the bodies dropped to the concrete with as little sound as possible.
Looking forward, he could see many more of the demon swine marching through the crimson-painted street.
A dozen? Maybe more, he thought.
As he checked behind, he knew that if the marching demons caught sight of their fallen kin, it could stir up some trouble.
Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.
Heavy, powerful stomps met his ears as he glanced around the corner again, seeing a massive variation of a demon swine that was riding in a rusty palanquin that was being carried by six of the pig-faced fiends dressed in full armor.
The transportation traditionally used for royalty was twisted, bearing the heads of humans on the top of its spiky pillars.
Sitting on the bed atop the palanquin was the large demon swine, dwarfing the ones that carried it a few times over. It wore a crown made of bone, still stuck with strands of flesh as it held a disembodied human leg in its hand, eating it with its gluttonous, bulbous form.
[Enemy Identified: “Swine King” | Level 29]
While the sight of it disgusted him and drove some anger through his veins, he maintained his cool while watching within his concealment.
I have to clear this place out quickly. Korain is still losing blood…I don’t have much time to work with here, he thought.
While hugging the wall, he walked along the main street of the demon swine camp, keeping quiet as his nigh-invisible form seemed to work while the Swine King passed by.
“–“
He was scoping the entire camp, making sure that if he did engage in battle, there weren’t any unaccounted for factors to catch him by surprise.
All it takes is one clean blow. One blow and your time will be over. It works both ways, though. In a cruel world like this, one who has the element of surprise has the true advantage, he thought.