Chương 42: Chapter 41: Another Bloody Night

Thorwald had a wide smile on his face. The night was finally there, and he would be part of Steven's attack group with two mages, three archers, and one light warrior. All were over Level 39 and radiated pure strength and skill. The last system shop had provided them with the perfect equipment, and today they would raid some of those weak human bases that managed to resist them. He was still furious that this guy Kael had managed to gather enough credits to buy himself such a fortress. But he could wait.

He had hoped that they could catch them on a hunting trip, but that didn't happen yet, which was tragic because his items must be shit in comparison to the stuff he had at the moment. Buying such a strong fortress and equipment shouldn't be possible. His armor and weapons were truly unmatched. He wore the white armor of a heavy knight, but with many enchantments on it against mages attacks.

With the last system shop, he had added small shields with sharp edges to the armor on his forearms, making it easier to block range attacks and even attack with them in melee. Steven was very happy when he had brought this many people to join his camp, and since then he had full access to everything this base could cover, from two alchemists working none stop for him crafting elixirs that improved his toughness, vitality, or strength to healers and enchanters.

The craftsmen were, although helpful, by making small throwing axes for him. Then there was his giant axe, which he had bought and upgraded multiple times with the tool spirit already. It could even shoot lighting from its blade, which had proven very effective against light warriors who were good at dodging. He already knew that this night he would make plenty use of it. <-- Thalion saw how the last motes of sunshine disappeared, and he transformed into the umbral predator.

The darkness almost vibrated around him, and the pure strength rushing through his veins was intoxicating. He had flown up into the sky at midday to get some oversight of the battles to come. There were many bases of operation, and it seemed like they were all preparing for war. He had spotted the city with the tiny palace in it near the shores of the ocean, but it looked like they got assistance from the far more mighty palace that was swimming in the ocean.

With that put into consideration, it would be very unwise to attack them. The giant wooden camp before the mountains was too far away. If he wanted to hunt there, he should have moved earlier. It would probably take a day, maybe even more, to reach the mountains from his position. What was left were the human bases that were scattered throughout the jungle, with two being very powerful.

One was a giant fortress completely in white, probably belonging to that Steven guy, and one that was not as strong but still looked very powerful. A fortress built out of gray stone or maybe marble, but he couldn't identify it from the distance anyway. The second one covered more area and most likely more people, but since space was different in some houses, you could never know from the outside. One thing every base had in common was that the trees in the vicinity were cut down to spot potential attackers early.

His plans were simple. He would move to a position where he could oversee three of the bases next to Stevens. If the girl and orc didn't lie to him, that guy would one hundred percent try something this night. Than he would decide either picking small groups or waiting until the fight was over to go for the winners. Those people must have a lot of credits since you get all the credits of your opponent after their death. Thalion didn't really care if most people there were humans from earth.

He had killed so many by now that it did not really make a difference, and in the end, you can only rely on yourself. He would have liked it more to kill orcs or the bluerobes. Anyway, he was at a point where he would slaughter those groups without blinking an eye or any remorse. They would do the same to him after all, and they were out to kill other humans this night too.

Thalion started to move in the direction of a two hundred-meter tall tree with speed surpassing his wildest expectations, and soon after he arrived at the tree. With a mighty leap, he jumped on one of the lower branches, and in no time, he was lying on a branch directly under the tree crown overlooking the castles. This tree was a bit higher than the others; he couldn't see everything from his point, but enough to notice if a battle had started.

And it didn't take long to happen; after not even half an hour, the castle that was furthest away from Steven's base was attacked from behind. Fireballs, lightning, and arrows were flung from the walls at the attackers who had something special with them, portable mana shields that kept them safe from long range attacks while they came closer. Thalion had never seen something like this before. The defenders were untouched and kept firing at the attackers, who were now almost in reach of the wall.

What would they do after reaching it? Thalion wondered, but he found out very fast, as with a giant explosion, a hole was blasted in the eight-meter-tall wall, and the attackers entered the castle. From the forest, more people appeared. Arguably more than thirty, all rushing for the breach in the wall. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Thalion made his move and jumped from the tree.

The fall from a height of over 200 meters did nothing to him, and he sprinted for the attacked castle. It would take him a while to get there, but a skirmish inside the castle was exactly what he was looking for. He arrived at the castle ten minutes later, and it was almost too late. Most of the defenders on the wall were dead or running. The attackers had the clear advantage. Thalion activated umbral predator's instinct. Darkness surrounded him more than ever before amplifying his senses.

Thalion could now feel the life of the things around him, and he spotted how five archers were hiding behind the trees, probably waiting for some escapees. He almost regretted not experimenting with the skill earlier instead of sword training, but it should be fine. He slowly approached his prey, who didn't notice him, and attacked. With one leap, he jumped two archers who were close to each other. Before they could react, a claw had teared to both their chests, ripping them apart.

The other archers screamed in surprise, but before they could muster any kind of defense, he killed them too in seconds with quick swipes of his claws. The last one tried to flee, but after a little chase, he also fell. Thalion devoured all corpses with the black tendrils, took their spatial rings, and ran at the breach in the wall. Those archers had no chance against him. He was too fast and too strong. It was not even close.

While coming closer, he noticed why the attackers had gone for the wall like this and not just jumped over it. An eight-meter-tall wall was nothing for humans after the integration, but on the wall were runes that made a little shield that has gone far up and would probably reject anyone who tried to climb it. Those runes were even blocking his predator instincts. He shot, through the hole in the wall, and appeared on a wide plaza where still multiple groups were fighting.

He saw how a man was protecting children with his body from three attackers. Not surprising that those people would kill anyone in here, but still, the children probably don't even have much credits anyway. They were too far away, so he wouldn't be able to help them soon, so he attacked the groups of fighters nearest to him. If he was fast enough, he might be able to save the children. There were ten heavy warriors trying to push the defenders back who were protecting the entrance to a large building.

Thalion activated shadow claw and ripped through the armor of three attackers from behind, killing them in the process. The man next to him turned around in shock and stabbed with a red lance at him. Thalion sidestepped it with ease and, with a leap, sprung over the head of the man landing between his teammates who hadn't noticed him yet. From there on, a brawl started that was pretty one-sided. Five heavy warriors tried to hold him while the others stabbed him.

Thalion bit the head of the first one off and, with a swipe of his claw, injured the one next to him badly. They couldn't even slow him down at all, far from holding him down, and in moments the guy with the lance was the last one standing. Nor for long as Thalion charged him, grabbing his lance when he stabbed at him and twisting it out of his hand, next was the shield of the man he ripped from his grasp, and one shadow claw later the man lay dead on the ground.

Thalion threw the shield at one of the mages that had climbed the wall, who had noticed him killing his comrades and tried to alert his comrades. The shield hit the man in the head, deforming his head and making his neck bend in a very unhealthy way. The heavy warriors who defended the entrance had already retreated inside the building after they saw how he killed the attackers and closed the big door after them. He would leave them be since they were not out for blood this night.

Sadly, he hadn't been fast enough to save the three children, which the one man had tried to protect, as all of them lay dead on the ground with the attacker gone. With a leap, he jumped on the wall. There were a few more mages, and some archers standing on the top of the wall, shooting at the defenders of this base who tried to protect the children and the injured. They most likely had killed the defenders on the wall, which meant they had lots of credits.

Thalion shot at the attackers with greed in his eyes; those credits would be his. The first mage summoned some kind of firewall, but he just ignored it and jumped through it; the flames burned his skin, but it would heal soon and with one bite killed the mage. With incredible speed, he shot forward at the next archer who fired at him, but he dodged between the arrows, with one hitting him in the back, probably fired from the other side. After a swipe of his claw, the archer lay dead to his feet.

In his last moments, he had managed to stab a dagger in his stomach. Thalion pulled it out while jumping to the side, dogging one of those charged arrows that could even kill him if it had hit his head. He jumped down from the wall and charged the archers on the other side. Thalion sprinted to the small streets of this base with incredible speed. On the way, he didn't spot any more fights, and when he came near the wall, the archers tried to hit him, but it was pointless. He was too fast for their arrows.

Some arrows still hit him from time to time, but they barely dealt any damage. As long as he could dodge the charged ones, everything was good. The wounds the arrows had inflicted earlier were almost fully healed by now. In moments, those archers lay dead to his feet. When he looked up, he saw how on the highest tower four people were fighting. Those were the ones with the most kills, and with a giant leap, he jumped on the tower wall and started climbing up.

In moments he was on the competitors, and a few swipes later they were all dead. He felt a bit sad that he had killed the defenders there too, but he had no way of knowing which one was the attacker or defender. Those were strong warriors, but they were already exhausted from the long battle, which made them easy prey for him. The tower was so high that he could see the other castles. One was burning and the other one seemed to be under attack, and this had to be Steven.

The guy in heavy armor was flying with wings of light, firing beams of light at the defenders or white flames out of the top of his lance. As it looked like the people wouldn't hold on for long, Thalion climbed down the tower and, with a mighty leap, jumped on the wall and from there on the ground and started sprinting for the fight in the distance.

The fights in this base looked almost over, and it would take a lot of time to find some attackers while in the distance skills were flung from side to side with incredible power. Those must be elite warriors with a lot of credits. He didn't think that he could fight Steven, but killing his men should be absolutely possible. He moved through the jungle and soon appeared before the base that was attacked by Steven.

There were probably over 50 people, and as it looks like they had greatly underestimated the defenders, they still haven't managed to enter the base yet. Even that Steven guy had to retreat for now as he was the only one who could fly. The people around him looked very powerful with armor of high quality. They all attacked the wall. It seemed like they hadn't bought something like that wallbreaker the other attackers had. With every spell that hit the sturdy walls, they lost a bit of their luster.

The defenders firing back furiously, but they couldn't really kill any of the attackers. As soon as someone got badly injured, a healer stepped out of hiding, and in short, the attacker was fully healed while the defenders had no means to refill the power in the runes. Thalion would watched the struggle for a bit to give the attackers more time to exhaust themselves. The best-case scenario would probably be them breaching the wall, so he could prey on the groups in the city. At the moment they were all balled up.

He would just get killed if he attacked now. Sitting on a treebranch high above the ground, hidden in the shadows of perdators insitinct, he watched how the battle unfolded, waiting patiently for the perfect time to strike.