With the blade in his hand, Artos took a deep breath and suppressed his presence to a minimum. He might not be like those elite Assasins, who could vanish in front of your eyes, but he could reduce his presence to that of an insect so you could overlook him. Being on the run for most of his life, he had picked up a few things on the way, suppressing his presence is one of them.
Dillion a Silver-ranked Lion-kin was fighting with a Silver-ranked slaver. He was using his trusty Greatsword, while the human was using a buckler shield and a short sword.
The Beast-kin was relying on his higher strength, while the slaver on his higher agility. Both of them were pretty equal without having an advantage over the other.
Suddenly, the human smirked evilly and dropped his shield. With his now free hand, he quickly scooped some dirt off the ground and threw it at Dillion's eyes.
"Ahh! You honorless scum!" The Lion-kin screamed out and closed his eyes. Despite that, he didn't drop his weapon, knowing that the moment that happens, he will die regardless of being blinded or not.
"Haha, little kitty, they don't teach us how to fight fairly." Laughing out, the slaver positioned himself to land a fatal blow to the Beast-Kin. Just as he was about to finish him off, he felt a blade plunging through his throat.
Turning around, the slaver saw a bald-headed man with black eyes and missing his right arm, staring at him emotionlessly. "The cripple? But how?" Were his last thoughts before he passed away and fell on the ground.
Hearing the thud sound of a falling body, Dillion took the chance to rub his eyes and remove the dirt in them. Noticing the now dead slaver, he quickly scanned the area around to see who might have assisted him, but all of his Lion-kin comrades were fighting the other slavers. The only exception being the lone human slave, who was calmly walking amongst those that were battling.
Dillion saw the bald-headed man step by step reach another slaver, and the moment the slaver made his attack, the one-armed human pierced his throat with his blade.
The Lion-kin continued watching the human calmly walking amidst the chaos and murdering any of the slavers near him. Every time a slaver was about to make his attack, the bald-headed human would plunge his sword in their throats.
The one-armed human wasn't using any fancy movement techniques or amazing sword attacks. With just a simple thrust, he was dispatching the slavers one by one as if slaughtering chickens. Not once did he need to use more than one attack to end their lives. Simple and efficient.
While Dillion was amazed at the prowess of the bald-headed human, Artos was cursing at how inefficient he was. If his cultivation was a tad bit higher, he would have used his Telekinesis to deal with all of the slavers in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, he was only an Iron-ranked cultivator at the moment and his energy reserves were too low to do so.
Both leaders of the slavers and the Lion-kin noticed that the fight was tight of the battle was turning more and more in the advantage of the Beast-king. Gur, the leader of the Lion-kin was delighted at that fact while Greg the Cruel, the leader of the slavers was unhappy that he had to act so soon.
Greg was enjoying the show that the Lion-kin were putting on for him, but he couldn't allow too much of his men to die. There is a reason why people called him Greg the Cruel, he loved crushing people's hope.
Seeing how the morale of the Lion-kin was rising, he decided it's time to turn around the fight. Might as well capture a few of them as well. His Boss would be happy to receive some Lion-kin slaves, after all, they are a highly-priced object. Sadly there are no females, they would go for an even higher price.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
With a mighty leap, Greg landed in between a bunch of Lion-kin. Unlike the rest of the slavers, Greg's weapon of choice is a Warhammer. Most of his underlings might not even possess a weapon skill or simply have a very low-level one, but he is different. Greg's Hammer Mastery Skill is level 5, on par with his Diamond-ranked cultivation.
Most cultivators have a skill of at least 1 or 2 levels lower than their Cultivation while those that have a skill level equal to their Cultivation are considered talented. And those that have a higher rank skill than their cultivation are considered geniuses.
With his Cultivation and Skill Level, the current situation was like a stroll in the park for the slave master. With just a single swing of his Warhammer, he would crush a Lion-kin into a meat patty. The giant Warhammer was like a toy in Greg's hands and his maniacal laughter was lowering the morale of the Beast-kin even further. The slave master was playing whack-a-Lion-kin.
The Lion-kin that were high on their emotions, thinking that they would win, had their hopes and dreams crushed.
Gur was in despair seeing the situation. The moment Greg flared his Diamond-ranked cultivation, he knew that they are doomed. He cursed himself for bringing his comrades here. He now knew that he should have listened to his tribe leader, but he couldn't allow for his two boys to be taken as slaves.
Making up his mind, Gur decided to sacrifice himself to give his fellow Lion-kin a chance to escape. There is simply no way for him and his comrades to take care of the Diamond-ranked cultivator with the other slavers still around.
This fight is already a lost cause in his eyes. Gur's only regret is that he didn't manage to save his boys. If only he was a Diamond-ranked as well, it would have been a different story. Alas, he is not, and he couldn't hope for those lucky breakthroughs while fighting. After all, those are just stories told to the young ones. No such thing is possible in real life.
"EVERYONE RUN!" He screamed out, "SAVE YOURSELVES! I WILL HOLD HIM BACK AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE."
"Run? Haha, there is no running!" Greg let lose another maniacal laugh. "Men, capture those that you can and kill those that resist. Don't maim them too much, since they are precious goods after all. Hahaha."
Gur growled hearing him and attacked with his Greatsword. Unfortunately, Greg easily deflected the attack and even managed to push back the Lion-kin in the process. The difference in strength obvious from their first clash.
"Is the kitty showing its fangs? Tsk, tsk, tsk. As your master, I have to teach you how to behave properly. Be a good kitty and just drop your weapon, you don't want to make this harder for yourself." Greg taunted the Lion-kin leader.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR ACTIONS!" Gur growled while continuing his attacks. Unfortunately, Greg was easily able to deflect each and every one of them while taunting him in the process.
Gur was a proud Lion-kin and considered a genius in his tribe. His cultivation was high for his age and his Sword Mastery Skill was level 5. He had a bright future ahead of him and could easily reach the rank of the royals, extending his lifespan in the process. Alas, he met his match today, with an opponent who has higher cultivation and a higher quality weapon.
After each clash between the two, Gur's Greatsword was getting cracked more and more. It wouldn't be long before his weapon breaks, and he would be left defenseless at that point.
A few clashes later, his Greatsword broke right in the middle. "No." Tears started forming in the proud Lion-kin's eyes. He brought his comrades to their doom and couldn't even manage to get them enough time to escape. He should have listened to his tribe leader and taken a different approach, but in his haste to save his boys, he doomed his fellow Lion-kin.
"Hahaha." Greg let loose another hysterical laugher seeing the broken weapon and the tears in Gur's eyes. He was delighted seeing the despair that the Lion-kin was feeling.
All of a sudden the upper part of the Greatsword, the same one that broke off, flew straight at him as if it had a mind of his own. The broken weapon flew so fast, that no even managed to understand what transpired until they noticed the broken part lodged into Greg's head.
Everyone be it Lion-kin or slavers froze on the spot, completely confused at what happened. "How was this possible? Didn't Greg break the Greatsword with his mighty Warhammer? Weren't they just about to win?" The slavers asked themselves, while the Lion-kin immediately took action and mounted a counterattack.
Gur was just as confused as everyone else, if not even more than them. After all, it's his broken weapon that did the deed and yet he had no idea how. However, he had no time to dwell on the situation, his two boys were still captured and he had to save them.
With no Diamond-ranked cultivator, the Beast-kin managed to kill off the rest of the slavers with Gur leading the way.
Only one Lion-kin had a slight idea of who might have killed Greg. After the slave master fell on the ground, Dillion watched the one-armed human calmly walk up to him and start searching through his clothes. Shortly, it seems he found what he was looking for and pocked a green crystal.