Bro, I'm not an Undead!

There was a long forgotten skill which Skullius had. Even he had forgotten about it at some point because it had been formed under very strenuous conditions and its use was limited to very strict conditions at the time.

[Wrath of the False god].

He had created it back when he was demolishing the Fire Breeder cities, though at that time, the skill was in the form of an arrow fused with huge amounts of mana and the flames from [Ungodly Flames of Debauchery].

It was a powerful skill, but the Hybrid Luman had discovered that it was way too unrefined and had thus fused it with other high damage skills he had retrieved from the Association treasury as well as other extracted ones.

He removed its reliance on the ungodly flames and had it become more mana-centric.

The result...

A sharp glaring light that partially pervaded even through the rough walls to shine on the city behind them ensued, its bluish white hue preceding the advent of a highly pressurised beam of mana that razed through the thick goblin Skullius had been facing.

The awesome display of power the goblin was about to show was rendered meaningless and far less spectacular as the narrow beam that streaked from the Hybrid Luman's finger eviscerated his opponent and the wall behind him with a catastrophic explosion blew that outwards exaggeratedly, clearing a path into the city!

When it invaded, the ground trembled as if an earthquake had suddenly begun, a shuddering pulse of destruction running through to knock back against the walls on all sides of the massive city!

Recurring highly pressurised explosions from air and condensed mana rigged to 'relax' when it met a target, its function as both a laser and bomb being top of the line...

This was the power of [Undaunted Calamity]!

Skullius felt it all.

There were close to a million goblins within the city and his sudden attack killed a third of them!

Since there was now a wide open gap in the wall, Skullius swiftly entered the city while from the extraordinary awareness given by [Graceless Hunter], he felt the runes on the wall start to flicker again, as if to reignite the runes.

'Where is it coming from?' he questioned himself while trying to pinpoint the source of the mana. With what he could detect with [Graceless Hunter], it seemed to come from outside the city. From one source, apparently.

Curious.

How very curious.

What did this imply exactly, hmm?

A dashing glow of gold as well as the pulse of mana fiercely raged above, blood and chunks of goblin flesh falling to the ground all around.

The figure of the Juvenile Pelvic Arbiter descended to float by Skullius while wiping away the blood from his armour.

"That was easier than I thought," Red Rage said. Clearing thousands of Tier 6s and 7s hadn't taken him more than a minute, which was terrifying considering the disparity in stats.

"I've always wondered. Doesn't you killing Cluster beasts qualify as breaking your Flaw? Aren't you supposed to protect innocents?" Skullius asked out of miniscule interest, admittedly embarrassed at asking such a question after he and the Apostle had obliterated millions of Cluster beasts at this point.

"According to this world, Clusters are bad things. Cluster beasts will always kill the innocent when they escape the Cluster. So in context, they are actually not innocent. Speaking of which..." Red Rage said as his focus turned to the scene ahead.

Roughly two fifths of this city, which was larger than what he and Skullius thought, remained after the Hybrid Luman's attack.

[Undaunted Calamity]'s capacity as laser exceeded its capacity as a bomb, thus it had razed through to the other side of the city but without demolishing it all.

That said, such a feat was terrifying considering that this city was as big as Inhone with a large quantity of mud houses that rose up like skyscrapers, definitely sturdy in their build.

It was built on a height that sloped down as it reached the wall, which was strange.

The 'why' behind this slope became clear soon though, as the commotion within the city suddenly shifted in the next moment, when from the sky, drizzle began to drop.

...!

Skullius' senses flared madly.

"Master, the smoke in the sky... Rain is coming from it," Red Rage informed.

"It's not any ordinary rain," Skullius warned before he quickly produced a stream of golden white [Just Light] that formed a transparent barrier around Red Rage and another around himself.

The drizzle slid off the barriers but it suddenly turned up, becoming heavy rain that swamped the entire city in moments.

Skullius noticed the shifts in the movement within the city. At first, there had been panic but now, every single goblin within range of his sensory capacity was making calm movements to different stations, the combatants among them coming this way.

'So that's why the city is built this way...' Skullius said as he lifted his head towards where the descent began.

GWIISSHHH!

A large contraption with wheels suddenly dropped and raced down at tremendous speed!

It looked like a carriage but was fitted with scaled wooden ramps where a dozen or so bulky goblins adorned with sturdy armour could stand or hang while they dished attacks at the enemy!

"Haaaaaauuuuu Kaka!" the goblins screamed, a strangle blue glow burning in their beady eyes depicting their fervour!

Curious.

Several more of these contraptions appeared, descending towards the two invaders, their numbers being close to a hundred with many passengers aboard.

"Lively souls," Red Rage commented as a hail of attacks poured from the goblins, bombarding him and his master – from spears, arrows as well as even flames from a couple of Mages shooting from their staves!

"Not for long," Skullius said, hints of a grin showing on his face as he took steps forward, his left hand touching the hilt to his sword.

As the roars of attacks exploded all around, though inconsequentially against master and servant, the rolling contraptions reaching very close to Skullius, he pushed the golden hilt of Demion's Dance slightly, revealing only a mere inch of the sleeping shiny green blade.

...

The air seemed to turn stiff at that moment.

For the blade within the dark sheath let out a barely perceptible cry that caused every goblin in sight to feel a shiver run down their spine.

Ah, that's right.

The old and wise always said that death was cold.

That when it is close, your life flashed before your eyes.

That death was an agonising experience.

They were wrong.

As the image of the Hybrid Luman taking steps forward with his loyal blade crying for joy at being released, a blackish red assassin so thin it could barely be seen, so fast it could barely be noticed and so precise that it could hardly miss, rushed from Demion's Dance.

It drew a zigzagging disorderly line over everything before Skullius, the trails it made that barely lasted for half an instance of an instance making an obscure picture as it travelled past.

For those who could perceive that moment, they would say it was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen.

But then those designated as the canvas for this blackish red assassin, they found that death was a warm embrace of blood.

That it wasn't their lives that flashed in front of their eyes but the illusion of death painting a sorrowful picture of what they would miss after they passed.

That death was... not always painful.

Only after a second passed in real time did the shattering of wood, the crashing of thousands of heavy bodies against the ground, dismembered as they were and the spilling of blood, erupt.

Thousands of cleaved bodies fell to the moist ground while a ferocious wave of cumulative mana funnelled into the Hybrid Luman.

[You have killed (VII) LV120 Hau Kaka Hobgoblin. 90 EXP awarded]

[You have killed (VI) LV87 Hau Kaka Hobgoblin. 64 EXP awarded]

[You have killed...]

...

The notifications flooded in but Skullius swiped them away as he felt more of the goblins rushing in from the height. He extracted the Null Life Essence, refuelling his tank which had been empty before he came in and took more languid steps while waiting for his enemies to get closer.

The darting line that had slaughtered the goblins just now was MORTAL RUIN.

Before Skullius had gained the loyalty of Demion's Dance, he had called it death energy. And it was but he didn't truly understand how he could harness such a thing. Frankly, he understood undeath energy more than just death energy even now.

It was only after the Hybrid Luman had found the many perks of having Demion's Dance acknowledge him through the guidance field that he understood that this energy actually had a more astute name.

With practise he had managed to harness the power onto a more effective usage as demonstrated right now, though the sword was the key to better flexing the Mortal Ruin as he pleased.

'Should I just destroy it all at once?' Skullius debated on whether or not he should just destroy everything instead of taking his time as he had intended.

That would be pretty selfish. After all, Red Rage had agendas in mind.

As he closed in on his enemies, Skullius' head suddenly turned to his right, his senses flaring automatically again in warning.

Red Rage who had been leisurely watching also turned in the same direction.

A gigantic mass of yellow and red flame flew with a curve towards them from somewhere within the city, its figure hissing from the rain!

It sped terribly, reaching the two assailants in a heartbeat before crashing right in front of Skullius!

A massive wall of fire burned madly, surrounding the entire height where the city was built with a nigh mile tall body of flame that persisted against the atmospheric moisture proudly!

Yes.

A powerful enemy had arrived.

"Hoo.. " Skullius voiced with a smirk, having noticed something peculiar.

This flame... it wasn't an attack or a skill. At least not exactly.

As he assumed, tongues of fire burned from the wall and sculpted a giant figure of six meters that produced immense heat that dried up the vicinity completely and shut away the rain!

It was a goblin made of fire, its open mouth actually producing a cold vapour that squirmed with its breath.

A suit of armour made from melting rock could be seen over its body and the breath of a gust of wind fettered from the heated mass.

"Hau Kaka..." this giant goblin declared with an earth shattering voice.

Skullius was so intrigued by this thing that he checked its status and the results didn't disappoint!

~~

[ Name : Hobbu Gobbu]

[ Tier : 9 ]

[ Level : 389 ]

[ Core : Blue ]

[ Class : Imperial Elemental ]

[ Race : Hau Kaka Hobgoblin ]

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