Chapter 25: Emotions and monsters ( V )

Rowan observed the monsters storming out of the forest with keen eyes, he hadn't expected this many monsters to suddenly attack. He was cautious enough to not enter the forest, but sadly, that could not stop the monsters from picking up on the sound of nearby human activities.These monsters—Ratax, as they are called—are rat-like creatures. Among all the monsters known to mankind, Ratax are the only omnivores. They eat edible plants and fruits when available, and when they aren't, they start eating smaller animals and humans. They are truly dangerous.

At this moment, watching more than two hundred of these monsters storming towards them made some of the young soldiers wet their pants.

The loud, collective marching of the Ratax as they drew closer was terrifying, as were the bright red eyes that seemed to pierce deep into the young soldiers' souls.

As the Ratax drew closer, the soldiers became even more terrified, with some even considering running back home.

"Everyone, this is a fight for your life and your people—the moment you let your guard down, you lose everything you hold dear in this life," Rowan addressed them once again.

With his [Super Voice] activated, his words immediately motivated the young soldiers.

Grabbing their weapons, they let out a collective war cry, confirming they were ready to fight.

"Attack!!"

Following Rowan's words, all the soldiers charged towards the Ratax, with the two captains in front, running at a speed unmatched by the young soldiers.

SHRIEK!

Seeing their prey running aggressively towards them, the Ratax let out a collective shriek, and their red eyes glowed even more intensely.

Running ahead of the soldiers, Rowan was the first to reach his first Ratax.

The Ratax immediately leapt towards him, its mouth wide open, revealing sharp, jagged teeth ready to bite Rowan's neck off.

[ Your pet has activated (Fireball) ]

However, before it could reach Rowan, a fireball the size of a man's head blasted towards it, hitting it. The Ratax let out a painful shriek as sharp burns inflicted its body while its fur began to burn—it was a painful experience for the Ratax—it lost all its will to fight and fell to the ground.

[ Blaze has slayed Ratax ]

Rowan looked at Blaze clinging to his shoulder and flashed him a proud smile before returning his eyes to the monster-human battle ahead.

The soldiers and the Ratax clashed completely, the Ratax attacking with their sharp teeth and claws while the soldiers fought back with swords.

With gritted teeth and determination to survive, they swung their weapons.

Fear was evident on their faces, the voice in their heads kept telling them to escape as soon as possible. But the determination to not be cowards and survive pushed them further, making them appear fearless in the eyes of their predators.

Brandon, who hadn't swung a weapon his entire life, was swinging a heavy axe at this moment.

"I refuse to die at the hands of filthy monsters like you!" he muttered to himself repeatedly as he swung the axe.

The axe met the head of a Ratax. The Ratax fell to the ground but wasn't badly injured, it gave Brandon a glare and charged at him once again.

This time Brandon stood his ground, his eyes fixed on the Ratax. When it closed the distance, he immediately swung his axe again, but it only managed to make the Ratax fall into a brief second of heavy dizziness.

Taking the opportunity, Brandon continuously swung the axe, hitting the same spot until a ghastly wound appeared, digging deeper into the Ratax's tough body with every swing.

Being a man without powers or combat training, it was naturally difficult for Brandon to fight a monster around twice as strong as him.

With an axe, a captain like Rowan would have taken care of the Ratax in about a minute, but it took Brandon much longer. Only after six minutes of continuously hitting the same spot did the Ratax bleed to death.

'My first kill!' Brandon's eyes widened as he observed the corpse on the ground, finding it difficult to believe he had just killed something he dreaded for most of his life.

However, not only Brandon had his first kill in this battle, a large number of young soldiers did as well. It was their breakthrough and a reminder that, though monsters are strong, they lack intelligence and sheer will.

The battle continued—the bright evening gradually turned dark, speaking volumes about the amount of time that had passed.

At this moment, the battlefield had become bloody! Corpses of the gigantic Ratax lay bare on the ground, piled into small hills in some areas.

Unfortunately, the loss wasn't entirely on the Ratax side, many soldiers had been badly injured and had fled to the back.

Currently, only around 55 soldiers out of 120 were still battling the Ratax, whose numbers had also drastically decreased.

Rowan could be seen in the heart of the battlefield, executing his sword technique and slaying Ratax as fast as he could. Even Blaze was genuinely involved in the battle, having burned six Ratax with its fireball.

[ You slayed x3 Ratax +50 evolution points ]

DING! [ 100x reward activated! 5000 evolution points have been added ]

[ You slayed x2 Ratax +40 evolution points ]

DING! [ 100x reward activated! 5000 evolution points have been added ]

As Rowan continued to fight the Ratax, he realized they were easier and faster to kill, about twice as fast as the goblins.

They were so weak that Rowan could kill three of them in less than five seconds, gaining chunks of evolution points.

'I haven't evolved my power yet, and I'm already this strong against Ratax. What if I evolve—how strong would I be?' Rowan pondered, the sheer thought of becoming extraordinarily strong filling him with passion to slay more and farm more evolution points to aid his evolution.

'It's getting really dark now, the Ratax will have a strong advantage over us when it is completely dark due to their night vision,' he thought.

'I was too carried away in the fight with goblins and forgot to copy their night vision skill. Luckily, these Ratax have it.'

[ Ratax - Health: 89% ]

[ Special skill: Night Vision (Copy? YES | NO) ]

[ Status: Hungry ] S~eaʀᴄh the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Without hesitation, he copied the skill and merged with it immediately.

[ Skill (Night Vision - FF-rank) copied successfully ]

[ Merging with (Night Vision - FF-rank) completed ]

[ Night Vision (FF-rank) Passive skill, grants clear sight in dark places ]

As this skill merged with Rowan, he felt his vision become much clearer, as though it was still the bright hours of morning.

'Great!' he rejoiced inwardly and immediately stormed towards the Ratax charging at him. With a simple swing of his sword, the head of the Ratax detached from its body.

The fight continued for about two more hours before the last Ratax dropped to the ground.

"We've won!!" Brandon let out a loud scream of excitement.

"We did it! We did it!!" The young soldiers quickly joined him in rejoicing. Even the injured joined in, it was a miracle that they survived.

But Rowan stared at his system with a frown on his face.

[ CHALLENGE: Defeat the threat without losing anyone (STATUS: Active) ]

'We have slain the Ratax down to the very last one, so why is the challenge still displaying active?' Rowan frowned.

He turned to scan the surrounding area. With night vision, he could see more clearly, and there was no Ratax in sight, not even a single moving rat.

'Is there something wrong with the system?' he asked himself.

But before he could question the system, a very loud and terrifying footstep was heard. The mere step caused the ground around them to tremble, quickly ending the jubilation.

.....

AUTHOR NOTE: Today's weekend and our schedule is 1 chap, luckily you guys completed the challenge so next chapter coming right up.