Chapter 192 Where There Is Smoke, There Was Fire

When Kaizen saw the unique physical features of the men before him in the forest and realized that they were all of the Descragons race, he quickly tried to explain himself, because before Kaizen was thinking that the campfire was just an ordinary camp of thieves, like the ones he faced alongside Jayaa once.

"Ohw! Hey! Wait a minute!" Psyker shouted.

However, the horned men before him didn't even think to obey what they thought was a request for mercy from the stranger.

"We will not spare you, human worm!"

"You thought our friend Thamuz was alone in the forest and came to attack him, didn't you? Now die!"

"Stand still and everything will be very quick!"

Before Kaizen could say anything else, three of the eight descendragons disappeared from his vision. They were in the vanguard, so it was unlikely that they would have retreated, precisely because they were also at a numerical advantage. In other words, this could only mean that they advanced at a frightening speed against the Psyker.

Kaizen held his sword tightly and kept an eye on his surroundings, at the same time retreating a few steps. Suddenly, Psyker heard something to his right and when he turned his face, he spotted one of the men who had disappeared a few moments ago.

The man to Psyker's right was holding his sword over his head, ready to cut his enemy in half with a single blow, and advanced with his immense speed against Kaizen.

Immediately, Kaizen realized that he was in danger and thought:

'Damn, so what I saw on their Stats Screen was not wrong. Although their level is low compared to mine, their amount of attribute points isn't bad at all!'

In less than a second, the man to Kaizen's right shortened the distance between them to a few inches. Kaizen's neck was already within reach of the sword's edge.

However, the player was far from being at an armorer level. Finally raising the Næġling Falske, Kaizen blocked the Descragon's attack with some ease.

When the sword of the man who attacked the Psyker collided with the Næġling Falske, the NPC's sword broke in half.

This was the first time Kaizen realized the strength and endurance of the Næġling Falske, proving that even a replica of the Legendary Næġling Sword could withstand blows of great speed and strength.

"What?!" All the Descragons around the campfire were perplexed to see their companion's sword crack and break.

Kaizen then delivered a counterattack against this man, using the flames that were in his right hand. What could be considered just a small spark of a true flame grew exponentially at an impressive speed, and Kaizen threw this fireball into the enemy's chest.

"Aaaaaah!" The man screamed as he was hit hard.

The impact of the fireball was so powerful that it threw the man several meters backwards, as well as creating a wave of heat around everyone.

Soon after, another man of the Descragon race appeared on Kaizen's left and advanced in the same way as the previous man had done, but this time he didn't make the foolish move alone. Falling from a branch, another man with horns appeared, aiming with his sword at the Psyker's head.

'It doesn't matter if he's a mage, he'll still die if I rip his head off!' thought, determined, the man who jumped from the branch.

At that moment, Kaizen smiled and stepped back, causing the confident expressions of both men trying to attack him to disappear.

The two Descragons were aiming at the same target, and since they were in the middle of attacking movements, stopping would be impossible, which is why Kaizen's retreat surprised them so much, after all it was inevitable that they would collide with each other.

*Tumm*

"Brothers!"

"He was able to see Heprax and Worqiroth's coordinated attack?!"

"Not that one!"

Kaizen took advantage of the moment in which his two enemies clashed to deliver another attack. Using <Free Flame Manipulation> that was still active in his right hand, Kaizen threw another fireball in the direction of the two fallen Descendants, and the incendiary explosion that followed was even more powerful than the previous one.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

This time the men screamed in pain, however this was phantom pain, for Kaizen did not hit the descendragons. Quite the contrary, he aimed at a tree that was close to them.

The tree combusted immediately, and the flames spread to all its leaves.

"What was that? What magic is that?" One of the men near the campfire shouted, desperate.

"It didn't hit Heprax and Worgiroth!"

"You guys shouldn't have underestimated me." Kaizen said calmly as he looked at the men. The orange flames consuming the tree were reflected in his black eyes. "Take advantage that I am sparing you and get the hell out of here before I kill all of you." He stowed the Næġling Falske in his inventory, unpacking it.

The men looked at Kaizen with a fearful expression, then looked at each other. Normally, they wouldn't run away from a battle against a human because of the honor of the Descragons, it just wasn't every day that they faced someone like Kaizen, who defeated three Descragon warriors practically without moving. That was too unthinkable. So, after helping their three fallen comrades, they ran without looking back.

When Kaizen saw them running, he was relieved too.

'If all eight warriors invested against me at the same time, I wouldn't know for sure what to do. Their speed is impressive and their ability to evolve physical attributes definitely superior to humans, and they are just NPCs... How strong must players of this race be?'

Once, Kaizen saw a post on the webnet from a user complaining about the choice of the Descragon race. According to the user in question, choosing the descendragons race was a great thing for those who wanted to become strong quickly, but it was also like putting the game into hardcore mode, because it was forbidden to enter human cities, towns and kingdoms, as well as to take quests from human or civilized NPCs.

'Come to think of it, there is a huge positive for several negative points. Choosing the human race was definitely the best thing I could have done...'

Since Kaizen didn't want the entire forest to catch fire, he interrupted the incessant crackling of the tree when he deactivated the use of <Free Manipulation of Flames>.

"Okay, okay... I've lost approximately five minutes here. I'll have to increase my pace if I want to cross this forest in time to reach the carriage." Kaizen said to himself.

Following the road around the forest and up the small hill that was halfway up, Yokoso Ferris looked back and saw a small tower of smoke, coming from something burning, in the middle of the woods. As he looked bitterly at the smoke, his face was brightened by a whitish light coming from the sky.

Yokoso looked up at the sky fearfully and saw that the clouds that covered the moon were already beginning to scatter with the wind. This made him raise his eyebrows and break into a cold sweat.

*Slapt!*

He snapped the reins of the carriage to make the horses run faster.

It's getting late! It's getting very late! We have to get to the lab before it's too late!' Yokoso thought, distressed.

Inside the carriage were Rismar Ferris and the Klank player. Since Rismar was a scientist, all he liked most was conversation, and although Klank was generally not someone who was very talkative with people, he was always interested in talking to NPCs, because he knew that could be good in the future.

​ "Sir, where did you get the Reddish Meteorite Crystal you offered for me?" Klank inquired, interested in where he could get more of this very rare item. "Did you buy it?"

"No, I did not buy it. In fact, I found it in the wild. I have to confess that it was not something easy to find and I searched for it all over the Mibothen Kingdom for a few years. Do you know how difficult it is for something like this to form naturally? It's practically impossible, a mixture of unlikely events."

"Oh! I know this is a very rare item, but I didn't know until now how rare it is. Why did you offer it to me then?" Klank inquired.

"Why? Well, I found this crystal ten years ago. At the time, I thought it might be a new rare ore for making powerful weapons or armor, except that it is as brittle as glass, not fit for military use. Then I tried using it as a reflective power source, abusing the double heat that is generated when it comes in contact with the sun, and again failed... The great truth is that I do not know what to do with this crystal. However, I know there must definitely be some brilliant use for it, so I'm offering it practically for free to the first person I find who has an interest in it."

"Um... Maybe my boss will know what to do with it." Klank said, propping his head on one arm and looking out the window next to him.

"I hope so too." Rismar affirmed with a sympathetic smile.

At that moment, Rismar, Klank and Kaizen did not know what would happen exactly thirty minutes later, when the clouds would finally stop covering the moonlight and bring death to one of the four involved in the mission.

...

Edited by: DrHitsuji

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