47 Sphere of Carapace

Orrick who was on his way to the prisoner's chamber, suddenly felt an overwhelming mana flow toward its direction.

"Tsk! Like I thought there is a pest inside." Saying that, he materialized his demonic aura enveloping his whole body with an ancient emblem around it.

"[Demonic Form!]" Orrick shouted his defensive skill. However, he wasn't done yet.

"[Wall of Darkness!]" A three meters thick wall of darkness suddenly appeared 3ft away before him.

Then, an enormous turbulent surge of mana waves abruptly darted toward his position.

*𝑅𝑂𝑂𝐴𝐴𝑅!*

The wind howled in rage upon Kyros released his arrow bolt. Then the arrow beamed into a swirling motion as a spark of lightning flickered irregularly. With the raw strength of his assault, Kyros melted the Iron gate in front of him as his bolt penetrated its way to its target.

Seeing the threatening crisis, Orrick started to panic. He summoned his Demonic Blade just in case his thickened wall of darkness failed to stop the threat.

"Come forth [Demon's Blade!]" With that said, a glittering silvery and black hue formed into a vicious and sinister blade.

As he waited. Kyros' attack ultimately reached his first line of defense. But when he heard the creaking sounds of his wall of darkness. Orrick's expression became grave as he inserted more darkness attributes into his defense.

Still, it was only his futile effort as the swirling purple arrow penetrated to the three meters thick wall like nothing. "Gaa-aah!" Orrick screamed in pain from the backlash when he tried to resist the destructive torrent of Kyros' assault.

With his bloodshot eyes, Orrick waved his demonic blade up front, bracing himself to the upcoming catastrophe. "Come!"

Taking his stance, Orrick urged his darkness attribute to its limit. "[Corruption Slash!]" A huge suction force suddenly concentrated at the tip of Orrick's blade. With his thick darkness attributes being swallowed to the center at an absurd rate. After gathering enough momentum, Orrick parried Kyros' life-threatening blow.

*𝐶𝑙𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑛𝑔~*

As their two skill slashed, an intense vibration rang throughout the spiral dome. Alarming all the low-grade demons inside.

"Haaaa!" Orrick yelled as he tried to gather more darkness, attributes were beyond his capacity. Then both of his arms started to cry in pain, whereas his ancient emblem flickered with intense crimson light.

"Oooh!" With his last struggle, Orrick parried with the blow while betting all of his strength on the process.

"Haa... Haaa... Ha..." Orrick breathed in an anguishing pain. After surviving the blow, he doesn't have enough strength to go for another bout.

When he saw the figure of the man who released the monstrous strength. Orrick smiled in satisfaction. For the reason, he knew the man well in front of him. There was even a bounty on this man's head inside the demon realm. "To think, one of the human races, the last champion of war is here... Hehehe I guess dying with your hands isn't a bad thing..." While wiping the blue's blood on his mouth, Orrick said.

"However, Invincible A-ranker, don't think you can leave this place unscratched while protecting those captives behind your back." Shifting his glance to the 30 plus sacrifices. Orrick smiled wickedly.

When Kyros heard the ogre's voice. His eyes turned sharp; swiftly he manipulated another arrow to give his finishing blow.

Still, he was a tad bit slow as Orrick activated the last line of defense of this place. It was the self-destruct sequence. When they face an unimaginably strong opponent, it was their protocol to blow the place into bits. "Hehehe... DIE!" With his eyes flashed in madness, Orrick activated the destructive array.

"Tsk!" Kyros clicked his tongue out of frustration. Instead of finishing off the ogre, he conserved his strength so that he could save more people in the process when the place started to explode.

Staring at the thirty-plus people behind his back. Kyros summoned a round object with a size of a small fist of a child.

Then Kyros muttered a keyword. "... Show your real self [Sphere of Carapace!]" Suddenly the round object shimmered with a glittering greenish pallid light. Slowly, a tourmaline turtle's shell formed circularly as it covered the thirty plus person who was gazing at the spectacle in a blank expression.

"Haaa~" Seeing most of them was like a broken doll who lost its string, Kyros felt a tinge of regret for it. Still, with his rich experience in life. He already saw a much more detrimental event than this.

Stepping inside the turtle shell, Kyros waited for the forthcoming disaster as he continued channeling his abundant mana to the sphere.

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Back to the surface.

Gellis and his party members eventually reached their designated target place.

"... What happened here?" Toa who was at the front couldn't help to exclaim his astonishment when he saw the ruined landscape in front of him.

"... Just what kind of fight has occurred here?" When the other members caught up with him. Poko voiced out in wonder.

However, their party leader expression turned grave upon seeing the scene in front of him; with his rich experience for dealing with the Goblins from the ruined structures. It was enough for him to roughly guess the real number of Goblins that used to stand on this ground.

"... This... Stop daydreaming, we don't know what kind of monster destroyed such a large scale settlement." Gellis reprimands the two who were absentmindedly staring at the ruins.

While the rest of his group returned to reality after hearing his voice. Then a sudden heavy atmosphere shrouded their group.

"... So what should we do now?" The one who said it was Hilde while she stared at the ruined settlement in caution.

"Well, we've come this far... It would be a waste if we go back empty-handed. I know it is dangerous, but as a veteran adventurer, we should do our fair share of labor." Gellis said solemnly.

Staring at his group. Then he saw the quiet Sinon raise his right hand. "What is it, Sinon?"

"Leader, I guess it's time to use 'that' powder." Sinon reminded him. Then suddenly Gellis remembered the brown satchel that Instructor Ralph gave at him before their journey.

"You mean scent removal powder?" Saying that, Gellis touched the translucent blue quartz on his bracelet; as he summoned the satchel inside.

Staring at the medium size brown satchel, Sinon nodded in agreement.

"Mm, I never knew Instructor Ralph would save us this time." Then suddenly, as if a bolt of lightning struck his body. Gellis' face turned sour.

Seeing his reaction, as if in sudden enlightenment, his party members wore a heavy expression.

"... It's not too late to search for them, right? They may just be hiding somewhere here in this place." Hilde voiced her thoughts. However, the face of her party members was saying otherwise.

"What's wrong with you guys! Come on! We need to have a bright outlook at the time like this." Hilde reminded her team members not to be discouraged as they don't know the real outcome yet.

"... Hilde is right, we haven't verified it yet, so there is still hope." Theeste who has been quiet from the very beginning supported Hilde's opinion.

"Yes, we haven't checked the place out yet. It won't be too late to judge whether they are alive." Toa added. "So what should we do next, leader?" Toa asked, while he darted his gaze at Gellis who wore a complicated expression.

"We—" He was about to voice out his opinion when he heard an enormous explosion erupted beneath the ground.

The group was startled when the earth trembled for a couple of breaths. "Just what is going on inside this forest?" Gellis murmured. Staring at the satchel, his eyes flashed with resolution.

"We go forward!" Then, Gellis ripped the medium size satchel as he spattered it all together with his party members.

After saying that, Gellis and his group went inside the ruins.