Not Stopping

Fast!

That was what went through Paul's mind as he saw the giant fist tore through the air towards him. It was fast! Far too fast for him to dodge!

He raised his sabre up high and swung down with all his might, hoping that his full powered swing could at least contend with the powerful attack. Even if he could not completely negate the attack, he needed to at least dissipate most of the power behind the attack such that he would not receive too much damage!

"Fool! Even if you have an undead body which is slightly stronger than that of a human's, there is no way you can defend against our strongest combination attack!" Hither sneered maliciously.

He was still feeling the pain from the punch from before, and he was not one to just forget about his grudges. He had already started to imagine toying with this villager after crushing his body to bits!

The clash between the sabre and the fist sent a shockwave outwards in all directions! The villagers had to hold onto the children, or else the kids would be sent tumbling backwards from the air pressure.

With a loud snap, the sabre actually broke in half as the tip flew right off upon impact!

Even though Paul was strong, that did not mean his weapon was strong! Although he just got it repaired, the smith in the village was not the most skilled of smiths. Every time a weapon was sharpened, it got that much thinner as well. So after a year, Paul's sabre had already been worn down to be considered fragile, and this clash proved to be the decisive tipping point for it to break off!

As if unaffected by the clash, the Fist of the Frozen Giant continued in its path, smashing right towards Paul! He lifted his right arm across his chest and dug his feet into the ground, bracing himself to withstand the impact.

Fortunately, although it was not obvious, the sabre strike had already cancelled out a large amount of damage from the fist. So after the sabre snapped, Paul only received a hugely mitigated portion of the original attack. Even so, that was enough to push him a good few metres back, his two feet leaving long trails in the mud.

The fist finally dissipated after that, but not without first leaving Paul in a sorry state. The skin on his arm, chest, torso, and even part of his face was partially torn off his flesh. Frost aura lingered on his body as well. If it were a normal villager, this frost aura would have been enough to freeze him to death!

But Paul was no normal villager. In fact, he didn't even feel one bit cold.

What idiots, not even knowing that he was a different existence known as a player in a game! To think that they actually believed he was undead! But no matter, they were about to die anyway, so who cared what they think?

Unlike everyone else who was shocked that he withstood the attack, Paul didn't hesitate after the frozen fist attack dissipated. He had learnt from his previous mistake that every moment of hesitation could come back to bite him in the ass, and was not about to let it happen again! He was not going to stop anymore!

It was an especially good opportunity for him now as well, with everyone still dazed for some reason. Without warning, he charged forward!

"What a monster!" Hather couldn't help but exclaim out loud when he saw their combination attack being fended off. Even though it seemed like Paul had been heavily injured, Hather was clear that for someone with an undead body, injuries like these would not matter at all!

It was at this instant that Paul suddenly weaved past the fumbling soldiers and appeared right in front of him!

"Ice Armour!" Hather shouted out as a frost aura started to gather around him, looking to completely envelop him within.

But there was no time for it to form!

One disadvantage of a pure magic user was that casting spells take a few moments of time during combat. This was why pure magic users tend to gather an entourage of warriors around them so as to provide them with cover while they cast their spells. Of course, this only applied to the weaker magic users. When they get to a certain level, casting of spells become almost instantaneous, and this completely removed the need for a cover.

But was Hather at that level? The answer was no.

Paul drew his short knife from his belt and pierced forward mercilessly!

The layer of mana surrounding Hather was torn through easily as the blade struck flesh, drawing a spurt of blood as Hather's neck tore open!

The spurts of blood never subsided as well, continuing to shoot out in pulses with every beat of his heart.

Hather's eyes opened wide in disbelief as his neck was cut right open! He had come here along with Hither to dominate the village, who knew that he would meet his end right here? He was unwilling to die just like this!

But he was powerless to change his fate. Such is the life of the weak.

Before, he was stronger than the villagers, and thus he wanted to abuse his position of power to order the villagers to do his bidding. But now he had met with an entity stronger than him, and he too had to succumb to the newcomer's whims. Strength was all that mattered in the end.

It was as if time had stopped in the village as everyone stared dumbfounded. This villager had broken through Wizard Mirror's strongest combination attack, and went on to immediately reap away Hather's life. What kind of a ridiculous turnaround was this?

But even if time seemed to have stopped for everyone, it did not for Paul. Paul never stopped.

Even before Hather's knees could buckle and fall to the ground, Paul had already arrived in front of Hither!

It was simply a repeat of the attack from before, but the shocked Hither fared much worse than Hather. He could not even react in time to start casting a defensive spell, and Paul's short knife pierced through his neck just like his brother's.

"You want my Artifact? I want your Artifact!"

Paul did not forget about how the death energy from before was absorbed into the necklace on Hither's neck, and decisively took it off him. With a flick of his fingers, the necklace fell nicely on Paul's neck.

The soldiers were terrified by now! Just a momentary lapse in concentration led to their leaders before killed off one after the other! What were they supposed to do now?

All of them nervously took a few steps back as Paul turned his attention to them.

"Stop! We have no grudge with you! Now that they are dead, we have no reason to be here any longer! We will leave!" one of the soldier's shouted out in panic.

But Paul never stopped.

Dismay came over the soldiers as they saw Paul charge straight towards them, not even bothering to reply. They might be scared, but that did not mean they would freeze up like how Hither did! All of them were well trained soldiers after all, so they responded in kind by charging forward with their swords raised.

It was more difficult for Paul now that he no longer had his sabre. After killing three soldiers, a clash with the full swing of a soldier actually caused his short knife to break off as well!

"He's unarmed now! Take him down! Cut off his legs!"

The remaining soldiers' morale was reinvigorated upon seeing that Paul no longer had a weapon on him. The four of them rushed forward like hyenas, bent on finally ending this fight with their victory.

Now that he was unarmed, what could he possibly do? He couldn't possibly bite them to death, could he? This madness had to be put to a stop here!

But even with his weapons all dismantled, Paul never intended to stop!

He pounced right at the nearest soldier, sinking his jaws into his face! He really was intending to bite them to death!

"He's no villager! He's an undead through and through!" the soldiers shouted out to each other as adrenaline overcame their fear.

But adrenaline itself was not enough as Paul pounced from one soldier to the other, easily tearing the flesh off their faces, dyeing the ground dark red as he bit off their noses one by one. The taste was decent as well, not too different from that of animals.

When the last soldier finally fell to the ground incapacitated, Paul sensed a strong energy rising up from behind him.

This was the feeling that he enjoyed the most over the past year, the prelude to having his every cell strengthened! Turning around in joy, he saw the stream of death energy rising from Hather and Hither.

It was tremendous! Tremendously large in amounts! Magic users were different after all!

Without anyone manipulating the Necrolace to absorb this stream of death energy, it naturally flowed towards Paul as he reached out for it. But it simply ignored Paul's outstretched hand, and entered directly through his forehead as always.

Never before had he experienced such a strong stream of death energy entering his body! And there seemed to be something qualitatively different about this energy too, as if there was something mystical mixed in?

Paul closed his eyes as he focused on the changes within his body. Unlike when he absorbed the death energy from animals, he could feel an unbridled strength growing within him. His senses exploded out like an inferno, instantly covering all the villagers present.

With a single thought, he was now able to know exactly how many people were standing in his vicinity, how many male, how many female, what they were wearing, everything!

This sudden unbridled power that he gained, it was from the mana reserves of Wizard Mirror! The excess mana in their body had been absorbed along with the death energy. This excess mana that was then trapped within his body had forcefully constructed a space within him, creating a mana reserve pool so huge that it was as if he had been a magic user all his life!

The introduction of mana into his body had also qualitatively transformed his every cell, making it such that he would be able replenish the mana on his own even if it were to deplete in the future.

More! More! And even more!

Paul could feel his body strengthening rapidly as the death energy from the rest of the slain soldiers started to pour into him as well, allowing him to grow seemingly without end, never stopping!

He could definitely feel that the power he obtained from killing this group of outsiders was far more than the total of what he gained over the past year! It seemed that he might really be playing this game wrong all these time!

When the gush of energy finally seemed to subside, Paul slowly opened his eyes. He was still relishing in the last bits of death energy remaining in his body when he noticed something peculiar.

The villagers…they were all armed?

Paul took a good look around him and indeed, the villagers all had some form of tool in their hands. The warriors had their weapons, the elders had their staff, even the women and children had small knives or pitchforks!

It looked like they were here to help him with the resistance against these outsiders. Thankfully he had killed them off fast enough, otherwise who knew how much death energy he would miss out on absorbing if one or two of those jokers were taken out by the villagers?

"Village head," Paul nonchalantly approached the villagers as though nothing special had just happened.

"Stop!" the village head immediately pointed his staff at Paul as a look of panic came over his face.

As if he had given the cue, all the villagers tensed up and pointed their weapons straight at him at the same time.

Paul frowned immediately upon seeing this, but after a moment of contemplation, he finally realised the reason behind their actions. Because of these ridiculous benefits given to him as a player of the game, they might have thought that he really was an undead!

"I'm not undead!" Paul lifted his arms in submission, just like the first day.

Only that he no longer had both his arms. At the same time, his skin was falling off after the clash with the combination after with Wizard Mirror from before, revealing flesh all over. It was a grisly sight!

He looked at his amputated left arm blankly as he wondered what he would think if he were the villagers. There was no way he would believe himself!

"You are no Holy Messenger! You are a scourge who brought this Death Aura to this village! The outsiders were right! This was all your doing! Vile undead!" one of the elders hollered in anger.

"Monster!"

"Burn him!"

"Scheming undead!"

The villagers chanted fervently as though the ones Paul just killed were their brethren instead of outsiders.

Without warning, two arrows tore through the air towards him! Still, it was far slower than the ice javelins that he faced before this.

He was already able to dodge those before, and now that he had just obtained a newfound strength from killing Wizard Mirror and the soldiers, these arrows seemed to be in slow motion to him!

A gentle tilt to his left allowed him to dodge both arrows, his eyes locked onto those of the village head.

"Really?"

That was the only word that Paul said as he stared at the man who had been more than welcoming for the past year.

"Purge the evil!" the look in the village head's eyes was resolute as he gave the command as loudly as he could. It was as though he was giving all the villagers a boost in courage with his voice so that they would be able to stand against this abomination before them without fear!

Paul did not feel betrayed, nor did he feel sad. All he felt was curiosity, as he wondered how much death energy he could gain from completely obliterating the village. And to do so, he was not stopping. Not until every single one of them going against him bit the dust!