Exterminating Bugs

Leon had suffered under the Deadeye Spiders unrelenting assault because he did not understand their characteristics before. But now that he knew, he would not repeat the same mistake. He did not choose to enhance his black spear with flame essence. It was sharp enough to slay these arachnids. He utilized his ice energy and lowered his own body temperature. 

The Deadeye spiders did not react to his approach at all as he closed the distance with nimble movements. They could neither see nor sense him and soon fell victim to his sweeping spear as easy as plucking fruits from a tree.

Under a quick barrage of attacks, hundreds of spiders were quickly killed. However, these Deadeye Spiders didn't seem to mind the death of their kin and continued moving towards the next fire source.

From the day these arachnids were born, they were destined to live in a world of eternal darkness and have no sense of affections for its own brothers and sisters. When the early crawlers jump into the burning buildings and light themselves on fire, they also become targets for other crawlers and are attacked and eaten by their own kind.

The crawlers were harmless insects in front of Leon. He did not have to worry about his defense and went completely on the offensive.

Leon made a full horizontal sweep with explosive strength like a one-handed sword and dozens of crawlers were hit by his black spear. Even if they weren't directly cut the spear head, the spear shaft smashed them in mush and blasted them in the others.

 Like a passing overlord; wherever the black spear travelled, all must give way and clear the area.

His inexperienced spear movements quickly became fluid and refined with each sweeping motion.

The crawlers were used as training dummies to practice his spear techniques!

Seeing the prince fighting so valiantly, the guards were surprised. The spiders did not attack their prince at all!

The Deadeye Spiders weren't news to the palace guards. They had killed their fair share of Deadeye Spiders back in the royal palace. All palace guards had been sent to the underground to train and practice their techniques on the night crawlers at least more than once.

However, it was a first time for them to see these night crawlers ignore the prey right in front of them and only rush towards fire source. It was as if the prince was invisible to them.

In fact, that was exactly the case. From the night crawler's perception, Leon was like a specter, flickering on and off their grid when he moves and when he doesn't.

The prince was like a sovereign of death. If he wanted their lives, they would have no choice but to offer it willingly. 

There was nothing great about being able to crush ants, but  Leon was filled with self-satisfaction when sweeping these bugs away like ones. This was the kind of absolute strength he seeks.

If there was a day when he could sweep all the Divine Kings beneath his feet like ants, then that would be his lifetime's greatest achievement

While being awed by the prince's way of killing, a night crawler snuck up on one of the guards and bit on his helmet with a clank. Unfortunately for the crawler, the helmet was made of a very tough metal and all its teeth were broken from the bite.

Sssss… it issued a painful cry.  

The palace guard was startled at sneak attacked. He was distracted and allowed a puny crawler to snuck up on  him. He angered and slammed the crawler on the ground with great force, turning it into mush.

"Don't just watch, Cain. Assist his highness." Howard stated. 

They drew their swords and charged in different directions with their chunky armor. Due to equipment, they weren't as agile as Leon and were quickly swarmed by the crawlers when their entered the fray. However, the armor allowed them to be impervious to most attacks. 

"Hmph." 

Being buried under a mountain of crawlers, Howard stomped the ground and dozens to hundreds of earthen spikes shot up from the ground and impaled all the crawlers within five yards of him. Even after killing these crawlers for so many years, they still disgust him to no end. 

"How about the old rule? Whoever kills the least has to cover drinks for the others for a whole week." Cain suddenly suggested, but his sword never stopped hacking and slashing. "You game, Howard?" 

Hearing this, Howard laughed. He had never lost a killing competition. "Hahaha, thanks for the drinks in advance."

This competition was as good as one. Cain's suggestion was as good as offering him free drinks.

Why would he refuse?

"How about you, Jeffrey?"

"Sounds good." Jeffrey was game. He didn't excel at killing Deadeye Spiders among the four of them, but he wasn't the worse either.

Of the four palace guards that accompanied Leon, one of them had kept silent and no one bothered to asked if he intended to join their game. 

However, feeling isolated… he couldn't kept silent for long and caved in.

"Aren't you guys going to ask if I want in as well?" 

"Of course, we want to… but considering you always lose, we kinda feel bad, you know?" Cain said, but he couldn't help grinning. He wasn't sympathetic at all.

"Bullshit! Why bring it up if you feel bad? Come on! Who's afraid of who?" Jack wasn't fooled by his words. His fighting spirit was ignited.

He wasn't afraid of the challenges. He can't win, if he was afraid of losing.

The four palace guards finished setting up their little competition and began their bug slaying with great intensity. They all began using their signature move with their earth abilities.

"Great Revolving Domain!"

Cain took the initiative and shout out his signature technique. The earth cracked apart incalculable amount of rock pellets and floated in the air, before revolving around Cain at high speed and created a spherical domain.

Dozens of crawlers that dived into his domain were struck and grinded to death like they were shot by hundreds of bullets.

He wasn't satisfied and dived into a sea of crawlers with his moving domain and it shred apart a few hundred more.

"Buddy, your move is very fancy, but aren't very effective in killing them en masse!" Jeffrey commented.

"Clap of Mother Earth!" Jeffry shouted.

A gigantic palm rose from behind him. He clapped his hands like a crocodile snapping its jaws and the gigantic palm descended and flattened tens of thousands of crawlers into bug patties.

His face paled from exhausted all his earth essence in a single move.

In a further location, Howard leaped into the air above a sea of crawlers and dropped down like a meteor before slamming the ground with his palm.

"Grand Stalagmite!" He roared.

Within fifty yards of him, several thousands of crawlers were impaled to death by earthen spikes striking of various sizes rising from the ground. The spikes destroyed the foundation of a buildings within it's radius and collapsed, crushing thousands of additional crawlers.

A light glinted in Jack's eye and he did not use his usual technique but called out a new name on the spot.

"Almighty Collapse!"

He roared and forced the various abandoned buildings around him to collapse and crushed all the crawlers in its vicinity. His move was nothing short of mass demolition.

"Muahahaha! I am a genius!" He laughed hysterically.

Countless night crawlers were killed under his move and the numbers were inestimable. It may have possibly exceeded the hundred thousand mark, but many people's homes were destroyed in the process.

Leon was amused by their little game until it escalated and blown out of proportion.

The palace guards were in a league of their own, with their exquisite control of their earth elements.

He had no choice but to admit that their techniques were quite high level despite having exaggerated names as well as… peculiar ones...

But… did they have to go overboard and demolish so many people's homes? Whether it was burning, damaged or intact ones, they were all indiscriminately demolished. Leon felt his face twitched at the mess they caused.

He racked up thousands of kills himself, but it was nothing compared to his guards.

They had stolen his thunder and disrupted his plans.

"That's enough. We are retreating."

Leon called out to his guards. They had quickly exhausted most of their strengths in such a frenzied killing manner and wouldn't be able to continue for much longer.

Although he could keep going for several more hours due to his conservative kill method, he had to care for his own guards… because they would not retreat without him.

In any case, they had accomplish their objective in killing heaps of crawlers and reducing a portion of their numbers.

"Yes, your highness!"

They hear and obey. The palace guards quickly regathered by Leon side and they retreated together.

Jack was smiling because he believed he had not killed the least for once. In fact, he killed the most!

All was fair in love and war.

The others groaned at this fact. They were indignant. This bastard was so unscrupulous in his methods to win.

People could be hoping of returning to their homes once the disaster was settled, but he had directly destroyed their hopes and turned hundreds of people homeless.

"So, who lost?"

His question was like setting off a powder keg.

They unanimously answered with,

"Fuck off!"

…

As the group headed to the Upper West District western entrance, Leon wondered how his mother will resolve the crisis. He wouldn't believe it if his mother said the royal family didn't prepared a countermeasure for a day like today.

Everyone in the capital have now witnessed what horrors lied beneath them and it can no longer be kept quiet.

The half millennia old secret was a secret no longer.