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Battle

Beta did a somersault midair and easily landed on his feet right in the middle of everyone. At the same time, he unleashed a blow with his staff all around him to gain a suitable fighting space for his staff. The first person to receive the blow sneered at him and simply tried to block the blow with his sword just to end up being blown away by the strong force.

Beta's staff didn't stop there and instead, headed for the next person who chose to retreat back. Dennis, on the other hand, didn't back away. Just like the first person, he chose to block the blow. It was just that the result was different compared to the first one. Dennis only got pushed to the side a bit, but he was nonetheless able to block it. He realized that the attack will surely be as strong as the first blast so he was able to root himself better to handle the blow.

Just when Dennis was about to laugh at Beta's strength, he felt a piercing pain on his back. Beta had activated the scythe, creating a gushing wound on Dennis' back. Beta pulled his scythe back, trying to cut him into two, but Dennis sensed his impending death so he quickly rolled on the ground. He was really lucky to escape that attack, otherwise, he would've been sliced in half. He actually saw his life flash in front of him until his reflexes made him move out of his tenaciousness against death.

All of them noticed the change in Beta's weapon and they all showed shocked faces. "What a scary hidden weapon!!!", was all they could think of. The weapon was obviously well crafted which works best for surprise attacks and stealth. They couldn't believe that a young bumpkin kid actually had a weapon that valuable. Greed started to sprout in their hearts and attacked more viciously at Beta.

"Swoosh!"

A man that was about to pierce Beta with his spear, breathed his last breath when an arrow suddenly struck him in the head. Beta turned around and gave Johann a smile before continuing his battle against the people surrounding him. He wasn't worried that Johann saw the full form of his weapon. They're fighting a life and death battle together at the moment, so the best thing he, as the leader, could show to him was his full trust. Johann also got the message when he saw Beta looked at him and gave him that knowing smile. "Our leader is really full of surprises…", Johann thought as he continued with targeting the enemy team.

Johann wasn't lazy either. After entangling the healer, he consecutively shot at the mages and people that took a rest, all the while supporting Beta. Now, it was truly shown how talented the students of the S class were. He had the complete battlefield in vision, not missing out on any chances to make their lives a bit harder. Whenever anyone tried to get close to the healer, he would shoot an arrow at them to prevent it.

Meanwhile, Elise, the enemy team's healer, got entangled tighter and tighter. The rambles bound her feet and hands together, but it didn't stop there and still continued to constrict her. They slithered their way all along her body, wrapping her up more. She screamed incessantly for help, but mixed in between her cries were a few moans that could be heard by everyone, which greatly irritated several men as it distracted them from the fight.

Beta naturally exploited their mistake and swiftly moved his scythe to cut one of them in two, still laughing maniacally. His warm smile and glowing eyes only made this scene even more gruesome. Fear started blossoming in their hearts as they looked at him as if he was the reaper of souls. Body parts and blood surrounded his vicinity. He himself was also splattered with blood, but it wasn't his own blood, scaring off anyone who thought of revenge for their teammates.

Johann, who saw everything that happened, had a strange glint in his eyes as he looked at Beta's way of fighting. Though blood and gore weren't new to him, it was still quite a sight to see the bloodbath in front of him. He realized that their leader actually has more under his sleeve and that he was a scary and crazy fighter when going all out. That maniacal laugh and innocent face also added a great impact to the psyche against their enemies. Even though Beta's massacre gave him goosebumps, it didn't faze his determination to continue with his task.

"Get a grip already! We still have eight men! Do you actually believe we can't beat him like this?! Free Elise! Attack!", Dennis shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Attack! I haven't had so much fun for so long!", Beta shouted while laughing, rushing right into the middle of them again.

This was the first time in a long time that Beta felt so good. Only in a fight where he could feel death looming around at any given second did he truly feel good. Whenever the mages shot a fire arrow at him, he would simply negate their attack with his void elemental soulpower, frustrating them greatly. His scythe rotated around his body, using the Dark Scythe technique to deflect the blades and attack at the same time. The sound of metal hitting metal rang out continuously followed by occasional screams.

Suddenly, Dennis and two others attacked in a pattern that restricted Beta's scythe's movements more and more.

"Now!", Dennis shouted as he stabbed forward with his sword.

The other two had deflected Beta's scythe upwards turning him unable to retaliate with it. Beta realized their plan so he didn't hesitate to let go of his weapon and used the Soul River Steps to get behind Dennis. But on his way, he managed to use Reaper's Touch on one of them, injecting his death elemental soulpower into him. While the other one was kicked to death by his Phantom Kicks, turning him into something that could hardly be recognized as a human.

Dennis who couldn't react fast enough to this scene only got to block another one of Beta's normal attacks. However, Beta just left him standing there after he took down his comrades and then dedicated himself to kill the others first. It seemed like he was killing the weakest of them first, to cut down the numbers they had to fight against and leaving the stronger ones for last.

Meanwhile, the one that had been standing next to Elise at the beginning didn't know what to do. Every time he tried to free her, he got shot at by Johann and the rambles would regrow right away. He couldn't just cut them away either since there was the possibility of harming her. Then there were also her moans that got louder and louder, slowly dominating over her screams.

He and the mages were distracted not just once by this and their casting speed had significantly slowed down. Johann used their confusion to freely shoot his arrows at them. Even though they were able to dodge them somewhat, the attacks, nonetheless, still hit them. They managed to avoid getting hit in their vitals, but all over their limbs got pierced and they were injected with venom created by his wood elemental soulpower, which slowly dwindled down their health, stamina, and soulpower.

Beta couldn't help but be glad about his support. Thanks to Johann, he didn't really have to pay much attention to the ones casting arrows and all of their heals were prevented as well. If it wasn't for these two facts, they would be in quite the pinch. But now, the real battle was just about to start.

Since the small fry had been taken care of now, Beta had to fight against the strong ones. Four had been killed so far, one was entangled, and another three were kept in check by Johann. This means that Beta only had two enemies left for now. Dennis and a guy who hadn't really been talking nor attacking the whole time. He was just holding two long daggers, observing Beta the whole fight.

For some reason, Beta felt more of a threat from him than from Dennis who was supposedly the leader of the whole group. That didn't mean that Beta was afraid though. This was what he had been looking forward to the whole time after all. Beta walked back a bit and picked up his weapon casually while downing a potion. Even though he had deflected or avoided most of the attacks, he was still hit every now and then so he was cut a few times. Dennis and the other guy didn't do anything to stop him, as they looked at Beta picking up his weapon.

"Are you ready? I know very well that you don't plan on letting anyone here live for another day, so I won't even try to ask you what I was supposed to. But of course, there's still the question of whether you can win or not.", the strange guy said, smiling.

"You're correct. None of you will survive this.", Beta answered nonchalantly while rushing at them with full force.

Beta completely ignored Dennis and directly attacked the unknown guy with all his strength while using the Monkey Stick Tactics. He already retracted his scythe blade for surprise attacks later and proceeded to fight first with pure blunt force. The scythe will definitely be something that the guy needed to be wary of, knowing that Beta could unleash it any second.

Beta's staff then sped downwards at him. The guy stepped to the side and thrust one of his daggers at Beta's side while using the other one to block the staff's path. Beta swiftly used the Soul River Steps to go to his side instead after being blocked and launched an attack of his own using the scythe.

They both released their soulpowers, Beta with his void, and the guy with something black in color that reminded Beta of shadows. He tried to intercept Beta's vision just to let his soulpower end up meeting the void, getting sucked into it. The guy now also felt how frustrated the mages were when their attacks only got swallowed by the other's soulpower. It was no wonder that Beta's very being was highly sought after by the hidden powers that hired them.

On the other hand, Beta also somehow felt a bit of frustration as his arrows barely hit due to the guy's strange movements and the shadows. Especially when he did manage to hit him, his soulpower would only slowly get engulfed by the shadows and vanished just like how his void power did. But Beta also realized that that technique must've cost him a great amount of soulpower, so he wasn't too disappointed to not see any results.

They fought for several more minutes before their attacks found their targets. Due to the fading endurance, more mistakes surfaced and both received injuries that couldn't be neglected in the long term. But suddenly, there was a change. The guy let out a sigh and looked at one of the cuts he got.

"You win. This element is truly too domineering... No wonder everyone is hunting your kind down. Either way, you will die sooner or later. Killing me might not have been the best choice.", the guy said calmly as if he had already concluded with life.

"It was a good fight, I had lots of fun!", Beta answered with a satisfied smile.

"Was it the first cut for him?", the guy asked, sitting down while leaning on a wall with his back. He was talking about Dennis who was standing still and not attacking at all.

"Of course. Who would let go of such a good opportunity?", Beta answered once again, tapping Dennis' head making him fall over.

When Dennis had blocked Beta's scythe at the beginning, death elemental soulpower was injected into him, slowly going to the brain, letting it decay. And something similar was happening to the guy at the moment, just on a bigger scale. He was almost completely filled with the death elemental power that devoured his soulpower and continued with rotting away all of his organs.

At first, he didn't notice at all, but then after countless blows, he finally noticed the changes in his body which made him expend more of his soulpower and stamina. This eventually got him to his situation at the moment.

"You… you're a monster that shouldn't be left alive… ", said the guy who was on his last breath.

Noticing that the guy was about to die, Beta crouched down closer to him.

"Eh? Hmm… well, what's wrong with being a monster?", said Beta innocently while tilting his head.