Chapter Fifteen: Game of Life and Death

Chapter Fifteen: Game of Life and Death

The beastman charged at the children with fiery momentum, making some of them cry out in fear.

The alien had purple skin and three eyes. Two were small and narrow, like a razor slashing into the hearts of the children, while the last eye was large and was on its forehead.

Protruding from a location near its butt area was a long tail covered with small spikes; its hands and legs were completely human-like, but its body was packed with muscles.

The best man wore no clothes, only a cloth tied on his lower half, and his firm, hard abs were relieved in all their swaying, enchanting glory.

Dusken didn't know it but he was sure that the beastman was famous among the women of its race. The variant human ran all fours and arrived in front of the children in what looked like seconds.

'Weird,' Dusken thought; he had been able to follow the creature's movement; this meant that his perception had increased greatly due to his advancement to level l 1, and he was still getting used to it.

The beastman growled loudly to shut the screaming children, but when they didn't stop, it grabbed a shouting child on the head and, without hesitation, smashed the struggling boy's skull on the trunk of the huge tree, sending brain matter splattering everywhere.

The variant human opened its mouth and ate the hands of the boy, then legs, and soon completely ate the corpse of the child, as blood rolled down its jaw.

The children all shivered, and silence reigned in the area, deathly silence; this sight was pure horror to them, so everyone became obedient.

"You all… are now slaves of the beastman race, we'll sacrifice you to our king! Be proud for you all shall serve the king of our clan,"

The beastman opened its mouth and began speaking languages that Dusken didn't know, yet understood. Everyone was thoroughly silent; the image of the dead boy flashed across their eyes, and no one refused to make a sound.

No one wanted to die. Next; Dusken observed all this with a cold expression; the beastman wanted to speak to the children and also wanted to instil fear and dominance in their hearts.

So, it used the boy as a scapegoat for the dominance of its clan. Without caring too much, Dusken shifted his stare to his soul script.

[Species: Beastmen

Rank: Awakened

Level: One]

'So, you're only a level one?'

Dusken wasn't afraid much, but the death of the boy was still imprinted in his mind. He had killed a level one when at just level zero, now… he was also a level one, had a longsword, and his body was that of a 15-year-old, removing all limitations.

What should he fear?

The beastman turned its head and conversed with the other beastmen in their native language.

Then they all knelt as a huge beast-man sitting on a throne made of bones got up and slowly walked to the area of the children.

"You all are children of the human race, and I would love to eat you all, but… I will give you a chance to escape; whoever can untie their bindings before the time runs out shall not be killed and will be allowed to run away."

The beastman king spoke in a calm tone when he neared the children. His humongous figure cast a shadow over not only the children's bodies but also their hearts; many of them trembled.

"Daddy, come and save me," A child who looked fifteen years old cried loudly for help. But without hesitation, a crocodile head beastman grabbed the young girl and swallowed her whole not even leaving a trace of blood behind.

Shrieks immediately resounded in the area as the other children screamed in terror.

"This is just a warning, whoever speaks again, shall be eaten by us,"

The beastman who ate the girl shouted out as he crunched the girl's bones within his mouth making sickening noises to resound in the area. The other beastmen all shot furious glares at the crocodile head beastman.

"The human wasn't doing what was asked of her, so I gave a punishment by eating her, she would have lost anyway. She had already given up on life."

As soon as the children heard what the best man said, they hurried to start untying the ropes binding them; no one wanted to be eaten like the girl.

Dusken also went to work. "Level two beastman king, while the others are all level one.'

He noted down in his mind, as he slowly began to untie the rope, the beastman king hadn't given an exact time; it had only said that they should lose it before time.

This meant that the time could elapse at the King's wishes; since there was no standard time, the king could decide when it had elapsed on his own, which was a headache to Dusken.

He wanted to check out all the things received previously but couldn't, and this made him almost go crazed from rage.

Everything seemed a bit too rushed from the moment he awakened his talent; got a spell card, an Innate ability, his main ability and his material card.

Dusken felt like something was wrong. He wanted to sink deeper into his thoughts, but there was no time for that.

Using his intellect as a reincarnated individual who had many years of experience, untying a rope that was crudely used to bind children was easy.

When Dusken finally reached the last point that would make him lose the rope, he hesitated; the beastmen were too quiet, and why would the king set his slaves free?

There was nothing more pathetic than a slave trusting his master. Dusken would never trust a variant human with his life, what if he untied the rope and was eaten instead?

Then he would die a fool's death, that was simply hilarious and dying like that was unacceptable. After a deep contemplation internally, Dusken decided not to completely lose the rope.

He would use this chance to check his ability and cards; excitement coursed through him at the sound of this thought.

He immediately summoned his soul script:

Name: Dusken

Innate Name: -

Rank: Seeker

Level: 1

Abysmal fragments: [2/1000]

Spell Cards: 1

Scrolls: 1

Material Cards: -

Talent: Abyssal Star

Talent Rank: Ultimate

Talent abilities: [Darkshadow control]

Side abilities: [Child Of the Abyss]

Innate abilities: [Dark Flame]

Legacy: None

Dusken's eyes widened, he was sure that when he checked his soul script previously, there was no talent rank then, but now there was.

The best thing, though, was that it was Ultimate rank; there were 7 ranks to power, which was also what was used to grade talents.

Awakened rank, Preeminent rank, Reverend rank, Mythical rank, Sacred Rank, Ultimate rank and Celestial rank.

These ranks were used for both power measurements and talents, but now, Dusken was seeing that he had an Ultimate Rank talent.

This was beyond rare; in the real world, even someone who had a preeminent rank talent was highly respected, but now… but now.

Dusken almost fell on his butt when he saw this, an Ultimate rank talent, a great talent. He wanted to clean his eyes to know if he was seeing properly.

However, he couldn't, because he was surrounded by beastmen and if he made a wrong move, he could be killed simply by… not working.

Deep down within Dusken's heart, he was very excited. He wanted to laugh out loud, but once again, he couldn't.

After revelling in his excitement for some time, he calmed down and decided to check what his talent ability, named Darkshadow, could do.

The words on the soul script rearranged according to Dusken's command, and when he wanted to read it, a flying arrow shot at frightening speed and impaled a beastman on its head, making it shatter.

This sent blood and viscera everywhere, and then with the sound of slicing wind, another arrow came, then another and another.

Dusken raised his head and saw that the sky was entirely covered by arrows that were falling like rain.

"What-the-fuck?" Dusken blurted out as true terror grasped his heart and then something suddenly happened as the area was covered by raging flames.