Chapter 9: 1 vs 1,000

'It's going to be fun to test my skills against this many people when I am actually coherent. The last time I fought such a large number of beings was when I was under the influence of my system and it was all beasts.' Cole thought to himself.

"Alright, this is where the fun begins." Cole said as he walked forward and stood across from the rows and rows of individuals.

It was obviously Michael's army that he was so happy about. I wouldn't kill them until I determined which ones were there of their own will, or which were there due to their families being held hostage.

I decided to activate only one of my class skills as I didn't think I'd need any others.

Just a reminder, the description for the skill he was going to use was this.

[Chains of the Night] You hold the chains of life and death in your hands and can be used to attack and bind your opponents while you punish them for their misdeeds.

'This should be interesting' he thought to himself.

A dark smoke started to form around Cole and the smoke had expanded to at least 10 meters away from him and wisps of the smoke started to rise from the floor and they seemed to slowly take the shape of chains

The chairs where large and had a large sharp pointed end that no one who saw it would want to even imagine impaling them.

AN: Will post pic in chapter comments of the Chains of Night.

As the chains floated through the air as if they had minds of their own, Michael finally ordered his army to charge. As far as he thought, there was no way 1 man could go against 1,000 and survive.

As the army started to charge at Cole, many more of the same chains began to emerge from the dark smoke and if one were to be counting they would see over 100 different chains which is enough as one chain is more than enough to defeat a few people.

The chains moved as if they were the various arms and they swung left and right each strike of the chains sending a member of the army flying until they hit the walls of the large room.

This continued as Cole ran forward and got closer and closer to Michael.

The man in question, was becoming more and more anxious with every soldier taken out, and every step closer that Cole took, he took one backwards

He had been freaking out from the moment Cole summoned the chains.

....

(Mini-Flashback)

'What the hell are those chains made of darkness?!?! I thought his system gave him super strength. Is it just his level that gave him that strength, even if that was the case He'd have to be over level 100 for him to be that strong. I am level 67 and even I couldn't make dents in my own material that I created.

'Maybe I should actually inspect his level'

Yes you read that correctly, this dumbass didn't even try to inspect his level until just now.

[Inspect]

[{Status}

[Cole Bryant]

[Class: [?????] (?????)

[Title(s): ?????]

[Level:?????]

[HP: ?????]

[MP: ?????]

{Attributes}

[STR: ?????

[AGI: ?????

[INT: ?????

[END: ?????

[VIT: ?????

'What the hell!! all of his status except his name is question marks!?!?!' Michael questioned in his mind.

'But that only happens when....When the system decides that the individual is too strong for you to fight!!' Michael was really anxious now, but he knew he couldn't show it so he just made a point to slowly back up foot by foot until he could run away without anyone knowing.

....

(General POV)

Cole kept taking out the soldiers and he kept getting closer and oddly enough he noticed that every step closer he got, Michael seemed to get the same distance away.

It has to be said that Michael is at least skilled enough to take a step back in such a way that when Cole takes a step forward and looks at Michael, it gives off the illusion that one is not getting closer to their target.

....

Cole was making very quick work of the army before him. What started out as 1,000, now is as low as 300. And taking out the 700 others were very easy and was made even easier due to the fact that they had no one to lead them. Michael had been avoiding battling directly with Cole from before the army even actually clashed with Cole on the battlefield.

In his defense he actually meant to lead them a little, but once he saw Cole's status, or lack thereof, he immediately gave up any thoughts of confrontation. And merely planned for his own retreat.

If Michael had known that Cole was actually going easy on him right now as he didn't want to actually kill anyone but him, he'd probably piss himself.

Michael looked over and could see that 700 of his soldiers are already knocked out and there are chains binding them. And then he saw in one big swing, an entire two rows of his soldiers were knocked out and then bound. That was at least 50 soldiers in one attack.

The reason for the increased strength is that Cole actually channeled his Darkness into the skill and strengthened it.

The same scene repeated itself twice so now he was left with only 150 soldiers left in between Michael and annihilation.

Finally Michael couldn't take it anymore.

"WE SURRENDER, WE SURRENDER!! SOLDIERS LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!" He shouted.

The remaining soldiers looked on in disgust at their cowardly commander. Although they couldn't honestly say that they'd make a different choice considering the circumstances.

Cole then bound the rest of the soldier's but left an arm free and made a request.

"I want all the soldiers who have family that has been held hostage to raise their free hand!" He commanded.

Every one of the soldiers raised their hands.

"Keep in mind, I will be bringing those families here to verify your words, so if you lie, that will mean your death." Cole warned.

None of the soldiers believed he'd actually kill them. They believed since he didn't kill any of them during the battle that he was a merciful person.

"You will be given one more chance, and I want you to understand that you should not mistake my actions as mercy." Cole started to explain.

As Cole was giving his explanation, he brought over an individual who was a guard who was not part of the battle just now. He had already verified with the hostages who among the guards had captive families before he even went to the throne room.

The guard was dragged screaming into the room. The soldiers still felt that Cole was bluffing.

As he finally arrived in front of him, Cole asked him the same question he asked the soldiers.

"Do you have any family that is currently held captive? Be careful because your answer will determine if you live or die." Cole said as he had summoned his spear.

"Yes, yes I have family held captive. Please help me save them from that mad man!!" The guard explained frantically.

"Wrong answer." Cole said coldly and stabbed the spear through his chest.

The Spear began to absorb the blood of the guard till he was only a husk, but what surprised Cole was what happened after that.

The Spear automatically turned into his Reaper's Scythe and Cole entered his Dark Form. His body instantly started to release a deathly calm aura and all the soldiers felt like death was standing in front of them, ready to reap their souls.

And just as they thought that, they heard an unholy scream come from the guard and actually saw his soul being ripped from his body and the soul was screaming in agony as it was absorbed into his Scythe.

The body then dropped to the ground in front of the soldiers and they could see it's blank soulless eyes staring back at them, the mouth contorted into a dreadful screaming expression. It looked as if the figure had died of fear.

Instantly all 150 soldiers put their hands down and the others pointed out the individual's that Cole was asking about.

Apparently all the people who's families had been held hostage were part of the infantry and were the first that Cole had knocked out.

He grabbed them and woke them up and told them to go to their families. They nodded and thanked him with tears in their eyes.

"Now, what to do with the rest of you?" Cole asked aloud while looking at the remaining soldiers and Michael who was also bound.