"2567!"
Simones was extremely delighted and surprised. As he looked at Kieran, both his hand and smoking pipe started shaking.
Elli, who was standing in the middle of the room, was looking weird, as if she was about to cry out. She eventually just gave him a cold shrug.
"Simones, Elli, it’s been a while! I’ll go deal with the thugs outside first. Can you guys prepare some dinner for me? There was no meal provided on the train. Such inhuman passenger treatment!" Kieran said in a joking tone as he placed his big backpack down and took out his [Infantry Spear] and the box with the [Arrogant Word].
"Be careful…" Simones warned him.
Elli was quiet, but Kieran could sense that her gaze was locked tightly on him.
Kieran signaled that it was OK and disarmed all the traps around the door, placing the bottle with the dissolving solution beside it.
Then, without further hesitation, he activated the [Reckless Rush] effect of [Wild Soul].
A heavy, loud growl was heard, and a huge rhino mirage formed behind Kieran and charged forward with an earth-shattering power.
BANG!
The door was rammed open. The thugs that had already arrived at the garden were trampled by the rhino mirage before they could even react to the bursting wood chips coming from the door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Blood and flesh splashed in all directions as bones and spines were crushed to bits.
There was no mercy for the thugs in front of Kieran. The mirage was like a truck driving over a watermelon, sending its red, watery flesh all over the place.
A bright bloody trail starting from the front door extended to the garden’s entrance.
Suddenly, darkness covered the entrance, compromising the vision of the remaining thugs that had escaped the mirage. Kieran had disappeared right before their eyes.
Unsure of what had happened, the thugs tried to look around for him. They soon noticed something.
"There!"
A thug turned his head around and saw Kieran, who was still standing at the garden’s entrance.
Instantly, five thugs threw themselves at Kieran, their weapons all aimed at his weak spots.
Seven more thugs widened their distance from him and started softly chanting incantations. However, a second sonorous chanting was suddenly heard from behind them.
"A… I…"
Things were bad for the chanting thugs, whose hearts skipped a beat. They instinctively wanted to dodge the attack coming from behind them, but it was impossible for them to move while they were chanting. Half of them were instantly struck by magic repulsion and fell to the ground due to excessive movement and distraction.
The remaining half did not fall, but they started spitting fresh blood from their mouths. Every single one of them tried to widen their distance from the spell behind them.
Crawling on their knees or staggering forward with their feet, the thugs gave their utmost effort to survive.
"O!"
However, the next moment, a fiery cone-shaped flame with a sulphuric smell engulfed their figures.
"Aaah!"
The thugs’ screams of agony and pain were filled with despair. They sounded unable to believe what was happening. They could not understand how Kieran’s spell could be so much quicker than theirs.
One of the thugs tangling with the flames was shouting non stop as he drew his last breaths.
"Why? WHY?"
The thug pulled out item after item, trying to put out the flames, but the flames burned even hotter instead. After taking two more struggling breaths, the thug became a charred corpse, just like all the others who had been engulfed by the fiery flames.
Thanks to the empowerment of [Fusion Heart, Fiery Sulphur], the [Burning Hand]’s Strong Attack had become even more powerful, despite Kieran performing only half the incantation and gesture required to cast it. Its attack had been boosted up to Powerful.
Powerful flames was not something easy to extinguish, let alone when there was sulphuric poison inside them.
[Sulphuric Poison: Burned targets will undergo a Constitution authentication of -2 compared to the caster. If they fail, they will suffer an extra 20 Poison Damage for 5 seconds.]
Kieran had already known the outcome before he had cast the spell, so he had spared enough energy to check on his burned targets.
The moment Kieran had cast [Burning Hand], he had already switched to a different target.
The dark red two-handed sword was wielded with the force of a mountain at Kieran’s next target. The thug tried to dodge the sword, but he was pinned down by the strong wind blown at him thanks to the sword’s force.
The thug moved his sword above his head, in hopes of blocking the incoming slash from the [Arrogant Word] and surviving, but the thought itself was a joke.
The seemingly good Magical longsword was instantly dented into an arch. Rendered unable to withstand the force of the [Arrogant Word], it broke into two. The thug wielding the longsword shared the same fate as his weapon. He was also slashed into half.
Kieran quickly moved his wrist around and the vertical [Arrogant Word] was turned sideways, slashing at its next target.
As Kieran’s second target had watched his comrade being split into half, his blood and organs spilling all over, his expression had become ugly. That was before he even saw the dark red sword with the bewitching aura being aimed at him.
The thug dared not even resist the slash. He turned around immediately in an effort to escape.
[Arrogant Word] was shining red. [Arrogance] had been triggered!
The great sword, which already had an unstoppable force, became even quicker, slashing over the thug’s body with a speed that exceeded the thug’s imagination by far.
The escaping thug was slashed into half horizontally, the agonizing pain in combination with his dying breath overwhelming him like a raging wave and eventually drowning him.
The thug’s survival instinct made his body crawl forward using all its strength, seemingly able to escape the grasp of death. The more he crawled forward though, the more his intestines spilled out, accelerating his death before it could escape.
The thug was still crawling forward instinctively, making a great effort.
"He.. Help…" he mumbled, but the rest of his comrades ran away even faster.
They were like panicked rabbits, running away in all directions. After a full 10 minutes of running, the thugs thought they had finally gotten rid of Kieran.
When they thought they were safe, they came to a stop. The moment their feet halted though, Kieran appeared once again.
They started running for their lives once more. The process was repeated over and over again, until the thugs’ lungs started burning from exhaustion.
At the end of this vicious cycle, they were feeling excruciating pain on every inch of their bodies.
They all fell to the ground and stared at Kieran in fear. Kieran was wielding his great sword at them.
When the fallen thugs came back to their senses, they realized they were still in the garden.
It had been an illusion! The thugs suddenly realized they had been deceived, but it was too late.
Their panicked state had made the [Half-Dead Gaze]’s [Dead-Man Gaze] and [Fear Illusion] perform exceptionally well. All the thugs had suffered substantial mental damage.
They could not resist the death the [Arrogant Word] had brought.
The chilling darkness shrouded them entirely.
However, not every single one of the thugs had been affected by the [Dead-Man’s Gaze] effect and fallen victim to the [Fear Illusion].
One of the nimbler thugs had managed to climb up to the second floor of the house and tried to barge in. He had no intention of facing Kieran anymore. He had decided to target Elli and Simones instead!
If he could lay his hands on either one, he could grasp at a thin ray of survival. He had a plan in mind.
When the nimble thug saw Kieran leaping towards him, he grinned. Everything was going according to his plan. When Kieran reached the second floor, completely exhausted, the nimble thug had already climbed up to the third floor like an ape.
"I can survive this…"
The thought bloomed in the nimble thug’s mind, but before it could flourish, he was slashed in half by the [Arrogant Word].
The upper body of the thug was spinning in mid-air, his remaining life energy allowing him to see Kieran, who was also on the third floor of the house.
"How…"
As the thought lingered in his dying mind, he fell onto the house entrance, empty of any life energy.
Kieran landed on the ground after him and glanced over the [Modii Boots]. He clenched the [Arrogant Word] with both his fists, swinging it left and right.
The swinging removed all the blood and organs left on the sword’s body, forming a red arch on the ground.
Kieran put away [Arrogant Word] and picked up the [Infantry Spear] from the ground. Then he turned around and saw a sea of green.