'Fallen Leaves?' Ragnar murmured silently under his breath as he felt the name being weird, but he decided to toss this useless thought away.
"Now, reveal your intention for killing my men." Garner asked, glaring into Ragnar's eyes and putting his pressure on him.
Ragnar could feel the pressure, which was like a mountain pressing him down, but he didn't yield. He stood strong to his ground and said it with a resolute face. "It is for capturing my comrade, the Lord's first general, Ravenna."
Garner's eyes widened in shock again, as he was having a hard time believing a lord like a demon would take such a strong and beautiful woman just for his general. This implied so many things, but Garner didn't want to think about it because he knew what it meant to kidnap some other lord's general.
It was a war!
"Kill him! Don't let this guy escape!" Garner quickly ordered his own generals, which amounted to two.
One of which was a Swinefiend at the 1st Stage Fleshcrafting Realm, and the other one was a Gorebuzz at the 2nd Stage Fleshcrafting Realm.
This Gorebuzz was a demon that roamed in the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Demon Realm. They have insect-like heads, and their flesh would boil from time to time like water. Their main weapon was the natural inborn scythe on their arms, which was sharp as a blade, and they had great speed that wasn't a short burst but a flexible one that made them very nimble.
However, Ragnar didn't know the full history of it but he was able to guess many things after seeing its body parts.
'This guy…he didn't send his smaller minions first. He is very cautious.' Ragnar braced himself as he felt his stalling time would get shortened as he was now against elites. He was expecting to use the mobs to his advantage, but unfortunately, nothing goes as planned.
Ragnar gave a short glance at Garner before asking if he tried to move or do anything to Ravenna. A soft sigh of relief escaped from his mouth when he saw none of these happening. So, he distanced himself from the whole group to make space for him to fight properly.
The Swinefiend, used its move, which was [ Wild Charge ], rushing at him at a fast speed with its club in hand. Meanwhile, the Gorebuzz seemed to have vanished from his sight, making Ragnar panic.
'It is using the Swinefiend as a bait to vanish into my limited view of sight.' Such thoughts made Ragnar more worried about Gorebuzz than the Swinefiend itself.
However, that didn't mean Ragnar didn't have his way. He used [ Blurry Dash ], arriving before Swinefiend, who didn't even notice his existence.
[ Counter ], Ragnar grabbed the Swinefiend's right arm in the way and swung its force a little, making the Swinefiend ultimately lose its balance.
At that moment, the danger senses in his heart rang continuously, alerting him of a sneak attack. He, without looking at this attack, raised the Swinefiend's arm – the one he was holding – to the attack's direction.
Puchi!
A sharp scythe cut straight into the Swinefiend's arm, eventually getting stuck. Ragnar used this as an opportunity and initiated a punch at its face.
But he halted midway and quickly retreated back.
He landed on the ground and looked at the two enemies in front of him. He touched his right cheek and brought his hand forward. He could see traces of blood that were his. 'I underestimated them. No, I overestimated myself. I was almost killed. Why did I think I could kill them that easily? In the face of absolute strength, no tactics stand.'
Ragnar shifted his focus to Garner. He started panicking heavily when he saw Garner doing some kind of ritual in front of Ravenna. "No! Stop it!"
Ragnar went mad, rushing forward without any care for the two enemies before him.
They took this as their own chance and launched their attacks. The Swinefiend swung its club horizontally at Ragnar's course, causing the dust and the upper layer of the soil to blast away.
"AHHHH!" Ragnar didn't even try to dodge it as he punched forward, putting every ounce of his strength into his right fist.
BANG!
The moment Ragnar's fist and the club came into contact, an explosion sounded, which originated from Ragnar blasting the club into pieces. But Ragnar's right arm also ruptured and his fingers were broken.
Ragnar didn't even have time to breathe as Gorebuzz suddenly came beside him, swinging both of its scythes at Ragnar's neck. On the other hand, Ragnar raised his right arm to block that attack.
Puchi
Ragnar's ruptured arm got cut off, but he wasn't worried about it; instead, it was just as he wished. His cut off right arm grew back, looking as new. Ragnar used his left arm to grab the end of the scythe, blocking the scythes right before they reached his neck.
Ragnar used two fingers on his right hand to poke it into Gorebuzz's eyes, taking it by surprise.
"Krakk!" The Gorebuzz screeched in pain after losing both of its eyes.
Ragnar, grabbing both of its scythe arms, threw it at the Swinefiend below him, which had fallen down, smashing them together.
Ragnar didn't waste any time after that and ran forward as fast as possible. The other minions of Garner came forward to block him, but he didn't pay heed to them as they couldn't do much.
However, even before he could reach the small army of minions, something grabbed hold of his legs, completely halting his run, and he wasn't able to even trip over properly as ebony-colored tree roots grabbed hold of his body, raising him up in the air, properly binding him.
Ragnar trashed himself, trying to get himself free, but nothing worked. The roots were like the strongest rope, made of rubber and steel.
Ragnar could only stay where he was and watch Garner complete his ritual.
Garner gave one last glance at Ragnar, showing his smug smile and curved eyes, gloating at him. 'Just kidding. Did you think I would be scared of your so-called lord?'
Ragnar gritted his teeth and said it with a pained expression. 'Sorry, my lord. I failed you.'
He didn't even want to watch it because he was too ashamed.
Meanwhile, Garner was in the last phase of the ritual. He looked at Ravenna, saying with wonder. "You are being wanted by so many people already. So, once I conquer you, I will finally be able to show my strength."
Then Garner spread his hands in the air and said joyfully."Now! We shall begin. To have you as my qu-"
BOOM!
Suddenly, a loud explosion occurred, catching everyone's attention. Garner turned his head to see but got greeted with something else.
Bam!
A punch landed on his face that destroyed the structure of that side of his face. However, that wasn't the end, as an explosion followed along that blasted Garner away, crashing him into the house and then the trees.
Ragnar saw who it was and said, even roaring a little. "The Lord is here!"
Yes, Benimaru has arrived just in the nick of time.
Benimaru had a stoic yet calm face. But those who knew him properly would know that he was seething with pure rage. He said it to Ragnar without looking back. "I want you to quickly escort Ravenna away from here."
At that moment, the tree roots withered away, letting Ragnar become free. He quickly followed Benimaru's wish. Untying Ravenna from the long stick, he gave a run to their base camp with her on his shoulder.
Meanwhile, the Swinefiend and Gorebuzz had healed themselves and were about to rush toward Benimaru as they saw their lord's safety as their first priority rather than letting Ravenna escape.
"Stop!" Their action came to a halt as they heard when they heard their lord's voice. Garner came out of the forest while fixing his jawline. "Go capture her! I want her to be mine, no matter what happens. I will take care of him till then."
Garner glared at Benimaru. "The so-called Lord, who is weak as my general."
The Swinefiend and Gorebuzz didn't waste any time thinking. They started their chase to catch Ragnar.
Meanwhile, only Benimaru, Garner, and his small minion army were present there.
Benimaru and Garner were having a standoff.
"So, you are the anomaly, huh?" Garner broke the silence first. "I didn't expect you to be weak. I thought someone who could have two high ranking demons as his general would be someone strong, but… you are so weak."
"Are you trying to taunt me?" Benimaru asked back with a calm face, as if the one in front of him was the same as the low level demons. "Your cheap tactics won't work on me. Instead, I have many questions for you."
"But first, to dare to capture my people…this audacity… It looks like I have let the demon knights of this forest know who I am." Benimaru declared, glaring at Garner. "So, to do that, I will first raze this whole place down to cinders."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢