Chapter 806: Kobolds
Asher stood silently as he stared at the two students before him, waiting for them to make a move. He didn’t draw Virelass from her scabbard; that would simply be overkill... well, this whole fight was overkill in itself, but he couldn’t be blamed, as it was the result of their own misunderstanding.
They both vanished from where they stood in twin blurs, their bodies tearing through the air as they erased the distance between themselves and Asher.
The girl was the first to arrive, seemingly faster, her spear thrust towards his shoulder as she aimed to tear a hole through it. The boy arrived next. Unlike his female partner, he attacked the lower part of Asher’s body, his sword singing towards Asher’s left ankle in a brutal arc slash as they aimed to erase both his arm and leg in one motion.
A good attack, ultimately, but sadly... futile.
As the girl’s attack closed in on his shoulder, Asher simply raised a hand and parried the spear with the back of his palm as though the attack bore no weight at all. The moment the attack shifted to the side, the girl staggered as she lost her footing for a moment, but it didn’t matter to her as she immediately employed a footwork technique to adjust.
But the moment she did, all that filled her vision was a palm that seemed to descend from the heavens themselves. With a crisp sound, a slap resonated through the air. She felt the impact in real time against her cheek as her head snapped to the side, then her body broke the sound barrier as she shot sideways with a booming sound.
Her body slammed with a resonating impact against one of the tall jagged rock pillars, crashing into it as pain exploded throughout her face and body.
But Asher’s attention was no longer on her. His eyes were now on the boy’s attack that had already closed in. Asher simply lifted his foot, the sword slicing through the air where his foot should have been. But before the boy could raise his sword to follow up with a second attack, Asher’s foot came down upon his sword, pinning the weapon to the ground with immense force and calm ease.
Before the boy could even blink, another crisp slap tore through the air like an alarm. In a streak of motion, the boy’s body tore sideways, following the same path as the girl. With booming force, his back slammed into the girl who was still lodged within the rocky pillar. The moment they collided, the tall pillar immediately burst outwards into stones, dust, and debris as it came crashing down, while the boy and girl slammed into the ground before their bodies skidded to a stop across the rocky earth.
The impact was violent enough to leave a trench stretching several meters through the canyon floor. Loose rocks bounced and rolled in every direction while clouds of dust rose into the air, briefly obscuring the two students from view.
Silence consumed the battlefield as both the girl and the boy immediately rose to their feet the next instant, their cheeks swollen on one side as their bodies burned with pain, but they ignored it.
They stared at Asher cautiously with frowns on their faces. They didn’t need to be told; they knew they had messed with the wrong person, and they finally understood that the point on the ranking board had not been obtained by some mere Positive Zone.
Of course, neither of them had used their Weapon Techniques, Movement Techniques, Astra Energy, or even their abilities. All of these could increase their chances of winning. But they weren’t dumb. Just as they hadn’t used any of these, their opponent hadn’t either, and he had dominated them with a single slap each.
Asher now saw the cautious expressions in their eyes and was simply amused.
"We will leave, we are sorry for not believing you," the girl immediately spoke as she apologized on the spot.
Yes, she knew she would lose her points, but at least she and her partner could start again. It was only the second day, after all.
Asher shook his head as he spoke, "you both should have taken the offer when I gave it. The world isn’t all that forgiving and merciful," his tone calm.
As he said those words, the boy and the girl immediately tapped into their Astra Energy and abilities. Although they didn’t know exactly how strong their opponent was, they would at least put up a fight and wouldn’t just give up like some helpless animal.
But Asher had no intention of dragging this out. Yes, he had come here for the students, but they weren’t strong enough to be entertaining. Still, they had at least provided him with some form of interaction.
With a single thought from him, gravity immediately skyrocketed across a two hundred meter radius.
The girl and boy felt it instantly before they could so much as blink. They felt as though the weight of the world had been dropped onto their shoulders as their knees immediately slammed against the earth, shattering it upon impact. The moment their knees touched the ground, their bodies slammed face-first into the earth next as their resistance, even with Astra Energy, proved utterly useless.
Cracks spread throughout the canyon floor like a spiderweb as the increased gravity crushed everything within its range. Pebbles shattered. Dust flattened. Even the air itself seemed heavier.
Asher simply walked forward without a word, his steps calm and unhurried. The boy and girl could only watch as he approached. Upon reaching them, Asher stopped before the girl first. He stepped on her bracelet and, with ease, it shattered instantly. Her body glowed white as she vanished immediately as the teleportation mechanism activated. Asher simply turned to the boy and did the same thing without wasting any time.
With that done, Asher canceled the gravity augmentation as the quaking canyon returned to normal. His bracelet beeped, his eyes shifting towards it as he saw that he had gained six thousand three hundred and eighty points (6,380).
Clearly, both of them had possessed over two thousand points each.
’Damn, just two students yielded such gains,’ Asher thought to himself as he stared at the bracelet. Surely, hunting students was the way to go.
Asher couldn’t imagine the number of students who had already realized this and changed their strategies to focus entirely on fighting other students.
Still, it wasn’t difficult to understand why. Monsters were dangerous, time-consuming, and often yielded fewer rewards than defeating a fellow participant carrying thousands of accumulated points. The logic was simple, ruthless, and efficient.
As Asher stared at his bracelet, a whistle cut through the air. It was fast and thin, as though it were an arrow. It aimed directly at Asher’s temple, seeking to plunge through his brain from the side.
Asher didn’t bother turning. With his purple eyes still fixed on the bracelet, his right hand snapped upwards as he immediately caught the arrow with pinpoint accuracy, stopping it in its tracks. With a clench of his fist, the arrow shattered into splinters.
His eyes turned to the side, and there a group of Kobolds stepped out with sinister sneers and malicious laughter. He wasn’t surprised; he had sensed them since his arrival. It had been impossible not to.
He knew the Kobolds had been waiting for the girl and boy to finish dealing with the Emovira before attacking, as it seemed they didn’t want to expend their own forces unnecessarily. Behind them stood one Mark-class and one Fang-class Kobold, both of whom were clearly the leaders of the pack.
The creatures numbered well over two dozens, their weapons crude but deadly. Their yellow eyes gleamed with hunger as they stared at Asher, clearly believing that they had the upper hand here, after all, he was just one Human, and they had the numbers.
Asher shook his head. He didn’t bother wasting time with them. His fingers simply wrapped around Virelass’s hilt, and in one motion he performed an unsheathing slash that seemed like nothing more than a regular sword swing.
The movement was so smooth and natural that it almost looked casual.
With that done, he sheathed Virelass back into her scabbard. The moment she clicked into place, a horizontal silver line appeared across every Kobold’s waist.
For a brief second, nothing happened.
The next moment, their upper torsos slid from their lower bodies with sickening ease in a gut-wrenching display as brown blood immediately splattered across the earth. Corpses fell to the ground with heavy thuds, their weapons slipping from lifeless fingers.
The canyon returned to silence once more.
Asher didn’t spare the corpses a second glance. To him, they had been little more than an interruption.
