The first basement floor was rather simple. There was much more space than on the ground floor but there weren't many Lesser Demons around.
Most of them had been killed after they moved to the ground floor, or left the underground tower.
The small group of Liam and the natives ignited the torches and they took a look around the basement, just to see a total of eight large gates.
One of the gates was likely to lead down to the second basement floor, but all of them were tightly locked and secured. At least that was what it looked like at the first glance.
There didn't seem to be any treasures in the main hall of the first basement. Thus, they switched the well-hidden lever with the intention to open one gate after another.
The natives exchanged nervous gazes, shifting their weight from one foot to the other while biting their lower lips. Meanwhile, Liam remained vigilant of his surroundings.
Liam was not even surprised when all eight gates opened at the same time, revealing dozens of Ordinary Shedims and Elite Shedims, including Mutants, crowded in the hallways behind the gates.
The Lesser Demons noticed the new entrants and immediately paved their way to the main hall of the first basement, where the six natives and Liam now stood. While the six natives moved together, the corners of Liam's lip curled upward.
He triggered his Soultrait, unleashing the galaxies that were sealed deep inside his eyes. His eyesight improved manyfold in an instant and he burst forth without a trace of hesitation.
It was obvious that conquering his sister's tower wouldn't be easy, but Liam never believed otherwise. As for the Lesser Demons, they were relatively easy to deal with.
"I will take the Shedims from two tunnels while you guys survive and kill!" He ordered without feeling the need to look back and see if they had understood his words. Looking back at their terrified faces would just stress him out needlessly.
The Arcane Kunai shot out from behind Liam. It pierced three Ordinary Shedim in an instant. His left hand turned into a claw while the black steel shield manifested on his arm. His right hand reached out for the Casket of Trickery where he retrieved a handful of Black Tarthear Needles which he threw at the Lesser Demons to his right.
Meanwhile, his left hand cut through the vital spots of the Demons in his range.
Liam's eyes moved from left and right while his hands hacked and slashed, trying to cover all of his opponents in his field of vision. He wanted to see everything in his proximity and be prepared for the worst. At the same time, he moved through the tiny gaps between his opponents while wreaking havoc.
In a rare circumstance where there was no gap, Liam created the gap he needed. He twisted his body and evaded the attacks that were merely a hair's breadth away from digging deep into his flesh before he ended their life with a nimble motion.
His movements were like the torrents of the ocean, calm and subtle underneath, but ferocious and wild at the surface. The bodies falling to the ground all around him increased in number rapidly, but Liam didn't pay them any heed. If necessary, he used the dead bodies as his launching pad to change his movements rapidly while his left claw dug into the Lesser Demon.
His claw was drenched in dark blood while his right hand looked the same-clean and pale white. He moved his hand rapidly to release a bunch of Black Tarthear Needles whenever he got a moment to reach for the Casket of Trickery. However, his right hand was more important to block the attacks he couldn't evade and make sure that the Arcane Kunai would have a place to return.
Even if the Arcane Power stored inside the Arcane Kunai was massive, Liam didn't feel like wasting too much Arcane Power on these weak Lesser Demons. The razor-sharp blade cut through the Lesser Demons easily. The weapon moved extremely fast and it took only a trace of Arcane Power to further amplify the slashing speed of the Arcane Kunai.
That was exactly what Liam did in order to kill five Ordinary Shedim every three seconds using the Arcane Kunai. At the same time, the effect of the Black Tarthear Needles came in handy as well. Most of the Black Tarthear Needles were precisely aimed at the Elite Shedim and the Mutant Elite Shedim.
They wouldn't die from five Black Tarthear Needles, no less a single needle. However, their combat prowess would decrease drastically. That was what Liam made use of to kill the strongest opponents without the need to face them for a longer duration.
He wanted to quickly eliminate the threats in front of him to prevent getting attacked from the backside.
Even if the others were able to hold back most Shedim, Liam was pretty sure that some of the Elite Shedim and Mutant Elite Shedim were capable enough to overwhelm the natives, push them back and create a big gap. That would be more than enough to cause Liam some problems.
It was better to imagine that he was trying to conquer the underground tower by himself, rather than trusting the natives with anything.
Imprinting this thought in his mind allowed Liam to defeat more than a hundred Ordinary Shedim, ten Elite Shedim, and three Mutant Elite Shedim in around five minutes.
Using his Soultrait, while controlling the Arcane Kunai with his sheer willpower was already quite difficult. However, adding close combat fights with his left hand transformed into a claw, while simultaneously using his right arm being as a shield made him feel exhilarated. Furthermore, his right hand moving rapidly to catch and throw the Arcane Kunai and using the little gap in between to throw a bunch of black needles injected with Arcane Power made things even more interesting.
Multitasking outside of combat had never been his forte, but he had always had the knack when it came to fighting. Nonetheless, his head ached a little. It was already much better than it had been in the beginning but he felt a little bit overwhelmed due to the multitude of tasks he had to do while paying attention to numerous things at the same time.
Things were much better now that the battle was over, but if he was being honest with himself, he was a little overwhelmed due to the lack of difficulties he faced while killing so many opponents in such a short period. It was as if his brain had turned into a supercomputer or something like that. This feeling was certainly good, with the sole exception being the throbbing pain that showed no signs of ebbing.
'Is my Will stat too low, or is it because of something else?' Liam wondered as he was trying to find out why he was feeling pain, in the first place. It was not normal for his head to hurt just because he did too many things at the same time.
But it was not as if he had ever fought as he did just now either.
Thus, Liam deactivated his Soultrait in response, and retracted the Arcane Kunai before he calmly observed the situation in the main hall of the first basement.
While his fight was over and his head seemed to hurt less, the others were faring much better than Liam could have anticipated. He had expected dozens of Shedim to break through the defenses of the six young humans but that couldn't be more wrong. And, he was positively surprised by their resilience and fighting spirit.
Not a single Shedim was able to break through the natives' defenses, though Jennie looked like she was about to die.
"Hm…"
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m