He moved, pulling his head slightly back, the first arrow passed in front of his face.
His left hand came up and caught the second arrow with two fingers, at the same moment, a spear came from the right.
Lian grabbed the soldier’s wrist, pulled the weapon from his hand, and without looking, turned the spear shaft to the left.
The back of it hit another Rootbound Warden in the face, the man fell to the ground with a broken nose.
A Fireball came from behind and Predator’s Instincts warned him.
But this time Lian did not dodge.
[Diamond Skin.]
The flames hit his back, the explosion spread around his body, but his hardened skin and high Resistance absorbed a large part of the damage.
"Got him!" The Mage in the distance smiled when he saw the explosion, thinking he had successfully killed the human.
The flames moved away, but Lian was no longer there.
The Mage lost his smile and before he had a chance to react, blue light appeared in front of him.
Thunder Step.
Lian was only a few centimeters away from him, the man did not even have time to step back and the lightning-covered fist hit his chest.
His body was thrown backward and crashed into several people.
The notifications started.
[You Have Killed a Cindari Lv.21.]
[Butcher Activated.]
[Stats Points Acquired.]
Lian gave the panel a quick look, a small smile appeared on his face.
Another soldier attacked, one hit.
Two more.
Lian activated Thunder Step and appeared in the middle of a group of archers, Thunder Calamity was released from his body and six people fell to the ground at the same time.
[Stat Points: 179]
Lian’s eyes stayed on the number for a moment, this was exactly what he wanted.
If his Level was currently locked, that did not mean his growth had to stop.
He clenched his fists and the lightning around both of his arms became stronger.
"If my Level is locked for now..." His eyes moved across the hundreds of soldiers in front of him.
"Then I’ll Max out my Stats."
From that moment, the speed of the battle increased, Thunder Step moved through the army like a blue line.
One moment Lian was on the left side of the column, the next moment he was in the center and then behind the third Ballista.
His palm touched the machine, he activated Cataclysm Pulse and the Ballista exploded.
Two seconds later he appeared beside the Healers, the senior Healer created a white Barrier, it seemed to have been created by an Item.
But it was useless against the monster, Lian activated Iron Fortress Charge and his body entered the Barrier with great force.
The shield resisted for a moment, then broke from the center and the Mages behind it fell to the ground.
Lian intentionally removed the Healers from the battlefield first, then the communication officers, then the long-range units.
An army without orders and healing was only a group of scattered soldiers and in less than a minute, no straight formation remained.
In the rear, some still did not know what had happened.
"Where is the Commander?" one of the soldiers asked.
"How many enemies are there?" another shouted.
The answer came from the front.
"One!"
For a moment, the man thought he had heard wrong.
"What?"
"There’s only one!"
But what he saw in front of his eyes did not match those words, the army column had been broken.
The Ballistae had been destroyed, the War Beasts were running away.
Dozens of people were lying on the ground and a complete massacre was happening right in front of their eyes!
Only one human had been able to do this to them? Fear filled their entire bodies and they finally realized what kind of threat they were facing.
And the blue light was still moving through all this chaos.
Varesh clenched his teeth, unlike many of his soldiers, he did not panic, he still believed the situation could be controlled.
He had understood the problem, gathering together, the closer the soldiers got to each other, the easier it was for Lian to attack several people at the same time.
"Spread out!" He raised his sword, his voice was strengthened by Mana so everyone could hear him.
"Groups of ten! Thirty meters between each group! Mages attack from a distance!"
"Have the remaining Ballista target the area, not the target itself!"
"But our own soldiers—" one of the officers asked in shock.
"Do it!" Varesh shouted.
The army finally took a new formation, the groups separated from each other and the archers moved behind the trees.
Flame Mages attacked from several angles, the soldiers nearby no longer tried to surround Lian closely.
Instead, they kept him inside a large area and for a few moments, the tactic actually worked.
Fireballs were fired from a long distance, Lian activated Thunder Step.
The explosion burned the ground behind him, but the next attack came from another side.
Then a third, the archers targeted the places where they thought he would move.
The Rootbound Wardens sent their roots into the ground to limit the paths.
A Ballista fired from a distance, the huge bolt did not land on Lian himself, but directly landed in an area where more than twenty Cindari were also standing.
Varesh was willing to sacrifice his own soldiers to kill this human! As a commander, it was a hard choice, but there was no other choice!
The explosion destroyed part of the forest, several tree trunks broke and flames rose into the air.
Lian came out of the smoke, his clothes were more burned and a thin line of blood could be seen on his cheek.
But he was still standing.
"Why won’t he die?" Varesh felt real worry for the first time, why did nothing they did work?
Lian looked at the scattered groups, reaching them one by one would take time.
His Stats were still increasing, but the growth speed had become slower.
The army had spread out, and they were no longer coming close to fight, if he wanted to hunt them one by one, it would take time and he had no interest in wasting time, not when the damn flow of time here was ten times slower than in his own world.
Lian took a slow breath, it was no longer time to kill them one by one.
He stood in the center of the burned ground, did not move and the archers immediately noticed.
"He stopped!" one shouted.
"Now!" Varesh also saw it.
Dozens of Mages began gathering Mana, arrows were raised, the Rootbound Wardens prepared their Skills.
For a moment, the soldiers thought Lian had finally become tired, but they were very, very wrong...
Then the Mana around him changed, the lightning disappeared and the blue electricity between his fingers vanished, the cold of Glacial Reaper Claw was also gone.
Something else came out of him.
Something that terrified the Cindari soldiers even before they could see it.
[Bloodborne Calamity Domain.]
The first sign was small, a very dark drop separated from the tip of Lian’s finger.
It looked like blood, but its color was far too black.
The drop fell onto the ground, nothing happened for a moment and then mist came out from that point.
Thin, heavy and dark red, almost black in some parts, as if a huge amount of old blood had dissolved into the air.
The mist slowly moved across the ground and that calm movement made it even more frightening.
"What is that?" one of the nearby soldiers stepped back several steps.
No one answered, because no one knew how to answer.
The mist reached the boots of the first Cindari, the man looked down, felt nothing and for a moment raised one shoulder.
But suddenly he coughed.
Once.
Twice.
On the third time, blood came out of his mouth.
"What happened?" the soldier beside him said in surprise.
The man put his hand over his nose, when he lowered his hand, his palm was full of blood.
Several meters away, another soldier put his hand on his neck and his breathing became short.
"I can’t..." Air could not enter his lungs.
A third one started shaking, dark red veins appeared under the skin of his neck.
The mist continued to spread.
"Fall back!" Varesh shouted.
But it was too late.
Bloodborne Calamity Domain was not a normal Poison.
When the mist reached the bodies of the Cindari, if they were lucky enough not to die, they would at least definitely become paralyzed.
The soldiers inside the mist felt that something was watching them.
Not from one direction, but from everywhere... illusions that they saw before their deaths!
The sound of their own heartbeats became loud in their ears, every beat sounded like the hit of a drum.
The smell of blood became stronger in their noses, some of them saw shadows inside the mist and things that did not really exist.
One soldier pointed his sword at empty space.
"He’s there!"
"Who?" his friend shouted.
The man turned around.
There was nothing.
Then a shadow moved behind him, he screamed, his breathing became more painful and the Mana inside their channels became thick and heavy.
Some Mages stopped their Skills halfway because the Mana no longer moved according to their commands.
The soldiers’ skin had become cold, but their bodies were burning from the inside.
One raised his hand, dark red veins moved under his skin.
"Don’t breathe in the mist!" he shouted in fear.
The soldier beside him put a piece of cloth over his mouth and a few seconds later, blood came down from his eyes.
"It also enters through the skin!"
Real fear began at that moment.
The senior Healer raised his hands, white light formed around a group of soldiers.
[Purification.]
The mist moved back for a few moments, the soldiers breathed in relief, but then a black and red strand reached the Barrier again.
It slowly moved across the surface of the light and the Healer opened his eyes wider.
"No..."
The mist passed through the Barrier, the white light shook and went out.
The Healer did not even have time to react before he started coughing.
Inside the mist, Lian no longer looked like a normal human.
He was only a shadow, sometimes blue lightning lit up inside the mist, then came the sound of thunder, screams and silence again.
One of the soldiers saw Lian’s shadow several meters ahead.
His hand shook, he raised his spear, blinked and the shadow disappeared.
Thunder Step.
Lightning appeared behind him, the man slowly turned his head.
Lian was standing right there, a short attack and the soldier fell to the ground.
From a distance, Aren watched the scene.
The blood-colored mist had covered a large part of the forest, screams came from inside it but nothing could be seen, sometimes only blue lightning lit up the entire mist for a fraction of a second.
He swallowed his saliva in fear... he was watching one of the most terrifying things he had ever seen in his life...